That Indwelling Sin Is to Grace What Fire Is to Gold
Sect. I. — Prosperity and adversity put sincerity to the trial; but nothing makes a deeper search into our bosoms, nothing sifts our spirits more narrowly, or tells us what our state is more plainly, than our behaviour towards that corruption which dwells in us. The thorn is next neighbour to the rose. Sin and grace dwell not only in the same soul, but in the same faculties. The coUier and fuller dwell in one room; what one cleanses the other blackens. Of all the evils God permits in this world, none is more grievous to his people than this. They sometimes wonder why the Lord will suffer it to be so. Among other wise and holy ends of this permission, these are surely some. They are left to try you, and to humble you. There is no intrinsic goodness in sin; but, however, in this it occasions good to us, that by our conduct towards it we discern our sincerity. The touchstone is a worthless stone in itself, but it serves to try the gold. “Whatsoever is born of God, doth not commit sin; for his seed remaineth in him, and he cannot sin, because he is born of God. In this the children of God are manifest, and the children of the devil:” In respect of their carriage towards sin, the one and the other is plainly manifested. This is that which separates the dross from the gold, and shows you what the true state of men’s persons, and the tempers of their hearts are. By not sinning, we are not to understand a total freedom from sin, as if it implied any such perfection of the people of God in this world: this is the Popish and Pelagian sense. Nor yet must we take it in the Arminian sense, who, to avoid the argument of the orthodox, will understand it of the sin against the Holy Ghost. What a strange thing would it be, to make that a characteristic note of distinction betwixt the godly and ungodly, which so very few, even of the most ungodly, are ever guilty of! But the manner of our behaviour towards sin, and our carriage towards it before, or under, or after the commission of it, in that the children of God are manifest, and the children of the devil.
Now there are five things relating to sin that discriminate and mark the state of the persons. The difference is discernible, 1. In our abstinence from sin; 2. Hatred of sin; 3. Trouble about sin; 4. Subjection to sin; 5. Opposition to sin.
Sect. II. — The grounds and motives of our abstinence from sin very clearly manifest the state of our souls. What they are in the regenerate and unregenerate, is our next work.
1. Let it be considered, that an unsound and unrenewed heart may abstain from one sin, because it is contrary to, and inconsistent with, another sin. It is with the sins of our nature, as it is with the diseases of our bodies. Though all diseases are contrary to health, yet some diseases, as the fever and palsy, are contrary to each other. So are prodigality and covetousness, hypocrisy and profaneness. These oppose each other, not for mutual destruction, as sin and grace do, but for superiority, each contending for the throne, and sometimes taking it by turns. It is with such persons as with that possessed man, Matt, xvii. 15. whom the spirit cast sometimes into the fire, sometimes into the water. Or if one subdue the other, yet the heart is also subdued to the vassalage of that lust which is uppermost in the soul.
2. An unrenewed man may be kept from the commission of some sin, not because there is a principle of grace within him, but because of some providential restraint without him, or upon him; for it often falls out, that when men have conceived sin, and are ready to execute it. Providence puts on them the fetters of restraint, and hinders them from so doing. This was the case with Abimelech, Gen. xx. “I withheld thee.” And though persons so restrained have not the good of such providences, yet others have; for by it a world of mischief is prevented in the world, which otherwise would break out; and to this act of Providence we owe our lives, liberties, estates, and comforts in this world.
3. An unsound heart may not commit some sins, not because he truly hates them, but because his constitution inclines him not to them. These men are rather beholden to a good temper of body, than to a gracious temper of soul. Some men cannot be drunkards if they would, others cannot be covetous and base; they are made of a more refined metal than others. But chaste and hberal, just and sober nature, is but nature still. The best nature, in all its endowments, is but nature at the best.
4. A graceless heart may be restrained from sin by the force of education, and principles of morahty that have been instilled into it. Thus Jehoash was restrained from sin: “And Jehoash did that which was right in the sight of the Lord, all the days wherein Johoiadah the priest instructed him.” The fear of a parent or master will do a great deal more with some in this case than the fear of God. The influences of strict education nip off the excrescences of budding vice. The way we are taught when young, we keep when old. This is the influence of man upon man, not the influence of the regenerating Spirit upon men.
