principle. There is a "When I would do good," - a season when this or
plead, indeed, that they would leave their sins if they could, and they desire to do better. But it is the working of their light and convictions, not any spiritual inclination of their wills, that they mean: for where there is a will to do good, there is a choice of what is good for its own excellency's sake. Now, this is not in unbelievers. They do not, they cannot choose what is spiritually good, nor does it correspond to to any principle in them; they only want the results of good. And these desires are so weak that they do very little about them. Witness the sloth and worldliness that most men are drowned in. But in believers there is a will to do good, a habitual inclination to what is spiritually good; and it is accompanied with action. The will is the principle of our moral actions; so the general course of our actions will follow it. Good things will proceed from the good treasures of the heart. But a will to do good, without doing good, is mere pretence.
Fourthly, There is yet another thing in these words of the apostle, regarding the occasion of the season of duty: "When I will to do good," says he, "evil is present with me."
There are two things to be considered in the believers' will to do good:
1. It habitually resides in them. They have always an inclination to do what is good. And this habitual preparation for good is always present with them; as the apostle expresses it, verse 18 of this chapter.
2. There are special times and seasons for the exercise of that principle. There is a "When I would do good," - a season when this or that good is to be done in response to that will.
Two things in indwelling sin are opposed to these. To the gracious principle residing in the will, inclining to what is spiritually good, it is opposed as a contrary principle, inclining to evil. To the second, the willing of "When I would do good," is opposed the presence of this law: "Evil is present with me," - evil is at hand, and ready to hinder the good aimed at. So indwelling sin rebels and inclines to evil, when the will to do good
is active.
This is the description of believer and sinner, as everyone who is the former is also the latter. These are the contrary principles and the operations that are in him: "When I want to do good, evil is present with me." And these are expressed by the apostle, Galatians 5:17, "For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are against one another; so that I cannot do what I would."
And here lie the springs of the whole course of our obedience. An understanding of these principles is the main part of our wisdom. Next to the free grace of God in our justification by the blood of Christ, they are the only things where the glory of God and our own souls are concerned. These are the springs of our holiness and our sins, of our joys and troubles, of our refreshments and sorrows. So it is important for us all to be thoroughly acquainted with these things if we intend to walk with God and glorify him in this world.
And so we may see what wisdom is required to guide and manage our hearts and ways before God. Where the subjects of a ruler are fighting one another, unless great wisdom be used in government, all things will quickly be ruinous in that state. There are these contrary principles in the hearts of believers. And if they do not labour to be spiritually wise, how shall they be able to steer their course aright? Many men live in the dark to themselves all their days; whatever else they know, they do not know themselves. They know their outward estates, how rich they are, and they are careful to examine their bodies as to health and sickness; but as to their inward man, and their principles as to God and eternity, they know little or nothing. Indeed, few labour to grow wise in this matter, few study themselves as they ought, are acquainted with the evils of their own hearts as they ought; but the whole course of their obedience, and consequently of their eternal condition, depends on it. This is our wisdom; and it is a needful wisdom, if we have any design to please God, or to avoid what is an offence to the eyes of his glory.
We shall find, also, in our inquiry into this, what diligence and watchfulness is required to live as a Christian. There is constant heart enmity against it; and our design is to thoroughly uncover it. Most believers are slothful and negligent in this regard; they live and walk as though they intended to go to heaven blindfolded and asleep, as though they had no enemy to deal with.
What I shall principally fix on is what was first laid down, - namely, that there is great power in the remnant of indwelling sin in believers, with a constant inclination towards evil.
Awake, therefore, all of you in whose hearts is anything of the ways of God! Your enemy is not only on you, as on Samson of old, but is in you also. He is at work, by force and craft. If you do not want to dishonour God and his gospel; to scandalize the saints and ways of God; to wound your consciences and endanger your souls; to grieve the Spirit of God, the author of all your comforts; if you want to keep your garments undefiled, and escape the temptations and pollutions of the days wherein we live; to be preserved from apostasy; then awake to the consideration of this cursed enemy, which is the spring of innumerable evils, and the ruin of souls that perish!
CHAPTER 2.
Indwelling sin a law - In what sense it is so called - What kind of law it is - An inward principle called a law - The power of sin shown.
What we shall consider is the power of indwelling sin. It is a law. "I find a law," says the apostle. It is because of its power that it is so called. So the principle of grace in believers is the "law of the Spirit of life," Romans 8:2; the "exceeding greatness of the power of God" in them, Ephesians 1:19. Where there is a law there is power.
