Job xxxiv. 32. "That which I fee not, teach thou me: If I have done iniquity I will do no more." So Lam. iii. 39, 40. "Let us "fearch and try our ways, and turn again to the Lord." In afflicting, God fearches them, and under affliction they search themfelves: Willing they are to hear the voice of the rod, and glad of any difcovery it makes in their hearts.

6. Sixthly, The upright heart chufeth to ly under affliction, rather than to be delivered from it by fin. I fay, this is the choice and refolution of every upright heart, however it may be fometimes overborne by the violence of temptation, Heb. xi. 35. Not accepting deliverance, viz. upon finful terms and conditions.

They are fenfible how the flesh smarts under the rod, but had rather it thould fmart, than confcience should smart under guilt. Affiction, faith an upright foul, grieves me, but fin will grieve God; affliction wounds my flefh, but fin will wound my foul. Deliverance I long for, but I will not pay fo dear for it, how much foever I defire it: Nolo tanti emere pœnitentiam: Outward eafe is fweet, but inward peace is sweeter.

7. Seventhly, He prizeth the fpiritual good gotten by affliction, above deliverance from it, and can blefs God from his heart for those mercies, how dear foever his flesh hath paid for them, Pfalm cxix, 67, and 71. "It is good for me that I have been afflicted." Such is the value the people of God have for fpiritual graces, that they cannot think them dear, whatever their flesh hath paid for them. The mortification of one luft, one difcovery of fincerity, one manifeftation of God to their fouls, doth much more than make amends for all that they have endured under the rod.

Is patience improved, felf-acquaintance increased, the vanity of the creature more effectually taught, longings after heaven enflamed? O bleffed afflictions, that are attended with fuch bleffed fruits? It was the faying of a holy man, under a fore trouble for the death of an only fon, when in that dark day God had graciously manifested him. felf to his foul; O, (faita he) I would be contented, if it were poffible, to lay an only fon in the grave every day I have to live in the world, for one fuch difcovery of the love of God as I now enjoy.'

CHAP. VI.

Shewing indwelling fin to be to grace, what fire is to gold; and how the foundness and unfoundness of our hearts are discovered by our carriage towards it.

PR

SECT. I.

ROSPERITY and adverfity put fincerity to the trial; but nothing makes a deeper fearch into our bofoms, nothing fifts our spirits more narrowly, or tells us what our state is more plain

ly, than our behaviour towards that corruption that dwells in us; the thorn is next neighbour to the rofe: Sin and grace dwell not only in the fame foul, but in the fame faculties. The collier and fuller dwell in one room; what one cleanses the other blacks. Of all the evils God permits in this world, none is more grievous to h's people than this: They fometimes wonder why the Lord will fuffer it to be fo: why, furely, among other wife and holy ends of this permiffion, these are fome.

They are left to try you, and to humble you: There is no intrinfic goodness in fin; but, however, in this it occafions good to us, that by our carrnge towards it, we difcern our fincerity. The touchftone is a worthlis ftone in itfelf, but it ferves to try the gold; 1 John iii. 9, 10. "Whofoever is born of God, doth not commit "fin; for his fee fremaineth in him, and he cannot fin, because he "is born of God: In this the children of God are manifeft, and thei "children of the de il:" q. d. In refpect of their carriage towards fin, the one and the other is plainly manifefted: This is that which feparates the drofs from the gold, and fhews you what the true state of men's perfons, and tenpers of their hearts are. By not finning, we are not to understand a tal freedom from it in this world, as if it implied any fuch perfection of the people of God in this world; that is the Popish and Pelagian Enfe: Nor yet must we take it in the Arminian fenfe, who, to avoid he argument of the orthodox, will understand it of the fin against the holy Ghoft. What a strange thing would it be, to make that a characteristical note of diftinction betwixt the godly and ungodly, which a very few, even of the most ungodly, are ever guilty of?

But the manner of our behavhur towards fin, and our carriage towards it before, or under, or ater the commiffion of it, in that the children of God are manifeft, and the children of the devil. Now, there are five things relating to fin, that discriminate and mark the ftate of the perfons: The difference is difcernible. 1. Abftinence from in.

(1.).

