good reason doth he call indwelling sin a body, in regard that as a body hath many members, so hath indwelling sin. It is not one simple lust, but a compound of all iniquity, and the seed and spawn of all unrighteousness. It is a complete body; it wants not one member for as a believer hath every grace in the root and habit, so hath he every sin the same way dwelling in him; for let grace once be withdrawn there shall be a compliance with any temptation. And well might he call it a body of death, as being in its own nature a deadly thing, as loathsome as carrion, and devoted to death or destruction, being already nailed to the cross of Christ, Gal. v. 24. from which it was not to come down till it had breathed out its last. As to what the apostle says of his members, Piscator doth indeed understand it properly of the members of his body,* in which sin exerts its strength; yet doth not dream that the seat of sin is only or mainly in the body. And so we may understand it without prejudice to our cause; for it is plain sin may exert its strength there where it hath not its proper place of abode. Otherst think, that by members he means every faculty of soul and body; and so they will have the word taken, Rom. vi. 13. James iv. 1. If this be admitted, it weakens the cause of our adversaries. But I suppose the apostle here distinguishes two opposite parties in and from himself. The one he calls the inner man; the other he must be supposed to call the outer man. Let us see then what he means by those men which he speaks of. That he does not thereby understand the soul and the body, is clear to me upon these three accounts: 1. Because the inner man, in the act of sin, still stands out against the outer man; so that the inner man is blameless, ver. 20. But this cannot be said of the soul. 2. In the outer man there dwells no good thing, ver. 18; which to understand of the body, I shall afterwards shew to be absurd. I add, 3. That, as I said before, the outer and the inner man are really distinct from the man himself. Though they both be ours, yet they are not ourselves; which is plain, if ye consider, that, through the whole of this discourse, the man himself is holden forth as tossed betwixt these two; sometimes led by the one, sometimes by the other: the man himself is the prey; they are the two combatants that fight for the mastery over him; and accordingly the strongest party carries away the poor captive. According to the inner man, he delights in the law of God; which gives us to understand, that, according to the outer man, he is averse to it. Whence it is evident, these two are distinct from himself, and · Schol. in loc. Leigh's Crit: Wilson's Dict. VOL. VI. H therefore cannot be his soul and body. Moreover, these two are elsewhere called by the apostle the new and old man; whereof the one is said to be put on, the other to be of the man himself. But though they be distinct really from the man himself, yet are they not divided or separated from him; both of them are in him, and diffused through the man, according to the capacity of each part. Whence it plainly appears, that these men are nothing else but grace and corruption, as the apostle teacheth, ver. 20.-" Sin that dwelleth in me." And hence we may easily perceive what he means by the members he speaks of. Why, even as the several graces of the Spirit are the members of the inner and new man, Eph. iv. 24. so the several particular lusts of the heart are the members of the old and outer man; which members the apostle calls us to mortify, Col. iii. 5. Now, in these members of his he finds a law; that is, activity, power and efficacy; for "the flesh lusteth against the Spirit," Gal. v. 17. "As laws," says Flavel,* "by virtue of their annexed rewards and punishments, have a mighty power and efficacy; so sin, indwelling sin, that root of all our trouble and sorrow, hath a mighty efficacy upon us." And by this law indwelling sin brings the soul into captivity to itself, the man being made captive to that law of sin which is in his members. Where we must take notice, that the apostle does not refer that being in his members to sin; if so indeed, this exposition would be ridiculous; but the words in the original plainly refer it to the law, to nomo tes hamartias to onti, holding forth the power and efficacy of original sin, which sets its several members on work. But to proceed: That the apostle calls his body his flesh, is false. For, 1. No good thing dwells in his flesh; but the Holy Spirit dwells in his body. 2. Will any say, that the law of sin is served only with the body, and the law of God only with the soul? But the apostle tells us, ver. 25. that with the mind he serves the law of God, with the flesh the law of sin; where he assigns to each part its proper work and service. We say then, that the apostle does not here distinguish the soul from the body, but corrupt nature from grace, and himself as regenerate, from himself so far as he was unregenerate. And so the apostle, Gal. v. 19, &c. while he reckons up the works of the flesh, he placeth among them heresies; which, if any thing, do belong to the soul: and among the works of the Spirit we find temperance; which the body may claim on as good grounds as any good thing else. And it is remarkable, that when the apostle speaks of the state of non-regeneration, while men are Sac. Med. on Rom. vii. 21. totally under the power of corruption, he calls it being in the flesh, Rom. vii. 5. not in the body I am sure. And in this way of speaking of corruption the apostle follows Christ himself, in his conference with Nicodemus, about the necessity of regeneration, John iii. 6. "That which is born of the flesh, is flesh;" not a body in opposition to a soul, but corrupt, and therefore standing in need to be born again. Only, to hold forth the necessity more strongly, he calls it not fleshly, but flesh itself, in the abstract: q. d. It is nothing but a very lump of sin and corruption. OBJECTION 2. Rom. vi. 12. "Let not therefore sin reign in your mortal body:"* Ergo, Sin remains only in the body, not in the soul. ANSWER. Some tell us here that by the body is meant, synecdochially, the whole man; as, upon the other hand, the Spirit of God, in the Scripture, under the name of soul, comprehends the body also. But the epithet given by the apostle to the body while he calls it mortal, seems to restrain it to the body properly and strictly taken. Therefore we pass that, and deny the consequence, on good grounds: for it is plain here, the apostle speaks metaphorically of sin's power as a king but who will say, but a king may reign there where his seat is not? wherever sin remains, it is certain where it hath not lost the