Chapter VIII
What sorrow and repentance we should have for the other part of original sin,
viz., the corruption which is inherent in our natures. We must consider it
as 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 offfrom 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 corrup
tion, 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. vii. 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 con
tracted ; however, it is his own leprosy. And accordingly, as to the convic
tion 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
362 AN UNREGENERATE MAN S GUILTINESS BEFORE GOD, [BOOK IX.
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 eifect. 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 after wards 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 sin-
fulness 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 them
selves acknowledged that an evil notionf done, ex pravd dispositions, 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 viii. 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
* Discourse of the Aggravations of Sin. [Vol. IV. of this edition of his Works.
ED.] t Qu. action ? ED.
CHAP. VIII.] IN RESPECT OF SIN AND PUNISHMENT. 863
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.
xvii. 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 out ward 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. Hx. 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 con
gregation all his life ; and it signified not an act of sinning so much as in
herent corruption, which is a disease in the soul, as that is in the body. You have it, Numb. v. 2, 3, and if he were a king, yet he was to be sepa rated if a leper, 2 Chron. xxvi. 21. Now that inherent corruption doth more separate than an actual sin doth, the reason of it is, because a con
trariety 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 ene mies 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. viii. 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 vi. 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 ? there
fore 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.
364 AN UNREGENERATE MAN S GUILTINESS BEFORE GOD, [BOOK IX.
(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
* 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. vii. 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 i. 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.
is in thee are called by one name, flesh, in Scripture : John iii. 6,
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.
xliii. 21 ; or created at first to good works, as the apostle speaks, Eph.
ii. 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 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 occa
sion 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. And look how many laws God hath in his word, so many contrary laws sin hath in thy heart. Rom. vii. 22, 23 compared I delight in the law of God after the inward man : but I see another law in my members warring against the law
of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members doth confirm both of these two last assertions. There in thy heart the devil s commandments are written, contrary to God s written in
the two tables, explained by Moses and the prophets. Now, the Holy Spirit by David hath said, Ps. cxix. 96,
* I have seen an end of all perfection, but
thy law is exceeding broad ; as much as to say, the particulars thereof are
infinite, there is no end of it, as the same David speaks of God s know
ledge. If therefore thou hast as many laws of sin in thee as there be laws
of God, how above measure must thy nature be sinful !
CHAP. IX.] IN RESPECT OF SIN AND PUNISHMENT. 865
Again, 8, consider that that gross sin was committed haply but by some one member, used as a weapon and instrument of unrighteousness ; but this
sin of thy nature is spread through all, and thereby all parts and members
are made weapons ready formed, fashioned, and sealed to be employed in
the service of sin. This, as concerning acts of sin, you have in Rom. vi., the other in multitudes of scriptures ; as when this sin is styled
* the man,
* a body of sin, from the crown of the head to the sole of the feet, the sin that
1 the old man, a whole entire man,
* encompasseth us round, Heb.
* a world of iniquity, what is the whole and every member and faculty of soul and body ? And thus much for the first branch of this comparative way, viz. comparing the sinfulness of corrupt nature with any one particular act
xii. 9. And if one member, the tongue, be arraigned to be the seat of
of sinning, the grossest.