what abundance of peace and wealth is for even these things we most esteem but this is not the thing for here we need no exhortation Secondly Spiritual mercies those are they we do not hunger after we are backward enough to desire them and therefore we have so few of them Therefore that which I must press upon you is to desire earnestly these spiritual mercies if you desire them much you shall have much of them for you must know before you have them God will teach you to know how precious they are for if he hath commanded us not to cast pearls before swine he himself will not cast the riches of his mercy before those that prize and regard them not As for instance forgiveness of sins and reconciliation with God this is a spiritual mercy this if you would hunger much after you should have it yea and according to the measure of your desires but when you prize it not that is it which keepeth it back you may say the like of all other mercies therefore prize them much that is be sensible of your misery without them call your sins to remembrance go over them summe them up and let your hearts stay and dwell upon the meditation of them give not over till you be touched with them and do this often we might be more humbled if we would take pains with our hearts but we slight it and do it overly as being an exercize needless and tedious but do it not so lâ—bour to get a sense of your sins that will make you prize the mercies of justification and reconciliation for this cause many thousands misse of the forgiveness of their sins it is not a thing they esteem much they do not strive and contend with God for it as a matter of such great moment whereas it is the preciousest mercy of all other it is the immediate door that openeth into the favour of God which is the cause of all other mercies and then no good thing can be withholden from you foâ— it is your sins that keep good things from you now if your sins were taken away what need you fear either diseases or death or revilings and disgraces for your profession or imprisonment or poverty if you had the forgiveness of your sins you might enjoy the prosperity you have freely and as for crosses either you shall be freed from them or else they shall be as serpents without a sting or as great bulks without burthen and weight this you should have if you had the forgiveness of your sins consider all this labour to sâ—t a price upon it and so for â—ll other mercies work your hearts to this to esteem the Mercies of God Again labour to see an excellency in them The same as I said of forgiveness the same may you say of love or of patience see the preciousness and excellâ—ncy of them the more you prize them the more you shâ—l have of them If you could beg for forgiveness as for life if you could reckon other things but as dross and dung in comparison of that as Saint Paul did which was nothiâ—g but the forgiveness of his sins you would be sure to have these mâ—râ—iâ—s but men do it not men live in prosperity in health and wealth and abundance of all things and such mercies as these they regard not forgiveness of sins reconciliation the gospel of Christ this they despise but we should prize these even then when they are nakedly propounded to us The reason we do it not is because we have not the sense of our misery What careth the innocent man for a pardon What careth a whole man for a medicine Mercy is the medicine of misery labor therefore to be sensible of your misery that you may partake of this mercy All the promises runne upon this condition all that are weary and heavy laden shall find rest Math. 11. The more weary any man is the more rest he shall have and so again the poor saith Christ receive the Gospel the more poor he is the more he shall receive and so he that hungreth and thirsteth after righteousness shall be filled the more you hunger and thirst the more you shall be filled In a word the more you desire the more you shall have The reason you have not these mercies is because you desire them not or else your desires are not strong for strong desires would bring forth strong endeavours and these would take spiritual mercies by force as it is said of the kingdom of heaven that it suffereth violence even so these violent desires would extort it from God by an holy earnestness A 2d way to be made partakers of the riches of Gods mercy is to believe them Adde to your desires a belief for believing is that which openeth the hand of God to give and openeth your hearts your hands to receive put but these two together to desire the mercies of God and to believe that God will give them and then open your mouthes wide God will fill them This I shal manifestly shew from these folowing places of scripture as we finde them often Go thy way thy faith hath made thee whole when Christ bestowed any mercy upon men that is added in the Gospel thy faith hath done it thy faith hath made thee whole if they were forgiveÌ„ they might thank their faith for it as it is the instrumental means to obtain the mercies of God the more faith the more mercies for we shal alwais find that by faith men obtained mercies and the want of faith missed them It is certain God is a merciful God you should finde him so if you could believe him to be so for the believing that he is merciful makes you partakers of the riches of his mercy because it is his pleasure to put it upon that condition he might have put it upon other conditions but this is his pleasure to say if you