warring against the law in our minds, and too often bringing us into captivity to the law of sin which is in our members8." Now whence is it, that God suffers his people to be yet harassed with the remains of sin ? He suffers it,
1. For our deeper humiliation —
[The sins of our unconverted state may well humble us in the dust, and cause us to " go softly," in the remembrance of them, to our dying hour. But the views of our depravity, which we derive from them, are as nothing in comparison of those which we gain from the workings of corruption in our converted state. These are the views which cause us to cry out, " O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver meh?" These were the views which constrained Job to exclaim, " Behold, I am vile :" " I repent, and abhor myself in dust and ashes'." And, in proportion as they are discovered to us, they will constrain every living man to " lothe himself for his iniquities and abominations k." Now this is a feeling that well becomes our sinful race : and though the acquisition of it is obtained through much painful experience, yet does it, in the issue, well repay all that we have suffered in the attainment of it.]
2. For our ultimate advancement —
[A child has all the members of a perfect man ; yet are they in a very feeble and imperfect state : and it is by the exercise of his powers that he has those powers strengthened and enlarged. And thus it is with every child of God. He is born a babe : and, though every gracious principle exists within him, he is so feeble as scarcely to be able to withstand temptation, or to exercise his powers to any great extent. But, through the remains of sin within him he is led to fre- quent conflicts with it : by exercise, his powers are increased ; and by progressive increase, they are perfected. Thus, from " a babe," he grows up to maturer age and stature, and be- comes " a young man ;" and from " a young man," " a father." Nor is it in this world only that the believer is benefited by his conflicts ; for in proportion as he grows in the knowledge of the Saviour and in a conformity to his image, will be the weight of glory bestowed on him in the realms of bliss. The improvement of the talents committed to him will bring a corresponding recompence, at the time that he shall give up his account to God. If no corruption had remained in his heart " to prove him" he would have had scarcely any opportunity
s Rom. vii. 23. h Rom. vii. 24.
• Job xl. 4. and xlh. 6. k Ezek. xxxvi. 31.