It is with indwelling sin as with a river; whilst the springs and fountains of it are open, and waters are conti- nually supplied unto its streams, set a dam before it, and it causeth it to rise and swell, until it bear down all, or over- flow the banks about it. Let these waters be abated, dried up in some good measure, in the springs of them, and the remainder may be coerced and restrained : but still as long as there is any running water, it will constantly press upon what stands before it, according to its weight and strength, because it is its nature so to do ; and if by any means it make a passage, it will proceed. So is it with indwelling sin; whilst the springs and fountains of it are open, in vain is it for men to set a dam before it by their convictions, resolutions, vows, and promises. They may check it for awhile, but it will increase, rise high, and rage at one time or another, until it bears down all those convictions and reso- lutions, or makes itself an underground passage by some se- cret lust, that shall give a full vent unto it. But now sup- pose that the springs of it are much dried up by regenerating grace, the streams or actings of it abated by holiness, yet whilst any thing remains of it, it will be pressing constantly to have vent, to press forward into actual sin ; and this is its lusting.
And this habitual propensity in it is discovered two ways.
( 1 .) In its unexpected surprisals of the soul into foolish sin- ful figments and imaginations which it looked not for, nor was any occasion administered unto them. It is with indwelling sin as it is with the contrary principle of sanctifying grace. This gives the soul, if I may so say, many a blessed surprisal. It oftentimes ingenerates and brings forth a holy spiritual frame in the heart and mind, when we have had no previous rational considerations to work them thereunto. And this manifests it to be an habitual principle prevailing in the mind: so Cant. vi. 12. 'Or ever I was aware my soul made me as the chariots of Amminadib ; ' that is, free, willing, and ready for communion with Christ, >ny^> i<b, I knew not, it
: OF INDWELLING SIN. 47
was done by the power of the Spirit of grace, so that I took no notice of it, as it were, until it was done. The frequent actings of grace in this manner, exxiting acts of faith, love, and complacency in God, are evidences of much strength and prevalency of it in the soul. And thus also is it with indwelling sin ; ere the soul is aware, without any provocation or temptation, when it knows not, it is cast into a vain and foolish frame. Sin produceth its figments secretly in the heart, and prevents the mind's consideration of what it is about. I mean hereby those 'actus primo primi,' first acts of the soul, which are thus far involuntary, as that they have not the actual consent of the will unto them, but are volun- tary, as far as sin hath its residence in the will. And these surprisals, if the soul be not awake to take speedy care for the prevention of their tendency, do oftentimes set all as it were on fire, and engage the mind and affections into actual sin. For, as by grace we are oftentimes, ere we are aware, made as the chariots of a willing people, and are far engaged in heavenly-mindedness and communion with Christ, making speed in it as in a chariot, so by sin are we oftentimes, ere we are aware, carried into distempered affections, foolish imaginations, and pleasing delightfulness in things that are not good nor profitable. Hence is that caution of the apostle. Gal. 6. 1. mv TT/aoXrj^S^y, if a man be surprised at unawares with a fault or in a transgression. I doubt not but the subtlety of Satan and the power of temptation are here taken into consideration by the apostle, which causeth him to express a man's falling into sin, by lav Trpo\i](j)9\i, 'if he be surprised;' so this working of indwelling sin also hath its consideration in it, and that in the chiefest place, without which nothing else could surprise us. For without the help thereof, whatever comes from without, from Satan, or the world, must admit of some parley in the mind before it be received, but it is from within, from ourselves, that we are surprised. Hereby are we disappointed and wrought over to do that which we would not, and hindered from the doino- of that which we would.
Hence it is, that when the soul is oftentimes doing as it were quite another thing, engaged (piite upon another design, sin starts that in the heart or imaginations of it, that carries it away into that which is evil and sinful. Yea, to manifest
48 THE NATURE AND POWER
its power, sometimes when the soul is seriously engaged in the mortification of any sin, it will, by one means or other, lead it away into a dalliance with that very sin whose ruin it is seeking, and whose mortification it is engaged in. But as there is in this operation of the law of sin, a special en- ticing or entangling, we shall speak unto it fully afterward. Now these surprisals can be from nothing but an habitual propensity unto evil in the principle from whence they proceed. Not an habitual inclination unto actual sin in the mind or heart, but an habitual propensity unto evil in the sin that is in the mind or heart. This prevents the soul with its figments. How much communion with God is hereby prevented, how many meditations are disturbed, how much the minds and consciences of men have been defiled by this acting of sin, some may have observed. I know no greater burden in the life of a believer, than these involuntary surprisals of soul ; involuntary, I say, as to the actual consent of the will, but not so in respect of that corruption which is in the will, and is the principle of them. Audit is in respect unto these, that the apostle makes his complaint, Rom.vii. 24.