"sinners," such as the world was before it was redeemed, before Christ came. These are the sick and weak, whom Christ, the great physician of our souls, came to save. This infirmity is the shadow of death; and it signifies that state of mankind which is the state of nature, not of original and birth, but in its whole constitution, as it signifies not only the natural imperfection, but the superinduced evil from any principle; all that which is opposed to grace.

4. To this state of nature being so pitiable, God began to find a remedy, and renewed the measures of virtue, and by a law made them more distinct and legible, and imposed punishments on the transgressors. For by little and little, the notices of natural reason were made obscure, some were lost, some not attended to, all neglected some way or other; till God by a law made express prohibition of what was unreasonable, forbidding us to desire what before was unfit and unnatural, and threatening them that did things unlawful. But this way, by reason of the peevishness of men, succeeded not well, but men became worse by it. For what the law did forbid without the threatening of any penalty, they took for an advice only, and no severe injunction: and those commandments which were established with a threatening to the transgressors, they expounded only by the letter, and in the particular instance, and in the outward act.

5. Before the law, men allowed to themselves many impieties, which reason indeed marked out to be such, but no law had forbidden them in express letter. They thought it lawful to seduce and tempt another man's wife, and invite her to his house and conjugation, so he did not steal, or force her away but if they found a coldness between her and her husband, they would blow the coals, and enkindle an evil flame. It is supposed that Herod did so to Herodias, his brother Philip's wife, even after the law. They would not by violence snatch the estate from a young prodigal heir, but if he were apt, they would lend him money, and nurse his vice, and entangle his estate, and at last devour it. They would not directly deny to pay the price of a purchase; but they would detain it, or divert it, or pay it in trifling sums, or in undesired commodities. This was 'concupiscere rem alienam.' They did not steal, but coveted it, and so entered indirectly and this God seeing, forbade it by a law: "For

I had not known lust or desires to be a sin," saith St. Paul', "but that the law said, Thou shalt not covet."

6. But because the law only forbade lustings, but imposed no penalty, they despised it; and those things which were forbidden with an appendant penalty, they would act them privately. For if they avoided the notice of the criminal judge, they feared not the face of an angry God: and this Lactantius observed of them. " Metus legum non scelera comprimebat, sed licentiam submovebat. Poterant enim leges delicta punire, conscientiam munire non poterant, Itaque quæ antè palam fiebant, clam fieri cœperunt: circumscribi etiam jura:" "For all the threatenings of the law they were wicked still, though not scandalous; vile in private, and wary in public; they did circumscribe their laws," and thought themselves bound only to the letter, and obliged by nothing but the penalty, which if they escaped, they reckoned themselves innocent. Thus far the law instructed them, and made them afraid. But for the first, they grew the more greedy to do what now they were forbidden to desire. The prohibition of the law being like a dam to the waters, the desire swells the higher for being checked; and the wisdom of Romulus in not casting up a bank against parricide, had this effect, that until the end of the second Punic war, which was almost six hundred years, there was no example of one that killed his father. Lucius Ostius was the first. And it is certain that the Easterlings neither were, nor had they reason to be, fond of circumcision; it was part of that load which was complained of by the apostles in behalf of the Jewish nation, which neither they nor their fathers could bear; and yet as soon as Christ took off the yoke, and that it was forbidden to his disciples, the Jews were as fond of it, as of their pleasures; and fifteen bishops of Jerusalem in immediate succession, were all circumcised, and no arguments, no authority, could hinder them. And for their fear, it only produced caution, and sneaking from the face of men, and both together set them on work to corrupt the spirit of the law by expositions too much according to the letter: so that by this means, their natural desires, their lustings and concupiscence, were not cured.

7. For as Lactantius brought in the heathen complaining,

f Rom. vii. 7.

so does St. Paul bring in the Jew: "That which I do I allow not; for what I would, that I do not, but what I hate, that I do"." I say, this is the state of a man under the law; a man who is not regenerate and made free by the Spirit of Christ; that is, a man who abides in the infirmities of nature: of which the law of nature warned him first, and the superinduced law of God warned him more; but there was not in these covenants or laws sufficient either to endear or to secure obedience; they did not minister strength enough to conquer sin, to overthrow its power, to destroy the kingdom and reign of sin: this was reserved for the great day of triumph; it was the glory of the Gospel, the power of Christ, the strength of the Spirit, which alone was able to do it; and by this with its appendages, that is, the pardon of sin and a victory over it, a conquest by the prevailing and rule of the Spirit, by this alone the Gospel is the most excellent above all the covenants, and states, and institutions, of the world.

