Fourthly, Set the contrary principle of grace a- work : Gal. v. 16, * Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfil the lusts of the flesh.' Cherish and obey the motions and directions of the renewed part ; this will keep the carnal part under, so as the motions of it, if they be not totally suppressed, yet will not be completely fulfilled. If the flesh be brought into subjection to the Spirit, it will be found by examining every day what advantage the flesh hath gotten against the Spirit, or the Spirit against the flesh ; how providence and ordinances are blessed to that end, to the weakening of sin, when the Spirit of Christ liath gotten the sovereignty over the flesh, and won the better part of tlie natural affections to its service. The flesh is getting ground, or the Spirit, every day. We are never free from the reign of sin till the Spirit get above the flesh, and the prevailing bent of the heart be set and fixed towards God. Dough once soured with leaven will never totally lose the taste and smatch.
Fifthly, Eemember thy baptismal vows and engagements : Eom. vi. 2, 3, 'How shall we that are dead to sin live any longer therein?' Every one hath engaged himself by his covenant, sealed in baptism, so to do.
Sixthly, In the sense of thy weakness have recourse to God for help : Ps. cxix. 133, ' Let not any iniquity have dominion over me.' God will hear the groanings of thy poor afflicted soul.
Use 2. Hath sin dominion over us, yea or no ? Doth it reign in us or not? Some things may increase our fear and caution. It may be known —
First, When the soul readily closeth with temptations, or when it is
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a force you cannot withstand: Prov. vii. 21, 'With her fair speech she caused him to yield ; with the flattering of her lips she forced him.' Easiness of insinuation, efficacy of operation : James i. 14, ' Every man is tempted when he is drawn away by his own lust and enticed.' You are at sin's beck. If it say, Go, you go ; if it say, Come, you come. As the angels, Ps. ciii. 20, ' that do the Lord's commandments, hearkening to the voice of his word/ so they hearken to the voice of their lusts, whatever cometli of it. If envy and malice bid Cain kill his brother, he will break all bonds of nature to do it. If ambition bid Absalom rebel against his father, it shall be done, and he is up in arms presently. If covetousness bid Achan take a wedge of gold, he will do it. If adultery bid Joseph's mistress tempt her servant, she doeth it. That is done readily which sin willeth and commandeth to be done ; we are as ready to yield to temptations as our corrupt heart to suggest them. We are at the beck of sin ; we cannot withstand it, whatever checks and reasons we have to the contrary.
Secondly, AVhen this is our ordinary practice as often as the tempta- tion returneth. Meadow ground may be overflown with a great flood, but marshy ground is drowned with every return of the tide. Some cannot cease from sin, 2 Peter ii. 14. Sin is become our element, out of which we cannot rest ; it is our paradise, a very Eden to our souls. Whatever sin biddeth us love, we love it ; and whatever it bids us do, we do it ; and by little and little it eateth out all reverence of God and delight in him.
Thirdly, When men grow impatient of reproof. They have a privy sore, that cannot endure to be touched. Till John preached against Herodias there was no trouble to him, Mark vi. 20, but when he urges non licet, he dieth for it ; as the sensitive plant shrinketh and contracts itself when touched ; as Ahab hated Micaiah, and the young man went away sorrowful, Mark x. 22.
Fourthly, When we set up a toleration in our hearts ; as he, 2 Kings V. 18, ' In this thing the Lord pardon thy servant, that when my master goeth into the house of Rimmon to worship there, and he leaneth on my hand, and I bow myself in the house of Eimmon : the Lord pardon thy servant in this thing.' Is there no sin for which you would crave pardon and indulgence ? When men will be excused in this or that, it is an ill sign.
Fifthly, When all your care is to hide or feed a lust. Judas masketh his covetousness with religion : John xii. 5, 6, ' Why was not this ointment sold for three hundred pence, and given to the poor ? This he said, not that he cared for the poor.' When sin raaketh us religious, some interest and advantage of our own sets us a-work for God.
Sixthly, Wilful obstinacy, to go against the express will of God : Prov. xiii. 13, 'Whoso des{)isetli the word shall be destroyed;' as Balaam, 2 Peter ii. IG, was 'rebuked for his iniquity; the dumb ass, speaking with man's voice, rebuked the madness of the prophet.' When Ulysses feigned liimself mad, because he would not go to the Trojan war, and in his madness drove his plough fantastically, those that were sent to discover him laid his }oung son Telemachus in the furrow, to see if he would drive over him ; at the sight of whom all