believe you shall have these and these mercies for faith knitteth us to him faith makes us to know him and makes us give him the glory of the mercies we have faith ascribes it wholy unto him it makes it every way to be his work faith makes us righteous now the righteous obtain mercy this faith is imputed for righteousnes God reckoneth every man the more righteous as he aboundeth in faith therefore the way to fill your selves with the riches of Gods mercy is to believe much and as you grow in faith so you shal grow from mercy to mercy if Christ could say to us as he did to the woman O woman great is thy faith we should be sure to have great mercies my meaning is this that beleiving is nothing else but this To be perswaded that God will be kinde and favourable to you that hispromises belong to you that he will pardon your sins and receive you into grace and favour with him that he loveth you and is your friend that he is ready to bestow
by policies so that when any good motion cometh it hath most voices to cry it down therefore it works in us an ill opinion of the wayes oâ— God oâ— the strictness and purity of Religion it makes us think well of luke-warmness And besides it possesseth the â—â—queports the sences admitteth no objects but those that agreewith it And again it draws us from ourstrong holds from prayer from hearing the Woâ—â— from holy performances as Ioshua did the men of Aâ—â— when he drew them from the City such a stratagem it useth and that makes it dangerous to us when we are drawn from our strong holds as the Conies from their borroughs then it soon cosâ—ns us and easily takes us Again it takes away supply from the inward man as you see the Philistines in the time of hostility between them and the Israelites they would not suffer a Smith to be in Israel so this Law takes away the supply that should be given to the regenerate part Again it affrights us with false fears as you know it was the stratagem that Gideon used in his War he came upon the Host of the Medianites in such a manner that he put them all in a fear he deceived them with a false fear So this Law of our members affrights us with false fears perswades us that such and such lusts can never be overcome it tells us that perfect walking with God will never stand with the times we shall never come to preferment nor rise in the world if we observe the purity of Religion and the like Again it draws us from God in that it sets us upon those things that are contrary to him it causeth us to rebell against him When his Law commands one thing it puts a contrary inclination into us whereby we resist the Law of God and are led captive to this Law of sin and indeed at last to death and destruction These things if we considered aright we should not be so negligent in maintaining this War as we are this is the fight that this Law in our members hath I say consider the stratagems it many times assaults us with light skirmishes and after brings in the main battel which we observe not Thus Peter was foiled he was first brought into the High-Priests Hall out of curiosity to see and to hear and then afterwards fell to the denial of his Master David was first drawn to less sins and then to greater So likewise Salomon These stratagems it useth which every man must be careful to observe that he may grow expert in this War But I will not stand to enlarge this any further You see then these three things It is a Law a Law in the members and a Law that warres against the Law of the mind Now the last is that it leads us captive and that it doth so you shall see from these particulars You know one part of captivity or bondage is for a man to be detained in a strange Country to be kept in prison to be kept from his friends and from his business and employment at home So doth this Law in our members it detains us in our own Country it keeps us from God from the things that are heavenly where our coversation ought to be continually it keeps us in prison it with-holds us from those that are our proper companions And then again you see in bondage there is no rest given to those that are slaves so this Law in our members it breedeth a restlessnesse it gives us no leave to eat or drink or sleep that is it so hurries the souls of men to and fro it so occupies the thoughts it so takes up a mans affections that he is still busied in doing the things it commands There is no rest saith my God to the wicked Again in bondage there are hard tasks put upon men as you know it was part of the bondage of the children of Israel in Egypt that the Egyptians gave them more to do then they could possibly compass they were to make so many tale of Brick and yet they were not allowed the materials So is it in this captivity our lusts give us more to do then we can perform The lust of pride and ambition in Haman we see it set him on more then he could possibly compass The lust of covetousness in Ahab for Naâ—aoths Vineyard you see how hardly it charged him and what difficult things it put him upon Again it addeth this to it if there be not a performance of what it requires as the Task-Masters in Egypt did to the children of Israel they beat them so if we cannot do the things that these lusts sets us about as the Apostle expresseth it 1 Tim. 6. They pierce us through wiâ—h many sorrows That which is said there of the lust of riches may be said of any other lust when it is not satisfied it pierceth us through with many sorrows Lastly as in