restraints on them, (though, in some cases, that may be found true ;) but because there is in the regene- rate man a principle of evil as well as of good : " he has the flesh lusting against the spirit, as well as the spirit lusting against the flesh ; and these are con- trary the one to the other, so that he cannot do the things that he would '^."
There is in a regenerate man's heart much that he would gladly do for himself —
[Gladly would he extirpate from his soul all the remains
of sin, and practise universal holiness But he finds
himself utterly unable to do these things. The experience of St. Paul is common to every true believer : "I know that in nie (that is, in my flesh) dwelleth no good thing: 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 which I would not, that I do. I find then a law, that when I would do good, evil is present with me. For I dehght in the Law of God after the inward man : but I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. O wretched man that I am ! who shall deliver me from the body of this death^?" The saint, if he could accomplish his own wishes, would be " holy as God is holy," and " perfect even as his Father which is in heaven is perfect." But he feels imper- fection cleaving to him in every thing, so that his very best actions need to be cleansed in the Redeemer's blood ; yea, his very tears need to be washed, and his repentances to be re- pented of.
Moreover, could the regenerate man have his heart's desire, he would walk continually in the light of God's countenance, and bask incessantly, as it were, in the beams of the Sun of Righteousness. But clouds frequently arise, to intercept his views of God, and to abate the joy with which, for a season, he has been favovu'ed. The disciples would gladly have built tabernacles on Mount Tabor, to protract their vision of the divine glory. But they must descend again into the plain, to renew their conflicts with sin and Satan, and to finish the work which had been given them to do^ And similar alternations of light and darkness, ease and conflict, joy and sorrow, are the portion of every saint, whilst in this vale of tears.]
There is much, also, that the regenerate man would gladly do for the zuorld around him —
fi Gal. v. 17. e Rom. vii. 18—24. f Luke ix. 33, 34.