Prayes as he ought no man joyns in Prayer with another who prayes as he ought but these Petitions are a part of his Prayer Especially will they be so and ought they so to be when the Mind is peculiarly engaged in the Design of destroying sin And these Petitions or Requests are as far as they are gracious and effectual wrought in us by the Holy Ghost who therein maketh intercession for us according to the Will of God And hereby doth he carry on this work of the Mortification of sin for his Work it is He makes us to put up prevalent Requests unto God for such continual supplyes of Grace whereby it may be constantly kept under and at length destroyed And this is the first way whereby this Duty hath an Influence into Mortification namely Morally and by way of Impetration Sect. 32 Secondly This Duty hath a real Efficiency unto the same End It doth its self when rightly performed and duly attended unto mightily prevail unto the weakning and Destruction of sin For in and by fervent Prayer especially when it is designed unto this End the Habit Frame and Inclinations of the Soul unto universal Holiness with a Detestation of all sin are increased cherished and strengthened The soul of a Believer is never raised unto a higher Intension of spirit in the pursuit of love unto and delight in Holiness nor is more conformed unto it or cast into the mould of it than it is in Prayer And frequency in this Duty is a principal means to fix and consolidate the mind in the form and likeness of it And hence doe Believers oft-times continue in and come off from Prayer above all Impressions from sin as to Inclinations and Complyances Would such a frame alwayes continue how happy were we But abiding in the Duty is the best way of reaching out after it I say therefore that this Duty is really Efficient of the Mortification of sin because therein all the Graces whereby it is opposed and weakened are excited exercised and improved unto that End as also the Detestation and Abhorency of sin is increased in us And where this is not so there are some secret flaws in the Prayers of men which it will be their wisdom to find out and heal Sect. 33 Fourthly The Holy Spirit carrieth on this work by applying in an especial manner the death of Christ unto us for that end And this is another thing which because the World understandeth not it doth despise But yet in whomsoever the Death of Christ is not the death of sin he shall dye in his sins To evidence this Truth we may observe 1 in general That the Death of Christ hath an especial influence into the Mortification of sin without which it will not be Mortified This is plainly enough testified unto in the Scripture By his Cross that is his Death on the Cross We are crucified unto the world Gal. 6. 14. Our old man is crucified with him that the Body of sin might be destroyed Rom. 6. 6. That is sin is Mortified in us by vertue of the Death of Christ 2 In the Death of Christ with respect unto sin there may be considedered 1. His Oblation of himself and 2. The Application thereof unto us By the first it is that our sins are expiated as unto their Guilt but from the latter it is that they are actually subdued as to their Power For it is by an Interest in and a participation of the Benefits of his Death which we call the Application of it unto us Hereon are we said to be buried with him and to rise with him whereof our Baptism is a pledge Rom. 6. 3 4. not in an outward Representation as some imagine of being dipped under the water and taken up again which were to make one sign the sign of another but in a powerful Participation of the vertue of the Death and Life of Christ in a death unto sin and newness of life in Holy Obedience which Baptisme is a pledge of as it is a token of our initiation and implanting into him So are we said to be baptized into his death or into the likeness of it that is into its power ver 3. 3 The old man is said to be crucified with Christ or sin to be Mortified by the Death of Christ as was in part before observed on two Accounts 1 Of Conformity Christ is the Head the Beginning or Idea of the New Creation The first born of every Creature Whatever God designeth unto us therein he first exemplified in Jesus Christ And we are predestinated to be conformed to the Image of his Son Rom. 8. 29. Hereof the Apostle gives us an express instance in the Resurrection Christ the first Fruits afterwards they that are Christs at his coming 1 Cor. 15. 23. It is so in all things all that is wrought in us it is in resemblance and conformity unto Christ. Particularly we are by Grace planted into the likeness of his Death Rom. 6. 5. being made conformable unto his Death Phil. 3. 10. and so to be dead with Christ Col. 2. 20. Now this conformity is not in our Natural Death nor in our being put to death as he was for it is that which we are made partakers of in this Life and that in a way of Grace and Mercy But Christ died for sin for our sin which was the meritorious procuring cause thereof And he lived again by the Power of God A likeness and conformity hereunto God will work in all Believers There is by nature a Life of sin in them as hath been declared This Life must be destroyed sin must dye in us and we thereby become dead unto sin And as he rose again So are we to be quickened in and unto newness of life In this death of sin consists that Mortification which we treat about and without which we cannot be conformed unto Christ in his Death which we are designed unto And the same Spirit which wrought these things in Christ will in the pursuit of his Design work that which answers unto them in all his Members Sect. 34 2 In respect of Efficacy vertue goeth forth from the Death of Christ for the subduing and Destruction of sin It was not designed to be a dead unactive passive Example but it is accompanied with a Power conforming and changing us into its own likeness It is the Ordinance of God unto that End which he therefore gives efficacy unto It is by a fellowship or participation in his sufferings that we are made conformable to his Death Phil. 3. 10. this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is an interest in the Benefit of his suffering we also are made partakers thereof This makes us conformable to his Death in the Death of sin in us The Death of Christ is designed to be the Death of sin let them who are dead in sin deride it whilest they please If Christ had not dyed sin had never dyed in any sinner unto Eternity Wherefore that
it will it cannot refuse to be comforted And hereby doth he shed abroad the Love of God in our Hearts Rom. 5. 5. whereby all Graces are cherished and encreased Thirdly He doth it by working immediately an Actual Encrease of these graces in us I have shewed that these are capable of improvement and of an Addition of Degrees unto them Now they are Originally the immediate Work and product of the Spirit of God in us as hath been abundantly evinced And as he first works and creates them so he encreaseth them Hereby they that are feeble become as David Zech. 12. 8. That is those whose Graces were weak whose Faith was infirm and whose Love was languid shall by the supplyes of the Spirit and the encrease given by him unto them become strong and vigorous To this purpose are Promises multiplyed in the Scripture which in our constant Supplications we principally respect This is that which the School-men after Austin call Gratiam corroborantem that is the working of the Holy Spirit in the encreasing and strengthening of Grace received See Ephes. 3. 16 17. Col. 1 10 11. Isa. 40. 29. And this is the principal Cause and Means of the gradual Encrease of Holiness in us or the carrying of the Work of Sanctification Psal. 138. 8. Sect. 5 2 There are Graces whose Exercise is more Occasional and not alwayes actually necessary as unto the Life of God That is it is not necessary that they be alwayes in actual Exercise as Faith and Love are to be With respect unto these Holiness is encreased by the Addition of one to another untill we are brought on several Occasions to the Practice and Exercise of them all For the Addition of the new Exercise of any Grace belongs unto the gradual carrying on of the Work of Sanctification And hereunto all things that befall us in this World all our Circumstances are laid in a subserviency by the Wisdom of God All our Relations all our Afflictions all our Temptations all our Mercies all our Enjoyments all Occurrences are suited to a continual adding of the Exercise of one Grace to another wherein Holiness is encreased And if we make not use of them to that purpose we miss of all the Benefit and Advantage we might have of them and disappoint what lyes in us the Design of Divine Love and Wisdom in them This is given us in Charge 2 Pet. 1. 5 6 7. Besides all this giving all diligence adde to your Faith Vertue and to Vertue Knowledge and to Knowledge Temperance and to Temperance Patience and to Patience Godliness and to Godliness Brotherly-kindness and to Brotherly-kindness Charity The end why this Injunction is given us is that we may escape the Corruption that is in the World through Lust v. 3. that is have all our Corruptions throughly subdued and our Souls throughly sanctified To this end are the Promises given us and a Divine spiritual Nature is bestowed upon us But will that suffice or is there no more required of us unto that End Yes saith the Apostle this great Work will not be effected unless you use your utmost Diligence and Endeavour to adde the Exercise of all the Graces of the Spirit One to Another as Occasion shall require There is a Method in this Concatenation of Graces from first to last and an especial Reason for each particular or why the Apostle requires that such a Grace should be added unto such a one in the Order laid down which at present I shall not enquire into But in general he intends that every Grace is to be exercised according to its proper season and especial Occasion Hereby also is the Work of Sanctification gradually carryed on and Holiness encreased And this Addition of one Grace unto another with the Progress of Holiness thereby is also from the Holy Ghost And three wayes there are whereby he accomplisheth his Work herein 1 By Ordering things so towards us and bringing of us into such Conditions as wherein the Exercise of these Graces shall be required and necessary All the Afflictions of Tryals which he bringeth the Church into have no other End or Design So the Apostle James expresseth it Chap. 1. 2 3 4. My Brethren count it all Joy when ye fall into divers Temptations knowing this that the triall of your Faith worketh Patience But let Patience have its perfect Work that you may be perfect and entire wanting Nothing These Temptations are Trials upon Afflictions Troubles Persecutions and the like But take them in any other sense it is the same unto our purpose These are all guided unto us by Christ and his Spirit for it is he who rebukes and chastens us But what is his End therein It is that Faith may be exercised and Patience employed and one Grace added unto another that they may carry us on towards Perfection So he bringeth us into that Condition as wherein we shall assuredly miscarry if we adde not the Exercise of one Grace unto another 2 In this state of things he effectually minds us of our Duty and what Graces ought to be put upon their Exercise We may dispute whether it be better to Act Faith or to Despond to adde Patience under the Continuance of our Tryals or to trust unto our selves and irregularly to seek after Deliverance or divert unto other satisfactions Then doth he cause us to hear a Word behind us saying this is the way walk in it when we turn to the right hand and when we turn to the left Isa. 30. 21. When we are at a loss and know not what to doe and are ready it may be to consult with flesh and blood and to divert to irregular courses he speaks effectually to us saying No that is not your way but this is it namely to Act Faith Patience Submission to God adding one Grace to another binding our Hearts thereby to our Duty 3 He actually excites and sets all needfull Graces at work in the Way and Manner before spoken unto This then is to be fixed that all this Encrease of Holiness is immediately the Work of the Holy Ghost who therein gradually carryes on his Design of sanctifying us throughout in our whole Spirit Souls and Bodies There is in our Regeneration and Habitual Grace received a Nature bestowed on us capable of Growth and Encrease and that is all if it be left unto its self it will not thrive it will decay and dye The actual supplyes of the Spirit are the waterings that are the immediate Cause of its encrease It wholly depends on continual Influences from God He cherisheth and improves the work he hath begun with new and fresh supplyes of Grace every moment Isa. 27. 3. I the Lord water it every moment And it is the Spirit which is this Water as the Scripture every where declares God the Father takes on him the Care in this matter he watcheth over his Vineyard to keep it The Lord Christ is the Head Fountain and Treasure of all
us much to blame that we do not more abound in the use of this Means unto the End mentioned Did we abide more constantly in the beholding or Contemplation of the Person of Christ of the Glory and Beauty of his Holiness as the Pattern and great Example proposed unto us we should be more transformed into his Image and Likeness But it is so fallen out that many who are called Christians delight to be talking of and do much admire the vertuous Sayings and Actions of the Heathen and are ready to make them the Object of their Imitation whilest they have no thoughts of the Grace that was in our Lord Jesus Christ nor do endeavour after Conformity thereunto And the Reason is because the Vertue which they seek after and desire is of the same Kind with that which was in the Heathen and not of that Grace and Holiness which was in Christ Jesus And thence also it is that some who not out of Love unto it but to decry other important Mysteries of the Gospel thereby do place all Christianity in the Imitation of Christ do yet indeed in their practice despise those Qualities and Dutyes wherein he principally manifested the Glory of his Grace His Meekness Patience Self-denyal Quietness in bearing Reproaches Contempt of the World Zeal for the Glory of God Compassion to the Souls of men Condescentions to the Weaknesses of all they regard not But there is no greater Evidence that whatever we seem to have of any thing that is good in us is no part of Evangelical Holiness than that it doth not render us conformable to Christ. Sect. 60 And we should alwayes consider how we ought to act Faith on Christ with respect unto this End Let none be guilty practically of what some are falsely charged withall as to Doctrine Let none divide in the Work of Faith and Exercise themselves but in the one half of it To Believe in Christ for Redemption for Justification for Sanctification is but one half of the Duty of Faith It respects Christ only as he died and suffered for us as he made Attonement for our sins Peace with God and Reconciliation for us as his Righteousness is imputed unto us unto Justification Unto these Ends indeed is he firstly and principally proposed unto us in the Gospel and with respect unto them are we exhorted to receive him and to believe in him But this is not all that is required of us Christ in the Gospel is proposed unto us as our Pattern and Example of Holiness And as it is a cursed Imagination that this was the whole End of his Life and Death namely to exemplifie and confirm the Doctrine of Holiness which he taught so to neglect his so being our Example in considering him by Faith to that End and labouring after Conformity to him is evil and pernitious Wherefore let us be much in the Contemplation of what he was what he did how in all Instances of Duties and Trials he carried himself untill an Image or Idea of his perfect Holiness is implanted in our Minds and we are made like unto him thereby Sect. 61 4 ly That which principally differenceth Evangelical Holiness with respect unto the Lord Christ from all other Natural or Moral Habits or Duties and whereby he is made Sanctification unto us is that from him his Person as our Head the Principle of spiritual Life and Holiness in Believers is derived and by vertue of their Vnion with him real Supplyes of spiritual Strength and Grace whereby their Holiness is preserved maintained and encreased are constantly communicated unto them On the stating and proof hereof the whole difference about Grace and Morality doth depend and will issue For if that which men call Morality be so derived from the Lord Christ by vertue of our Union with him it is Evangelical Grace if it be not it is either nothing or somewhat of another Nature and Kind for Grace it is not nor Holiness neither And all that I have to prove herein is that the Lord Jesus Christ is an Head of Influence the Spring or Fountain of spiritual Life unto his Church wherein I know my self to have the Consent of the Church of God in all Ages And I shall confine the proof of my Assertion unto the ensuing Positions with their Confirmation Sect. 62 First Whatever Grace God promiseth unto any bestoweth on them or worketh in them it is all so bestowed and wrought in by and through Jesus Christ as the Mediatour or middle Person between God and them This the very Notion and Nature of his Office of Mediator and his Interposition therein between God and us doth require To affirm that any good thing any Grace any Vertue is given unto or bestowed on us or wrought in us by God and not immediately through Christ or that we Believe in God yield Obedience unto him or Praise with Glory not directly by Christ is utterly to overthrow his Mediation Moses indeed is called a Mediator between God and the People Gal. 3. 19. as he was an Internuntius a Messenger to declare the Mind of God to them and to return their Answers unto God but to limit the Mediatory Work of Christ unto such an Interposition only is to leave him but one Office that of a Prophet and to destroy the principal Uses and Effects of his Mediation towards the Church In like manner because Moses is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Saviour or Redeemer Acts 7. 35. metaphorically with respect unto his Use and Employment in that mighty Work of the Deliverance of the People out of Aegypt some will not allow that the Lord Christ is a Redeemer in any other sence subverting the whole Gospel with the Faith and Souls of men But in particular what there is of this nature in the Mediation of Christ in his being the middle Person between God and us may be declared in the ensuing Assertions Sect. 63 1 God himself is the absolute infinite Fountain the supream efficient Cause of all Grace and Holiness For He alone is originally and essentially Holy as he only is Good and so the first Cause of Holiness and Goodness to others Hence he is called the God of all Grace 1 Pet. 5. 10. The Author Possessour and Bestower of it He hath Life in himself and quickeneth whom he pleaseth Joh. 5. 26. With him is the Fountain of Life Psal. 36. 9. as hath been declared before This I suppose needs no further Confirmation with them who really acknowledge any such thing as Grace and Holiness These things if any are among those perfect Gifts which are from above coming down from the Father of Lights with whom is no variableness nor shadow of turning Jam. 1. 17. Sect. 64 2 God from his own fullness communicates unto his Creatures either by the way of Nature or by the way of Grace In our first Creation God implanted his Image on us in Uprightness and Holiness in and by the making or Creation
