nishments of hell the lighter, Providence, by a speedy dispatch, preventing those sins, that otherwise would sink them the deeper into condemnation.

(2) God providentially keeps men from sinning, if not by shortening their lives, yet by cutting short their power, whereby they should be enabled to commit sin.

All that power, that wicked men have to sin, is either from themselves, or from their wicked associates whom they make use of as instruments for the accomplishment of their impieties: but Providence can strike them in both; and, thereby, give their lusts a miscarrying womb and dry breasts. Sometimes, God, by his Providence, cuts off their evil Instruments; and thereby disables them from sinning: sometimes, their instruments for counsel; thus Providence, by overruling Absalom to reject the counsel of Ahithophel, prevents all that mischief that so wise and so wicked a statesman might have contrived; and thereupon he goes and hangs himself: sometimes he cuts off their instruments of execution; and, so, God disappointed the hopes of blaspheming Rabshakeh, and sent an angel, that, in one night, killed almost two hundred thousand of the Assyrians dead on the place: certainly, it is great folly, for men, upon confidence of their wise and powerful instruments, to set themselves up against that God, that can, without or against all means and instruments, confound their designs and frustrate all their enterprizes. And, as God thus strikes their instruments: so, sometimes, he strikes their Persons; and takes from them the use of those natural faculties, by which they should be enabled to commit their sins: sometimes, he hides their wits from them, and besots them ; so he did to the Jews: John vii. 30. They sought to apprehend Jesus who did hinder them? was he not there among them? Were there not enough of them to do it? yet they only stand gazing at him, like men besotted, till he escapes away from them sometimes, God hides away their hands from them, and enfeebles them; as in Ps. lxxvi.5. None of the mighty men have found their hands: God had benumbed them, and laid their hands out of the way when they should have used them: the Sodomites, you know, swarmed thick about Lot's house, intending villainy to his guests; and God smote them with blindness, that they groped for the door, even at noon-day: Jeroboam stretcheth out his hand against the Prophet, and God suddenly withers it. This is God's frequent course with wicked men: when he doth not subdue their wills, yet he oftentimes

subdues their power of sinning. Yea, and possibly, although we have not such frequent instances of it, God may deal thus sometimes with his own children: thus he hath threatened or promised rather to his Church, that he will hedge up her way with thorns, that she should not be able to break through to her idols, as formerly she had done: so you have it in Hos. ii. 6. And, indeed, it is a great mercy, that God doth take away that that power from men, that he sees they will only abuse to their own destruction. It is not cruelty, but compassion, that chains up madmen; and takes from them those swords, arrows and firebrands, that else they would hurl up and down abroad, both to their own and others' mischief: and, so, it is God's common pity to sinners, that are very madmen, that fetters and chains them up; and lays such a powerful restraint upon them by his Providence, that, where their wills are not defective, yet their power to execute sin should be. What would wicked men think, if God should now suddenly strike them dumb, or blind, or lame, or impotent? would they not account this a heavy judgment inflicted upon them? they would so: and yet, believe it, it were better for them that God should strike them dumb upon the place, than that they should ever open their mouths more to blaspheme and rail at God and his people: better, they were struck blind, than that the Devil and vile lusts should enter into the soul by those casements: better, that God should maim them, than that they should have strength to commit those sins, that, if but willed, will damn them; but, if executed, will sink their souls sevenfold deeper into condemnation. Now the Providence of God, by taking away their power, prevents their wickedness, and so mercifully mitigates their condemnation..

(3) Sometimes, God keeps men from the commission of sin, by raising up another power against that, by which the sinner is to execute his sin.

Thus, when Saul would have put Jonathan to death for breaking a rash vow that himself had made, God raiseth up the spirits of the people to rescue him; and they plainly tell him, Jonathan shall not die. The Jews hated Christ, and would have killed him, but that they feared the people, whom his miracles had obliged to him, so that they durst not venture upon him till his hour was come.

(4) Sometimes, Providence casts in some seasonable diversion, that turns them off from the commission of that sin, that they intended.

P 2

When they are hotly pursuing their wickedness, Providence starts some other game for them, and sets them upon some other work. Thus it fared with Antiochus, in Dan. xi. 30: he sets himself against the Holy Covenant; but, for all his rage against it, he shall return into his own land, says God: for the ships of Chittim shall come against him, and the ships of the Romans; and, instead of invading others' dominions, he must return to defend his own: thus God diverted him from his design of ruining the Jews. And, sometimes, where God doth not dry up the spring of corruption, yet he turns the streams of it which way he pleas eth: as a skilful physician, when one part of the body is oppressed with ill humours, draws them to another part that is less dangerous; so God, by his Providence, turns men from the commission of a greater to a lesser sin: thus he overruled Joseph's brethren: they consulted to cast him into a pit, and there to let him starve, unless he could feed upon his dream of wheat-sheaves; but God, by his Providence, so orders it, that merchants pass by that way, and to them they sell him. There are, I believe, but few men, who, if they will but examine back their lives, cannot produce many instances both of the Devil's Policy, in fitting them with occasions and opportunities of sin, and of God's Providence, in causing some emergent affairs, some unexpected action to interpose, and hinder them from those sins that they purposed.

