I am feeble and sore broken: I have roared by reason of the disquietness of my heart. Lord, all my desire is before thee; and my groaning is not hid from thee. My heart panteth, my strength faileth me: as for the light of mine eyes, it also is gone from me.
— Psalm 38:8-10
Because he hath set his love upon me, therefore will I deliver him: I will set him on high, because he hath known my name. He shall call upon me, and I will answer him: I will be with him in trouble; I will deliver him, and honour him.
— Psalm 91:14-15
And in that day thou shalt say, O LORD, I will praise thee: though thou wast angry with me, thine anger is turned away, and thou comfortedst me.
— Isaiah 12:1
Sing, O heavens; and be joyful, O earth; and break forth into singing, O mountains: for the LORD hath comforted his people, and will have mercy upon his afflicted.
— Isaiah 49:13
Indwelling Sin is Proved Powerful from its Deceit, by John Owen. The following contains Chapter Eight of his work, “The Nature, Power, Deceit, and Prevalency of the Remainders of Indwelling-Sin in Believers. Together with the Ways of its Working, and Means of its Prevention. Opened, Evinced and Applyed, with a Resolution of Sundry Cases of Conscience Thereunto Appertaining.”
O wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me from the body of this death? I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. —Rom 7:24, 25a
Indwelling sin is proved powerful from its deceit — Proved to be deceitful — The general nature of deceit — Jas 1:14, opened — How the mind is drawn from its duty by the deceitfulness of sin — The principal duties of the mind in our obedience — The ways and means by which it is turned from it.
The second part of the evidence of the power of sin, from its manner of operation, is taken from its deceitfulness. In its working, it adds deceit to power. The efficacy of that must necessarily be great. And so this is to be carefully watched against by all those who value their souls: where power and deceit are combined, especially advantaged and assisted by all the ways and means insisted on before.
Before we come to show what the nature of this deceitfulness of sin consists in, and how it prevails by it, some testimonies will be briefly given as to the thing itself, and some light will be given as to the general nature of it.
We have the express testimony of the Holy Ghost that sin, indwelling sin, is deceitful, such as Heb 3:13,“Take heed that you are not hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.” It is deceitful; take heed of it, watch against it, or it will produce its utmost effect in hardening the heart against God. It is on account of sin that the heart is said to be “deceitful above all things,” Jer 17:9. Take a man in other things and, as Job puts it, though he “would be wise and crafty, he is like the wild ass’s colt,” Job 11:12 — a poor, vain, empty nothing; but consider his heart on account of this law of sin — it is crafty and deceitful above all things. “They are wise to do evil,” says the prophet,“but to do good they have no knowledge,” Jer 4:22. The apostle speaks to the same purpose in Eph 4:22,“The old man is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts.” Every lust, which is a branch of this law of sin, is deceitful; and where there is poison in every stream, the fountain must necessarily be corrupt. No particular lust has any deceit in it, except what is communicated to it from this fountain of all actual lust, this law of sin. And the coming of the “man of sin” is said to be in and with the “deception of unrighteousness,” 2Thes 2:9, 10.
Unrighteousness is a thing generally decried and said to be evil among men; so that it is not easy to conceive why any man would avail for himself a reputation by it. But there is a deceivableness in it, by which the minds of men are turned aside from a due consideration of it, as we will show afterward. And thus the apostle gives an account of those who are under the power of sin, saying they are “deceived,” Titus 3:3. And the life of evil men is nothing but “deceiving, and being deceived,” 2Tim 3:13. So we have sufficient testimony given as to this qualification of the enemy with whom we deal: he is deceitful. Consideration of this, of all things, puts the mind of man at a loss in dealing with such an adversary. He knows he can have no security against one who is deceitful, except by standing on his own guard and defense all his days.
