(2.) To some particular sin. As we have instances of carnal wretches in the general, so of some poor captive souls that remain under the full power and tyranny of this or that lust, and are so remarkable for their slavery and bondage under it that the world will point at them, and
264 SERMONS UPON ROMANS VI. [SeR. XII.
say, There goeth a, glutton, a drunkard, an adulterer, a oovetous world- ling and muckworm, a proud envious person ; their sin is broken out in some filthy sore and scab, that is visible to every common eye and view, either their covetousness or gluttony, or ambitious affectation of greatness, &c. Observers may truly say, There is one whose god is his belly, a slave to appetite : 2 Peter ii. 19, ' While they promise them- selves liberty, they themselves are the servants of corruption ; for of whom a man is overcome, of the same is he brought in bondage.' They grow proverbial for giving up themselves wholly to such a conquering and prevailing lust. As in natural things, several men have their distinct excellences, some are famous for a strong sight, some for an exquisite ear, some for a nimble tongue, some for agility of body ; so these have some notable excess in this or that sort of sin. Or as the saints of God are eminent for some special graces, Abraham for faith, Moses for meekness, Job for patience, Joseph for chastity, Timothy for temperance ; so these have their notorious and contrary blemishes.
2. There is a more secret and close dominion of sin, that is varnished over with a fair appearance. Men have many good qualities, no notorious blemishes, but yet some sensitive good or other lieth nearest the heart, and occupieth the room and place of God; that is, it is loved, respected, and served instead of God, or more than God. That which is our chief est good or last end is our god, or occupieth the room of God : Mat. vi. 24, ' No man can serve two masters ; for either he will hate the one, and love the other, or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other : ye cannot serve God and mammon ;' John v. 44, ' How can ye believe, which receive honour one of another, and seek not the honour that cometh from God only ? ' Luke xiv. 26, ' If any come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple.' We must be dead not only to carnal pleasures, but to relations, estate, yea, life and all ; nothing on this side God must sit nearest the heart, nor bring us under its command and power : 1 Oor. vi. 12, ' I will not be brought under the power of anything.' We are besotted and bewitched with some temporal thing, cannot part with it, or leave it for God's sake, or notwithstanding all the mischief it doth to his interest in the soul : though a man serve it cunningly, closely, and by a cleanly conveyance, yet all his religion is to hide and feed this lust.
[6.] There is a predominancy of one sin over another, and the predominancy of sin over grace. In 'the first sense renewed men may be said to have some reigning corruption or predominant sin, namely, in comparison of other sins. That such predominant sins they have appeareth by the great sway and power they bear in commanding other evils to be committed or foreborne accordingly as they contribute to the advancement or hindrance of this sin ; as in the body, a wen or strain draweth all the noxious humours to itself, and thereby groweth more great and monstrous. It appeareth also by the frequent relapses of the saints into them, and their unwillingness to admit admonition and reproof for them, and sometimes their falling into them out of an inward propensity, when outward temptations are none, or weak, or
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very few. Well, then, there are some sins which are less mortified than others, or unto which they are naturally carried by constitution, or education, natural inclination, or course of life. Thus David had his iniquity : Ps, xviii. 23, ' I was also upright before him, and I kept myself from mine iniquity ; ' whether it were hastiness or distrust of the promise, or also an inclination to revenge himself, some sins that men savour, or withstand less, or which are more urgent and impor- tunate upon them, and steal away their hearts most from God, the great pond into which other rivulets or streams of sin do empty themselves, or that bough or limb which taketh away the nourishment from all the under-shrubs, that which is loved and delighted in above other sins, and when other sins will not prevail, the devil sets this a-work, as the disciples looked on the disciple whom Jesus loved: John xiii. 23, 24, 'Now there was leaning on Jesus' bosom one of the disciples whom Jesus loved. Simon Peter therefore beckoned unto him that he should ask who it should be of whom he spake.' Well, then, in regard of other sins, one may reign and sit in the throne of the heart, or be loved more than another ; but not in regard of predo- minancy over grace, for that is contrary to the new nature, that sin should have the upper hand constantly and universally in the soul. For any one thing, though never so lawful in itself, habitually loved more than God, will not stand with sincerity : Luke xiv. 33, ' Whoso- ever he be that forsaketh not all that he hath, he cannot be my disciple.' If we must not keep our natural comforts, certainly not our carnal lusts. To love anything apart from Christ, or against Christ, or above Christ, is a dispossessing of Christ, or a casting him out of the throne.