(5) God, sometimes, keeps men from sin, by removing the object, against which they intended to commit it.

Thus, when Herod intended to put Peter to death the next morning, that very night God sends an angel, and makes his escape, and so prevents that sin: and so, truly, in all ages, God hides away his children from the fury of ungodly men.

There are, doubtless, many other various and mysterious Providences, whereby God hinders the sins of men; but these are the most common and most remarkable ways: by shortening their lives; by lessening their power; by raising up another power to oppose them; by diverting them another way; and by removing the objects of their sins.

The next thing is, To shew you how God hinders the commission of sin, in a way of Grace.

2. But I shall leave this till another time, and make some Application of what hath now been spoken.

(1) See here the sad and woeful estate of wicked

Grace doth not change, but only Providence restrain.

men,

whom

A mere restraint from sin, when the heart continues fully set

and bent upon it, must needs cause torment and vexation. Their own corruptions urge them forward; but God's Providence, that meets them and crosses them at every turn, and that disappointment, that they meet with when they fully resolve upon sin, cause great vexation of spirit. As God will torment them hereafter for their sins; so he torments them here, by keeping them from their sins. All the wicked in the world are strangely hampered by God's Providence, as so many bulls in a net: that, though they struggle, yet cannot possibly break through; and, by their struggling only vex and weary themselves. God doth, as it were, give up the hearts of wicked men to the Devil: only he ties their hands. Let them intend and imagine as much evil and mischief as they can; yea, as much as hell can inspire into them yet none of these shall execute any of it, otherwise than as God permits them. Now if there be any real pleasure in sin, it is in the execution of it: that, which men take in the plotting and contriving of it, is merely the delight of a dream and fancy; and herein lies the exceeding wretchedness of wicked men, that, though Providence almightily hinders them in the execution of sin, yet justice will justly punish their intention and plotting of it. (2) This should teach us to adore and magnify this sin-preventing Providence of God.

Our lives, our estates, yea, whatever is dear and precious to us hitherto, have been secured to us only by his powerful hand, which hath curbed in the unruly lusts of men, and kept them from breaking forth into violence, and blood, and rapine. Should God slack the reins, should he throw them upon the necks of ungodly men, how would uproars, and confusions, murders, and slaughters overspread the face of the whole earth, and make the world a hell above ground! Redemption and Providence are two wonderful works of God: by the one he pardons sin, that is committed; and, by the other, he prevents sin, lest it be committed: both of them are contrivances of Infinite Wisdom; and both of them are unsearchable, and past finding out; and, therefore, we ought to ascribe the glory of both unto God, that hath laid both the design of Redemption and of Providence for man's good, and for man's salvation.

(3) If, at any time, we can recall to mind, as indeed who is there that cannot, that God hath thus by his Providence prevented us from the commission of sin, how should this oblige us thankfully to own this mercy of God to us!

May not all of us say, "Had not God taken away our power,* had he not taken away the objects of our lusts, had he not diverted us some other way, we had now been deeply engaged in those sins, that the merciful Providence of God hath diverted us from?" He it was, that hedged up the broad way with thorns; that so he might turn us into the narrow way, that leads unto eternal life and happiness.

(4) Hath God's Providence so many ways and methods to hinder the commission of sin? then we may be assured, that he will never permit it, but when it shall redound to his own praise and glory.

It is an excellent saying of St. Austin: "He, that is most good, will never suffer evil, unless he were also most wise; whereby he is able to bring good out of evil." And, therefore, when we see wicked men let alone to accomplish their hellish designs, we may then quiet ourselves with this: "God knows how to make his own advantage out of their wickedness: he knows how, from such dung and filth to reap a most fruitful crop of glory to himself." The rage of man, says the Psalmist, thou wilt restrain, and the residue thereof shall turn to thy praise: that wickedness, which God doth not restrain, he will make redound to his own praise and glory.

(5) This may establish our hearts in peace, when we see the wickedness of men most raging and violent: "They cannot sin, unless God gives them a power." As Christ told Pilate, Thou hast no power over me, in John xix. 11. except it be given thee from above.

And, certainly, that God, that gives them a power to sin, still keeps a power in his own hands to limit them in their sins; and, when their lusts are most unruly, he can say to them, Hitherto shall ye go, and here shall your proud waves be stayed. He stints them, and bounds them; and he also can totally restrain them, when he pleaseth, and when it shall be most for his own praise and glory.

ii. Now, as God doth thus keep men back from the commission of Presumptuous Sins by a strong hand of Providence: so, sometimes, he doth it by his GRACE.

And this Grace is either merely restraining, or else it is sanctifying and renewing. Both of them are of very great force and efficacy by the one, he holds men back from sin; and, by other, he turns them against sin.

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