THE grounds and motives of our abftinence do very clear

TH
Tly manifeft the ftate of our foul; what they are in the

regenerate and unregenerate, is our next work: And let it be confidered,

1. First, That an unfound and unrenewed hart may abstain from one fin, because it is contrary to, and inconfiftent with another fin: For, it is with the fins of our natures, as it is with the difeafes of our bodies: Though all difeafes be contrary to health, yet some diseases,

1

03

as the fever and palfy, are contrary to each other. So are prodiga. lity and covetoufnefs, hypocrify and profanenefs. Thefe oppofe each other, not for mutual deftruction, as fin and grace do, but for fuperiority, each contending for the throne, and fometimes taking it by turns. It is with fuch perfons as with that poffeffed man, Matth. xvii. 15. whom the fpirit cafts fometimes into the fire, fometimes into the water: Or if one fubdue the other, yet the heart is also fubdued to the vaffalage of that luft that is uppermoft in the fou

2. Secondly, An unrenewed foul may be kept from the commiffion of fome fin, not because there is a principle of grace within him, but because of fome providential reftraint without him, or upon him: For it often falls out, that when men have conceived fin, and are ready to execute it, providence claps on the fetters of reftraint, and hinders them from fo doing.

This was the cafe with Abimelech, Gen. xx. 6. and 17. compared, 'I with-held thee: And though perfons fo retrained, have not the good of fuch providences, yet others have; or by it a world of mifchief is prevented in the world, which otherwife would break out; and to this act of providence we owe our lives, liberties, eftates, and comforts in this world.

3. Thirdly, An unfound heart may not commit fome fins, not becaufe he truly hates them, but becaufe his conftitution inclines him not to them: Thefe men are rather beholden to a good temper of body, than to a gracious temper ff foul. Some men cannot be drunkards if they would, others cannot be covetous and bafe; they are made e meliori luto, of a more refined metal than others; but chafte and liberal, juft and fobr nature, is but nature ftill: The best nature, in all its endowmerts, is but nature at the best.

4. Fourthly, A graceless heat may be reftrained from fin by the force of education and principles of morality that were infilled into it. Thus Jehoafh was reftrained rom fin, 2 Kings xii. 2. And Je"hoafh did that which was right in the fight of the Lord, all the "days wherein Jehoiadah tle prieft inftructed him." The fear of a parent or mafter will do a great deal more with fome in this cafe than the fear of God. The influence of a strict education nips off the excrefcencies of budding vice The way we are taught when young, we keep when old: This is the influence of man upon man, not the influence of the regeneraing Spirit upon men.

5. Fifthly, A graceles heart may by kept from fome fins by the fear of the events, both in this world, and that to come. Sin that is followed with infamyand reproach among men, may on this ground be forborne; not becaife God hath forbidden it, but because human laws will punish it, nd the fober world will brand us for it: And fome look farther, to the punishment of fin in hell; they are not afraid to fin, but they are afraid to burn.

Here fin is likea fweet rofe in a brake of thorns; fain we would have it, but we re loth to tear our flesh to come by it. It is good

that fin is prevented any way; but to be kept on this ground from fin, doth not argue the eftate of the perfon to be good: And thus you fee fome of the grounds on which carnal men are restrained: and in this "the children of the devil are manifeft."

SECT. III.

B

UT there are grounds of abstinence from fin, by which "the children of God are alfo manifefted;" and fuch are these that

follow:

1. First, A fincere heart dares not fin because of the eye and fear of God, which is upon him: So you find it in Job xxxi. 1, and 4. he durft not allow his thoughts to fin, because he lived under the awe of God's eye. Nehemiah durft not do as former governors had done, though an opportunity prefented to enrich himself, because of the fear of his God, Nehem. v. 15. The foul that lives under the awe of this eye, will be confcientious where no discovery can be made by creatures, as if all the world were looking on, Levit. xix. 14. "Thou shalt not curfe the deaf, nor put a ftumbling-block before "the blind; but fhalt fear thy God, I am the Lord."

What if a man do curfe the deaf, the deaf cannot hear him, and what if he do put a ftumbling-block before the blind, the blind cannot fee him: True, but God fees him, God hears him; that is enough to a man that hath the fear of the Lord upon his heart.

