A supplement to the several discourses upon various divine subjects

4. He cannot sin in sensu composito; as long as he is regenerate, as long as the Seed remains in him, as long as he follows the motions of the Spirit, and Grace, which are able to overcome the motions of concupiscence; but he may give up the grace. As an impregnable Tower cannot be taken as long as it is defended by those within; but they may fling away their Arms, and deliver it up. Grace quantum est ex parte sua, renders a man impeccable, as long as it continues in him; as Innocency did render Adam immortal, as long as he persisted in it. But we may ex culpâ nostrâ, lose it by mortal sin, and so perish, as Adam by his own will lost the integrity of his Nature, and was thereby made subject to death. This is founded upon a false Hypothesis, viz. That Grace may be lost: And the Text renders the being born of God, and the Seed remaining in us, to be the reason why we cannot sin, not the condition of our not sinning; for if it remains, and we cannot sin therefore, how can any sin come in to expel that which preserves us from it? A man must cease, according to what the Apostle here writes, to be born of God, before he can sin in that sense the Apostle means.

5. He doth not commit sin, and cannot sin, i. e. Grave peccatum, the mortal sin, and persist in it. The sin of unbelief, which is called in Scripture by way of eminency [Sin, and the Sin] 'tis the chief sin the Spirit convinceth of; 'tis the sin that easily besets us, Heb. 12.1. Let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, i. e. especially unbelief. Though this be true, yet it is not the full meaning and sense of it.

6. He doth not commit sin, and cannot sin, as the Devil doth, or as one that is of a diabolical nature, as one that is acted by the Devil; which is clear by the Antithesis, v. 8. He that commits sin, is of the Devil, for the Devil sins from the beginning. He cannot set himself against Christ, as the Devil doth, as the Pharisees did, in which respect our Saviour calls them the Children of the Devil, for their remarkable and constant opposition to him. He cannot make a practice of sin, and persist in it, as the Devil doth, who began to sin presently after the Creation, and continueth in it ever since. He sins, the present tense noting the continued act of the Devil. Sin may be considered two ways; viz. As to