Every man hath some Herodias,* some sin or other that he is in bond- age to, till he be in Christ. He cannot in a like measure be given and enthralled to all sins. It is unnecessary ; because one sin servcth another. Many sins serve one great one. Corruption doth not run in all streams in one equality : but it runs amain one way unchecked and uncontrolled and unmortified, in all men that are not in Christ, and subdues the soul to itself, that it can devise and plot for nothing, but to satisfy that base lust. This is the state of man by nature.
Obj. But some will say, it is not our state and condition. We are bap- tized, and receive the sacrament, and hear sermons, and read good books ; and therefore we are not under sin.
Ans. But saith the apostle, ' His servants ye are to whom ye obey,' Eom. vi. 16. You may know the state of your service and subjection, by the course of your life. And as Christ saith to the Jews, John viii. 33, they bragged that they were free. Alas ! proud people ! They were neither free for soul nor state ; for they were under the Romans. They thought they were free because they were ' Abraham's children.' Were they not in captivity to the Egyptians, and under the Babylonians, and in present captivity under the Romans ? Yet they forget themselves out of pride. * If the Son make you free, ye are free indeed,' John viii. 3G ; but because they were in a sinful course, they were slaves of sin. So it is no matter what privileges men are under, that they receive the sacrament, and are baptized, and live in the church, &c. ' His servants ye are, whom^ ye obey.' If there be prevailing lusts that set up their throne and tyrannise in our hearts, and set our wits on work, to devise how to satisfy them more than to please God, it is no matter what privileges we have. It is no matter whose livery we wear, but whom we serve. We may wear God's liverj^ that shall be pulled over our heads afterward and we be uncased ; that it shall appear that we are the devil's servants under the profession of Christ.
There is no man that is not in Christ, that denies his corrupt nature anything. If revenge bid him take revenge, he will if he can ; if he do not, it is no thanks to him, but to the laws. If any sin rise in the heart, all the parts of the body, and powers of the soul, are ready weapons to this tyrant to keep a man in slavery. As if anger and wrath keep a man in bondage, you shall have it in his countenance ; his hand will be ready to execute it ; his feet will be ready to carry him to revenge. If it be a proud heart that a man is kept under, you shall have it in his looks and expressions outward. If it be the base affection of lust, you ^ shall have adultery in the eye ; an unchaste and uncircumcised ear and filthy rotten language. Men you see upon all occasions are ready to execute the com- * Cf. Mat. xiv. 3.— G.
234 TUE SPIRITUAL JUHILEE.
mands of these tyrannical lusts, in some kind or other. Therefore never talk of thy freedom, when lusts are raised up within thee, either ascending from thine own corruption, or cast in by Satan, and so joining with thy heart. Presently thy tongue will speak wickedly, and thine eyes, and looks, and countenance, shew that there is a naughty heart within ; and the whole man is ready to execute it, further than a man is curbed by law, or respect to his reputation or the like, which is no thanks to him. Yet a man can- not act the part of a civil man so well, but the corruption of his vile heart will betray itself in his looks or language. One time or other this tyrant will break forth. Therefore let us look to our hearts and courses ; for if we be not in Christ, we are under the ' law of sin.'
* And of death.'
We are not only under the law of sin, but also ' of death.' Now, 1, there is a death in this world, the separation of the soul from the body. But that is not so much meant here. For when we are in Christ we are not fi'ee from this death. But there is, 2, a worse death, which is a separa- tion of the soul from the favour and love of God, and from the sanctifying and comforting Spirit of God. When the Spirit of God doth not comfort and sanctify the soul, it is a death. For as the soul is the life of the body, the body hath but a communicated life from the union it hath with the soul. The soul hath a life of its own, when it is out of the body, but the body hath its life from the soul. So it is with the soul.*
1. W lien there is an estrangement of the soul from the Spirit of God and Christ, sanctifying, and comforting and cheering it, then there is a death of the soul. The soul can no more act anything that is savingly and holily good, than the body can be without the soul. And as the body without the soul is a noisome odious carcase, offensive in the eyes of its dearest friends, so the soul without the Spirit of Christ quickening and seasoning it, and putting a comeliness and beauty upon it, it is odious. All the clothes and flowers you put upon a dead body cannot make it but a stinking carcase ; so all the moral virtues, and all the honours in this world put upon a man out of Christ, it makes him not a spiritual living soul ; he is but a loathsome carrion, a dead carcase, in the sight of God, and of all that have the Spirit of God. For he is under death. He is stark and stiff, unable to stir or move to any duty whatsoever. He hath no sense nor motion. Though such men live a common natural civil life, and walk up and down, yet they are dead men to God and to a better life. The world is full of dead men, that are dead while they are alive, as St Paul speaks of the ' widow that lives in pleasures,' 1 Tim. v. 6. A fearful estate, if we had spiritual eyes to see it and think of it.