Of 1NDwELLING SIN. 467 fupprefs and perfecute the truth. Indwelling fin delires no greater ad- vantage. How will it every day, every hour pour forth wrath, reviling; hard fpeeches; breathe revenge, murther, defolation, under the naine per- haps of zeal. On this account we may fee poor creatures pleafing them- felves every day, as if they vaunted in their excellency, when they are foaming out their own fhame. Under their real darknefs and pretended zeal, fin fits fecurelyand fills pulpits, houfes, prayers, Ifreces, with as bitter fruits of envy, malice, wrath,-.hatred, evil furmifes, falfe fpeakings, asfull as they can hold. The common iffue- with fuch poor creatures, is, the ho- ly bleffed meek fpirit of God withdraws from them, and leaves them vifibly and openly to that evil, froward, wrathful, worldly fpirit, which the lawof fin bath cherifiaed and heightned in them. Sin dwells not any where more fecure, than in fuch a frame. Thus, I fav, it lays hold in particular of advantages to pra&ife upon, with its deceitfulnefs, and there- in alfo to exert its power in the foul; whereof this fingle inftance of its improving the darknefs of the mind unto its own ends, is a fuflicient evidence. [2.] It ufeth means of relieving itfelf againft the purfuit that is made after it in the heart by the word and fpirit of grace. One alfo of its wiles, in the way of inftance, I Ihall naine in this kind, and that is the alleviationof its own guilt. It pleads for itfelf, that it is not fo bad, fo filthy., fo fatal as is pretended ; and this courfe of extenuation it proceeds in two ways. 1.) Abfolutely; many ferret pleas it will have that the evil whichit tends unto is not fo pernicious as confcience is perfuaded that it is ; it may be ventured on without ruin. Thefe confiderations it will ftrongly urge, when it is at work in 'a way of furprizal, when the foul bath no leifure or liberty to weigh its fuggeftions in the ballante of the fan&uary, and not feldom is the'will impofed on hereby, and advantages gotten to fhift itfelf from under the fworrd of the fpirit. It is not fuch but that it may he let alone, or fuffered to die of itfelf, which probably within a while it will do ; no need of that violence which in mortification is to be offered ; it is time enough to deal with a matter of no greater impor- tance herafter. With other pleas like thofe before mentioned. 2.) Comparatively, and this is a large field for its deceit and fubtilty to lurk in. Though it is an evil indeed to berelinquilhed, and the foul is to be made watchful againft it, yet it is not of that magnitude and de- gree, as we may fee in the lives of others, even faints of God, much lefs fuck as fotne Saints of old have fallen into. By thefe and the like pretences, I fay, it feeks to evade and keep its abode in the foul when purfued to de- ltruction. And how little a portion of its deceitfulnefs is it that we have declared ! C H A P.
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