Further to manifest the strength and advantage that sin has by its deceit, we may observe that the Scripture places it for the most part as the head and spring of every sin, as though there were no sin followed after except where deceit went before it. So it is in 1Tim 2:13, 14. The reason the apostle gives as to why Adam, though he was first formed, was not first in the transgression, is because he was not first deceived. The woman, though made last, yet being first deceived, was first in the sin. Even that first sin began in deceit; and until the mind was deceived, the soul was safe. Eve therefore truly expressed the matter in Gen 3:13, even though she did not say it for a good end. “The serpent beguiled me,” she says, “and I ate.” She thought to extenuate her own crime by charging the serpent; and this was a new fruit of the sin she had thrown herself into. But the matter of fact was true — she was beguiled before she ate; deceit went before the transgression. And the apostle shows that sin and Satan still take the same course, 2Cor 11:3. Essentially he says,“There is still the same way of working towards actual sin as there was of old: beguiling, deceiving goes before it; and sin, that is, its actual accomplishment, follows after.” Hence, all the great works that the devil does in the world, to stir men up to oppose the Lord Jesus Christ and his kingdom, he does by deceit: Rev 12:9,“The devil, who deceives the whole world.” It would be utterly impossible that men should be prevailed on to abide in Satan’s service, acting out his designs to their eternal, and sometimes their temporal ruin, if they were not exceedingly deceived.
This is why those manifold cautions are given to us: if we would not sin, then take heed that we are not deceived. “Let no man deceive you with vain words: for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the children of disobedience,” Eph 5:6. “Do not be deceived; God is not mocked: for whatever a man sows, that he shall also reap,” Gal 6:7.96
From all these testimonies we may learn the influence that deceit has in sin, and consequently the advantage that the law of sin has to exercise its power by deceitfulness. Where it prevails to deceive, it does not fail to produce its fruit.
The ground of this efficacy of sin by deceit is taken from the faculty of the soul that is affected by it. Deceit properly affects the mind; it is the mind that is deceived. When sin attempts any other way of entrance into the soul, such as by the affections, the mind, retaining its right and sovereignty, is able to check and control it. But where the mind is tainted, the prevalence must be great; for the mind or understanding is the leading faculty of the soul; and what that fixes on, the will and affections will rush after, being capable of no consideration except what the mind presents to them. This is why, even though the entanglement of the affections toward sin is often most troublesome, yet the deceit of the mind is always most dangerous — and that is because of the place that the mind possesses in the soul as to all its operations. Its office is to guide, direct, choose, and lead; and “if the light that is in us is darkness, how great is that darkness!” Mat 6.23
And this will further appear if we consider the nature of deceit in general. It consists in presenting to the soul (or mind), things otherwise than as they are, either in their nature, causes, effects, or present respect to the soul. This is the general nature of deceit; and it prevails in many ways. It hides what ought to be seen and considered; conceals circumstances and consequences; it presents what is not,97or things as they are not, as we will show afterward in particular.
It was shown before that Satan “beguiled” and “deceived” our first parents; the Holy Ghost gives that term to Satan’s temptation and seduction. And the Scripture relates how he deceived them, in Gen 3:4, 5. He did it by representing things as otherwise than they really were. The fruit was desirable; that was apparent to the eye. Hence Satan takes advantage to secretly insinuate that in forbidding them to eat the fruit, God’s aim was merely to curtail their happiness. To test their obedience, he hides from them that certain though not immediate ruin would ensue upon eating it; he proposes only the present advantage of knowledge; and so he presents the whole case quite otherwise to them than indeed it was. This is the nature of deceit: it is a representation of a matter under a disguise — hiding what is undesirable, and proposing what indeed is not in it — so that the mind may make a false judgment about it. So Jacob deceived Isaac by wearing his brother’s clothing, and putting the skins on his hands and neck.Gen 27.11-19
Again; deceit gains an advantage by that way of management which is inseparable from it. It is always carried on by degrees, little by little, so that the whole design and aim is not revealed at once. So Satan dealt in that great deceit mentioned before; he proceeds in it by steps and degrees, First, he removes an objection, and tells them they shall not die; then he proposes the good of knowledge to them, and of being like God by doing it. To hide and conceal ends, to proceed by steps and degrees, to make use of what is obtained, and from there to press on to further effects, is the true nature of deceit. Stephen tells us the king of Egypt “dealt subtly,” or deceitfully,“with their kindred,” Acts 7:19. He did not at first fall to killing and slaying them, but it says, Exo 1:10,“Come, let us deal shrewdly;” beginning to oppress them. This results in their bondage, verse 11. Having gotten this ground to make them slaves, he then proceeds to destroy their children, verse 16. He did not fall on them all at once, but by degrees. And this may suffice to show in general that sin is deceitful, and to show the advantages that it gains by it. For the way, manner, and progress of sin, in working by deceit, is fully expressed by the apostle James:
Jas 1:14, 15,“Every man is tempted when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed. Then when lust has conceived, it gives birth to sin: and sin, when it is finished, brings forth death.”
