hearts unto, and rejoiceth when his temple is kept undefiled; that was a high aggravation of the sin of Zimri, that he brought his adulteress into the congregation in the sight of Moses and the rest, who were weeping for the sins of the people; Numb. xxv. 6. and is it not a high aggravation of the countenancing a lust, or suffering it to abide in the heart, when it is (as it must be, if we are believers), entertained under the peculiar eye and view of the Holy Ghost; taking care to preserve his tabernacle pure and holy.

(2.) The Lord Jesus Christ is wounded afresh by it; his new creature in the heart is wounded; his love is foiled; his adversary gratified. As a total relinquishment of him, by the deceitfulness of sin, is the crucifying him afresh, and the 'putting of him to open shame ;' so every harbouring of sin that he came to destroy, wounds and grieves him.

(3.) It will take away a man's usefulness in his generation. His works, his endeavours, his labours, seldom receive blessing from God. If he be a preacher, God commonly blows upon his ministry, that he shall labour in the fire, and not be honoured with any success, or doing any work for God; and the like may be spoken of other conditions. The world is at this day full of poor withering professors; how few are there that walk in any beauty or glory; how barren, how useless, are they for the most part? Amongst the many reasons that may be assigned of this sad estate, it may justly be feared, that this is none of the least effectual; many men harbour spirit-devouring lusts, in their bosoms, that lie as worms, at the root of their obedience and corrode and weaken it day by day. All graces, all the ways and means whereby any graces may be exercised and improved, are prejudiced by this means; and as to any success God blasts such men's undertakings.

This then is my second direction, and it regards the opposition that is to be made to lust, in respect of its habitual residence in the soul; keep alive upon thy heart, these or the like considerations of its guilt, danger, and evil; be much in the meditation of these things. Cause thy heart to dwell and abide upon them. Engage thy thoughts into these considerations, let them not go off, nor wander from them, until they begin to have a powerful influence upon thy soul; until they make it to tremble.

CHAP. XI.

The third direction proposed. Load thy conscience with the guilt of the perplexing distemper. The ways and means whereby that may be done. The fourth direction. Vehement desire for deliverance. The fifth. Some distempers rooted deeply in men's natural tempers. Considerations of such distempers: ways of dealings with them. The sixth direction. Occasions and advantages of sin to be prevented. The seventh direction. The first actings of sin vigorously to be opposed.

THIS is my third direction.

Load thy conscience with the guilt of it. Not only consider that it hath a guilt, but load thy conscience with the guilt of its actual eruptions and disturbances.

For the right improvement of this rule, I shall give some particular directions.

1. Take God's method in it, and begin with generals, and so descend to particulars.

(1.) Charge thy conscience with that guilt which appears in it, from the rectitude and holiness of the law. Bring the holy law of God into thy conscience, lay thy corruption to it; pray that thou mayest be affected with it. Consider the holiness, spirituality, fiery severity, inwardness, absoluteness of the law; and see how thou canst stand before it. Be much, I say, in affecting thy conscience with the terror of the Lord in the law, and how righteous it is, that every one of thy transgressions should receive a recompense of reward. Perhaps thy conscience will invent shifts and evasions to keep off the power of this consideration, as that the condemning power of the law doth not belong to thee, thou art set free from it, and the like; and so, though thou be not conformable to it, yet thou needest not to be so much troubled at it. But,

[1.] Tell thy conscience, that it cannot manage any evidence to the purpose, that thou art free from the condemning power of sin, whilst thy unmortified lust lies in thy heart; so that perhaps the law may make good its plea against thee, for a full dominion, and then thou art a lost creature. Wherefore it is best to ponder to the utmost, what it hath to say.

Assuredly, he that pleads in the most secret reserve of his heart, that he is freed from the condemning power of the law, thereby secretly to countenance himself in giving the least allowance unto any sin or lust, is not able on gospel grounds, to manage any evidence unto any tolerable spiritual security, that indeed he is in a due manner freed from what he so pretends himself to be delivered.

[2.] Whatever be the issue, yet the law hath commission from God to seize upon transgressors, wherever it find them, and so bring them before his throne, where they are to plead for themselves. This is thy present case, the law hath found thee out; and before God it will bring thee, if thou canst plead a pardon, well and good, if not, the law will do its work.

[3.] However, this is the proper work of the law, to discover sin in the guilt of it, to awake and humble the soul for it, to be a glass to represent sin in its colours; and if thou deniest to deal with it on this account, it is not through faith, but through the hardness of thy heart, and the deceitfulness of sin.