Holiness and are accepted with God they proceed from a peculiar Operation of the Holy Spirit in us And herein to make our Intention the more evident we may distinctly observe 1 That there is in the Minds Wills and Affections of all Believers a Meetness Fitness Readiness and habitual Disposition unto the Performance of all Acts of Obedience towards God all Duties of Piety Charity and Righteousness that are required of them and hereby are they internally and habitually distinguished from them that are not so That it is so with them and whence it comes be so we have before declared This Power and Disposition is wrought and preserved in them by the Holy Ghost 2 No Believer can of himself act that is actually exert or exercise this Principle or Power of a spiritual Life in any one Instance of any Duty internal or external towards God or Men so as that it shall be an Act of Holiness or a Duty accepted with God He cannot I say do so of himself by vertue of any Power habitually inherent in him We are not in this World intrusted with any such spiritual Ability from God as without further actual Aid and Assistance to do any thing that is Good Therefore 3 That which at present I design to prove is That the Actual Aid Assistance and internal Operation of the Spirit of God is necessary required and granted unto the producing of every holy Act of our Minds Wills and Affections in every Duty whatever Or notwithstanding the Power or Ability which Believers have received in or by Habitual Grace they still stand in need of Actual Grace in for and unto every single gracious holy Act or Duty towards God And this I shall now a little further explain and then confirm Sect. 6 As it is in our natural Lives with respect unto Gods Providence so it is in our spiritual Lives with respect unto his Grace He hath in the Works of Nature endowed us with a vital Principle or an Act of the quickening Soul upon the Body which is quickened thereby By vertue hereof we are enabled unto all vital Acts whether Natural and Necessary or Voluntary according to the Constitution of our Beings which is Intellectual God breathed into man the Breath of Life and he became a living Soul Gen. 2. 7. giving him a Principle of Life he was fitted for and enabled unto all the proper Acts of that Life For a Principle of Life is an Ability and Disposition unto Acts of Life But yet whosoever is thus made a living Soul who is indued with this Principle of Life he is not able Originally without any motion or Acting from God as the first Cause or independently on him to exert or put forth any vital Act That which hath not this Principle as a dead Carkase hath no meetness unto vital Actions nor is capable either of Motion or Alteration but as it receives Impressions from an outward Principle of Force or an inward Principle of Corruption But he in whom it is hath a Fitness Readiness and habitual Power for all vital Actions yet so as without the Concurrence of God in his Energetical Providence moving and Acting of him he can do nothing For in God we live and move and have our being Acts 17. 28. And if any one could of himself perform an Action without any Concourse of Divine Operation he must himself be absolutely the first and only Cause of that Action that is the Creatour of a New Being Sect. 7 It is so as unto our spiritual Life We are by the Grace of God through Jesus Christ furnished with a Principle of it in the Way and for the Ends before described Hereby are we enabled and disposed to Live unto God in the Exercise of spiritually vital Acts or the performance of Dutyes of Holiness And he who hath not this Principle of spiritual Life is spiritually dead as we have at large before manifested and can do nothing at all that is spiritually Good He may be moved unto and as it were compelled by the Power of Convictions to do many things that are materially so But that which is on all Considerations spiritually good and accepted with God he can do nothing of The Enquiry is What Believers themselves who have received this Principle of spiritual Life and are Habitually sanctified can do as to Actual Duties by vertue thereof without a new immediate Assistance and working of the Holy Spirit in them And I say they can no more do any thing that is spiritually good without the particular Concurrence and Assistance of the Grace of God unto every Act thereof than a man can naturally act or move or doe any thing in an absolute Independency on God his Power and Providence And this proportion between the Works of Gods Providence and of his Grace the Apostle expresseth Ephes. 2. 10. For we are his Workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto good Works which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them God at the Beginning made all things by a creating Power producing them out of Nothing and left them not meerly to themselves and their own Powers when so created but he upholds supports sustains and preserves them in the Principles of their Beings and Operations acting powerfully in and by them after their several Kinds Without his Supportment of their Beings by an Actual incessant Emanation of Divine Power the whole Fabrick of Nature would dissolve into Confusion and nothing And without his Influence into and Concurrence with their Ability for Operation by the same Power all things would be dead and deformed and not one Act of Nature be exerted So also is it in this Work of the New Creation of all things by Jesus Christ. We are the Workmanship of God he hath formed and fashioned us for himself by the Renovation of his Image in us Hereby are we sitted for good Works and the Fruits of Righteousness which he hath appointed as the Way of our Living unto him This New Creature this Divine Nature in us he supporteth and preserveth so as that without his continual influential Power it would perish and come to nothing But this is not all He doth moreover act it and effectually concurre to every singular Duty by new supplyes of Actual Grace So then that which we are to prove is That there is an Actual Operation of the Holy Ghost in us necessary unto every Act and Duty of Holiness whatever without which none either will or can be produced or performed by us which is the Second Part of his Work in our Sanctification And there are several Wayes whereby this is confirmed unto us Sect. 8 First The Scripture declares that we our selves cannot in and by our selves that is by vertue of any strength or power that we have received do any thing that is spiritually Good So our Saviour tells his Apostles when they were sanctified Believers and in them all that are so without me ye can do nothing John 15.
there is a vertue and Efficacy in the Death of Christ unto this purpose cannot be denyed without a Renuntiation of all the Benefits thereof On the one hand the Scripture tells us that he is our Life our Spiritual Life the Spring Fountain and Cause of it we have nothing therefore that belongs thereunto but what is derived from him They cast themselves out of the verge of Christianity who suppose that the Lord Christ is no otherwise our Life or the Authour of Life unto us but as he hath revealed and taught the way of Life unto us He is our Life as he is our Head And it would be a sorry Head that should onely teach the feet to go and not communicate strength to the whole Body so to doe And that we have real influences of Life from Christ I have sufficiently proved before Unto our spiritual Life doth ensue the Death of sin for this on the other hand is peculiarly assigned unto his Death in the Testimonies before produced This therefore is by vertue derived from Christ That is in an especial manner from his Death as the Scripture testifies Sect. 35 All the Enquiry is How the Death of Christ is applyed unto us or which is the same How we apply our selves to the Death of Christ for this purpose And I answer We do it two wayes 1 By Faith The way to derive Vertue from Christ is by touching of him So the diseased Woman in the Gospel touched but the Hemme of his Garment and Vertue went forth from him to stay her Bloody Issue Math. 9. 22. It was not her Touching him outwardly but her Faith which she acted then and thereby that derived Vertue from him For so our Saviour tells her in his Answer Daughter be of good Comfort thy Faith hath made thee whole But unto what End was this touching of his Garment It was only a Pledge and Token of the particular Application of the healing Power of Christ unto her Soul or her Faith in him in particular for that End For at the same time many thronged upon him in a presse so as his Disciples marvelled he should ask who touched his Cloaths Mark 5. 30 31. yet was not any of them advantaged but the poor sick Woman A great Emblem it is of common Profession on the one hand and especial Faith on the other Multitudes presse and throng about Christ in a Profession of Faith and Obedience and in the real performance of many Duties but no Vertue goeth forth from Christ to heal them But when any one though poor though seemingly at a distance gets but the least touch of him by especial Faith this Soul is healed This is our Way with respect unto the Mortification of Sin The Scripture assures us that there is Vertue and Efficacy in the Death of Christ unto that End The Means whereby we derive this Vertue from him is by Touching of him that is by Acting Faith on him in his Death for the Death of Sin Sect. 36 But how will this effect it how will sin be mortified hereby I say how by what Power and Vertue were they healed in the Wilderness who looked unto the Brazen Serpent was it not because that was an Ordinance of God which by his Almighty Power he made effectual unto that purpose The Death of Christ being so as to the Crucifying of sin when it is looked on or applyed unto by Faith shall not Divine Vertue and Power go forth unto that End The Scripture and Experience of all Believers give Testimony unto the Truth and Reality thereof Besides Faith it self as acted on the Death of Christ hath a peculiar Efficacy unto the subduing of sin for beholding him thereby as in a Glass we are changed into the same Image 1 Cor. 3. 18. And that which we peculiarly behold we are peculiarly transformed into the Likeness of And moreover it is the only Means whereby we Actually derive from Christ the Benefits of our Vnion with him from thence we have all Grace or there is no such thing in the World And the Communication of it unto us is in and by the Actual Exercise of Faith principally So it being acted with respect unto his Death we have Grace for the Killing of sin and thereby become dead with him Crucified with him Buryed with him as in the Testimonies before produced This is that which we call the Application of the Death of Christ unto us or our Application of our selves to the Death of Christ for the Mortification of sin And they by whom this Means thereof is despised or neglected who are ignorant of it or do Blaspheme it must live under the Power of sin unto what Inventions soever they turn themselves for Deliverance According as we abide and abound herein will be our success Those who are careless and remiss in the Exercise of Faith by Prayer and Meditation in the Way described will find that Sin will keep its ground and maintain so much Power in them as shall issue in their perpetual Trouble And men who are much conversant with the Death of Christ not in Notions and Lifeless Speculations not in Natural or Carnal Affections like those which are raised in weak Persons by Images and Crucifixes but by holy Actings of Faith with respect unto what is declared in the Scripture as to its Power and Efficacy will be implanted into the Likeness of it and experience the Death of sin in them continually Sect. 37 2 We do it by Love Christ as Crucified is the great Object of our Love or should so be For he is therein unto sinners altogether Lovely Hence one of the Ancients cryed out 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 My Love is crucified and why doe I stay behind In the Death of Christ do his Love his Grace his Condescension most gloriously shine forth We may therefore consider three things with respect unto this Love 1 The Object of it 2 The Means of the Representation of that Object unto our Minds and Affections 3 The Effects of it as to the Case in hand The Object of it is Christ himself in his unsearchable Grace his unspeakable Love his infinite Condescension his patient Suffering and victorious Power in his Death or dying for us It is not his Death absolutely but himself as all these Graces conspicuously shine forth in his Death which is intended And there are various Wayes whereby this may be represented unto our Minds Sect. 38 1 Men may doe it unto themselves by their own Imaginations They may frame and fancy dolorous things unto themselves about it which is the way of Persons under deep and devout Superstitions But no Love in sincerity will ever be ingenerated towards Jesus Christ hereby 2 It may be done by others in pathetical and tragical Declarations of the Outward part of Christs sufferings Herein some have a great faculty to work upon the Natural Affections of their Auditors And great Passions accompanyed with Tears and Vows may be so excited
his Sacerdotal Hath his Blood purged your Consciences from dead works that you should serve the living God Are you cleansed and sanctified and made Holy thereby Are you redeemed out of the World by it and from your vain Conversation therein after the Customs and Traditions of men Are you by it dedicated unto God and made his peculiar Ones If you find not these Effects of the Blood-shedding of Christ in and upon your Souls and Consciences in vain will you expect those other of Attonement Peace and Reconciliation with God of Mercy Pardon Justification and Salvation which you look for The Priestly Office of Christ hath its whole Effect towards all on whom it hath any Effects Despisers of its Fruits in Holiness shall never have the least Interest in its Fruits in Righteousness Sect. 22 Is it from his Actings as the great Prophet of the Church that you expect Help and Relief Have you effectually learned of him to deny all Vngodliness and worldly Lusts to live Righteously and Soberly and Godly in this present World Hath he taught you to be humble to be meek to be patient to hate the Garment spotted with the flesh Hath he instructed you unto sincerity in all your Wayes Dealings and whole Conversations among men Above all hath he taught you have you learned of him to purifie and cleanse your Hearts by Faith to subdue your inward spiritual and fleshly Lusts to endeavour after an universal Conformity unto his Image and Likeness Do you find his Doctrine Effectual unto these Ends and are your Hearts and Minds cast into the Mould of it If it be so your Interest in him by his Prophetical Office is secured unto you But if you say you hear his Voyce in his Word Read and Preached that you have Learned many Mysteries and have attained much Light or Knowledge thereby at least you know the substance of the Doctrine he hath taught so as that you can discourse of it yea and that you doe many Things or perform many Duties according unto it but cannot say that the Effects before enqured after are wrought in you by his Word and Spirit you lose the second Expectation of an Interest in Christ as Mediator or any Advantage thereby Sect. 23 Will you betake your selves to the Kingly Office of Christ and have you Expectations on him by vertue thereof You may do well to Examine how he Ruleth in you and over you Hath he subdued your Lusts those Enemies of his Kingdom which fight against your Souls Hath he strengthened aided supported assisted you by his Grace unto all Holy Obedience And have you given up your selves to be Ruled by his Word and Spirit to obey him in all things and to entrust all your Temporal and Eternal Concernments unto his Care Faithfulness and Power If it be so you have Cause to Rejoyce as those who have an Assured Concern in the blessed Things of his Kingdom But if your proud rebellious Lusts do yet bear sway in you if Sin have dominion over you if you continue to fulfill the Lusts of the Mind and of the Flesh if you walk after the Fashions of this World and not as Obedient Subjects of that Kingdom of his which is not of this World Deceive not your selves any longer Christ will be of no Advantage unto you In these things lye the summe of our present Argument If the Lord Christ act no otherwise for our Good but in and by his Blessed Offices of Priest Prophet and King and if the immediate Effect of the Grace of Christ acting in all these Offices towards us be our Holiness and Sanctification those in whom that Effect is not wrought and produced have neither Ground nor Reason to Promise themselves an Interest in Christ or any Advantage by his Mediation For men to name the Name of Christ to profess themselves Christians or his Disciples to avow an Expectation of Mercy Pardon Life and Salvation by him and in the mean time to be in themselves Worldly Proud Ambitious Envious Revengefull Haters of Good Men Covetous living in divers Lusts and Pleasures is a Scandal and Shame unto Christian Religion and unavoidably Destructive to their own Souls CHAP. V. Necessity of Holiness from our Condition in this World Necessity of Holiness further Argued from our own State and Condition in this World with what is required of us with respect unto our giving Glory to Jesus Christ. Sect. 1 ANother Argument for the Necessity of Holiness may be taken from the Consideration of our selves and our present State and Condition For it is hereby alone that the Vicious Distemper of our Natures is or can be cured That our Nature is fearfully and universally depraved by the Entrance of Sin I have before declared and sufficiently confirmed And I do not now consider it as to the Disability of Living unto God or Enmity unto him which is come upon us thereby nor yet as to the future Punishment which it renders us obnoxious unto But it is the present misery that is upon us by it unless it be cured which I intend For the Mind of man being possessed with Darkness Vanity Folly and Instability the Will under the Power of spiritual Death Stubborn and Obstinate and all the Affections Carnal Sensual and Selfish the whole Soul being hurried off from God and so out of its Way is perpetually filled with Confusion and perplexing Disorder It is not unlike that Description which Job gives of the Grave A Land of Darkness and of the shadow of Death without any Order and where the Light is as Darkness Chap. 10. 