DECAY IN GRACE FROM THE PREVALENCE OF SIN. 301
of their insinuation subtile and imperceptible, there is an alloy of gifts, which sometimes even devours the pure gold of grace, which should be the chief and principal in them. In these there is imme- diate intercourse between God and that which is of himself in the soul. If once sin, by its deceits and treacheries, prevail to take off the soul from diligent attendance unto communion with God and constancy in these duties, it will not fail to effect a declining in the whole of a man's obedience. It hath made its entrance, and will assuredly make good its progress.
[6.] Growing in notions of truth without answerable 'practice is another thing that indwelling sin makes use of to bring the souls of believers imto a decay. The apostle tell us that " knowledge puffeth up," 1 Cor. viii. 1. If it be alone, not improved in practice, it swells men beyond a due proportion; lilce a man that hath a dropsy, we are not to expect that he hath strength to his bigness; like trees that are continually running up a head, which keeps them from bearing fruit. When once men have attained to this, that they can entertain and receive evangelical truths in a new and more glorious light or more clear discovery than formerly, or new manifestations of truth which they knew not before, and please themselves in so doing, without diligent endeavours to have the power of those truths and notions upon their hearts, and their souls made conformable unto them, they generally learn so to dispose of all truths formerly known, which were sometimes inlaid in their hearts with more efficacy and power. This hath proved, if not the ruin, yet the great impairing of many in these days of light Avherein we live. By this means, from humble, close walking, many have withered into an empty, barren, talking profes- sion. All thino-s almost have in a short season become alike unto them; — have they been true or false, so they might be debating of them and disputing about them, all is well. This is food for sin; it hatcheth, increaseth it, and is increased by it. A notable way it is for the vanity that is in the mind to exert itself without a rebuke from conscience. Whilst men are talking, and writing, and studying about religion, and hearing preaching, it may be, with great delight, as those in Ezek. xxxiii. 32, conscience, unless thoroughly awake and circumspect, and furnished with spiritual wisdom and care, will be ver}" well pacified, and enter no rebukes or pleas against the way that the soul is in. But yet all this may be nothing but the acting of that natural vanity which lies in the mind, and is a principal part of the sin we treat of And generally this is so when men content them- selves, as was said, with the notions of truth, without labouring after an experience of the power of them in their hearts, and the bringing forth the fruit of them in their lives, on which a decay must needs ensue.
302 THE NATURE AND POWER OF INDWELLING SIN.
[7.] Growth in carnal ivisdom is another help to sin in produc- ing this sad effect. " Thy wisdom and thy knowledge," saith the prophet, " it hath perverted thee," Isa. xlvii. 10. So much as carnal wisdom iucreaseth, so much faith decays. The proper work of it is to teach a man to trust to and in himself; of faith, to trust wholly in another. So it labours to destroy the whole work of faith, by causing the soul to return into a deceiving fulness of its o^vn. We have woful examples of the prevalency of this principle of declension in the days wherein we live. How many a poor, humble, broken- hearted creature, who followed after God in simplicity and integrity of spirit, have we seen, through the observation of the ways and walkings of others, and closing with the temptations to craft and subtlety which opportunities in the world have administered unto them, come to be dijoped in a worldly carnal fi'ame, and utterly to wither in their profession ! Many are so sullied hereby that they are not known to be the men they were.
[8.] Some great sin lying long in the heart and conscience unre- fented of, or not repented of as it ought, and as the matter requires, furthers indwelling sin in this work. The great turn of the life of David, whence his first ways carried the reputation, was in the har- bouring his great sin in his conscience without suitable repentance. It was otherwise, we know, witli Peter, and he had another issue. A great sin will certainly give a great turn to the life of a professor. If it be well cured in the blood of Christ, with that humiliation which the gospel requires, it often proves a means of, more watchfulness, fruitfulness, humility, and contentation, than ever before the soul obtained. If it be neglected, it certainly hardens the heart, weakens spiritual strength, enfeebles the soul, discouraging it utito all com- munion with God, and is a notable principle of a general decay. So David complains, Ps. xxxviii. 5, " My wounds stink and are corrupt because of my foolishness." His present distemper was not so much from his sin as his folly, — not so much from the wounds he had re- ceived as from his neglect to make a timely application for their cure. It is like a broken bone, which, being well set, leaves the place stronger than before; if otherwise, makes the man a cripple all his days. These things we do but briefly name, and sundry other ad- vantages of the like nature that sin makes use of to produce this effect might also be instanced in; but these may suffice unto our present purpose. Whatever it useth, itself is still the principle; and this is no small demonstration of its efficacy and power.