(7.) Growth in carnal wisdom is another help to sin in producing this sad effect. 'Thy wisdom and thy know- ledge,' saith the prophet, * hath perverted thee ;' Isa. xlvii. 10. So much as carnal wisdom increaseth, 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 his own. 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, tlirough the observation of the ways and walkings of others, and closing
182- THE NATURE AND POWER
with the temptations to craft and subtlety, which opportu- nities in the world have administered unto them, come to be dipped in a worldly carnal frame, and utterly to wither in their possession. 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 con- science unrepented 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 harbouring his great sin in his conscience without suitable repentance. It was otherwise we know with 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 unto all com- munion with God, and is a notable principle of a general decay. So David complains, Psal. xxxiii. 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 received, 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 advantages 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. What- ever it useth, itself is still the principle ; and this is no small demonstration of its efficacy and power.
CHAP. XVI.
The strength of indwelling sin, manifested from its power and effects in persons unregenerate.
It is of the power and efficacy of indwelling sin, as it re- mains in several degrees \n believers, that we are treating.
~ ' OF INDWELLING SIN. 183^
Now I have elsewhere shewed, that the nature and all the natural properties of it do still remain in them : though therefore we cannot prove directly what is the strength of sin in them, from what its power is in those in whom it is only checked and not at all weakened; yet may we, from an observation thereof, caution believers of the real power of that mortal enemy with whom they have to do.
If the plague do violently rage in one city, destroying multitudes, and there be in another an infection of the sane kind, which yet arises not unto that height and fury there, by reason of the correction that it meets withal from a better air, and remedies used ; yet a man may demonstrate unto the inhabitants the force and danger of that infection got in among them, by the effects that it hath and doth produce among others, who have not the benefit of the preventives and preservatives which they enjoy; which will both teach them to value the means of their preservation, and be the more watchful against the power of the infec- tion that is among them. It is so in this case. Believers may be taught what is the power and efficacy of that plague of sin, which is in and among them, by the effects the same plague producetii in and among others, who have not those corrections of its poison, and those preserva- tives from death which the Lord Jesus Christ hath fur- nished them withal.
Having then fixed on the demonstration of the power of sin, from the effects it doth produce, and having given a double instance hereof in believers themselves, I shall now farther evidence the same truth, or pursue the same evidence of it, by shewing somewhat of the power that it acteth in them who are unregenerate, and so have not the remedies aoainst it which believers are furnished withal.
I shall not handle the whole power of sin in unregene- rate persons, which is a very large field, and not the busi- ness I have in hand ; but only by some few instances of its effects ill them, intimate, as I said, unto believers, what they have to deal withal.