This is a door that too many professors have gone out at, unto open apostacy; such a deliverance from the law they have pretended, as that they would consult its guidance and direction no more; they would measure their sin by it no more; by little and little this principle hath insensibly, from the notion of it, proceeded to influence their practical understandings; and, having taken possession there, hath turned the will and affections loose to all manner of abominations.

By such ways, I say then as these, persuade thy conscience to hearken diligently to what the law speaks in the name of the Lord unto thee, about thy lust and corruption. Oh! if thy ears be open, it will speak with a voice that shall make thee tremble, that shall cast thee to the ground, and fill thee with astonishment. If ever thou wilt mortify thy corruptions, thou must tie up thy conscience to the law, shut it from all shifts and exceptions, until it owns its guilt with a clear and thorough apprehension; so that thence, as David speaks, thy iniquity may ever be before thee.'

(2.) Bring thy lust to the gospel; not for relief, but for farther conviction of its guilt, look on him whom thou hast

pierced, and be in bitterness. Say to thy soul, What have I done; what love, what mercy, what blood, what grace have I despised and trampled on? Is this the return I make to the Father, for his love, to the Son for his blood, to the Holy Ghost for his grace? Do I thus requite the Lord? Have I defiled the heart that Christ died to wash, that the blessed Spirit hath chosen to dwell in? And can I keep myself out of the dust? What can I say to the dear Lord Jesus? How shall I hold up my head with any boldness before him? Do I account communion with him of so little value, that for this vile lust's sake, I have scarce left him any room in my heart? How shall I escape, if I neglect so great salvation? In the meantime, what shall I say to the Lord? Love, mercy, grace, goodness, peace, joy, consolation, I have despised them all, and esteemed them as a thing of nought, that I might harbour a lust in my heart. Have I obtained a view of God's fatherly countenance, that I might behold his face, and provoke him to his face? Was my soul washed, that room might be made for new defilements? Shall I endeavour to disappoint the end of the death of Christ? Shall I daily grieve that Spirit whereby I am sealed to the day of redemption? Entertain thy conscience daily with this treaty. See if it can stand before this aggravation of its guilt. If this make it not sink in some measure and melt, I fear thy case is dangerous.

2. Descend to particulars. As under the general head of the gospel, all the benefits of it are to be considered, as redemption, justification, and the like; so in particular, consider the management of the love of them towards thine own soul, for the aggravation of the guilt of thy corruption. As,

(1.) Consider the infinite patience and forbearance of God towards thee in particular. Consider what advantages he might have taken against thee, to have made thee a shame and a reproach in this world, and an object of wrath for ever. How thou hast dealt treacherously and falsely with him from time to time, flattered him with thy lips, but broken all promises and engagements, and that by the means of that sin thou art now in pursuit of; and yet he hath spared thee from time to time, although thou seemest boldly to have put it to the trial how long he could hold

out. And wilt thou yet sin against him? Wilt thou yet weary him and make him to serve with thy corruptions?

Hast thou not often been ready to conclude thyself, that it was utterly impossible that he should bear any longer with thee; that he would cast thee off, and be gracious no more; that all his forbearance was exhausted, and hell and wrath was even ready prepared for thee? and yet above all thy expectation he hath returned with visitations of love. And wilt thou yet abide in the provocation of the eyes of his glory?

(2.) How often hast thou been at the door of being hardened by the deceitfulness of sin; and by the infinite rich grace of God hast been recovered to communion with him again?

Hast thou not found grace decaying; delight in duties, ordinances, and prayer, meditation vanishing; inclinations to loose careless walking thriving, and they who before entangled almost beyond recovery? hast thou not found thyself engaged in such ways, societies, companies, and that with delight, as God abhors? and wilt thou venture any more to the brink of hardness?

(3.) All God's gracious dealings with thee in providential dispensations, deliverances, afflictions, mercies, enjoyments, all ought here to take place. By these, I say, and the like means, load thy conscience, and leave it not, until it be thoroughly affected with the guilt of thy indwelling corruption, until it is sensible of its wound, and lie in the dust before the Lord; unless this be done to the purpose, all other endeavours are to no purpose. Whilst the conscience hath any means to alleviate the guilt of sin, the soul will never vigorously attempt its mortification.

(4.) Being thus affected with thy sin, in the next place, get a constant longing, breathing after deliverance from the power of it. Suffer not thy heart one moment to be contented with thy present frame and condition. Longing desires after any thing, in things natural and civil, are of no value nor consideration, any farther, but as they incite and stir up the person in whom they are, to a diligent use of means, for the bringing about the thing aimed at. In spiritual things it is otherwise. Longing, breathing, and panting after deliverance, is a grace in itself, that hath a mighty