(3.) This leading captive manifests this condition to be miserable and wretched. To be thus yoked and dealt withal, against the judg- ment of the mind, the choice and consent of the will, its utmost strivings and contendings, how sad is it ! When the neck is sore and tender with former pressures, to be compelled to bear the yoke ' again, this pierces, this grieves, this even breaks the heart. When the soul is principled by grace unto a loathing of sin, of every evil way, to a hatred of the least discrepancy between itself and the holy will of God, then to be imposed on by this law of sin, with all that
206 THE NATURE AND POWER OF INDWELLING SIN.
enmity and folly, that deadness and filtli wherewith it is attended, what more dreadful condition? All captivity is dreadful in its own nature. The greatest aggravation of it is from the condition of the tyrant unto whom any one is captivated. Now, what can be worse than this law of sin? Hence the apostle, having once mentioned this captivity, cries out, as one quite weary and ready to faint, chap. vii. 24.
(4.) This condition is i^^culiar to believers. Unregenerate men are not said to be led captive to the law of sin. They may, indeed, be led captive unto this or that particular sin or corruption, — that is, they may be forced to serve it against the power of their convictions. They are convinced of tl)e evil of it, — an adulterer of his uncleanness, a diTinkard of his abomination, — and make some resolutions, it may be, against it; but their lust is too hard for them, they cannot cease to sin, and so are made captives or slaves to this or that particular sin. But they cannot be said to be led captive to the law of sin, and that because they are willingly subject thereunto. It hath, as it were, a rightful dominion over them, and they oppose it not, but only Avhen it hath irruptions to the disturbance of their consciences ; and then the opposition they make unto it is not from their wills, but is the mere acting of an affrighted conscience and a convinced mind. They re- gard not the nature of sin, but its guilt and consequences. But to be brought into captivity is that which befalls a man against his will ; which is all that shall be spoken unto this degree of the actmgs of the power of sin, manifesting itself in its success.
The fourth and last degree of the opposition made by the law of sin to God and the law of his will and gi-ace, is in its rage and mad- ness. There is madness in its nature : Eccles. ix. 3, " The heart of the sous of men is full of evil, and madness is in their heart." The evil that the heart of man is full of by nature is that indwelling sin whereof we speak; and this is so in their heart, that it riseth up unto madness. The Holy Ghost expresseth this rage of sin by a fit similitude, which he useth in sundry places: as Jer. ii. 24; Hos. viii. 9. It maketh men as " a wild ass;" " she traverseth her ways," and " snuffeth up the wind," and runneth whither her mind or lust leads her. And he saith of idolaters, enraged with theh lusts, that they are " mad upon their idols," Jer. 1. 38. We may a little con- sider what lies in this madness and rage of sin, and how it riseth up thereunto : —
1. For the nature of it; it seems to consist in a violent, heady, pertinacious pressing unto evil or sin. Violence, importunity, and pertinacy are in it. It is the tearing and torturing of the soul by any sin to force its consent and to obtain satisfaction. It riseth up in the heart, is denied by the law of grace, and rebuked; — it returns and ex- erts its poison again ; the soul is startled, casts it off; — it returns again
CAPTIVATING POWER OF SIN. 207
with new violence and importunity; the soul cries out for help and deliverance, looks round about to all springs of gospel grace vand re- lief, trembles at the furious assaults of sin, and casts itself into the arms of Christ for deliverance. And if it be not able to take that course, it is foiled and hurried up and down through the mire and filth of foolish imaginations, coiTupt and noisome lusts, which rend and tear it, as if they would devour its whole spiritual life and power. See 1 Tim. vi. 9, 10; 2 Pet. ii. 14. It was not much otherwise with them whom we instanced in before, Isa. Ivii. 17. They had an in- flamed, enraged lust working in them, even " covetousness," or the love of this world ; by Avhich, as the apostle speaks, men " pierce them- selves through with many sorrows." God is angry with them, and dis- covereth his wrath by all the ways and means that it was possible for them to be made sensible thereof He was " wroth, and smote them ;" but though, it may be, this staggered them a little, yet they " went on." He is angry, and " hides himself" from them, — deserts them as to his gracious, assisting, comforting presence. Doth this work the effect? No; they go on frowardly still, as men mad on their covet- ousness. Nothing can put a stop to their raging lusts. This is plain madness and fury. We need not seek far for instances. We see men mad on their lusts every day; and, which is the worst kind of mad- ness, their lusts do not rage so much in them, as they rage in the pursuit of them. Are those greedy pursuits of things in the world, which we see some men engaged in, though they have other pretences, indeed any thing else but plain madness in the pursuit of their lusts? God, who searcheth the hearts of men, knows that the most of things that are done with other pretences in the world, are nothing but the actings of men mad and furious in the pursuit of their lusts.