§ 18. It is a matter of great Moment to understand in what cases this excuse will hold, and our weakness will not make the willingness of the Spirit unacceptable to God. If a Drunkard, Fornicator, or other Sensualist should say, My Spirit is willing to leave my sin, but my Flesh is weak, and in temptation doth prevail, Video meliora proboque, &c. This excuse would not prove God's forgiveness. If a Man live in known sin, which he could forbear were he truly willing, and say, To will is present with me, but to do I am unable; it is not I but sin that dwelleth in me; this would be but a frivolous excuse: And yet to the sleepy Disciples it was a good excuse; and I think to Paul, Rom 7. where then is the d•fference? There are some acts of Man, which the will hath not power to rule, and some that it can rule: The will hath not power always to keep a sleepy Man awake: This sleep might be of the Flesh without any will at all: And this excuseth from all guilt: There are some acts of Man which the will cannot rule, but by a great degree of power and endeavour: As perhaps with much ado by preventing and resisting diligence the Disciples might have kept awake: In this case their sleep is a fault, but a pardoned fault of weakness. Some Persons are liable to inordinate Fear and Grief, which so surpriseth them by the Constitution of their Bodies, that the greatest unwillingness would not hinder them. And some could do more to resist these passions than they do, but very hardly with the greatest diligence. These are accordingly excusable in degree. ⟨p. 326⟩Paul would have perfectly obeyed God's Law, and never have sinned: But there is no Perfection in this Life: Mere Imperfection of true Grace which is predominant in the will, doth not damn men. But there are acts which are so subject to the will that a sincere will, though imperfect, can command them: He that doth these (or doth the contrary) it is not because he sincerely would and cannot, but because he hath but uneffectual wishes, and is not sincerely willing, if he know them to be what they are. Especially if they be materially great sins which he yieldeth to, which true Grace more strongly resisteth than it doth an idle word, or thought, or action. In short, all omissions or commissions in which the will is positively or privatively guilty, are sinful in some degree:
§ 18. It is a matter of great Moment to understand in what cases this excuse will hold, and our weakness will not make the willingness of the Spirit unacceptable to God. If a Drunkard, Fornicator, or other Sensualist should say, My Spirit is willing to leave my sin, but my Flesh is weak, and in temptation doth prevail, Video meliora proboque, &c. This excuse would not prove God's forgiveness. If a Man live in known sin, which he could forbear were he truly willing, and say, To will is present with me, but to do I am unable; it is not I but sin that dwelleth in me; this would be but a frivolous excuse: And yet to the sleepy Disciples it was a good excuse; and I think to Paul, Rom 7. where then is the d•fference? There are some acts of Man, which the will hath not power to rule, and some that it can rule: The will hath not power always to keep a sleepy Man awake: This sleep might be of the Flesh without any will at all: And this excuseth from all guilt: There are some acts of Man which the will cannot rule, but by a great degree of power and endeavour: As perhaps with much ado by preventing and resisting diligence the Disciples might have kept awake: In this case their sleep is a fault, but a pardoned fault of weakness. Some Persons are liable to inordinate Fear and Grief, which so surprizeth them by the Constitution of their Bodies, that the greatest unwillingness would not hinder them. And some could do more to resist these passions than they do, but very hardly with the greatest diligence. These are accordingly excusable in degree. ⟨p. 326⟩Paul would have perfectly obeyed God's Law, and never have sinned: But there is no Perfection in this Life: Meer Imperfection of true Grace which is predominant in the will, doth not damn men. But there are acts which are so subject to the will that a sincere will, though imperfect, can command them: He that doth these (or doth the contrary) it is not because he sincerely would and cannot, but because he hath but uneffectual wishes, and is not sincerely willing, if he know them to be what they are. Especially if they be materially great sins which he yieldeth to, which true Grace more strongly resisteth than it doth an idle word, or thought, or action. In short, all omissions or commissions in which the will is positively or privatively guilty, are sinful in some degree:
