And because corruption is natural to us, therefore, 1, We delight in it ; wll^ce it comes to pass, that om: souls are carried along in an easy current, to the committing of any sin without opposition. 2. Because it is natural, therefore it is unwearied and restless, as light bodies are not wearied iti their •motion upwards, nor heavy bodies in their motion downwards, nor a stream in its running to the sea, because it is natural : hence it is that the ' old man,' Eph. iv. 22, is never tired in the ' works of the flesh,' Gal. v. 19, nor never drawn dry. When men cannot act sin, yet they will love sin, and act it over again by pleasing thoughts of it, and by sinful speculations suck out the delight of sin ; and are grieved, not for their sin, but because they want strength and •opportunity to commit it ; if sin would not leave tbem, they would never leave
174 THE soul's conflict.
sin. This corruption of our nature is not wrought in us by reason and per- suasions, for then it might be satisfied with reasons, but it is in us by way of a natural inchnation, as iron is carried to the loadstone ; and till our natures be altered, no reason will long prevail, but our sinful disposition, as a stream stopped for a little while, will break out with greater violence. 3. Being natural, it needs no help, as the earth needs no tillage to bring forth weeds. When our corrupt nature is carried contrary to that which is good, it is carried of itself, as when Satan lies or murders, it comes from his own cursed nature ; and though Satan joineth with oui* corrupt nature, yet the proneness to sin, and the consent unto it, is of ourselves.
Qmst. § III. But how shall we know that Satan joins with our nature, in those actions unto which nature itself is prone ?
Ans. Then Satan adds his help, when our nature is carried more eagerly than ordinary to sin ; as when a stream runs violently, we may know that there is not only the tide, but the wind that carrieth it.
So in sudden and violent rebellions, it is Satan that pusheth on nature left to itself of God. A stone falls downwards by its own weight, but if it falls very swiftly, we know it is thrown down by an outward mover. Though there were no devil, yet our corrupt nature would act Satan's part against itself ; it would have a supply of wickedness, as a serpent doth poison, from itself, it hath a spring to feed it. Nemo se palpet de suo, Satan est, <jtc. (Augustine).
But that man, whilst he lives here, is not altogether excluded from hope of happiness, and hath a nature not so large and capable of sin as Satan's ; whereupon he is not so obstinate in hating God and working mischief as he, &c. Otherwise there is, for kind, the same cursed disposition, and malice of natm-e against true goodness in man, which is in the devils and damned spirits themselves.
It is no mitigation of sin, to plead it is natural ; for natural diseases, as leprosies, that are derived from parents, are most dangerous, and least curable. Neither is this any excuse, for because as it is natural, so it is voluntary, not only in Adam, in whose loins we were, and therefore sinned, but likewise in regard of ourselves, who are so far from stopping the course of sin either in ourselves or others, that we feed and strengthen it, or at least give more way to it, and provide less against it than we should, until we come under the government of grace ; and by that means we justify Adam's sin, and that corrupt estate that followeth upon it, and shew, that if we had been in Adam's condition ourselves, we would have made that ill choice which he made. And though this corruption of our nature be necessary to us, yet it is no violent necessity from an out- ward cause, but a necessity that we willingly pull upon ourselves, and therefore ought the more to humble us ; for the more necessarily we sin, the more voluntarily, and the more voluntarily, the more necessarily, the will putting itself voluntarily into these fetters of sin.-= Necessity is no plea, when the will is the immediate cause of any action. Quicquid sibi impcravit aninmis, obtinuit (Seneca). Men's hearts tell them they might rule their desires if they would ; for tell a man of any dish which he liketh, that there is poison in it, and he will not meddle with it : so tell him that death is in that sin which ho is about to commit, and he will abstain, if
* ' Fetters of sin.' Margin-note in C — Suspiraliam ligatus, non ferro aliquo, sed tnea fcrrea voluntate, vcllem meum tenebat inimicus, et inde milii catenam fecerit. Augustine, Conf. Q
THK SOUL S CONFLICT. 175
he believe it to be so ; if be believe it not, it is bis voluntary unbelief and- atheism.
If the will would use that sovereignty it should, and could, at the first, we should be altogether freed from this necessity. Men ai-e not damned because they cannot do better, but because they will do no better ; if thero were no will, there would be no hell, Cesset voluntas propria et non erit in- fernus. For men willingly submit to the rule and law of sin, they plead for it, and like it so well, as they hate nothing so much as that which any way withstandeth those lawless laws.