A cabinet of choice jewels, or, A box of precious ointment being a plain…A cabinet of choice jevvels, or, A box of precious ointment being a plain…

Seventhly, Where there is an irreconcilable opposition in the Soul against sin, there is a saving work of God upon that mans heart. Where there is such a detestation of sin, and such an enmity raised in the soul against sin, as that the Soul cannot,¹ nor will not, upon no terms in the World, admit of any Truce or Reconciliation with sin, there is Christ and Grace formed in the heart. The War between a gracious heart and sin, is like the War between Rehoboam and Jeroboam, 1 Kings 14.30. There was war between Rehoboam and Jeroboam all their days. The Oracle said to the Cirrheans (Noctes diesque belli gerendum), they could not be happy unless they waged war night and day; no more can we, except we perpetually fight against our lusts. O friends! A gracious heart that is weary of sin, will certainly and habitually fall a striving against it, Gal. 5.17. The flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh, for these two are contrary the one to the other. Now contraries are naturally expulsive each of other: Such a pair as a Jacob and an Esau; such Twins as an Isaac and an Ishmael, cannot lye quietly together in the same womb; no nor live quietly together in the same house, but there will be a mutual prosecuting and persecuting each of other. Fire and Water may as well agree in the same Vessel; as grace and sin in the same heart. True Grace hath a real repugnancy and contrariety to all sin; and remember this once for all, that saving Grace is not contrary to sin because it is open and manifest, nor to sin because it is private and secret, nor to sin because it is of this or that consequence, but to sin as sin, whether public or private, because both the one and the other are contrary to the Law of God, the will of God, the glory of God, the nature of God, the designs of God, &c. As it is with true light, though it be but a beam, yet it is universally opposite to all darkness; or as it is with heat, though there be but one degree of ⟨p. 107⟩it, yet it is opposite to all cold. So true Grace, it is opposite to all sin, it cannot comply with any known sin. Look as sin and Grace were never born together, and as sin and Grace shall never dye together, so sin and Grace can never be reconciled together. There is a natural contrariety between sin and Grace, and therefore you can never reconcile them in the heart.