5. A graceless heart may be kept from some sins by fear of the events, both in this world, and in that to come. Sin that is followed with infamy and reproach among men, may on this ground be forborne; not because God has forbidden it, but because human laws will punish it, and the sober world will brand us for it. And some look farther, to the punishment of sin in hell. They are not afraid to sin, but they are afraid to burn. Here sin is like a sweet rose in a brake of thorns; fain we would have it, but are loath to tear our flesh to obtain it. It is good that sin is prevented any way; but to be kept on this ground from sin, does not argue the state of the person to be good. And thus you see some of the grounds on which carnal men are restrained: and in this “the children of the devil are manifest.”
Sect. III. — But there are grounds of abstinence from sin, by which “the children of God are also manifested;” and such are these that follow: —
1. A sincere heart dares not sin because of the eye and fear of God, which is upon him. So you find it in Job xxxi. 1, 4. He durst not allow his thoughts to sin, because he lived under the awe of God’s eye. Nehemiah durst not do as former governors had done, though an opportunity presented to enrich himself, “because of the fear of his God.” The soul that lives under the awe of this Eye, will be as conscientious where no discovery can be made by creatures, as if all the world were looking on. “Thou shalt not curse the deaf, nor put a stumbling-block before the blind; but shalt fear thy God: I am the Lord.” What if a man do curse the deaf, the deaf cannot hear him; and what if he do put a stumbling-block before the blind, the blind cannot see him. True, but God sees him; God hears him. That is enough to a man who has the fear of the Lord upon his heart.
2. As the fear of God, so the love of God, is a principle of restraint from sin to the soul that is upright. This kept back Joseph from sin: “How can I do this great wickedness, and sin against God?” How can I?” He speaks as a man who feels himself bound up from sin by the goodness and love of God that had been manifested to him. Hath he delivered me from the pit into which my envious brethren cast me? Hath he, in so miraculous a way, advanced me to all this honour and power in Egypt? And now, after all his kindness and love to me, shall I sin against him? O how can I do this against so good, so gracious a God? So Psalm xcvii. 10. “Ye that love the Lord, hate evil.” Love will cry out in the hour of temptation, Is this thy kindness to thy friend? Dost thou thus requite the Lord for all his kindnesses?
3. As the love of God, so the intrinsic evil and filthiness that is in sin, keeps back the gracious soul from it. “Abhor that which is evil:” hate it as hell itself; or, as the French translation has it, “Be in horror.” As the apprehensions of hell, so the apprehensions of sin, impress horror upon the mind that is sanctified. Nothing is more loathsome to a holy soul. Its aversations from it are with the highest indignation and loathing.
4. The renewed nature of a saint restrains him from sin: “The spirit lusteth against the flesh, so that ye cannot do the thing ye would.” “Ye cannot!” why cannot ye? because it is against your new nature.
Beloved, this is a very remarkable thing in the experience of all renewed men, that, upon the renovation of men’s principles, their delights, and their aversions and loathings, are quite opposite to what they were before. In their carnal state, vain company and sinful exercises were their delight. To be separated from these, and tied to prayer, meditation, heavenly discourse and company, O what a bondage would that have been! Now, to be tied to such carnal society, and restrained from such duties of godliness, and the society of the godly, is become a much sorer bondage to the soul.
5. Experience of the bitterness of sin, is a restraint to a gracious heart. They who have had so many
K 60 sick days and sorrowful nights for sin, are loath to taste that wormwood and gall again which their soul hath still in remembrance: “In that ye sorrowed after a godly sort, what carefulness it wrought!” The believer would not grapple with those inward troubles again, he would not have the cheerful light of God’s countenance eclipsed again, for all, and much more than all, the pleasures that are in sin.
6. The consideration of the sufferings of Christ for sin, powerfully withholds a gracious soul from the commission of it. “Our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin.” Were there a knife or sword in the house, that had been thrust through the heart of your father, could you ever endure the siirht of it? Sin was the sword that pierced Christ, and so the death of Christ becomes the death of sin in his people. Thus the children of God and the children of the devil are manifest, in the principles and reasons of their abstinence from sin.
