• OF INDWELLING SIN. 151
well nigh slipped.' He was at the very brink of unbelieving despairing thoughts and conclusions about God's provi- dence in the government of the world ; from whence he was recovered, as he afterward declares. So is it with many a believer, he is oftentimes at the very brink, at the very door of some folly or iniquity, when God puts in by the efficacy of actually assisting grace, and recovers them to an obedi- ential frame of heart again. And this is a peculiar work of Christ, wherein he manifests and exerts his faithfulness to- wards his own. Heb. ii. 18. ' He is able to succour them that are tempted.' It is not an absolute power, but a power clothed with mercy that is intended. Such a power as is put forth from a sense of the suffering of poor believers under their temptations. And how doth he exercise this merciful ability towards us ? chap. iv. 16. He gives forth and we find in him ' grace to help in a time of need ; season- able help and assistance for our deliverance, when we are ready to be overpowered by sin and temptation. When lust hath conceived, and is ready to briiig forth, when the soul lies at the brink of some iniquity, he gives in seasonable help, relief, deliverance, and safety. Here lies a great part of the care and faithfulness of Christ towards his poor saints ; he will not suffer them to be worried with the power of sin, nor to be carried out unto ways that shall dishonour the gospel, or fill them with shame and reproach, and so render them useless in the world ; but he steps in with the saving relief and assistance of his grace, stops the course of sin, and makes them in himself more than conquerors. And this assistance lies under the promise, 1 Cor. x. 13. ' There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man : but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that you are able ; but will with the tempta- tion also make a v/ay to escape, that you may be able to bear it.' Temptation shall try us, it is for our good ; many holy ends doth the Lord compass and bring about by it. But when we are tried to the utmost of our ability, so that one assault more would overbear us, a way of escape is pro- vided. And as this may be done several ways, as I have elsewhere declared, so this we are now upon is one of the most eminent, namely, by supplies of grace to enable the soul to bear up, I'esist, and conquer. And when once God
152 THE NATUUE AND POWER
begins to deal in this way of love with a soul, he will not cease to add one supply after another, until the whole work of his grace and faithfulness be accomplished. An example hereof we have, Isa. Ivii. 17, 18. Poor sinners there are so far captivated to the power of their lusts, that the first and second dealings of God with them are not effectual for their delivery ; but he will not give them over, he is in the pur- suit of a design of love towards them, and so ceaseth not until they are recovered. These are the general heads of the second way whereby God hinders the bringing forth of conceived sin, namely, by working on the will of the sinner. He doth it either by common convictions or special grace, so that of their own accord they shall let go the purpose and will of sinning that they are risen up unto. And this is no mean way of his providing for his own glory, and the honour of his gospel in the world, whose professors would stain the whole beauty of it, were they left to themselves to bring forth all the evil that is conceived in their hearts.
(3dly.) Besides these general ways, there is one yet more special, that at once worketh both upon the power and will of the sinner; and this is the way of afflictions, concerning which one word shall close this discourse. Afflictions, I say, work by both these ways in reference unto conceived sin. They work providentially on the power of the creature. When a man hath conceived a sin, and is in full purpose of the pur- suit of it, God oftentimes sends a sickness and abates his strength, or a loss cuts him short in his plenty, and so takes him off from the pursuit of his lusts, though it may be his heart is not weaned from them. His power is weakened, and he cannot do the evil he would. In this sense it be- longs to the first way of God's obviating the production of sin. Great afflictions work sometimes, not from their own nature immediately and directly, but from the gracious pur- pose and intendment of him that sends them. He insinu- ates into the dispensation of them that of grace and power, of love and kindness, which shall effectually take off the heart and mind from sin. Psal. cxix. 67. * Before I was afflicted I went astray, but now have I learned thy com- mandments.' And in this way, because of the predominancy of renewing and assisting grace, they belong unto the latter means of preventing aiu.