DEPTHS OP SIN. the general conquest of the land, would dwell in it still. Judg. 1: 27. Indeed, when Israel grew strong, they brought them under tribute, but they could not utterly expel them. The kingdom and rule belongs to grace ; and when it grows strong, it brings sin much under; but it will not wholly be driven out. The body of death is not to be utterly done away, but in the death of the body. In the flesh of the best saints there dwelleth no good thing," Rom. 7: 18; but the contrary is there, that is the root of all evil. The flesh lusteth against the Spirit, as the Spirit lusteth against the flesh. Gal. 5: 17. As, then, there is a universality in the actings of the Spirit in its opposing all evil, so there is a uni- versality in the actings of the flesh for the furtherance of it. Some lusts or branches of original corruption obtain in some persons such advantages, either from nature, custom, employment, society, or other circumstances, that they become like the Canaanites that had iron chariots ; it is a very difficult thing to subdue them. Well it is if war be maintained constantly against them, for they will almost always be in actual rebellion. Indwelling sin, though weakened, retains all its pro- perties : the properties of a thing follow its nature. Where the nature of any thing is, there are all its natu- ral properties. What are these properties of indwelling sin I should here declare, but that I have handled the whole power and efficacy, the nature and properties of it, in another treatise. In brief, they are such that it is no wonder that some believers are by them cast into depths ; but it is indeed wonderful that any escape them. 2. The power and prevalence of temptation; which because I have also already shown in another discourse, I shall not here farther insist upon. 3. The sovereign pleasure of God in dealing with sin- ning saints must also he considered. Divine love and
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