5tlh Original sin doth mix and incoi-po- rate itself with our duties and graces.— 1. With our duties. As the hand which is paralytica! or palsied cannot move without shaking, as wanting some inward strength, so we cannot do any holy action without sinning, as wanting a principle of original righteousness. As the leper, whatever he touched became unclean, — if he touched the altar, the altar did not sanctify him, but he polluted the altar,— such a leprosy is original sin, it defiles our prayers and tears, we cannot write without blotting. Though I do not say that the holy duties and good works of the regenerate are sins, for that were to reproach the Spirit of Christ by which they are AATOught; yet this I say, that the best works of the godly have sin cleaving to them; only Christ's blood makes atonement for our holy things. — 2. With our graces. There is some unbe- lief mixed with faith,— lukewarmness with zeal,— pride with humility. As bad lungs cause an asthma or shortness of breath, so original corruption, having infected our heart, our graces breathe now very faintly. 6lh. Original sin is a vigorous^ active principle within us; it doth not lie still, but is ever exciting and stirring us up to evil; it is an inmate very unquiet ; Rom. ^^i. 15., " What I hate, that do I." How came Paul to do so ? Original sin did ir- ritate and stir him up to it. Original sin is like quick-silver, always in motion ; when we are asleep, sin is awake in the fancy. Original sin sets the head a plotting evil, and the hands aworkiiig it; it hath in it principium motus, not quietis ; it is like the pulse, ever beating.
7//i. Original sin is the cause of all ac- tual : it is fumes peccoti,—\i is the womb in which all actual sins are conceived. Hence come murders, adulteries, rapines ;
lage and foam ! so though now thy heart it is the Trojan horse, out of which a whole
OF ORIGINAL SIN.
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army of impieties come. Tliougli actual sins may be more scandalous, yet oiij^inal sin is more heinous; the cause is more than the effect.
8^^. It is not perfectly cured in this life. Grace, though it doth subdue sin, yet doth not wholly remove it. Though we are like Christ, having the first fruits of the Spirit, yet we are unlike him, having the remain- ders of the flesh. There are two nations in the womb. Original sin is like that tree, Dan. iv. 28., though the branches of it were hewn down, and the main body of it, yet the stumps and root of the tree were left: Though the Spirit be still weaken- ing and hewing down sin in the godly, yet the stump of original sin is still left. It is a sea that will not, in this life, be dried up.
Quest. But ivhy doth Gcd leave original corruption in us after regeneration ? He could quite free us from it, if he pleased.
Ans. He doth it, to sliew the power of his grace in the weakest believer. Grace shall prevail against a torrent of corruption. Wlience is this? the corruption is ours, but the grace is God's.
A. 2. God leaves original corruption, to make us long after heaven, where there shall be no sin to defile, no devil to tempt. When Elias was taken up to heaven, his mantle dropped off; so, when the angels shall carry us up to heaven, this mantle of sin shall drop off, we shall never more complain of an aching head, or an unbe- lieving heart.
Use \st. If original sin be propagated to us, and will be inherent in us while we live here, then it confutes the Libertines and Quakers, who say they are without sin : they hold perfection ; they shew much pride and ignorance, but we see the seeds of original sin remain in the best. Eccl. vii. 20., There is not a just man lives, and sins not. And St. Paul complained of a ' body of death,' Rom. vii. 24. (Jrace, though it doth purify nature, it doth not perfect it.
Ob J. But doth not the Apostle say of be- lievers, that their ' old man is crucified^ Rom. TV. 6., and they are ' dead to sin T Rom. vii. 11.
Ans. They are dead, 1. Spiritually. Tliey
are dead as to the realm, — the guilt of it' and as to the regnum, — the power of it ; the love of sin is crucified.
//. 2. Tliey are dead to sin legally. As a man that is sentenced to death is dead in law, so they are legally dead to sin ; there is a sentence of death gone out against sin, it shall die and drop into the grave. But at the present, sin hath its life lengthened out ; nothing but the death of the body can quite free us from the body of this death.