Sect. IV. — They are also manifested by their hatred of sin. This puts a clear distinction betwixt them; for no false or unregenerate heart can hate sin as sin.
1. He may indeed hate sin in another, but not in himself. Thus one proud man hates another. Diogenes, when he trampled Plato’s fine clothes under foot, said, “I spurn the pride of Plato.” Plato replied, “Thou tramplest upon my pride, but it is with greater pride.” “Why,” said Christ to the hypocrite, “beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother’s eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye?” How quick in espying, and rash in censuring, the smallest fault in another, is the hypocrite! It was but one fault, and that but a small one, but a mote, that he could find in another; yet this he quickly discerns. It may be there were many excellent graces in him; these he overlooks, but the mote he plainly discerns. It may be that mote in his brother’s eye had drawn many tears from it, but these he takes no notice of: and meanwhile there is a beam, a great, horrid, flagitious evil, in himself; but it is too near him to be discerned or bewailed. This is a sad symptom of a naughty heart.
2. He may hate it in its effects and consequences, not in its own nature; as the thief hates the gallows, not the wickedness that he has done. It is not sin itself, but sin in its connection with hell, that is frightful to him. The unsound professor could wish that there were no such threatening in the Bible against sin. When sin tempts him, I would consent, says he, but I fear the consequence. O sin, could I separate thee from hell, nothing should separate thee and me.
3. He may hate it for a moment or a pang, but not with a rooted, habitual hatred. It is plain, from 2 Peter ii. 22. that sin may sometimes lie upon the conscience of an unregenerate man, as a load lies upon a sick stomach; and so he may discharge himself of it by reformation, restitution: but a little time reconciles the quarrel betwixt him and his lust again. If they fall out, they will fall in again: “The dog returned to his vomit, and the sow that was washed, to her wallowing in the mire.”
But an upright soul hates sin in another manner; and in this hatred of sin the children of God are manifest.
N 2
1. The opposition of sin to God, is the very ground and formal reason upon which a gracious soul opposes and hates it. If it be opposite to the holynature and law of God, it cannot but be odious in his eyes. This cut David’s heart: “Against thee, thee only, have I sinned.” I have wronged Uriah greatly; I have wronged myself and family greatly: but the wrong I have done to others is not worth naming, in comparison of the wrong I have done to thee.
2. The upright soul hates sin in himself more than he hates it in any other; as a man hates a serpent in the hedge, but much more in his own bosom. “I see another law in my members:” “I find then a law, that when I would do good, evil is present with me.” I do not know how others find it, but I am sure I find sin in my very bosom, in my very bowels; it is present with me. “O wretched man that I am!” A gracious soul can mourn to see it in others, but to find it in himself pierces him to the very heart.
3. The gracious soul hates not only this or that particular sin, but the whole kind, every thing that is sinful. True hatred is of the whole nature or kind: “I hate every false way.” His reasonings proceed from sin as sin, concluding against every sin; sins that are profitable and pleasant, as well as sins that have neither profit nor pleasure; sins that are secret, as well as sins that are open, and such as will defame him.
And before this trial a false heart cannot stand; for he always indulges some lust. There is an iniquity from which he cannot be separated.
4. The sincere soul hates sin with an irreconcilable hatred. There was a time when sin and his soul fell out; but there never will be a time of reconciliation betwixt them again. That breach, which effectual conviction once made, can never be made up any more: “They will return no more to folly.” And, indeed, it seems to them who have suffered so much for sin, who have endured so many fears and sorrows for it, the greatest folly in the world to return to sin again. No; they admire the mercy of their escape from sin to their dying day, and never look back upon their former state but with shame and grief. Ask a convert. Would you be back again where once you were? Would you be among your old companions again? Would you be fulfilling the lusts of the flesh again? And he will tell you, he would not run the hazard of abiding one day or one night in that condition again, to gain all the kingdoms of the world the next morning.
5. The sincere soul hates sin with a superlative hatred. He hates it more than any other evil in the world besides. Penal evils are not pleasant in themselves; but yet if he must endure them or sin, then he chooses sufferings: “choosing rather to suffer affliction than enjoy the pleasures of sin;” the worst of sufferings, rather than the best of sins.
