[2.] The hope of victory. Our strife will end, and it will end well. If we strive against sin, we are sure to conquer : Eom. vi. 14, ' For sin shall not have dominion over you.' Let it not, and it shall not. If there be but a likelihood of victory, we are encouraged to figlit. Here a christian may triumph before the victory. In other conflicts it is good advice, 1 Kings xx. 11, 'Let not him that girdeth on his harness boast himself as lie that i)utteth it off.' There will come a good and happy issue in the end. For the present, they overcome it in part it shall not totally and finally overcome us in this world ; and shortly all strife will be over: Kom. xvi. 20, 'The God of peace shall bruise Satan under your feet shortly.' It is but a little while, and we shall receive the crown, and triumph over all our enemies.
Thirdly, The third reason is, because of the danger if we do not take care against the reign of sin. There is sin in us all ; it is a bosom enemy, born and bred with us ; and therefore it will soon get the advantage of grace if it be not watched against and resisted ; as nettles, and thistles, and rushes, and suchlike weeds as are kindly to the soil, will choke flowers and better herbs that are planted by care, and grow not of their own accord, when they are neglected, and not continually rooted out. Yea, they are not only within us, but always working and stj-iving for the mastery : Rom. vii. 8, ' Sin wrought in me all manner of concupiscence.' If sin did work in us as a sleepy liabit, and a dull, inactive principle, the danger were not so great ; but it is always exerting and putting forth itself, and seeking to gain an interest in our aflections, and a command over all our actions ; and therefore, unless we do our part to keep it under, we shall soon revert to our old slavery. Sin nnist be kept under as a slave, or else it will be above as a tyrant, and domineer. The more it acts, the more strength it gets ; as all liabits are increased by action. For when we have once yielded, we are ready to yield again in some further degree.
374 SEKMONS UPON PSALM XIX. 13. [SeR. IV.
Therefore any one sin let alone, yea, that which we least suspected, may bring us into subjection and captivity to the law of sin ; Kom. 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.' Yea, this bondage is daily increasing, and more hard to be broken ; for then a custom groweth upon us, which is another nature; and that which might have been remedied at first groweth more difficult. As diseases looked to at first are more easily cured, whereas otherwise they grow desperate, so sins before they harden the heart, or bring us under the power of any creature or comfort which we affect (1 Cor. vi. 12, ' I will not be brought under the power of any ') are more easily subdued. When it cometh to a complete dominion and slavery, then if a man would he cannot help it. Well, then, if sin be in us, and thus working to a conquest find dominion over us, and it ought and may be kept from reigning, then it behoveth every child of God to do his part, that sin may not reign ; for where this care is not taken it certainly will reign ; on the contrary, every limb of the body of sin that is mortified causeth the rest to languish by consent.
Use 1. To exbort us to take heed of this great mischief, That sin may not have dominion over us. How shall I enforce this exhorta- tion, or say anything beyond what I have already spoken ?
First, Shall I urge you in point of duty and obligation to Christ, as you would not frustrate the end of his death ? Let not sin reign over you. If you would have any benefit by Christ, express any mystical conformity to him, and to show yourselves to be christians indeed, weaken the power of sin yet more and more in your hearts : Gal. v. 24, 'They that are Christ's have crucified the flesh, with the affections and lusts.' If you be Christ's, wherein do you show forth the virtue of his death ? Are you always suppressing and smothering the effects and endeavours of indwelling corruption ? ' Christ ' (the apostle telleth you) ' being raised from the dead, dietli no more ; death hath no more dominion over him,' Eom. vi. 9, 10. Is there any suitableness to this in you ? There will be in all that are Christ's.
Secondly, Shall I move you in jDoint of your own interest? No bondage like the servitude of sin. Sin is thy enemy as well as God's. It is not only against his honour, but the everlasting well-being of thy soul : 1 Peter ii. 11, ' I beseech you, as strangers and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul.' Pharaoh's oppressions of the Israelites made them weary of their lives. Certainly, if you have any true sense in you, any respect to your precious and immortal souls, you will groan under the burden of sin . Kom. vii. 24, ' 0 wretched man that I am ! who shall deliver me from the body of this death ? ' The least relics of sin will be grievous to you, and make you weary and heavy laden. But alas ! the want of sense and feeling is a great sign that sin reigneth. If once it began to be a burden and a wearisome bondage, there were some hope of people. Shall I tell you of the loss of all that liberty and happiness which is in the service of God : John viii. 36, ' If the Son therefore shall make you free, then are ye free indeed.' You think that liberty lietli only in a power to do what we list. Oh, no ! It is a power to live, that we may be happy, so as we may enjoy God, and receive the consolations of his Spirit,