A53712:170
The Nature, Power, Deceit, and Prevalency of Indwelling Sin
The nature, power, deceit, and prevalency of the remainders of indwelling-sin in believers together with the ways of its working and means of prevention opened, evinced, and applied with a resolution of sundry cases of conscience thereunto appertaining.The nature, power, deceit, and prevalency of the remainders of indwelling-sin in believers together with the wayes of its working and means of prevention opened, evinced, and applyed with a resolution of sundry cases of conscience thereunto appertaining.
London: printed for Thomas Cockerill, 1675
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
Fourthly, This condition is peculiar to Believers. Unregenerate men are not said to be led captive to the Law of sin. They may indeed be led captive unto this or that particular sin or corruption, that is, they may be forced to serve it against the power of their convictions. They are convinced of the evil of it, an adulterer of his uncleanness, a drunkard of his abomination, and make some resolutions, it may be, against it. But their lust is too hard for them, they cannot cease to sin, and so are made captives or slaves to this or that particular sin. But they cannot be said to be led captive ⟨p. 90⟩to the Law of sin, and that because they are willingly subject thereunto. It hath, as it were, a rightful dominion over them, and they oppose it not, but only when it hath irruptions to the disturbance of their consciences. And then the opposition they make unto it is not from their wills, but is the mee• acting of an affrighted conscience, and a convinced mind. They regard not the nature of sin, but its guilt and consequences. But to be brought into captivity, is that which befalls a man against his will. Which is all that shall be spoken unto this degree of the actings of the power of sin, manifesting it self in its success.
The fourth and last degree of the opposition made by the Law of sin to God, and the Law of his Will and Grace, is in its Rage and Madness. There is Madness in its nature, Eccles. 9. 3. The heart of the sons of men is full of evil, and madness is in their heart. The evil that the heart of man is full of by nature, is that Indwelling-sin whereof we speak. And this is so in their heart, that it riseth up unto madness. The holy Ghost expresseth this rage of sin by a fit similitude which he useth in sundry places, as Jer. 2. 24. Hos. 8. 9. It maketh men as a wild Ass; she traverseth her ways, and •••••eth up the wind, and runneth whither her mind or lust leads her. And he saith of Idolaters enraged with their lusts, that they are mad upon their idols, Jer. 5. 38. We may a little consider what lies in this madness and rage of sin, and how it riseth up thereunto.