Secondly, A law, as a law, hath an efficacy to provoke those that are obnoxious unto it unto the things that it re- quireth. A law hath rewards and punishments accompany- ing of it. These secretly prevail on them to whom they are proposed, though the things commanded be not much de- sirable. And generally all laws have their efficacy on the minds of men, from the rewards and punishments that are annexed unto them. Nor is this law without this spring of power : it hath its rewards and punishments. The pleasures
t4 THE NATURE AND POWEU
of sin are the rewards of sin ; a reward that most men lose their souls to obtain. By this the law of sin contended in Moses against the law of grace ; Heb. xi. 25,26. ' He chose rather to suffer afflictions with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season; for he looked unto the recompense of reward.' The contest was in his mind between the law of sin, and the law of grace. The motive on the part of the law of sin, wherewith it sought to draw him over, and wherewith it prevails on the most, was the re- ward that it proposed unto him, namely, that he should have the present enjoyment of the pleasures of sin. By this it contended against the reward annexed unto the law of grace, called ' the recompense of reward.'
By this sorry reward doth this law keep the w-orld in obe- dience to its commands. And experience shews us, of what power it is to influence the minds of men. It hath also pu- nishments that it threatens 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 pu- nishments attending the neglect of its commands. By these it prevails on the fearful, who shall have no share in life eternal ; Rev. xxi. 8. And it is hard to say by whether of these, its pretended rewards, or pretended punishments, it doth most prevail, in whether of them its greatest strength doth lie. By its rewards it enticeth men to sins of commis- sion, 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 law of sin hath its greatest success in and upon the souls of men, is not evident, and that because they are seldom or never separated, but equally take place on the same persons. But this is certain, that by tenders and promises of the plea- sures of sin on the one hand, by threats of the deprivation 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 Svom the one and the other of these, there is no standing be-
. OF INDWELLING SIN. 15
fore the power 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 de- clare ; as also what advantages they have to prevail upoa them. Look on the generality of men, and you shall find them wholly by these means at sin's disposal. Do the pro- fits and pleasures of sin lie before them, nothing can with- hold them from reaching after them. Do difficulties and inconveniencies 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 ef- ficacy 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, com- manding, directing law, but an inbred, working, impelling, urging law. A law proposed unto us, is not to be. compared for efficacy to a law inbred in us. Adam had a law of sin proposed to him in his temptation, but because he had no law of sin inbred and working in him, he might have with- stood it. An inbred law must needs be effectual. Let us take an example from that law, which is contrary to this law of sin. The law of God, was at first inbred and natural unto man, it v/as concreated with his faculties, and was their rectitude both in being and operation in reference to his end of living unto God, and glorifying of him. Hence it had an especial power in the whole soul, to enable it unto all obedience, 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 oat of the soul, yet the remaining 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 exter- nal, and proposed unto men, enable them to perform 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 moral outward rule, it be turned into an in-