DECAY IN GRACE FROM THE PREVALENCE OF SIN. 293
likeness in liis imagination ; because he doth it only slightly, and with a transient look. So is it with men that will indeed think of gospel truths but in a slight manner, -svithout endeavouring, with all their hearts, minds, and strength, to have them ingrafted upon their souls, and all the effects of them produced in them. Now, this is the way of sinners in their first engagements unto God. They never think of pardoning mercy, but they labour to affect their whole souls with it, and do stir up themselves unto suitable affections and returns of constant obedience. They think not of the excellency of Christ and spiritual things, now newly discovered unto them in a saving light, but they press with all their might after a farther, a fuller enjoyment of them. This keeps them humble and holy, this makes them thank- ful and fruitful. But now, if the utmost diligence and carefulness be not used to improve and grow in this wisdom, to keep up this frame, indwelling sin, working by the vanity of the minds ol men, will in- sensibly bring them to content themselves with slight and rare thoughts of these things, without a diligent, sedulous endeavour to give them their due improvement upon the soul. As men decay herein, so will they assuredly decay and decline in the power of holi- ness and close walking with God. The springs being stopped or tainted, the streams will not run so siuifily, at least not so sweetly, as formerly. Some, by this means, under an uninterrupted profes- sion, insensibly wither almost into notliing. They talk of religion and spiilLual things as much as ever they did in their lives, and per- form duties with as much constancy as ever they did ; l^ut yet they have poor, lean, starving souls, as to any real and effectual commu- nion with God. By the power and subtlety of indwelling sin they have grown formal, and learned to deal about spiritual things in an overly manner; whereby they have lost all their life, vigour, savour, and efficacy towards them. Be always serious in spiritual things if ever you intend to be bettered by them.
odly. Indwelling sin oftentimes prevails to the stop})ing of these springs of go.^pel obedience, by false and foolish opinions corrupting the simplicity of the gospel. False opinions are the work of the flesh. From the vanity and darkness of the minds of men, with a mixture more or less of corrupt affections, do they mostly proceed. The apostle w^as jealous over his Corinthians in this matter. He was afraid lest their minds " should by any means be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ," 2 Cor. xi. 2, 3 ; which he knew would be attended by a decay and declension in faith, love, and obedience. And thus matters in this case often fall out. We have seen some who, after they have received a sAveet taste of the love of God in Christ, of the excellenc}^ of pardoning mercy, and have walked humbly with God for many years in the faith and apprehension of
'294 THE NATURE AND POWER OF INDWELLING SIN.
the truth, have, by the coiTuption of thch minds from the simphcitj that is in Christ, by false and foohsh opinions, despised all their own experiences, and rejected all the efficacy of truth, as to the further- ance of their obedience. Hence John cautions the elect lady and her children to take heed they were not seduced, lest they should " lose the things that they had wrought," 2 Epist. verse 8 ; — lest they should themselves cast away all their former obedience as lost, and a thing of no value. We have innumerable instances hereof in the days wherein we live. How many are there who, not many years since, put an unspeakable value on the pardon of sin in the blood of Christ, — who delighted in gospel discoveries of spiritual things, and walked in obedience to God on the account of them, — who, being beguiled and turned aside from the truth as it is in Jesus, do despise these springs of their own former obedience! And as this is done grossly and openly in some, so there are more secret and more plausible insinua- tions of corrupt opinions tainting the springs and fountains of gos- pel obedience, and, through the vanity of men's minds, which is a principal part of indwelling sin, getting ground upon them. Such are all those that tend to the extenuation of special grace in its free- dom and efficacy, and the advancement of the wills or the endea- vours of men in their spiritual power and ability. They are works of the flesh ; and howsoever some may pretend a usefulness in them to the promotion of holiness, they will be found to taint the springs of true evangelical obedience, insensibly to turn the h ^art from God, and to bring the whole soul into a spiritual decay.
And this is one way whereby indwelling sin produceth this per- nicious effect of drawing men off from the power, purity, and fruit- fulness attending their first conversion and engagements unto God, bringing them into habitual declension, at least as unto degrees, of then- holiness and grace. There is not any thing we ■ ought to be more watchful against, if we intend effectually to deal with this powerful and subtle enemy. It is no small part of the wisdom of faith, to observe whether gospel truths continue to have the same savour unto and efficacy upon the soul as formerly they have had ; and whether an endeavour be maintained to improve them con- tinually as at the first. A commandment that is always practised is always new, as John speaks of that of love. And he that really improves gospel truths, though he hears them a thousand times, they will be always new and fresh unto him, because they put him on newness of practice; when to another, that grows common un- der them, they are burdensome and common imto him, and he even loathes the manna that he is so accustomed unto.