A53712:453
The Nature, Power, Deceit, and Prevalency of Indwelling Sin
The nature, power, deceit, and prevalency of the remainders of indwelling-sin in believers together with the ways of its working and means of prevention opened, evinced, and applied with a resolution of sundry cases of conscience thereunto appertaining.The nature, power, deceit, and prevalency of the remainders of indwelling-sin in believers together with the wayes of its working and means of prevention opened, evinced, and applyed with a resolution of sundry cases of conscience thereunto appertaining.
London: printed for Thomas Cockerill, 1675
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
Fourthly, Sin doth this work by cherishing some secret particular lust in the heart. This the soul contends against faintly, It contends against it upon the account of sincerity, it cannot but do so; but it doth not make through-work vigorously to mortify it by the strength and power of Grace. Now where it is thus with the Soul, an habitual declension as to holiness will assuredly ensue. David shows us how in his first days he kept his heart close unto God, Psal 18. 23. I was upright before him, […] I kept my self from mine iniquity. His great care was lest any one lust should prevail in him, or upon him, that might be called his iniquity in s• peculiar manner. The same course steered Paul also • Cor. 9. 27▪ he was in danger to be lifted up by his spiritual revelations and Enjoyments. This ⟨p. 257⟩makes him keep his body in subjection, that no carnal reasonings or vain imagination might take place in him. But where indwelling Sin hath provoked, irritated, and given strength unto a special lust, it proves assuredly a Principal Means of a general declension. For as an infirmity and weakness in any one vital part, will make the whole body consumptive, so will the weakness in any one Grace, which a perplexing lust brings with it, make the Soul. It every way weakens spiritual strength. It weakens Confidence in God in Faith and Prayer. The knees will be feeble, and the hands will hang down in dealing with God, where a galling and unmortified lust lies in the heart. It will take such hold upon the soul, that it shall not be able to look up, Psal. 40. 12. It darkens the mind by innumerable foolish imaginations, which it stirs up to make provision for its self. It galls the Conscience with those spots and stains, which in and by its actings it brings upon the soul. It contends in the Will for Rule and Dominion: An active stirring corruption would have the commanding power in the soul, and it is ever and anon ready to take the Throne. It disturbs the thoughts, and sometimes will even frighten the soul from dealing with it by meditation, lest corrupt affections being entangled by it, Grace loses ground instead of prevailing. It breaks out oftentimes into scandalous sins, as it did in David and Hezekiah, and loads the sinner with sorrow and discouragement.