-- CHAPTER VIII: What sorrow and repentance we should have for the other part of original sin
mankind. And so he speaks to the godly of that nation personally, and he instanceth in such sins, as they might otherwise think they least needed pardon for, not their own personally committed by themselves, but first that guilt common with them to all mankind, committed in Adam; and then their public guilt, in respect of the relation of their priests, who were the intercessors for them to God, and yet had styled these thy sins in ver. 25, which you are to be humbled for, as for your own, every one of you. And lo, says he, I am he that blots out these and all other thy transgressions 'for my own name sake,' that is, freely; and it must be my grace which must forgive these thy sins, as well as any other of thine own, and therefore look up unto me, 'I, even I, am he' that pardoneth them.
Neither canst thou find out, saith God, or enter on any plea or apology (as the word is here) for pardon, but this alone of my name, which I have so long ago proclaimed unto thee, 'The Lord gracious,'
&c. Thus in ver. 26, 'Put me in remembrance; let us plead together; declare thou that thou mayest be justified:' justified for these guilts, which are thine but by imputation, as the first sin of thy fore-father, or national relation, as the sin of thy teachers.
The second scripture added is Eph. 2:1, 5, 'Ye were dead in sins and trespasses, and by nature children of wrath:' and they were by nature, or born dead, as well in respect of the guilt of their first father
Adam's disobedience, being condemned in him, Rom. 5:18 as of inherent corruption. But what then is it he points them unto alone, whereby they had obtained, or were to obtain, pardon and salvation from? Ver. 4, 5, 'God, who is rich in mercy, &c. when ye were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, by grace ye are saved.'
And thus much for the first part of this discourse, the humbling ourselves for our guilt of the act of Adam's disobedience.
CHAPTER VIII:
What sorrow and repentance we should have for the other part of original sin What sorrow and repentance we should have for the other part of original sin, viz., the corruption which it inherent in our natures.—
We must consider it at the cause of the greatest and most heinous sins which we commit, and which give us the highest occasion of mourning.—That every act of sin is of so much the deeper guilt, as the corruption of our nature doth more vent itself in it.—That the corruption of nature doth set us farther off from God than any actual sin whatever.—That this is more near and intimate to thy soul than all thy actual transgressions I now come to the second part of the discourse, touching inherent corruption, and what exercise of repentance, mourning, or whatever acts else we are to put forth about it; which corruption is the fruit of that sinful act of Adam, and is inherent in our nature, which is called,
Rom. 7:20, 'the sin that dwelleth in us.' And this we may take for a certain rule, whatever acts may any way become genuine, to humble ourselves for the guilt of that first sin of eating the forbidden fruit, they will prove more direct and proper to be put forth as concerning the inherent corruption in us. For this is our sin, not by imputation, but by indwelling in us; even as leprosy derived from the parents (no matter how they came by it) is as properly the son's leprosy as it is the father's. And there needs no dispute about it, whether a man's leprosy be by derivation from his parents, or by a man's self contracted; however, it is his own leprosy. And accordingly, as to the conviction of this to be our own indwelling sin, we are but to look into our own bowels (though we need spiritual light to discover it with unto the bottom, yet), there is enough of its corruption boiling up every day as doth or may testify this to our consciences.
I propound for my method in this these two things, which you may call parts or heads of this ensuing discourse.
I. The great sinfulness of this sin of inherent corruption dwelling in us.
II. The acts of repentance which we are to exercise about it.
I. I begin with the first, the sinfulness of this inherent corruption. It is not of sin in general, which I have elsewhere set forth,* but the sinfulness that is in this inherent corruption of nature we brought into the world with us, and which is increased in us, and remaining to this day in every one of our souls.
I shall take two courses to manifest the sinfulness of this unto you.
First, In a comparative way.
Secondly, Consider it singly and simply in itself.
First, The comparative way is double.
