allow certain sins to be conceived, there cannot be a total consent of
(1.) Deliberate consent, - a prevailing consent; the convictions of the mind being conquered, and no principle of grace in the will to weaken it. With this the soul goes into sin as a ship before the wind with all its sails displayed. It rushes into sin like the horse into the battle; men thereby, as the apostle speaks, "giving themselves over to sin with greediness," Ephesians 4:19. Thus Ahab's will was in the murdering of Naboth. He did it with deliberation; doing it gave him such satisfaction as that it cured his malady or the distemper of his mind. This is that consent of the will which acts in the finishing and completing of sin in unregenerate persons, and does not relate to the single acts of sin, of which we speak.
(2.) There is a consent of the will which is attended with a secret opposition, and will to the contrary. Thus Peter's will was to deny his Master. His will was in it, or he would not have done it. It was voluntary, what he chose to do at that time. Sin would not have come forth if it had not been thus conceived. But there was also in his will a contrary principle of love to Christ, and faith in him, which did not fail completely. Its effect was intercepted, and its operations suspended, through the violence of the temptation; but it was in his will, and weakened his consent to sin. Though it consented, it was not done with self-pleasing, which wilful acts produce.
3. Although there may be a general consent in the will, which may allow certain sins to be conceived, there cannot be a total consent of the will of a believer to any sin; for, -
(1.) In his will there is a principle of grace that is fixed on good: Romans 7:21, "He would do good." And this usually overrules the principle of sin, so that the will is ruled from it. Grace has the rule, not sin, in the will of every believer. Consent to sin in the will which is against the generally prevailing principle in that will, cannot be absolute.
(2.) There is not only a prevailing principle in the will against sin, but there is also a secret reluctance in it against consenting to sin. It is