bondage a man is set on work about business which is not for his own good but onely for the advantage of his Master that commands him so doth this Law in our members it sets us about a work that stands onely with our hurt Therefore in that place 1 Tim. 6. they are called hurtful lusts that is lusts that hurt the party that fight against the soul and indeed 〈◊〉 onely for the profit of the Devil And herein they deceive us so that we think that we do our selves a great pleasure and that we act that which is for our own profit and advantage and yet in the mean time there is no thing redounds to the soul but hurt the advantage is onely to Satan We carry Uriah's Letter which we think to be for our own advantage and indeed it is for our destruction Therefore as they are said to be hurtful lusts so it is added they are foolish lusts that is we are fools for our labour in yielding to their commands So now you see these four things That as it is a Law a Law of the members a Law that warreth so it is a Law that in warring leads captive And so much shall serve for the explication of the first point Namely that there is a strong inclination in every mans nature leading him captive or carrying him strongly to that which is evil Now Secondly I add again to this That In every regenerate man there is a contrary Law a Law of his mind residing this Law in his members and carrying him as powerfully to do that which is good And this is a Law even as the other is because it commands and forbids powerfully it so commands us to do a duty to perform an action of new obedience that withall it gives us strength and ability to perform it as the Apostle saith I am able to do all things through Christ that strengthneth me And again it forbids as powerfully as we see in Ioseph when he had that temptation from his Mistriss saith he How
against this Law of sin in a man that is regenerate he fears anoath it is the expression in Eccl. 9. that is his fear is set a work against sin And so his desire My heart breaks for the desire I have after thy commandements Psal. 119. As if he should say If I had my desire there is nothing that I would wish so soon as to have my sinful lusts mortified to have my soul enabled to keep thy commandements And so for joy I rejoyce greatly saith David to keep thy commandements And so for sorrow Peter wept bitterly This is the first difference in a natural man the combate is onely between the conscience and the rest of the soul but in the regenerate the whole soul all the parts and faculties fight against this Law in the members this law of sin Again as there is a difference in the combatants so secondly there is a difference in the manner of the fight A natural man though he make resistance yet it is but a faint resistance he fights as one that is not willing to overcome or caâ—es not whether he get the victory or no he gives but a faint denyal When a suitor is but faintly denyed we know it makes him the more importunate So we shall see balaam when the messengers came from Balaak King of Moab he indeed gave them a denyal but it was such a kind of denyal as that they saw he had a good will to the journey notwithstanding therefore they did not give over to importun him So the prophet that came to Bethel when he began to enter into tearms with the old Prophet we see he was not strong and peremptory in the resistance a parleying castle we know will not long hold out when we come to these faint denyals and no more there is no likelyhood of prevailing Now the resistance that the regenerate part makes it is a strong and resolute resistance like that of Saint Paul when he was to go to Ierusalem why do you weep and break my heart saith he I am not onely ready to be bound but to die for the Name of Christ Like that of David what have I to do with you yee sons of Zerviah So I say this regenerate part it fights not faintly against the Law in the members but it fights strongly like a hearty enemy whom nothing will satisfie but a conquest Secondly for the manner of fighting this is another property in it that the regenerate part doth not dally with sin for it fights out of enmity and when there is an enmity there a man will not indure any thing no not the very appearance of evil As a Pigeon that hates the Hauk will not endure the feather of a Hauk So it is with the regenerate part it will not onely abstain from gross sins but from every thing that is called evil from the tincture from the garment spotted with the flesh Whereas a naturul man perhaps abstains from the gross act but comes as near as he can to the brink of sin Many men will resolve never to be drunk yet you shall find them go to the tavern and sit there till they be overtaken Balaam took up a resolution I will go with you saith he but I will not say any thing but what the Lord shall bid me there he would abstain from the gross act but you see what the issue was even as the Levite he would not stay all night in Benjamin by no means but he would be perswaded to eat his break-fast This is the second difference when the regenerate part fights the resistance is out of enmity it hates all that is called sin it cleanseth it self from all pollution of flesh and spirit The other doth not so it resists onely the gross acts but dallies with that which hath affinity with sin Lastly In this manner of the fight there is this difference that the natural conscience though it strive and contend against the Law of the members yet it doth not