6. So deep is the hatred that upright ones bear to sin, that nothing pleases them more than the thoughts of a full deliverance from it. “I thank God, through Jesus Christ our Lord.” What does he so heartily thank God for? For a prospect of his final deliverance from sin; never to be entangled, defiled, or troubled with it any more. And this is one thing that sweetens death to the saints as much as any thing in the world can do, except Christ’s victory over it, and lying in the grave for us. To think of a grave, is not pleasant in itself; but to think of a parting-time with sin, that is sweet and pleasant indeed.
Sect. V. — The children of God and the children of the devil, pure gold and vile dross, are manifest, as in hatred of sin, so in their troubles and sorrows about sin.
All trouble for sin argues not sincerity. Some have reason to be troubled even for their troubles for is in.
1. And they are of this number, who are troubled only for the commission of some more gross sins that startle the natural conscience, but not for inward sins that defile the soul. Judas was troubled for betraying innocent blood, but not for that base lust of covetousness that was the root of it, or the want of sincere love to Jesus Christ. Outward sins are sins of greater scandal, but heart-sins are oftentimes sins of greater guilt. To be troubled for grosser sins, and have no trouble for ordinary sins daily incurred, is an ill sign of a bad heart.
2, A graceless heart may be much troubled at the discovery of sin, when it is not troubled for the guilt of sin: “As the thief is ashamed when he is found, so is the house of Israel ashamed.” Hence it is, that some men stick not to commit ten sins against God, to hide one sin from the eyes of men. It is a mercy that sin is the matter of men’s shame, and that all are not arrived at that height of impudence to declare their sin as Sodom, and glory in their shame. But to be ashamed only because men see it, and not with Ezra, to say, “O my God, I am ashamed, and blush to look up unto thee,” ashamed that thou seest it, — this is but hypocrisy.
3. A gracigiw heart may be troubled also for the rod that sin draws after it, but not for sin itself, as it provokes God to inflict rods.
But the troubles of upright ones for sin are of another kind and nature.
1. They are troubled that God is wronged, and his Spirit troubled by their sins. So the penitent prodigal: “I have sinned against heaven, and in thy sight:” against heaven, that is, against him whose throne is in heaven — a great, glorious, and infinite Majesty! A poor worm of the earth has lifted up his hand against the God of heaven.
2. They are troubled for the defilement of their own souls by sin. Hence they are compared, in Prov. XXV. 26. to a troubled fountain. You know it is the property of a living spring, when any filth falls into it, or that which lies in the bottom of its channel is raised, and defiles its streams, never to leave working until it has purged itself of it, and recovered its purity again. So it is with a righteous man. He loves purity in the precept, Psalm cxix. 140.; and he loves it no less in the principle and practice. He thinks it is hell enough to lie under the pollution of sin, if he should never come under damnation for it.
3. They are troubled for the estrangements of God, and the hidings of his face from them because of their sin. It would go close to an ingenuous spirit, to see a dear and faithful friend, whom he has grieved, to look strange and shy upon him at the next meeting, as if he did not know him; much more does it go to the heart of a gracious man, to see the face of God turned from him, and not to be towards him as in times past. This went to David*s heart after his fall, as you may see in Psalm li. 11. “Cast me not away from thy presence, and take not thy Holy Spirit from me.” Lord, if thou turn thy back upon me, and estrange thyself from me, I am a lost man; that is the greatest mischief that can befall me. Their troubles for sin run deep in comparison with what other men’s do. They are strong to bear other troubles, but sink and faint under this. Psalm xxxviii. 4. Other sorrows may, for the present, be violent, and make more noise, but this sorrow sinks deeper into the soul.
5. Their troubles for sin are more private and silent troubles than others are: their “sore runs in the night,” as it is in Psalm lxxvii. 2. Not but that they may, and do open their troubles to men; and it is a mercy when they meet with a judicious, tender, and experienced Christian to unbosom themselves unto; but, when all is done, it is God and thy soul alone that must whisper out the matter. That is indeed a sincere sorrow for sin, which is expressed secretly to God in the closet.
