426 The NATURE andPow ER foul, this had not come about. The great wifdoin and fecurity of the foul in dealing with indwelling fin, is to put a violent flop unto its be ginnings, its firft motions and adings. Venture all on the firft attempt, Die rather than yieldone ftep unto it. Ifthrough the deceit of fin, or the negligence of the foul, or its carnal confidence, to give bounds, to tufts a&rags at other feafons, it makes any entrance into the foul, and finds any entertainment, it gets ftrength and power, and infenfibly arifeth to the frame under confideration. Thou hadft never had the experience of the fury offin, if thou hadit not been content with fouie of its dalliances. Hadit thou not brought up this fervant, this Have delicately, it would not have now prefumed beyond a fon. Now when the law offin in any particularhath got this double advantage, the furtherance of a vigorous temptation, and fome prevalency formerly obtained, whereby it is let into the ftrengthsof the foul, it often rifeth up to this frame whereof we fpeak. 3. We may fee what accompanies this rage and madnefs, what are the properties of it, and what effetls it produceth. (is) There is in it the rafting off, for a time at leaft, of the yoke, rule and government of the fpirit and law of grace. Where grace hath the dominion, it will never utterly be expell'd from its throne, it will í1i11 keep its right and fovereignty. But its influences may for a feafon be intercepted, and its government be fufpended by the power of fin. Can we think that the law of grace had any aftual influence of rule on the heart of David, when upon the provocation received from Nadal, he was fo hurried with the defire of felf revenge, that he cryed, Gird onyour fwords to his companions, and refolved not to leave alive one man of his whole houfhould, t -Sam. xxv. 34. Or that rya was in any betterframe, when he fmote the prophet, and put him in prifon, that fpake unto him in thename of the Lord. Sin inthis cafe is like an untamedhorfe, which having firft raft off his rider, runs away with fircenefs and rage Itfirft calls off a prefent fenfe of the yoke of Chrift, and the law of his grace, and then hurries the foul at its pleafure. Let us a little confider how this is done. The feat and refidenceofgrace is in thewhole foul ; it is the inner man, it is in the mind, the will, and the affections; for the whole foul is renewed by it unto the image of God, Epbef. iv. 23, 24. And the whole man is a new creature, 2 Cor. v. 17. And in all theft doth it exert its power and efficacy; Its rule or dominion is the purfuit of its effectual working in all the faculties of the foul, as they are one united principle of moral and and fpiritual operations. So then, the interrupting of its exercife, of its rule and power by the law of fin, muft confift in itscontrary aCting in and upon the faculties and affeftions ofthe foul, whereon, and by which, grace fhould exert it power andefficacy. And this it doth. It darkens the mind, partly through innumerable vain prejudices, and falfe reafonings, as we Ihall fee when we come to confider its deceitfulnefs ; and partly through the fteaming ofthe affe£tions, heated with the noifome tufts that have laid. hold on them. Hence that faving light that is in the mind is cloudedand Rifled, that it cannot put forth its transforming power to change the foul into the likenefs of Chrift, difcovered unto it, which is its proper work, Rom. xii. 2. The habitual inclination of the will to obedience, which is thenext way of the working of the law of grace, is firft weakned, then call afide, and rendered ufelefs by the continual folicitations of fin and temp- tation; fo that the will firft lets go its hold, and difputes whether it Mall yield or no; and at lait gives up itfelf to its adverfary; and for theaf- feetions
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