Justice between sin and punishment yet there is none between our Obedience and our Salvation and therefore Eternal life is the gift of God through Jesus Christ our Lord Rom. 6. 23. God therefore requires nothing at our hands under this Notion or Consideration nor is it possible that in our Condition any such thing should be required of us For whatever we can do is due before-hand on other Accounts and so can have no prospect to merit what is to come Who can merit by doing his duty our Saviour doth so plainly prove the contrary as none can further doubt of it than of his Truth and Authority Luke 17. 10. Nor can we do any thing that is acceptable to him but what is wrought in us by his Grace And this overthrowes the whole Nature of merit which requires that that be every way our own whereby we would deserve somewhat else at the hands of another and not his more than ours Neither is there any proportion between our Duties and the Reward of the eternal Enjoyment of God For besides that they are all weak imperfect and tainted with sin so that no one of them is able to make good its own station for any End or Purpose in the strictness of Divine Justice they altogether come infifinitely short of the desert of an Eternal Reward by any Rule of Divine Justice And if any say that this merit of our works depends not on nor is measured by strict Justice but wholly by the Gracious Condescension of God who hath appointed and promised so to reward them I answer in the first place that this perfectly overthrowes the whole Nature of Merit For the Nature of Merit consists entirely and absolutely in this that to him that worketh the Reward is reckoned of Debt and not of Grace Rom. 4. 4. And these two are contrary and inconsistent for what is by Grace is no more of Works otherwise Grace is no more Grace and what is of Works is no more of Grace otherwise Work is no more Work Rom. 11. 6. And those who go about to found a Merit of ours in the Grace of God do endeavour to unite and reconcile those things which God hath everlastingly separated and opposed And I say secondly that although God doth freely graciously and bountifully reward our Dutyes of Obedience and upon the Account of his Covenant and Promise he is said to be and he is Righteous in his so doing yet he every where declares that what he so doth is an Act of meer Grace in himself that hath not respect unto any thing but only the Interposition and Mediation of Jesus Christ. In this sense God in the Gospel requireth of us nothing at all 4. Much less doth he require of any that they should do such things as being no way necessary unto that Obedience which themselves personally owe unto him may yet by their supererogation therein redound to the Advantage and benefit of others This monstrous fiction which hath out-done all the Pharisaisme of the Jewes we are engaged for to the Church of Rome as a pretence given to the piety or rather covering of the impiety of their Votaries But seeing on the one hand that they are themselves who pretend to these Works but flesh and so cannot on their own Account be Justified in the sight of God so it is extreme pride and cursed self-confidence for them to undertake to help others by the merit of those works whose worth they stand not in need of concerning which it will be one day said unto them Who hath required these things at your hands But now whereas God requireth none of these things of us nothing with respect unto any of these Ends such is the perversness of our Minds by Nature that many think that God requireth nothing else of us or nothing of us but with respect unto one or other of these Ends nor can they in their Hearts conceive why they should perform any one Duty towards God unless it be with some kind of regard unto these things If they may do any thing whereby they may make some Recompense for their sins that are past at least in their own Minds and Consciences if any thing whereby they may procure an Acceptance with God and the Approbation of their state and Condition they have something which as they suppose may quicken and animate their Endeavours Without these Considerations Holy Obedience is unto them a thing Lifeless and useless Others will labour and take pains both in wayes of outward Mortification and profuse Munificence in any way of Superstitious Charity whilest they are perswaded or can perswade themselves that they shall merit Eternal Life and Salvation thereby without much being beholding to the Grace of God in Christ Jesus Yea all that hath the Face or pretence of Religion in the Papacy consists in a supposition that all which God requireth of us he doth it with respect unto these ends of Attonement Justification Merit and Supererrogation Hereunto do they apply all that remains of the Ordinances of God amongst them and all their own Inventions are managed with the same Design But by these things is the Gospel and the Faith of our Lord Jesus Christ made of none effect Herein then I say lies the express Opposition that is between the Wisdom of God in the mystery of the Gospel and the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Wisdom of the Flesh or our Carnal Reason God in his dealing with us by the Gospel takes upon his own Grace and Wisdom the providing of an Attonement for our sins a Righteousness whereby we may be Justified before him and the Collation of Eternal Life upon us all in and by him who of God is made unto us Wisdom and Righteousness and Sanctification and Redemption But withall he indispensibly requires of us Holiness and universal Obedience for the ends that shall be declared afterwards This way thinks the Wisdom of the Flesh or Carnal Reason is meer foolishness as our Apostle testifies 1 Cor. 1. 18 23. But such a foolishness it is that is wiser than men v. 25. that is a way so excellent and full of Divine Wisdom that men are not able to comprehend it Wherefore in Opposition hereunto Carnal Reason concludes that either what God requires of us is to be done with respect unto the ends mentioned some or other or all of them or that it is no great matter whether it be done or no. Neither can it discern of what use our Holiness or Obedience unto God should be if it serve not unto some of these purposes For the necessity of Conformity to God of the Renovation of his Image in us before we are brought unto the enjoyment of him in Glory the Authority of his Commands the Reverence of his Wisdom appointing the way of Holiness and Obedience as the means of expressing our Thankfulness glorifying him in the World and of coming to Eternal Life it hath no regard unto But the first true saving
Wherefore that which men call Moral Vertue is so far from being the whole of internal Grace or Holiness that if it be no more than so it belongs not at all unto it as not being effected in us by the especial Grace of God according to the Tenor and Promise of the Covenant And we may here divert a little to consider what ought to be the frame of our minds in the pursuit of Holiness with respect unto these things namely what regard we ought to have unto the Command on the one hand and to the Promise on the other to our own Duty and to the Grace of God Some would separate these things as inconsistent A Command they suppose leaves no room for a Promise at least not such a Promise as wherein God should take on himself to work in us what the Command requires of us And a Promise they think takes off all the influencing Authority of the Command If Holiness be our Duty there is no room for Grace in this matter and if it be an effect of Grace there is no place for Duty But all these arguings are a fruit of the Wisdom of the Flesh before-mentioned and we have before disproved them The Wisdom that is from above teacheth us other things It is true our Works and Grace are opposed in the matter of Justification as utterly inconsistent If it be of Works it is not of Grace and if it be of Grace it is not of Works as our Apostle argues Rom. 11. 6. Our Duty and Gods Grace are no where opposed in the matter of Sanctification yea the one doth absolutely suppose the other Neither can we perform our Duty herein without the Grace of God nor doth God give us this Grace unto any other End but that we may rightly perform our Duty He that shall deny either that God Commands us to be Holy in a way of Duty or promiseth to work Holiness in us in a way of Grace may with as much modesty reject the whole Bible Both these therefore we are to have a due regard unto if we intend to be Holy And 1 our regard unto the Command consisteth in three things 1. That we get our Consciences alwayes affected with the Authority of it as it is the Command of God This must afterwards be enlarged on Where this is not there is no Holiness Our Holiness is our Obedience and the formal nature of Obedience ariseth from its respect unto the Authority of the Command 2. That we see and understand the Reasonableness the Equity the Advantage of the Command Our Service is reasonable Service the wayes of God are Equal and in the keeping of his Commands there is great Reward If we judge not thus if we rest not herein and are thence filled with Indignation against every thing within us or without us that opposeth it or riseth up against it whatever we do in compliance with it in a way of Duty we are not Holy 3. That hereon we love and delight in it because it is Holy Jâ—â—t and Good because the things it requires are Upright Equal Easie and Pleasant to the new Nature without any regard to the false Ends before discovered And 2 We have a due regard unto the Promise to the same End when 1. We walk in a constant sense of our own inability to comply with the Command in any one instance from any power in our selves For we have no Sufficiency of our selves our Sufficiency is of God For him who is otherwise-minded his Heart is lifted up 2. When we adore that Grace which hath provided Help and Relief for us Seeing without the Grace promised we could never have attained unto the least part or Degree of Holiness and seeing we could never deserve the least Dram of that Grace how ought we to adore and continually praise that infinite Bounty which hath freely provided us of this supply 3. When we Act Faith in Prayer and Expectation on the Promise for Supplies of Grace enabling us unto Holy Obedience And 4. When we have especial Regard thereunto with respect unto especial Temptations and particular Duties When on all such Occasions we satisfie not our selves with a respect unto the Promise in general but exercise Faith in particular on it for Aid and Assistance then doe we regard it in a due manner Sect. 15 7 To come yet nearer unto our principal Design I say it is the Holy Ghost who is the immediate peculiar Sanctifier of all Believers and the Author of all Holiness in them I suppose I need not insist upon the Confirmation of this Assertion in general I have proved before that he is the immediate Dispenser of all Divine Grace or the immediate Operator of all Divine gracious Effects in us whereof this is the Chief Besides it is such an avowed and owned Principle among all that are called Christians namely That the Holy Ghost is the Sanctifier of all God's Elect that as it is not questioned so it need not in general be further proved Those who are less experienced in these things may consult Psal. 51. 10 11 12. Ezek. 11. 19. ch 36. 25 26 27. Rom. 8. 9 10 11 12 13. 1 Cor. 6. 11. 1 Pet. 1. 2. Isa. 4. 4. chap. 44. 3 4. Titus 3. 4 5. But it is the Nature and Manner of his Work herein with the Effect produced thereby that we are to enquire into For as this belongs unto our general Design of declaring the Nature Power and Efficacy of all the gracious Divine Operations of the Holy Spirit so it will give us an Acquaintance in particular with that work and the fruits of it wherein we are so highly concerned CHAP. II. Sanctification a Progressive Work 1 2 Sanctification described 3 With the Nature of the Work of the Holy Sirit therein which is 4 Progressive 5 The Way and Means whereby Holiness is increased in Believers 6 Especially by Faith and Love whose Exercise is required in all Duties of Obedience As also 7 those Graces whose Exercise is Occasional 8 The growth of Holiness expressed in an Allusion unto that of Plants with an insensible Progress 9 Renders Grace therein to be greatly admired and is discerned in the answerableness of the Work of the Spirit in Sanctification and Supplication 10 Objections against the Progressive Nature of Holiness removed Sect. 1 HAving pass'd through the Consideration of the General Concernments of the Work of Sanctification I shall in the next place give a Description of it and then explain it more particularly in its principal Parts And this I shall doe but under this express Caution that I do not hope nor design at once to represent the Life Glory and Beauty of it or to comprize all things that eminently belong unto it Only I shall set up some Way-marks that may guide us in our progress or future Enquiry into the Nature and Glory of it And so I say that Sect. 2 Sanctification is an immediate Work of the Spirit of God on
evident from the Context For they pray for this Encrease of Faith upon the Occasion of our Saviours enjoyning frequent forgiveness of offending Brethren a Duty not at all easie nor pleasing to Flesh and Blood And the Apostle prayes for the Ephesians that they may be rooted and grounded in Love chap. 3. 17. that is that by the encrease and strengthening of their Love they may be more established in all the Duties of it See 1 Thess. 3. 12 13. Sect. 5 These Graces being the Springs and Spirits of our Holiness in the encrease of them in us the work of Sanctification is carryed on and universal Holiness encreased And this is done by the Holy Spirit several wayes First By exciting them unto frequent Actings Frequency of Acts doth naturally encrease and strengthen the Habits whence they proceed And in these spiritual Habits of Faith and Love it is so moreover by Gods Appointment They grow and thrive in and by their exercise Hos. 6. 3. The want thereof is the principal means of their decay And there are two wayes whereby the Holy Spirit excites the Graces of Faith and Love unto frequent Acts. 1 He doth it Morally by proposing their Objects suitably and seasonably unto them This he doth by his Ordinances of Worship especially the preaching of the Word God in Christ the Promises of the Covenant and other proper Objects of our Faith and Love being proposed unto us these Graces are drawn out unto their Exercise And this is one principal Advantage which we have by attendance on the Dispensation of the Word in a due Manner namely that by presenting those Spiritual Truths which are the Object of our Faith unto our Minds and those Spiritual Good Things which are the Object of our Love unto our Affections both these Graces are drawn forth into frequent actual Exercise And we are greatly mistaken if we suppose we have no Benefit by the Word beyond what we retain in our Memories though we should labour for that also Our chief Advantage lyes in the Excitation which is thereby given unto our Faith and Love to their proper Exercise And hereby are these Graces kept alive which without this would decay and wither Herein doth the Holy Spirit take the things of Christ and shew them unto us Joh. 16. 14 15. He represents them unto us in the Preaching of the Word as the proper Objects of our Faith and Love And so brings to remembrance the things spoken by Christ Chap. 14. 26. that is in the Dispensation of the Word he minds us of the gracious Words and Truths of Christ proposing them to our Faith and Love And herein lies the secret profiting and thriving of Believers under the preaching of the Gospel which it may be they are not sensible of themselves By this means are many Thousands of Acts of Faith and Love drawn forth whereby those Graces are exercised and strengthened and consequently Holiness is encreased And the Word by the Actings of Faith being mixed with it as Hebr. 4. 2. increaseth it by its incorporation 2 The Spirit doth it really and internally He dwelleth in Believers preserving in them the Root and Principle of all their Grace by his own immediate Power Hence all Graces in their Exercise are called the fruits of the Spirit Gal. 5. 22 23. He brings them forth from the Stock that he hath planted in the Heart And we cannot Act any one Grace without his Effectual Operation therein God worketh in us both to will and to doe of his good pleasure Phil. 1. 13. That is there is no part of our Wills singly and separately from him in Obedience but it is the Operation of the Spirit of God in us so far as it is Spiritual and Holy He is the immediate Author of every good or gracious Acting in us For in us that is in our Flesh and of our selves we are but Flesh there dwelleth no Good Wherefore the Spirit of God dwelling in Believers doth effectually excite and stir up their Graces unto frequent Exercise and Actings whereby they are increased and strengthened And there is nothing in the whole Course of our Walking before God that we ought to be more carefull about than that we grieve not that we provoke not this good and Holy Spirit whereon he should with-hold his gracious Aids and Assistances from us This therefore is the first way whereby the work of Sanctification is gradually carryed on by the Holy Ghost exciting our Graces unto frequent Actings whereby they are encreased and strengthened Secondly He doth it by supplying Believers with Experiences of the Truth and Reality and Excellency of the things that are believed Experience is the Food of all Grace which it growes and thrives upon Every Taste that Faith obtains of Divine Love and Grace or how Gracious the Lord is addes to its measure and stature Two things therefore must briefly be declared 1 That the Experience of the Reality Excellency Power and Efficacy of the things that are believed is an effectual means of encreasing Faith and Love 2 That it is the Holy Ghost which gives us this Experience For the First God himself expostulates with the Church how its Faith came to be so weak when it had so great Experience of Him or of his Power and Faithfulness Isa. 40. 27 28. Hast thou not heard hast thou not known How then sayest thou that God hath forsaken thee And our Apostle affirms that the Consolations which he had experimentally received from God enabled him unto the discharge of his Duty towards others in trouble 2 Cor. 7. 4. For herein we prove or do really approve of as being satisfied in the good and acceptable and perfect will of God Rom. 12. 2. And this is that which the Apostle prayeth for in the behalf of the Colossians chap. 2. v. 2. I may say that he who knoweth not how Faith is encouraged and strengthened by especial Experiences of the Reality Power and spiritual Efficacy on the Soul of the things believed never was made partaker of any of them How often doth David encourage his own Faith and others from his former Experiences which were pleaded also by our Lord Jesus Christ to the same purpose in his great Distress Psal. 22. 9 10. Secondly That it is the Holy Ghost who giveth us all our Spiritual Experiences needs no other Consideration to evince but only this that in them consists all our Consolation His Work and Office it is to administer Consolation unto Believers as being the only Comforter of the Church Now he administreth Comfort no other way but by giving unto the Minds and Souls of Believers a Spiritual sensible Experience of the Reality and Power of the things we do believe He doth not comfort us by Words but by Things Other means of Spiritual Consolation I know none and I am sure this never fails Give unto a Soul an Experience a Taste of the Love and Grace of God in Christ Jesus and be its Condition what
