POWER OF SIN IN THE LIVES OF PEOFESSORS. 283
become daily a scorn and reproach through their miscarriages, and that justly, to the men of the world? Is it not with them as it was of old with the daughters of Zion, Isa. iii. 24, when God judged them for their sins and wantonness? Hath not the world and self utterly ruined their profession? and are they not regardless of the things ^vherein they have formerly declared a singular concernment? yea, are not some come, partly on one pretence, partly on another, to an open enmity unto, and hatred of, the ways of God? They please them no more, but are evil in their eyes. But not to mention such open apostates any farther, whose hypocrisy the Lord Jesus Christ will shortly judge, how is it with the best? Are not almost all men grown cold and slack as to these things? are they not less concerned in them than formerly? are they not grown weary, selfish in their religion; and so things be indifferent well at home, scarce care how they go abroad in the world? at least, do they not prefer their ease, credit, safety, secular advantages before these things? — a frame that Christ abhors, and declares that those in whom it prevails are none of his. Some, indeed, seem to retain a good zeal for truth; but wherein they make the fairest appearance, therein will they be found to be most abominable. They cry out against errors, — not for truth, but for pai'ty's and interest's sake. Let a man be on their party and promote their interest, be he never so corrupt in his judgment, he is embraced, and, it may be, admired. This is not zeal for God, but for a man's self It is not, " The zeal of thine house hath eaten me up," but, " Master, forbid them, because they follow not with us." Better it were, doubtless, for men never to pretend unto any zeal at all than to substitute such wrathful selfishness in the room of it.
(2.) Is men's delight in the ordinances and worship of God the same as in former days? do they find the same sweetness and relish in them as they have done of old? How precious hath the word been to them formerly ! What joy and delight have they had in attend- ance thereon ! How would they have run and gone to have been made partakers of it, where it was dispensed m its power and purity, in the evidence and demonstration of the Spirit ! Did they not call the Sabbath their delight, and was not the approach of it a real joy unto their souls? Did they not long after the converse and com- munion of saints, and could they not undergo manifold perils for the attainment of it? And doth this frame still abide upon them? Are there not decays and declensions to be found amongst them? May it not be said, " Grey hairs are here and there upon them, and they perceive it notV Yea, are not men ready to say with them of old, " ' What a weariness is it !' l^Ial. i. IS. It is even a burden and a weariness to be tied up to the obsei'vation of all these ordinances. What need we be at all so strict in the observation of the Sabbath ?
284; THE NATURE AND TOWER OF INDWELLING SIN.
What need we hear so often? What need this distinction in hear- ing?" Insensibly a great disrespect, yea, even a contempt of the pleasant and excellent ways of Christ and his gospel is fallen upon many professors.
(3.) May not the same conviction be farther carried on by an in- quiry into the universal course of obedience and the perfonnance of duties that men have been engaged in? Is there the same conscien- tious tenderness of sinning abiding in many as was in days of old, the same exact performance of private duties, the same love to the brethren, the same readiness for the cross, the same humility of mind and spirit, the same self-denial? The steam of men's lusts, wherewith the air is tainted, will not suffer us so to say.
We need, then, go no farther than this wretched generation wherein we live, to evince the truth of the observation laid down as the foun- dation of the instance insisted on. The Lord give repentance before it be too late !
Now, all these declensions, all these decays, that are found in some professors, they all proceed from this root and cause; — they are all the product of indwelling sin, and all evince the exceeding power and efficacy of it: for the proof whereof I shall not need to go farther than the general rule which out of James we have already considered, — namely, that lust or indwelling sin is the cause of all actual sin and all habitual declensions in believers. This is that which the apostle intends in that place to teach and declai-e. I shall, therefore, handle these two things, and show, — 1. That this doth evince a great efficacy and power in sin ; 2. Declare the ways and means whereby it brings forth or brings about this cursed effect; — all in design of our general end, in calling upon and cautioning be- lievers to avoid it, to oppose it.