fight against it as it is sin but against the shame against the disprofit against those evil consequences that follow sin committed against hell against wrath against eternal death for these are things sensible to him but against sinne it self as it is sinne he doth not resist but the regenerate part resists the sinne it self because there is something within him that is contrary to sinne and therefore he makes resistance against sinne as it is sinne the other I say never makes resistance against it as it is sin but against the consequents and effects of it and this is the second difference they differ in the manner of the fight Thirdly They differ in the object in the thing about which this contention is he that hath onely a natural conscience to fight against the Law of the members his strife is not about things of that nature that the others are moral vices and moral vertues they know and are sensible of they resist the one and stand for the other things that belong to outward credit and civill honesty things that are morally good these things they are sensible of and the contention is about them and no other You see Herod was careful about his oath and why because of those that sat at Table with him and this was the great matter that swayed him And so Darius had a contention when he put Daniel into the Lions den but his promise to the Princes overruled him But there is another kind of contention in the regenerate about things of another nature spiritual evils spiritual wickednesse he fights against those evils that are contrary to the image of God that are contrary to that purity and holiness that God requires Other men see not the things of this nature therefore they cannot resist them When the Sunne shines clear we know we may see the least moat so where there is a clear light of grace that shines in a mans heart he sees spiritual evils which another man sees not he resists them and his chief business indeed is about them Another man cannot perceive them and therefore cannot resist them this is another difference they differ in the object Fourthy This fight differs in the success there is a different success and event in these two fights a natural man though he have many good motions and inclinations and intentions suggested to him yet he walks after the vanity that is in his minde that is his law that is though he have many remorses and checks yet if you observe him in the constant course of his life he serves the flesh and the lusts thereof But in the regenerate it is contrary though he have many evil inclinations many evil suggestions yet he walks after the spirit and not after the flesh that is his constant course is good And if you object are they not foyled many times Did not David fall and Peter fall I answer It is true they may be foyled in
received and taken not as when a man inviteth another to a feast and he cannot come the master is at no charge but when the promise is made and the dinner prepared and then the guests not to come it is loss so it is in this offer of Christ all is ready Christ is slain and his blood is poured out if you do not come and take it you put away from you the blood of Christ and so in as much as in you lieth you make the death of Christ of none effect and so by consequence you shall be guilty of the blood of Christ and therefore the Apostle saith 1 Pet. 1. 19. You are not redeemed with silver and gold but with the precious blood of Christ. First If you had put God to the losse of silver and gold and precious stones it had been no great losse but you have put him to the losse of Christ and his blood so that whosoever refuseth Christ is guilty of the spilling of his most precious blood Secondly consider that the Gospel which you refuse agrevateth the sin for the Gospel disobeyed hath much more terrour then the law disobeyed and therefore the Apostle in Heb. 2. verse 2. reasoneth to this purpose for saith he If the Law that was given by Angels was stedfast and every transgression received a due reward how shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation which was manifested to us by his Son and so Chap. 10. If the Law that was given by Moses if he that disobeyeth that Law should die how much more shall he be worthy of punishment that trampleth underfoot the blood of Christ. First It is the refusing of Christs most precious blood therefore I say in these respects the Gospel hath more terrour in it then the Law disobeyed For the clearer understanding of this you are to know that the Gospel hath two parts Not onely if you believe you shall be saved but also if you believe not you shall be damned which sheweth that the Gospel broken is more terrible then the Law and therefore Iohn Baptist the first preacher of the Gospel came with more terrour and severity then the Prophets did he came in a course habit and severe in his doctrine and therefore when he came to preach the Gospel he saith Now is the axe laid to the root of the tree and those that are found chaffe shall be cast into the fire and what was the reason because the Gospel was preached therefore if it be refused and this pardon rejected God will now sooner lay the axe to the root then aforetime and so indeed they found it by experience afterwards for if we observe the Scripture from the time that the Iews became a Nation for all their transgressions he gave them not a fullbill of divorcement till Christ was preached unto them and they refused to receive him