Precious faith considered in its nature, working, and growth

Secondly, Faith doth not only restrain the outward acts of Sin, but strikes at the life of it; that is, the love thereof; and to this end Faith clearly demonstrates, that Sin is not eligible, or an object fit for an Humane Will; Sin shows it self as eligible many ways, but Faith destroys all those eligibilities. Take Sin as mere Sin in the abstract, and so it is evil and only evil; and as the Schools generally determine, Sub ratione mali, it is not, it cannot be eligible at all; and yet even in the notion of mere Sin, it becomes eligible, Sub ratione convenientiae, as it is congruous to the corrupt Heart of Man. The Socinian and Pelagian Errors are welcome merely as Parasites to the pride of Reason and Will. In Sins of Omission, ⟨p. 269⟩the very neglect gratifies Mans averseness from good; in Sins of Commission, the very violation of the Law complies with his enmity thereunto. Saint Austin in his Confessions,¹ says, That he stole Apples, that he might, Frui non re ipsa, sed furto; that he was, Gratis malus, & amavit defectum suum; casting away the Apples, he feasted on the iniquity; or if he took any of them into his mouth, Condimentum facinus erat, Sin was the only sauce thereof. Man drinketh in iniquity like water; the very sinfulness is connatural. This eligibility before Faith must needs be very strong: for to Man in the pride and self-flattery of Nature, nothing is sweeter or dearer, than to walk in the way of his Heart, as absolute unaccountable Lord of all his Actions; but when Faith comes, then it clearly appears, that the corrupt Heart, into which Sin insinuates by congruity, is too vile a thing to be gratified; it steals away from holy Duties, plays false after fair promises, hatches treason and rebellion against God, and like a common Strumpet prostitutes it self to every temptation that passes by; to gratify it, is to feed a disease, or vicious humour, satisfy a grave or gulf of inordinate desires; put the darling Soul into the mouth of Satan, and desperately leap into the bottomless pit: that corruption to which Sin is so grateful, is an accursed thing, destinated by the Gospel to be crucified and slain without mercy; and those relics ⟨p. 270⟩of it, which after the greatest mortifications remain, are to be mourned and groaned under as the heaviest burden in the world.