2. Secondly, As the fear of God, fo the love of God, is a principle of restraint from fin to the foul that is upright. This kept back Jofeph from fin, Gen. xxxix. 9. "How can I do this great wicked"ness, and fin against God?" How can I? He fpeaks as a man that feels himself bound up from fin by the goodness and love of God, that had been manifested to him, q. d. Hath he delivered me from the pit into which my envious brethren caft me? Hath he, in fo miraculous a way, advanced me to all this honour and power in Egypt? and now, after all his kindness and love to me, fhall I fin against him? { O how can I do this against fo good, fo gracious a God? So Pfal. xcvii. 10. "Ye that love the Lord, hate evil." Love will cry out in the hour of temptation, Is this thy kindnefs to thy friend? Doft thou thus requite the Lord for all his kindneffes?

3. Thirdly, As the love of God, fo the intrinfical evil and filthinefs that is in fin keeps back the gracious foul from it, Rom. xii. 9. "Abhor that which is evil," ATOSUYBYTES TO Tangov, hate it as hell itself: Or, as the French tranflation hath it, be in horror. As the appre henfions of hell, fo the apprehenfions of fin imprefs horror upon the mind that is fanctified: Nothing more loathfome to an holy foul; its averfations from it are with the highest indignation and loathing.

4. Fourthly, The renewed nature of a faint reftrains him from fin; Gal. v. 17. "The spirit lufteth against the fleih, fo that ye cannot "do the thing ye would." Ye cannot, why cannot ye? because it is against your new nature.

Beloved, This is a very remarkable thing in the experience of all renewed men, That, upon the renovation of men's principles, their delights, and their averfations and loathings are laid quite cross and oppofite to what they were before. In their carnal ftate, vain company and finful exercifes were their delight, To be feparated from these, and tied to prayer, meditation, heavenly discourse and company; O what a bondage would that have been! Now to be tied to fuch carnal fociety, and reftrained from fuch duties of godliness, and the fociety of the godly, become a much forer bondage to the

foul.

5. Fifthly, Experience of the bitterness of fin is a refraint to a gracious heart. They that have had fo many fick days and forrowful nights for fin as they have had, are loth to taste that wormwood and gall again, which their foul hath still in remembrance; 2 Cor. vii. 11. In that "ye forrowed after a godly fort, what carefulness it wrought!" He would not grapple with thofe inward troubles again, he would not have the cheerful light of God's countenance eclipfed again for all, and much more than all, the pleasures that are in fin.

6. Sixthly, The confideration of the fufferings of Chrift for fin, powerfully with-holds a gracious foul from the commiffion of it; Rom. vi. 6. " Our old man is crucified with him, that the body of fin might "be destroyed, that henceforth we should not ferve fin." Were there a knife or fword in the house that had been thrust through the heart of your father, would you ever endure the fight of it? Sin was the sword that pierced Chrift, and fo the death of Chrift becomes the death of fin in his people. Thus the children of God and the children of the devil are manifeft, in the principles and reafons of their abstinence from fin.

(2.) SE

SECT. IV.

ECONDLY, They are alfo manifefted by their hatred of fin. This puts a clear diftinction betwixt them; for no falfe or unregenerate heart can hate fin as fin; he may indeed,

1. First, Hate fin in another, but not in himself: Thus one proud man hates another; Calco fuperbiam Platonis, faid Diogenes, when he trampled Plato's fine clothes under foot; I fpurn the pride of Plato. Sed majori fuperbia, as Plato fmartly replied, Thou trampleft upon my pride, but it is with greater pride. "Why (faith Chrift to "the hypocrite) beholdeft thou the mote that is in thy brother's eye, "but confidereft not the beam that is in thine own eye?" Matth. vii. 3. How quick in efpying, and rafh in cenfuring the smallest fault in another, is the hypocrite! it was but one fault, and that but a fmall one, but a mote that he could find in another; yet this he quickly difcerns: It may be there were many excellent graces in him, thefe he overlooks, but the mote he plainly difcerns.

It

may be that mote in his brother's eye, had drawn many tears from it, but these he takes no notice of; and meanwhile there is a