This passage, declaring the whole of what we aim at in this matter, must be particularly insisted on. In this verse, James manifests that men are willing to drive the old trade which our first parents set up at the entrance of sin; namely, excusing themselves in their sins, and casting the occasion and blame for them on others. It is not, they say, from themselves, from their own nature and inclinations, from their own designs, that they committed such evils, but merely from their temptations. And if they don’t know where to fix the evil of those temptations, they will lay them on God himself, rather than go without an excuse or extenuation of their guilt.
James rebukes this evil in the hearts of men: verse 13,“Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted by God: for God cannot be tempted with evil, nor does he tempt any man.” And to show the justness of this reproof, he reveals in these words the true causes of the rise and the whole progress of sin, manifesting that the whole guilt of it lies upon the sinner; and that the whole punishment of it, if not graciously prevented, will also be his lot.
We therefore have in these words, as was said, the whole progress of lust or indwelling sin, by way of subtlety, fraud, and deceit, expressed and delimited by the Holy Ghost. And from this we will manifest the particular ways and means by which it puts forth its power and efficacy in the hearts of men by deceitfulness and subtlety; and we may observe in these words —
First, the utmost end aimed at in all the actings of sin, or its tendency in its own nature, and that is death: “Sin, when it is finished, brings forth death,” the everlasting death of the sinner; pretend however it will, this is the end it aims at and tends to. Hiding ends and designs is the principal property of deceit. Sin does this to the uttermost; it pleads countless other things, but not once does it declare that it aims at the death, the everlasting death of the soul. And a fixed apprehension of this end of every sin is a blessed means to prevent its prevalence in its way of deceit or beguiling.
Secondly, the general way of its acting towards that end is by temptation: “Every man is tempted by his own lust.” I do not intend to speak in general about the nature of temptations, because it does not belong to our present purpose; and besides, I have done it elsewhere. It may suffice at present to observe that the life of temptation lies in deceit; so that, in the business of sin, to be effectually tempted, or to be beguiled or deceived, are the same thing. Thus it was in the first temptation. It is everywhere called the serpent’s beguiling or deceiving, as manifested before: “The serpent beguiled Eve;” that is, he prevailed upon her by his temptations. So that every man is tempted — that is, every man is beguiled or deceived — by his own lust, or indwelling sin, which we have often declared to be the same thing.
There are five degrees by which sin proceeds in this work of tempting or deceiving; for we showed before that this belongs to the nature of deceit, that it works by degrees, gaining its advantage by one step, in order to gain another.
The FIRST of these consists in drawing off or drawing away: “Every man is tempted when he is drawn away by his own lust.”
The SECOND is in enticing: “And is enticed.”
The THIRD in the conception of sin: “When lust has conceived.” When the heart is enticed, then lust conceives in it.
The FOURTH is birthing sin in its actual accomplishment: “When lust has conceived it gives birth to sin.” In all of which there is a secret allusion to an adulterous deviation from conjugal duties, and conceiving or giving birth to children of whoredom and fornication.
The FIFTH is finishing sin, completing it, filling up the measure of it,1Thes 2.16 by which the end originally designed by lust is brought about: “Sin, when it is finished, brings forth death,” Just as lust in the act of conceiving, naturally and necessarily brings forth sin, so sin being finished, infallibly procures eternal death.
The first of these relates to the mind; it is drawn off or drawn away by the deceit of sin. The second relates to the affections; they are enticed or entangled. The third relates to the will, in which sin is conceived; the consent of the will is the formal conception of actual sin. The fourth relates to the conduct in which sin is brought forth; it exerts itself in the lives and courses of men. The fifth respects an obdurate course in sinning, that finishes, consummates, and encloses the whole work of sin, upon which death or eternal ruin ensues.
I will principally consider the first three (mind, affections, and will), in which the main strength of the deceit of sin lies; and that is because in believers, whose state and condition is principally proposed for consideration, God is, for the most part, pleased to graciously prevent the fourth instance (bringing forth actual sins in their conduct); and to prevent the last always and wholly (being obdurate in finishing a course of sin). What ways God makes use of in his grace and faithfulness to stifle the conceptions of sin in the womb, and to hinder its actual production in the lives of men, must be spoken to afterward.
