The Nature, Power, Deceit, and Prevalency of Indwelling Sin

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.

••rst, For the nature of it, it seems to consist in a violent, heady, pertinacious pressing unto evil or ⟨p. 91⟩sin. Violence, importunity and pertinacy are in it. It is the tearing and torturing of the soul by any sin to force its consent, and to obtain satisfaction. It riseth up in the heart, is denied by the Law of grace, and rebuked; it returns and exerts its poison again; the soul is startled, casts it of; it returns again with new violence and importunity, the soul cries out for help and deliverance, looks round about to all springs of Gospel grace and relief, trembles at the furious assaults of sin, and casts it self into the arms of Christ for deliverance. And if it be not table to take that course, it is foiled and hurried up and down through the mire and filth of foolish imaginations, corrupt and noisome lusts, which rend and tear it, as if they would devour its whole spiritual life and power. See