21 22. When Solomon set himself to search out the Causes of all the Vanity and Vexation that is in the World of all the Troubles that the Life of Man is filled withall he affirms that this was the summe of his Discovery God made men upright but they have found out many Inventions Eccles. 7. 29. that is cast themselves into endless Entanglements and Confusions What is Sin in its Guilt is Punishment in its Power yea the greatest that men are liable unto in this World Hence God for the Guilt of some Sins poenally gives many up to the Power of others Rom. 1. 24 26 28. 2 Thess. 2. 11. And this he doth not only to secure and aggravate their Condemnation at the last Day but to give them in this World a Recompence of their Folly in themselves For there is no greater Misery nor Slavery than to be under the Power of Sin Sect. 2 This proves the Original Depravation of our Nature the whole Soul filled with Darkness Disorder and Confusion being brought under the Power of various Lusts and Passions captivating the Mind and Will unto their Interests in the vilest Drudgeries of Servitude and Bondage No sooner doth the Mind begin to Act any thing suitably unto the small Remainders of Light in it but it is immediately controlled by impetuous Lusts and Affections which darken its Directions and silence its Commands Hence
God Author of our Sanctification 322 3 God how he is the God of Peace 323 3 All good in the Scripture ascribed to the Holy Spirit 470 15 A good man who he is 515 516 29 No good in us but what is wrought by the Holy Spirit 11 13 The good Spirit and the Holy Spirit the same 38 12 Good Spirit of God over-ruling the Devil 112 18 Gospel how abused and despised 223 36 Apprehension of Gods Goodness in the Light of Nature not sufficient to reconcile men to him 229 47 No true Apprehension of the Divine Goodness but in Christ. 229 48 Nature of the Gospel with respect unto the Objects of mens Lusts and Desires 233 54 Things peculiarly belonging to the Gospel or its own Things 234 56 Things known in the Light of Nature further manifested in the Gospel 234 What the Gospel superaddes unto Moral Duties 235 57 Gospel sent for the Accomplishment of the Decree of Election 524 11 Nature of Gospel Precepts 535 6 Grace taken two wayes in the Scripture 164 7 Grace how really efficient in Conversion 264 23 Grace of the Gospel overthrown by asserting it to be a Moral Suasion only 265 23 Nature of Converting Grace explained 268 27 Grace victorious and irresistible 270 30 Grace internal not resisted 271 34 Grace produced by a Creating Act. 275 40 Grace and Nature opposed 322 3 All Grace depends on continual Influences from God 344 6 All Grace Originally in Christ. 362 Things wrought in a way of Grace prescribed in a way of Duty 379 Grace excited by Afflictions 392 Sin and Grace cannot bear rule in the same Person at the same time 429 25 Grace and Nature opposed 322 3 Grace how it frees the Soul from spiritual Incumbrances 436 36 Grace how communicated from Christ unto Believers 457 70 Administration of Grace not equal at all times 547 24 Graces acted and exercised in the Oblation of Christ. 144 Graces which are our Duties not absolutely in our own power 322 2 Graces of Holiness improved into Glory 328 10 All Graces excited unto Exercise by the Holy Ghost 341 5 Graces whose Exercise is Occasional onely how they are encreased 343 6 Graces eminently making us like unto God 513 23 Graces declaring our Conformity to God 515 28 Growth in Grace and Wisdom how ascribed unto Christ. 138 2 Growth in Holiness compared unto that of Trees and Plants 346 8 Growth of Holiness secret and indiscernible 347 8 Growth in Holiness an Object of Faith 351 10 Growth in Holiness enjoyned unto us and required of us 339 4 Growth in Holiness an Access towards Glory 511 21 H. Habit of Holiness antecedently necessary to every Act of Holiness 416 8 Habit of Grace preserved by the constant Influences of the Holy Spirit 417 10 Habit of Holiness not acquired but preserved in a way of Duty ibid. Habit of Holiness permanent in its Inclination 427 23 Habits encline unto Acts of their own kind for a certain End 423 15 Infused Habits of Grace proved 280 50 Intellectual Habits the Nature of them 415 8 Habitual Vncleanness equal in all 378 Habitual Pollution inconsistent with any Holiness ibid. Habitual Grace necessary unto all Acts of Obedience 548 26 Tongues and Hands of the Prophets guided by the Holy Ghost 105 10 Harmony between Grace and the Command 551 33 Head of the Church first respected in the New Creation 128 1 The Heart what it signifies and how it is depraved 212 17 Stony Heart how taken away 277 43 New Heart promised what it is 277 44 418 11 Heart the meaning of it in the Scripture 367 Historical Books of the Scripture written by Divine Inspiration 113 19 The Holy Spirit how both Lord and God 6 4 Holy Spirit the onely Author unto us of all spiritual Good 11 12 The Holy Spirit known by his Operations 21 24 Holy Spirit so called from his immaterial substance 34 9 The Holy Spirit so called first because he is essentially holy 35 36 9 10 Holy Spirit called holy from his Work 36 10 Holy Spirit in what sence called the Spirit of God 38 13 Holy Spirit how called the Spirit of the Son 39 14 The Holy Spirit an Eternal Infinite Intelligent Person 46 47 48 49 c. 7 8 9 10 c. The Holy Spirit hath a spiritual substance and subsistence of his own 54 18 Why the Holy Spirit never Appeared in the Person of a Man 55 18 The Holy Spirit the Author of the Ministry of the Church 61 26 The Holy Spirit the Object of mens Actings in Religion 62 28 The Holy Spirit not a Quality or Vertue of the Divine Nature 64 30 The Holy Spirit expresly called God 64 31 The Holy Spirit given of God and how 80 3 The Holy Spirit compared unto Fire and Water and why 88 13 The Holy Spirit One dividing as he pleaseth to others 94 21 The Holy Spirit the Promise and Legacy of Christ. 124 6 The Holy Spirit the Spirit of the Son as well as of the Father and what followeth thereon 130 8 Actings of the Holy Spirit not ascribed unto him Exclusively 130 9 The Holy Spirit supplyes the bodily Absence of Christ. 158 5 Holy Spirit worketh by Means ordinarily 187 25 The Holy Spirit the immediate Sanctifier of all Believers 337 15 The Holy Spirit promised with respect unto his Effects 357 2 Holy Spirit the principal efficient Cause of the Mortification of Sin 481 15 c. Holy Ghost how the Power of the most High 132 No Holiness but by the Gospel and the Grace of it 325 8 Holiness passeth over into Eternity and Glory and how 328 11 Holiness glorious in this Life 329 12 Holiness all that God requireth of Believers 330 13 Holiness commanded in a way of Duty promised in a way of Grace 336 14 Holiness in its true Nature 338 2 Holiness how it is encreased in Believers 340 4 Holiness may thrive where its growth is not discerned 350 10 Holiness pleaseth God wherever it is 361 5 No Holiness beyond the bounds of Relation to Christ. 363 6 Holiness of God wherein it consists 374 4 Where the Principle of Holiness is there will be the Fruits of it 421 All Holiness derived from Christ. 450 451 c. Evangelical Holiness an effect of the Covenant of Grace 459 75 Holiness of God how an Argument of the Necessity of Holiness in us 500 5 Holiness not absolutely of the same use under the New Covenant and the Old 503 9 Holiness necessary unto the future Enjoyment of God 504 13 Holiness the highest Excellency whereof our Nature is capable 509 18 Holiness the Design of God in Election 521 3 Vniversal Holiness how required in the Precepts of the Gospel 535 6 Necessity of Holiness 537 9 Moral Honesty not Holiness 363 6 The Host of Heaven what it is 70 6 Host of the Earth 71 6 Humane Nature of Christ derived no evil from the Fall of Adam Reasons thereof 136 1 Sanctification of the Humane Nature of
that is an Infinitely Glorious Good Wise Holy Powerful Righteous self-subsisting self-sufficient All-sufficient Being the Fountain Cause and Author of Life and Being to all things and of all that is Good in every kind the First Cause last End and absolutely Sovereign Lord of all the Rest and All-satisfactory Reward of all other Beings therefore is he by us to be adored and Worshipped with Divine and Religious Worship Hence are we in our Hearts Minds and Souls to Admire Adore and Love Him his Praises are we to celebrate Him to Trust and fear and so to resign our selves and all our concernments unto his Will and Disposal to regard him with all the Acts of our Minds and Persons answerably to the Holy Properties and Excellencies of his Nature This it is to glorify him as God For seeing of him and through him and to him are all things to him must be Glory for ever Rom. 11. 36. Believing that God thus is and that he is a Rewarder of them that seek him is the Ground of all Coming unto God in his Worship Heb. 11. 6. And herein lies the sin of Men that the invisible things of God being Manifest unto them even his Eternal Power and Godhead yet they do not Glorify him as God Rom. 1. 21. This is to Honour Worship Fear God for himself that is on the Account of what he is himself Where the Divine Nature is there is the true proper formal Object of Religious worship and where that is not it is Idolatry to ascribe it to or exercise it towards any And this God instructs us in in all those Places where the Proclaimes his Name and describes his Eternal Excellencies and that either absolutely or in Comparison with other things All is that we may know him to be such a one as is to be Worshipped and Glorified for himself or his own sake Sect. 3 Secondly The Revelation that God is pleased to make of himself unto us gives the Rule and measure of all Religious Worship and Obedience His Being absolutely considered as comprehending in it all infinitely Divine Perfections is the formal Reason of our Worship but this Worship is to be directed guided regulated by the Revelation he makes of that Being and of those Excellencies unto us This is the End of Divine Revelation namely to direct us in paying that Homage which is due unto the Divine Nature I speak not now only of Positive Institutions which are the free Effects of the Will of God depending originally and solely on Revelation and which therefore have been various and actually changed But this is that which I intend Look what way soever God manifesteth his Being and Properties unto us by his Works or his Word our Worship consisteth in a due Application of our Souls unto him according to that Manifestation of himself Sect. 4 Thirdly God hath revealed or manifested himself as Three in One. And therefore as such is to be worshipped and glorified by us that is as three distinct Persons subsisting in the same Infinitely Holy One individed Essence This Principle might be and had not that labour been obviated ought to have been here at large confirmed it being that which the whole ensuing Discourse doth presuppose and lean upon And in truth I fear that the failing of some Mens Profession begins with their Relinquishment of this Foundation It is now evident unto all that here hath been the fatal miscarriage of those poor deluded Souls amongst us whom they call Quakers And it is altogether in vain to deal with them about other Particulars whilst they are carried away with Infidelity from this Foundation Convince any of them of the Doctrine of the Trinity and all the rest of their Imaginations vanish into Smoak And I wish it were so with them only There are others and those not a few who either reject the Doctrine of it as false or despise it as unintelligible or neglect it as useless or of no great Importance I know this Ulcer lies hid in the minds of many and cannot but expect when it will break out and cover the whole Body with its Defilements whereof they are Members But these things are left to the care of Jesus Christ. The Reason why I shall not in this place insist professedly on the Confirmation and Vindication of this Fundamental Truth is because I have done it elsewhere as having more than once publickly cast my Mite into this Sanctuary of the Lord for which and the like services wherein I stand indebted unto the Gospel I have met with that Reward which I did alwayes except For the present I shall only say that on this Supposition that God hath revealed himself as Three in One He is in all our Worship of him so to be considered And therefore in our Initiation into the Profession and Practice of the Worship of God according to the Gospel we are in our Baptism ingaged to it In the Name of the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost Mat. 28. 19. This is the Foundation of our doing all the things that Christ commands us v. 20. Unto this Service we are solemnly dedicated namely of God as Father Son and Holy Spirit as they are each of them equally participant of the same Divine Nature Sect. 5 Fourthly These Persons are so distinct in their peculiar Subsistence that distinct Actings and Operations are ascribed unto them And these Actings are of two sorts 1. Ad intra which are those internal Acts in one Person whereof another Person is the Object And these Acts ad invicem or intra are natural and necessary inseparable from the Being and Existence of God So the Father knows the Son and loveth him and the Son seeth knoweth and loveth the Father In these mutual Actings one Person is the Object of the Knowledg and Love of the other John 3. 35. The Father loveth the Son and hath given all things into his hand Chap. 5. 20. The Father loveth the Son Matth. 11. 27. No Man knoweth the Son but the Father neither knoweth any Man the Father save the Son John 6. 46. None hath seen the Father save he which is of God he hath seen the Father This mutual Knowledg and Love of Father and Son is expressed at large Prov. 8. 22. which place I have opened and vindicated elsewhere And they are Absolute Infinite Natural and Necessary unto the Being and Blessedness of God So the Spirit is the mutual Love of the Father and the Son knowing them as he is known and searching the deep things of God And in these mutual internal eternal Actings of themselves consists much of the infinite Blessedness of the Holy God Again 2. there are distinct Actings of the several Persons ad extra which are voluntary or effects of Will and Choice and not natural or necessary And these are of two sorts 1. Such as respect one another For there are external Acts of one Person towards another but then the Person that is the Object
