general decay. So David complains; "My wounds stink and are corrupt, because of my foolishness." His present distemper was not so much from his sin, as his folly; not so much from the wounds he had received, as from his neglect to make a timely application for their cure. It is like a broken bone, which, being well set, leaves the place stronger than before; if otherwise, makes the man a cripple all his days. These things we do but briefly name; and sundry other advantages of the like nature, that sin makes use of to produce this effect, might also be instanced, but these may suffice to our present purpose. Whatever it useth, itself is still the principle; and this is no small demonstration of its efficacy and power.

CHAPTER XVI.

The strength of indwelling sin manifested from its power and effects in persons unregenerate.

It is of the power and efficacy of indwelling sin, as it remains in several degrees in believers, that we are treating. Now I have elsewhere shown, that the nature, and all the natural properties of it, do still remain in them: though, therefore, we cannot prove directly what is the strength of sin in them, from what its power is in those, in whom it is only checked, and not at all weakened; yet we may, from an observation thereof, caution believers of the real power of that mortal enemy, with whom they have to do.

If the plague do violently rage in one city, destroying multitudes, and there be in another an infection of the same kind, which yet arises not to that height and fury there, by reason of the correction that it meets with from a better air, and remedies used; yet a man may demonstrate to the inhabitants, the source and danger of that infection got in among them, by the effects that it hath and doth produce among others, who have not the benefit of the preventatives and preservatives which they enjoy; which will both teach them to value the means of their preservation, and be the more watchful against the power of the infection that is amongst them. It is so in this case. Believers may be taught what is the power and efficacy of that plague of sin which

is in and among them, by the effects the same plague produceth in and among others, who have not those corrections of its poison, and those preservatives from death, with which the Lord Jesus hath furnished them.

Having then fixed on the demonstration of the power of sin, from the effects it doth produce, and having given a double instance hereof in believers themselves, I shall now farther evidence the same truth, or pursue the same evidence of it, by showing somewhat of the power that it hath in those who are unregenerate, and so have not the remedies against it, with which believers are furnished.

I shall not handle the whole power of sin in unregenerate persons, which is a very large field, and not the business I have in hand; but only by some few instances of its effects in them, intimate, as I said, to believers, what they have to deal with.

First, then, It appears in the violence it offers to the nature of men, compelling them to sins, fully contrary to all the principles of the reasonable nature wherewith they are endued from God. Every creature of God hath, in its creation, a law of operation implanted in it, which is the rule of all that proceedeth from it, of all that it doth of its own accord. So the fire ascends upwards; bodies that are weighty and heavy descend; the water flows: each according to the principles of their nature, which give them the law of their operation. That which hinders them in their operation, is force and violence, as that which hinders a stone from descending, or the fire from going upwards. That which forceth them to move contrary to the law of their nature, as a stone to go

upwards, or the fire to descend, is in its kind the greatest violence, of which the degrees are endless. Now that which should take a great millstone, and fling it upwards in the air, all would acknowledge to be a matter of wondrous force, power, and efficacy,

Man also hath his law of operation and working, concreated with him. And this may be considered two ways; either, first, As it is common to him with other creatures; or, As peculiar, with reference to that special end for which he was created. Some things are, I say, in this law of nature, common to man with other creatures; as to nourish their young, to live quietly with those of the same kind and race with them, to seek and follow after that which is good for them, in that state and condition wherein they are created. These are things which all brute living creatures have in the law of their nature, as man also hath.

But now, besides these things, man being created in an especial manner to give glory to God, by ra. tional and moral obedience, and so to obtain a reward in the enjoyment of him, there are many things in the law of his creation that are peculiar to him; as, to love God above all, to seek the enjoyment of him as his chiefest good, and last end; to inquire after his mind and will, and to yield obedience, and the like. All which are part of the law of his nature.

Now these things are not distinguished so, as though a man might perform the actions of the law of his nature, which are common to him with other creatures, merely from the principles of his nature, as they do; but the law of his dependence upon God, and doing all things in obedience to him, passeth on

them all also. He can never be considered as a mere creature, but as a creature made for the glory of God, by rational, moral obedience; rational, because by him chosen, and performed with reason; and moral, because regulated by a law to which reason doth attend.

creation.

For instance: It is common to man, with other creatures, to take care for the nourishing of his children, of the young helpless ones, that receive their being by him. There is implanted in the principles of his nature, concreated with them, a love and care for them; so it is with other living creatures. Now let other creatures answer this instinct and inclination, and be not hardened against them like the foolish ostrich, unto whom God hath not imparted this natural wisdom, they fully answer the law of their With man it is not so; it is not enough for him to answer the instinct and secret impulse and inclination of his nature and kind, as in the nourishing of his children, but he must do it also in subjection to God, and obey him therein, and do it to his glory; the law of moral obedience passing over all his whole being, and all his operations: but in these things lie, as it were, the whole of a man; namely, in the things which are implanted in his nature, as a creature, common to him with all other living creatures, seconded by the command or will of God, as he is a creature capable of yielding moral obedience, and doing all things for his glory.

That, then, which shall drive and compel a man to transgress this law of his nature, which is not only as to throw millstones upward; to drive beasts from taking care of their young; to take from cat