6. Their troubles are incurable by creature-comforts. It is not the removing of some outward pressures and inconveniences that can remove their burden. Nothing but pardon, peace, and witnessed reconciliation, can quiet the gracious heart.
7. Their troubles for sin are ordinate, and kept in their own place. They dare not stamp the dignity of Christ’s blood upon their worthless tears and groans for sin. “Lord, wash my sinful tears in the blood of Christ,” was once the desire of a true penitent.
And thus our trouble for sin shows us what our
hearts are.
Sect. VI. — The behaviour and carriage of the soul with respect to subjection to the commands of sin, shows what our estate and condition is. This will separate dross from gold. All unregenerate men are the servants of sin; they subject themselves to its commands. This the Scripture sometimes calls a “conversation in the lusts of the flesh;” sometimes the “selling of themselves to sin.” Now, as Dr. Reynolds observes, though the children of God complain, with Paul, that they are “sold under sin,” yet there is a vast difference betwixt these two: the saints are sold to it by Adam, but others by their own continued consent. But, to show you the difference in this matter, I conceive it necessary to show wherein the reigning power of sin does not consist, and then whereTn it does; that you may plainly discern who are in subjection to the reigning power of their corruptions, and who are not. Now, there are divers things common both to the regenerate and unregenerate; and we cannot say the dominion of sin lies in any or in all of them, abstractedly and simply considered.
1. Both one and the other having original corruption dwelling in them, may also find this fountain breaking forth into gross and scandalous sins. But we cannot say, that because original corruption thus breaks forth into gross and scandalous sins in both, therefore it must needs reign in the one as well as in the other. A righteous man may “fall before the wicked.” He may fall into the dirt of grosser iniquities, and furnish them with matter of reproach. n3
So did David, Peter, Abraham, and many more of the Lord’s upright-hearted ones, whose souls nevertheless sin did not reign over by a voluntary subjection to its commands; nor must this embolden any to sin with more liberty.
2. Though an upright soul fall once and again into sin, though he reiterate the same act of sin which he has repented of before, yet it cannot merely from thence be concluded, that therefore sin reigns over him, as it does over a wicked man who makes it his daily trade. I confess every reiteration of sin puts a further aggravation upon it; and it is said that we should repent and sin, and sin and repent; but yet you read, in Prov. xxiv. 16. “A just man falleth seven times, and riseth up again.” Job’s friends were good men, yet he tells them, “These ten times have ye reproached me.” This indeed shows a heart that greatly needs purging; for it is with relapses into spiritual, as it is with relapses into natural disr eases: return of the disease shows that the morbific matter was not duly purged. But though it shows the foulness, it does not always prove the falseness, of the heart.
3. Though the one may be impatient of the reproof of his sin, as well as the other, yet that alone will not conclude sin to be in full dominion over the one, as it is over the other. It is a pity that any good man should storm at a just rebuke of sin; that such a precious oil as is proper to heal, should be imagined to break his head; but yet flesh will be tender and touchy, even in good men. Asa was a good man, and yet he was wroth with the prophet who reproved him, 2 Chron. xvi. 10, Yet I doubt not but that their consciences smite them for it, when pride suffers not another to do it. A reproof may be well-timed and ill-managed by another, and so may provoke; but they will hear the voice of conscience in another manner.
4. Though in both some one particular sin may have more power than another, yet neither does this alone prove, that therefore that sin must reign in one as it does in another. Indeed, the beloved lust of every wicked man is king over his soul; but yet a godly man’s constitution or calling may incline him more to one sin than another; and yet neither that nor any other may be said to be in dominion: for though David speaks of his iniquity, his special sin, in Psalm xviii. 23. which some suppose to be the sin of lying, from that intimation in Psalm cxix. 19.; yet you see in one place he begs God to keep him from it, and in the other he tells us he kept himself from it, and both show he was not the servant of it.
5. Though both may sin against knowledge, yet it will not follow from thence, that therefore sins against knowledge must needs be sins in dominion hi the one, as they are in the other. There was too much light abused and violence offered in David’s deliberated sin, as he confesses in Psalm li. 6. and the sad story itself too plainly shows; and yet, in the main, David was an upright man still; though this consideration of the fact wounded his integrity, and stands upon record for a caution to all others.
