By this sorry reward doth this law keep the Avorld in obedience to its commands; and experience shows us of what power it is to influence the minds of men. It hath also ])unishments that it tlireatons men with who labour to cast off its yoke. Whatever evil, trouble, or danger in the world, attends gospel obedience, — whatever hardship or violence is to be offered to the sensual part of our natures in a strict course of mortification, — sin makes use of, as if they were punishments attending tlie neglect of its commands. B}'- these it prevails on the "fearfid," who shall have no share in life eternal. Rev. xxi. 8. And it is hard to say by whether of these, its pretended re- wards or pretended punishments, it doth most prevail, in whether of them its greatest strength doth lie. By its rewards it enticeth men
INDWELLING SIN A LAW, AND ITS POWER. 165
to sins of commission, as they are called, in ways and actions tending to the satisfaction of its lusts. By its punishments it induceth men to the omitting of duties; a course tending to no less a pernicious event than the former. By which of these the laAV of sin hath its greatest success in and upon the souls of men is not evident; and that hecause they are seldom or never separated, but equally take place on the same persons. But this is certain, that by tenders and pro- mises of the pleasures of sin on the one hand, by threats of the depri- vation of all sensual contentments and the infliction of temporal evils on the other, it hath an exceeding efficacy on the minds of men, oftentimes on believers themselves. Unless a man be prepared to reject the reasonings that will offer themselves from the one and the other of these, there is no standing before the 2)ower of the law. The world falls before them every day. With what deceit and violence they are urged and imposed on the minds of men we shall afterward declare; as also what advantages they have to prevail upon them. Look on the generality of men, and you shall find them wholly by these means at sin's disposal. Do the profits and pleasures of sin lie before them? — nothing can withhold them from reaching after them. Do difficulties and inconveniences attend the duties of the gospel? — they will have nothing to do with them ; and so are wholly given up to the rule and dominion of this law.
And this light in general we have into the power and efficacy of indwelling sin from the general nature of a law, whereof it is partaker.
We may consider, nextly, what kind of law in particular it is; which will farther evidence that power of it which we are inquiring after. It is not an outward, written, commanding, directing law, but an inbred, working, impelling, urging law. A law proposed unto us is not to be compared, for efficac}^ to a law inbred in us. Adam had a law of sin proposed to him in his temptation ; but becausehe had no law of sin inbred and working in him, he might have withstood it. An inbred law must needs be effectual. Let us take an example from that law Avhich is contrary to this law of sin. The law of God was at first inbred and natural unto man ; it was concreated with his faculties, and was their rectitude, both in being and operation, in refer- ence to his end of living imto God and glorifying of him. Hence it had an especial power in the whole soul to enable it unto all obe- dience, yea, and to make all obedience easy and pleasant. Such is the power of an inbred law. And though this law, as to the rule and dominion of it, be now by nature cast out of the soul, yet the remain- ing sparks of it, because they are inbred, are very powerful and effec- tual; as the apostle declares, Rom. ii. 14, 15. Afterward God renews this law, and writes it in tables of stone. But what is the efficacy of this law? Will it now, as it is external and proposed unto men,
166 THE NATURE AXD POWER OF INDWELLING SIN.
enable tliem to perfomi the things that it exacts and requires? Not at all. God knew it would not, unless it were turned to an internal law again ; that is, until, of a nrioral outward rule, it be turned into an inward real principle. Wherefore God makes his law internal again, and implants it on the heart as it was at first, when he intends to give it power to produce obedience in his people: Jer. xxxi. 31-33, " I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts." This is that which God fixeth on, as it were, upon a discovery of the insufficiency of an outward law leading men unto obedience. " The written law," saith he, "will not do it; mercies and deliverances from distress will not effect it ; trials and afflictions will not accom- plish it. Then," saith the Lord, " will I take another course : I will turn the written law into an internal living principle in then- hearts ; and that will have such an efficacy as shall assuredly make them my people, and keep them so." Now, such is this law of sin. It is an indwelling law: Kom. vii. 17, "It is sin that dwelleth in me;" verse 20, " Sin that dwelleth in me;" verse 21, " It is present witli me;" verse 23, " It is in my members;" — yea, it is so far in a man, as in some sense it is said to be the man himself; verse 18, "I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) dwelleth no good thing." The flesh, which is the seat and throne of this law, yea, which indeed is this law, is in some sense the man himself, as grace also is the new man. Now, from this consideration of it, that it is an indwelling law inclining and moving to sin, as an inward habit or principle, it hath sundiy advantages increasing its strength and furthering its power; as, —