[2dly.] God doth it by an argument taken 'ab incom- mode,' from the inconveniencies, evils, and troubles that will befall men in the pursuit of sin. If they follow it, this or that inconvenience will ensue ; this trouble, this evil, temporal or eternal. And this argument, as managed by the Spirit of God, is the great engine in his hand, whereby he casts up banks and gives bounds to the lusts of men, that they break not out to the confusion of all that order and beauty which yet remains in the works of his hands. Paul gives us the general import of this argument, Rom. ii. 14, 15. ' For when the Gentiles, which have not the law, do by nature the things contained in the law, these, having not the law, are a law unto themselves : which shew the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and their thoughts the mean while accusing, or else excusing one another.' If any men in the world may be thought to be ojven up to pursue and fulfil all the sins that their lusts can conceive, it is those that have not the law, to whom the written law of God doth not denounce the evil that attends it. 13ut though they have it not, saith the apostle,, they shew forth the work of it, they do many things which it requireth, and forbear or abstain from many things that it forbiddeth, and so shew forth its work and efficacy. But whence is it that they so do? Why their thoughts accuse or excuse them. It is from the consideration and arguings that they have -jvithin themselves about sin and its consequents, which
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prevail upon them to abstain from many things tfiat their hearts would carry them out unto. For conscience is a man's prejudging of himself, with respect unto the future judgment of God. Thus Felix was staggered in his pursuit of sin, when he trembled at Paul's preaching of righteousness and judgment to come ; Acts xxiv. 25. So Job tells us that the consideration of punishment from God hath a strong in- fluence on the minds of men to keep them from sin; chap, xxxi. 1 — 3. How the Lord makes use of that consideration, even towards his own, when they have broken the cords of his love and cast oifthe rule of his grace for a season, I have before declared.
[3dly.] God doth this same work by making effectual an argument, 'ab inutili,' from the unprofitableness of the thing that men are engaged in. By this were the brethren of Joseph stayed from slaying him. Gen. xxxvii. 26, 27. ' What profit is it,' say they, * if we slay our brother and con- ceal his blood V We shall get nothing by it; it will bring- in no advantage or satisfaction unto us. And the heads of this way of God's obstructing conceived sin, or the springs of these kinds of arguments, are so many and various, that it is impossible to insist particularly upon them. There is nothing present or to come, nothing belonging to this life or another, nothing desirable or undesirable, nothing good or evil, but, at one time or another, an argument may be taken from it for the obstructing of sin.
[4thly.] God accomplisheth this work by arguments taken ' ab honesto,' from what is good and honest, what is comely, praiseworthy, and acceptable unto himself. This is the great road wherein he walks with the saints under their temptations, or in their conceptions of sin. He recovers eftectually upon their minds a consideration of all those springs and motives to obedience, which are discovered and proposed in the gospel, some at one time, some at another. He minds them of his own love, mercy, and kindness ; his eternal love, with the fruits of it, whereof themselves have been made partakers. He minds them of the blood of his Son, his cross, sufferings, tremendous undertaking in the work of mediation, and the concernment of his heart, love, honour, name, in their obedience ; minds them of the love of the Spirit, with all his consolations which they have been
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made partakers of, and privileges wherewith by him they have been intrusted : minds them of the gospel, the glory and beauty of it, as it is revealed unto their souls ; minds them of the excellency and comeliness of obedience, of tlieir performance of that duty they owe to God, that peace, quietness, and serenity of mind, that they have enjoyed therein. On the other side he minds them of being a pro- vocation by sin unto the eyes of his glory, saying in their hearts. Do not that abominable thing which my soul hateth ; minds them of their wounding the Lord Jesus Christ, and putting him to shame ; of their grieving the Holy Spirit, whereby they are sealed to the day of redemption ; of their defiling his dwelling-place; minds them of the reproach, dishonours, scandal, which they bring on the gospel and the profession thereof; minds them of the terrors, darkness, wounds, want of peace, that they may bring upon their own souls. From these and the like considerations doth God put a stop to the law of sin in the heart, that it shall not go on to bring forth the evil which it hath conceived. I could give instances in arguments of all these several kinds re- corded in the Scripture, but it would be too long a work for us, who are now engaged in a design of another nature. But one or two examples may be mentioned. Joseph resists his first temptation on one of these accounts. Gen. xxxix. 9. • How can I do this great wickedness and sin against God? ' The evil of sinning against God, his God, that consideration alone detains him from the least inclination to his temptation. It is sin against God to whom I owe all obedience, the God of my life and of all my mercies : I will not do it. The argument wherewith Abigail prevailed on David, 1 Sam. xxv. 31. to withhold him from self-revenge and murder, was of the same nature, and he acknowledgeth that it was from the Lord, ver. 32. I shall add no more, for all the Scripture motives which we have to duty, made effectual by grace, are instances of this way of God's procedure. ', Sometimes, I confess, God secretly works the hearts of men by his own finger, without the use and means of such arguments as those insisted on, to stop the progress of sin. So he tells Abimelech, Gen. xx. 6. * I have withheld thee from sinning against me.' Now this could not be done by any of the arguments which we have insisted on, because