sembly of kings,' so we may say of sinful lusts in the heart, that They are indeed a throng and a people of kings.'

The second exception wherewith the more moderate sort of unregenerate men seem to shift off from themselves the charge of being subject to the reign of sin, is, that sin hath not over them an universal dominion, inasmuch as they abhor many sins, and do many things which the rule requires. "All these things," saith the young man in the Gospel, "have I done from my youth d." And Hazael to the prophet, "Is thy servant a dog," to rip up women, and dash infants to pieces? He seemed at that time to abhor so detestable facts as the prophet foretold. "Come," saith Jehu, "and see my zeal for the Lord of hosts." Ahab humbled himself: Herod heard John gladly, and did many things: the foolish virgins and apostates abstained from many pollutions of the world:-and, from such abstinences and performances as these, men seem invincibly to conclude that they are not under an universal reign of sin.

h

For clearing this exception, we must know that there are other causes, besides the power and kingdom of the Spirit of Christ, which may work a partial abstinence in some sins, and conformity in some duties.

i

First, The power of a general restraining grace; which, I suppose, is meant in God's withholding Abimelech from touching Sarah. As there are general gifts of the Spirit *, in regard of illumination, so likewise in order to conversation and practice. It is said that Christ, beholding the young man," loved him," and that even when he was under the reign of covetousness. He had nothing from himself worthy of love; therefore something, though more general, it was which the Spirit had wrought in him. Suppose we his ingenuity, morality, care of salvation, or the like. As Abraham gave portions to Ishmael, but the inheritance to Isaac; so doth the Lord, on the children of the flesh and the bond-woman, bestow common gifts"; but the inheritance and adoption is for the saints; his choicest jewels

d Mark x. 20. * 2 Kings viii. 13.

f 2 Kings x. 16. g 1 Kings xi. 27. k 2 Cor. xii. 7, 10. 1 Mark x. 21.

h Mark vi. 20. John v. 35. Gen. xx. 6. m Habent nonnulla munera filii concubinarum, sed non perveniunt ad regnum promissum. Aug. de Civ. Dei, lib. 16. cap. xxxiv.

are for the king's daughter. There is great difference betwixt restraining and renewing grace; the one only charms and chains up sin; the other, crucifies and weakens it, whereby the vigour of it is not withheld only, but abated: the one turns the motions and stream of the heart to another channel; the other, keeps it in bounds only, though still it runs its natural course: the one is contrary to the reign,-the other, only to the rage, of sin. And now these graces being so differing, needs must the abstaining from sins, or amendment of life, according as it riseth from one or other, be likewise exceeding different. First, That which riseth from renewing grace, is internal in the disposition and frame of the heart: the law and the spirit are put in there to purify the fountain; whereas the other is but external in the course of the life, without any inward and secret care to govern the thoughts, to moderate the passions, to suppress the motions and risings of lust, to cleanse the conscience from dead works, to banish privy pride, speculative uncleanness, vain, empty, impertinent, unprofitable desires out of the heart. The law is spiritual; and therefore it is not a conformity to the letter barely, but to the spiritualness of the law, which makes our actions to be right before God. "Thy law is pure," saith David"; "therefore thy servant loveth it." And this spiritualness of obedience is discerned by the inwardness of it,— when all other respects being removed, a man can be holy there, where there is no eye to see, no object to move him, none but only he and the law together. When a man can be as much grieved with the foulness of his thoughts, with the disproportion which he finds between the law and his inner man, as with those evils, which, being more exposed to the view of the world, have an accidental restraint from men, whose ill opinions we are loth to provoke; when from the spiritual and sincere obedience of the heart doth issue forth an universal holiness, like lines from a centre, unto the whole circumference of our lives, without any mercenary or eserved respects, wherein men oftentimes, instead of the Lord, make their own passions and affections their ends, of their fears their God.

Secondly, That which riseth from renewing grace, is equal

n Psal. cxix. 140.

and uniform to all the law; it esteemeth all God's precepts concerning all things, to be right,-and it hateth every false way. Whereas the other is only in some particulars P, reserving some exceptions from the general rule, and framing to itself a latitude of holiness, beyond which, in their conceits, is nothing of reality, but only the fictions and chimera's, the more abstract notions and singularities of a few men, whose end is not to serve God, but to be unlike their neighbours. I deny not, but as oftentimes it falleth out in ill-affected bodies, that some one part may be more disordered and disabled for service than others, because ill humours, being by the rest rejected, do, at last, settle in that which is naturally weakest; so in Christians likewise, partly, by the temper of their persons, partly, by the condition of their lives and callings,-partly, by the pertinacious and more intimate adherence of some close corruption,-partly, by the company and examples of men amongst whom they live,partly, by the different administration of the Spirit of grace, who, in the same men, bloweth how and where he listeth,it may come to pass, that this uniformity may be blemished, and some actions be more corrupt, and some sins more predominant and untamed in them than others. Yet still I say, renewing grace doth, in some measure, subdue all, and, at least, frame the heart to a vigilancy over those gaps which lie most naked,—and to a tenderness to bewail the incursions of sin, which are by them occasioned.

