Gracious souls may be brought into depths on the account of sin — What those depths are.
Before I proceed at all in the farther opening of the words, they having all of them respect unto the proposition first laid down, I shall explain and confirm the truth contained in it; that so it may be understood what we say, and whereof we do affirm, in the whole process of our discourse.
It is a sad truth that we have proposed unto consideration. He that hears it ought to tremble in himself, that he may rest in the day of trouble. It speaks out the apostle’s advice, Rom. xi. 20, “Be not high-minded, but fear;” and that also, 1 Cor. x. 12, “Let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall.” When Peter had learned this truth by woful experience, after all his boldness and frowardness, he gives this counsel to all saints, “That they would pass the time of their sojourning here in fear,” 1 Pet. i. 17; knowing how near, in our greatest peace and serenity, evil and danger may lie at the door.
Some few instances of the many that are left on record, wherein this truth is exemplified, may be mentioned: Gen. vi. 9, “Noah was a just man, perfect in his generations, and Noah walked with God.” He did so a long season, and that in an evil time, amidst all sorts of temptations, “when all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth,” verse 12. This put an eminency upon his obedience, and doubtless rendered the communion which he had with God, in walking before him, most sweet and precious to him. He was a gracious soul, upon the redoubled testimony of God himself. But we know what befell this holy person. He that shall read the story that is recorded of him, Gen. ix. 20–27, will easily grant that he was brought into inextricable distress on the account of sin. His own drunkenness, verse 21, with the consequent of it, gives scandal unto and provokes the unnatural lust of his son, verse 22; and this leads him to the devoting of that son and his posterity unto destruction, verses 24, 25: all which, joined with the sense of God’s just indignation, from whom he had newly received that tremendously miraculous deliverance, must needs overwhelm him with sorrow and anxiety of spirit.
The matter is more clear in David. Under the Old Testament none loved God more than he; none was loved of God more than he. The paths of faith and love wherein he walked are unto the most of us like the way of an eagle in the air, — too high and hard for us. Yet to this very day do the cries of this man after God’s own heart sound in our ears. Sometimes he complains of broken bones, sometimes of drowning depths, sometimes of waves and water-spouts, sometimes of wounds and diseases, sometimes of wrath and the sorrows of hell; everywhere of his sins, the burden and trouble of them. Some of the occasions of his depths, darkness, entanglements, and distresses, we all know. As no man had more grace than he, so none is a greater instance of the power of sin, and the effects of its guilt upon the conscience, than he. But instances of this kind are obvious, and occur to the thoughts of all, so that they need not be repeated. I shall, then, show, —
First, What in particular is intended by the depths and entanglements on the account of sin, whereinto gracious souls, after much communion with God, may be cast.
Secondly, Whence it comes to pass that so they may be, and that oftentimes so they are.
For the first, some or all of these things following do concur to the depths complained of:—
1. Loss of the wonted sense of the love of God, which the soul did formerly enjoy. There is a twofold sense of the love of God, whereof believers in this world may be made partakers. There is the transient acting of the heart by the Holy Ghost with ravishing, unspeakable joys, in apprehension of God’s love, and our relation unto him in Christ. This, or the immediate effect of it, is called “Joy unspeakable and full of glory,” 1 Pet. i. 8. The Holy Ghost shining into the heart, with a clear evidence of the soul’s interest in all gospel mercies, causeth it to leap for joy, to exult and triumph in the Lord, as being for a season carried above all sense and thought of sin, self-temptation, or trouble. But as God gives the bread of his house unto all Iris children, so these dainties and high cordials he reserveth only for the seasons and persons wherein and to whom he knows them to be needful and useful Believers may be without this sense of love, and yet be in no depths. A man may be strong and healthy who hath wholesome food, though he never drinks spirits and cordials.
Again; there is an abiding, dwelling sense of God’s love upon the hearts of the most of those of whom we speak, who have had long communion with God, consisting in a prevailing gospel persuasion that they are accepted with God in Christ: Rom. v. 1, “Being justified by faith, we have peace with God.” I call it a prevailing persuasion, denoting both the opposition that is made unto it by Satan and unbelief, and its efficacy in the conquest thereof. This is the root from whence all that peace and ordinary consolation, which believers in this world are made partakers of, do spring and grow. This is that which quickens and enlivens them unto duty, Ps. cxvi. 12, 13, and is the salt that renders their sacrifices and performances savoury to God and refreshing to themselves. This supports them under their trials, gives them peace, hope, and comfort in life and death: Ps xxiii. 4, “Though I walk in the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for thou art with me.” A sense of God’s presence in love is sufficient to rebuke all anxiety and fears in the worst and most dreadful condition; and not only so, but to give in the midst of them solid consolation and joy. So the prophet expresseth it, Hab. iii. 17, 18, “Although the fig tree shall not blossom, neither shall fruit be in the vines; the labour of the olive shall fail, and the fields shall yield no meat; the flocks shall be cut off from the fold, and there shall be no herd in the stalls: yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in the God of my salvation.” And this is that sense of love which the choicest believers may lose on the account of sin. This is one step into their depths. They shall not retain any such gospel apprehension of it as that it should give them rest, peace, or consolation, — that it should influence their souls with delight in duty or supportment in trial; and the nature hereof will be afterward more fully explained.