hereby animated and capable of all Vital Acts. Hence he could move eat see hear c. for the natural Effects of this Breath of Life are only intended in this Expression Thus the first Man Adam was made a Living Soul 1 Cor. 15. 45. This was the Creation of Man as unto the essentially constituting Principles of his Nature Sect. 11 With respect unto his Moral Condition and Principle of Obedience unto God it is expressed Gen. 1. 26 27. And God said Let us make Man in our own Image after our likeness and let them have dominion so God created Man in his own Image in the Image of God created he him He made him upright Eccles. 7. 29. perfect in his Condition every way compleat fit disposed and able to and for the Obedience required of him Without Weakness Distemper Disease contrariety of Principles Inclinations or Reasonings An universal Rectitude of Nature consisting in Light Power and Order in his Understanding Mind and Affections was the principal part of this Image of God wherein he was created And this appears as from the Nature of the thing it self so from the Description which the Apostle giveth us of the Renovation of that Image in us by the Grace of Christ Ephes. 4. 24. Col. 3. 10. And under both these Considerations we may weigh the especial Operations of the Spirit of God Sect. 12 First As to the Essential Principles of the Nature of Man it is not for nothing that God expresseth his Communication of a Spirit of Life by his breathing into him God breathed into his Nostrils the Breath of Life The Spirit of God and the Breath of God are the same onely the one Expression is proper the other metaphorical wherefore this breathing is the especial acting of the Spirit of God The Creation of the Humane Soul a Vital Immortal Principle and Being is the immeate Work of the Spirit of God Job 33. 4. The Spirit of God hath made me and the Breath of the Almighty hath given me Life Here indeed the Creation and Production of both the essential parts of Humane Nature Body and Soul are ascribed unto the same Author For the Spirit of God and the Breath of God are the same but several Effects being mentioned causeth a repetition of the same Cause under several names This Spirit of God first made Man or formed his Body of the Dust and then gave him that Breath of Life whereby he became a living Soul So then under this first Consideration the Creation of Man is assigned unto the Holy Spirit for Man was the Perfection of the Inferior Creation and in order unto the Glory of God by him were all other things Created Here therefore are his Operations distinctly declared to whom the perfecting and compleating of all Divine Works is peculiarly committed Sect. 14 Secondly We may consider the moral State and Condition of Man with the Furniture of his Mind and Soul in reference unto his Obedience to God and his enjoyment of him This was the principal part of that Image of God wherein he was created Three things were required to render Man idoneous or fit unto that Life to God for which he was made First An ability to discern the Mind and Will of God with respect unto all the Duty and Obedience that God required of him as also so far to know the Nature and Properties of God as to believe him the only proper Object of all Acts and Duties of Religious Obedience and an all-sufficient Satisfaction and Reward in this World and to Eternity Secondly A free uncontrolled unintangled disposition to every Duty of the Law of his Creation in order unto living unto God Thirdly An ability of Mind and Will with a readiness of complyance in his Affections for a due regular performance of all Duties and abstinence from all Sin These things belonged unto the integrity of his Nature with the uprightness of the State and Condition wherein he was made And all these things were the peculiar Effects of the immediate Operation of the Holy Ghost For although this Rectitude of his Nature be distinguishable and separable from the Faculties of the Soul of Man yet in his first Creation they were not actually distinguished from them nor superadded or infused into them when Created but were concreated with them that is his Soul was made meet and able to live to God as his Sovereign Lord Chiefest Good and Last End And so they were all from the Holy Ghost from whom the Soul was as hath been declared Yea suppose these Abilities to be superadded unto Man's Natural Faculties as Gifts supernatural which yet is not so they must be acknowledged in a peculiar manner to be from the Holy Spirit For in the Restauration of these Abilities unto our minds in our Renovation unto the Image of God in the Gospel it is plainly asserted that the Holy Ghost is the immediate Operator of them And he doth thereby restore his own Work and not take the Work of another out of his Hand For in the New Creation the Father in the way of Authority designs it and brings all things unto an head in Christ Ephes. 1. 10. which retrived his original peculiar Work and the Son gave unto all things a new consistency which belonged unto him from the beginning Col. 1. 16. So also the Holy Spirit renews in us the Image of God the original implantation whereof was his peculiar Work And thus Adam may be said to have had the Spirit of God in his Innocency He had him in these peculiar Effects of his Power and Goodness and he had him according to the Tenor of that Covenant whereby it was possible that he should utterly lose him as accordingly it came to pass He had him not by especial Inhabitation for the whole World was then the Temple of God In the Covenant of Grace founded in the Person and on the Mediation of Christ it is otherwise On whomsoever the Spirit of God is bestowed for the Renovation of the Image of God in him he abides with him for ever But in all Men from first to last all Goodness Righteousness and Truth are the Fruits of the Spirit Ephes. 5. 9. Sect. 15 The Works of God being thus finished and the whole frame of Nature set upon its Wheels it is not deserted by the Spirit of God For as the preservation continuance and acting of all things in the Universe according to their especial Nature and mutual Application of one unto another are all from the powerful and efficacious Influences of Divine Providence so there are particular Operations of the Holy Spirit â—â—nd about all things whether meerly Natural and Animal or also Rational and Moral An Instance in each kind may suffice For the first as we have shewed the Propagation of the succeeding Generations of Creatures and the annual Renovation of the Face of the Earth are ascribed unto him Psal. 104. 30. For as we would own the due and just Powers
what I have to offer concerning these things consists upon the Matter solely in the Explication of those places of Scripture wherein they are revealed We must therefore consider 1. what we are taught on the part of God the Father with respect unto the Holy Spirit and his Work and 2. what relates immediately unto himself Sect. 2 First God's disposal of the Spirit unto his Work is five wayes expressed in the Scripture For he is said 1. to give or bestow Him 2. to send Him 3. to administer him 4. to pour him out 5. to put him on us And his own Application of Himself unto his Work is likewise five wayes expressed For he is said 1. to proceed 2. to Come or come upon 3. to fall on Men 4. to rest and 5. to depart These things containing the general Manner of his Administration and Dispensation must be first spoken unto Sect. 3 First He is said to be GIVEN of God that is of God the Father who is said to GIVE him in an especial manner Luk. 11. 13. Your Heavenly Father will give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him Joh. 3. 34. He hath Given his Spirit unto us 1. Joh. 3. 24. Joh. 14. 16. The Father shall Give you another Comforter which is the Holy Ghost v. 26. And in answer unto this Act of God those on whom he is bestowed are said to Receive him Joh. 7. 39. This he spake of the Spirit which they that believe on Him should Receive 1 Cor. 2. 12. We have received the Spirit which is of God 2. Cor. 11. 4. if you have received another Spirit which you had not Reoeived Where the Receiving of the Spirit is made a matter Common unto all Beleivers So Gal. 3. 2. Acts. 8. 15 19. Joh. 14. 17. Chap. 20. 22. For these two Giving and Receiving are related the one supposing the other And this Expression of the Dispensation of the Holy Ghost is irreconcileable unto the Opinion before rejected Namely that he is nothing but a transient Accident or an Occasional Emanation of the Power of God For how or in what sense can an Act of the Power of God be Given by him or be Received by us It can indeed in no sense be either the Object of God's Giving or of our Receiving especially as this is explained in those other Expressions of the same thing before laid down and afterwards considered It must be somewhat that hath a Subsistence of its own that is thus Given and Received So the Lord Christ is frequently said to be Given of God and Received by us It is true we may be said in another sense to receive the Grace of God Which is the Exception of the Socinians unto this Consideration and the constant practice they use to evade plain Testimonies of the Scripture For if they can find any Words in them used elsewhere in another sense they suppose it sufficient to contradict their plain Design and proper meaning in an other place Thus we are exhorted not to receive the Grace of God in vain 2 Cor. 6. 1. I Answer the Grace of God may be considered two Ways 1. Objectively for the Revelation or Doctrine of Grace as Tit. 2. 11 12. So we are said to Receive it when we believe and profess it in opposition unto them by whom it is opposed and rejected And this is the same with our Receiving the Word preached so often mentioned in the Scripture Acts 2. 41. James 1. 21 which is by Faith to give it Entertainment in our Hearts which is the meaning of the Word in this Place 2 Cor. 6. 1. Having taken the Profession of the Doctrine of Grace that is of the Gospel upon us we ought to express its Power in Holiness and suitable Obedience without which it will be of no use or Benefit unto us And the Grace of God is sometimes 2. take Subjectively for the Grace which God is pleased to Communicate unto us or gracious Qualities that he Works in our Souls by his Spirit In this sense also we are sometimes said to receive it 1 Cor. 4. 7. Who maketh thee to differ from another and what hast thou which thou didst not receive Where the Apostle speaketh both of the Gifts and Graces of the Spirit And the Reason hereof is because in the Communication of internal Grace unto us we contribute nothing to the Procurement of it but are merely capable recipient Subjects And this Grace is a Quality or Spiritual Habit permanent and abideing in the Soul But in neither of these senses can we be said to receive the Spirit of God nor God to Give him if he be only the Power of God making an Impression on our Minds and Spirits no more than a Man can be said to receive the Sun-beams which cause Heat in him by their Natural Efficacy falling on him Much less can the Giving and Receiving of the Spirit be so interpreted considering what is said of his being sent and his own Coming with the like Declarations of God's Dispensation of him whereof afterwards Sect. 14 Now this Giving of the Spirit as it is the Act of Him by whom he is Given denotes Authority Freedom and Bounty and on the Part of them that receive him Priviledge and Advantage 1. Authority He that gives any thing hath Authority to dispose of it None can give but of his own and that which in some sense he hath in his Power Now the Father is said to give the Spirit and that upon our Request as Luk. 11. 13. This I acknowledg wants not some Difficulty in its Explication For if the Holy Ghost be God himself as hath been declared how can he be said to be given by the Father as it were in a way of Authority But keeping our selves to the sacred Rule of Truth we may solve this Difficulty without Curiosity or Danger Wherefore 1. the Order of the Subsistence of the three Persons in the Divine Nature is regarded herein For the Father as hath been shewed is the Fountain and Original of the Trinity the Son being of him and the Spirit of them both Hence he is to be considered as the principal Author and Cause of all those works which are immediately wrought by either of them For of whom the Son and Spirit have their Essence as to their Personality from him have they Life and Power of Operation Joh. 5. 19 26. Therefore when the Holy Spirit comes unto any the Father is said to Give him for he is the Spirit of the Father And this Authority of the Father doth immediately respect the Work it self and not the Person Working But the Person is said to be given for the Works sake 2. The Oeconomy of the Blessed Trinity in the Work of our Redemption and Salvation is respected in this Order of things The Fountain hereof lies in the Love Wisdom Grace and Counsel of the Father Whatever is done in the pursuit hereof is originally the Gift of the Father because it is
Church They praying by his especial Guidance and Assistance say Come or Preachers say unto others Come and the Bride or the Body of the Church acted by the same Spirit joyn with them in this great Request and Supplication and thereunto all Believers are invited in the following words and let him that heareth say Come Sect. 10 All these things were necessary to be premised in general as giving some insight into the Nature of the Operations of the Holy Spirit in us and towards us And hereby we have made our Way plain to the consideration of his especial Works in the Calling Building and Carrying on the Church unto Perfection Now all his Works of this kind may be reduced unto three Heads 1. Of Sanctifying Grace 2. Of Especial Gifts 3. Of peculiar Evangelical Priviledges Only we must observe that these things are not so distinguished as to be negatively contradistinct to each other for the same thing under several Considerations may be all these a Grace a Gift and a Priviledg All that I intend is to reduce the Operations of the Holy Spirit unto these Heads casting each of them under that which it is most eminent in and as which it is most directly proposed unto us And I shall begin with his Work of Grace BOOK III. VVORK OF THE HOLY SPIRIT IN THE New Creation BY REGENERATION CHAP. I. 1. The New Creation Compleated 2. Regeneration the especial Work of the Holy Spirit 3 4 5 6 7 8 9. Wrought under the Old Testament but clearly revealed in the New And 10 11 12. is of the same kind in all that are Regenerate 13 14. The Causes and Way of it being the same in all 15 16. It consisteth not in Baptism alone Nor 17 18. in a Moral Reformation of Life But 19 20. a New Creature is Formed in it whose 21 22. Nature is declared and 23. farther explained 24. Denial of the Original Depravation of Nature the Cause of many Noxious Opinions 25 26. Regeneration consisteth not in Enthusiaslick Raptures their Nature and Danger 27. The whole Doctrine necessary dâ—spised corrupted vindicated Sect. 1 WE have formerly declared the Work of the Holy Spirit in Preparing and Forming the Natural Body of Christ. This was the beginning of the New Creation the Foundation of the Gospel-State and Church But this was not the whole of the Work he had to do As he had provided and prepared the Natural Body of Christ so he was to prepare his Mystical Body also And hereby the Work of the New Creation was to be compleated and perfected And as it was with respect unto him and his Work in the Old Creation so was it also in the New All things in their first production had Darkness and Death upon them For the Earth was Void and without Form and Darkness was upon the Face of the Deep Gen. 1. 2. Neither was there any thing that had either Life in it or Principle of Life or any Disposition thereunto In this condition he moved on the prepared Matter preserving and cherishing of it and communicating unto all things a Principle of Life whereby they were animated as we have declared It was no otherwise in the New Creation There was a Spiritual Darkness and Death came by sin on all Mankind Neither was there in any Man living the least Principle of Spiritual Life or any Disposition thereunto In this State of things the Holy Spirit undertaketh to create a New World New Heavens and a New Earth wherein Righteousness should dwell And this in the first place was by his Effectual Communication of a New Principle of Spiritual Life unto the Souls of God's Elect who were the Matter designed of God for this Work to be wrought upon This he doth in their Regeneration as we shall now manifest Sect. 2 1. Regeneration in Scripture is every-where assigned to be the proper and peculiar Work of the Holy Spirit John 3. 3 4 5 6. Jesus answered and said unto Nicodemus Verily verily I say unto thee Except a Man be born again he cannot see the Kingdom of God Nicodemus saith unto him How can a Man be born when he is old can he enter the second time into his Mothers Womb and be born Jesus answered Verily verily I say unto thee Except a Man be born of Water and of the Spirit he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God That which is born of the Flesh is Flesh and that which is born of the Spirit is Spirit It was an ancient knowing Teacher of the Church of the Jews a Master in Israel whom our Blessed Saviour here discourseth withal and instructs For on the consideration of his Miracles he concluded that God was with him and came to enquire of him about the Kingdom of God Our Saviour knowing how all our Faith and Obedience to God and all our Acceptance with him depended on our Regeneration or being born again acquaints him with the necessity of it wherewith he is at first surprized Wherefore he proceeds to instruct him in the Nature of the Work whose necessity he had declared And this he describes both by the Cause and the Effect of it For the Cause of it he tells him it is wrought by Water and the Spirit By the Spirit as the Principal Efficient Cause and by Water as the Pledg Sign and Token of it in the initial Seal of the Covenant the Doctrine whereof was then preached amongst them by John the Baptist or the same thing is intended in a redoubâ—ed Expression the Spirit being signified by the Water also under which Notion he is often promised Sect. 3 Hereof then or of this Work the Holy Spirit is the Principal Efficient Cause whence he in whom it is wrought is said to be born of the Spirit v. 8. so is every one that is born of the Spirit And this is the same with what is delivered Chap. 1. v. 13. Who are born not of Blood nor of the Will of the Flesh nor of the Will of Man but of God The Natural and Carnal Means of Blood Flesh and the Will of Man are rejected wholly in this Matter and the whole Efficiency of the New Birth is ascribed unto God alone His Work answers what-ever Contribution there is unto Natural Generation from the Will and Nature of Man For these things are here compared and from its Analogie unto Natural Generation is this Work of the pirit called Regeneration so in this place is the Allusion and Opposition between these things expressed by our Saviour That which is born of the Flesh is Flesh and that which is born of the Spirit is Spirit v. 6. And herein also we have a farther Description of this Work of the Holy Spirit by its Effect or the Product of it It is Spirit a new Spiritual Being Creature Nature Life as shall be declared And because there is in it a Communication of a new Spiritual Life it is called a Vivification or quickning with respect unto the State wherein all Men
