3. When is sin said to reign ?
First, Why is sin said to reign in our bodies rather than in our souls ? And again ' lusts thereof,' avrov, as agreeing to aco/xan, not avTT]'^, as relating to ajxapria.
1. Negatively, it is not to be understood that sinful lusts are only in the body, or have their original only from the body, and not from the soul ; for that is repugnant to what Christ saith : Mat. xv. 18, 19, ' Those things which proceed out of the mouth come forth from the heart, and they defile the man ; for out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blas- phemies.'
2. But positively, he saith ' In your body.'
[1.] Because these lusts mostly manifest themselves in the body, and belong to the body and the flesh. Therefore the apostle saith, * Mortify your members which are upon the earth,' Col. iii. 5 ; and Kom. vii. 23, ' I see a law in my members warring against the law of my mind ;' James iv. 1 , ' Lusts that war in your body.' When the devil would set up a kingdom in the hearts of men, he doth it by the body ; for what is nearer and dearer to us than our bodies ? And things present and grateful to the bodily senses promote his designs ; these blind our minds and corrupt our hearts, and entice our affections, so that we follow after them earnestly, with the neglect of God and our precious immortal souls. There are various desires, according to the variety of objects which tend to please and gratify the flesh, by occasion of which sin doth insinuate itself into us.
[2.] Because they are acted and executed by the body or outward man, and therefore are called ' the deeds of the body,' Kom. viii. 13. Now, though some sins are seated in the mind, as heresies, yet they are works of the flesh : Gal. v, 19, 20, ' Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these, adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lascivious- ncss, idolatry, witchcrafl, haticd, variance, emulations, wrath, strife,
238 SERMONS UPON ROMANS VI. [SeR. X.
sedilions, heresies ; ' because usually they begin at falseness of the heart, and are bred in us by some corrupt affections, such as pride, vain- glory, self-seeking, &c. : Gal. ii. 18, ' Puflfed up with his fleshly mind/ And for sins of omission, they arise in us from some inordinate sensual aflfectiun to the creature, which causeth us to omit our duty to God. But generally most sins are acted by the body. Therefore, as in grace, or in the dedication of ourselves to God, the soul is included when the body only is mentioned : Kom. xii. 1, ' Present your body as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service.' All the service we perform to God is acted by the body ; so in the destruction of sin : ' Let it not reign in your body.'
[3.] Because the disorder of the sensual appetite, which inclineth us to the interests and conveniences of the bodily life, is the great cause of all sin ; and therefore man corrupted and fallen is represented as wholly governed by his sensual inclinations : Gen. vi. 3, ' For that man also is flesh ; ' and John iii. 6, ' That which is born of the flesh is flesh ; ' as if he had nothing in him but what is earthly and carnal. Our soills do so cleave to the earth, and are addicted to the body, that they have lost their primitive excellency ; our understandings, will, and affections are distempered by our senses, and enslaved to serve the flesh, which is a matter well to be regarded, that we may understand why the scripture so often calleth sin by the name of Jlesli, and some- times a hody ; or it is said ' to dwell in the body,' not as if the under- standing and will were not corrupted and tainted, but to show how they are tainted and corrupted, that this corruption which hath invaded human nature cometh chiefly, though not only, from the inordinancy of our sensual appetite. I will prove it by two con- siderations—
(1.) One is a supposition. Suppose that original sin, so far as it concerneth the understanding and will, consisted in a bare privation of that rectitude that should be in these faculties (I do not say it is so, but suppose it were so), yet as long as our senses and appetites are dis- ordered, which wholly incline us to terrene and earthly things, this were enough to cause us lo sin ; as a chariot must needs miscarry where the driver is weak, sleepy, negligent, and the horses unruly and dis- orderly. So here, we have not so much light and love to higher things as will resti"ain the sensual appetite. The understanding hath no light : 2 Peter i. 9, ' But he that lacketh these things is blind, and cannot see afar ofi" ; ' Eph. i. 18, ' The eyes of your understandings being enlightened, that ye may know what is the hope of his calling,' &c. The will hath no love : 1 Cor. ii. 14, ' The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness unto him, neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.' And therefore, man, that obeyeth his bodily lusts and desires, must needs be corrupt and sinful.