Sect. VII. We have seen what does not infer the dominion of sin in the former particulars, being simply considered; 1 shall next show you what does, and how sincere and false hearts are distinguished in this trial..
soo
1. Assent and consent upon deliberation notes the soul to be under the dominion of sin. When the mind approves sin, and the will gives its plenary consent to it, this sets up sin in its throne, and puts the soul into subjection to it; for the dominion of sin consists in its authority over us, and our voluntary subjection to it. This you find to be the character of a wicked graceless person: “He deviseth mischief upon his bed; he setteth himself in a way that is not good; he abhorreth not evil.”
The best men may fall into sin through mistake, or be precipitated into sin through the violence of temptation; but to devise mischief, and set himself in an evil way, this notes full assent of the mind; and then not to abhor evil, notes full consent of the will; and these two being given to sin, not only antecedently to the acting of it, but also consequently to it, to like it afterwards as well as before: this puts the soul fully under the power of the sin. What can it give more? This, in direct opposition to the apostle, Rom. xii. 1. is to present their bodies a dead sacrifice, unholy, and abominable to God, acceptable to the devil, which is their unreasonable service. All men by nature are given to sin, but these men give themselves to it.
2. The customary practice of sin subjects the soul to the dominion of sin; and so, “He that is born of God doth not commit sin.” Fall into sin, yea, the same sin, he may, and that often; but then it is not without reluctance, repentance, and a protest entered by the soul in heaven against it; so that sin has not a quiet possession of his soul. He is not the servant of sin, nor does he willingly walk after its commandments; but so do its own servants: it is their daily practice; ‘* they proceed from evil to evil.”
3. Delight in sin proves the dominion of sin. So the servants of sin are described: “They have chosen their own ways, and their soul delighteth in their abominations.”
As our delight in God is the measure of our holiness, so our delight in sin is the measure of our sinfulness. Delight in sin is the uppermost round of the ladder, and much higher the soul of a sinner cannot go, till it be turned off into hell: “It is a sport to a fool to do mischief.” He is never merrier than when he has the devil for his play-fellow.
4. Impatience of Christ’s yoke and government, argues the soul to be the subject of sin. This is dear from the apostle’s reasoning: “But God be thanked, that ye were the servants of sin; but ye have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered you. Being then made free from sin, ye became the servants of righteousness.” Where you see plainly, that no man can have his manumission or freedom from sin, who comes not into Christ’s service, and yields himself up to his obedience. So then, to fret at Christ’s laws that tie us up from our lusts, to be weary of all spiritual employments as a burden intolerable, never to be in our element and centre till we are off from God, and plunging in the world and our lusts, — this is a sad note of a soul in subjection to sin.
Obj, But it may be said. May not an upright soul find some weariness in spiritual things?
Sol. Doubtless he may, for he has flesh as well as spirit; and “though the spirit be willing, the flesh is weak:” he is sanctified but in part, and his delight in the law of God is but according to, or “after the inner man;” but he sees another law in his members, that is, contrary inclinations. If, however, he be weary sometimes in the duties of godliness, he is more weary out of them, and is not centered and at rest till he be with his God again: but the carnal heart is where it would be when it is in the service of sin, and as a fish upon dry land when engaged in spiritual duties, especially such as are secret, and have no external allurements of reputation to engage him to them.
But what surprisals or captivities to sin soever may befall an upright soul, yet it appears by these eight following particulars, that he is not the servant of sin, nor in full subjection to it: —
1. Though he may be drawn into sin, yet he cannot reflect upon his sin without shame and sorrow, which plainly shows it to be an involuntary surprise. So Peter wept bitterly, and David mourned for his sin heartily. Others can fetch new pleasures out of their old sins, by reflecting on them; and some can glory in their shame: some are stupid and senseless after sin; and the sorrow of a carnal heart for it, is but a morning dew; but it is far otherwise with God*s people.
2. Though a saint may be drawn into sin, yet it is not with a deliberate and full consent of his will: “Their delight is in the law of God,” — “They do that which they would not;” there are inward dislikes from the new nature. And as for the case of David, which seems to have so much of counsel and deliberation in it, yet it was but in a single act; it was not in the general course of his life: he was upright in all things, that is, in the general course and tenor of his life.