The first three instances we will insist on fully, then, as those in which the principal concern of believers lies in this matter.
The first thing which sin is said to do, working by way of deceit, is to draw away or draw off; this is why a man is said to be drawn off, or “drawn away” and diverted: namely, from attending to that course of obedience and holiness which — in opposition to sin and its law — he is bound to attend to with diligence.
Now, this effect of the deceit of sin is worked upon the mind. The mind or understanding, as we have shown, is the guiding, the conducting faculty of the soul. It goes before — in discerning, judging, and determining — to make the way of moral actions fair and smooth to the will and the affections. The mind is to the soul, what Moses told his father-in-law he might be to the people in the wilderness: “eyes to guide them,” Num 10.31 and keep them from wandering in that desolate place. The mind is the eye of the soul, without whose guidance the will and affections would perpetually wander in the wilderness of this world, led by any object with an apparent present good, as it offered or presented itself to them.
The first thing, therefore, that sin aims at in its deceitful working, is to draw away and divert the mind from the discharge of its duty.
There are two things which belong to the duty of the mind in that special office which it has in and about the obedience which God requires —
1. To keep itself and the whole soul in such a frame and posture, that it may render it ready for all duties of obedience, and watchful against all enticements to conceive sin.
2. In particular, to carefully attend to all particular actions, so that they are performed as God requires — that their matter, manner, time and season, are agreeable to his will; and also for obviating all particular tenders of sin in forbidden things (chap. 9).
The whole duty of the mind of a believer consists in these two things. And so indwelling sin endeavors to divert the mind and draw it away from both of them.
The first of these is the duty of the mind in reference to the general frame and course of the whole soul. And two things may be considered in this: that it is founded in a due and constant consideration
(1.) of ourselves — of sin and its vileness; and
(2.) of God — of his grace and goodness. Sin labors to draw the mind away from both of these.
Secondly, in attending to those duties which are suited to obviate the working of the law of sin in a special manner.
(1.) Sin endeavors to draw the mind away from a due consideration, apprehension, and sensibility of its own vileness, and the danger which attends it. A due and constant consideration of sin, in its nature, in all its aggravating circumstances, in its end and tendency, especially as represented in the blood and cross of Christ, should always abide with us:
Jer 2:19,“Know therefore and see that it is an evil thing and bitter, that you have forsaken the LORD your God.”
Every sin is a forsaking of the Lord our God. If the heart does not know, if it does not consider, that it is an evil thing and bitter — evil in itself, and bitter in its effects, fruit, and event — it will never be secured against it. Besides, that frame of heart which is most accepted by God in any sinner, is the humble, contrite, and self-abasing frame:
Isa 57:15,“Thus says the high and lofty One that inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy; I dwell in the high and holy place, with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the spirit of the contrite ones.”
See also Luke 18:13, 14. This becomes a sinner; no garment sits so decently about him as this. “Be clothed with humility,” says the apostle, 1Pet 5:5. It is what becomes us, and it is the only safe frame. He that walks humbly, walks safely. This is the intent of Peter’s advice, 1Pet 1:17, “Pass the time of your sojourning here in fear.” He gives this advice to all believers after he himself had miscarried by another frame of mind. It is not a bondage, servile fear, that he advises them to, disquieting and perplexing the soul. Rather it is such a fear as may keep men constantly calling upon the Father with reference to the final judgment, so that they may be preserved from sin, by which they were in so great a danger:
1Pet 1:17,“If you call on the Father, who without respect to persons judges according to every man’s work, pass the time of your sojourning here in fear.”
This is the humble frame of soul. And how is this obtained? How is this preserved? In no other way than by a constant, deep apprehension of the evil, vileness, and danger of sin. So it was worked, so it was kept up, in the approved publican. “God be merciful,” he says,“to me a sinner.” Luk 18.13 A sense of sin kept him humble; and humility made way for his access to a testimony of the pardon of sin.
And this is the great preservative from sin through grace, as we have an example in the instance of Joseph, Gen 39:9. Upon the urging of his great temptation, he recoils immediately into this frame of spirit. He says,
“How can I do this thing, and sin against God?” A constant, steady sense of the evil of sin gives him such preservation, that he risks liberty and life in opposition to it. To fear sin is to fear the Lord; so the holy man tells us that they are the same:
Job 28:28,“The fear of the Lord is wisdom; and departing from evil is understanding.”
