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perfection. But can we conceive of such a mixture of moral good and evil, in one and the same exercise of heart? Let us pursue the inquiry. Can the affection of love be partly love and partly hatred to God? Can the exercise of repentance be partly love and partly hatred to sin? Can the exercise of faith be partly love and partly hatred to Christ? Can the grace of submission be partly resignation and partly opposition to the will of God? This is no more conceivable, than that a volition to walk should be partly a desire to move and partly a desire to stand still. It is absolutely absurd to suppose, that any voluntary exercise should be partly holy and partly sinful. But let us consult Scripture as well as reason upon this subject. Our Lord declares, that "No man can serve God and mammon." The Apostle James asserts, that "The friendship of the world is enmity with God." And the Apostle John says, "If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him." These declarations suppose, that saints cannot have affections partly holy and partly sinful. For if they could, they might love God and mammon at the same time. We read, "A double minded man is unstable in all his ways." This character must belong to the best saint in the world, if all his affections are partly holy and partly sinful. He must both obey and disobey God in all his ways. And, upon this supposition, how can any saint ever determine, whether he is more criminal at one time than another? or whether he ever loves God supremely? If all his affections are partly holy and partly sinful, how can he determine, whether any one of his affections has more holiness than sin in it? Or how can he determine, that he ever loves God more than he hates him? He can find no rule to judge by in the Bible, and if he depends upon his feelings,

these, by the supposition, are always partly sinful, and consequently partial. But do christians, in fact, find such a difficulty in determining, whether they are more criminal at one time than at another? or whether they love God less at one time than another? We venture to say, that they do not. They find a sensible difference in the nature of their affections, at different times; and this affords them their best evidence, that they are real friends to God, and stand entitled to his favor. The notion, therefore, that the imperfection of saints arises from their moral affections being all partly holy and partly sinful, is contrary to reason, Scripture, and their own experience. But,

Thirdly. If the moral imperfection of good men cannot arise from their affections being too low and languid, nor from their being partly holy and partly sinful, then it must follow, that their imperfection arises from their having some sinful as well as some holy affections. If all their moral exercises were perfectly holy, they could not be justly considered as morally imperfect creatures in this life, any more than in the next. But if only a part of their moral exercises are perfectly holy, and the rest are perfectly sinful, then they are criminally imperfect. For all unholy affections in them are no less, if not more criminal, than they would be in other men. But to make it more fully appear, that the imperfection of saints does consist in the inconstancy of their holy affections, or in their having some bad as well as some good affections, I would observe,

1. That saints do have some perfectly good affections. God who knows their hearts, approves of some of their affections. He approved of Abel's faith. He approved of Abraham's self-denial. He approved of David's good design of building the temple. And we find

many other instances of God's approving of the desires, affections, and purposes of good men. But God is of purer eyes than to approve of any thing really sinful. There must be, therefore, some perfectly holy affections in the hearts of saints. And this they know to be true, by their own experience. They are conscious of loving God, and of desiring to promote his glory. Joshua was conscious of such exercises, when he said, "As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord." Peter appears to have been conscious of sincere love to Christ, when he answered his trying question, with so much solemnity and confidence. "Yea, Lord, thou knowest all things; thou knowest that I love thee." Paul also was conscious of having some right affection of heart, when he said in the text, "For to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good, I find not." Saints, then, with all their imperfections, have some perfectly right and holy exercises of heart, which meet the approbation of God and of their own consciences. But,

2. It is no less evident, that they have some affections, which are altogether unholy and sinful. These they not only feel, but often express. Moses was angry; for he spake unadvisedly with his lips. Hezekiah was proud; for his heart was lifted up, and he boasted of his riches. And David acknowledges that he was envious at the prosperity of the wicked. All saints are conscious of having such affections as these, which are perfectly sinful. And all their moral imperfection consists in such positively evil exercises of heart. For,

3. There is nothing else, which prevents their being as perfectly holy and free from sin, as the saints and angels in heaven. This the Apostle most clearly illustrates by his own feelings. He was capable of ob. serving the inward motions and exercises of his mind,

and of relating them clearly and intelligibly. Let us hear what he says in the text and context. "For to will is present with me, but how to perform that which is good, I find not. For the good that I would I do not; but the evil that I would not, that do I. I find then a law, that when I would do good, evil is present with me. I see another law in my members warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into cap tivity to the law of sin, which is in my members." Here the Apostle tells us, that he had good affections sometimes, and then he really desired and intended to do good; but yet he did not fulfil his resolutions. The reason was, that when the time came in which he intended to do certain good deeds, evil affections were present with him, and prevented him from doing the duties, which he had previously resolved to do. His bad affections prevented his having good affections. For, if his good affections had continued, nothing could have prevented him from performing what he had intended to perform. According to his own account of the exercises of his heart, his good exercises excluded bad ones, and his bad affections excluded good ones. His holy affections were inconstant, being interrupted by the intervention of opposite views and feelings. He complains of nothing but bad exercises of heart, and seems to be confident, that, if only these could be removed, he should be perfectly holy and happy. "O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?" It further appears from what he says concerning his different affections, that his holy and sinful exercises were entirely distinct from each other. "If then I do that which I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me." His meaning cannot be, that he did what he would not, in the time of acting. For this

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would imply, that he did not act voluntarily; that is, did not act at all. He must intend, therefore, by this mode of expression, that he voluntarily did what he had before determined not to do; or that he freely violated his own virtuous resolutions. This, indeed, is the natural consequence of having good affections and bad affections one after another, in alternate succession. If now we may judge of other saints by Paul, we may safely conclude, that their moral imperfection wholly consists in their positively sinful exercises of heart. And this is agreeable to the whole current of Scripture, which represents holiness, as excluding sin, and sin as excluding holiness in the human heart. When God predicted the conversion of the Jews in Babylon, he promised to take away their stony hearts, by giving them hearts of flesh. And when saints are exhorted to grow in grace, they are commanded to put away bad affections, by exercising good ones. Thus we read, "If ye through the spirit, do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live." The Apostle says to the christians at Corinth, "Having therefore these promises, dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of the Lord." This supposes, that the increase of holiness would necessarily be the decrease of sin. The same idea the Apostle more fully expresses in the fourth chapter of his Epistle to the Ephesians. "Put off concerning the former conversation, the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts; and be renewed in the spirit of your mind; and put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness." We find a similar exhortation to saints in the third chapter of Collossians. "But now ye also put off all these, anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy commu

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