communion with God, which they had obtained; - both which, by the
CHAPTER 14.
The power of sin demonstrated by the effects it has had in the lives of professors - First, in actual sins - Secondly, in habitual backsliding.
WE now proceed to other evidences of that sad truth. But as most of our work is done, I shall be more brief in discussing the rest.
So we here consider the demonstration which this law of sin has in all ages given of its power, by the woeful fruits that it has brought forth, even in believers. Now, these are of two sorts: -
1. The great eruptions of sin in their lives;
2. Their habitual backsliding from the condition of obedience and communion with God, which they had obtained; - both which, by the rule of James, are due to this law of sin, and belong to the fourth head of its progress, and are both convincing evidences of its power.
1. Consider the fearful eruptions of actual sin in the lives of believers, and we shall find our position evidenced. Should I go through at large with this consideration, I must recount all the sad failings of the saints that are left on record in the holy Scripture; but the details of them are known to all. Only some few things may be remarked; as, -
(1.) Most of them occur in the lives of men that were not of the ordinary sort of believers, but of men that had a peculiar eminence because they walked with God in their generation. Such were Noah, Lot, David, Hezekiah, and others. They were not men of an ordinary size, but higher than their brethren, by the shoulders and upwards, in faith and in real holiness. And surely it must be a mighty efficacy that could hurry such giants in the ways of God into such abominable sins as they fell into. An ordinary engine could never have turned them out of the course of their obedience. It was a poison that no athletic constitution of spiritual health, no antidote, could withstand.