First, Concerning its nearness to us, it is indeed in us; and that not as a thing different from us, but it cleaveth to all the faculties of our souls. It is an enemy born with us,^ bred up with us, carried about in our bosoms, by nature our familiar friend, our guide and counsellor, dear to us as our right eye, useful as our right hand, our wisdom, strength, etc. The apostle, Rom. vii. 17, 20, calleth it the "sin that dwelleth in us." It hath in us, in the faculties of our souls, its abode and station. It doth not pass by and away, but there it dwells, so as that it never goes from home, is never out of the way when we have any thing to do ; whence, verse 21, he calls it the "evil that is present with him." When we go about any thing that is good, or have opportunity for or temptation unto any thing that is evil, it is never absent, but is ready to pluck us back or to put us on, according as it serves its ends. It is such an inmate that we can never be quit of its company; and so intimate unto us that it puts forth itself in every acting of the mind, will, or any other faculty of the soul. Though men would fain shake it off, yet when they would do good, this evil will be present with them. Then, —
Secondly, Its universality and compass. It is not straitened in a corner of the soul; it is spread over the whole, all the faculties, af- fections, and passions of it. That which is born of the flesh is flesh ; it is all flesh, and nothing but flesh. It is darkness in the under- standing, keeping us, at best, that we know but in part, and are still dull and slow of heart to believe. Naturally we are all darkness, nothing but darkness; and though the Lord shine into our mind, to give us in some measure the knowledge of his glory in the face of Jesus Christ, yet we are still very dark, and it is a hard work to bring in a little light upon the soul. Especially this is seen in parti- cular practical things; though in general we have very clear light and eviction, yet when we come to particular acts of obedience, how often doth our light grow dim and fail us, causing us to judge amiss ' Ps. li. 5; Matt. v. 29, 30; James iii. 5, 6.
106 DOCTEINE OF THE SAINTS' PERSEVERANCE. [CHAT.
of that whicli is before us, by the rising of that natural darkness which is in us! It is perverseness, stubbornness, obstinacy in the will, that carries it with violence to disobedience and sin ; it is sen- suality upon the affections, bending them to the things of the world, alienating them from God; it is slipperiness in the memory, making us like leaking vessels, so that the things that we hear of the gosjjel do suddenly slip out, whenas other things abide finn in the cells and chambers thereof; it is senselessness and error in the conscience, staving it off from the performance of that duty which, in the name and authority of God, it is to accomplish : and in all these is daily enticing and seducing the heart to folly, conceiving and bringing forth sin.^
Thirdly, Its 2^ower. The apostle calls it " a law, a law in his members, a laAV of sin," Rom. vii. 21, 23 ; such a law as fights, makes war, and leads captive, selling us under sin, not suffering us to do the good we would, forcing us to do the evil we would not, drawing us off from that we delight in, bringing us under bondage to that which we abhor. A powerful, unmerciful, cruel tyrant it is. O wretched men that we are! verse 24. There is no saint of God but in the inward man doth hate sin, every sin, more than hell itself, knowing the world of evils that attend the least sin ; yet is there not one of them but this powerful tyrant hath compelled and forced to so many as have made them a burden to their own souls.
Fourthly, Its cunning, craft, and j)olicy. It is called in Scrip- ture " the old man ;" not from the weakness of its strength, but from the strength of its craft. " Take heed," saith the apostle, " lest any of you be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin," Heb. iii. IS. There is abundance of deceitfulness in it, being ready, fit, and prompt to beguile; lying in wait for advantages, furnished for all opportunities, and ready to close with every temptation : yea, the ways of it are so large and various, its wiles and methods for deceiving so innumer- able, its fruitfuhiess in conceiving and bringing forth of sin so abun- dant, its advantages and opportunities so many, that it is like "the way of a serpent upon a rock," — there is no tracing or finding of it out.
A serious consideration of the opposition made luito our persever- ance by this one enemy, which hath so much ability, and is so rest- less in its warfare, never quiet, conquering nor conquered, which can be kept out of none of our counsels, excluded from none of our act- ings, is abundantly sufficient to evince that it is not want or weak- ness of enemies which putteth believers out of danger of falling awa3^