Of INDWELLING SIN. 499 times inlaid in their hearts with more efficacy and power. This Rath pro- ved, if not the ruin, yet the great impairingofmany in there days of light wherein we live. By this means from humble clofe walking, many have withered into an empty, barren, talking profeffion. All things almoft have in a fhort feafon become alike unto them : Have they been true or falfe, fo they might be debatingof them, and difpùting about them, all is well. This is food for fin, it hatcheth, increafeth it, and is increafed by it. A notable way it is for the vanity that is in the mind, to exert itfelf without a rebuke from confcience. Whilft men are talking, and writing, and flu- dying about religion, and hearing preaching, it may be, with great delight, as thofe in Ezekiel, xxxiii. 32. Confcience, unlefs throughly awake and circumfpeet, and furnifhed with fpiritual wifdom and care, will be very well pacified, and enter no rebuke or pleas againft the way that the foul is in. But yet all this may be nothing but the aging of that natural vanity, which lies in the mind, and is a principal part of the fin we treat of. And gene- rally this is fo, when men content themfelves, as was faid, with the notions oftruth, 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 mutt needs enfue. (7.) Growth in carnal wifdom is another help to fin in producing this fad effect. Thy wifdom and thy knowledge, faith-the prophet, bath perverted thee, Ifa. xlvu. ro. So much as carnal wifdom increafeth, fo much faith decays. The proper work of it is to teach a man to truffi to and in him- ' felf, of faith to truft wholly in another. So it labours to defiroy the whole work of faith, by canting the foul to return into a deceiving fulnefs of his own. We have woful examples of the prevalencyof this principle of de- clenfion in the days wherein we live. How many a poor, humble, broken hearted creature, who followed after God in fimplicity and integrity of fpirit, have we feen, through the obfervation of the ways and walkings of others, and doting with the temptations to craft and fubtilty, which op- portunities in the world have adminiftred unto them, come to be dipt in a worldly carnal frame, and utterly to wither in their profeffion ? Ma- ny are fo fullied hereby, that they are not to he known to be the men they were. (8.) Some great fin lying long in the heart and confcience unfepented of or not repented of as it ought, and as the matter requires, furthers indwel- ling fin in this work. The great turnof the life ofDavid, whence the firft ways carried the reputation, was in the harbouring his great fin in his con- fcience without fuitablerepentance. It was otherwife we know with Peter, and he had another iffue. A great fin will certainly givea great turn to the lifeof a profeffor. If it be well cured in the blood of Crift, with that humiliation which the Gofpel requires, it often proves a means of more watchfulnefs, fruitfulnefs, humility, and contentation, than ever the foul before obtained. Ifit be neglefted, it certainly hardens the heart, weakens fpiritual ftrength, enfeebles the foul, difcouraging it unto all communion with God, and is a notable principle of a general decay. So David com- plains, Pfal. xxxviii. g. My woundsthink, andare corrupt, beeaufe ofmyJhs- liflineft. His prefent diftemper was not fo much from his fin, as his folly, not fo 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 fet, leaves the place ftronger than before ifotherwife, makes the man a cripple all his days. Thefe things we do but briefly name, and fundry other ,advantages of the like nature that fin makes ufe of to produce this et- fed
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