our sin and folly when we are negligent herein All Believers are no doubt in some measure convinced hereof not only from the Testimonies given unto it in the Scripture but also from their own Experience And there is nothing in themselves which they may more distinctly learn it from than the Nature and Course of their Prayers with the workings of their Hearts Minds and Affections in them Let profane Persons deride it whilest they please it is the Spirit of God as a Spirit of Grace that enables Believers to pray and make Intercession according to the mind of God And herein as he is the Spirit of Supplications he copyeth out and expresseth what he worketh in them as the Spirit of Sanctification In teaching us to pray he teacheth us what and how he worketh in us And if we wisely consider his working in our Hearts by Prayer we may understand much of his working upon our Hearts by Grace It is said that he who searcheth the Hearts that is God himself knoweth the mind of the Spirit in the Intercessions he worketh in us Rom. 8. 27. There are secret powerfull Operations of the Spirit in Prayer that are discernible only to the great searcher of Hearts But we also ought to enquire and observe so far as we may what he leads us unto and guides us about which is plainly his work in us I do not think that the Spirit worketh Supplications in us by an immediate supernatural Divine Afflatus so as he inspired the Prophets of old who oft-times understood not the things uttered by themselves but enquired afterwards diligently into them But I do say let the proud carnal World despise it whilest they please and at their peril that the Spirit of God doth graciously in the Prayers of Believers carry out and act their Souls and Minds in Desires and Requests which for the matter of them are far above their natural Contrivances and Invention And he who hath not Experience hereof is a greater stranger unto these things than will at length be unto his Advantage By a diligent Observance hereof we may know of what kind and nature the work of the Holy Ghost in us is and how it is carryed on For how in general doth the Holy Spirit teach us and enable us to pray It is by these three things 1 By giving us a spiritual Insight into the Promises of God and the Grace of the Covenant whereby we know what to ask upon a spiritual view of the Mercy and Grace that God hath prepared for us 2 By acquainting us with and giving us an Experience of our wants with a deep sense of them such as we cannot bear without Relief 3 By Creating and stirring up desires in the new Creature for its own Preservation Encrease and Improvement And in Answer unto these things consisteth his whole work of Sanctification in us For it is his effectual Communication unto us of the Grace and Mercy prepared in the Promises of the Covenant through Jesus Christ hereby doth he supply our spiritual wants and sets the new Creature in Life and Vigour So are our Prayers an Extract and Copy of the Work of the Holy Spirit in us given us by himself And therefore by whomsoever he is despised as a Spirit of Supplication he is so as a Spirit of Sanctification also Now consider what it is that in your Prayers you most labour about Is it not that the Body the Power the whole Interest of Sin in you may be weakened subdued and at length destroyed Is it not that all the Graces of the Spirit may be renewed daily encreased and strengthened so as that you may be more ready and prepared for all Dutyes of Obedience And what is all this but that Holiness may be gradually Progressive in your Souls that it may be carryed on by new Supplyes and Additions of Grace untill it come to Perfection Sect. 10 It will be said perhaps by some that they find neither in themselves nor others by the best of their Observation that the Work of Sanctification is constantly Progressive or that Holiness doth so grow and thrive wherever it is in sincerity For as for themselves they have found Grace more vigorous active and flourishing in former dayes than of late the streams of it were fresher and stronger at the Spring of Conversion than since they find them to be in their Course Hence are those complaints among many of their Leanness their Weakness their Deadness their Barrenness Nor were many of the Saints in the Scripture without such Complaints And many may cry Oh that it were with us as in our former Dayes in the dayes of our youth Complaints of this nature do every where abound and some are ready to conclude upon this Consideration that either sincere Holiness is not so growing and progressive as is pretended or that indeed they have no interest therein Yea the like may be said upon a diligent Observation of others Churches and single Professors what Evidence do they give that the work of Holiness is thriving in them doth it not appear rather to be Retrograde and under a constant Decay I shall so far consider and remove this Objection as that the Truth which we have asserted suffer not from it and so be left as an empty Notion nor yet those altogether discouraged who come not up unto a full compliance with it And this I shall doe in the ensuing Rules and Observations 1 It is one thing what Grace or Holiness is suited unto in its own nature and what is the Ordinary or Regular way of the procedure of the Spirit in the work of Sanctification according to the tenour of the Covenant of Grace Another what may occasionally fall out by Indisposition and Irregularity or any other obstructing Interposition in them in whom the work is wrought Under the first Consideration the Work is thriving and progressive in the latter the Rule is liable to sundry Exceptions A Child that hath a Principle of Life a good natural Constitution and suitable food will grow and thrive But that which hath Obstructions from within or Distempers and Diseases or Falls and Bruises may be weak and thriftless When we are Regenerate we are as New-born Babes and ordinarily if we have the sincere milk of the Word we shall grow thereby But if we our selves give way to Temptations Corruptions Negligences Conformity to the World is it any wonder if we are lifeless and thriftless It suffices to confirm the Truth of what we have asserted that every one in whom is a Principle of spiritual Life who is born of God in whom the work of Sanctification is begun if it be not gradually carryed on in him if he thrive not in Grace and Holiness if he go not from strength to strength it is ordinarily from his own sinfull Negligence and Indulgence unto carnal Lusts or Love of this present World Considering the time we have had and the Means we have enjoyed what grown
such things are worthy of Death not only do the same but have Pleasure in them that do them When open Profligate Sinners do as it were make themselves up into Societyes encouraging and approving one another in their Abominable Courses so that no Company pleaseth them but such as have obtained an Impudence in sinning then is the greatest Defiance given unto the Holiness and Righteousness of God Now such as these will never seek after Cleansing For why should they do so who are sensible of no Spiritual Pollution nor have the least touch of shame with respect thereunto It is Necessary therefore unto the Duty of Purifying our Souls that we be affected with shame for the Spiritual Defilements which our Nature under the Loss of the Image of God is even rolled in And where this is not it will be but lost Labour that is spent in the Invitation of men to the Cleansing Fountain Sect. 13 3. Let Person so affected be fully satisfied that they can never Cleanse or Purifie themselves by any Endeavours that are meerly their own or by any Means of their own finding out According unto mens Convictions of the Defilements of sin so have and alwayes will their Endeavours be after Purification Hos. 5. 13. And indeed it is the Duty of Believers to purifie themselves more and more in the Exercise of all Purifying Graces and the use of all Means appointed of God for that Purpose 2 Cor. 7. 1. And their neglect thereof is the highest Disadvantage Psal. 38. 5. But men in the state of Nature concerning whom we now treat are no way able to cleanse their Natures or purge themselves He only who can restore repair and renew their Natures unto the Likeness of God can cleanse them But here many fall into Mistakes For when by Reason of their Convictions they can no longer satisfie and please themselves in the Pollution of sin they goe about by Vain attempts of their own to purifie their Souls Hos. 5. 13. Jerem. 2. 22. Job 9. 30 31. their own Sorrow and Repentance and Tears of Contrition and that sorry Amendment of Life they can attain unto shall do this Work for them And every especial defiling Act or every renewed sence of it shall have an especial Act of Duty for its Cleansing But though these things are Good in themselves yet there is required more Wisdom to the right stating of them as to their Causes Respects Ends and Use than they are furnisht withall Hence are they so frequently abused and turned into an effectual Means not only of keeping Men off and at a Distance from Christ but also from a due and acceptable Performance of the very Duties themselves pretended unto For Legal Sorrow or Repentance or meer Legal Convictions being trusted unto will infallibly keep the Soul from coming up unto that Evangelical Repentance which alone God accepts And meer Reformation of Life rested in proves opposite to Endeavours for the Renovation of our Natures But let these Duties be performed however in what Manner you please they are utterly insufficient of themselves to cleanse our Natural Defilements Nor will any seek duely for that which alone is effectual unto this Purpose untill they are fully convinced hereof Let therefore Sinners hear and know whether they will or will not believe it that as by Nature they are wholly desiled and polluted with those Abominations of Sin which render them Loathsom in the sight of God so they have no Power by any Endeavours or Duties of their own to Cleanse themselves but by all they doe to this End they do but farther plunge themselves into the Ditch and encrease their own Defilements yet are all those Duties necessary in their proper Place and unto their proper End 4. It is therefore their Duty to acquaint themselves with that only Remedy in this Case that only Means of Cleansing which God hath appointed and which he makes Effectual One great End of the Revelation of the Will of God from the Foundation of the World of his Institutions and Ordinances of Worship was to direct the Souls and Consciences of Men in and unto the Way of their Cleansing which as it argues his Infinite Love and Care so the great Importance by the Matter it self And one Principal Means which Satan from the Beginning made use of to keep men in their Apostasie from God and to encourage them therein was by supplying them with innumerable Wayes of Purifications suited to the Imaginations of their dark unbelieving and superstitious Minds And in like manner when he designed to draw men off from Christ and the Gospel under the Papacy he did it principally by the suggestion of such present and future Purgatories of Sin as might comply with their Lusts and Ignorance of so great Importance is it therefore to be acquainted with the only true real Way and Means hereof And there are two Considerations that are suited to excite the Diligence of Sinners in this Enquiry 1. The Weight that is laid on this Matter by God himself 2. The Difficulty of attaining an Acquaintance with it And 1 as hath been observed any one by considering the Legal Institutions of Old will see what weight God layes hereon No Sacrifice had any respect unto sin but there was somewhat Peculiar in it that was for its Cleansing And there were sundry Ceremonious Ordinances which had no other End but only to purifie from Uncleannesses 2 Among all the Promises of the Old Testament concerning the Establishment of the New Covenant and the Grace thereof which are Many and Precious there are none more Eminent than those which concern our Cleansing from sin by the Administration of the Spirit through the Blood of Christ. Some of them have been mentioned before Which also farther manifests the Care that God hath taken for our Instruction herein 3 There is nothing more pressed on us nothing more frequently proposed unto us in the Gospel than the Necessity of our Purification and the only Way of Effecting it If therefore either Instructions or Promises or Precepts or all concurring may evidence the Importance of a Duty then is this manifested to partake therein And those who will preferre the Guidance of Carnal Reason and vain Traditions before these Heavenly Directions shall live in their Ignorance and dye in their Sins 2 ly The Difficulty of attaining an Acquaintance with it is to be duely considered It is a part of the Mystery of the Gospel and such a part as is among those which the Wisdom of the World or Carnal Reason esteemeth Foolishness It is not easily admitted nor received that we can no otherwise be cleansed from our sins but by the sprinkling of that Blood which was shed so long ago Yet this and no other way doth the Scripture propose unto us To fancy that there is any cleansing from sin but by the Blood of Christ is to overthrow the Gospel The Doctrine hereof are Persons therefore obliged to enquire after and come
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