then those natural branches were broken off and the wild Olive ingrafted in till that time I say the Iewes were not rejected by this therefore we may see the danger of refusing the Gospel God had indured their provocations yet now for their refusing of Christ he cut them off and so he will do to every particular person for there is no Law that can be preached that is so dangerously refused as the Gospel and therefore we shall see the Carriage that is appointed to the seventy Disciples which he sent forth to preach the Gospel that when they offered Christ and the Kingdom of Heaven and remission of sins if they will receive the mercy offered so it is they shall be saved but if not Tell them the Kingom of God is come near them indeed but seeing they have refused it shake off the dust of your feet against that City and here you may see what terrour there is in the Gospel if they would receive it well and good if not shake off the dust of your feet against them and further consider that nothing but their refusing the land of Canaan made God swear in his wrath that they should not enter into his rest God can bear with other sins but this is a sin that provoketh God to anger more then the rest For the better understanding hereof we will compare the Law and the Gospel together you shall find these differences between them First the condition of the Law is do this and live The condition of the gospel is Believe and live The condition of the law is much more difficult the condition of the Gospel is more easie and therefore the sin committed against the Law is less hainous then the sin against the Gospel Secondly the command in the Law cost God nothing but his word but the command in the Gospel cost him the Death of his Son Thirdly when we broke the Law we did it in the loins of Adam with whom we accompanied our voices and consent but when we reject the Gospel we do it in our own persons Fourthly when the Law was broken there was but one breach to God but in rejecting of the Gospel there is a is a double Law transgrest for when we had cast our selves into a desperate condition with Adam God offered us an help and means of recovery now the refusing of this makes sin the greater by how much the more the mercy is the greater with the Angels Gods intent was to exercise onely a single mercy and therefore a peremptory command was given them If you will obey you shall live But now this was not onely offered to mankind but a second mercy was also offered a greater then ever was offered to the Angels now God offereth thee a board to swim upon after ship-rack to the Angels God would show but one kind of mercy to mankind a double mercy a sparing mercy a merciful mercy and so a severer kind of justice upon the refusal of it and therefore the reprobates that live in the Church shall exceed the Devils in Hell in judgement because they have had more mercy tendred to them then ever the Devils had and therefore in this respect God will exercise on them a more severe kind of justice Let all these things teach you how dangerous it is to disobey the Gospel and to refuse Christ. Thirdly you are to consider that Christ who is offered unto you is the Chiefest of all Gods works the utmost end that God propounded to himself in making of mankind it is he that is the top of his fathers glory in whom the glory of God most shineth therefore be assured God will not lose his chiefest glory he will not lose one jot of his glory much lesse the principal part of it and therefore he that refuseth Christ contemneth the chiefest of Gods works and layeth the chiefest of his glory in the dust and therefore God will not suffer that to be done without great judgement Whatsoever God is known by that is his Name whatsoever he makes himself more known by that is his special Name and his
so is bound over by sentence of condemnation to suffer for it Or else in foro conscientiae in the court of Conscience as here before God and it is nothing else but to have a Conscience guilty of sin and for that to be judged of God to Eternal punishment even to be separated from the Love of God in Christ for ever and ever And all this presupposeth a guiltiness for sin that justifies the Judgement of God in regard of the just sentence of condemnation Now who shall make the true believer guilty before God being once in Christ The answer is made by the Apostle There is not one that can Now for the second thing observed namely that those which come to believe while they were in a state of Nature and under the curse of the Law were in an estate of condemnation This is proved Eph. 2. 3. Among whom we also faith the Apostle had our conversation c. And were by nature the children of wrath as well as others As he also telleth those beleeving Romanes Rom. 6. 17. Of this their own conscience is witness against them The Law of God is the bill of inditement God the Judge the Devil the executioner and hell the prison from whence it is impossible to escape until they come soundly to believe in the Lord Jesus For the third When a man hath this blessed grace of faith and begins to lay hold on Christ he is not to think himself safe and that he is secured from all that will seek his condemnation For the Devil will do what he can still to winnow all goodness and grace received out of him That nothing may remain but chaffe And therefore it is we are taught in the Lords Prayer after forgiveness of sins to pray against temptations Though thy Sinns be pardoned by the bloud of Christ upon thy believing yet there is one that seeks to break the force of thy faith and so to bring thee to destruction And therefore it is he is called the accuser and destroyer Rev. 12. 