(1.) Moses, when God did but bid him nourish and succour Israel in the wilderness, and carry them in his bosom, as the nursing-father beareth the sucking child, was stricken with such fear of miscarrying, through the weakness of his graces and the power of his corruptions, that he cried to God, saying, 'I am not able to bear all this people alone, because it too heavy for me. And if thou deal thus with me, kill me, I pray thee, out of hand,—and let me not see my wretchedness.' (Num. 11:14, 15)
(2.) Job, when he was, for a proof of his integrity, to be exercised a while with some of the judgments of God, cries out, in a sense of his weakness to bear them, and to go through as he should, 'Is my strength the strength of stones? or is my flesh of brass?' And again, 'Am I a sea, or a whale, that thou settest a watch over me? Wilt thou break a leaf driven to and fro? And wilt thou pursue the dry stubble?' (Job 6:12; 8:12; 13:25)
(3.) So Daniel, when he was but to stand and talk with the angel, how weak did he find himself; 'There remained,' saith he, 'no strength in me;' and, '0 my Lord, by the vision my sorrows are turned upon me, and I have retained no strength. For how can the servant of this my Lord talk with this my Lord? for as for me, straightway there remained no strength in me, neither is there breath left in me.' (Dan. 10) Some may say, but this is natural weakness. But I ask, how came nature to be so weak, but through sin? the remains whereof abiding still upon the best of saints, make them, not withstanding their graces, incapable to do any thing as they should.
(4.) Paul, a man of men, who had so much grace, revelation of grace and communion with Christ, that sometimes he knew not whether he was in or out of the body, and yet you find him making bitter complaint of the weakness of his grace, and of the power of his corruptions. 'I am carnal,' saith he, and what I hate that do I. 'How to perform that which is good I find not;' 'when I would do good evil is present with me.' 'But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin, which is in my members.' '0 wretched man that I am,' &c. What complaints, what confessions, what bewailing of weakness is here? And what need was there of any of this, if Paul could, as he would, have departed from iniquity? (Rom. 8)
I have instanced in these four men, because as to failings and miscarriages they are as free—by what the holy record saith—as any four of whose lives you shall read in all the Bible; but you see that they were too weak to do good and depart from iniquity as they would.
Grace may be said to be weak, either when a lower or less degree thereof is compared with a higher and greater degree of the same; or it may be said to be weak when, in what degree of it you will, it shall be engaged by, or engage itself against sin, &c.
There are degrees of grace in the world, some have less, and some bigger measures thereof, and according to the measure of grace received, so is a Christian capable of action. He that has little, acts but weakly; he that has much, acts more strongly; and he of the saints that has most, acteth best of all: but yet none of these three can act so as they should and would, and, consequently, so depart from iniquity as is their duty. Witness those four that I mentioned but now, for they are among the first-rate of saints, yet you see what they did, and hear what they said.
Sin is a mighty tyrant; it is also installed in our flesh, and has moreover that in it which suiteth with whatever is sensual in us. The flesh relisheth it well, though the spirit of the Christian is against it.
Sin is an active beast, and will not admit that the soul should attempt to put forth itself in any good thing, without opposition and contradiction. 'When I should do good evil is present with me.'[6]
Sin is of a polluting and defiling nature, and what grace soever it toucheth it staineth, and in staining makes it weaker, than were it not so defiled it would be. Besides, not a grace, nor an act of grace in the soul can escape untouched.