ingredient. A man cannot be said to be both free from sin, and a slave to sin; if he hath prevailed in any degree upon sin, then he is not at all a servant of that portion from whence he is set free; but if he be a captive of any one sin, or regular degree of it, he is not God's freedman; for the Spirit prevails upon all as well as upon one; and that is not an infinite power that cannot redeem us from all our slavery: but to be a slave of sin, and at the same time to be a servant of righteousness, is not only against the analogy of Scripture, and the express signification of so many excellent periods, but against common sense; it is as if one should say, that a man hath more heat than cold in his hand, and yet that the cold should prevail upon, and be stronger than, the heat; that is, that the weaker should overcome the stronger, and the less should be greater, than that which is bigger than it.

... 36. But as the choice of virtue is abated, and (as the temptation grows more violent, and urges more vehemently) is made less pleasant in the regenerate person; so is the choice of vice in the moral, or animal man. The contention abates the pleasure in both their choices; but in the one it ends in sin, in the other it ends in victory. So that there is an unwillingness to sin in all but in the impious and profane person, in the far-distant stranger. But the unwillingness to sin, that is, in the animal, or moral man, is nothing else but a serving sin like a grumbling servant, or like the younger son of the farmer in the Gospel; he said he would not, but did it for all his angry words. And therefore, that the unregenerate man acts the sin against his mind, and after a long contention against it, does not in all cases lessen it: but sometimes increases it. Nec levat crimen eorum, magis verò auget, quod eos diù restitisse dixistis,' said Pope Pelagius: To resist long, and then to consent, hath in it some aggravations of the crime,' as being a conviction of the man's baseness, a violence to reason, a breach of former resolutions, a recession from fair beginnings, and wholly without excuse. But if ever it comes to pass, that in the contention of flesh and spirit, the regenerate man does sin, he does it unwillingly, that is, by ignorance or inadvertency: the unregenerate sins unwillingly Caus. 24. q. 1. c. Schisma.

too, but it is by reason of the dominion and rule that sin bear over him: but still this difference distinguishes them. in the event of things, that when it comes to the question whether sin shall be done or no, the one wills, and the other wills not, though it may happen that the consent or dissent respectively may be with the same unwillingness, by reason. of the contention and strife from the adverse, though weaker party. The unregenerate man may be unwilling to obey sin, but he obeys it for all that; and the unwillingness is a sign of the greater slavery; but there can be no sign of his regeneration, but by not obeying the sin in the day of its own power and temptation. A servant is still a servant, whether he obeys with or against his will. His servants we are to whom we obey,' saith St. Paul; all therefore that is to be considered in the question of regeneration, is, whether the man obeys, or not obeys? for whether he be willing or unwilling, is not here considerable. Let no man therefore flatter himself that he is a regenerate person, because though he is a servant to sin, and acts at the command of his lust, and cannot resist in the evil day, or stand the shock of a temptation, yet he finds an unwillingness within him, and a strife against sin. Hugo de St. Victore, or else St. Austin in the book de Continentiâ,' gave beginning or countenance to this error. "Hanc pugnam non experiuntur in semetipsis nisi bellatores virtutum, debellatoresque vitiorum :" "This fight none find in themselves, but they that fight on virtue's side, and destroy vice."-Which words, though something crudely set down, and so not true, yet are explicable by the following period; "Non expugnat concupiscentiæ malum, nisi continentiæ bonum:"Only holy and continent persons do overcome their concupiscence;' and in that sense it is true: only the regenerate feel this fight, which ends in victory. But he whose contention, ends in sin, and after a brave onset, yields basely, frequently I mean, or habitually, every such person is a servant of sin, and therefore not a servant of the Spirit, but free from, that is, not ruled by, the law of righteousness. And this is so certain, that this unwillingness to sin, which ends in obeying it, is so far from being a note of a regenerate person, that it is evidently true, that no man can come from the servitude or slavery of sin,—but the first step of his going from it, is the sense and

hatred of his fetters, and then his desire of being freed: but therefore he is not free, because he complains of his bands, and finds them heavy and intolerable, and therefore seeks for remedy. For if an unregenerate person did always sin willingly, that is, without this reluctancy and strife within and the regenerate did sin as infallibly, but yet sore against his will; then the regenerate person were the verier slave of the two: for he that obeys willingly, is less a slave, than he that obeys in spite of his heart.

Libertatis servaveris umbram,

Si, quicquid jabeare, velis

He that delights in his fetters, hath at least the shadow, and some of the pleasure, of liberty; but he hath nothing of it who is kept fast, and groans because his feet are hurt in the stocks, and the iron entereth into his soul.' It was the sad state and complaint of the Romans, when, by the iniquity of war, and the evil success of their armies, they were forced to entertain their bondage.

tot rebus iniquis

Paruimus victi: venia est hæc sola pudoris,

Degenerisque metus, nil jam potuisse negari ".

