3. It is always warring, as well as working : Eom. vii. 23, ' I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members.' Sin seeketh to deface all these impressions of God which are upon the heart, which bind the conscience to holiness, and to stifle all these motions that tend to it. That it may alone reign in the heart without control, it sets itself in direct opposition against all those dictates of conscience, and holy motions and inspirations, that the sinner may be fully captivated to do what the flesh requireth to be done by him ; therefore it must be kept under as a slave, or it will get up as a tyrant and domineer. One sin that we least suspect may bring us under this slavery. It doth not only make us flexible and yielding to temptations, but it doth urge and impel us thereunto. We think and speak too gently of corruption when we think and speak of it as a tame thing, that worketh not till it be irritated by the suggestions of Satan. No ; it riseth up in arms against everything of God in the heart,
4. The more it acteth, the more it getteth strength, as all habits are increased by multiplied acts ; and when we have once yielded, we are ready to yield again, as a brand that hath been once burned is more apt to take fire a second time: Deut. xxix. 19, 'And it come to pass, when he heareth to words of this curse, that he bless himself in his heart, saying, I shall have peace, though I walk in the imagina- tion of my heart, to add drunkenness to thirst.' After men have once committed a sin, they are more vehement to venture on it again ; at first we cannot get down sin so easily, till a habit and custom hath smoothed it to our throats. Well, then, this bondage is daily increas- ing, and more hard to be prevented. By multiplied acts a custom creepeth on us, which is as another nature, and that which might be easily remedied at first groweth more difficult to be subdued. As diseases looked to at first are easy to be cured, but when once they become inveterate the cure is more desperate, so are sins before we are hardened into a custom : Jer, xiii. 23, ' Can an Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots ? then may ye also do good who are accustomed to do evil.' No means will then prevail to work it out of them, or bring them to any good ; the more we sin, the more are we enthralled to sin, as a nail, the more it is knocked, the more it is fastened into the wood. A sinner is often comj)ared to a slave or servant ; now there were two sorts of servants or slaves — such as were BO by covenant and by their own consent, or such as were so by conquest or burprisal in war. The first similitude is used, Eom. vi. 10, ' Know
268 SERMONS UPON ROMANS VI. [SeR. XIII.
ye not that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are whom ye obey, whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness.' The other servant by conquest is spoken of, 2 Peter ii. 19, ' For of whom a man is overcome, of the same also is he brought into bondage.' Now these notions I would rank thus : every carnal man at his first entrance into a course of vanity and sin is a servant by consent, hire, or contract, for he doth consecrate his life and his love, his time and his care, his actions and his employments to please his lusts ; we first willingly and by our own default give up ourselves to this course. But the customaiy sinner by conquest, that hath so crippled and maimed his faculties that he cannot be at liberty if he would, then they grow complete slaves to their lusts, as captives in war are servants to their conquerors ; for whilst they do voluntarily and ordinarily give up themselves to serve the devil and their own corrup- tions without resistance, or crying to Christ for help, they are very bond-slaves and held in chains of darkness, till the supreme judge execute deserved wrath upon them. Augustine complaineth, Ligatus eram, non ferro alieno, sed mea ferrea voluntate, velle meum tenehat inimicus, et me mihi catenam fecerat et constrinxerat me — Lord, I am bound, not with iron, but with an obstinate will ; I gave my will to mine enemy, and he made a chain of it to bind me, and keep me from thee ; quippe ex voluntate perversa facta est libido ; et dum servitur lihidini, facta est consuetudo ; et dum consuetudini non resistitur, facta est necessitas — a perverse will gave way to lustings, and lusting made way for a custom, and custom let alone brought a necessity upon me, that I can do nothing but sin against thee. Thus are we by little and little enslaved, and brought under the power of every carnal vanity. Well, now, put all together ; are these things spoken of ourselves or of another ? Is it so indeed, that there is such a warring ? and are we not obliged to be watchful and careful ?