1st, Single out the grossest actual sin thou hast been guilty of in thy life, take any one particular gross sin that thou thinkest lies heaviest upon thy conscience (as such are most apt to do), yet that corruption thou broughtest into the world with thee, that mass and body of sin thou hast in thy nature, gives thee more cause in many respects to be humbled for that than for any one gross sin, be it what it will.
2dly, Compare it with all actual sins whatsoever, and take them and abstract them from this root of inherent corruption, and it may prove a question whether of the two we should be most humbled for.
First, Single out the grossest act that ever thou committedst, or perhaps hast heard of to have been committed by any (the special poison of the sin against the Holy Ghost excepted), and that inherent corruption of thy nature in many respects doth exceed it. To this purpose,
1. Consider that if it were no more than that it was the cause of that actual sin, this is sufficient to render it more heinous; and the virtue whereby anything is produced is stronger in the cause than in the effect. Now that gross sin, whatever it be, was but the bud of that as the root; and take but a little of a poisoned root, and extract the spirit of it, and it hath more poison in it than any of the branches. The notion of this I shall afterwards carry down to the other, the second head, of comparing it with all actual sin.
2. Consider that the evil of any gross sin, or the greatest part of the sinfulness of it, will be found to lie in this, according as the evil disposition and venom and poison of thy nature did vent itself in that action more or less, and fills that action, the wickeder it is. According as the tide flowing from that sea fills the channel more or less, so doth the sinfulness of that sin rise up more or less, and so it is that corruption, wherein specially the guilt lies in every such action. And thence it is that actions, gross and great for bulk, are often less sinful in the eyes of God than smaller actions, because less filled with the evil disposition of the heart. And this the philosophers themselves acknowledged that an evil notion done, ex pravâ dispositione, an act proceeding from a rooted habitual disposition, was worse, and more to be punished than another, though outwardly as bad, if but done out of some sudden passion, as they call it. Witness that sentence of the Athenian judges, who condemned a boy to death but for tearing out, in a cruel manner, the eyes of a few crows and partridges, as being (though for the act but small) the evidence and indicium of an habitual cruel nature. And God himself judgeth of men's ways according to the dispositions of their hearts let out in their ways; for which read that speech in Solomon's prayer, 1 Kings 8:39, 'Render to every one according to his ways, whose heart thou knowest;' which, though intended principally of God's acceptation of the contrary good actions of holy men, yet as a general, holds of evil actions also, and much more, because there is a demerit in them which is not in the other. We see he says not simply 'according to their ways,' but as growing on this stock, their hearts, from whence their actions suck or draw up more or less poison. And we find elsewhere God himself
joining his testimony to this maxim in Solomon's prayer, and confirming it, and answering to it: Jer. 17:10, 'I the Lord search the heart, to render to every man according to his ways.' He joins the heart and the ways together; he compares how much the action savours of the must of the vessel, and doth taste of it, that he may know how to measure forth a portion of punishment to their outward ways and actions, according as he sees and judges how far, more or less, the action was steeped in the sour liquor of their original corruption.
3. A third thing is, that the evil disposition of thy nature doth farther sever and set thee off from God, than simply an actual sin doth. And that is the measure of more or less sinfulness, by how much the sin doth more or less separate from God: Isa. 59:7, 'Your sins have separated between me and you,' therefore the more they separate the more is the sinfulness. Now this corruption of nature makes a greater elongation of thee from God than an actual sin doth, be it the grossest. The leprosy was the type of it in the old law; it was that only that separated a man from God and from the congregation all his life; and it signified not an act of sinning so much as inherent corruption, which is a disease in the soul, as that is in the body. You have it, Numb. 5:2, 3, and if he were a king, yet he was to be separated if a leper, 2 Chron. 26:21. Now that inherent corruption doth more separate than an actual sin doth, the reason of it is, because a contrariety in nature breeds always greater distance, yea, enmity, than simply an act of hostility, or mere outward acts of injury. You see this in the creatures that have contrary qualities, which we call antipathies, in their dispositions; and merely out of a contrariety of nature, they are greater enemies than others that do one another actually more harm. Let a swine or a mastiff tear and rend us, as Christ says, yet we can endure the sight of them, the presence, yea, we can afterwards stroke him; but let a serpent appear, where there is a contrariety in nature, or a spider appear, you see how mightily it works in the spirit of one that hath an antipathy to these (as man hath) at the first view or sight of them. Now inherent corruption is such a contrariety in thy nature unto God, it is
a contrariety in the way of an antipathy. Transient acts of sinnings are indeed said to be against the Lord, but the inward disposition of their nature hath and is a contrariety in nature itself, and so is deeper and stronger; so this flesh is said to be enmity to God in the abstract,
Rom. 8:7. It is contrary to holiness, as it is in God's nature: whatever God hates, it loves; and whatever God loves, it hates.