3. Though an upright soul may fall into sin, yet he is restless and unquiet in that condition, like a bone out of joint; and that bespeaks him to be none of sin’s servants: as, on the contrary, if a man be engaged in the external duties of religion, and be restless and unquiet there, his heart not being in it, he not being at rest till he is again in his earthly business; this man cannot be reckoned Christ’s servant. A gracious heart is much after that rate employed in the work of sin, that a carnal heart is employed in the work of religion. That is a good rule, That is a man’s true temper, wherein he is at rest. Poor David fell into sin; but he had no rest in his bones because of it. If his heart be off from God and duty for a little while, yet he recollects himself, and says, “Return to thy rest, O my soul.”
4. Though a sincere Christian fall into sin and commit evil, yet he proceeds not from evil to evil, as the ungodly do, Jer. ix. 3.; but makes his fall into one sin a caution to prevent another sin. Peter by his fall got establishment for the time to come. If God will speak peace to them, they are careful to return no more to folly: “In that ye sorrowed after a godly sort, what carefulness it wrought! yea, what fear!” It is not so with the servants of sin. One sin leaves them much moxe disposed to another sin.
5. A sincere Christian may be drawn into sin, but yet he would be glad with all his heart to be rid of sin. It would be more to him than thousands of gold and silver, that he might grieve and offend God no more: and that shows sin is not in dominion over him. He who is under the dominion of sin, is loath to leave his lusts. Sin’s servants are not willing to part with it: they hold it fast, and refuse to let it go, as that text expresses it, Jer. viii. 5. But the great complaint of the upright is expressed by the apostle, according to the true sense of their hearts, in Rom, vii. 24. “Who shall deliver me from the body of this death?”
6. It appears that they yield not themselves willingly to obey sin, inasmuch as it is the matter of their joy when God orders any providence to prevent sin in them. “Blessed be the Lord,” said David to Abigail, “and blessed be thy advice, and blessed be thou that hast kept me this day from shedding blood.” Here is blessing upon blessing for a sinpreventing providence. The Author is blessed, the instrument blessed, the means blessed. O it is a blessed thing, in the eyes of a sincere man, to be kept from sin! He reckons it a great deliverance, a very happy escape, if he is kept from sin.
7, This shows that some who may be drawn to commit sin are yet none of the servants of sin, that they do heartily beg the assistance of grace to keep them from sin: “Keep back thy servant from presumptuous sins,” says the Psalmist: “let them not have dominion over me;” that is. Lord, I find propensities to sin in my nature, yea, and strong ones too; if thou leave me to myself, I am carried into sin as easily as a feather is carried down the torrent. O Lord, keep back thy servant. And there is no petition that upright ones pour out their hearts to God in, either more frequently or more ardently, than in this, to be kept back from sin.
8. This shows the soul not to be under the dominion of sin, that it does not only cry to God to be kept back from sin, but uses the means of prevention itself. It resists it, as well as prays against it: “I was also upright before him, and kept myself from mine iniquity.” So Job xxxi. 1. “I have made a covenant with mine eyes;” and yet more fully in Isa. xxxiii. 15. “He shaketh his hands from holding bribes, and stoppeth his ears from hearing blood, and shutteth his eyes from seeing evil.” See with what care the portals are shut, at which sin is accustomed to enter.
All these things are very relieving considerations to poor souls questioning their integrity under the frequent surprisals of sin. And the next trial is no less so.
Sect. VIII. — Our opposition to, and conflicts with sin, discover what we are: gold or dross.
There are conflicts with sin both in the regenerate and in the unregenerate; but there is a vast difference betwixt them, as will appear in the following account: —
1. There is a universal, and there is a particular opposition to sin. The former is found in regenerate, the latter in unregenerate souls. A gracious heart hates every false way; and must needs do so, because it hates and opposes sin as sin; so that it can have no excepted or reserved lust, but fights against the whole body, and every limb and member of the body of sin. But it is not so with the hypocrite or carnal professor. He has some reserved sin that he cannot part with.