8. But then the Christian must not complain thus; if he be advanced into the secrets of the kingdom, if he be a Christian in any thing beyond the name; he cannot say that sin gives him laws, that it reigns in his mortal body, that he is led captive by Satan at his will, that he sins against his will frequently, and habitually, and cannot help it. But so it is, men do thus complain; and, which is worse, they make this to be their excuse, and their encouragement. If they have sinned foully, they say, It is true; but "It is not I, but sin that dwelleth in me. For that which I do, I allow not; for what I would, that I do not; and what I hate, that do I h"-And if they be tempted to a sin, they cannot be dissuaded from it, or encouraged to a noble and pertinacious resistance, because they have this in excuse ready; "To will is present with me, but how to perform that which is good, I find not. For the good which I would, I do not; but the evil which I would not, that I do.” That is, it is my infirmity, give me leave to do it, I am the child of God for all my sin; for I do it with an unwilling willingness. I shall do this always, and shall never be quit of this tyranny of sin: it was thus with St. Paul himself, and I ought not to hope to be otherwise than he, and a person more free from sin.'-We find in the life of Andronicus,

Rom. vii. 15. 19.

h Ver. 15.

i Ver. 18.

written by Nicetas Choniates, the same pretence made in excuse for sin; they could not help it:' and we find it so in our daily experience; and the thing itself warranted by many interpreters of Scripture, who suppose that St. Paul, in the seventh chapter to the Romans, from the fourteenth verse to the end, describes his own state of infirmity and disability, or, which is all one, the state of a regenerate man, that it is no other but an ineffective striving and struggling against sin, a contention, in which he is most commonly worsted; and that this striving is all that he can shew of holiness to be a testimony of his regeneration.

SECTION II.

9. How necessary it is to free the words of St. Paul from so dangerous a sense, we may easily believe, if we consider, that to suppose a man who is regenerate by the Spirit of Christ, to be still a slave under sin, and within its power, and that he fain would but cannot help it, is very injurious to the power of Christ and the mightiness of the Spirit of grace: when all its effect is only said to be, that it strives, but can do nothing; that is, sin abounds more than grace, and the man that is redeemed by Christ, is still unredeemed, and a captive under sin and Satan; this is not only an encouragement of evil life, but a reproach and scorn cast upon the Holy Spirit; it is "verbum dictum contra Spiritum Sanctum," "a word spoken against the Holy Ghost *:"-and as St Austin calls it, it is "tuba hostis, non nostra, unde ille incitetur, non unde vincatur;" "the devil's trumpet, to encourage him in his war against poor mankind; but by this means he shall never be overcome!." And therefore he gives us caution of it; for speaking of these words, 'The good which I would, that do I not; but the evil that I would not, that I do,'-he advises thus, "Lectio divina, quæ de apostoli Pauli epistolâ recitata est, quotiescunque legitur, timendum est, ne malè intellecta det hominibus quærentibus occasionem :" " Whenever these words of St. Paul are read, we must fear lest the

* Serm, 43. et 45. de Tempore.

misunderstanding of them should minister an occasion of sin to them that seek it. For men are prone to sin, and scarce restrain themselves. When therefore they hear the Apostle saying, I do not the good which I would, but I do the evil which I hate, they do evil, and as it were displeasing themselves because they do it, think themselves like the Apostle."-In pursuance of this caution, I shall examine the expositions which are pretended.

10. I. These words, I do not the good which I would, but I do the evil which I hate "' are not the words or character of a regenerate person in respect of actual good or bad. A regenerate man cannot say, that he does frequently or habitually commit the sin that he hates, and is against his conscience. 1. Because no man can serve two masters;' if he be a servant of sin, he is not a servant of the Spirit. No man can serve Christ and Belial.' If therefore he be brought into captivity to the law of sin, he is the servant of sin; and such was he whom St. Paul describes in this chapter ". Therefore this person is not a servant of Christ; he that is a servant of righteousness, is freed from sin; and he who "is a servant of sin, is not a servant of, but freed from, righteousness." A regenerate person therefore, is a servant of the Spirit, and so cannot at the same time be a servant, or a slave and a captive under sin.

11. II. When the complaint is made, I do the evil which I hate,'-the meaning is, I do it seldom, or I do it commonly and frequently:' if it means, I do it seldom,' then a man cannot use these words so well as the contrary; he can say, 'The good which I would, I do regularly and ordinarily, and, the evil which I hate, I do avoid; sometimes indeed I am surprised, and when I do neglect to use the aids and strengths of the Spirit of grace, I fall; but this is because I will not, and not because I cannot help to it; and in this case the man is not a servant or captive of sin, but a servant of Christ, though weak and imperfect.'-But if it means, I do it commonly, or constantly, or frequently,' which is certainly the complaint here made, then to be a regenerate person is to be a vile person, sold under sin, and not God's servant. For if any man shall suppose these words to mean only thus; 'I do not do so much good as I would, and do

m Rom. vii. 15.

n Ver. 23.

• Rom. vi. 20.