Thirdly, That which riseth from renewing grace is constant, grows more in old age, hath life in more abundance, proceedeth from a heart purged and prepared to bring forth more fruit; whereas the other grows faint and withers. An hypocrite will not pray always: a torrent will, one time or other, dry up and putrify. Water will move upward by art, till it be gotten level to the spring where it first did rise; and then it will return to its nature again: so, the corrupt hearts of natural men, however they may fashion them to a show of holiness, so far forth as will rise even to those ends

o Psal. cxix. 128. - Αὕτη τοίνυν ἡ πρώτη ἀγαθοποιία τοῦ τελείου, ὅταν μὴ διά τι χρείωδες τῶν εἰς αὑτὸν συντεινόντων γίνηται. Κρίνοντος δὲ ὅτι καλὸν τὸ ἀγαθὸν ποιεῖν ἐκτενῶς, ἡ ἐνεργεία φερομένη ἐν πάσῃ πράξει ἀγαθύνεται οὐκ ἐφ' ὧν μὲν, ἐφ ̓ ὧν δ ̓ οὐ· ἀλλὰ ἐν ἕξει εὐποιΐας καταστάσα, &c. Clem. Αlex. Strom. lib. 4. In hoc major offensa est, quod partem sententiæ sacræ pro commodorum nostrorum utilitate diligimus, partem pro Dei injuriâ præterimus. Salv. 1. 3.

and designs for which they assumed it,-yet let them once go past that, and their falling down will make it appear, that whatever motions they had screwed up themselves unto, yet still, in their hearts, they did bend another way, and did indeed resist the power of that grace, whose countenance they affected. Even as Scipio and Hannibal, at Syphax's table, did compliment and discourse, and entertain one another with much semblance of affection; whereas other occasions, in the field occurring, made it appear, that, even at that time, their hearts were full of revenge and hostility.

Lastly, That which riseth from renewing grace, is with delight and much complacency, because it is natural to a right spirit: it desires nothing more, than to have the law of the flesh quite consumed; whereas the other hath pain and disquietness at the bridle which holds it in, and therefore takes all advantages it can, to break loose again. For while natural men are tampering about spiritual things, they are out of their element; it is as offensive to them as air is to a fish, or water to a man. Men may peradventure, to cool and cleanse themselves, step awhile into the water; but no man can make it his habitation: a fish may frisk into the air to refresh himself, but he returns unto his own element. Wicked men may, for variety sake, or to pacify the grumblings of an unquiet conscience, look sometimes into God's law; but they can never suffer the Word to dwell in them: they are doing a work against nature; and therefore no marvel, if they find no pleasure in it. Nay, they do in their hearts wish, that there were no such law at all to restrain their corrupt desires; that there were no such records extant to be produced against them at the last and as soon as any oc

9 Ἡδὺ τὸ κατὰ φύσιν, τὸ δὲβια ιὸν λυπηρόν. Arist. Rhet. 1. 1. Ut perfectæ fidei et obsequelæ est obedientiam diligere, et id quod quis agit affectu charitatis implere, et necessitatem agendi amantis voluntate præcurrere; ita et magnæ innocentiæ est iniquitates non modo non agere, sed odisse, quia interdum non [legendum nos] ab his metus et terror avertit. Hilar. in Psal. cxix. niem. r Quis coram Deo innocens invenitur, qui vult fieri quod vetatur, si subtrahas quod timetur? quantum in ipso est, mallet non esse justitiam peccata prohibentem atque punientem. Qui gehennas metuit, non peccare metuit, sed ardere; ille autem peccare metuit, qui peccatum ipsum sic ut gehennas odit. Aug. ep. 144. —Mallet, si fieri posset, non esse quod timeat, ut liberè faciat, quod occultè desiderat. Id. de nat. et grat. cap. lvii.-Non fit in corde quod fieri videtur in opere, quando mallet homo non facere, si posset impunè. Id. cont. 2. Ep. Pelag. 1. 2. cap. ix. & lib. 1. cap. ix. & lib. 3. cap. iv.

casion calls them unto sensual and sinful delights, they steal away the law from their own consciences; they suppress and imprison the truth in unrighteousness; they shut their eyes by a voluntary and affected ignorance, that they may, more securely and without check or perturbation, resign themselves to their own ways.

d;

Secondly, A deep, desperate, hypocritical affectation of the credit of Christianity, and of the repute and name of holiness, like that of Jehu, “Come, see my zeal for the Lord of hosts." And this is so far from pulling down the reign of sin, that it mightily strengthens it, and is a sore provocation of God's jealousy and revenge. The prophet compares hypocrites to a deceitful bow", which though it seem to direct the arrow in an even line upon the mark, yet the unfaithfulness thereof carries it at last into a crooked and contrary way. And a little after, we find the similitude verified "Israel shall cry unto me, My God, we know theex." Here seems a direct aim at God, a true profession of faith and interest in the Covenant: but observe presently the deceitfulness of the bow; "Israel hath cast off the thing that is good;" though he be well contented to bear my name, yet he cannot bear my yoke; though he be pleased with the privileges of my people, yet he cannot away with the tribute and obedience of my people, and therefore God rejects both him and his half-services: "The enemy shall pursue him. They have sowed the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind," saith the Lord, in the same prophet. My people are like a husbandman, going over ploughed lands, and casting abroad his hands as if he were sowing seed: but the truth is, there is nothing in his hand at all but wind, nothing but vain semblances and pretences; the profession of a seedsman, but the hand of a sluggard. And now mark what a harvest this man shall have; "That which a man soweth, that shall he also reap ;"-" he soweth the wind, and he shall inherit the wind," as Solomon speaks. Yet you may ob

• Παρακλέπτουσι τὸν νόμον. Clem. Alexand. t Tanta est vis voluptatum, ut ignorantiam provelet in occasionem, &c. Tert. de spectac. c. 1.-Malunt nescire quia tam oderunt. Apol. c. 1.-Nolunt intelligere sensum Domini, &c. De fuga in persecut. c. 6. Bovλntý ǎyvola, Just. Mart. Quæst. et Resp. qu. 140. Αγνοια ἐκ προαιρέσεως. Arist. Ethic.Οὐ γὰρ οἶδεν τὰ μεθ ̓ ἡμᾶς, οὐδὲ θέλει ua@eiv. Clem. Alex. Strom. 1. 4. u Hos. vii. 16. x Hos. viii. 2, 3.