THE SINFULNESS OF SIN. ROM. VII. 14. For I was alive without the law, once; but when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died. WE have seen in the former treatise, that man can find no happiness in the creature: I will, in the next place, shew, that he can find no happiness in himself; it is neither about him, nor within him: in the creature, nothing but vanity and vexation; in himself, nothing but sin and death. The apostle in these words sets forth three things: the state of sin; sin revived. Secondly, the guilt of sin; I died, or found myself to be a condemned man in the state of perdition. Thirdly, the evidence and conviction of both; when the commandment came; which words imply a conviction, and that from the spirit. First, a conviction; for they infer a conclusion extremely contradictory to the conclusion, in which St. Paul formerly rested (which is the form of a conviction). St. Paul's former conclusion was, I was alive; but, when the commandment came, the conclusion was extremely contrary, I died. Secondly, it was a spiritual conviction; for Saint Paul was never literally without the law, but the veil till this time was before his eyes; he is now made to understand the law in its native sense and compass; the law is spiritual, ver. 14. and he is enabled to discern it spiritually. Absurd is the doctrine of the Socinians, and some others, "That unregenerate men, by a mere natural perception, without any divine superinfused light," (they are the words of Episcopius, and they are wicked words,) "may understand the whole b d Sine lumine a Elenchus est Syllogismus cum contradictione conclusionis. Arist. b 1 Cor. ii. 14. c Vid. Jacob. Portum contra Ostorod. c. 1. supernaturali potentiæ superinfuso: Episc. Disput. 3. h law," even all things requisite unto faith and godliness: foolishly confounding and impiously deriding the spiritual and divine sense of the holy Scriptures, with the grammatical construction. Against this we shall need use no other argument, than a plain syllogism, compounded out of the words. of Scripture, "Darkness doth not comprehend light," Joh. i. 5: "Unregenerate men are darkness," Ephes. v. 8. iv. 17. 18. Acts xxvi. 18. 2 Pet. i. 9: yea, "held under the power of darkness," Col. i. 13: and, "The word of God is light," Psalm. cxix. 105. 2 Cor. iv. 4: therefore " unregenerate men cannot understand the word in that spiritual compass which it carries." There is such an asymmetry and disproportion between our understanding, and the brightness of the Word, that the saints themselves have prayed for more spiritual light and understanding to conceive it. That knowledge which a man ought to have (for there is a knowledge which is not such as it sought to be) doth pass knowledge, even all the strength of mere natural reason to attain unto, peculiar to the sheep of Christ. Natural men have their principles vitiated, their faculties bound, that they cannot understand spiritual things, till God have, as it were, implanted a new understanding in them, " framed the heart to attend, and set it at liberty to see the glory of God with open face. Though the veil do not keep out graminatical construction, yet it blindeth the heart against the spiritual light and beauty of the Word. We see even in common sciences, where the conclusions are suitable to our own innate and implanted notions, yet he that can distinctly construe, and make grammar of a principle in Euclid, may be ignorant of the mathematical sense and use of it: much more may a man, in divine truths, be spiritually ignorant, even where in some respect he may be said to know. For the Scriptures pronounce men ignorant of those things which they see and know. In divine doctrine, obedience is the ground of knowledge, and holiness the best qualification to under m • Armin. in Rom. vii. p. 843. Remonstr. Declar. fidei, cap. 1. am. censur. cap. 1. fol. 33. 37. Phil. iii. 10. k 2 Cor. iii. 14. n Acts xvi. 14. Isa. xlii. 25. 81 Cor. viii. 2. 12 Cor. ii. 14. f Psal. cxix. 18; Jer. vi. 10. 27. sect. 14. Ex73. 125, 169. i Joh. x. 14. m 1 Joh. v. 20. P Hos. vii. 9. Joh. vii. 17. Psal. xxv. 9. 14. Rom. xii. 2. Matth. xi. 25. stand the Scriptures. "If any man will do the will of God, he shall know of the doctrine whether it be of God.-The meek will he teach his way, and reveal his secrets to them that fear him, to babes, to those that conform not themselves to this evil world." To understand then the words, we must note; first, that there is an opposition between [ποτὲ and ἐλθοῦσης τῆς ἐντολῆς,] those two clauses in the text, once, and, when the commandment came. It is the conceit of some, that the latter as well as the former is meant of a state of unregeneration; and that St. Paul, all this chapter over, speaketh in the person of an unregenerate man, not intending at all to shew the fleshliness and adherency of corruption to the holiest of inen, but the necessity of righteousness by Christ; without the which, though a man may, when once the commandment comes, and is fully revealed, will good, hate sin;' in sinning do that which he would not consent unto, and delight in the law, feel a war in his members, mourn and cry out under the sense of his own wretchedness; yet for all this he is still an unregenerate man ;--an opinion tending directly to the honour of Pelagianism, and advancement of Nature; which made St. Austin', in that ingenuous and noble work of his Retractations, to recant it; and in all his writings against the Pelagians;--in which, as in other polemical works, where the vigilancy of an enemy, and fear of advantages, makes him more circumspect how he speaks, his expositions of Scripture are usually more literal and solid, than where he allows himself the scope of his own conceits. He still understands those passages of the complaints of a regenerate man against his inherent concupiscence. We are therefore to resolve, that the opposition stands thus; "Once," in my state of unregeneration, “ I was Ante omnia, opus est Dei timore ad ipsum converti, ut ejus voluntatem cognoscamus. In tantum non vident, in quantum huic sæculo vivunt. Aug. de Doct. Christ. lib. 2. cap.5. Deus nos adjuvat, et ut sciamus, et ut amemus. Epist. 