This therefore, in the first place and in general, is what the law of sin puts forth its deceit about — namely, to draw the mind away from this frame, which is the strongest fort of the soul’s defense and security. It labors to divert the mind from a due apprehension of the vileness, abomination, and danger of sin. It either secretly and insensibly insinuates in the mind, lessening, excusing, and extenuating thoughts about sin; or else it draws the mind away from pondering the danger of sin, from being conversant about it in its thoughts as much as it should be, and has been formerly. And if, after the heart of a man has been made tender, soft, and deeply sensible of sin, through the word, Spirit, and grace of Christ — it has less, fewer, slighter, or less affecting thoughts of or about the danger of sin, on any account or by any means whatsoever, — the mind of that man has been drawn away by the deceitfulness of sin.
There are two ways, among others, by which the law of sin endeavors deceitfully to draw the mind away from this duty, and the frame that ensues from it —
1. It does it by a horrible abuse of gospel grace. The gospel provides a remedy against the whole evil of sin, the filth, the guilt of it, with all its dangerous consequents. It is the doctrine of the deliverance of the souls of men from sin and death — it is a revelation of the gracious will of God towards sinners by Jesus Christ. What now is the genuine tendency of this doctrine, of this revelation of grace; and what should we use and employ it for? The apostle declares this,
Titus 2:11, 12,“The grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men, teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world.”
This is what the gospel teaches; this is what we ought to learn from it and by it. Hence universal holiness is called “conduct that becomes the gospel,” Phi 1:27. It becomes the gospel, as that which corresponds to its end, aim, and design — as that which it requires, and which it ought to be improved toward. And accordingly it produces this effect where the word of the gospel is received and preserved in a saving light:
Eph 4:20 But you have not so learned Christ,21 if indeed you have heard Him and have been taught by Him, as the truth is in Jesus: 22 that you put off, concerning your former conduct, the old man which grows corrupt according to the deceitful lusts,23 and be renewed in the spirit of your mind,24 and that you put on the new man which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness.
But the deceit of sin interposes itself in this — It separates the doctrine of grace, from the use and the end of that doctrine. It stays on its notions, but it intercepts its influences in its proper application. From the doctrine of the assured pardon of sin, it insinuates a disregard of sin. God in Christ makes the proposition to pardon, and Satan and sin make the conclusion to disregard; for the deceitfulness of sin is apt to plead for a disregard of sin, from the very grace of God by which it is pardoned. The apostle declares his reproof and detestation of such an insinuation:
Rom 6:1,“What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? God forbid.”
Men’s deceitful hearts, he is saying, are apt to draw that conclusion; but far be it from us to entertain that at all. Yet some have evidently improved that deceit to their own eternal ruin. Jude declares, verse 4, “Ungodly men turn the grace of God into lasciviousness.” And we have had dreadful instances of it in the days of temptation in which we have lived.
Indeed, in opposition to this deceit lies much of the wisdom of faith, and power of gospel grace. When the mind is fully possessed with, and cast habitually and firmly into the mould of the notion and doctrine of gospel truth (about the full and free forgiveness of all sins in the blood of Christ), then it is a great effect of gospel wisdom and grace to always be able to keep the heart in a deep, humbling sense of sin, in an abhorrence of it, and self-abasement for it. This is the test and touchstone of gospel light — if it keeps the heart sensible of sin, humble, lowly, and broken on that account — if it teaches us to water a free pardon with tears, to detest forgiven sin, and to watch diligently for the ruin of what we are still assured will never ruin us — then it is divine, it is from above, of the Spirit of grace. But if it secretly and insensibly makes men loose and slight in their thoughts about sin — then it is adulterated, selfish, and false. If it would be all, and answer all ends, then it is nothing.
