to its work; it needs no doors to be opened unto it, it needs no engines to work by. The soul cannot apply itself to any duty of a man, but it must be by the exercise of those faculties wherein this law hath its residence. Is the understanding or the mind to be applied* unto any thing ? there it is ignorance, darkness, vanity, folly, madness. Is the will to be engaged? there it is also in spiritual deadness, stubbornness, and the roots of obstinacy. Are the heart and affections to be set on work? there it is in inclinations to the world, and pre-sent things, and sensuality, with proneness to all manner of defilements. Hence it is easy for it to insinuate itself into all that we do, and to hinder all that is good, and to further all sin and wickedness. It hath an intimacy, an inwardness with the soul, and therefore in all that we do, doth easily beset us. It possesseth those very faculties of the soul, whereby we must do what we do, whatever it be, good or evil. Now all these advantages it hath as it is a law, as an indwelling law, which manifests its power and efficacy. It is always resident in the soul, it puts itself upon all its actings, and that with easiness and facility.

This is that law, which the apostle affirms that he found in himself; this is the title that he gives unto the powerful and effectual remainders of indwelling sin even in believers, and these general evidences of its power from that appellation have we. Many there are in the world who find not this law in them, who, whatever they have been taught in the word, have not a spiritual sense and experience of the power of indwelling sin, and that because they are wholly under the dominionof it. They find not that there is darkness and folly in their minds, because they are darkness itself, and darkness will discover nothing. They find not deadness and an indisposition in their hearts and wills to God, because they are dead wholly in trespasses and sins. They are at peace with their lusts, by being in bondage unto them. And this is the state of most men in the world, which makes them wofully despise all their eternal

concernments. Whence is it that men follow and pursue the world with so much greediness, that they neglect heaven, and life, and immortality for it every day. Whence is it that some pursue their sensuality with delight? they will drink, and revel, and have their sports, let others say what they please. Whence is it that so many live so unprofitably under the word, that they understand so little of what is spoken unto them, that they practise less of what they understand, and will by no means be stirred up to answer the mind of God in his calls unto them? It is all from this law of sin, and the power of it that rules and bears sway in men, that all these things do proceed; but it is not such persons of whom at present we particularly treat.

From what hath been spoken it will ensue, that if there be such a law in believers, it is doubtless their duty to find it out, to find it so to be.

The more they find its power, the less they will feel its effects. It will not at all advantage a man to have an hectical distemper, and not discover it; a fire lying secretly in his house, and not to know it. So much as men find of this law in them, so much they will abhor it and themselves, and no more. Proportionably also to their discovery of it will be their earnestness for grace, nor will it rise higher; all watchfulness and diligence in obedience will be answerable also thereunto. Upon this hinge, or finding out, and experiencing the power and the efficacy of this law of sin, turns the whole course of our lives. Ignorance of it breeds senselessness, carelessness, sloth, security, and pride, all which the Lord's soul abhors. Eruptions into great, open, conscience-wasting, scandalous sins, are from want of a due spiritual consideration of this law. Inquire then how it is with your souls; what do you find of this law, what experience have you of its power and efficacy? Do you find it dwelling in you, always present with you, exciting itself, or putting forth its poison with facility and easiness at all times in your dutics, "when you would do good?" What humiliation,

what self-abasement, what intenseness in prayer, what diligence, what watchfulness doth this call for at your hands! What spiritual wisdom do you stand in need of! What support of grace, what assistance of the Holy Ghost, will be hence also discovered! I fear we have few of us a diligence proportionable to our danger.

CHAPTER III.

The Seat or Subject of the Law of Sin, the Heart. What meant thereby. Properties of the Heart as possessed by Sin; unsearchable, deceitful. Whence that deceit ariseth. Improvements of these Considerations.