Two things attend every law: -
First, Dominion. Romans 7:1, "The law has dominion over a man whilst he lives:" - "It lords it over a man." Where there is law, there is dominion. It is properly the act of a superior, and it belongs to its nature to exact obedience by way of dominion. Now, there is a twofold dominion, as there is a twofold law. There is a moral dominion over a man, and there is a real dominion in a man. The first is effected by the law of God, the latter by the law of sin. The law of sin has not in itself a rightful dominion; but it has what is equivalent to it; whence it is said, "to reign as a king," Romans 6:12, and "to lord it," or have dominion, verse 14, as a law in general is said to have, chap. 7:1. It has lost its complete dominion in believers. But even in them it is a law still. And though it have not a complete dominion, yet it will have a domination as to some things. It is still a law; so that it acts with power, though it have lost its complete power. Though it is weakened, its nature is not thawed. And as its particular workings, so the term itself teaches us what we are to expect from it, and what labours it will use for dominion.
Secondly, A law provokes those who hate it to do what it requires. A law has rewards and punishments. These secretly prevail, though the things commanded be not much desirable. All laws work on the minds of men through those rewards and punishments. The pleasures of sin are the rewards of sin; a reward that most men lose their souls to
obtain. By this the law of sin contended in Moses against the law of grace. Hebrews 11:25, 26, "He chose rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season; for he looked to the recompense of reward." The contest was in his mind between the law of sin and the law of grace. The motive on the part of the law of sin with which it prevails on the most, was the reward that it presented, - namely, that he should enjoy the pleasures of sin. By this it contended against the reward linked to the law of grace.
By this sorry reward this law keeps the world in obedience to its commands; and experience shows us what power it has to influence the minds of men. It has also punishments that it threatens men with who labour to cast off its yoke. Whatever trouble,or danger in the world attends gospel obedience, whatever hardship is to be offered to the sensual part of our natures in a strict course of putting sin to death, sin makes use of, as if they were punishments. By these it prevails on the "fearful," who shall have no share in life eternal, Revelation 21:8. And it is hard to say whether its pretended rewards or pretended punishments are its greatest strength. By rewards it entices men to sins of commission, that satisfy its lusts. By punishments it induces men to omit duties. By promises of the pleasures of sin on the one hand, by threats of the deprivation of all sensual contentments and the infliction of temporal evils on the other, it has great power on the minds of men, often on believers themselves. Unless a man be prepared to reject the reasonings from these, there is no standing before the power of the law. The world falls before them every day. Look on the generality of men, and you shall find them wholly by these means at sin's disposal. Do the profits and pleasures of sin lie before them? nothing can stop them reaching after them. Do difficulties and inconveniences attend the duties of the gospel?- they will have nothing to do with them; and so are wholly given up to the dominion of this law.
And this lightwe have into the power of indwelling sin from the general nature of a law.
We may consider, next, what kind of law it is; which will farther evidence that power of it which we are considering. It is not an outward, written law, but an inbred, urging law. A law presented to us is not as powerful as a law inbred in us. Adam had a law of sin presented to him in his temptation; but because he had no law of sin inbred in him, he might have withstood it. An inbred law must be effectual. Let us take an example from that law which is contrary to this law of sin. The law of God was at first natural to man; it was created with his faculties, and was their guide, both in being and doing, in reference to living to God and glorifying him. Hence it had an especial power in the whole soul to enable it to obey, and to make all obedience easy and pleasant. Such is the power of an inbred law. And though this law, as to its rule, is now by nature cast out of the soul, yet the remaining sparks of it, because they are inbred, are very powerful; as the apostle declares, Romans 2:14, 15. Afterwards God renews this law, and writes it in tables of stone. But what is the power of this law? Will it now, as it is external and presented to men, enable them to perform the things that it requires? Not at all. God knew it would not, unless it were turned to an internal law again; an inward real principle, not merely a moral outward rule. So God makes his law internal again, and implants it on the heart as it was at first, when he intends to give it power to produce obedience in his people: Jeremiah 31:31-33, "I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts." This is what God fixes on, on a revelation of the insufficiency of an outward law to lead men to obedience. "The written law," says he, "will not do it; deliverances from distress will not effect it; trials and afflictions will not accomplish it." "Then," says the Lord, "will I take another course: I will turn the written law into a living principle in their hearts, that will have a power that will assuredly make them my people, and keep them so." Now, such is this law of sin. It is an indwelling law: Romans 7:17, "It is sin that dwells in me;" verse 20, "Sin that dwells in me;" verse 21, "It is present with me;" verse 23, "It is in my members;" it is so far in a man, as in some sense it is said to be the man himself; verse 18, "I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) dwells no good thing." The flesh, which is the seat and throne of this law, which indeed is this law, is in some sense the man himself, as