And hence we may see what wisdom is required, in the guiding and management of our hearts and ways before God. Where the subjects of a ruler are in feuds, and oppo- sitions one against another, unless great wisdom be used in the government of the whole, all things will quickly be ruin- ous in that state. There are these contrary principles in the hearts of believers ; and if they labour not to be spiritually wise, how shall they be able to steer their course aright ? Many men live in the dark to themselves all their days ; what- ever else they know, they know not themselves. They know their outward estates, how rich they are, and the condition of their bodies as to health and sickness they are careful to examine ; but as to their inward man, and their principles as to God and eternity, they know little or nothing of them- selves. Indeed few labour to grow wise in this matter, few study themselves as they ought, are acquainted with the evil of their own hearts as they ought, on which yet the whole course of their obedience, and consequently of their eternal condition, doth depend. This therefore is our wis- dom, and it is a needful wisdom, if we have any design to please God, or to avoid that which is a provocation to the eyes of his glory.
We shall find also in our inquiry hereinto, what dili- gence and watchfulness is required unto a Christian con- versation. There is a constant enemy unto it in every one's own heart ; and what an enemy it is we shall afterward show, for this is our design to discover him to the utter- most. In the mean time we may well bewail the woful sloth and negligence that is in the njost, even in professors. They live and walk as though they intended to go to heaven hood-winked, and asleep, as though they had no enemy to deal withal. Their mistake therefore and folly will be fully laid open in our progress.
12 THE NATURE AND POWER
That which I shall principally fix upon, in reference unto our present design, from this place of the apostle, is that which was first laid down, namely, that there is an exceed- ing efficacy and power in the remainder of indwelling sin in believers, with a constant inclination and working towards evil.
Awake, therefore, all of you in whose hearts are any thing of the ways of God. Your enemy is not only upon you, as on Sampson of old, but is in you also. He is at work by all ways of force and craft, as we shall see. Would you not dishonour God and his gospel, would you not scan- dalize the saints and ways of God, would you not wound your consciences and endanger your souls, would you not o-rieve the good and Holy Spirit of God, the author of all your comforts, would you keep your garments undefiled, and escape the woful temptations and pollutions of the days wherein we live, would you be preserved from the number of the apostates in these latter days ; awake to the conside- ration of this cursed enemy, which is the spring of all these and innumerable other evils, as also of the ruin of all the souls that perish in this world.
CHAP. II.
IndivelUng sin a law. In what sense it is so called. W/iat kmd of law it is. An inward effective principle called a latv. The power of sin thence evinced.
That which we have proposed unto consideration is the power and efficacy of indwelling sin. The ways whereby it may be evinced are many. I shall begin with the appella- tion of it in the place before mentioned ; it is a law ; * I find a law,' saith the apostle. It is because of its power and ef- ficacy that it is so called ; so is also the principle of grace in believers * the law of the Spirit of life,' as we observed be- fore, Rom. viii. 3. which is the 'exceeding greatness of the power of God in them;' Eph. i. 19. Where there is a law, there is power.
We shall therefore shew both what belongs unto it, as it is a law in general, and also what is peculiar or proper in it, as being such a law as we have described.
OF INDWELLING SIN.
13
There are in general two things attending every law, as such.
First, Dominion ; Rom. vii. 1. 'The law hath dominion over a man whilst he liveth ;' Kvpievsirov avOpMirov, 'it lordeth it over a man.' Where any law takes place, Kvpievei, it hath dominion. It is properly the act of a superior, and it be- longs to its nature to exact obedience by way of dominion. Now there is a twofold dominion, as there is a twofold law. There is a moral authoritative dominion over a man, and there is a real effective dominion in a man. The first is an affection of the law of God, the latter of the law of sin. The law of sin hath not in itself a moral dominion, it hath not a rightful dominion or authority over any man, but it hath that which is equivalent unto it ; whence it is said (BaaiXevuv, to reign as a king; Rom. vi. 12. and Kvpuveiv, to lord it, or have dominion ; ver. 14. as a law in general is said to have, chap. vii. 1. But because it hath lost its complete domi- nion, in reference unto believers, of whom alone we speak, I shall not insist upon it in this utmost extent of its power. But even in them it is a law still, though not a law unto them ; yet, as was said, it is a law in them. And though it have not a complete and, as it were, a rightful doininion over them, yet it will have a domination as to some things in them. It is still a law, and that in them, so that all its actings are the actings of a law ; that is, it acts with power, though it have lost its complete power of ruling in them. Though it be weakened, yet its nature is not changed. It is a law still, and therefore powerful. And as its particular workings, which we shall afterward consider, are the ground of this appellation, so the term itself teacheth us in general, what we are to expect from it, and what endeavours it will use for dominion, to which it hath been accustomed.