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liath not done it: and where he will have the power of any corruption to be afflictive in any instance, two things may safely be ascribed to him.
1, He withholds the supplies of that grace whereby it might be effectually mortified and subdued. He can give in a sufficiency of efficacious grace, to repel any temptation, to subdue any or all our lusts and sins. For he can and doth work in us to will and to do, according to his pleasure. Ordinarily he doth so in them that believe ; so that although their lusts may rebel and war, they cannot defile or prevail. But unto the continual supplies of this actual prevailing grace he is not obliged. When it may have a tendency unto his holy ends, he may and doth withhold it. When it may be a proud soul is to be humbled, a careless soul to be awakened, an unthankful soul to be convinced and rebuked, a backsliding soul to be recovered, a froward, selfish, pas- sionate soul to be broken and raeekened, he can leave them for a season unto the sore exercise of a prevalent corruption, Avhich under his holy guidance shall contribute greatly unto his blessed ends. It was so in the temptation of Paul, 2 Cor. xi. 7 — 9. If a man, through disorder and excesses, is contracting many habitual distempers of body, which gra- dually and insensibly tend unto his death, it may be an ad- vantage to be cast into a violent fever, which threatens im- mediately to take away his life. For he will hereby be thoroughly awakened unto the consideration of his danger, and not only labour to be freed from his fever, but also for the future to watch against those disorders and excesses which cast him into that condition. And sometimes a loose, care- less soul, that walks in a secure formal profession, contracts many spiritual diseases which tend unto death and ruin. No arguments or considerations can prevail with him, to awaken himself, 'to shake himself out of the dust,' and to , betake himself unto a more diligent and humble walking before God. In this state, it may be, through the permission of God, he is surprised into some open actual sin. Hereon, through the vigorous actings of an enlightened conscience, and the stirrings of any sparks of grace which yet remain, he is amazed, terrified, and stirs up himself to seek after deliverance.
2. God may and doth, in his providence, administer ob-
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jects and occasions of men's lusts for their trial. He vv'ill place them in such relations, in such circumstances, as shall be apt to provoke their affections, passions, desires, and incli- nations unto those objects that are suited unto them.
In this state any lust will quickly get such power in the mind and affections, as to manage continual solicitations unto sin. It will not only dispose the affections towards it, but multiply thoughts about it, and darken the mind as unto those considerations, which ought to prevail unto its morti- fication. In this condition it is hard to conceive how God should be in the thoughts of man in a due manner. How- ever, this state is very different from the habitual preva- lency of any secret sin or corruption, in the ordinary course of men's walking in the world, and therefore I do not di- rectly intend it.
If any one shall inquire how we may know this difference, namely, that is between the occasional prevalency of any lust or corruption in conjunction with a temptation, and the power of sin in any instance habitually and constantly com- plied withal, or indulged in the mind ; I answer,
1. It is no great matter whether we are able to distin- guish between them or no. For the end why God suffers any corruption to be such a snare and temptation, such a thorn and briar, is to awaken the souls of men out of their security, and to humble them for their pride and negligence. The more severe are their apprehensions concerning it, the more effectual it will be unto this end and purpose. It is good, it may be, that the soul should apprehend more of what is sinful in it, as it is a corruption, than of what is afflictive in it, as it is a temptation. For if it be conceived as a predominant lust, if there be any spark of grace re- maining in the soul, it will not rest until in some measure it be subdued. It will also immediately put it upon a diligent search into itself, which will issue in deep self-abasement, the principal end designed. But,
2. For the relief of them that may be perplexed in their minds, about their state and condition, I say, there is an apparent difference between these things. A lust or cor- ruption arising up or breaking forth into a violent tempta- tion, is the continual burden, grief, and affliction of the soul wherein it is. And as the temptation for the most part
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which befalls such a person will give him no rest from its re- iterated solicitations ; so he will give the temptation no rest, but will be continually conflicting with it, and contending ao-ainst it. It fills the soid with an amazement at itself, and continual self-abhorrency, that any such seeds of filth and folly should be yet remaining in it. With them in whom any sin is ordinarily prevalent, it is otherwise. According to their light and renewed occasional convictions, they have trouble about it ; they cannot but have so, unless their consciences are utterly seared. But this trouble respects principally, if not solely, its guilt and effects. They know not what may ensue on their compliance with it, in this world and another. Beyond this they like it well enough, and are not willing to part with it. It is of this latter sort of persons of whom we speak at present.