Hence it comes to pass that sometimes we see men walking in a bondage-frame of spirit all their days, low in their light, little in their apprehensions of grace; so that it is hard to discern which covenant they belong to in their principles — whether they are under the law, or under grace; yet they may walk with a more conscientious tenderness about sinning than many who are advanced into higher degrees of light and knowledge than they are. It is not that the saving light of the gospel is somehow not the only principle of saving holiness and obedience; but that, through the deceitfulness of sin, the gospel is variously abused to countenance the soul in its manifold neglect of its duties; and it is used to draw the mind away from a due consideration of the nature, deservings, and danger of sin. And this is done in several ways —
1st. Having a frequent need for relief by gospel grace, against a sense of the guilt of sin and the accusation of the law, the soul comes at length to make gospel grace a common and ordinary thing, such that it may be slightly performed. Having found a good medicine for its wounds, and having experienced its efficacy, it comes to apply it slightly, and skins over rather than cures its sores. A little less earnestness, a little less diligence, serves every time, until the soul perhaps begins to convince itself of pardon in its course; and this tends directly to draw the mind away from its constant and universal watchfulness against sin. Someone whose light has made plain the way of access to obtain pardon, if he is not very watchful, is far more apt to become overly formal and careless in his work, than someone who, because of mists and darkness, beats about to find his way rightly to the throne of grace — a man who has often traveled a road, passes on it without regard or inquiry; but someone who is a stranger to it, by observing all its turns and asking all travellers, secures his journey beyond the other.
2dly. The deceitfulness of sin takes advantage of the doctrine of grace (by many ways and means) to extend the bounds of the soul’s liberty beyond what God has assigned to it. Some never thought they were free from a legal, bondage frame until they had been brought into the confines of sensuality, and for some, into the depths of it. How often sin pleads,“This strictness, this exactness, this solicitude is in no way necessary; relief is provided in the gospel against such things! Wouldn’t you rather live as though there were no need for the gospel, and as though pardon of sin served no purpose?” But we will have occasion later to speak more in particular concerning these pleas of sin from gospel grace.
3dly. In times of temptation, this deceitfulness of sin argues expressly for sin, from gospel grace; it will plead for at least these two things —
(1st.) That there is no need for such a tenacious, severe contending against sin, as that principle which the new creature is fixed on. If it cannot wholly divert the soul or mind from attending to temptations in order to oppose them, it will endeavor to draw them away as to the manner in which they are attended: they need not use that diligence which the soul at first apprehends is necessary.
(2dly.) It will offer relief as to the event of sin: that it will not turn to the ruin or destruction of the soul because it is, will be, or may be pardoned by the grace of the gospel. And this is true; this is the great and only relief for the soul against sin, the guilt of which the soul has already contracted— it is the blessed and only remedy for a guilty soul. But when this is pleaded and remembered, by the deceitfulness of sin, to have us comply with a temptation to sin, then it is poison; poison is mixed in every drop of this balsam, to the danger, if not the death, of the soul.
And this is the first way by which the deceitfulness of sin draws the mind away from a due attendance to that sense of its vileness which alone is able to keep it in that humble, self-abased frame that is acceptable with God. It makes the mind careless, as though its work were unnecessary because of the abounding of grace. This is a soldier’s neglect of his station — trusting to a reserve that is provided only in case he keeps his own proper place.
2. Sin takes advantage to work by its deceit, in this matter of drawing the mind away from a due sense of sin, and from the state and condition of men in the world. I will give only one instance of its procedure in this kind. Men, in their younger days, naturally have affections that are quicker, more vigorous and active, and more sensibly at work in them, than afterward. As to their sensible working and operation, they naturally decay; and many things befall men in their lives that take off the edge and keenness of them. But as men lose in their affections, they grow and improve in their understandings, resolutions, and judgments — if they are not made drunk with sensuality, or by the corruptions that are in the world through lust. This is why, if what formerly had room in their affections does not find room in their minds and judgments, they will utterly lose them: they have no more room left in their souls for them. Thus men have no regard for (indeed, they utterly despise) those things which their affections were set on with delight and greediness in their childhood. But if they are things that by some means come to be fixed in their minds and judgments, they continue to have a high esteem for them, and cling to them as closely as they did when their affections were more vigorous; they have only changed their seat in the soul as it were. It is this way in spiritual things.
The first and greatest seat of the sensibility of sin is in the affections. Just as in natural youth these affections are great and large, so in spiritual youth our spiritual affections are great and large:
Jer 2:2,“I remember the kindness of your youth, the love of your espousals.”