Forgetfulness of the Sovereign Authority of God will betray them unto Profuseness in Vanity and corrupt Communication untill they doe with Delight and hear with Pleasure such things as wherewith the Holy Spirit of God is grieved their own Consciences are defiled and the Honour of Profession is cast to the ground Sect. 18 Secondly The Command of God that we should be Holy is not to be considered only as an Effect of Power and Authority which we must submit unto but as a Fruit of infinite Wisdom and Goodness also which it is our highest Advantage and Interest to comply withall And this introduceth a peculiar Necessity of Holiness from the Consideration of what is Equal Reasonable Ingenuous the contrary whereunto is Foolish Perverse Vngratefull every way unbecoming Rational Creatures Where nothing can be discerned in Commands but meer Authority Will and Pleasure they are looked on as meerly respecting the Good of them that command and not at all theirs who are to obey which disheartens and weakens the Principle of Obedience Now though God because his Dominion over us is Sovereign and absolute might have justly left unto us no other Reason or Motive of our Obedience and it may be did so deal with the Church of Old as to some particular Temporary Ceremonial Institutions yet he doth not nor ever did so as to the Main of their Obedience But as he proposeth his Law as an Effect of infinite Wisdom Love and Goodness so he declares and pleads that all his Commands are just and equal in themselves good and usefull unto us and that our Complyance with them is our present as well as it will be our future Happiness And that this is so that the Command of God requiring that we should be Holy as a Fruit of Wisdom and Goodness is Equal and Advantageous unto our selves appears from all Consideration of it Sect. 19 First Look upon it formally as a Law prescribed unto us and it is so because the Obedience in Holiness which it requires is proportioned unto the Strength and Power which we have to Obey which declares it Equal unto us and an Effect of infinite Wisdom and Goodness in God The Command as we shewed before may be considered either as it belonged unto the Old Covenant or as it is annexed unto and so is a part of the New In the first way as it belonged unto the Old Covenant the Strength of Grace which we had Originally from God under the Law of Creation was sufficient to enable us unto all that Holy Obedience which was required therein and our not doing so was from wilfull Rebellion and not from any Impotency or Weakness in us We fell not from our first Estate for want of Power to Obey but by the neglect of the Exercise of that Power which we had God made us Vpright but we sought out many Inventions And in the latter way as it belongs to the Covenant of Grace there is by vertue of that Covenant a Supply of spiritual strength given in by the Promise unto all them who are taken into it enabling them to Answer the Commands for Holiness according to the Rule of the Acceptance of their Obedience before laid down No man who is instated in the Covenant of Grace comes short or fails of the Performance of that Obedience which is required and accepted in that Covenant meerly for want of Power and spiritual strength For God therein according to his Divine Power gives unto us all things that pertain unto Life and Godliness through the Knowledge of him that hath called us to Glory and Vertue 1 Pet. 1. 3. Sect. 20 It is true this Grace or Strength is administred unto them by certain Wayes and Means which if they attend not unto they will come short of it But this I say in the carefull diligent sedulous use of those means appointed none who belong to the Covenant of Grace shall ever fail of that Power and Ability which shall render the Commands of the Gospel easie and not grievous unto them and whereby they may so fulfill them as infallibly to be accepted This the Scripture is plain in where Christ himself tells us that his Yoke is easie and his Burden light Matth. 11. 30. and his holy Apostle that his Commands are not grievous 1 Joh. 5. 3. For if they should exceed all the Strength which we either have or he is pleased to give unto us they would be like the Jewish Ceremonies a Yoke which we could not bear and a Law not only grievous but unprofitable But on the contrary our Apostle expressely affirms and so may we that he could do all things that is in the Way and Manner and unto the End for which they are required in the Gospel through Christ that strengthened him Some would confound these things and cast all into Disorder They would have men that are under the Old Covenant to have a Power and spiritual Strength to fulfill the Commands of the New which God hath never spoken of nor declared and which indeed is contrary to the whole Design of his Grace They would have men who having broken the Old Covenant and forfeited all their Strength and Ability which they had by it for Obedience and are not initiated in the New Covenant yet to have a Power of their own to fulfill the Command of the one or the other which God neither giveth nor is obliged to give nor is it necessary to prove that the Command is Equal and Holy For as was observed God giveth us no Command of Holiness and Obedience but in with and by vertue of some Covenant And there is no more required to prove them to be just and equal but that they are easie unto them who walk with God in that Covenant whereunto they do belong and that that Performance of them shall be accepted which they have Power for If any will sinfully cast away ther Covenant Interest and Priviledge as we did all that of our Original Creation we must thank our selves if we have not Power to answer its Commands Nor doth it belong unto the Equity of the Command of the New Covenant that those who are not yet made partakers of it by Grace should have Power to fulfill them Nay if they had so and should do so accordingly were any such thing possible it would not avail them For being supposed not as yet to belong unto the New Covenant they must belong unto the Old And the Performance of the Commands of the New Covenant in the Way and Manner which are required therein would not avail them who are really under the Rule and Law of the Old which admits of nothing short of absolute perfection But what the Law speaks it speaks unto them that are under the Law and what the Gospel speaks it speaks unto them who who are not under the Law but under Grace And the formal Transition of men from one of these States unto another is by an Act of Gods Grace
the Command of God that we should be Holy and because of it and that especially under the Consideration of it which we have insisted on I know not what vain Imaginations have seemed to possess the Minds of some that they have no need of Respect unto the Command nor to the Promises and Threatnings of it but to Obey meerly from the Power and Guidance of an inward Principle Nay some have supposed that a Respect unto the Command would vitiate our Obedience rendring it Legal and Servile But I hope That Darkness which hindred men from discerning the Harmony and Complyance which is between the Principle of Grace in us and the Authority of the Command upon us is much taken away from all sincere Professors It is a Respect unto the Command which gives the formal Nature of Obedience unto what we doe And without a due Regard unto it there is nothing of Holiness in us Some would make the Light of Nature to be their Rule some in what they doe look no further for their Measure than what carryes the Reputation of common Honesty among men He that would be holy indeed must alwayes mind the Command of God with that Reverence and those Affections which become him to whom God speaks immediately And that it may be Effectual towards us we may consider Sect. 34 1 How God hath multiplyed his Commands unto this Purpose to testifie not only his own infinite Care of us and Love unto us but also our Eternal Concernment in what he requires He doth not give out unto us a single Command that we should be Holy which yet were sufficient to Oblige us for ever but he gives his Commands unto that Purpose Line upon line line upon line precept upon precept precept upon precept He that shall but look over the Bible and see almost every Page of it filled with Commands or Directions or Instructions for Holiness cannot but conclude that the Mind and Will of God is very much in this matter and that our Concernment therein is inexpressible Nor doth God content himself to multiply Commands in General that we should be Holy so as that if we have Regard unto him they may never be out of our Remembrance but there is not any particular Duty or Instance of Holiness but he hath given us especial Commands for that also No man can instance in the least Duty that belongs directly unto it but it falls under some especial Command of God We are not only then under the Command of God in general and that often reiterated unto us in an awfull Reverence whereof we ought to walk but upon all Occasions whatever we have to do or avoid in following after Holiness is represented unto us in especial Commands to that purpose And they are all of them a Fruit of the Love and Care of God towards us Is it not then our Duty alwayes to consider these Commands to bind them unto our Hearts and our Hearts to them that nothing may seperate them Oh that they might alwayes dwell in our Minds to influence them unto an inward constant Watch against the first Disorders of our Souls that are unsuited to the inward Holiness God requires abide with us in our Closets and all our Occasions for our Good Sect. 35 2 We may do well to consider what various Enforcements God is pleased to give unto those multiplyed Commands He doth not remit us meerly to their Authority but he applyeth all other Wayes and Means whereby they may be made Effectual Hence are they accompanyed with Exhortations Entreaties Reasonings Expostulations Promises Threatnings all made use of to fasten the Command upon our Minds and Consciences God knowes how slow and backward we are to receive due Impressions from his Authority and he knowes by what Wayes and Means the Principles of our internal Faculties are apt to be wrought upon and therefore applyes these Engines to fix the Power of the Commands upon us Were these things to be treated of severally it is manifest how great a part of the Scripture were to be transcribed I shall therefore only take a little Notice of the Reinforcement of the Command for Holiness by those especial Promises which are given unto it I do not intend now the Promises of the Gospel in general wherein in its own Way and Place we are interested by Holiness but of such peculiar Promises as God enforceth the Command by It is not for nothing that it is said that Godliness hath the Promise of the Life that now is and of that which is to come 1 Tim. 4. 8. There is in all the Promises an especial Respect unto it and it gives them in whom it is an especial Interest in all the Promises Sect. 36 This is as it were the Text which our Saviour preached his first Sermon upon For all the Blessings which he pronounceth consist in giving particular Instances of some parts of Holiness annexing an especial Promise unto each of them Blessed saith he are the Pure in Heart Heart Purity is the Spring and Life of all Holiness and why are such Persons Blessed why saith he they shall see God He appropriates the Promise of the Eternal Enjoyment of God unto this Qualification of Purity of Heart So also it hath the Promises of this Life and that in things temporal and spiritual In things temporal we may take out from amongst many that especial Instance given us by the Psalmist Blessed is he that considereth the Poor Wisely to consider the poor in their Distress so as to Relieve them according to our Ability is a great Act and Duty of Holiness He that doth this saith the Psalmist he is a Blessed man Whence doth that Blessedness arise and wherein doth it consist It doth so in a Participation of those especial Promises which God hath annexed unto this Duty even in this Life the Lord will deliver him in the time of trouble The Lord will preserve him and keep him alive and he shall be Blessed on the Earth and thou wilt not deliver him into the hand of his Enemies the Lord will strengthen him upon the Bed of languishing and thou wilt make all his Bed in his sickness Psal. 41. 1 2 3. Many especial Promises in the most important Concerns of this Life are given unto the Right discharge of this one Duty For Godliness hath the Promise of this Life And other Instances might be multiplyed unto the same Purpose It is so also with respect unto things spiritual So the Apostle Peter having repeated a long Chain of Graces whose Exercise he presenteth unto us addes for an Encouragement If ye do these things ye shall never fall 2 Pet. 1. 10. The Promise of Permanency in Obedience with an absolute Preservation from all such Fallings into Sin as are inconsistent with the Covenant of Grace is affixed unto our Diligence in Holiness And who knowes not how the Scripture abounds in Instances of this Nature That which we conclude from hence is that
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
their Beginnings and Engagements and turn wholly unto Sin and Folly From such Persons the Holy Ghost utterly departs all their Gifts dry up and wither their Light goeth out and they have Darkness in stead of a Vision The Case of such is deplorable for it had been better for them not to have known the way of Righteousness than after they have known it to turn from the Holy Commandment delivered unto them 2 Pet. 2. 21. And some of these add despight and contempt of that whole Work of the Spirit of God whereof themselves were made Partakers unto their Apostasie And the condition of such profligate Sinners is for the most part irrecoverable Heb. 6. 4 5 6. Chap. 10. v. 26 27 28 29 30. From some He withdraweth and departeth partially only and that mostly but for a season And this Departure respects the Grace Light and Consolation which he administers unto Believers as to the degrees of them and the Sense of them in their own Souls On whom He is bestowed to work these things in a saving way from them he never utterly or totally departs This our Blessed Saviour plainly promiseth and asserteth John 4. 14. Whosoever drinketh of the Water that I shall give him shall never thirst but the Water that I shall give him shall be in him a Well of Water springing up into Everlasting Life That this Well of Living Water is his Sanctifying Spirit himself declares John 7. 37 38. He who hath received him shall never have a thirst of total Want and Indigence any more Besides He is given unto this end by vertue of the Covenant of Grace And the Promise is express therein that he shall never depart from them to whom he is given Isa. 59. 21. Jer. 31. 33. Chap. 32. 39 40. Ezek. 11. 19 20 But now as to the degrees and sensible Effects of these Operations He may depart and wiâ—hdraw from Believers for a Season Hence they may be left unto many Spiritual Decays and much weakeness the things of Grace that remain in them being as it were ready to die Revel 3. 2. and they may apprehend themselves deserted and forsaken of God So did Sion Isa. 40. 27. Chap. 49. 15. For therein doth God hide himself Isa. 44. 15. or forsake his People for a moment Chap. 54. 7. He hides himself and his wrath Chap. 57. 17. These are the things which David so often and so bitterly complaineth of and which with so much earnestness he contendeth and wrestleth with God to be delivered from These are those spiritual Desertions which some of late have laden with reproach contempt and scorn All the apprehensions and complaints of the People of God about them they would represent as nothing but the idle Imaginations of distempered Brains or the Effects of some disorder in their Blood and Animal Spirits I could indeed easily allow that Men should despise and laugh at what is declared as the Experience of Professors at present Their prejudice against their Persons will not allow them to entertain any thoughts of them but what are suited unto Folly and Hypocrisie But at this I acknowledg I stand amazed that whereas these things are so plainly so fully and frequently declared in the Scriptures both as to the actings of God and his Holy Spirit in them and as to the sense of those concerned about them whereas the whole of God's dealings and Believers application of themselves to him in this Matter are so graphically exemplified in sundry of the Holy Saints of old as Joh David Heman and others and great and plentiful Provision is made in the Scripture for the Direction Recovery Healing and Consolation of Souls in such a condition yet men professing themselves to be Christians and to believe the Word of God at least not to be a Fable should dare to cast such opprobrious Reproaches on the Wayes and and Works of God The end of these Attempts can be no other but to decry all real entercourse between God and the Souls of Men leaving only an outside form or shape of Religion not one jot better than Atheism Neither is it only what concerns Spiritual Desertions whose Nature Causes and Remedies are professedly and at large handled by all the Casuistical Divines even of the Roman Church but the whole Work of the Spirit of God upon the Hearts of Men with all the Effects produduced in them with respect unto Sin and Grace that some men by their odious and scurrilous Expressions endeavour to expose to contempt and scorn S. P. p. 339 340 341 342. Whatever trouble befals the minds of men upon the account of a sense of the guilt of Sin whatever Darkness and Disconsolation they may undergo through the displeasure of God and his withdrawing of the wonted influences of his Grace Love and Favour towards them whatever Peace Comfort or Joy they may be made Partakers of by a sense of the Love of God shed abroad in their Hearts by the Holy Ghost it is all ascribed in most opprobrious Language unto Melancholy reeks and vapours whereof a certain and mechanical account may be given by them who understand the Anatomy of the Brain To such an height of Profane Atheism is the daring Pride and Ignorance of some in our dayes arrived Sect. 20 There remaineth yet one general Adjunct of the Dispensation and Work of the Holy Ghost which gives a further Description of the manner of it which I have left unto a single Consideration This is that which is mentioend Heb. 2. 4. God witnessing unto them with Signs and Wonders with divers Miracles 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and Gifts say we of the Holy Ghost But 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are Distributions or Partitions And hence advantage is taken by some to argue against his very Being So Crellius contends that the Holy Ghost here is taken passively or that the Expression 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is Genitivus Materiae Wherefore he supposes that it followeth that the Holy Ghost himself may be divided into Parts so that one may have one Part and Parcel of him and another may have another Part. How inconsistent this is with the Truth of his Being and Personality is apparent But yet neither can he give any tolerable account of the Division and Partition of that Power of God which he calls the Holy Ghost unless he will make the Holy Spirit to be a Quality in us and not in the Divine Nature as Justin Martyr affirms Plato to have done and so to be divided And the Interpretation he useth of the words is wrested perverse and foolish For the Contexture of them requires that the Holy Ghost be here taken actively as the Author of the Distribution mentioned He gives out of his Gifts and Powers unto Men in many Parts not all to One not all at once not all in one way but some to one some to another some at one time some at another and that in great variety The Apostle therefore in this place
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
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.