reigning power, it reigns through the whole man, soul and body. Shepherd tells us,† that here is, 1. Obedience, i. e. the outward acts; 2. Lusts, the inward breathings; 3. Sin itself, where the lusts are seated. "This, therefore," says he, "is the reigning sin, which hath taken possession of every part." And no doubt sin may work there where it hath not its proper seat, as a king reigns in the remotest parts of his dominions. OBJECTION 3. ult. "That which is born of the Spirit, is spirit," John iii. 6. Ergo, There are no remains of sin left in the soul. ANSWER. The body is, suo quodam modo, born of the Spirit, as well as the soul for the leaven of grace leavens the whole man; grace makes not a new soul only, but a new creature ; Old things are done away, and behold, all things are become new," 2 Cor. v. 17. The body, as well as the spirit, is Christ's, 1 Cor. vi. ult. ; yea the bodies of the regenerate are members of Christ; yet are they not wholly renewed. So say we of the soul: the whole soul is cleansed, but not wholly. Were men perfectly born of the Spirit, they should be altogether spirit; but this renovation is carried on by degrees only. "For," as Luther saith, "we have got the first-fruits of the Spirit; the leaven is hid in the lump; but the lump is not wholly leavened; it is begun to be leavened." Zanch. de pec. orig. + QUEST. V. WHY THE LORD SUFFERETH SIN TO REMAIN IN THE REGENERATE ? We have seen already, that though there is a great change wrought on the elect in their regeneration yet that change is imperfect; there shall be no perfect delivery from indwelling sin till death; the body of death, though crucified, yet lives till the death of the body: and it is not so driven out to the outworks, but that it remains, and hath its seat in the main hold, in the soul, even in the mind and will. Experience suffereth not gracious souls to doubt of the being of sin in them, while it occasions them so much struggling and wrestling; yea, while they feel the great strength of it, they are many times ready from thence to call in question the being of grace in them, and to put forth that which was Rebekah's question, in another case, "If it be so, why am I thus ?""* And therefore, although we are not to call God to an account of his doings with supercilious boldness, flowing from an obstinate and stubborn heart; yet it may very well be allowed, that we go humbly, and with her inquire of the Lord. The soul, in regeneration, gets a new nature, though the grace received is not of such efficacy as totally to drive away the old. The regenerate get a real love to God in their hearts, and a real hatred against sin; so that the man would fain leave sin, if it would leave him. And the truth is, that although sin and the soul are inseparable till death, yet sin rather cleaves to the soul than the soul to it. But, alas! though hated, it will not depart; following the man closely, as the shadow doth the body. But could it be lulled asleep, could it be so intoxicated as to leave off action, the child of God might have so much the better occasion to serve God without distraction while in the body. But how can the devil be quiet, when he knows his time is short? How can this old man sleep, while so many and various ensnaring objects still present themselves unto his view? Or how can the flesh be at rest, when it is nailed to a cross? Wherefore sin cannot but both be, and be active in the soul while on this side of time; even till that terrible soldier death come, and thrust his spear into its side, and bring forth its heartblood. "But are not two sparrows sold for one farthing? yet one of them cannot fall to the ground without our heavenly Father; yea, the very hairs of our head are numbered." We must not therefore think, that the children of God are left in this case by a fatal necessity, and that God is here an idle spectator. He hath Gen. xxv. 22. the hearts of all men in his hand. If the centurion knew that he, being a poor mortal, clothed with a shadow of authority, having rude soldiers under him, could say to one, Go, and he goeth; to another, Come, and he cometh; faith might well thence draw the conclusion, That, much more, God, the sovereign Lord of all, can say to distempers, whether of body or soul, Go, and they should be gone; Come, and they should immediately be at hand. He raised up the soul when it was dead in sin spiritually; now the living soul is sick, how can any doubt of his power to cure it, and make it every whit whole. Yet the distemper remains with his dearest children, though he be a hater of iniquity, and his people groan to him daily under it. Though he can, yet we see he will not free them from it till death. But whatever be the reason or reasons of this dispensation, we believe, that when once his people have got over Jordan into the heavenly Canaan, they shall say without all reluctancy or doubting, "He hath done all things well." As when a man hath newly recovered out of a severe fit of sickness, he is then most ready to take care of himself, and will be afraid of the least cold blast, and more narrowly than before inquire into the causes of his distemper, by which he hath so sore smarted; and if he find himself in such circumstances, that he cannot miss but again fall into his old distemper, he will long to be rid of that condition, and seriously think how he comes to be in such pitiful circumstances: even so I think it will be with a thinking soul, after a recovery from a dead frame and disposition of spirit, into which, by his unwatchfulness, the power of corruption within, and the malice of the devil from without, he had before been cast. Contraries set together appear then best in their own colours; therefore the disadvantages of a bad frame can never so well appear, as when they are fresh in the memory of the newly recovered saint, who hath now the candle of the Lord shining on his tabernacle; and consequently the way leading to that bad frame of spirit, never appears so hateful as at such a time. Suppose then the thoughts of a certainty of his falling back to be observant unto him, what thoughts of heart will this create? It is true, sometimes a child of God, when matters go right with his soul, may be thinking on building tabernacles here, as Peter on the mountain; and, with David, saying, "My mountain standeth sure, I shall not be moved." But this is a piece of the levity of the vain and foolish heart, when men look only above them, without deep consideration of the way of God's dispensation. But I suppose, that when in this case they look about them, through the world, where so many snares are laid for them, amongst which of necessity they must walk and look also within them, and see |