CHAP. IX. (2)

Condition is described, Isa. 57.17. For the Iniquity of his Coveteousness I was wroth, and smote him, I hid me and was wroth, and he went on frowardly in the way of his heart. God had dealt with them about their prevailing Lust, and that several wayes, by Affliction and Desertion. But they held out against all: This is a sad Condition which nothing but meer soveraign Grace (as God expresses it in the next verse,) can relieve a man in, and which no man ought to promise himself, or bear himself upon. God oftentimes in his providential Dispensations meets with a man, and speaks particularly to the Evil of his Heart, as he did to Joseph's Brethren in their selling of him into Egypt. This makes the man reflect on his sin, and judge himself in particular for it. God makes it to be the voice of the Danger, Affliction, Trouble, Sickness that he is in, or under. Sometimes in Reading of the Word, God makes a man stay on something that cuts him to the Heart, and shakes him as to his present Condition. More frequently in the Hearing of the Word preached (his great Ordinance for Conviction, Conversion and Edification) doth he meet with men. God often hews men by the Sword of his Word in that Ordinance; strikes directly on their bosome beloved Lust; startles the Sinner, makes him engage into the Mortification and Relinquishment

of the Evil of his Heart. Now if his Lust have taken such hold on him, as to enforce him to break these bonds of the Lord, and to cast these cords from him; If it overcomes these Convictions, and gets again into its old posture; if it can cure the wounds it so receives, that Soul is in a sad Condition.

Unspeakable are the Evils which attend such a Frame of Heart: Every particular Warning to a man in such an Estate, is an inestimable Mercy; how then doth he despise God in them, who holds out against them; and what infinite Patience is this in God, that he doth not cast off such an one, and swear in his wrath, that he shall never enter into his Rest.

These and many other Evidences are there of a Lust that is dangerous, if not mortal. As our Saviour said of the evil Spirit, This kind goes not out but by Fasting and Prayer: So say I of Lusts of this kind; an ordinary Course of Mortification will not doe it, extraordinary wayes must be fixed on.

This is the First particular Direction; Consider whether the Lust or Sin you are contending with, hath any of these dangerous symptoms attending of it.

Before I proceed, I must give one Caution by the way, lest any be deceived by what hath been spoken. Whereas I say, the things and

evils above mentioned may befall true Believers, let not any that finds the same things in himself, thence or from thence conclude that he is a true Believer. These are the Evils that Believers may fall into, and be ensnared withall, not the things that Constitute a Believer. A man may as well conclude that he is a Believer, because he is an Adulterer; because David that was so, fell into Adultery; as conclude it from the signs foregoing, which are the evils of Sin and Sathan in the Hearts of Believers. The seventh of the Romans contains the Description of a Regenerate man. He that shall consider what is spoken of his dark side, of his unregenerate part, of the indwelling Power and Violence of Sin remaining in him, and because he finds the like in himself, conclude that he is a regenerate man, will be deceived in his Reckoning. It is all one as if you should argue, A wise man may be sick and wounded, yea do some things foolishly, Therefore every one who is sick and wounded and does things foolishly, is a wise man. Or as if a silly deformed Creature hearing one speaking of a beautifull Person, should, say that he had a mark or a Scarre that much disfigured him, should conclude that because he hath himself scarres, and moles, and warts, that he also is beautifull. If you will have Evidences of your being Believers, it must be from those

things that constitute men Believers. He that hath these things in himself, may safely conclude, If I am a Believer, I am a most miserable one. But that any man is so, He must look for other Evidences, if he will have Peace.