d ourselves over to it. Rom. vi. 16, 19,
We yield our members servants to iniquity. A little pleasure or commodity
is the bait that ensnares us to this. We give up ourselves, and join to
our idols, and God ratifies it, in a manner, and passeth such a
sentence,--Let them alone, he says, go ye every one and serve your idols,
Hos. iv. 17. Since ye would not serve me, be doing,--go serve your lusts,
look if they be better masters than I; look what wages they will give you.

Now, let us again consider what power sin hath, being thus clothed with a
sort of authority. O but it is mighty, and works mightily in men! It
reigns in our mortal bodies, Rom. vi. 12. Here is the throne of sin
established in the lusts and affections of the body, and from hence it
emits laws and statutes, and sends out commands to the soul and whole man.
Man chose at first to hearken to the counsel of his senses, that said, it
was pleasant and good to eat of the forbidden fruit; but that counsel is
now turned into a command. Sin hath gotten a sceptre there, to rule over
the spirit which was born a free prince. Sin hath conquered all our
strength, or we have given up unto it all our strength. Any truth that is
in the conscience; any knowledge of God, or religion, all this is
incarcerated, detained in a prison of unrighteous affections. Sin hath
many strongholds and bulwarks in our flesh, and by these commands the
whole spirit and soul in man, and leads captive every thought to the
obedience of the flesh. You know how strong it was in holy Paul, Rom.
vii.; what a mighty battle and wrestling he had, and how near he was to
fainting and giving over. How then must it have an absolute and sovereign
full dominion over men in nature! There being no contrary principle
within, by nature, to debate with it, it rules without much controlment.
There may be many convictions of conscience, and sparkles of light against
sin, but these are quickly extinguished and buried. Nay, all these
principles of light and knowledge in the conscience, do oftentimes
strengthen sin, as some things are confirmed, not weakened, by opposition.
Unequal and faint opposition strengthens the adversary, as cold,
compassing springs, makes them hotter. So it is here. Sin takes occasion,
by the command, to work "all manner of concupiscence," Rom. vii. 8.
Without the law, sin is in a manner dead; but when any adversary appears,
when our lusts and humours are crossed, then they unite their strength