J INDWELLING SIN. 513: Someof the ways whereby tliey endeavour to fupprefs the power of fin, which cabs them into an unquiet condition, and their infufficiency for that end, we mutt look into, (r.) They will promife and bind themfelves by vows from thofe fins which they have been moft liable unto, and fo have been moft perplexed withal. Ehe Pfalmift (hews this to be onegreat engine whereby falle and hypocritical perfons do endeavour to extricate and deliver themfelves out of trouble and perplexity. They make promifes to God, which he callsftar- teringg himwith the lips, Pfal. lxxviii. 36. So is it in this cafe; beingfrefhly galled with theguilt of any fin, that by the power of their temptations, they, it may be, have frequently been overtaken in, they vow and pro- mife, that at leaft for force fach fpace of time as they will limit, they will not commit that fin again ; and this courfe of proceeding is prefcribed unto them by force who pretend to direft their confciences in this duty. Con- fcience of this nowmakes them watch over themfelves, as to the outward aft of the fin that they are galled with ; and fo it bath one of thefe two effefts ; foreither they do abftain from it for the time they have prefx'd, or they do not : if they do not, as feldom they do, efpecially if it be a fin that hatit a peculiar root in their nature and conftitution, and is improved by cuftom into an habit, if any fuitable temptation be prefented unto them ; their fin is increafed, and therewith their terrour, and they are wofully difcouraged in making any oppoftion to fin; and therefore, for the molt parr, after one or two vain attempts, or more it may be, knowing no o- ther way to mortify fin, but thisof vowing againftit, and keeping of that vow in their own ftrength, they give over all conceits, and become wholly the fervants of fin, being bounded only by outward confideration, with- out any ferious endeavours for a recovery. Or, fecondly, fuppofe that they have fuccefs in their refolutions, and do abftain from aftual fins their ap- pointed feafon, commonly one of tltefe two things enfue; either they think that theyhave well difchargedtheir duty, and fo may a little now, at leaft for a feafon, indulge to their corruptions and tufts, and fo are en- tangled again in the fame fnares of fin as formerly; or elfe they reck- on that their vow and promife bathpreferved them, and fofacrifice totheir own netand drag, fettingup a righteoufsnefs of their own againft the grace of God ; which is fo far from weakning indwelling fin, that it ftrengthens it in the root and principle, that it may hereafter reign in the foul in fe- curity. Or, at the moft, the belt fuccefs that can be imagined unto this way of dealing with fin, is but the reftrainingof force outward eruptions of it, which tends nothing to the weakning of its power; and therefore fuch perfons, byall their endeavours, are very far from being freed from the inward toiling, burning, difquieting, perplexing power of fin. And this is the gate of molt men that are kept in bondage under thepower ofcon - viftion; hell, death, and the wrath of God are continually prefented un- to their confciences5 this makes them labour with all their ftrength againft that in fin, which molt enrageth their confciences, and molt increafeth their fears, thatis, the aftual eruption of it: for, for the molt part, while they are freed from that, theyare fife; though in the mean time fin lye tumultuating in, anddefiling of the heart continually. As with running fores, outward, repelling medicines may skin them over, and hinder their corruption from coming forth; but the iffue of them is, that they caufe them to feller inwardly, and fo prove, though it may not be fo noifome and ofFenfìve as they were before, yet far more' dangerous. So is it with this repelling of the power of corruption by mens vows and promifes a- Oó0000 gainit
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