Col. 3. 10. as that they serve to the same End and Purpose Sect. 11 There being therefore this two-fold Spiritual Life or Ability of Living unto God that which we had in Adam and that which we have in Christ we must enquire with reference unto which of these it is that Unregenerate Men are said to be Spiritually dead or dead in Trespasses and Sins Now this in the first Place hath respect unto the Life we had in Adam For the Deprivation of that Life was in the Sanction of the Law Thou shalt die the Death This Spiritual Death is comprized therein and that in the Privation of that Spiritual Life or Life unto God which Unregenerate Men never had neither de facto nor de jure in any state or condition Wherefore with respect hereunto they are dead only negatively they have it not but with respect unto the Life we had in Adam they are dead privatively they have lost that Power of Living unto God which they had Sect. 12 From what hath been discoursed we may discover the Nature of this Spiritual Death under the Power whereof all Unregenerate Persons do abide For there are three things in it 1 A Privation of a Principle of Spiritual Life enabling us to live unto God 2 A Negation of all Spiritual Vital Acts that is of all Acts and Duties of holy Obedience acceptable unto God and tending to the Enjoyment of him 3 A total Defect and want of Power for any such Acts whatever All these are in that Death which is a Privation of Life such as this is First there is in it a Privation of a Principle of Spiritual Life namely of that which we had before the Entrance of sin or a Power of living unto God according to the Covenant of Works and a Negation of that which we have by Christ or a Power of Living unto God according to the Tenor of the Covenant of Grace Those therefore who are thus dead have no Principle or First Power of Living unto God or the Performance of any Duty to be accepted with him in order to the Enjoyment of him according to either Covenant It is with them as to all the Acts and Ends of Life Spiritual as it is with the Body as to the Acts and Ends of Life Natural when the Soul is departed from it Why else are they said to be dead Sect. 13 It is objected that there is a wide difference between Death Natural and Spiritual In Death Natural the soul it self is utterly removed and taken from the Body but in Death Spiritual it continues A man is still notwithstanding this Spiritual Death endowed with an Understanding Will and Affections And by these are Men enabled to perform their Duty unto God and yield the Obedience required of them Answ. 1 In Life Spiritual the Soul is unto the Principle of it as the Body is unto the Soul in Life Natural For in Life Natural the Soul is the quickning Principle and the Body is the Principle quickned When the Soul departs it leaves the Body with all its own Natural Properties but utterly deprived of them which it had by Vertue of its Union with the Soul So in Life Spiritual the Soul is not in and by its Essential Properties the quickning Principle of it but it is the Principle that is quickned And when the quickning Principle of Spiritual Life departs it leaves the Soul with all its Natural Properties entire as to their Essence though morally corrupted But of all the Power and Abilities which it had by Virtue of its Union with a quickning Principle of Spiritual Life it is deprived And to deny such a quickning Principle of Spiritual Life superadded unto us by the Grace of Christ distinct and separate from the Natural Faculties of the Soul is upon the matter to renounce the whole Gospel It is all one as to deny that Adam was created in the Image of God which he lost and that we are renewed unto the Image of God by Jesus Christ. Hence 2ly Whatever the Soul acts in Spiritual things by its Understanding Will and Affections as deprived of or not quickned by this Principle of Spiritual Life it doth it Naturally not Spiritually as shall be instantly made to appear There is therefore in the first Place a Disability or Impotency unto all Spiritual things to be performed in a Spiritual manner in all Persons not born again by the Spirit because they are Spiritually dead Whatever they can do or however Men may call what they do unless they are endowed with a quickning Principle of Grace they can perform no Act Spiritually vital no Act of Life whereby we live to God or that is absolutely accepted with him Hence it is said the Carnal Mind is enmity against God it is not subject to the Law of God neither indeed can it be Rom. 8. 7. so then they that are in the flesh cannot please God v. 8. Men may cavil whilst they please about this carnal Mind and contend that it is only the sensitive part of the Soul or the Affections as corrupted by Prejudices and depraved habits of Vice Two things are plain in the Text. First that this Carnal Mind is in all mankind whoever they be who are not partakers of the Spirit of God and his Quickning Power Secondly that where it is there is a Disability of doing any thing that should please God which is the Sum of what we contend for and which Men may with as little a disparagement of their Modesty deny as reject the Authority of the Apostle So our Saviour as to one Instance tells us that no Man can come unto him unless the Father draw him Joh. 6. 4. 4. And so is it figuratively expressed where all Men being by Nature compared unto evil Trees it is affirmed of them that they cannot bring forth Good fruit unless their Nature be changed Mat. 7. 18. Chap. 12. 33. And this Disability as to Good is also compared by the Prophet unto such Effects as lye under a Natural Impossibility of Accomplishment Jerem. 13. 24. We contend not about Expressions This is that which the Scripture abundantly instructeth us in There is no Power in Men by Nature whereby they are of themselves upon the mere proposal of their Duty in Spiritual Obedience and Exhortations from the Word of God unto the Performance of it accompanied with all the Motives which are meet and suited to prevail with them thereunto to perceive know will or do any thing in such a Way or Manner as that it should be accepted with God with respect unto our Spiritual Life unto him according to his Will and future Enjoyment of him without the Efficacious Infusion into them or Creation in them of a new gracious Principle or Habit enabling them thereunto and that this is accordingly wrought in all that believe by the Holy Ghost we shall afterwards declare But it will be Objected and hath against this Doctrine been ever so since the days
of Pelagius that a supposition hereof renders all Exhortations Commands Promises and Threatnings which comprize the whole Way of the external communication of the Will of God unto us vain and useless For to what purpose is it to exhort Blind Men to see or Dead Men to live or to promise Rewards unto them upon their so doing Should Men thus deal with stones would it not be vain and ludicrous and that because of their Impotency to comply with any such proposals of our Mind unto them And the same is here supposed in Men as to any Ability in Spiritual things Answ. 1 There is nothing in the highest Wisdom required in the Application of any Means to the producing of an Effect but that in their own Nature they are suited thereunto and that the Subject to be wrought upon by them is capable of being affected according as their Nature requires And thus Exhortations with Promises and Threatnings are in their kind as Moral Instruments suited and proper to produce the Effects of Faith and Obedience in the Minds of Men. And the Faculties of their Souls their Understandings Wills and Affections are meet to be wrought upon by them unto that End For by Mens rational Abilies they are able to discern their Nature and judge of their Tendency And because these Faculties are the Principle and Subject of all actual Obedience it is granted that there is in Man a Natural remote Passive Power to yield Obedience unto God which yet can never actually put forth it self without the effectual working of the Grace of God not only enabling but working in them to will and to do Exhortations Promises and Threatnings respect not primarily our present Ability but our Duty Their End is to declare unto us not what we can do but what we ought to do And this is done fully in them On the other hand make a general Rule that what God commands or Exhorts us unto with Promises made unto our Obedience and Threatnings annexed unto a supposition of Disobedience that we have power in and of our selves to do or that we are of our selves able to do and you quite evacuate the Grace of God or at least make it only useful for the more easie discharge of our Duty not necessary unto the very being of Duty it self which is the Pelagianism Anathematized by so many Councils of old But in the Church it hath hitherto been believed that the Command directs our Duty but the Promise gives strength for the performance of it Sect. 18 3. God is pleased to make these Exhortations and Promises to be Vehicula Gratiae the means of communicating Spiritual Life and Strength unto Men. And he hath appointed them unto this end because considering the Moral and Intellectual Faculties of the Minds of Men they are suited thereunto Hence these Effects are ascribed unto the Word which really are wrought by the Grace communicated thereby Jam. 1. 18. 1 Pet. 1. 23. And this in their Dispensation under the Covenant of Grace is their proper end God may therefore wisely make use of them and command them to be used towards Men notwithstanding all their own disability savingly to comply with them seeing he can will and doth himself make them effectual unto the end aimed at Sect. 19 But it will be further objected That if Men are thus utterly devoid of a Principle of Spiritual Life of all Power to live unto God that is to repent believe and yeeld obedience is it righteous that they should perish eternally meerly for their disability or their not doing that which they are not able to do This would be to require Brick and to give no Straw yea to require much where nothing is given But the Scripture every-where chargeth the Destruction of Men upon their wilful sin not their weakness or disability Answ. 1. Mens Disability to live to God is their sin What-ever therefore ensues thereon may be justly charged on them It is that which came on us by the Sin of our Nature in our first Parents all whose Consequents are our sin and our misery Rom. 5. 12. Had it befallen us without a guilt truly our own according to the Law of our Creation and Covenant of our Obedience the Case would have been otherwise But on this Supposition sufficiently confirmed else-where those who perish do but feed on the Fruit of their own Wayes Sect. 20 2. In the Transactions between God and the Souls of Men with respect unto their Obedience and Salvation there is none of them but hath a Power in sundry things as to some degrees and measures of them to comply with his Mind and Will which they voluntarily neglect And this of it self is sufficient to bear the Charge of their eternal ruine But 3. No Man is so unable to live unto God to do any thing for him but that withal he is able to do any thing against him There is in all Men by Nature a depraved vitious habit of Mind wherein they are alienated from the Life of God And there is no command given unto Men for Evangelical Faith or Obedience but they can and do put forth a free positive Act of their Wills in the rejection of it either directly or interpretatively in preferring somewhat else before it As they cannot come to Christ unless the Father draw them so they will not come that they may have Life wherefore their Destruction is just and of themselves This is the Description which the Scripture giveth us concerning the Power Ability or Disability of Men in the State of Nature as unto the Performance of Spiritual Things By some it is traduced as Fanatical and senseless which the Lord Christ must answer for not we For we do nothing but plainly represent what he hath expressed in his Word and if it be foolishness unto any the Day will determine where the blame must lie Sect. 21 Secondly There is in this Death an actual cessation of all Vital Acts. From this defect of Power or the want of a Principle of Spiritual Life it is that Men in the state of Nature can perform no Vital Act of Spiritual Obedience nothing that is spiritually Good or Saving or Accepted with God according to the Tenor of the New Covenant which we shall in the second place a little explain The whole course of our Obedience to God in Christ is the Life of God Ephes. 4. 18. That Life which is from him in a peculiar manner whereof he is the especial Author and whereby we live unto him which is our End And the Gospel which is the Rule of our Obedience is called the words of this Life Acts 5. 20. That which guides and directs us how to live to God Hence all the Duties of this Life are Vital Acts spiritually Vital Acts Acts of that Life whereby we live to God Sect. 22 Where therefore this Life is not all the Works of Men are Dead Works Where Persons are dead in sin their Works are dead
thereunto So that to say there is no Disposition unto Spiritual Life in any Unregenerate Person is to make them all equal which is contrary to Experience Answ. 1. There is no doubt but that Unregenerate Men may perform many external Duties which are good in themselves and lie in the order of the outward Disposal of the means of Conversion Nor is it questioned but they may have real Designs Desires and Endeavours after that which is presented unto them as their chiefest Good But so far as these Desires or Actings are meerly Natural there is no Disposition in them unto Spiritual Life or that which is Spiritually Good So far as they are Supernatural they are not of themselves For 2. Although there are no preparatory Inclinations in Men yet there are preparatory Works upon them Those who have not the Word yet may have Convictions of Good and Evil from the Authority of God in their Consciences Rom. 2. 14 15. And the Law in the Dispensation of it may work Men unto many Duties of Obedience much more may the Gospel so do But what-ever Effects are hereby produced they are wrought by the Power of God exerted in the Dispensation of the Word They are not educed out of the natural Faculties of the Minds of Men but are Effects of the Power of God in them and upon them For we know that in the flesh there dwelleth no good thing And all Unregenerate Men are no more for that which is born of the flesh is flesh 3. The Actings thus effected and produced in Men Unregenerate are neither Fruits of nor Dispositions unto Spiritual Life Men that are spiritually dead may have Designs and Desires to free themselves from dying Eternally but such a desire to be saved is no saving Disposition unto Life The Nature Causes and Means of Regeneration CHAP. V. 1. Description of the State of Nature necessary unto a right understanding of the Work of the Spirit in Regeneration 2. No possibility of Salvation unto Persons living and dying in a state of Sin 3. Deliverance from it by Regeneration only 4. The Holy Ghost the peculiar Author of this Work 5. Differences about the Manner and Nature of it 6. Way of the Ancients in explaining the Doctrine of Grace the present Method proposed 7. Conversion not wrought by Moral Swasion only 8 9 10. The Nature and Efficacy of Moral Swasion wherein they consist 11. Illumination preparatory unto Conversion 12 13 14 15 16 17 18. The Nature of Grace morally effective only opened not sufficient of Conversion 19 20. The first Argument disproving the working of Grace in Conversion to be by Moral Swasion only 21 22. The Second 23 24. The Third 25. The Fourth 26 27 28. Wherein the Work of the Spirit in Regeneration positively doth consist the use and end of outward means 29. Real internal efficiency of the Spirit in this Work 30 31 32 33 34 35. Grace victorious and irresistible the Nature of it explained 36. Proved 37 38 39 40. The manner of God's working by Grace on our Wills further explained Testimonies concerning the Actual Collation of Faith by the Power of God 41 42 43 44. Victorious efficacy of internal Grace proved by sundry Testimonies of Scripture 45 46 47 48 49. From the nature of the Work wrought by it in Vivification and Regeneration 50 51 52 53 54. Regeneration considered with respect unto the distinct Faculties of the Soul The Mind 55. The Will 56 57. The Affections Sect. 1 UNto The Description we are to give of the Work of Regeneration the precedent account of the Subject of it or the State and Condition of them that are to be Regenerated was necessarily to be premised For upon the knowledg thereof doth a due Apprehension of the Nature of that Work depend And the occasion of all the Mistakes and Errors that have been about it eiâ—her of old or of late hath been a misunderstanding of the true state of Men in their lapsed condition or of Nature as depraved Yea and those by whom this whole Work is derided do now countenance themselves therein by their Ignorance of that state which they will not learn either from the Scripture or Experience For Natura sic apparet vitiata ut hoc majoris vitii sit non videre as Austin speaks It is an Evidence of the Corruption of Nature that it disenables the Minds of Men to discern their own Corruption We have previously discharged this work so far as it is necessary unto our present purpose Many other things might be added in the Explication of it were that our direct Design Particularly having confined my self to treat only concerning the Depravation of the Mind and Will I have not insisted on that of the Affections which yet is effectual to retain unregenerate Men under the Power of sin though it be far enough from Truth that the whole Corruption of Nature consists therein as some weakly and Athologically have Imagined Much less have I treated concerning that encrease and heightning of the Depravation of Nature which is attracted by a Custom of sinning as unto all the perverse Ends of it Yet this also the Scripture much insists upon as that which naturally and necessarily ensues in all in whom it is not prevented by the effectual transforming Grace of the Spirit of God And it is that which seals up the Impossibility of their turning themselves to God Jerom. 