consists our Renovation in Knowledg after the Image of him who created us Col. 3. 10. And 2. the Principle it self infused into us created in us is called the New Man v. 24. That is the New Creature before-mentioned and called the New Man because it consists in the universal change of the whole Soul as it is the principle of all Spiritual and Moral Actions And 1. it is opposed unto the Old Man vers 23. put off the Old Man and put on the New Man vers 22 24. Now this Old Man is the corruption of our Nature as that Nature is the Principle of all Religious Spiritual and Moral Actions as is evident Rom. 6. 6. It is not a corrupt Conversation but the Principle and Root of it For it is distinguished both from the Conversation of Men and those corrupt lusts which are exercised therein as to that Exercise And 2. it is called the New Man because it is the Effect and Product of God's Creating Power and that in a way of a New Creation see Ephes. 1. 18. Col. 2. 12 13. 2 Thess. 1. 11. and it is here said to be Created after God v. 24. Now the Object of a Creating Act is an instantaneous Production What-ever preparations there may be for it and dispositions unto it the bringing forth of a new Form and Being by Creation is in an instant This therefore cannot consist in a mere Reformation of Life So are we said herein to be the Workmanship of God created in Christ Jesus unto good Works Ephes. 2. 10. There is a Work of God in us precedeing all our good Works towards him For before we can work any of them in order of Nature we must be the Workmanship of God created unto them or enabled Spiritually for the performance of them Sect. 22 Again This New Man whereby we are born again is said to be created in Righteousness and true Holiness That there is a respect unto Man created in Innocency wherein he was made in the Image of God I suppose will not be denyed It is also expressed Col. 3. 10. You have put on the New Man which is renewed in Knowledg after the Image of him that created him Look then what was or wherein consisted the Image of God in the First Man thereunto answers this New Man which is created of God Now this did not consist in Reformation of Life no nor in a course of vertuous Actions For he was created in the Image of God before he had done any one good thing at all or was capable of so doing But this Image of God consisted principally as we have evinced elsewhere in the Uprightness Rectitude and Ability of his whole Soul his Mind Will and Affections in unto and for the Obedience that God required of him This he was endowed withal antecedently unto all voluntary Actions whereby he was to live to God Such therefore must be our Regeneration or the Creation of this New Man in us It is the begetting infusing creating of a new saving Principle of Spiritual Life Light and Power in the Soul antecedent unto true Evangelical Reformation of Life in Order of Nature enabling Men thereunto according unto the Mind of God Sect. 23 Hereunto accords that of our Saviour Luk. 6. 43. A good Tree bringeth not forth corrupt Fruit neither doth a corrupt Tree bring forth good Fruit compared with Matth. 7. 18. The Fruit followeth the Nature of the Tree And there is no way to change the Nature of the Fruit but by changing the Nature of the Tree which brings it forth Now all Amendment of Life in Reformation is but Fruit Matth. 3. 10. But the changing of our Nature is antecedent hereunto This is the constant Course and Tenor of the Scripture to distinguish between the Grace of Regeneration which it declares to be an immediate supernatural Work of God in us and upon us and all that Obedience Holiness Righteousness Vertue or what-ever is good in us which is the Consequent Product and Effect of it Yea God hath declared this expresly in his Covenant Ezek. 36. 25 26 27. Jer. 31. 33. Chap. 32. 39 40. The Method of God's proceeding with us in his Covenant is that he first washeth and cleanseth our Natures takes away the Heart of Stone gives an Heart of Flesh writes his Law in our Hearts puts his Spirit in us wherein as shall be evidenced the Grace of Regeneration doth consist The Effect and Consequent hereof is That we shall walk in his Statutes keep his Judgments and do them that is reform our Lives and yeeld all Holy Obedience unto God wherefore these things are distinguished as Causes and Effects See to the same purpose Rom. 6. 3 4 5 6. Col. 3. 1 5. Ephes. 2. 10. Chap. 4. 23 24 25. This I insist upon still on supposition that by Reformation of Life all Actual Obedience is intended For as to that kind of Life which is properly called a moral course of Life in opposition to open Debaucheries and Unrighteousness which doth not proceed from an internal Principle of Saving Grace It is so far from being Regeneration or Grace as that it is a thing of no acceptation with God absolutely what-ever Use or Reputation it may be of in the World Sect. 24 And yet further This Work is described to consist in the Sanctification of the whole Spirit Soul and Body 1 Thess. 5. 23. And if this be that which some men intend by Reformation of Life and Moral Vertue they must needs win much esteem for their clearness and perspicuity in teaching Spiritual Things For who would not admire them for such a Definition of Morality namely that it is the principal Sanctification of the whole Spirit Soul and Body of a Believer by the Holy Ghost But not to dwell longer on this Subject There is no description of the Work of Regeneration in the Scripture in its Nature Causes or Effects no Name given unto it no promise made of it nothing spoken of the Wayes Means or Power by which it is wrought but is inconsistent with this bold Pelagian Figment which is destructive of the Grace of Jesus Christ. The ground of this Imagination that Regeneration consists in a Moral Reformation of Life ariseth from a denial of Original Sin or an inherent habitual corruption of Nature For the Masters unto the Men of this Perswasion tell us that what-ever is of vice or defilement in us it is contracted by a custom of sinning only And their Conceptions hereof do regulate their Opinions about Regeneration For if Man be not originally corrupted and polluted if his Nature be not depraved if it be not possessed by and under the Power of evil Dispositions and Inclinations it is certain that he stands in no need of an inward Spiritual Renovation of it It is enough for such a one that by change of Life he renounce a custom of sinning and reform his Conversation according to the Gospel which in himself he hath power to do
1. as to its Dispositions and Inclinations 2. As to its Power and Actings with respect unto Spiritual Supernatural Things 1. As to its Dispositions it is from the Darkness described perverse and depraved whereby Men are alienated from the Life of God Ephes. 4. 18. for this Alienation of Men from the Divine Life is from the depravation of their Minds Hence are they said to be Alienated and Enemies in their Minds by wicked Works or by their Minds in wicked Works being fixed on them and under the Power of them Col. 1. 21. And that we may the better understand what is intended hereby we may consider both what is this Life of God and how the unregenerate Mind is alienated from it Sect. 21 1. All Life is from God The Life which we have in common with all other living Creatures is from him Acts 17. 28. Psal. 104. 30. And 2. that peculiar vital Life which we have by the union of the rational Soul with the Body is from God also and that in an especial manner Gen. 2. 7. Job 10. 12. But neither of these are any-where called the Life of God But it is an especial Life unto God which is intended and sundry things belong thereunto or sundry things are applyed unto the Description of it 1. It is the Life which God requireth of us that we may please him here and come to the enjoyment of him hereafter The Life of Faith and Spiritual Obedience by Jesus Christ Rom. 1. 17. Gal. 2. 20. I live by the Faith of the Son of God Rom. 6. 7. 2. It is that Life which God worketh in us not Naturally by his Power but Spiritually by his Grace And that both as to the Principle and all the Vital Acts of it Ephes. 2. 1 5. Phil. 2. 13. 3. It is that Life whereby God liveth in us that is in and by his Spirit through Jesus Christ. Gal. 2. 20. Christ liveth in me and where the Son is there is the Father whence also this Life is said to be hid with him in God Col. 3. 3. 4. It is the Life whereby we live to God Rom. 6. 7. whereof God is the Supream and Absolute End as he is the principal efficient Cause of it And two things are contained herein 1. That we do all things to his Glory This is the proper End of all the Acts and Actings of this Life Rom. 14. 7 8. 2. That we design in and by it to come unto the eternal enjoyment of him as our Blessedness and Reward Gen. 15. 1. 5. It is the Life whereof the Gospel is the Law and Rule John 6. 68. Acts 5. 20. 6. A Life all whose Fruits are Holiness and Spiritual Evangelical Obedience Rom. 6. 22. Phil. 1. 11. Lastly It is a Life that dieth not that is not obnoxious unto Death Eternal Life John 17. 3. These things contain the chief concerns of that peculiar Spiritual Heavenly Life which is called the Life of God Sect. 22 2. The Carnal Mind is alienated from this Life it hath no liking of it no inclination to it but carrieth away the whole Soul with an aversation from it And this Alienation or Aversation appears in two things 1. In its unreadiness and unaptness to receive Instructions in and about the Concernments of it Hence are Men dull and flow of heart to believe Luke 24. 25. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Heb. 5. 11 12. Heavy in Hearing and flow in the Apprehension of what they hear So are all Men towards what they do not like but have an aversation from This God complains of in the People of old My People are foolish they have not known me they are sottish Children and have none understanding they are wise to do evil but to do good they have no knowledg Jer. 4. 22. 2. In the Choice and preferring of any other Life before it The first Choice a Natural Mind makes is of a Life in Sin and Pleasure which is but a Death a Death to God 1 Tim. 5. 6. James 5. 5. a Life without the Law and before it comes Rom. 7. 9. This is the Life which is suited to the Carnal Mind which it desires delights in and which willingly it would never depart from Again if by Afflictions or Convictions it be in part or wholly forced to forsake and give up this Life it will chuse magnifie and extol a moral Life a Life in by and under the Law though at the last it will stand it in no more stead than the Life of Sin and Pleasure which it hath been forced to forgo Rom. 9. 32. Chap. 10. 3. The thoughts of this Spiritual Life this Life of God it cannot away with the Notions of it are Uncouth the Description of it is Unintelligible and the Practice of it either odious Folly or needless Superstition This is the Disposition and Inclination of the Mind towards Spiritual Things as it is corrupt and depraved Sect. 23 2. The Power also of the Mind with respect unto its actings toward Spiritual Things may be considered And this in short is none at all in the sense which shall be explained immediately Rom. 5. 6. for this is that which we shall prove concerning the Mind of a Natural Man or of a Man in the State of Nature how-ever it may be excited and improved under those Advantages of Education and Parts which it may have received yet is not able hath not a power of its own Spiritually and Savingly or in a due manner to receive embrace and assent unto Spiritual Things when proposed unto it in the Dispensation and Preaching of the Gospel unless it be renewed enlightned and acted by the Holy Ghost Sect. 24 This the Apostle plainly asserts 1 Cor. 2. 14. The Natural Man receiveth not the Things of the Spirit of God for they are foolishness unto him neither can he know them because they are spiritually discerned 1. The Subject spoke of is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 animalis homo the natural Man he who is a natural Man This Epithete is in the Scripture opposed unto 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Spiritual 1 Cor. 15. 44. Jud. 15. where 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are described by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 such as have not the Spirit of God The foundation of this distinction and the distribution of Men into these two sorts thereby is laid in that of our Apostle 1 Cor. 15. 45. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The first Adam was made a living Soul Hence every Man who hath no more but what is traduced from him is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he is a living Soul as was the first Adam And the last Adam is made a quickning Spirit Hence he that is of him Partaker of his Nature that derives from him is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Spiritual Man The Person therefore here spoken of or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is one that hath all that is or can be derived from the first Adam one endowed with a rational Soul and who hath
that special kind of Life which is given by the especial quickning Principle of a rational Soul Sect. 5 Hence it is evident wherein Death natural doth consist And three things may be considered in it 1 The Separation of the Soul from the Body Hereby the Act of infusing the living Soul ceaseth unto all its Ends. For as a Principle of Life unto the whole it operates only by Vertue of its Union with the subject to be quickned by it 2 A Cessation of all Vital Actings in the quickned Subject For that Union from whence they should proceed is dissolved 3 As a Consequent of these there is in the Body an Impotency for and an Ineptitude unto all Vital Operations Not only do all Operations of Life actually cease but the Body is no more able to effect them There remains in it indeed Potentia obedientialis a passive power to receive Life again if communicated unto it by an external efficient Cause So the body of Lazarus being dead had a receptive Power of a living Soul But an active Power to dispose it self unto Life or Vital Actions it hath not Sect. 6 From these things we may be a just Analogie collect wherein Life and Death Spiritual do consist And to that End some things must be previously observed As 1 That Adam in the state of Innocency besides his Natural life whereby he was a Living Soul had likewise a Supernatural Life with respect unto its end whereby he lived unto God This is called the Life of God Ephes. 4. 18. which Men now in the state of nature are alienated from The Life which God requires and which hath God for its Object and End And this Life was in him Supernatural for although it was concreated in and with the rational Soul as a perfection due unto it in the state wherein and with respect unto the End for which it was made yet it did not naturally flow from the Principles of the rational Soul nor were the Principles Faculties or Abilities of it inseparable from those of the Soul it self being only accidental Perfections of them inlaid in them by especial Grace This Life was necessary unto him with respect unto the state wherein and the End for which he was made He was made to live unto the living God and that in a peculiar manner to live unto his glory in this World by the discharge of the rational and moral Obedience required of him and to live afterward in his Glory and the eternal Enjoyment of him as his Cheifest Good and Highest Reward That whereby he was enabled hereunto was that Life of God which we are alienated from in the state of Nature 2. In this Life as in Life in General three things are to be considered 1 Its Principle 2 Its Operation 3 Its Vertue or Habit Act and Power Sect. 7 1. There was a Quickning Principle belonging unto it For every Life is an Act of a Quïckning Principle This in Adam was the Image of God or an habitual Conformity unto God his Mind and Will wherein the Holiness and Righteousness of God himself was represented Gen. 1. 26 27. In this Image he was created or it was concreated with him as a Perfection due to his Nature in the Condition wherein he was made This gave him an habitual disposition unto all duties of that Obedience that was required of him It was the Rectitude of all the faculties of his Soul with respect unto his Supernatural End Eccles. 7. 20. 2 There belonged unto it continual Actings from or by Vertue of and suitable unto this Principle All the Acts of Adam's Life should have been subordinate unto his great moral End In all that he did he should have lived unto God according unto the Law of that Covenant wherein he walked before him And an Acting in all things suitable unto the Light in his Mind unto the Righteousness and Holiness in his Will and Affection that Uprightness or Integrity or Order that was in his Soul was his Living unto God Sect. 8 3 He had here-withal Power or Ability to continue the Principle of Life in suitable Acts of it with respect unto the whole Obedience required of him that is he had a sufficiency of Ability for the Performance of any Duty or of all that the Covenant required And in these three did the Supernatural Life of Adam in Innocency consist And it is that which the Life whereunto we are restored by Christ doth answer It answers unto it I say and supplies its absence with respect unto the End of living unto God according unto the New Covenant that we are taken into For neither would the Life of Adam be sufficient for us to live unto God according to the terms of the New Covenant nor is the Life of Grace we now enjoy suited to the Covenant wherein Adam stood before God Wherefore some Differences there are between them the Principal whereof may be reduced into two Heads Sect. 9 1. That Principle of this Life was wholly and intirely in Man himself It was the Effect of another Cause of that which was without him namely the Good Will and Power of God but it was left to grow on no other Root but what was in Man himself It was wholly implanted in his Nature and therein did its Springs lye Actual Excitations by Influence of Power from God it should have had For no Principle of Operation can subsist in an Independence of God nor apply it self unto Operation without his Concurence But in the Life whereunto we are renewed by Jesus Christ the Fountain and Principle of it is not in our selves but in him as One common Head unto all that are made Partakers of him He is our Life Col. 1. 3. and our Life as to the Spring and Fountain of it is hid with him in God For he quickneth us by his Spirit Rom. 8. 10. And our Spiritual Life as in us consists in the Vital Actings of this Spirit of his in Us for without him we can do nothing John 15. 3. By Vertue hereof we walk in newness of Life Rom. 6. 4. We live therefore hereby yet not so much we as Christ liveth in us Gal. 2. 20. Sect. 10 2. There is a Difference between these Lives with respect unto the Object of their Vital Acts. For the Life which we now lead by the faith of the Son of God hath sundry Objects of its Actings which the other had not For whereas all the Actings of our Faith and Love that is all our Obedience doth respect the Revelation that God makes of himself and his Will unto us there are now New Revelations of God in Christ and consequently new Duties of Obedience required of us as will afterwards appear And other such differences there are between them The Life which we had in Adam and that which we are renewed unto in Christ Jesus are so far of the same Nature and kind as our Apostle manifests in sundry Places Ephes. 4. 23 24.