143. Non doctrina extrinsecus insonante, sed interna, occulta, mirabili, ineffabili potestate operatur Deus in cordibus hominum et veras revelationes et bonas voluntates. De Grat. Christi, c. 24. And elsewhere he recants his opinion, Quod, ut prædicato Evangelio consentiremus, nostrum esset proprium et ex nobis. Ad Prosp. et Hilar. lib. 1. cap. 3. Socinus, Armin. Tolet. Vid. Exam. Censur. cap. xi. fol. 129. cont. Jul. lib. vi. cap. 23. et cont. 2, Epist. Pelag. lib. 1. cap. 8, 9, 10, 11. without the law;" that is, without the spiritual sense of the law: but when the Lord began to reveal his mercy to me in my conversion, then he gave me an eye to understand it in its native and proper compass. The apostle was never quite without the law, being an Hebrew, and bred up at the feet of Gamaliel;' therefore the difference between being without the law, and the coming of the law, must be only ' in modo exhibendi;' before he had it in the letter, but after it came in its own spiritual shape: and there is some emphasis in the word "came," denoting a vital, moving, penetrative power, which the law had by the spirit of life, and which before it had not, as it was a "dead letter." Secondly, We must note the opposition between the two estates of St. Paul; in the first he was " alive," and that in two respects: alive in his 'performances,' able, as he conceived, to perform the righteousness of the law without blame ";" alive in his 'presumptions,' mispersuasions, selfjustifications, conceits of righteousness and salvation. In the second estate, "sin revived;" I found that that was but a sopor, a benumbedness, which was, in my apprehension, a death of sin: and "I died," had experience of the falseness and miseries of my presumptions. The life of sin, and the life of a sinner, are like the balances of a pair of scales; when one goes up, the other must fall down; when sin lives, the man must die. Man and sin are like Mezentius' couples; they are never both alive together. Many excellent points, and of great consequence to the spirits of men, would arise out of these words thus unfolded; as first, that a man may have the law in the Church in which be lives, in the letter of it; and yet be without the law, in the power and spirit of it, by ignorance, misconstructions, false glosses, and perverse wrestings: as a covetous man may have the possession of money, and yet be without the use and comforts of it". Which should teach us to beware of ignorance; it makes the things which we have, unuseful to us. If any man have the law indeed, he will labour, first, to have more acquaintance with it, and with God by it. The more the saints ■ Phil. iii. 6. Acts xxvi. 9. Phil. iii. 5, 7. Acts xxii. 3. 2 Tim. i. 3. 2 Cor. iii, 6. 2 Pet. iii. 16. Matth. v. 21, 22. 27, 28. 31, 32, 33.38. know of God and his will, the nearer communion they do desire to have with him. We see this heavenly affection in Jacob; in Moses'; in David"; in the Spouse"; in Manoah; in Paul. As the queen of Shebad, when she had heard of the glory of Solomon, was not content till she came and saw it; or as Absalom, being restored from banishment, and tasting some of his father's love, was impatient till he might see his face; so the saints, having something of God's will and mercy revealed to them, are very importunate to enjoy more. Secondly, to be more conformable unto it, and judge and measure himself the oftener by it. The law is utterly in vain, no dignity, no benefit nor privilege to a people by it, if it be not obeyed. Thirdly, to love and praise God for his goodness in it". k Secondly, Ignorance of the true meaning of the law, and resting upon false grounds, doth naturally beget these two things. First, blind zeal, much active, and, in appearance, unblamable devotion; as it did here, and elsewhere in St. Paul; in the honourable women ;' in the Pharisees'; in false brethren"; in the Jews, that submitted not themselves to the righteousness of God";' in the papists, in their contentions for trash, rigorous observation of their own traditions, outsides, and superinducements upon the precious foundation. Secondly, strong mispersuasions and self-justifications, dependance upon our works, and rigid endeavours for salvation at the last°. Unregenerate men are often secure men, making principles and promises of their own to build the conclusions of their salvation upon. But beware of it. It is a desperate hazard to put eternity upon an adventure; to trust in God upon other terms than himself hath proposed to be trusted in; to lay claim to mercy without any writings, or seals, or witnesses, or patents, or acquittance from sin; to have the evidences of Hell, and yet |