13. 23. Rom. 3. 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19. But that the whole Difficulty of Conversion should arise from Mens contracting an Habit or Custom of sinning is false and openly contradictory to the Scripture These things are Personal Evils and befal Individuals through their own default in various Degrees And we see that amongst Men under the same use of means some are converted unto God who have been deeply immersed in an habitual course of open sins whilst others kept from them by the Influence of their Education upon their Inclinations and Affections remain uncoverted So was it of old between the Publicans and Harlots on the one hand and the Pharisees on the other But my design was only to mention that which is common unto all Or wherein all Men Universally are equally concerned who are partakers of the same Humane Nature in its lapsed Condition And what we have herein declared from the Scriptures will guide us in our Enquiry after the work of the Holy Spirit of Grace in our Deliverance from it Sect. 2 It is evident and needs no further confirmation that persons Living and Dying in this Estate cannot be saved This hitherto hath been allowed by all that are called Christians nor are we to be moved that some who call themselves so do begin to laugh at the disease and Despise the Remedy of our Nature Among those who lay any serious and real claim unto Christianity there is nothing more certain nor more acknowledged than that there is no Deliverance from a state of misery for those who
it or not that is of the whole Effect on them or product in them of this Grace communicated in the way described For notwithstanding any thing wrought in us or upon us thereby the Will is still left various flexible and undetermined It is true that notwithstanding the Grace thus Administred the Will hath Power to refuse it and to abide in Sin But that there is no more Grace wrought in us but what may be so refused or that the Will can make use of that Grace for Conversion which it can refuse is false Sect. 20 For 1. this ascribes the whole Glory of our Regeneration and Conversion unto our selves and not to the Grace of God For that Act of our Wills on this Supposition whereby we convert unto God is meerly an Act of our own and not of the Grace of God This is evident for if the Act it self were of Grace then would it not be in the Power of the Will to hinder it 2. This would leave it absolutely uncertain notwithstanding the purpose of God and the purchase of Christ whether ever any one in the World should be Converted unto God or no. For when the whole Work of Grace is over it is absolutely in the Power of the Will of Man whether it shall be effectual or no and so absolutely uncertain which is contrary to the Covenant Promise and Oath of God unto and with Jesus Christ. 3. It is contrary to express Testimonies of Scripture innumerable wherein actual Conversion unto God is ascribed unto his Grace as the immediate Effect thereof This will further appear afterwards God worketh in us to will and to do Phil. 2. 13. The Act therefore it self of willing in our Conversion is of God's Operation and although we will our selves yet it is he who causeth us to Will by working in us to will and to do And if the Act of our Will in Believing and Obedience in our Conversion to God be not the effect of his Grace in us he doth not work in us both to will and to do of his own good Pleasure Sect. 21 Secondly This Moral Perswasion how-ever advanced or improved and supposed to be effectual yet it confers no new real supernatural strength unto the Soul For whereas it worketh yea the Spirit or Grace of God therein and thereby by Reasons Motives Arguments and Objective Considerations and no otherwise it is able only to excite and draw out the strength which we have delivering the Mind and Affections from Prejudices and other Moral Impediments Real Aid and internal Spiritual Strength neither is nor can be conferred thereby And he who will acknowledg that there is any such internal spiritual strength communicated unto us must also acknowledg that there is another Work of the Spirit of God in us and upon us than can be effected by these Perswasions But thus it is in this case as some suppose The Mind of Man is affected with much Ignorance and usually under the Power of many Prejudices which by the corrupt course of things in the World possess it from its first actings in the state of Infancy The Will and the Affections likewise are vitiated with depraved Habits which by the same means are contracted But when the Gospel is proposed and preached unto them the Things contained in it the Duties it requires the Promises it gives are so rational or so suited unto the Principles of our Reason and the subject Matter of them is so good desirable and beautiful unto an intellectual Appetite that being well conveyed unto the Mind they are able to discard all the Prejudices and Disadvantages of a corrupt course under which it hath suffered and prevail with the Soul to desist from sin that is a course of sinning and to become a new Man in all vertuous Conversation And that this is in the Liberty and Power of the Will is irrefragably proved by that Sophism of Biel out of Scotus and Occam which contains the substance of what they plead in this Cause Yea thus to do is so suitable unto the rational Principles of a well-disposed Mind that to do otherwise is the greatest folly and madness in the World Especially will this Work of Conversion be unquestionably wrought if the Application of these means of it be so disposed in the Providence of God as that they may be seasonable with respect unto the Frame and Condition of the Mind whereinto they are applyed And as sundry things are necessary to render the means of Grace thus seasonable and congruous unto the present Frame Temper and Disposition of the Mind so in such a Congruity much of its Efficacy doth consist And this as it is said is the Work of the Holy Ghost and an Effect of the Grace of God For if the Spirit of God did not by the Word prevent excite stir up and provoke the Minds of Men did he not help and assist them when endeavouring to turn to God in the removal of Prejudices and all sorts of Moral Impediments Men would continue and abide as it were dead in Trespasses and Sins at least their endeavours after Deliverance would be weak and fruitless Sect. 22 This is all the Grace all the Work of the Spirit of God in our Regeneration and Conversion which some will acknowledg so far as I can learn from their Writings and Discourses But that there is more required thereunto I have before declared As also it hath been manifested what is the true and proper use and efficacy of these means in this Work But to place the whole of it herein is that which Pelagius contended for of old Yea he granted a greater Use and Efficacy of Grace than I can find to be allowed in the present confused Discourses of some on this Subject Wherefore it is somewhat preposterous to endeavour an imposition of such rotten Errors upon the Minds of Men and that by crude Assertions without any pretence of proof as is the way of many And that the sole Foundation of all their Harangues namely the suitableness of Gospel Principles and Promises unto our Wisdom and Reason antecedently unto any saving Work of the Spirit on our Minds is directly contradictory to the Doctrine of our Apostle shall afterwards be declared But it may be it will be said That it is not so much what is Pelagian and what is not as what is Truth and what is not that is to be enquired after And it is granted that this is and ought to be our first and principal Enquiry But it is not unuseful to know in whose steps they tread who at this day oppose the doctrine of the Effectual Grace of Christ and what Judgment the Ancient Church made of their Principles and Opinions Sect. 23 It is pretended yet further That Grace in the Dispensation of the Word doth work really and efficiently especially by illumination internal excitations of the Mind and Affections and if thereon the Will do put forth its
like that which is in a dead Man unto the Acts of Life Natural if there be not an alike Power of God required unto our Deliverance from that Condition and the working in us a Principle of Spiritual Obedience as is required unto the raising of him that is dead they may as well say That the Scripture speaks not truly as that it speaks metaphorically And that it is Almighty Power the exceeding greatness of God's Power that is put forth and exercised herein we have proved from Ephes. 1. 18 19. Col. 2. 12 13. 2 Thess. 1. 11. 2 Pet. 1. 3. And what do these Men intend by this quickning this raising us from the Dead by the Power of God A perswasion of our Minds by rational Motives taken from the Word and the Things contained in it But was there ever heard of such a monstrous Expression if there be nothing else in it What could the Holy Writers intend by calling such a Work as this by a quickning of them who were dead in Trespasses and Sins through the mighty Power of God unless it were by a noise of insignificant words to draw us off from a right understanding of what is intended And it is well if some are not of that Mind Sect. 50 2. The Work it self wrought is our Regeneration I have proved before that this consists in a new spiritual supernatural vital Principle or Habit of Grace infused into the Soul the Mind Will and Affections by the Power of the Holy Spirit disposing and enabling them in whom it is unto Spiritual Supernatural Vital Acts of Faith and Obedience Some Men seem to be inclined to deny all Habits of Grace And on such a Supposition a Man is no longer a Believer than he is in the Actual Exercise of Faith For there is nothing in him from whence he should be so denominated But this would plainly overthrow the Covenant of God and all the Grace of it Others expresly deny all gracious supernatural infused Habits though they may grant such as are or may be acquired by the frequent Acts of those Graces or Vertues whereof they are the Habits But the Scripture giveth us another Description of this Work of Regeneration for it consists in the Renovation of the Image of God in us Ephes. 4. 23 24. Be renewed in the Spirit of your Mind and put on that new Man which after God is created in Righteousness and true Holiness That Adam in innocency had a supernatural Ability of living unto God habitually residing in him is generally acknowledged And although it were easie for us to prove that whereas he was made for a supernatural End namely to live to God and to come to the enjoyment of him it was utterly impossible that he should answer it or comply with it by the meer strength of his natural Faculties had they not been endued with a supernatural Ability which with respect unto that End was created with them and in them Yet we will not contend about Terms Let it be granted that he was created in the Image of God and that he had an Ability to fulfil all God's Commands and that in himself and no more shall be desired This was lost by the Fall When this is by any denyed it shall be proved In our Regeneration there is a Renovation of this Image of God in us Renewed in the Spirit of our Minds And it is renewed in us by a Creating Act of Almighty Power which after God or according to his likeness is created in Righteousness and true Holiness There is therefore in it an Implantation of a new Principle of Spiritual Life of a Life unto God in Repentance Faith and Obedience or Universal Holiness according to Gospel-Truth or the Truth which came by Jesus Christ John 1. 18. And the Effect of this Work is called Spirit Joh. 8. 5. That which is born of the Spirit is Spirit It is the Spirit of God of whom we are born that is our new Life is wrought in us by his Efficiency And that which in us is so born of him is Spirit not the Natural Faculties of our Souls they are once Created once Born and no more but a new Principle of Spiritual Obedience whereby we live unto God And this is the product of the internal immediate Efficiency of Grace Sect. 51 This will the better appear if we consider the Faculties of the Soul distinctly and what is the especial Work of the Holy Spirit upon them in our Regeneration or Conversion to God 1. The leading conducting Faculty of the Soul is the Mind or Understanding Now this is corrupted and vitiated by the Fall and how it continues depraved in the State of Nature hath been declared before The sum is that it is not able to discern Spiritual Things in a Spiritual manner for it is possessed with Spiritual Blindness or Darkness and is filled with enmity against God and his Law esteeming the things of the Gospel to be foolishness because it is alienated from the Life of God through the ignorance that is in it We must therefore enquire what is the Work of the Holy Spirit on our Minds in turning of us to God whereby this Depravation is removed and this vitious State cured whereby we come to see and discern Spiritual Things in a Spiritual manner that we may savingly know God and his Mind as revealed in and by Jesus Christ. And this is several wayes declared in the Scripture Sect. 52 1. He is said to give us an Understanding 1 John 5. 20. The Son of God is come and hath given us an understanding that we may know him that is True which he doth by his Spirit Man by Sin is become like the Beasts that perish which have no Understanding Psal. 49. 12 20. Men have not lost their natural intellective Faculty or Reason absolutely It is continued unto them with the free though impaired use of it in things Natural and Civil And it hat an advance in Sin Men are wise to do evil But it is lost as to the especial use of it in the saving knowledg of God and his Will to do good they have no knowledg Jer. 4. 22. For naturally there is none that understandeth that seeketh after God Rom. 3. 17. It is corrupted not so much in the Root and Principle of its Acting as with respect unto their proper Object Term and End Wherefore although this giving of an Understanding be not the creating in us a-new of that Natural Faculty yet it is that gracious work in it without which that Faculty in us as depraved will no more enable us to know God savingly than if we had none at all The Grace therefore here asserted in the giving of an Understanding is the causing of our natural Understandings to understand savingly This David prayes for Psal. 119. 34. Give me Understanding and I shall keep thy Law The whole Work is expressed by the Apostle Ephes. 1. 16 17 18. That thâ— God of our Lord