Works They are so all of them either in their own Nature or with respect unto them by whom they are performed Heb. 9. 14. They are dead Works because they proceed not from a Principle of Life are unprofitable as dead things Ephes. 5. 11. and end in death eternal Jam. 1. 15. We may then consider how this Spiritual Life which enableth us unto these Vital Acts is derived and communicated unto us 1. The original Spring and Fountain of this Life is with God Psal. 36. 9. With thee is the Fountain of Life The sole Spring of our Spiritual Life is in an especial way and manner in God And hence our Life is said to be hid with Christ in God Col. 3. 3. that is as in its Eternal producing and preserving Cause But it is thus also with respect unto all Life whatever God is the living God all other things are in themselves but dead Things their Life what-ever it be is in him efficiently and eminently and in them is purely derivative Wherefore Sect. 23 2. Our Spiritual Life as unto the especial Nature of it is specificated and discerned from a Life of any other kind in that the fulness of it is communicated unto the Lord Christ as Mediator Col. 1. 19. And from his fulness we do receive it John 1. 16. There is a Principle of Spiritual Life communicated unto us from his fulness thereof whence he quickneth whom he pleaseth Hence he is said to be our Life Col. 3. 4. And in our Life it is not so much we who live as Christ that liveth in us Gal. 2. 20. because we act nothing but as we are acted by Vertue and Power from him 1 Cor. 15. 10. Sect. 24 3ly The Fountain of this Life being in God and the fulness of it being laid up in Christ for us He communicates the Power and Principle of it unto us by the Holy Ghost Rom. 8. 11. That he is the immediate efficient Cause hereof we shall afterwards fully evince and declare But yet he doth it so as to derive it unto us from Jesus Christ Ephes. 4. 15 16. For he is the Life and without him or Power communicated from him we can do nothing John 15. 5. 4ly This Spiritual Life is communicated unto us by the Holy Ghost according unto and in order for the Ends of that New Covenant For this is the Promise of it That God will first write his Law in our Hearts and then we shall walk in his Statutes that is the Principle of Life must precede all vital Acts. From this Principle of Life thus derived and conveyed unto us are all those vital Acts whereby we live to God Where this is not as it is not in any that are dead in sin for from the want hereof are they denominated dead no Act of Obedience unto God can so be performed as that it should be an Act of the Life of God and this is the way whereby the Scripture doth express it The same thing is intended when we say in other words that without an infused habit of internal inherent Grace received from Christ by an efficacious Work of the Spirit no Man can believe or obey God or perform any Duty in a saving manner so as it should be accepted with Him And if we abide not in this Principle we let in the whole poysonous Flood of Pelagianism into the Church To say that we have a sufficiency in our selves so much as to think a good thought to do any thing as we ought any Power any Ability that is our own or in us by Nature however externally excited and guided by Motives Directions Reasons Encouragements of what sort soever to believe or obey the Gospel savingly in any one Instance is to overthrow the Gospel and the Faith of the Catholick Church in all Ages Sect. 25 But it may be Objected That whereas many unregenerate Persons may and do perform many duties of Religious Obedience if there be nothing of Spiritual Life in them then are they all sins and so differ not from the worst things they do in this World which are but Sins And if so unto what end should they take pains about them Were it not as good for them to indulge unto their Lusts and Pleasures seeing all comes to one end It is all sin and nothing else why do the Dispensers of the Gospel press any Duties on such as they know to be in that estate What advantage shall they have by a complyance with them Were it not better to leave them to themselves and wait for their Conversion than to spend time and labour about them to no purpose Answ. 1. It must be granted That all the Duties of such Persons are in some sense sins It was the saying of Austin That the Vertues of Unbelievers are splendida peccata This some are now displeased with but it is easier to censure him than to confute him Two things attend in every Duty that is properly so 1. That it is accepted with God And 2. that it is sanctified in them that do it but neither of these are in the Duties of Unregenerate Men. For they have not Faith And without Faith it is impossible to please God Heb. 11. 6. And the Apostle also assures us That unto the defiled and unbelieving that is all unsanctified Persons not purified by the Spirit of Grace All things are unclean because their Consciences and Minds are defiled Tit. 1. 15. So their Praying is said to be an abomination and their Plowing sin It doth not therefore appear what is otherwise in them or to them But as there are Good Duties which have sin adhering to them Isa. 64. 6. so there are sins which have good in them For bonum oritur ex integris malum ex quocunque defectu Such are the Duties of Men unregenerate Formally and unto them they are sin materially and in themselves they are good This gives them a difference from and a preference above such sins as are every way sinful As they are Duties they are good as they are the Duties of such Persons they are evil because necessarily defective in what should preserve them from being so And on this ground they ought to attend unto them and may be pressed thereunto Sect. 26 2ly That which is good materially and in it self though vitiated from the Relation which it hath to the Person by whom it is performed is approved and hath its Acceptation in its proper place For Duties may be performed two wayes 1. In hypocrisie and pretence so they are utterly abhorred of God in matter and manner that is such a poisonous Ingredient as vitiates the whole Isa. 1. 11 12 13 14. Hos. 1. 4. 2. In Integrity according unto present Light and Conviction which for the substance of them are approved And no Man is to be exhorted to do any thing in Hypocrisie see Matth. 10. 21. And on this account also that the Duties themselves are acceptable Men may be pressed to
which he gives unto his Wisdom Love and Grace with the excellency and certainty of the way of Salvation of Sinners by Jesus Christ which is to make God a Layar 1 Joh. 5. 10. Joh. 3. 32 33. 2. A Contempt of Love and Grace with the way and means of their communication to lost Sinners by the Blood of the Son of God which is the highest provocation that can be offered unto the Divine Majesty 4. In the Declaration of the Gospel the Lord Christ is in an especial manner proposed as crucified and lifted up for the especial Object of our Faith John 3. 14 15. Gal. 3. 1. And this Proposition of Christ hath included in it an Invitation unto all Convinced Sinners to come unto him for Life and Salvation Isa. 45. 2. Chap. 65. 1. 5. The Lord Christ being proposed unto Sinners in the Gospel and their acceptance or receiving of him being urged on them it is withal declared for what end he is so proposed And this is in general to save them from their Sins Mat. 1. 21. or the Wrath to come whereof they are afraid 1 Thess. 1. 10. For in the Evangelical Proposition of him there is included 1. That there is a Way yet remaining for Sinners whereby they may escape the Curse of the Law and the Wrath of God which they have deserved Psal. 130. 4. Job 33. 24. Acts 4. 12. 2. That the Foundation of these Wayes lies in an Atonement made by Jesus Christ unto the Justice of God and Satisfaction to his Law for Sin Rom. 3. 25. 2 Cor. 5. 21. Gal. 3. 13. 3. That God is well-pleased with this Atonement and his Will is that we should accept of it and acquiesce in it 2 Cor. 5. 18 19. Isa. 53. 11 12. Rom. 5. 10 11. 6. It is proposed and promised that through and upon their believing that is on Christ as proposed in the Gospel for the only way of Redemption and Salvation Convinced Sinners shall be pardoned justified and acquitted before God discharged of the Law against them through the imputation unto them of what the Lord Christ hath done for them and suffered in their stead Rom. 8. 3. 10. 3 4. 1 Cor. 1. 30 31. 2 Cor. 5. 21. Ephes. 2. 8 9 10. 7. To prevail with and win over the Souls of Men unto a consent to receive Christ on the Terms wherein he is proposed that is to believe in him and trust unto him to what he is hath done and suffered and continueth to do for pardon of Sin Life and Salvation the Gospel is filled with Arguments Invitation Incouragements Exhortations Promises all of them designed to explain and declare the Love Grace Faithfulness and good-Will of God herein In the due management and improvement of these parts of the Gospel consists the principal Wisdom and Skill of the Ministers of the New Testament 8. Among these various Ways or Means of the Declaration of himself and his Will God frequently causeth some especial Word Promise or Passage to fix it self on the Mind of a Sinner as we saw it in the Instance before insisted on Hereby the Soul is first excited to exert and act the Faith wherewith it is endued by the effectual working of the Spirit of God before described And by this means are Men directed unto Rest Peace and Consolation in that variety of Degrees wherein God is pleased to communicate them 9. This Acting of Faith on Christ through the Promise of the Gospel for Pardon Righteousness and Salvation is inseparably accompanied with and that Faith is the Root and infallible cause of an universal Ingagement of Heart unto all Holy Obedience to God in Christ with a Relinquishment of all known Sin necessarily producing a through-Change and Reformation of Life and Fruitfulness in Obedience For as upon a discovery of the Love of God in Christ the Promises whereby it is exhibited unto us being mixed with Faith the Soul of a poor Sinner will be filled with Godly Sorrow and Shame for its former Sins and will be deeply humbled for them so all the Faculties of it being now renewed and inwardly changed it can no more refrain from the Love of Holiness and from an Ingagement into a watchful course of Universal Obedience unto God by such free Actings as are proper unto it than one that is new born can refrain from all Acts of Life Natural In Motion desire of Food and the like Vain and foolish therefore are the Reproaches of some who in an high course of a Worldly Life and Profane do charge others with Preaching a Justification by Faith alone in Christ Jesus unto a neglect of Holiness Righteousness and Obedience of God which such Scoffers and fierce Despisers of all that are good do so earnestly plead for Those whom they openly reflect upon do unanimously teach That the Faith which doth not purifie the Heart and reform the Life which is not fruitful in good Works which is not an effectual Cause and Means of Repentance and newness of Life is not genuine nor pleadable unto Justification but empty dead and that which if trusted unto will eternally deceive the Souls of Men. They do all of them press the indispensible necessity of Universal Holiness Godliness Righteousness or Obedience to all the Commands of God on surer Principles with more cogent Arguments in a more clear compliance with the Will Grace and Love of God in Christ than any they pretend unto who ignorantly and falsly traduce them as those who regard them not And as they urge an Obediential Holiness which is not defective in any Duty either towards God or Man which they either plead for or pretend unto so it contains that in it which is more Sublime Spiritual and Heavenly than what they are either acquainted with or do regard which in its proper place shall be made more fully to appear Sect. 38 10. Those who were thus converted unto God in the Primitive Times of the Church were upon their Confession or Profession hereof admitted into Church-Society and a Participation of all the Mysteries thereof And this being the common way whereby any were added unto the Fellowship of the Faithfull it was an effectual Means of intense Love without dissimulation among them all on the account of their joynt Interest in the Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. And I shall shut up this Discourse with one Instance hereof given us by Austin in the Conversion and Admission into Church-Society of Victorinus a Platonical Philosopher as he received the Story from Simplicianus by whom he was Baptized Ut ventum est ad horam profitendae fidei quae verbis certis retentisque memoriter de loco eminentiore in conspectu populi fidelis Romae reddi solet ab eis qui accessuri sunt ad gratiam tuam oblatum esse dicebat Victorino a Presbyteris ut secretius redderet sicut non nullis qui verecundia trepidaturi videbantur offerri mos erat illum autem maluisse salutem suam in
indulged unto vitiates the whole Spiritual Health and weakens the Soul in all Duties of Obedience 2 There are some things required of us to this End that Holiness may thrive and be carryed on in us Such are the constant use of all Ordinances and Means appointed unto that End a due Observance of Commanded Duties in their Season with a Readiness for the Exercise of every especial Grace in its proper circumstances Now if we neglect these things if we walk at all peradventures with God attending neither to Means nor Dutyes nor the Exercise of Grace as we should we are not to wonder if we find our selves Decaying yea ready to dye Doth any man wonder to see a person formerly of a sound Constitution grown weak and sickly if he openly neglect all Means of health and contract all sorts of Diseases by his Intemperance Is it strange that a Nation should be sick and faint at heart that Grey-hairs should be sprinkled upon it that it should be poor and decaying whilest Consuming Lusts with a strange Neglect of all envigorating Means do prevail in it No more is it that a Professing people should decay in Holy Obedience whilest they abide in the Neglects expressed Having vindicated this Assertion I shall yet adde a little further Improvement of it And 1. If the Work of Holiness be such a Progressive thriving Work in its own nature if the Design of the Holy Ghost in the use of Means be to carry it on in us and encrease it more and more unto a perfect Measure then is our Diligence still to be continued to the same End and Purpose For hereon depends our growth and thriving It is required of us that we give all Diligence unto the Encrease of Grace 2 Pet. 1. and that we abound therein 2 Cor. 8. 7. abounding in all Diligence and not only so but that we shew the same Diligence unto the End Heb. 6. 11. Whetever Diligence you have used in the attaining or improving of Holiness abide in it unto the End or we cast our selves under Decayes and endanger our Souls If we slack or give over as to our Duty the Work of Sanctification will not be carryed on in a way of Grace And this is required of us this is expected from us that our whole Lives be spent in a Course of diligent Complyance with the Progressive Work of Grace in us There are three Grounds on which men doe or may neglect this Duty whereon the Life of their Obedience and all their Comforts do depend 1 A Presumption or Groundless Perswasion that they are already perfect This some pretend unto in a proud and foolish Conceit destructive of the whole Nature and Duty of Evangelical Holiness or Obedience For this on our parts consists in our willing Complyance with the Work of Grace gradually carryed on unto the measure appointed unto us If this be already attained there is an End of all Evangelical Obedience and men return again to the Law unto their Ruine See Phil. 3. 12 13 14. It is an excellent Description of the Nature of our Obedience which the Apostle gives us in that place All Absolute Perfection in this Life is rejected as unattainable The End proposed is Blessedness and Glory with the Eternal Enjoyment of God and the Way whereby we press towards it which comprizeth the whole of our Obedience is by continual uninterrupted following after pressing reaching out a constant Progress in and by our utmost Diligence 2 A foolish Supposition that being interested in a state of Grace we need not now be so solicitous about exact Holiness and Obedience in all things as we were formerly whilest our minds hung in suspense about our Condition But so much as any one hath this Apprehension or Perswasion prevailing in him or influencing of him so much hath he cause deeply to question whether he have yet any thing of Grace or Holiness or no. For this Perswasion is not of him who hath called us There is not a more effectual Engine in the hand of Sathan either to keep us off from Holiness or to stifle it when it is attained nor can any thoughts arise in the Hearts of men more opposite to the nature of Grace For which cause the Apostle rejects it with Detestation Rom. 6. 1 2. 3 Weariness and Despondencies arising from Oppositions Some find so much difficulty in and Opposition to the Work of Holiness and its Progress from the Power of Corruptions Temptations and the Occasions of Life in this World that they are ready to faint and give over this Diligence in Dutyes and Contending against Sin But the Scripture doth so abound with Encouragements unto this sort of Persons as we need not to insist thereon CHAP. III. Believers the only Object of Sanctification and Subject of Gospel Holiness 1 Believers the only Subject of the Work of Sanctification 2 How men come to believe if Believers alone receive the Spirit of Sanctification 3 The principal Ends for which the Spirit is promised with their Order in their Accomplishment 4 Rules to be observed in praying for the Spirit of God and his Operations therein 5 That Believers only are Sanctified or Holy proved and confirmed 6 Mistakes about Holiness both Notional and Practical discovered 7 The Proper Subject of Holiness in Believers Sect. 1 THat which we are next to enquire into is the personal Subject of this Work of Sanctification or who and of what sort those Persons are that are made Holy Now these are All and Only Believers All who unseignedly believe in God through Jesus Christ are sanctified and no other Unto them is Evangelical Holiness confined It is for them and them only that our Saviour prayes for this Mercy Grace or Priviledge Joh. 17. 17. Sanctifie them by thy Truth And concerning them he affirms for their sakes I sanctifie my self that they also may be sanctified through the Truth v. 19. And whereas in the Verses foregoing he had immediate Respect unto his Apostles and present Disciples that we may know that neither his Prayer nor this Grace are confined or limited unto them he addes Neither pray I for these alone that is in this Manner and for these Ends but for them also which shall believe on me through their World v. 20. It was therefore the Prayer of our Lord Jesus Christ that all Believers should be sanctified and so also was it his Promise John 7. 38 39. He that believeth on me as the Scripture hath said out of his belly shall slow rivers of living water But this he spake of the Spirit which they that believe on him should receive And it is with respect principally unto this Work of Sanctification that he is compared unto flowing and living Water as hath been declared before It is for Believers the Church that was in God the Father and in Jesus Christ that is by Faith 1 Thess. 1. 1. that our Apostle prayes that the God of Peace would sanctifie them throughout chap. 5.
