So SERMONS up'on Serm. XII. fair appearance. Men have many good qualities, no notorious blemifhes, but yet Come fenfitive good or other lieth neareft tilt heart, and occupieth the room and place of God; that is , it is loved, relpeeted, and ferved inflead of God , or more than God: that which is our chiefeft Good or Taft End, is our God, or occupieth the room of God : Mat. 6. 24. No man can ferve two mafers , for either he trill hate the one , and love the other ; or e f he will hold to the one, and defpfb the other : ye cannot ferve God and Mam- mon. Joh. 5. 44. How can ye believe, which receive honour one of another, and fek not the honour that cometh from God only ? Luke r4.26. If any come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and fillers, yea and his own life alp), he cannot be my difciple. We mutt be dead not only to carnal Pleafures, but to Relations, Eftate ; yea Life and all , nothing on this fide God muff fit neareft the heart , nor bring us under its command and power : 1 Cor. 6. 12. .1 will not be brought under the power of any thing. We are befotted and bewitched with tome temporal thing, cannot part with it, or leave it for Gods fake , or notwithflanding all the mifchief it doth to his intereft in the Soul : though a man ferve it cunningly , clofely , and by a cleanly conveyance, yet all his Religion is to hide and feed this Luft. 6. There is a Predominancy of one Sin over another, and the Predominancy of Sin over Grace. In the fìrflfenCe renewed men may be faid to have Tome reigning corru- ption , or predominant fin , namely , in comparifon of other fins. That filch predomi- nant fins they have ,'appeareth by the great fway and power they bear in commanding other evils to be committed or forborn , accordingly as they contributeto the advance- ment or hinderance of this fin. As in the Body, a Wen or Strain draweth all the noxi- ous humors to its felt, and thereby groweth more great and monllrous. It appeareth alto by the frequent relapfes of the Saints into them , and their unwillingnefs to admit admonition and reproof for them , and Cometimes their falling into them out of an in- ward propenfity, when outward Temptations are none, or weak , or very few. Well then , there are fome fins which are lefs mortified than others , or unto which they are naturally carried by Conflitution, or Education, natural Inclination , or courfe of Life. Thus David had his iniquity , Pfal. 18.23. I was alfa upright before him , and I kept my Pelf from mine iniquity , whether it were haflinefs or diftrufl of the Promu e, or allo an inclination to revenge himfelf, fome fins that men favour , or withftand lets, or which are molt urgent and importunate upon them, and deal away their hearts moil from God, the great Pond into which other rivulets or ¡creams of fin do emptythemfelves, or that bough or limb which taketh away the nourifhment from all the under-fhrubs , that which is loved and delighted in above other fins , and when other fins will not prevail, the Devil lets this a -work, as the Difciples looked on the Difciple whom yefur loved, Joh. r 3. 23, 24. Now there was leaning on :efus bofom one of the difeiples whom yefus loved. Simon Peter therefore beckened unto him , that be fhould ask, Who it fhould be of whom he Bake. Well then, in regard of other fins, one may reign and fit in the Throne of the Heart, or be loved more than another ; but not in regard of Predominancy over Grace, for that is contrary to the new Nature, that fin fhould have the upper hand conflantly and univerfally in the Soul. For any one thing, though never fo lawful in it fell, ha- bitually loved more than God, will not Hand with fincerity: Luke 14.33. Whofoever he be that forfaketh not all that he bath , he cannot be my difciple : if we mutt not keep our natural Comforts, certainly not our carnal Lufts. To love any thing apart from Chriff, or againft Chrifl , or above Chrift, is a difpoffefftng of Chrifl, or a calling him out of the Throne. 7. There is a twofold Prevalency and Dominion, allual or habitual. Aîlual is only for a time , habitual for a conftancy : though a regenerate man be not one that lets fin reign over him habitually , yet too often doth fin reign over him aCtually , as to fome particular aCts of fin. Firff- The habitual Reign of Sin may be known by the general frame and flue of the heart a1 life, where it is conflantly yielded unto, and not controuled and oppofed, but beareth fway with the contentment and delight of the party finning. Men give the bridle to fin, and let it lead them whither it will, and generally walk after the flefh, and not after the Spirit , no doubt that is peccatum regnant, cui homo nec exit , nec potefi re- frfiere , the finner hath neither will nor power, becaufe ufually after many lapfes into hainous fin, God giveth up men to.penal or judicial hardnefs of heart, they firft volun- tarily take on thefe bonds and chains upon themfelves , thefe are Paid to walk after their own tuffs, a Pet. 3.3. to continue or live in fin, Rom. 6.2. to be dead in trefpages and fins, Eph. 2. I. to divers Vs and pleafures, Tit. 3.3. to draw on iniquity with cart- ropes,
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