more apt to receive Impressions from it or to comply with its motions Hence some charge the sins of Youth on the Heat of Blood and the Restlesness of the animal Spirits which prompt men unto irregularities and extravagancies But these are only vehicula concupiscentiae things which it makes use of to exert its poyson by For sin turns every thing in this state unto its own advantage and abuseth even the Commandment it self to work in us all manner of concupiscence Rom. 7. 8. Again the Objects of Lust by the occasions of Life are now multiplied Temptations increase with years and the businesses of the World but especially by that corruption of conversation which is among the most Hence sundry Persons are in this part of their youth one way or other overtaken with some gross actual sin or sins That all are not so is a meer Effect or preventing grace and not at all from themselves This the Apostle respects in his charge 2 Tim. 2. 22. Flee youthful Lusts such Lusts as work effectually and prevail mightily in those that are young if not subduced by the Grace of God And David in a sense and from experience hereof prayes that God would not remember the sins of his youth Psal. 25. 7. And a Reflection from them is sometimes the Torment of Age Job 20. 11. So he in whom we have chosen to exemplifie the Instances of such a Course He humbly confesseth unto God his falling into and being overtaken with great sins such as Fornication and uncleanness in his younger days in the mire whereof he was long detained To this purpose he discourseth at large lib. 2. cap. 1 2 3. And of the Reason of this his humble and publick Acknowledgments he gives this holy Account Neque enim tibi Deus meus sed apud tenarro haec generi meo generi humanâ— quantulacunque ex particula incidere potest in istas meas literas Et ad quid hoc ut videlicet ego quisquis haec legit cogitemus de quam profundo clamandum sit ad te Cap. 3. I dâ—clare these things O my God not unto thâ—e but before hee or in thy presence unto my own Race unto Humane kind whatever portion thereof may fall on these Writings of Mine And unto what end Namely that I and every one who shall read these things may consider out of what great Depths we are to cry unto thee So he who lived not to see the Days wherein humble Confession of sin was made a matter of contempt and scorn Sect. 7 Now there is commonly a two-fold Event of Mens falling under the power of Temptatâ—ons and thereby into great Actual sins 1. God sometimes takes occasion from them to awaken their Consciences unto a deep sense not only of that Sin in particular whose guilt they have contracted but of their other sins also The great Physician of their Souls turns this poyson into a Medicine and makes that wound which they have given themselves to be the lancing of a festred sore For whereas their Oscitancy Prejudices and Custom of sinning have taken away the sense of lesser sins and securethem from Reflections from them the stroke on their Consciences from those greater provocations pierceth so deep as that they are forced to entertain thoughts of looking out after a Release or Remedy So did they of old at the Sermon of Peter when he charged them with the guilt of a consent to the Crucifying of Jesus Christ they were pricked to the Heart and cryed out Men and Brethren what shall we do Acts. 2. 36 37. Sect. 8 2. With others it proves a violent Entrance into a further pursuit of sin The bounds of Restraints with the Influence of natural light being broken up and rejected Mens lusts being let Loose do break through all remaining Obstacles and run out into the greatest compass of Excess and Riot observing no present evil to ensue on what they have done according to their first fears they are emboldned to greater wickedness Eccl. 8. 11. And by this means is their Conversion unto God rendred more difficult and Men thus wander away more and more from him unto the greatest Distance that is recoverable by Grace For Sect. 9 Fifthly a Course in and a Custom of sinning with many ensues hereon Such the Apostle treats concerning Ephes. 4. 18 19 Being past feeling have given themselves over unto Lasciviousness to work all uncleanness with greediness Custom of sinning takes away the sense of it The Course of the World takes away the shame of it and Love to it makes Men greedy in the pursuit of it see Confess lib. 2. Cap. 6. And this last effect of sin as incited provoked and assisted by Temptations hath great variety in the Effects and Degrees of it Hence are the various courses of unhumbled sinners in the world wherein the Outrage and Excess of some seems to Justify others in their more sedate irregularities and less conspicuous provocations Yea some who are not in any better state and condition as to their Interest in the Covenant of God than others will yet not only startle at but really abhor those Outrages of sin and wickedness which they fall unto Now this Difference ariseth not from hence that the nature of all men is not equally corrupt and depraved but that God is pleased to make his Restraining Grace effectual towards some to keep them within those bounds of sinning which they shall not pass over and to permit others so to fall under a Conjunction of their Lusts and Temptations as that they proceed unto all manner of Evil. Moreover there are peculiar Inclinations unto some sins if not inlaid in yet much enhaunced and made obnoxious unto incitations by the Temperature of the body And some are more exposed unto Temptations in the World from their outward Circumstances and Occasions of Life Hereby are some even precipitated to all manner of Evil. But still the old Man which is Corrupt according unto deceitful Lusts is the same naturally in all All difference as to Good from Evil I mean not as to the nature of the things themselves but as to Mens interest in them so as to adhere to the one and avoid the other is from the Will of God Thus he secretly prepares for some a better Temperature of nature docile and pliable unto such notices of things as may entertain their minds and satisfy them above sensual Delights And some he disposeth in their Education Callings Societies Aymes and Designs in the World into wayes inconsistent with open Lewdness which will much ballance their Inclinations besides his secret internal actings on their Hearts and Minds whereof afâ—erwards This is excellently expressed by Austin Confess lib. 2 Cap. 7. Diligam te Domine gratias agam confitear nomini tuo quontam tant a dimisisli mihi mala nefaria opera mea Gratiae tuae deputo misericordiae tuae quod peccata mea tanquam glaciem solvisti gratiae
the Souls of Believers purifying and cleansing of their Natures from the pollution and uncleanness of sin renewing in them the Image of God and thereby enabling them from a spiritual and habitual Principle of Grace to yield obedience unto God according unto the Tenor and Terms of the New Covenant by vertue of the Life and Death of Jesus Christ. Or more briefly It is the Vniversal Renovation of our Natures by the Holy Spirit into the Image of God through Jesus Christ. Hence it followes that our Holiness which is the Fruit and Effect of this Work the Work as terminated in us as it comprizeth the renewed Principle or Image of God wrought in us so it consists in an Holy Obedience unto God by Jesus Christ according to the Terms of the Covenant of Grace from the Principle of a Renewed Nature Our Apostle expresseth the whole more briefly yet namely He that is in Christ Jesus is a New Creature 2 Cor. 5. 17. For herein he expresseth both the Renovation of our Natures the Endowment of them with a new Spiritual Principle of Life and Operation with Actings towards God suitable thereunto I shall take up the first general Description of it and in the Consideration of its Parts give some account of the Nature of the Work and its Effects and then shall distinctly prove and confirm the true Nature of it wherein it is opposed or call into question Sect. 3 1 It is as was before proved and is by all confessed the Work in us of the Spirit of God It is the Renovation of the Holy Ghost whereby we are saved And a reall internall powerfull physical work it is as we have proved before abundantly and shall afterwards more fully confirm He doth not make us holy only by perswading us so to be He doth not only require us to be holy propose unto us Motives unto Holiness give us Convictions of its necessity and thereby excite us unto the pursuit and attainment of it though this he doth also by the Word and Ministration thereof It is too high an impudency for any one to pretend an owning of the Gospel and yet to deny a Work of the Holy Ghost in our Sanctification And therefore both the Old and New Pelagians did and do avow a Work of his herein But what is it that really they ascribe unto him meerly the Exciting our own Abilities aiding and assisting us in and unto the Exercise of our own native Power which when all is done leaves the Work to be our own and not his and to us must the Glory and Prayse of it be ascribed But we have already sufficiently proved that the things thus promised of God and so effected are really wrought by the exceeding greatness of the Power of the Spirit of God and this will yet afterwards be made more particularly to appear Sect. 4 2 This Work of Sanctification differs from that of Regeneration as on other Accounts so especially on that of the Manner of their being wrought The work of Regeneration is Instantaneous consisting in one single creating Act. Hence it is not capable of Degrees in any subject No One is more or less Regenerate than Another every one in the world is absolutely so or not so and that equally although there are Degrees in their state on other Reasons But this work of Sanctification is progressive and admits of Degrees One may be more sanctified and more holy than another who is yet truely sanctified and truely holy It is begun at once and carryed on gradually But this Observation being of great importance and such as if rightly weighed will contribute much Light unto the Nature of the whole work of Sanctification and Holiness I shall divert in this Chapter unto such an Explanation and Confirmation of it as may give an understanding and furtherance herein 1. An Encrease and Growth in Sanctification or Holiness is frequently in the Scripture enjoyed us and frequently promised unto us So speaks the Apostle Peter in a way of Command 2 Pet. 3. 18. Fall not be not cast down from your own steadfastness but grow or encrease in Grace It is not enough that we decay not in our Spiritual Condition that we be not diverted and carryed off from a steady Course in Obedience by the Power of Temptations but an endeavour after an Improvement an Encrease a thriving in Grace that is in Holiness is required of us And a Complyance with this Command is that which our Apostle so commendeth in the Thessalonians 2 Epist. Chap. 1. v. 3. namely the exceeding growth of their Faith and abounding of their Love that is the thriving and encrease of those Graces in them that which is called increasing with the increase of God Col. 2. 19. or the Encrease in Holiness which God requires accepts approves by supplyes of spiritual strength from Jesus Christ our Head as it is there expressed The Work of Holiness in its beginning is but like seed cast into the Earth namely the seed of God whereby we are born again And it is known how seed that is cast into the Earth doth grow and encrease Being variously cherished and nourished it is in its nature to take root and to spring up bringing forth fruit So is it with the Principle of Grace and Holiness It is small at first but being received in good and honest Hearts made so by the Spirit of God and there nourished and cherished it takes root and brings forth fruit And both these even the first planting and the encrease of it are both equally from God by his Spirit He that begins this good Work doth also perform it to the Day of Jesus Christ Phil. 1. 6. And this he doth two wayes 1 By Encreasing and Strengthning those Graces of Holiness which we have received and been engaged in the exercise of There are some Graces whose Exercise doth not depend on any outward Occasions but they are and that in their actual Exercise absolutely necessary unto the least Degree of the Life of God such are Faith and Love No man doth no man can live to God but in the Exercise of these Graces Whatever Dutyes towards God men may perform if they are not enlivened by Faith and Love they belong not unto that Spiritual Life whereby we live to God And these Graces are capable of Degrees and so of Increase For so we read expresly of little Faith and great Faith weak and strong Faith both true and the same in the substance but differing in Degrees So also is there fervent Love and that which comparatively is but cold These Graces therefore in carrying on the work of Sanctification are gradually encreased So the Disciples prayed our Saviour that he would encrease their Faith Luke 17. 5. That is adde unto its Light confirm it in its Assent multiply its Acts and make it strong against its Assaults that it might work more effectually in difficult Duties of Obedience which they had an especial regard unto as is
actual supplyes And the Spirit is the Efficient Cause communicating them unto us from him From hence it is that any Grace in us is kept alive one Moment that it is ever acted in one single Duty that ever it receives the least measure of Encrease or strengthening With respect unto all these it is that our Apostle saith Nevertheless I live yet not I but Christ liveth in me Gal. 2. 20. Spiritual Life and living by it in all the Acts of it are immediately from Christ. I concern not my self much how Moral Vertue that is no more is preserved and sustained in the Minds and Lives of men though I am not ignorant of the Precepts Directions and Instructions which are given unto that End by some of old and some of late But for Grace and Holiness we have infallible Assurance that the Being Life Continuance and all the Actings of it in any of the Sons of men depend meerly and only upon their Relation unto that Spring and Fountain of all Grace which is in Christ and the continual Supplyes of it by the Holy Spirit whose Work it is to communicate them Col. 3. 3. John 15. 5. Col 2. 19. There is no man who hath any Grace that is true and saving that hath any seed any beginning of Sanctification or Holiness but that the Holy Spirit by his watchful Care over it and Supplyes of it is able to preserve it to extricate it from Difficulties to free it from Opposition and to encrease it unto its full measure and perfection Wherefore let the hands that hang down be lifted up and the feeble knees be strengthened we have to do with him who will not quench the smoking flax not break the bruised reed And on the other side there is none who hath received Grace in such a Measure nor hath so confirmed it by constant uninterrupted Exercise as that he can preserve it one Moment or Act it in any one Instance or Duty without the continual Supplyes of new Actual Grace and Help from him who worketh in us to will and to doe For saith our Lord Christ unto his Apostles and in them to all Believes the best and strongest of them without me ye can do nothing Joh. 15. 5. And they who of themselves can do nothing that is in a way of living unto God cannot of themselves preserve Grace act it and encrease it which are the greatest things we doe or are wrought in us in this World Wherefore God hath in infinite Wisdom so ordered the Dispensation of his Love and Grace unto Believers that all of them living upon the continual supplyes of his Spirit none may have cause on the one hand to faint or despond nor Occasion on the other unto self-confidence or Elation of mind that so no flesh may glory in its self but he that gloryeth may glory in the Lord. And therefore as he greatly encourageth the weak the fearful the faint the disconsolate and dejected and that by the Engagement of all the holy Properties of his Nature in and unto their Assistance Isa. 35. 3 4 5 6. Chap. 40. 27 28 29 30 31. So he warns them who suppose themselves strong steadfast and immovable not to be high-minded but fear Rom. 11. 