it is proposed unto us For God sets him forth as to be a Propitiation through Faith in his Blood as offered Rom. 3. 25. so to be our Sanctification through Faith in his Blood as sprinkled And the Establishing of this especial Faith in our Souls is that which the Apostle aims at in his excellent Reasoning Heb. 9. 13 14. And his Conclusion unto that Purpose is so evident that he encourageth us thereon to draw nigh in the full Assurance of Faith Heb. 10. 22. 3 Faith worketh herein by Fervent Prayer as it doth in its whole Address unto God with Respect unto his Promises because for all these things God will be sought unto by the House of Israel By this Means the Soul brings it self nigh unto its own Mercy And this we are directed unto Heb. 4. 15 16. 4 An Acquiescency in the Truth and Faithfulness of God for Cleansing by the Blood of Christ whence we are freed from discouraging perplexing shame and have Boldness in the Presence of God 4. The Holy Ghost actually Communicates the cleansing Purifying Vertue of the Blood of Christ unto our Souls and Consciences whereby we are freed from shame and have Boldness towards God For the whole work of the Application of the Benefits of the Mediation of Christ unto Believers is his properly And these are the things which Believers aim at and intend in all their servent Supplications for the Purifying and Cleansing of their Souls by the sprinkling and washing of the Blood of Christ the Faith and Perswasion whereof give them Peace and Holy Boldness in the presence of God without which they can have nothing but shame and Confusion of Face in a sence of their own Pollutions Sect. 7 How the Blood of Christ was the Meritorious Cause of our Purification as it was offered in that thereby he procured for us Eternal Redemption with all that was conducing or needfull thereunto and how thereby he Expiated our sins belongs not unto this place to declare Nor shall I insist upon the more mysterious Way of Communicating cleansing Vertue unto us from the Blood of Christ by Vertue of our Vnion with him What hath been spoken may suffice to give a little insight into that Influence which the Blood of Christ hath into this first part of our Sanctification and Holiness And as for those who affirm that it no otherwise cleanseth us from our sins but only because we Believing his Doctrine confirmed by his Death and Resurrection do amend our Lives turning from Sin unto Righteousness and Holiness they renounce the Mystery of the Gospel and all the proper Efficacy of the Blood of Christ. Sect. 8 3 Faith is the Instrumental Cause of our Purification Purifying their Hearts by Faith Acts 15. 9. The two unfailing Evidences of sincere Faith are that within it purifyeth the Heart and without it worketh by Love These are the Touch-stone whereon Faith may yea ought to be tryed We purifie our Souls in obeying the Truth through the Spirit 1 Pet. 1. 20. That is by Believing which is our Original Obedience unto the Truth And hereby are our Souls purified Unbelievers and Unclean are the same Tit. 1. 15. For they have nothing in them whereby they might be Instrumentally cleansed And we are Purified by Faith Because 1 Faith it self is the principal Grace whereby our Nature is restored unto the Image of God and so freed from our Original Defilement Col. 3. 10. Joh. 17. 3. 2 It is by Faith on our part whereby we receive the Purifying Vertue and Influences of the Blood of Christ whereof we have before Discoursed Faith is the Grace whereby we constantly adhere and cleave unto Christ. Deut. 4. 4. Josh. 23. 8. Acts 11. 10. And if the Woman who touched his Garment in Faith obtained Vertue from him to heal her Issue of Blood shall not those who cleave unto him continually derive Vertue from him for the healing of their spiritual Defilements 3 It is by the Working of Faith principally whereby those Lusts and Corruptions which are Defiling are mortified subdued and gradually wrought out of our Minds All actual Defilements spring from the Remainders of defiling Lusts and their depraved Workings in us Heb. 12. 15. Jam. 1. 14. How Faith worketh to the correcting and subduing of them by deriving supplyes of the Spirit and Grace to that End from Jesus Christ as being the Means of our abiding in him whereon alone those supplyes do depend Joh. 15. 3 4 5. as also by the Acting of all other Graces which are contrary to the Polluting Lusts of the Flesh and destructive of them is usually declared and we must not too far enlarge on these things 4 Faith takes in all the Motives which are proposed unto us to stir us up unto our utmost Endeavours and Diligence in the use of all Means and Wayes for the preventing of the Defilements of sin and for the Cleansing our Minds and Consciences from the Relicts of Dead Works And these Motives which are great and many may be reduced unto Two Heads 1 A Participation of the Excellent Promises of God at the Present the Consideration hereof brings a singular Enforcement on the Souls of Believers to endeavour after universal Purity and Holiness 2 Cor. 7. 1. And 2 the future Enjoyment of God in Glory whereunto we cannot attain without being purifyed from sin 1 Joh. 3. 1. Now these Motives which are the Springs of our Duty in this Matter are received and made Efficacious by Faith only Sect. 9 4 Purging from sin is likewise in the Scripture ascribed unto Afflictions of all sorts Hence they are called Gods Furnace and his Fining-Pot Isa. 31. 9. Chap. 48. 10. whereby he taketh away the Dross and Filth of the Vessels of his House They are called Fire that trieth the Wayes and Works of Men consuming their Hay and Stubble and purifying their Gold and Silver 1 Cor. 3. 13. And this they do through an Efficacy unto the Ends communicated unto them in the design and by the Spirit of God For by and in the Cross of Christ they were cut off from the Curse of the First Covenant whereunto all Evil and Trouble did belong and implanted into the Covenant of Grace The Tree of the Cross being cast into the Waters of Affliction hath rendred them Wholsom and Medicinal And as the Lord Christ being the Head of the Covenant all the Afflictions and Persecutions that befall his Members are Originally his Isa. 63. 9. Acts 9. 5. Col. 1. 24. so they all tend to work us unto a Conformity unto him in Purity and Holiness And they work towards this Blessed End of purifying the Soul several wayes For 1 They have in them some Tokens of Gods Displeasure against sin which those who are Exercised by them are led by the Consideration of unto a fresh View of the Vileness of it For although Afflictions are an Effect of Love yet it is of Love mixed with Care to obviate and prevent Distempers Whatever
thereof Such a Spiritual Heavenly Supernatural Life so denominated from its Nature Causes Acts and Ends we must be partakers of in this World if ever we mind to attain Eternal Life in another Sect. 7 And herein we shall take what View we are able of the Nature Glory and Beauty of Holiness and do confess it is but little of them which I can comprehend It is a matter indeed often spoken unto but the Essence and true Nature of it are much hidden from the Eyes of all living men The sence of what the Scripture proposeth what I believe and what I desire an Experience of that I shall endeavour to declare But as we are not in this Life perfect in the Duties of Holiness no more are we in the Knowledge of its Nature First therefore I say it is a gracious supernatural Habit or a Principle of spiritual Life And with respect hereunto I shall briefly do these three things 1. Shew what I mean by such an Habit. 2. Prove that there is such an Habit required unto Holiness yea that the Nature of Holiness consists therein 3. Declare in general the Properties of it Sect. 8 1. Our First Enquiry is after the Essence and form of Holiness that from which any one is truely and really made and denominated Holy or what is the formal Reason of that Holiness which our Nature is partaker of in this World This must be something peculiar something excellent and sacred as that which constitutes the great and only Difference that is between Mankind on their own part in the sight of God with respect unto Eternity Every one that hath this Holiness pleaseth God is accepted with him and shall come to the Enjoyment of him And every one that hath it not is rejected of him here and hereafter And this Holiness in the first place doth not consist in any single Acts of Obedience unto God though good in their own Nature and acceptable unto him For such Acts may be performed yea many of them by unholy persons with Examples whereof the Scripture aboundeth Cain's Sacrifice and Ahab's Repentance were signal single Acts of Obedience materially yet no Acts of Holiness formally nor did either make or denominate them Holy And our Apostle tells us that men may give all their Goods to the Poor and their Bodies to be burned and yet be nothing 1 Cor. 13. yet in single Acts who can go further Such Fruits may spring from Seed that hath no Root Single Acts may evidence Holiness as Abraham's Obedience in sacrificing his Son but they constitute none Holy nor will a series a Course a Multiplication of Acts and Duties of Obedience either constitute or denominate any one so Isa. 1. 11 12 13 14 15. All the Duties a series and Multiplication whereof are there rejected for want of Holiness were good in themselves and appointed of God Nor doth it consist in an Habitual Disposition of Mind unto any outward Duties of Piety Devotion or Obedience however obtained or acquired Such Habits there are both Intellectual and Morall Intellectual Habits are Arts and Sciences When men by Custom Usuage and frequent Acts in the Exercise of any Science Art or Mystery do get a ready Facility in and unto all the Parts and Duties of it they have an Intellectual Habit therein It is so in things Morall as to Vertues and Vices There are some seeds and sparks of Moral Vertues remaining in the Ruines of depraved Nature as of Justice Temperance Fortitude and the like Hence God calls on profligate Sinners to remember and shew themselves Men or not to act contrary to the Principles and Light of Nature which are inseparable from us as we are Men Isa. 46. 8. These Principles may be so excited in the Exercise of Natural Light and improved by Education Instruction and Example untill persons by an assiduous diligent performance of the Acts and Duties of them may attain such a Readiness unto them and Facility in them as is not by any outward Means easily changed or diverted and this is a Moral Habit in like manner in the Duties of Piety and Religion in Acts of outward Obedience unto God men by the same Means may so accustom themselves unto them as to have an habitual Disposition unto their Exercise I doubt not but that it is so unto an high Degree with many superstitious Persons But in all these things the Acts do still precede the Habits of the same nature and kind which are produced by them and not otherwise But this Holiness is such an Habit or Principle as is antecedent unto all Acts of the same kind as we shall prove There never was by any nor ever can be any Act or Duty of true Holiness performed where there was not in Order of Nature antecedently an Habit of Holiness in the Persons by whom they are performed Many Acts and Duties for the substance of them good and approveable may be performed without it but no one that hath the proper Form and Nature of Holiness can be so And the Reason is because every Act of true Holiness must have something supernatural in it from an internal renewed Principle of Grace and that which hath not so be it otherwise what it will is no Act or Duty of true Holiness Sect. 9 And I call this Principle of Holiness an HABIT not as though it were absolutely of the same kind with acquired Habits and would in all things answer to our Conceptions and Descriptions of them But we only call it so because in its Effects and Manner of Operation it agreeth in sundry things with acquired intellectual or moral Habits But it hath much more Conformity unto a natural unchangeable Instict than unto any acquired Habit. Wherefore God chargeth it on men that in their Obedience unto him they did not answer that instinct which is in other Creatures towards their Lords and Benefactors Isa. 1. 3. and which they cordially observe Jerem. 8. 7. But herein God teacheth us more than the Beasts of the Earth and maketh us wiser than the Fowls of Heaven Job 35. 11. This therefore is that which I intend A Vertue a Power a Principle of Spiritual Life and Grace wrought created infused into our Souls and in-laid in all the Faculties of them constantly abiding and unchangeably residing in them which is antecedent unto and the next Cause of all Acts of true Holiness whatever And this is that as was said wherein the nature of Holiness doth consist and from which in those that are Adult the actual Discharge of all Duties and Works of Holiness is inseparable This abideth alwayes in and with all that are sanctified whence they are alwayes Holy and not only so when they are actually exercised in the Duties of Holiness Hereby are they prepared disposed and enabled unto all Duties of Obedience as we shall shew immediately and by the Influence hereof into their Acts and Duties do they become Holy and no otherwise Sect. 10 For the further
Explanation of it I shall only add three things 1 That this Habit or Principle thus wrought and abiding in us doth not if I may so say Firm its own Station or abide and continue in us by its own natural Efficacy in adhering unto the Faculties of our Souls Habits that are acquired by many Actions have a natural Efficacy to preserve themselves untill some Opposition that is too hard for them prevail against them which is frequently though not easily done But this is preserved in us by the constant powerfull Actings and Influence of the Holy Ghost He which works it in us doth also preserve it in us And the Reason hereof is because the Spring of it is in our Head Christ Jesus it being onely an Emanation of Vertue and Power from him unto us by the Holy Ghost if this be not actually and alwayes continued whatever is in us would dye and wither of its self See Ephes. 4. 16. Col. 3. 3. Joh. 4. 14. It is in us as the Fructifying Sap is in a Branch of the Vine or Olive It is there really and formally and is the next Cause of the Fruit-bearing of the Branch But it doth not live and abide by its self but by a continual Emanation and Communication from the Root Let that be intercepted and it quickly withers So is it with this Principle in us with respect unto its Root Christ Jesus 2 Though this Principle or Habit of Holiness be of the same kind or Nature in all Believers in all that are sanctified yet there are in them very distinct Degrees of it In some it is more strong lively vigorous and flourishing in others more weak feeble and unactive and this in so great variety and on so many Occasions as cannot here be spoken unto 3 That although this Habit and Principle is not acquired by any or many Acts of Duty or Obedience yet is it in a way of Duty preserved encreased strengthened and improved thereby God hath appointed that we should live in the Exercise of it and in and by the Multiplication of its Acts and Duties is it kept alive and stirred up without which it will be weakened and decay Sect. 11 This being what I intend as to the Substance of it we must in the next place shew That there is such a spiritual Habit or Principle of spiritual Life wrought in Believers wherein their Holiness doth consist Some few Testimonies of many shall suffice as to its present Confirmation The Work of it is expressed Deut. 30. 6. The Lord thy God will Circumcise thy Heart to love the Lord thy God with all thy Heart and all thy Soul that thou mayest live The End of Holiness is that we may live and the principal Work of Holiness is to love the Lord our God with all our Hearts and Souls And this is the Effect of Gods circumcising our Hearts without which it will not be Every Act of Love and Fear and consequently of every Duty of Holiness whatever is consequential unto Gods circumcising of our Hearts But it should seem that this Work of God is only a removal of Hinderances and doth not express the Collation of the Principle which we assert I answer that although it were easie to demonstrate that this Work of circumcising our Hearts cannot be effected without an implantation of the Principle pleaded for in them yet it shall suffice at present to evince from hence that this Effectual Work of God upon our Hearts is antecedently necessary unto all Acts of Holiness in us But herewithall God writes his Law in our Hearts Jerem. 31. 33. I will put my Law in their inward parts and write it in their Hearts The Habit or Principle which we have described is nothing but a Transcript of the Law of God implanted and abiding on our Hearts whereby we comply with and answer unto the whole Will of God therein This is Holiness in the Habit and Principle of it This is more fully expressed Ezek. 36. 26 27. A new Heart will I give you and a new Spirit will I put within you and cause you to walk in my Statutes and ye shall keep my Judgements and do them The whole of all that actual Obedience and all those Duties of Holiness which God requireth of us is contained in these Expressions ye shall walk in my Statutes and keep my Judgements to doe them Antecedent hereunto and as the Principle and Cause thereof God gives a new Heart and a new Spirit This new Heart is an Heart with the Law of God written in it as before mentioned and this new spirit is the habitual Inclination of that heart unto the Life of God or all Duties of Obedience And herein the whole of what we have asserted is confirmed namely that antecedently unto all Duties and Acts of Holiness whatever and as the next Cause of them there is by the Holy Ghost a new spiritual Principle or habit of Grace communicated unto us and abiding in us from whence we are made and denominated holy Sect. 12 It is yet more Expressly revealed and declared in the New Testament Joh. 3. 6. There is a Work of the Spirit of God upon us in our Regeneration we are born again of the Spirit And there is the Product of this Work of the Spirit of God in us that which is born in this new Birth and that is spirit also It is something existing in us that is of a spiritual Nature and spiritual Efficacy It is something abiding in us acting in a continual Opposition against the Flesh or Sin as Gal. 5. 17. and unto all Duties of Obedience unto God And untill this spirit is formed in us that is our whole Souls have a furnishment of spiritual Power and Ability we cannot perform any one Act that is spiritually good not any one Vital Act of Obedience This Spirit or spiritual Nature which is born of the Spirit by which alone we are enabled to live to God is that Habit of Grace or Principle of holiness which we intend And so also is it called a New Creature He that is in Christ is a new Creature 1 Cor. 5. 17. It is something that by an almighty creating Act of the Power of God by his Spirit that hath the Nature of a living Creature is produced in the Souls of all that are in Christ Jesus And as it is called the new Creature so it is also a Divine Nature 2 Pet. 1. 4. and a Nature is the Principle of all Operations And this is what we plead for The Spirit of God createth a new Nature in us which is the Principle and next Cause of all Acts of the Life of God Where this is not whatever else there may be there is no Evangelical Holiness This is that whereby we are enabled to live unto God to fear him to walk in his Wayes and to yield Obedience according to his Mind and Will See Ephes. 4. 23 24. Col. 3. 10 11. this the Scripture plentifully
