402 The NATURE and Pow ER offing and working of enmity. Mortification abates of its force, but Both not change its nature. Grace changeth the nature of man, but nothing can change the nature of fin. Whatever effeft be wrought upon it, there is no effeft wrote in it, but that it is enmity 1h11, fin Hi. This then by it is our 4ate and condition: God is love, t John iv. 8. He is fo inhimfelf, eternally excellent and defirable above all. He is fo to us, he is fo in the blood of his Son, and in all the inexpreffible fruits of it, by which we are what we are, and wherein all our future hopes and ex- peaations are wrapped up. Again4 this God we carry about us an en- mity all our days. An enmity thatRath this from itsnature, that it is incapa- ble of cure or reconciliation. Defroyed it may be, it Ihall be, but cured it cannot be. If a man hath an enemy to deal withal, that is too migh- ty for him, as David had with Saul, he may take the courfe that he did; confider what it is that provoked his enemy again4 him, and fo addrefs himfelf to remove the taufe and makeup his peace, r Sam.xxvi. 19. 1fthe Lord have flirted thee up againfl me, let him accept an offering, but if they be the children of men, turfed be they ofthe Lord come it from Cod or man, there is yet hopes of peace. But when a man bath enmity itfelf to deal withal, nothing is to be expeaed but continual fighting to the defruflion of the one party. Ifit be not overcome and deftroyed, it will overcome and deiroy the foul. And herein lies no .fmall part of its power which we are enquiring after ;, it can admit ofno terms of peace, of no compofition. There may be a compofition, where there is no reconciliation. There may be a truce, where there is no peace. But with this enemy we can obtain neither the one nor the other. It is never quiet, conquering, nor conquered, which was the only kind of enemy, that the famous warriour complained of, ofold. It is in vain for a man to have any expeftation of reif from his tuft, but by its death, of abfolute freedom, but by his own. Some in the tumultuating of their corruptions feek for quietnefs by labouring to fatisfy them, making provifion for the flefbb to fulfil the lulls thereof'; as the apoile fpeaks, Rom. xiii. i4. This is to aflacke fire by the wood and oyl. As all the fuel in the world, all the fabrick of the creation that is, combuftible, being call into the fire, will not at all fatisfy ir, but increafe it ; fo is it with fatisf aion given to fin by finning, it dothbut inflame and in- creafe. Ifa man will part with force ofhis goodsunto an enemy, it mayfads- fÿ lrim ; but enmitywill have all, and is not one whit the more fatisfied thhan if he had received nothing at all. Like the lean cattle that werenever the left hungry, for having devoured the fat. You cannot bargain with the fire to take but fo much of your houfes, ye have no way but to quench it. It is in this cafe, as it is in the coned between a wife man and a fool, Prov. xxix. 9. Whether be rage or laugbt, there is no re. fl. What- ever frame or temper he be in, his importunate folly makes him trouble - fome. It is fo with this indwelling fin, whether it rage or laugh, whe- ther it violently tumultuate, as it will do on provocations and tempta- tions, it will be outragions in the foul, or whether it feem to be pleafed and contented to be fatisfied, all is one there is no peace, no rat to be had with it or by it. Had it thenbeen of any other nature, fume other way might have been fixed on, but being it confifls in enmity, all the relief the foul bath mull lye in its ruin. 2. It is not only faid to be enmity, but it is faid to be enmity againft God. It bath chofen a great enemy indeed. It is in fundry places pro- pofed as our enemy, r Pet. ii. es. Abflain from fleflily lufi, which war againfi:the foul.. They are enemies to the foul, that is, to ourfelves. Sometimes as an enemy to the fpirit, that is in us, The flefb !Vieth or fightetb
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