20. because the whole issue of things depends on his Soveraign Supplyes of Grace And seeing he hath promised in the Covenant to continue faithfully these Supplyes unto us there is ground of Faith given unto all and Occasion of Presumption administred unto none Sect. 7 But it will be said that if not only the Beginning of Grace Sanctification and Holiness be from God but the carrying of it on and the Encrease of it also be from him and not only so in general but that all the Actings of Grace and every Act of it be an immediate Effect of the Holy Spirit then what need is there that we should take any pains in this thing our selves or use our own Endeavours to grow in Grace or Holiness as we are commanded If God worketh all himself in us and without his effectual Operation in us we can do nothing there is no place left for our Diligence Duty or Obedience Ans. 1. This Objection we must expect to meet withall at every turn Men will not believe there is a consistency between Gods effectual Grace and our diligent Obedience that is they will not believe what is plainly clearly distinctly revealed in the Scripture and which is suited unto the Experience of all that truly believe because they cannot it may be comprehend it within the compass of Carnal Reason 2. Let the Apostle answer this Objection for this once 2 Pet. 1. 3. His Divine Power hath given unto us all things that pertain to Life and to Godliness through the knowledge of him that hath called us to Glory and Vertue whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious Promises that by these ye might be partakers of the Divine Nature having escaped the Corruption that is in the World through lust If all things that pertain unto Life and Godliness among which doubtless is the Preservation and Encrease of Grace be given unto us by the power of God if from him we receive that Divine Nature by vertue whereof our Corruptions are subdued then I pray what need is there of any Endeavours of our own The whole work of Sanctification is wrought in us it seems and that by the Power of God We therefore may let it alone and leave it unto him whose it is whilest we are negligent secure and at ease Nay saith the Apostle this is not the use which the Grace of God is to be put unto The Consideration of it is or ought to be the principal Motive and Encouragement unto all Diligence for the Encrease of Holiness in us For so he addes immediately v. 5. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but also for this cause or because of the gracious Operations of the Divine Power in us giving all Diligence adde to your Faith Vertue as before These Objectors and this Apostle were very diversly minded in these matters what they make an insuperable discouragement unto Diligence in Obedience that he makes the greatest Motive and Encouragement thereunto 3. I say from this Consideration it will unavoidably follow that we ought continually to wait and depend on God for supplyes of his Spirit and Grace without which we can do nothing That God is more the Author by his Grace of the good we do than we are our selves not I but the Grace of God that was with me that we ought to be carefull that by our Negligences and sins we provoke not the Holy Spirit to with-hold his Aids and Assistances and so to leave us to our selves in which condition we can do nothing that is spiritually Good These things I say will unavoidably follow on the Doctrine before declared and if any one be offended at them it is not in our power to tender them Relief Sect. 8 I shall close the
needfull unto them The Spirit is promised as a Comforter unto Believers as engaged in the Profession of the Gospel and meeting with Conflicts inward and outward on the Account thereof The first Promise of the Holy Ghost as a Comforter was made to the Disciples when their Hearts were filled with sorrow on the departure of Christ and this is the Measure of all others John 16. 7. And this is evident both from the Nature of the thing it self and from all the Promises which are given concerning him to this End and Purpose And it will be wholly in vain at any time to apply spiritual Consolations unto any other sort of Persons All men who have any interest in Christian Religion when they fall into Troubles and Distresses be they of what sort they will are ready to enquire after the things that may relieve and refresh them And whereas there are many things in the Word suited unto the Relief and Consolation of the distressed they are apt to apply them unto themselves and others also are ready to comply with them in the same Charitable Office as they suppose But no true Spiritual Consolation was ever administred by the Word unto any but Exercised Believers however the Minds of men may be for the present a little relieved and their Affections refreshed by the things that are spoken unto them out of the Word For the Word is the Instrument of the Holy Ghost nor hath it any Efficacy but as he is pleased to use it and apply it And he useth it unto this End and unto no other as being promised as a Spirit of Consolation only to sanctified Believers And therefore when Persons fall under spiritual Convictions and Trouble of Mind or Conscience upon the Account of Sin and Guilt it is not our first work to tender Consolation unto them whereby many in that Condition are deluded but to lead them on to Believing that being justified by Faith they may have peace with God which is their proper Relief And in that state God is abundantly willing that they should receive strong Consolation even as many as fly for Refuge to the Hope that is set before them 4 The Spirit of God is promised and received as to Gifts for the Edification of the Church This is that which is intended Acts 2. 38 39. And his whole Work herein we shall consider in its proper place The Rule and Measure of the Communication of the Spirit for Regeneration is Election The Rule and Measure of the Communication of the Spirit for Sanctification is Regeneration And the Rule and Measure of his Communication as a Spirit of Consolation is Sanctification with the Afflictions Temptations and Troubles of them that are sanctified What then is the Rule and Measure of his Communication as a Spirit of Edification I answer Profession of the Truth of the Gospel and its Worship with a Call unto the benefiting of others 1 Cor. 12. 7. And here two Rules must be observed 1 That he carryes not his Gifts for Edification out of the Pale of the Church or Profession of the Truth and Worship of the Gospel 2 That he useth a Soveraign and not a Certain Rule in this Communication 1 Cor. 12. 11 13. so as that he is not wanting unto any true Professors in proportion to their Calls and Opportunities Sect. 4 2 ly Whereas the Spirit of Sanctification is promised only unto them that are Regenerate and do believe May we in our Prayers and Supplications for him plead those Qualifications as Arguments and Motives for the further Communications of him unto us Ans. 1. We cannot properly plead any Qualification in our selves as though God were Obliged with respect unto them to give a man encrease of Grace ex congruo much less ex condigno When we have done all we are unprofitable Servants As we begin so we must proceed with God meerly on the Account of Soveraign Grace 2. We may plead the Faithfulness and Righteousness of God as engaged in his Promises We ought to pray that he would not forsake the Work of his own hands that he who hath begun the good work in us would perfect it unto the day of Jesus Christ that with respect unto his Covenant and Promises he would preserve that New Creature that Divine Nature which he hath formed and implanted in us 3. Upon a sense of the Weakness of any Grace we may humbly profess our sincerity therein and pray for its encrease So cryed the poor man with tears Lord I believe help thou mine unbelief Matth. 9. 24. And the Apostles in their Prayer Lord increase our Faith Luke 17. 5. owned the Faith they had and prayed for its encrease by fresh supplyes of the Holy Spirit Again 3 ly May Believers in Trouble pray for the Spirit of Consolation with respect unto their Troubles it being unto such that he is promised Ans. 1 They may do so directly and ought so to doe yea when they do it not it is a sign they turn aside unto broken Cisterns that will yield them no Relief 2 Troubles are of two sorts Spiritual and Temporal Spiritual Troubles are so either Subjectively such as are all inward Darknesses and Distresses on the Account of sin or 2 ly Objectively such are all Persecutions for the Name of Christ and the Gospel It is principally with respect unto these that the Spirit is promised as a Comforter and with regard unto them are we principally to pray for him as so promised 3 In those outward Troubles which are Common unto Believers with other men as the death of Relations Losses of Estate or Liberty they may and ought to pray for the Spirit as a Comforter that the Consolations of God administred by him may out-ballance their outward Troubles and keep up their hearts unto other Dutyes 4 ly May all Sincere Professors of the Gospel pray for the Spirit with respect unto his Gifts for the Edification of others seeing unto such he is promised for that End Ans. 1. They may do so but with the ensuing Limitations 1 They must do it with express Submission to the Sovereignty of the Spirit himself who divideth to every one as he will 2 With respect unto that Station and Condition wherein they are placed in the Church by the Providence and call of God Private persons have no warrant to pray for Ministerial Gifts such as should carry them out of their Stations without a Divine Direction going before them 3 That their End be good and right to use them in their respective places unto Edification So ought Parents and Masters of Families and all Members of Churches to pray for those Gifts of the Spirit whereby they may fill up the Dutyes of their Places and Relations From the Consideration of this Order of the Dispensation of the Spirit we may be directed how to pray for him which we are both commanded and encouraged to doe Luke 11. 13. For we are to pray for him with respect unto those
unto the whole New Creation not only of Power and Rule but of Life and Influence God hath given him for a Covenant to the People and communicates nothing that belongs properly to the Covenant of Grace as our Sanctification and Holiness doe unto any but in and through him And we receive nothing by him but by vertue of Relation unto him or especial Interest in him or union with him Where there is an especial Communication there must be an especial Relation whereon it doth depend and whence it doth proceed As the Relation of the Members unto the Head is the Cause and Means why Vital spirits are thence derived unto them We must be in Christ as the Branch is in the Vine or we can derive nothing from him Joh. 15. 4. As the branch cannot bear fruit of it self except it abide in the Vine no more can ye except ye abide in me Whatever any way belongeth unto Holiness is our Fruit and nothing else is Fruit but what belongeth thereunto Now this our Saviour affirms that we can bring forth nothing of unless we are in him and do abide in him Now our being in Christ and abiding in him is by Faith without which we can derive nothing from him and consequently never be partakers of Holiness in the least Degree But these things must be afterwards spoken unto more at large It is therefore undenyably evident that Believers only are sanctified and Holy all others are unclean nor is any thing they doe Holy or so esteemed of God Sect. 6 And the due Consideration hereof discovers many pernitious mistakes that are about this matter both Notional and Practical For 1 There are some who would carry Holiness beyond the Bounds of an especial Relation unto Christ or would carry that Relation beyond the only Bond of it which is Faith For they would have it to be no more than Moral Honesty or Vertue and so cannot with any Modesty deny it unto those Heathens who endeavoured after them according to the Light of Nature And what need then is there of Jesus Christ I can and doe commend Morall Vertues and Honesty as much as any man ought to doe and am sure enough there is no Grace where they are not yet to make any thing to be our Holiness that is not derived from Jesus Christ I know not what I do more abhorre An Imagination hereof dethrones Christ from his Glory and overthrowes the whole Gospel But we have a sort of men who plead that Heathens may be eternally saved so large and indulgent is their Charity and in the mean time endeavour by all means possible to destroy temporally at least all those Christians who stoop not to a complyance with all their Imaginations 2 Others there are who proceed much further and yet do but deceive themselves in the Issue Notions they have of good and evil by the Light of Nature As they come with men into the world and grow up with them as they come to the Exercise of their Reason so they are not stifled without offering violence to the Principles of Nature by the power of sin as it comes to pass in many Ephes. 4. 19. 1 Tim. 4. 2. Rom. 1. 31. Chap. 2. 14 15. These Notions therefore are in many improved in Process of time by Convictions from the Law and great Effects are produced hereby For where the Soul is once effectually convinced of Sin Righteousness and Judgement it cannot but endeavour after a Deliverance from the one and an Attainment of the other that so it may be well with it at the Last Day And here lye the Springs or Foundations of all the Morall Differences that we see amongst Mankind Some give themselves up unto all Abominations Lasciviousness Uncleanness Drunkenness Frauds Oppressions Blasphemies Persecutions as having no bounds fixed unto their Lusts but what are given them by their own Impotency or dread of Humane Laws Others endeavour to be Sober Temperate Just Honest and Upright in their dealings with a sedulous performance of Religious Dutyes This difference ariseth from the different Power and Efficacy of Legal Convictions upon the Minds of men And these Convictions are in many variously improved according to the Light they receive in the Means of Knowledge which they do enjoy or the Errors and Superstitions which they are misguided unto For on this latter account do they grow up in some into Penances Vowes uncommanded Abstinencyes and various Self-macerations with other painfull and costly Dutyes Where the Light they receive is in the generall according unto Truth there it will engage men into Reformation of Life a Multiplication of Dutyes Abstinence from sin Profession Zeal and a Cordial Engagement into one way or other in Religion Such Persons may have good Hopes themselves that they are Holy they may appear to the World so to be and be accepted in the Church of God as such and yet really be utter strangers from true Gospel Holiness And the Reason is because they have missed it in the Foundation and not having in the first place obtained an Interest in Christ have built their house on the sand whence it will fall in the time of trouble If it be said that all those who come up unto the Dutyes mentioned are to be esteemed Believers if therewith they make Profession of the true Faith of the Gospel I willingly grant it But if it be said that necessarily they are so indeed and in the sight of God and therefore are also sanctified and Holy I must say the contrary is expresly denyed in the Gospel and especial Instances given thereof Wherefore let them wisely consider these things who have any Conviction of the Necessity of Holiness It may be they have done much in the pursuit of it and have laboured in the Dutyes that materially belong unto it Many things they have done and many things forborn upon the Account of it and still continue so to doe It may be they think that for all the World they would not be found among the number of unholy persons at the Last Day This may be the Condition of some perhaps of many who are but yet young and but newly engaged into these wayes upon their Convictions It may be so with them who for many dayes and years have been so following after a Righteousness in a way of Duty But yet they meet with these two evils in their wayes 1 That Dutyes of Obedience seldom or never prove more easie familiar or pleasant unto them than they did at first but rather are more grievous and burdensome every day 2 That they never come up unto a satisfaction in what they doe but still find that there is somewhat wanting These make all they do burdensome and unpleasant unto them which at length will betray them into Backsliding and Apostasie But yet there is somewhat worse behind All they have done or are ever able to doe on the bottom upon which they stand will come to no Account but perish
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
