IN THB SANCTIFICATION OF BELIEVERS. 289 wherein thesecontrary habits and dispositions do consist, so it cannot be denied without an open rejecting of the gospel, and contradiction to the experience of all that do believe, or know any thing of what it is to live to God. We intend no more but what the apostle so plainly asserts, Gal. v. 17. The flesh lusteth against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh; that is, in the mind, will, and affections of believers, and these are contrary the one to the other; they are contrary principles, attendedwith contrary inclinationsand act- ings, so that ye cannot do the thingsthat ye would. (3.) There cannot be contrary habits, merely natural or moral, in the same subject, with respect unto the same object, at the same time; at least, they cannot be so in any high degree, so as to incline and act contrary one to another with urgency or efficacy. For violent in- clinations unto sin, and a conscience fiercely condemn- ing for sin, whereby sinners are sometimes torn and even distracted, are not contrary habits in the same subject; only conscience brings in from without the judgment of God against what the will and affections are bent upon. Sect. 25. But it is, as was said, otherwise in the contrary principlesor habits of spirit and flesh, of grace and sin, with their adverse inclinations and actings; only they cannot be in the highest degree at the same time, nor be equally prevalent or predominant in the same instances, that is, sin and grace cannot bear rule in the same heart at the same time, so as that it should be equally under the conduct of them both; nor can they have in the same soul contrary inclinations equally efficacious; for then would they absolutely obstruct all sorts of operations whatever: nor have they the some influence into particular actions, so as that they should not be justly denominated, from one of them, either gracious or sinful. But, by nature, the vicious depraved habit of sin, or the flesh, is wholly predomi- nant, and universally prevalent, constantly disposing and inclining the soul to sin. Hence, all the imagina- tions ofmen's hearts are evil, and that continually: and they that are in the flesh cannotplease God. Theredwell- eth no good thing in them, nor can they do any thing that is good: and the flesh is able generally to subdue the rebellions of light, convictions, and conscience, a- gainst it: but, upon the introduction of the new princi- ple of grace and holiness in oursanctification, this habit of sin is weakened, impaired, and so disenabled, as that it cannot, nor shall, incline unto sin with that con- stancy and prevalency, as formerly, nor press unto it ordinarily with the sameurgency and violence. Hence, in the scripture, it is said to be dethroned by grace, so as that it shall not reign or lord it over us, by hurrying us into the pursuit of its uncontrolable inclinations, Rom. vi. 12. Concerning these things, the reader may con- sult my Treatises of the Remainder of Indwelling Sin, and the Mortification ofit inBelievers. Sect. 26. But so it is, that this flesh, this principle of sin, however it may be dethroned, corrected, im- paired, and disabled, yet is it never wholly and abso- lutely dispossessedand cast out of the soul in this life: there it will remain, and there it will work, seduce, and tempt, more or less, according as its remaining strength and advantages are. By reason hereof, and the oppo- sition that hence ariseth against it, theprinciple of grace and holiness cannot, nor doth perfectly and absolutely incline the heart and soul unto the life of God, and the acts thereof, so as that they in whom it is should be sensible of no opposition made thereunto, or of no con- trary motions and inclinations unto sin: for the flesh will lust against the spirit, as well as the spirit against the flesh, and these are contrary. This is the analogy that is between these two states. In the stateof nature, the principle of sin, or the flesh,--is, predominant, and bears rule in the soul; but there is a light remaining in the mind, and a judgment in the conscience, which be- ing heightened with instructions and convictions, do continually oppose it, and condemn sin bothbefore and after its commission. In them that are regenerate, it is the principle of grace and holiness that is predominant and beareth rule: but there is in them still a principle of lust and sin, which rebels against the rule of grace, much in the proportion that light and convictions rebel against the rule of sin in the unregenerate: for, as they hinder men from doing many evils, which their ruling principle of sin strongly inclines them unto, and puts them on many duties that it likes not; so do these, on the other side, in them that are regenerate: theyhinder them from doing many good things which their ruling principle inclines unto, and tarry them into many evils which it doth abhor. Sect. 27. But this belongs unto the principle of ho- liness, inseparably and necessarily, that it inclined, and
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