4. Consider, thou hast more cause to be humbled for the sinful dispositions in thy nature than any of thy actual sins, because there is a nearer union between sin and thy soul, in respect of this inherent corruption, than by thy action singly considered. An act of sin hath not so near a kindred or alliance to the soul as inherent corruption hath. You read in Micah 6:7, that the measure of sinfulness lies in the relation it hath to the soul of a man: 'Wilt thou give the fruit of thy body for the sin of thy soul?' therefore the more it may be said to be the soul's sin, the more sinfulness is in it. And further, there is this in reason for it, that the nearer union we have with sin, or our hearts have with it, the farther we are separated from God. Now, that this union is nearer, I manifest by one or two things.
(1.) This is the relation of subject and inherent quality. Thy soul is the subject, and the sin an inherent quality in thy soul. It dwells in us, as the apostle says; it is not an act passant from us, that bears but the relation of an outward effect unto its cause.
(2.) The union that is between sin in thy nature and thy soul, is such as between the matter and form. The soul is as the matter unto this sin as the form, as the body is the matter which the soul informs; for we account that to be the form which acts, inspires, moves, informs, and guides the matter. Hence this corruption is called a man's self; thou and that corruption that is in thee are called by one name, flesh, in Scripture: John 3:6, 'That which is born of the flesh is flesh,' and all the actions of the whole man are attributed to it. But now the union between thee and thy action hath but the relation of the tree and the fruit, the parent and the child: Rom. 7:5, 'For when we were in the flesh, the motions of sins, which were by the law, did work in
our members, to bring forth fruit unto death;' James 1:14, 15, 'But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed. Then, when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin; and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death.'
5. Consider that in a sinful action but a work of thine own is spoiled and marred, which thou shouldst have produced in a shape more agreeable to the law, the pattern for that action; but by the sinfulness that is in thy nature, God's workmanship is spoiled, his image defaced, a frame and principle of working which he produced and 'formed for his glory,' as the prophet, Isa. 43:21; or 'created at first to good works,' as the apostle speaks, Eph. 2:10.
Again, 6, consider that particular gross sin thou hast committed is but a particular transient breach and transgression of some one commandment. Now, look on an act of cruelty and injustice, in what kind soever, suppose the greatest that can be perpetrated by a state, or the supreme power, and it is far less heinous than if there were a standing law enacted by them to authorise such an act. And now take the grossest sin that ever thy soul committed, and there is a standing law in thy nature that hath force in thy members to bring forth a thousand such acts; and by virtue of it they may be brought into act until that law be recalled, that is, thy nature changed. So that still suppose the grossest act that may be, if in thy nature there be as wicked a law to authorise it, and to bring it into execution, and that also a standing law, it is an invincible proof that thy nature, in respect of being such a law, is more wicked than any grievous act of sinning, even the most grievous whatsoever. And this consideration far exceeds the first; for thy corruption was not only the cause of such an act, but the cause as a law is, which is extant still, to be the cause of ten thousand more, as occasion and temptation is.
Yea, 7, consider that action was but one transient breach of some one particular command, but the corruption that is in thy nature hath not only a particular law to enforce that kind of particular sin again, over and over, but it is a contrariety to the whole law in every tittle of it.