Besides, such young believers have newly come off their convictions, in which they have been cut to the heart, so they have been made tender. Whatever touches a wound is thoroughly felt; so the guilt of sin is felt before the wound given by conviction is thoroughly cured. But now, when affections begin to decay naturally, they also begin to decay as to their sensible actings and motions in spiritual things. Although believers improve in grace, yet they may decay in sense. At least, spiritual sense is not in them radically, but only by way of communication. Now, in these decays, if the soul does not take care to fix a deep sense of sin on the mind and judgment, and thereby to perpetually affect the heart and affections, it will decay.
And here the deceit of the law of sin interposes itself. It allows a sense of sin to decay in the affections, and it diverts the mind from entertaining a due, constant, and fixed consideration of it. We may consider this a little in persons who never make progress in the ways of God beyond conviction. How sensible of sin they will be for a season! How they will then mourn and weep under a sense of the guilt of it! How they will cordially and heartily resolve against it! Affections are vigorous and they rule in their souls, as it were. But they are like an herb that will flourish for a day or two with watering, even though it has no root: for a while after, we see that these men, the more experience they have had of sin, the less they are afraid of it, as the wise man intimates
Ecc 8:11 Because the sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil.
And at length they come to be the greatest disdainers of sin in the world. There is no sinner like one who has sinned away his convictions of sin. What is the reason for this? The sense of sin was in their convictions, fixed on their affections. As it decayed in them, they took no care to have it deeply and graciously fixed on their minds. The deceitfulness of sin deprived them of this, and so it ruined their souls. In some measure this is true with believers. If the sensibility of the affections decays, if they grow heavy and obtuse, and great wisdom and grace are not used to fix a due sense of sin upon the mind and judgment — a sense which may provoke, excite, enliven, and stir up the affections every day — then great decays will ensue. At first, sorrow, trouble, grief, and fear affected the mind, and would give it no rest. But afterward, if the mind does not affect the heart with sorrow and grief over sin, the whole of it will be cast out, and the soul will be in danger of being hardened.
These are some of the ways by which the deceit of sin diverts the mind from the first part of its safe preserving frame, or by which sin draws the mind away from its constant watchfulness against sin and all its effects.
(2.) The second part of this general duty of the mind is to keep the soul in a constant, holy consideration of God and his grace. This evidently lies at the spring-head of gospel obedience. The way by which sin draws the mind away from this part of its duty, is open and sufficiently known, even though it is not sufficiently watched against. Now, the Scripture everywhere declares that this is filling the minds of men with earthly things. It places this in direct opposition to that heavenly frame of the mind which is the spring of gospel obedience:
Col 3:2,“Set your affections,” or set your minds,“on things above, not on things on the earth;”
It is as if he had said,“You cannot be set or fixed on both heavenly and earthly things together, so as to principally and chiefly mind them both.” And the affections toward one and the other, proceeding from these different principles of minding one and the other, are opposed — they are directly inconsistent:
1Joh 2:15,“Do not love the world, nor the things that are in the world. If any man loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.”
And acting in a way that is suitable to these earthly affections is also proposed as contrary: “You cannot serve both God and mammon.” Mat 6.24 These are two masters whom no man can serve at the same time to the satisfaction of both. Every inordinate minding of earthly things, then, is opposed to that frame in which our minds ought to be fixed on God and his grace, in a course of gospel obedience.
There are several ways by which the deceitfulness of sin draws away the mind in this particular; but the primary one is by pressing these things on the mind under the notion of them being lawful things, and maybe necessary things. So all those who excuse themselves in the parable from coming to the marriage-feast of the gospel, did it on account of their being engaged in their lawful callings — one about his farm, another about his oxen, the means by which he ploughed in this world. By this plea, the minds of men were drawn away from that frame of heavenliness which is required for walking with God; and the rules of not loving the world, or using it as if we did not use it, are hereby neglected.
It is not my present business to declare what wisdom, what watchfulness, what serious and frequent trial and examination of ourselves, is required to keep our hearts and minds in a heavenly frame in the use and pursuit of earthly things. This is evident: that the engine by which the deceit of sin draws away and turns aside the mind in this matter, is the pretense of the lawfulness of those things about which sin would have the mind exercise itself; against this, very few are armed with sufficient diligence, wisdom, and skill.
And this is the first and most general attempt that indwelling sin makes upon the soul by deceit — it draws the mind away from a diligent attention to its course in a due sense of the evil of sin, and a due and constant consideration of God and his grace.
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