10. so that thou must look that though thou hast got out of his paws yet he hath many wayes whereby he will labour what he can to bring thee back to condemn and destroy thee As first he will lay unto thee the wrath of God to drive thee to despair as he would have done Iob who was brought to sore tryals discovered in passionate speeches 2. The curse of the Law is inforced against thee to make thee think thy obedience to be so poor as God will not accept thee 3. Want of faith is another of his suggestions and for this he will alledge the condition of the Gospel and tell thee that thou dost not believe and so art not onely under the curse of the Law but the Gospel also 4. The sins of thy conscience that he will buffet thee with perswading thee that such a sin is not pardoned or pardonable 5. He will muster up the world where he hath many Troops following him to choak the Word and quench the grace of God that is in thee Lastly He will fear thee with the grim and dismal look of that last enemy death and put thee under fears of never being able to undergo it Now for the fourth circumstance That though with all his power cruelty and subtilty as before he doth assail yet a true believer he shall never be able to prevail against and that first because a true believer his debt is paid by the death of Christ Who shall condemn faith the Apostle Christ is mighty and strong None for faith hath a hand that layes hold on Christ so that if Christ perish he may else not And that First Even because Christ hath died for him and the strength of the Apostles reason stands thus A man in debt if his debt be paid he is not in danger of the Law to be condemned for it so there is not one farthing that God can in his Justice demand at a Believers hands for it is paid by Christ. There is a double debt indeed he hath but if both be paid for him the Law shall not condemn him The First is the debt of obedience to the Law God hath required of every child of Adam to obey and keep the whole Law and he hath not done it therefore there is a debt unpaid by him The Second debt is of punishment for not doing it and that is the curse of the Law Now a Bâ—liever may produce a surety that hath paid both namely Christ for first he died not before he had fufilled the Law His righteousness obedience and all was for us He took our nature onely that we might have our part in him he did all in our stead and names even for our sake upon our believing in him all is ours Secondly by his death he removed the curse which is the punishment of sin For the first Rom. 10. 4. Christ is the end of the Law for righteousness to every one that believeth think of this and labour for a spirit of faith ever groan in thy soul till thou piercest the Heavens and obtainest saith For the second Gal. 3. 13. Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the Law being made a curse for us Pitch on these places and lay fast hold on Christ by faith and they will uphold thee in the evil hour even when the devil labours against thee with all his forces I but the Devil is crafty may some poor soul say it may be he hath some bill or bond yet undischarged that I know not of which he may demand at my hands No saith the Gospel he hath blotted out the hand-writing that was against us Col. 2. 14. All is crost and cancelled and this God hath spoken and sworn to therefore let him do what he can onely believe thou Every writing is cancelled there is not a whit to shew in the fight of God A poor man is indebted a great sum of money to a mighty King and knows not what to do having nothing to pay it withal whereupon he is convicted condemned cast into prison Now it pleaseth the Kings onely Son to undertake the debt his Father is content and in process of time he payes it and satisfieth his Father who then I pray you can condemn that man Even so is it with the poor believer he ought both body and soul and was to be put into the prison of Hell for ever for breaking Gods Law and incurring his displeasure But the Lord Jesus out of his love and free favour undertakes for the poor believer and payes his debt who then can condemn this poor Believer Now further by way of gradation and assent to make us raise up our thoughts in assurance of this the Apostle useth a second reason that is Because Christ our surety is not onely dead for us and so hath paid our debt but also is risen again to make the poor believer more sure he hath paid the
a particular combate and yet may get the victory notwithstanding A man may have a blow such a blow as may make him stoop and yet prevail against his enemy so though in a particular combate they may be overthrown yet they get the victory over their lusts Therefore Peter though he were so timerous at that that time to deny his Master yet afterwards wee finde he was as bold as a Lion So David though he was overcome in that particular combate yet the victory was on his side all his life was chaste and pure and holy afterward Last of all there is a difference in the continuance of this fight for a natural man doth make resistance yet he groweth weary of it and layeth down the wasters in the end and yields to the sinne and saith thus with himself Well I see I shall never get the victory over this or that particular lust therefore