154 THE soul's conflict.
sin ; he is an agent as well as a patient. As David here doth not suffer disquieting, but is disquieted with himself for being so. A godly man is an agent in opposing his corruption, and a patient in enduring of it, whereas a natural man is a secret agent in and for his corruptions, and a patient in regard of any help against them ; a good man suffers evil and doth good, a natm-al man suffers good and doth evil.
3. Thirdly, A conscience guided by common light withstands distempers most by outward means; but David here fetcheth help from the Spirit of God in him, and from trust in God. Nature works from within, so doth the new nature. David is not only something disquieted, and something troubled for being disquieted, but sets himself thoroughly against hia distempers ; he complains and expostulates, he censures and chargeth his soul. The other, if he doth anything at all, yet it is faintly ; he seeks out his corruption as a coward doth his enemy, loath to find him, and more loath to encounter him.
4. Fourthly, David withstands sin constantly, and gets ground. We see here he gives not over at the first, but presseth again and again. Nature works constantly, so doth the new nature. The conflict in the other is something forced, as taking part with the worser side in himself; good things have a weak, or rather no party in him, bad things a strong ; and therefore he soon gives over in this holy quarrel.
5. Fifthly, TJavid is not discouraged by his foils,* but sets himself afresh aqainst his corruptions, uith confidence to bring them binder. Whereas he that hath but a common work of the Spirit, after some foils, lets his enemy prevail more and more, and so despairs of victory, and thinks it better to sit stiU than to rise and take a new fall ; by which means his latter end is worse than his beginning ; for beginning in the spirit, he ends in the flesh. A godly man, although upon some foil, he may for a time be dis- couraged, yet by holy indignation against sin he renews his force, and sets afresh upon his corruptions, and gathers more strength by his falls, and groweth into more acquaintance with his own heart and Satan's mahce, and God's strange ways in bringing hght out of darkness.
6. Sixthly, An ordinary Christian may be disquieted for being disquieted, as David was, but then it is only as disquiet hath vexation in it; but David here striveth against the unquietness of his spirit, not only as it brought vexation with it, but as it hindered communion uith his God.
In sin there is not only a guilt binding over the soul to God's judgment, and thereupon filling the soul with inward fears and terrors ; but in sin likewise there is — 1, A contrariety to God's holy nature; and, 2, A con- trariety to the divine nature and image stamped upon ourselves ; 3, A weakening and disabling of the soul from good ; and, 4, A hindering of our former communion with God, sin being in its nature a leaving of God, the fountain of all strength and comfort, and cleaving to the creature. Hereupon the soul, having tasted the sweetness of God before, is now grieved, and this grief is not only for the guilt and trouble that sin draws after it, but from an inward antipathy and contrariety betwixt the sanctified soul and sin. It hates sin as sin, as the only bane and poison of renewed nature, and the only thing that breeds strangeness betwixt God and the soul. And this hatred is not so much from discourse and strength of reason, as from nature itself rising presently against its enemy ; the lamb presently shuns the wolf from a contrariety : antipathies wait not for any strong reason, but are exercised upon the first presence of a contrary object. - * That is, ' defeats.' — Ed.
THE soul's conflict. 155
7. Seventhly, Hereupon ariseth the last difference, that because the soul hateth sin as sin, therefore it opposeth it universally and eternally, in all the powers of the soul; and in all actions, inicard and outivard, issuing from those powers. David regarded no iniquity in his heart, but hated every evil way, Ps. Ixvi. 18 ; the desires of his soul were, that it might be so directed that he might keep God's law, Ps. cxix. 5. And if there had been no binding law, yet there was such a sweet sympathy and agi'eement betwixt his sovd and God's truth, that he delighted in it above all natural sweetness ; hence it is that St John saith, ' He that is bom of God cannot sin,' 1 John iii. 9 ; that is, so far forth as he is born of God, his new natui-e will not suffer him ; he cannot lie, he cannot deceive, he cannot be earthly-minded, he cannot but love and delight in the persons and things that are good. There is not only a light in the understanding, but a new life in the will, and all other faculties of a godly man ; what good his knowledge dis- covereth, that his wiU makes choice of, and his heart loveth ; what iU his understanding discovers, that his will hateth and abstains from. But in a man not thoroughly converted, the will and affections are bent otherwise ; he loves not the good he doth, nor hates the evil he doth not.