482 The NATURE and POW ER Now, thefe are of two forts. t. The great actual eruptions of fin in their lives. 2. Their habitual declenfions from the frames, ftate,and con- dition of obedience, and communion with God, which they hadobtained; both which by the rule of 7arnes, before unfolded, are to be laid to the account of this law of fin, and belong unto the fourth head of its progrefs, and are both of them convincing evidencesof its power and efficacy. I. Confider the fearful eruptions of actual fins that have beenin the lives ofbelievers, and we Ihall find our pofition evidenced. Should I go thro' at large with this conGderation, I muff recount all the fad and fcanda- lous failings of the faints that are left on record in the holy fcripture. But the particulars of them are known to all; fo that I Ihall not need to mention therm, nor the many aggravations that in their circumfances they are attended with: only tome few things tending to the rendering of our preterit conGderationof them ufeful, may be remarked. As, (r.) They are muff of them in the lives of men that were not of the lowelt form, or ordinary fort of believers, but of men that had a pecu- liar eminency in them, on the account of theirwalking withGod in their ge- neration. Such were Noah, Lot, David, Hezekiah, and others. They were not men of an ordinary fine, but higher than their brethren by their 'boulders and upwards, in profeffton, yea, in real holinels. And fure- ly that muft needs be of a mighty efficacy, that could hurry filch Giants in the ways of God into fuch abominable fins as they fell into. An ordina- ry engine could never have turned therm out of the courte of their obe- dience. It was a poifon that no athletick conftitution of fpiritual health, no antidote could withstand. (2.) And thefe very men fell not into their great fins at the beginningof their profefíion, when they had had but a little experience of the goodnefs ofGod, of the fweetnefs and pleafantnefs of obedience, of the power and craft of fin, of its impullions, folicitations and furprifals, but after a long courfe of walking withGod, and acquaintance with all thefe things, toge- ther with innumerable motives unto watchfulnefs. Noah, according to the lives of men in tltofe days of the world, had walked uprightly with God Tome hundreds of years before- he was fo furpriz'd as he was, Gen. ix. Righteous I,ot feems to have been towards the endof his days e'er he de- filed himfelf with the abominations recorded. David, in a Mort life, had as much experience of grace and fin, and as much clof fpiritual commu- nion with God, as ever had any of the ions of men, before he was cuff to tite ground by this law of fin. So was it with Hezekiah in his degree, which was none of the meaneff. Now, to fet upon fuch perfons, fo well acquainted with its power and deceit, fo armed and provided againff it, that had been conquerors over it for fo many years, and to prevail againff them, it argues a power and efficacy too mighty for every citing but the fpirit of the Almighty th wititftand. Who can look to have greater flock of inherent grace than tltofe men had, to have more experience of God, and the excellencyof his ways, the fweetnefs of his love, and of commu- nion with him than they had; who batheither better furniture tooppofe fin withal, or more obligation fo to do, than they ? And yet we fee how fearfully they were prevailed againff. (3.) As if God had permitted their falls on fet purpofe, that we might learn to be wary of this powerful enemy; they all of them fell out when they had newly received great and flupendous mercies from the ]rand of God, that ought to have been ftrong obligations unto diligence and watchfulnefs in clofe obedience. Noah was but newly come forth of that world of waters, wherein he faw the ungodly world periIlÜng for their fins,
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