I will contend no more against it But now in the regenerate this fight continueth to the end As you shall see in Peter Peter saith our saviour when thou art old they shall gird thee and carry thee whether thou wouldest not There was a resistance he was carried whether he would not he was carried where the spirit would but where the flesh would not and this was when he was old so there was a continual resistance so it was with Nicodemus he began and he held out because grace in him was as a spring that still enlargeth it self more and more In others it is not so Iudas he was like a pond and not like a spring though he held out a long while and was on Christs side and carried his colours yet he continued not so Ioash and Amaziah they made resistance but we see they continued not And the reason is because in a natural man the combatants do not continue those good things that are in him are but as blossoms they vanish Now when that which should maintain the contention vanisheth there must needs be an end of the combate but in the other it continues to the end A word for application very briefly When we hear that there is such a Law in our members it should teach us to reflect upon our selves that we may be able to cry out as Saint Paul doth O wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from this body of death For if a man had but his eyes open to see this Law in his members overspreading his whole soul and fighting against the regenerate part against the Law of his mind which should be in every man it would make a man amazed in himself it would make a man wonder that he had lived so long with himself and knew himself no better And in this case it takes away that ordinary excuse that men have for men are ready to say alas I have resisted such and such a sin I have a nature exceedingly inclined to them But alas thou art deceived in this for this is so far from excusing thee as that this very thing that thou hast a strong inclination to evil it makes thy sin out of measure sinful For even as it is in good actions the more zeal there is the better is the good work so is it in evil works the more lust there is in every evil work the greater is the sin for the more lust there is the more sin and the more wilfull a man is in sin the more is the sin Take a serpent or a toad that is hateful to the nature of a man though it hurt us not yet we loath it because it is contrary to our nature So this Law in our members this strong inclination to that which is evil though it should not break forth to actual transgressions yet it is hateful to the pure eyes of God therefore we should humble our selves for this and not excuse our selves because of our evil nature The worse thy nature is the more cause thou hast to abhor thy self and there is great reason for it because sin is worse in the root then in the branches the bitterness is more there as the soureness is more in the leaven then in the dough As the heat is more in the fire then in the air that is heated by it So there is more evil in this nature of ours then in any outward act of sin Therefore let no man excuse himself with this to say I have a Law in my members that prompts me strongly to sin against God It is all one as if a thief should excuse himself and say I am of a purloyning nature I cannot hold my hands when I see any thing but I must needs steal If a servant should come to his Master and say Sir I was drunk and could not do your business would this excuse him So this Law in our members this necessity this strong inclination to evil is it not our selves that have brought it upon us we are the authors of that Original sin And besides that we intend it the more by custom in sin often relapses intend this Original corruption and make it prevalent You will say how shall a man do then how shall a man be saved I answer except thou find in thy self this Law of the mind resisting this Law in the members except thou find another man in thee a regenerate part created in thee that fighteth against this Law in the members thou canst not be saved But you will say again how shall I know it seeing there may be a resistance arising from the natural conscience I answer thou shalt know it by thy constant and ordinary course whether thou walk after the spirit or no. For we are not to judge of our selves or of any other by a step or two If you will judge of a man by a step or two you shall find Noah drunk you shall finde Mases speaking unadvisedly with his lips You shall find David lying and murdering and making another drunk you shall find Iehosaphat making a league with Ahab which God had forbidden him you shall finde Hezekiah boasting of his treasure and Peter forswearing of his master and Paul and Barnabas in such a passion that they were fain to part assunder This you shall see if you shall observe a step or two onely and so you shall condemn the Generation of the righteous Again on the other side if you observe a man by a step or two you shall see Cain sacrificing you shall see Saul among the Prophets you shall see Iudas among the disciples you shall see Iehu restoring religion you shall see Iohn Baptist getting Herod into his house and hearing him gladly You shall see Felix trembling at a Sermon So that I say if you observe your selves or others onely by a step or two you shall justifie the wicked and condemn the just for the best men have their swervings and the worst men have their good moods A thief may sometimes go