The Doctrine of the Saints' Perseverance

From what hath been spoken will easily appear what Answer may be given to the former Argument, to wit, That notwithstanding any sins that either the Scripture or the experience of men, do evince that the Saints may fall into, yet that they never sin or perpetrate sin with their full and whole consent, whereby they should be looked upon, in and under their sins, in the same state and condition with unregenerate persons, in whom sin reigneth, committing the same sin, and how insufficient any thing produced by Mr Goodwin in defence of the argument laid down at the entrance of this Chapter, is to remove the Answer given unto it from Believers not sinning with their whole consent may easily be demonstrated; This he thus proposeth.

From what hath been spoken will easily appeare what Answer may be given to the former Argument, to wit, That notwithstanding any sinnes that either the Scripture or the experience of men, do evince that the Saints may fall into, yet that they never sinne or perpetrate sinne with their full and whole consent, whereby they should be lookt upon, in and under their sinnes, in the same state and condition with unregenerate persons, in whom sinne reigneth, committing the same sinne, and how insufficient any thing produced by Mr Goodwin in defence of the argument layd downe at the entrance of this Chapter, is to remove the Answer given unto it from Believers not sining with their whole consent may easily be demonstrated; This he thus proposeth.

Some to maintain this position, That all the sins of true Believers are sins of infirmity, lay hold on this shield, such men, they say never sin with their whole wills, or with full consent, therefore they never sin but through infirmity; that they never sin with full consent, they conceive they prove sufficiently from that of the Apostle, for the good that I would I do not, but the evil that I would not that I do, Now if I do that I would not it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. I Answer, first that the Saints cannot sin but with their whole wills or full consents is undeniably proved by this consideration; viz. Because otherwise there should be not only a plurality or diversity, but also a contrariety of wills in the same person, at one & the same instant of time, viz. when the supposed act of evil is produced, now it is an impossibility of the first evidence that there should be a plurality of acts & these contrary one to the other in the same subject or agent, at one or the same instant of time; it is true between the first movings of the flesh in a man towards the committing of the sin, and the completing of the sin by an Actual and External perpetration of it, there may be successively in him not only a plurality but even a contrariety of Volitions or Motions of the will according to what the Scripture speaketh concerning the flesh lusting against the Spirit, and the