HAVING manifested Indwelling Sin, whereof we treat, in the remainders of it in believers, to be a law, and evinced in general the power of it from thence, we shall now proceed to give particular instances of its efficacy and advantages, from some things that generally relate unto it as such. And these are three: first, its seat and subject; secondly, its natural properties; and thirdly, its operations, and the manner thereof, which principally we aim at, and shall attend unto.

First, For the seat and subject of the law of sin, the Scripture every where assigns it to be the heart. There indwelling sin keeps its special residence. It hath invaded and possessed the throne of God himself, Eccl. ix. 3; "Madness is in the heart of men whilst they live." This is their madness, or the root of all that madness which appears in their lives, Matt, xv. 19; "Out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies," &c. There are many outward temptations and provocations that befal men, which excite and stir them

So

up into these evils. But they do but, as it were, open the vessel, and let out what is laid up and stored in it. The root, rise, and spring of all these things is in the heart. Temptations and occasions put nothing into a man, but only draw out what was in him before. Hence is that summary description of the whole work and effect of this law of sin, Gen. vi. 5; "Every imagination of the thoughts of man's heart is only evil continually:" so also chap. viii. 21. The whole work of the law of sin, from its first rise, its first coining of actual sin, is here described; and its seat, its workhouse, is said to be the heart. And so it is called by our Saviour, "the evil treasure of the heart," Luke vi. 45; "An evil man, out of the evil treasure of his heart, bringeth forth evil things." This treasure is the prevailing principle of moral actions that is in men. in the beginning of the verse, our Saviour calls grace the good treasure of the heart of a good man, whence that which is good doth proceed. It is a principle constantly and abundantly inciting and stirring up unto, and consequently bringing forth actions conformable and like unto it, of the same kind and nature with itself. And it is also called a treasure for its abundance. It will never be exhausted; it is not wasted by men's spending on it: yea, the more lavish men are of this stock, the more they draw out of this treasure, the more it grows and abounds: as men do not spend their grace, but increase it by its exercise, no more do they their indwelling sin. The more men exercise their grace in duties of obedience, the more it is strengthened and increased. And the more men exert and put forth the fruits of their lust, the more is that enraged and increased in them. It feeds upon itself, swallows up its own poison, and grows thereby. The more men sin, the more they are inclined unto sin. It is from the deceitfulness of this law of sin, whereof we shall speak afterwards at large, that men persuade themselves that by this or that particular sin, they shall so satisfy their Justs, as that they shall need to sin no more. Every

sin increaseth the principle, and fortifieth the habit of sinning. It is an evil treasure that increaseth by doing evil. And where doth this treasure lie? It is in the heart; there it is laid up, there it is kept in safety. All the men in the world, all the angels in heaven, cannot dispossess a man of this treasure, it is so safely stored in the heart.

The heart in the Scripture is variously used. Sometimes for the mind and understanding, sometimes for the will, sometimes for the affections, sometimes for the conscience, sometimes for the whole soul. Generally it denotes the whole soul of man, and all the faculties of it; not absolutely, but as they are all one principle of moral operations, as they all concur in our doing good or evil. The mind, as it inquireth, discerneth, and judgeth what is to be done, what refused; the will, as it chooseth or refuseth, and avoids; the affections, as they like or dislike, cleave to, or have an: aversation from, that which is proposed to them. The conscience, as it warns and determines, are altogether called the heart. And in this sense it is that we say, the seat and subject of this law of sin is the heart of man. Only we may add, that the Scripture, speaking of the heart, as the principle of men's good or evil actions, doth usually insinuate together with it two things belonging unto the manner of their performance.

First, A suitableness and pleasingness unto the soul in the things that are done. When men take delight, and are pleased in and with what they do, they are said to do it heartily with their whole hearts. Thus, when God himself blesseth his people with love and delight, he says he doth it with "his whole heart, and his whole soul," Jer. xxxii. 41.

Secondly, Resolution and constancy in such actions. And this also is denoted in the metaphorical expression before used of a treasure, from whence men do constantly take out the things which either they stand in need of, or do intend to use.

This is the subject, the seat, the dwelling place of