2. There is an opposition betwixt the new nature and sin, and there is an opposition betwixt a natural conscience and sin; the former is the case of an upright soul, the latter may be a self- deceiver.
A regenerate person opposes sin, because there is an irreconcilable antipathy betwixt it and the new nature in him, as is clear from Gal. v. 17.” The flesh lusteth against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other.’^ By flesh, we are to understand corrupt nature; by spirit, not only the spirit of man, but the Spirit of God, or principle of regeneration in man* By the lusting of these two against each other, we are to understand the desire and endeavour of each other’s destruction and ruin; and the ground of all this is the contrariety of these two natures. These are contrary one to the other. There is a twofold opposition betwixt them: one formal, their very natures are opposite; the other effective, their workings and designs are opposite, as it is betwixt fire and water.
But the opposition found in unrenewed souls against sin, is not from their natures, for sin is suitable, enough to that; but from the light that is in their minds and consciences, which scares and terrifies them. Such was that in Darius: “He was sore displeased with himself, and set his heart on Daniel to deliver him; and laboured till the going down of the sun to deliver him.” Here the contest was betwixt sense of honour on one side, and conviction of conscience on the other side. Sometimes a generous and noble disposition opposes sordid and base actions. “I am greater, and born to greater things, than that I should: be a slave to my body,” said a brave heathen.
3. There is a permanent, and there is a transient opposition to sin. The former is the case of God’s people, the latter of temporary and unsound professors.
The saint, when he draws the sword in his warfare against sin, throws away the scabbard. No end of this combat with sin till life end. His life and his troubles are finished together: “I have fought the good fight, and have finished my course.” But in other men it is but a transient quarrel; they are out with sin one day, and in with it another: and the reason is plain, by what was noted before — it is not the opposition of two natures. It is like the opposition of the wind and tide; these may be contrary, and make a stormy sea to-day, but the wind may come about, and go as the tide goes to-morrow. In a Christian, it is the opposition of the river and the dam: one must give way to the other; there is no reconciling them; but the other, “like the dog, returns to his vomit.”
4. There is an opposition to the root of sin, and an opposition to the fruits of sin, A gracious soul opposes root and fruit, but others the latter only. The great design of an upright soul, is not only to lop off this or that branch, but to kill the root of sin which is in his nature: “Who shall deliver me from the body of this death?” But the great care and endeavour of others is to suppress outward acts of sin, and escape the mischievous consequences of it; yea, their study is, as Lactanius phrases it, “to hide, rather than to kill their lusts.”
5. There is an opposition to sin in the strength of God, and an opposition to sin in our own strength. The former is proper to real Christians, the latter, is found frequently with unsanctified persons. When Christians go forth against any sin, it is in the strength of God: so their rule directs them, “Be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might: take unto you the whole armour of God.” And you will accordingly find them frequently upon their knees begging strength from heaven against their lusts: “For this cause I besought the Lord thrice,” says Paul — that is, often and earnestly, that the temptation might depart from him. But others go forth against sin in the strength of their own resolutions only. The resolutions or vows which they have put themselves under, are as frequently frustrated as made.
6. There is a successful opposition to sin, and an opposition that comes to nothing. The former is that of true Christians; the latter is found among unregenerate men.
The work of mortification in the saints is progressive and increasing. Hence we read, in Rom. vi. 6. “Our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed.” Sin dies in believers much as crucified persons die, a slow, lingering, gradual, but sure death. Its vigour and life expire by degrees, or as a consumptive person dies; for to that also the apostle alludes here. There is a disease, which is called a consumption of the whole; and those who die of that disease, languish more and more, till at last they drop by imperceptible degrees into the grave. But in the unregenerate, whatever conflicts they may have with sin, no corruption falls before them. It may be said of them, as the church in another case complains of herself,” We have been in pain; we have, as it were, brought forth wind. We have not wrought any deliverance in the earth, neither have the inhabitants of the world fallen.’* So it fares with these professors. They pray, they hear, they vow, they resolve; but, when all is done, their lusts are as strong and vigorous as ever: no degree of mortification appears after all. — Thus much of the trial of our sincerity by our carriage towards sin.