spiritual Life Strength and Nourishment made unto every Member of the Body unto its Encrease Growth and Edification for we are members of his body of his flesh and of his bones Chap. 5. 30. being made out of him as Eve was out of Adam yet so continuing in him as to have all our Supplyes from him we in him and he in us as he speaks Joh. 14. 20. And Col. 2. 19. it is expressly affirmed that from him the Head there is Nourishment ministred unto the Body unto its Encrease with the Encrease of God And what this Spiriritual Nourishment supplyed unto the Souls of Believers for their Encrease and Growth from Christ their Head can be but the Emanation from his Person and Communication with them of that Grace which is the Principle and Spring of all Holiness and Duties of Evangelical Obedience none have as yet undertaken to declare And if any do deny it they do what lies in them to destroy the Life and overthrow the Faith of the whole Church of God Yea upon such a blasphemous Imagination that there could be an Intercision for one Moment of Influences of spiritual Life and Grace from the Person of Christ unto the Church the whole must be supposed to dye and perish and that Eternally Sect. 70 4 The whole of what we assert is plainly and evidently proposed in sundry instructive Allusions which are made use of to this purpose The principal of them is that both laid down and declared by our Saviour himself Joh. 15. 1. 4 5. I am the true Vine and my Father is the Husbandman Abide in me and I in you As the Branch cannot bear fruit of it self except it abide in the Vine no more can ye except ye abide in me I am the Vine and ye are the Branches he that abideth in me and I in him the same bringeth forth much fruit for without me or severed from me apart from me ye can do nothing The Natural in-being of the Vine and Branches in each other is known unto all with the Reason of it and so is the Way whereby the in-being of the Branches in the Vine is the Cause and Means of their Fruit-bearing It is no otherwise but by the Communication and Derivation of that Succus i. e. Juyce and Nourishment which alone is the Preservative of Vegetative Life and the next Cause of Fruit-bearing In this Juyce and Nourishment all Fruit is Virtually yea also as to the first matter and substance of it In and by the Branch it is only formed into its proper Kind and Perfection Let any thing be done to intercept this Communication from the Vine unto any Branch and it not only immediately looseth all its Fruit-bearing Power and Vertue but its self also withereth and dyeth away And there is a mutual acting of the Vine and Branches in this matter Unto the Vine it self it is Natural from its own Fullness to communicate Nourishment unto the Branches it doth it from the Principle of its Nature And unto the Branches it is also Natural to draw and derive their Nourishment from the Vine Thus is it saith the Lord Christ unto his Disciples between me and you I am the Vine saith he and ye are the Branches and there is a mutual in-being between us I am in you and ye are in me by vertue of our Union That now which is expected from you is that you bring forth Fruit that is that you live in Holiness and Obedience unto the Glory of God Unless you do so you are no true real Branches in me whatever outward Profession you may make of your so being But how shall this be effected How shall they be able to bring forth Fruit This can be no otherwise done but by their abiding in Christ and thereby continually deriving spiritual nourishment that is Grace and supplyes of Holiness from him For saith he 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 separate or apart from me ye can do nothing of this kind And that is because nothing becomes Fruit in the Branch that was not Nourishment from the Vine Nothing is Duty nothing is Obedience in Believers but what is Grace from Christ communicated unto them The Preparation of all fructifying Grace is in Christ as the Fruit of the Branches is naturally in the Vine And the Lord Christ doth spiritually and voluntarily communicate of this Grace unto all Believers as the Vine communicates its Juyce unto the Branches naturally And it is the new Nature of Believers to derive it from him by Faith This being done it is in them turned into particular Duties of Holiness and Obedience Therefore it is evident that there is nothing of Evangelical Holiness in any one Person whatever but what is in the Vertue Power and Grace of it derived immediately from Jesus Christ by vertue of Relation unto him and Union with him And it may be enquired Whether this be so with Moral Vertue or no. The same is taught by our Apostle under the Similitude of an Olive-tree and its Branches Rom. 11. As also where he is affirmed to be a living Stone and Believers to be built on him as lively Stones into a spiritual House 1 Pet. 2. 4 5. Sect. 71 Particular Testimonies do so abound in this Case as that I shall only name some few of them Joh. 1. 15. He is full of Grace and Truth And of his fulness have all we received and grace for grace It is of the Person of Christ or the Word made Flesh the Son of God Incarnate that the Holy Ghost speaketh He was made Flesh and dwelt among us full of Grace and Truth It is not the Fulness of the Deity as it dwelt in him personally that is here intended but that which was in him as he was made flesh that is in his Humane Nature as inseparably united unto the Divine An All-fulness that he received by the good pleasure or voluntary Disposal of the Father Col. 1. 19. and therefore belongeth not unto the Essential Fulness of the Godhead And as to the Nature of this Fulness it is said to consist in Grace and Truth that is the Perfection of Holiness and Knowledge of the whole Mind Counsel and Mystery of the Will of God Of this Fulness do we receive Grace for Grace all the Grace in every Kind whereof we are made partakers in this World That this Fulness in Christ expresseth the unconceivable Fulness of his Humane Nature by vertue of his indissolute Personal Union with all Graces in their perfection wherein he received not the Spirit by measure Joh. 3. 34. is as I suppose by all Christians acknowledged I am sure cannot be denyed without the highest Impiety and Blasphemy Hence therefore the Holy Ghost being witness do we derive and receive all our Grace every one according to his Measure Ephes. 4. 7. Wherefore Grace is given unto the Lord Christ in an immeasurable Perfection by vertue of his Personal Vnion Col. 2. 9. and from him is it derived unto
us by the gracious Inhabitation of his Spirit in us 1 Cor. 6. 19. Eph. 4. 30. according unto the Degree of participation allotted unto us This in the substance of it is contained in this Testimony There was and is in Jesus Christ a Fulness and Perfection of all Grace in us of our selves or by any thing that we have by Nature or natural Generation by Blood or the Flesh or the Will of Man v. 13. there is none at all Whatever we have is received and derived unto us from the Fullness of Christ which is an inexhaustible Fountain thereof by Reason of his Personal Vnion Sect. 72 To the same purpose is he said to be our Life and our Life to be hid with him in God Col. 3. 3. Life is the Principle of all Power and Operation And the Life here intended is that whereby we live to God the Life of Grace and Holiness For the Actings of it consist in the setting of our Affections on heavenly things and mortifying our Members that are on the Earth This Life Christ is He is not so Formally for if he were then it would not be our Life but his only He is therefore so Efficiently as that he is the immediate Cause and Author of it and that as he is now with God in Glory Hence it is said that we live that is this Life of God yet so as that we live not of our selves but Christ liveth in us Gal. 1. 20. And he doth no otherwise live in us but by the Communication of vital Principles and a Power for vital Acts that is Grace and Holiness from himself unto us If he be our Life we have nothing that belongs thereunto that is nothing of Grace of Holiness but what is derived unto us from him Sect. 73 To conclude we have all Grace and Holiness from Christ or we have it of our selves The old Pelagian Fiction that we have them from Christ because we have them by yielding Obedience unto his Doctrine makes our selves the only Spring and Author of them and on that Account very justly condemned by the Church of old not only as false but as blasphemous Whatever therefore is not thus derived thus conveyed unto us belongs not unto our Sanctification or Holiness nor is of the same Nature or Kind with it Whatever Ability of Mind or Will may be supposed in us what Application soever of Means may be made for the exciting and exercise of that Ability whatever Effects in Vertues Dutyes all Offices of Humanity and Honesty or Religious Observances may be produced thereby from them and wrought by us if it be not all derived from Christ as the Head and Principle of spiritual Life unto us it is a thing of another nature than Evangelical Holiness Sect. 74 Thirdly The immediate efficient Cause of all Gospel Holiness is the Spirit of God This we have sufficiently proved already And although many Cavils have been raised against the Manner of his Operation herein yet none have been yet so hardy as openly to deny that this is indeed his Work For so to doe is upon the matter expressly to renounce the Gospel Wherefore we have in our foregoing Discourses at large vindicated the manner of his Operations herein and proved that he doth not educe Grace by Moral Applications unto the natural Faculties of our Minds but that he creates Grace in us by an immediate Efficiency of Almighty Power And what is so wrought and produced differeth Essentially from any Natural or Moral Habits of our Minds however acquired or improved Sect. 75 Fourthly This Evangelical Holiness is a Fruit and Effect of the Covenant of Grace The Promises of the Covenant unto this purpose we have before on other Occasions insisted on In them doth God declare That he will cleanse and purifie our Natures that he will write his Law in our Hearts put his Fear in our inward parts and cause us to walk in his Statutes in which things our Holiness doth consist Whoever therefore hath any thing of it he doth receive it in the Accomplishment of these Promises of the Covenant For there are not two wayes whereby men may become Holy one by the Sanctification of the Spirit according to the Promise of the Covenant and the other by their own Endeavours without it though indeed Cassianus with some of the Semi-Pelagians dreamed somewhat to that purpose Wherefore that which is thus a Fruit and Effect of the Promise of the Covenant hath an especial Nature of its own distinct from whatever hath not that Relation unto the same Covenant No man can ever be made partaker of any the least Degree of that Grace or Holiness which is promised in the Covenant unless it be by vertue and as a Fruit of that Covenant For if they might do so then were the Covenant of God of none Effect for what it seems to promise in a peculiar Manner may on this Supposition be attained without it which renders it an empty Name Sect. 76 Fifthly Herein consists the Image of God whereunto we are to be renewed This I have proved before and shall afterward have Occasion to insist upon Nothing less than the intire Renovation of the Image of God in our Souls will constitute us Evangelically Holy No series of Obediential Actings no Observance of Religious Duties no Attendance unto Actions amongst men as Morally vertuous and usefull how exact soever they may be or how constant soever we may be unto them will ever render us lovely or holy in the sight of God unless they all proceed from the Renovation of the Image of God in us or that Habitual Principle of spiritual Life and Power which renders us conformable unto him Sect. 77 From what hath been thus briefly discoursed we may take a Prospect of that horrible mixture of Ignorance and Impudence wherewith some contend that the Practice of Moral Vertue is all the Holiness which is required of us in the Gospel neither understanding what they say nor whereof they do affirm But yet this they do with so great a Confidence as to despise and scoffe at any thing else which is pleaded to belong thereunto But this Pretence notwithstanding all the swelling words of vanity wherewith it is set off and vended will easily be discovered to be weak and frivolous For Sect. 78 1 The Name or Expression it self is foreign to the Scripture not once used by the Holy Ghost to denote that Obedience which God requireth of us in and according to the Covenant of Grace Nor is there any sence of it agreed upon by them who so magisterially impose it on others Yea there are many express Contests about the signification of these words and what it is that is intended by them which those who contend about them are not ignorant of and yet have they not endeavoured to reduce the sence they intend unto any Expression used concerning the same matter in the Gospel but all men must needs submit unto it that at
the Author and Cause of Mortification in us 21 The Manner of the Operation of the Spirit in the Mortification of Sin 22 Particular Means of the Mortification of Sin 23 Duties necessary unto the Mortification of Sin directed unto by the Holy Ghost 24 Mistakes and Errors of Persons failing in this matter 28 How Spiritual Duties are to be managed that Sin may be mortified 33 Influence of the Vertue of the Death of Christ as applyed by the Holy Spirit into the Mortification of Sin Sect. 1 THere is yet another Part or Effect of our Sanctification by the Holy Ghost which consisteth in and is called Mortification of Sin As what we have already insisted on concerneth the Improvement and Practice of the Principle of Grace wherewithall Believers are indued so what we now propose concerneth the Weakning Impairing and Destroying of the Contrary Principle of Sin in its Root and Fruits in its Principle and Actings And whereas the Spirit of God is every where said to sanctifie us we our selves are commanded and said constantly to mortifie our Sins For Sanctification expresseth Grace communicated and received in general Mortification Grace as so received improved and acted unto a certain End And I shall be brief in the handling of it because I have formerly published a small Discourse on the same Subject And there are two things that I shall speak unto 1 The Nature of the Duty it self 2 The Manner how it is wrought in us by the Holy Ghost which I principally intend Sect. 2 It is known that this Duty is frequently enjoyned and prescribed unto us Col. 3. 5. Mortifie therefore your Members that are on the Earth Fornication Vncleanness inordinate Affection evil Concupiscence and Covetousness which is Iâ—â—atry 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 may be supplyed Mortifie your Members that are on the Earth that is your carnal earthly Affections avoyding or by avoyding Fornication c. And so a distinction is made between carnal Affections and their Fruits Or the special sins mentioned are instances of these carnal Affections Mortifie your carnal Affections namely Fornication and the like wherein there is a Metonymy of the Effect for the Cause And they are called our Members 1 Because as the whole Principle of sin and Course of sinning which proceedeth from it being called the Body of Sin Rom. 6. 6. or the Body of the Sins of the Flesh Col. 2. 11. with respect thereunto these particular Lusts are here called the members of that Body Mortifie your members For that he intends not the Parts or Members of our Natural Bodyes as though they were to be destroyed as they seem to imagine who place Mortification in outward Afflictions and Macerations of the Body he addes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that are on the Earth that is Earthly carnal and sensual 2 These Affections and Lusts the Old man that is our depraved Nature useth naturally and readily as the Body doth its Members And which addes Efficacy unto the Allusion by them it draws the very Members of the Body into a complyance with it and the service of it against which we are cautioned by our Apostle Rom. 6. 12. Let not therefore sin reign in your mortal Bodies that is our natural Bodies that ye should obey it in the Lusts thereof which Exhortation he pursues v. 19. as ye have yielded your Members servants unto Vncleanness and to Iniquity unto Iniquity even so now yield your Members servants to Righteousness unto Holiness Which some neglecting do take the Members of Christ that is of their own Bodies which are the Members of Christ and make them the members of an Harlot 1 Cor. 6. 15. And many other Commands there are to the same purpose which will afterwards occurre Sect. 3 And concerning this great Duty we may consider three things 1. The Name of it whereby it is exressed 2. The Nature of it wherein it consists 3. The Means and Way whereby it is effected and wrought First For the Name it is two wayes expressed and both of them Metaphorical 1 By 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which we render to mortifie our selves The first is used Col. 3. 5. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is mortifie that is Extinguish and destroy all that Force and Vigour of Corrupted Nature which enclines to earthly carnal things opposite unto that spiritual Heavenly Life and its actings which we have in and from Christ as was before declared 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is eneco morte macto to kill to affect with or destroy by Death But yet this word is used by our Apostle not absolutely to destroy and to kill so as that which is so mortified or killed should no more have any Being but that it should be rendred useless as unto what its strength and vigour would produce So he expresseth the Effects of it in the passive word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rom. 4. 19. He considered not his own Body now dead now mortified The Body of Abraham was not then absolutely dead only the natural Force and Vigour of it was exceedingly abated And so he seems to mollifie this Expression Heb. 11. 12. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which we well render of one and him as good as Dead 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 intimating a Respect unto the thing treated of So that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to mortifie signifies a continued Act in taking away the Power and Force of any thing untill it comes to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 dead unto some certain Ends or Purposes as we shall see it is in the Mortification of sin Rom. 8. 13. If ye through the Spirit doe mortifie the Deeds of the Body ye shall live 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 another word to the same purpose it signifies as the other doth to put to death But it is used in the Present Tense to denote that it is a work which must be alwayes doing If ye do mortifie that is If you are alwayes and constantly imployed in that work And what the Apostle here calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Deeds of the Body he therein expresseth the Effect for the Cause Metonymically For he intends 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as he expresseth the same thing Gal. 5. 24. The Flesh with its Affections and Lusts whence all the corrupt Deeds wherein the Body is instrumental do arise Sect. 4 2 The same Duty with relation unto the Death of Christ as the Meritorious Efficient and Exemplary Cause is expressed by Crucifying Rom. 6. 6. Our old Man is Crucifyed with him Gal. 2. 20. I am crucified with Christ Chap. 5. 20. They that are Christs have crucified the Flesh with the Affections and Lusts. Chap. 6. 14. By the Lord Jesus Christ the World is crucified unto me and I unto the World Now as perhaps there may be something intimated herein of the Manner of mortification of sin which is Gradually carryed on unto its final Destruction as a Man dyes on the Cross yet that which is principally