2. There is a twofold consent of the will to sin: -
CHAPTER 12.
The conception of sin through deceit - What it consists of - The consent of the will to sin - Its nature - How it is obtained - Other advantages made use of by the deceit of sin - Ignorance - Error.
THE third success of the deceit of sin in its progressive work is the conception of actual sin. When it has drawn the mind off from its duty, and entangled the affections, it proceeds to conceive sin in order to bringing it forth: "Then when lust has conceived, it brings forth sin." Now, the conception of sin can be nothing but the consent of the will; for as sin cannot be committed without the consent of the will, so where the will has consented, nothing in the soul hinders its accomplishment. God does, indeed, by various ways and means, frustrate the bringing forth of these adulterous conceptions, causing them to melt away in the womb, or one way or other prove abortive, so that none of that sin which is willed or conceived is committed; but nothing in the soul remains to check to it when once the will has given its consent. Often, when a cloud is full of rain, a wind comes and drives it away; and when the will is ready to bring forth its sin, God diverts it: but yet the cloud was as full of rain as if it had fallen, and the soul as full of sin as if it had been committed.
This conceiving of sin, then, is its ability to gain the consent of the will. And thus the soul loses its chastity towards God in Christ, as the apostle intimates, 2 Corinthians 11:2, 3. So we must observe, -
1. That the will is the cause of obedience and disobedience. Moral actions are good or evil as they partake of the consent of the will. He spake truth of old who said, "Every sin is so voluntary, that if it is not voluntary it is not sin." It is most true of actual sins. Their iniquity lies in the acts of the will in them, as concerns those who commit them; in itself the reason of sin is its aberration from the law of God.
2. There is a twofold consent of the will to sin: -