It was a conquest that gave them laws; and their ineffective struggling, and daily murmurs, were but ill arguments of their liberty, which were so great demonstrations of their servitude.

37. III. An unregenerate man may not only will and desire to do natural or moral good things, but even spiritual and evangelical; that is, not only that good which he is taught by natural reason, or by civil factions, or by use and experience of things, but even that also which is only taught us by the Spirit of grace. For if he can desire the first, much more may he desire the latter, when he once comes to know it: because there is in spiritual good things much more amability; they are more perfective of our mind, and a greater advancer of our hopes, and a security to our greatest interest. Neither can this be prejudiced by those words of St. Paul; 'The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit, for they are foolishness unto him, neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.' For

Lucan. iii. 146. Oudendorp. p. 187.

x 1 Cor. ii. 14.

the natural man St. Paul speaks of, is one unconverted to Christianity, the Gentile philosophers, who relied upon such principles of nature as they understood; but studied not the prophets, knew not of the miracles of Christ and his apostles, nor of those excellent verifications of the things of the Spirit; and therefore these men could not arrive at spiritual notices, because they did not go that way which was the only competent and proper instrument of finding them.

Scio incapacem te sacramenti, impie,

Non posse cæcis mentibus mysterium
Haurire nostrum →→→→→→→ Y.

They that are impious, and they that go upon distinct principles, neither obeying the proposition, nor loving the commandment, they indeed, viz. remaining in that indisposition, cannot receive, that is, entertain him. And this is also the sense of the words of our blessed Saviour; 'The world cannot receive him"; that is, the unbelievers, such who will not be persuaded by arguments evangelical. But a man may be a spiritual man in his notices, and yet be carnal in his affections; and still under the bondage of sin. Such are they of whom St. Peter affirms, it is better they had never known the way of righteousness, than having known it to fall away' such are they of whom St. Paul says, 'They detain the truth in unrighteousness. Now concerning this man, it is that I affirm, that upon the same account as any vicious man can commend virtue, this man also may commend holiness, and desire to be a holy man, and wishes it with all his heart, there being the same proportion between his mind, and the things of the Spirit, as between a Jew and the moral law, or a Gentile and moral virtue; that is, he may desire it with passion and great wishings. But here is the difference: a regenerate man does, what the unregenerate man does but desire.

38. IV. An unregenerate man may leave many sins which he is commanded to forsake. For it is not ordinarily possible, that so perfect a conviction as such men may have of the excellency of religion, should be, in all instances and periods, totally ineffective. Something they will give to reputation, something to fancy, something to fame, something to

peace, something to their own deception, that by quitting one or two lusts, they may have some kind of peace in all the rest, and think all is well. These men sometimes would fain obey the law, but they will not crucify the flesh; any thing that does not smart. Their temper and constitution will allow them easily to quit such superinduced follies, which out of a gay or an impertinent spirit they have contracted, or which came to them by company, or by chance, or confidence, or violence; but if they must mortify the flesh to quit a lust, that is too hard and beyond their powers, which are in captivity to the law of sin. Some men will commute a duty; and if you will allow them covetousness, they will quit their lust, or their intemperance, according as it happens. Herod did many things at the preaching of John the Baptist, and heard him gladly. Balaam did some things handsomely; though he was covetous and ambitious, yet he had a limit; he would obey the voice of the angel, and could not be tempted to speak a curse, when God spake a blessing. Ahab was an imperfect penitent; he did some things, but not enough. And if there be any root of bitterness, there is no regeneration; coloquintida, and death is in the pot.'

:

39. V. An unregenerate man may leave some sins, not only for temporal interest, but out of reverence of the divine law, out of fear and reverence. Under the law there were many such and there is no peradventure but that many men, who like Felix, have trembled at a sermon, have with such a shaking-fit left off something, that was fit to be laid aside. To leave a sin out of fear of the divine judgment, is not sinful, or totally unacceptable. All that left sin in obedience and reverence to the law, did it in fear of punishment, because fear was the sanction of the law: and even under the Gospel, to obey out of fear of punishment, though it be less perfect, yet it is not criminal, nay, rather on the other side; the worse that men are, so much the less they are afraid of the divine anger and judgments. To abstain out of fear, is to abstain out of a very proper motive: and God, when he sends a judgment with a design of emendation, or threatens a criminal, or denounces woes and cursings, intends that fear should be the beginning of wisdom. "Knowing therefore the terrors of the Lord, we persuade men," saith St. Paul. And

d2 Cor. v. 11.