Evangelical There are many sins whereby Believers are defiled But there is a Way of Cleansing still open unto them And it is not meerly the Incidence of a Defilement but the Neglect of Purification that is inconsistent with their state and Interest in Christ. The Rule of Communion with God and consequently of Union with Christ in its Exercise is expressed by David Psal. 19. 12 13. Who can understand his Errors cleanse thou me from secret sins keep back thy Servant also from presumptuous sins let them not have dominion over me then shall I be upright and I shall be innocent from the great transgression The Design of the Psalmist is to be preserved in such a state and Condition as wherein he may be upright before God To be upright before God is that which God requireth of us in the Covenant that we may be accepted with him and enjoy the Promises thereof Gen. 17. 1. He that is so will be freed from that great Transgression or that Abundance of sin which is inconsistent with the Covenant Love and Favour of God And hereunto three things are required 1. A constant humble Acknowledgement of Sin Who can understand his Errors 2. Daily Cleansing from those Defilements which the least and most secret sins are accompanyed withall Cleanse thou me from secret sins and 3. A Preservation from Presumptuous sins or Wilfull sins committed with an high hand Where these thing are there a man is upright and hath the Covenant-ground of his Communion with God And whilest Believers are preserved within these Bounds though they are defiled by sin yet is there not any thing therein inconsistent with their Union with Christ. 7 Our Blessed Head is not only pure and Holy but he is also Gracious and Mercifull and will not presently cut off a Member of his Body because it is sick or hath a sore upon it He is himself passed through his Course of Temptations and is now above the reach of them all Doth he therefore reject and despise those that are Tempted that labour and suffer under their Temptations It is quite otherwise so that on the Account of his own present state his Compassions do exceedingly abound towards all his that are Tempted It is no otherwise with him as to their Sins and Defilements These he himself was absolutely freed from in all his Temptations and Sufferings but we are not And he is so far from casting us away on that Account while we endeavour after Purification as that it draweth out his Compassions towards us In brief he doth not unite us to himself because we are perfect but that in his own Way and Time he may make us so not because we are clean but that he may cleanse us for it is the Blood of Jesus Christ with whom we have Fellowship that cleanseth us from all our sins Sect. 17 Lastly to wind up this Discourse There is hence sufficiently evidenced a Comprehensive Difference between a Spiritual Life unto God by Evangelical Holiness and a Life of Moral Vertue though pretended unto God also Unto the first the Original and continual Purification of our Nature and Persons by the Spirit of God and Blood of Christ is indispensibly required Where this Work is not there neither is nor can be any thing of that Holiness which the Gospel prescribes and which we enquire after Unless the Purification and Cleansing of sin belongs necessarily unto the Holiness of the New Covenant all that God hath taught us concerning it in the Old Testament and the New by his Institution of Legal purifying Ordinances by his Promises to wash purifie and cleanse us by his Precepts to get our selves cleansed by the Means of our Purification namely his Spirit and the Blood of Christ by his Instructions and Directions of us to make use of those Means of our Cleansing by his Declarations that Believers are so washed and cleansed from all their Defilements of their sins are things Fanatical Enthusiastick Notions and Unintelligible Dreams Untill men can rise up to a Confidence enabling them to own such horrible Blasphemies I desire to know whether these things are required unto their Morality If they shall say they are so they give us a new Notion of Morality never yet heard of in the World and we must expect untill they have further cleared it there being little or no signification in the great swelling words of Vanity which have hitherto been lavished about it But if they do not belong thereunto as it is most certain the most improved Moralists that are only so whether in Notion or Practice have no regard unto them then is their Life of Moral Vertues were it as real in them as it is with notorious Vanity pretended cast out from all Consideration in a serious Disquisition after Evangelical Holiness And what hath been spoken may suffice to give us some Light into the Nature of this First Act of our Sanctification by the Spirit which consists in the Cleansing of our Souls and Consciences from the Pollutions of Sin both Original and Actual CHAP. VI. The Positive Work of the Spirit in the Sanctification of Believers 1 Differences in the Acts of Sanctification as to Order 2 The Manner of the Communication of Holiness by the Spirit 3 The Rule and Measure whereof is the Revealed Will of God 4 As the Rule of its Acceptance is the Covenant of Grace 5 The Nature of Holiness as Inward 6 Righteousness Habitual and Actual 7 False Notions of Holiness removed 8 The Nature of a Spiritual Habit. 9 Applyed unto Holiness with its Rules and Limitations 10 Proved and Confirmed 11 Illustrated and 12 Practically improved 13 The Properties of Holiness as a Spiritual Habit declared 14 1. Spiritual Dispositions unto Suitable Acts 15 16. How expressed in the Scripture 17 With their Effects 18 Contrary Dispositions unto Sin and Holiness how consistent 19 2. Power 20 The Nature thereof or what Power is required in Believers unto Holy Obedience 21 With its Properties and Effects in Readiness and 22 Facility 23 Objections thereunto answered and 24 An Enquiry on these Principles after true Holiness in our selves directed 25 Gospel Grace distinct from Morality and 26 All other Habits of the Mind 27 28 29. Proved by many Arguments especially its Relation unto the Mediation of Christ. 30 The Principal Difference between Evangelical Holiness and all other Habits of the Mind proved by the Manner and Way of its Communication from the Person of Christ as the Head of the Church and the peculiar Efficiency of the Spirit therein 31 Moral Honesty not Gospel Holiness Sect. 1 THE Distinction we make between the Acts of the Holy Ghost in the Work of Sanctification concerneth more the Order of Teaching and Instruction than any Order of Precedency that is between the Acts themselves For that which we have passed through concerning the Cleansing of our Natures and Persons doth not in Order of Time go before those other Acts which leave a real and
positive Effect upon the Soul which we now enter upon the Description of nor absolutely in Order of Nature Yea much of the Means whereby the Holy Ghost purifieth us consisteth in this other Work of his which now lyes before us Only we thus distinguish them and cast them into this Order as the Scripture also doth for the Guidance of our Understanding in them and furtherance of our Apprehension of them Sect. 2 We therefore now proceed unto that part of the Work of the Holy Spirit whereby he Communicates the great permanent positive Effect of Holiness unto the Souls of Believers and whereby he guides and assists them in all the Acts Works and Duties of Holiness whatever without which what we doe is not so nor doth any way belong thereunto And this part of his Work we shall reduce unto two Heads which we shall first propose and afterwards clear and vindicate And our First Assertion is That in the Sanctification of Believers the Holy Ghost doth work in them in their whole Souls their Minds Wills and Affections a gracious supernatural Habit Principle and Disposition of Living unto God wherein the Substance or Essence the Life and Being of Holiness doth consist This is that spirit which is born of the Spirit that new Creature that new and Divine Nature which is wrought in them and whereof they are made partakers Herein consists that Image of God whereunto our Natures are repaired by the Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ whereby we are made conformable unto God firmly and steadfastly adhering unto him through Faith and Love That there is such a Divine Principle such a gracious supernatural Habit wrought in all them that are Born again hath been fully proved in our Assertion and Description of the Work of Regeneration It is therefore acknowledged that the first supernatural Infusion or Communication of this Principle of spiritual Light and Life preparing sitting and enabling all the Faculties of our Souls unto the Duties of Holiness according to the Mind of God doth belong unto the Work of our first Conversion But the preservation cherishing and encrease of it belongs unto our Sanctification both its Infusion and Preservation being necessarily required unto Holiness Hereby is the Tree made good that the Fruit of it may be good and without which it will not so be This is our new Nature which ariseth not from precedent Actions of Holiness but is the Root of them all Habits acquired by a multitude of Acts whether in things Morall or Artificial are not a new Nature nor can be so called but a readiness for Acting from Use and Custom But this Nature is from God its Parent it is that in us which is born of God And it is Common unto or the same in all Believers as to its Kind and Being though not as to Degrees and Exercise It is that we cannot learn which cannot be taught us but by God only as he teaches other Creatures in whom he planteth a natural Instinct The Beauty and Glory hereof as it is absolutely inexpressible so have we spoken somewhat to it before Conformity to God Likeness to Christ Compliance with the Holy Spirit Interest in the Family of God Fellowship with Angels Separation from Darkness and the World do all consist herein Sect. 3 Secondly The Matter of our Holiness consists in our Actual Obedience unto God according to the Tenor of the Covenant of Grace For God promiseth to write his Law in our Hearts that we may fear him and walk in his Statutes And concerning this in general we may observe two things 1. That there is a certain fixed Rule and Measure of this Obedience in a Conformity and Answerableness whereunto it doth consist This is the Revealed Will of God in the Scripture Micah 6. 8. Gods Will I say as revealed unto us in the Word is the Rule of our Obedience A Rule it must have which nothing else can pretend to be The secret Will or hidden Purposes of God are not the Rule of our Obedience Deut. 29. 29. much less are our own Imaginations Inclinations or Reasons so neither doth any thing though never so specious which we do in Complyance with them or by their Direction belong thereunto Col. 2. 19 20 21 22. But the Word of God is the Adequate Rule of all Holy Obedience 1 It is so materially All that is commanded in that Word belongs unto our Obedience and nothing else doth so Hence are we so strictly required neither to add unto it nor to diminish or take any thing from it Deut. 4. 2. Chap. 12. 32. Josh. 1. 7. Prov. 36. 6. Revel 22. 18. 2 It is so formally that is we are not to do only what is commanded all that is commanded and nothing else but whatever we do we are to do it because it is commanded or it is no part of our Obedience or Holiness Deut. 6. 24 25. Chap. 29. 19. Psal. 119. 9. I know there is an in-bred Light of Nature as yet remaining in us which gives great Direction as to Moral Good and Evil commanding the one and forbidding the other Rom. 2. 14 15. But this Light however it may be made subservient and subordinate thereunto is not the Rule of Gospel Holiness as such nor any part of it The Law which God by his Grace writes in our Hearts answers unto the Law that is written in the Word that is given unto us and as the first is the only Principle so the latter is the only Rule of our Evangelical Obedience For this End hath God promised that his Word and his Spirit shall alwayes accompany one another the one to quicken our Souls and the other to guide our Lives Isa. 59. 20. And the Word of God may be considered as our Rule in a threefold Respect 1. As it requires the Image of God in us The Habitual Rectitude of our Nature with respect unto God and our Living to him is Enjoyned us in the Word yea and wrought in us thereby The whole Renovation of our Natures the whole Principle of Holiness before described is nothing but the Word changed into Grace in our Hearts for we are born again by the incorruptible seed of the Word of God The Spirit worketh nothing in us but what the Word first requireth of us It is therefore the Rule of the inward Principle of spiritual Life and the growth thereof is nothing but its increase in Conformity to that Word 2. With respect unto all the Actual Frames Designs and Purposes of the Heart All the internal Actings of our Minds All the Volitions of the Will all the Motions of our Affections are to be regulated by that Word which requires us to Love the Lord our God with all our Minds all our Souls and all our Strength Hereby is their Regularity or Irregularity to be tried All that Holiness which is in them consists in their Conformity to the Revealed Will of God 3. With respect unto all our outward Actions and
Duties private publick of Piety of Righteousness towards our selves or others Titus 2. 12. This is the Rule of our Holiness So far as what we are and what we doe answers thereunto so far are we holy and no further Whatever Acts of Devotion or Duties of Morality may be performed without respect hereunto belong not to our Sanctification Sect. 4 2. As there is a Rule of our Performance of this Obedience so there is a Rule of the Acceptance of our Obedience with God And this is the Tenor of the New Covenant Gen. 17. 1. What answers hereunto is accepted and what doth not so is rejected both as to the Universality of the whole and the Sincerity that accompanyes each particular Duty in it And these two things Vniversality and Sincerity answer now as to some certain Ends the Legal Perfection at first required of us In the Estate of Original Righteousness the Rule of our Acceptance with God in our Obedience was the Law and Covenant of Works And this required that it should be absolute perfect in Parts and Degrees without the least intermixture of sin with our good or interposition of it in the least Instance which was inconsistent with that Covenant But now although we are renewed again by Grace in the Image of God really and truely yet not absolutely nor perfectly but only in part We have yet remaining in us a contrary Principle of Ignorance and Sin which we must alwayes conflict withall Gal. 5. 16 17. Wherefore God in the Covenant of Grace is pleased to accept of that Holy Obedience which is universal as to all Parts in all known Instances of Duty and sincere as to the Manner of their Performance What in particular is required hereunto is not our present Work to declare I only aim to fix in general the Rule of the Acceptance of this Holy Obedience Now the Reason hereof is not that a Lower and more imperfect kind of Righteousness Holiliness and Obedience will answer all the Ends of God and his Glory now under the New Covenant than would have done so under the Old Nothing can be imagined more distant from the Truth or more dishonourable to the Gospel nor that seems to have a nearer approach unto the making of Christ the Minister of sin For what would he be else if he had procured that God would accept of a weak imperfect Obedience accompanyed with many failings infirmities and sins being in nothing compleat in the Room and stead of that which was compleat perfect and absolutely sinless which he first required of us Yea God having determined to exalt and glorifie the Holy Properties of his Nature in a more eminent and Glorious manner under the New Covenant than the Old for which Cause and End alone it is so exalted and preferred above it it was necessary that there should be a Righteousness and Obedience required therein far more compleat eminent and glorious than that required in the other But the Reason of this Difference lyes solely herein that our Evangelical Obedience which is accepted with God according to the Tenor of the New Covenant doth not hold the same place which our Obedience should have had under the Covenant of Works For therein it should have been our Righteousness absolutely before God that whereby we should have been Justified in his sight even the Works of the Law and for which in a due Proportion of Justice we should have been Eternally rewarded But this place is now filled up by the Righteousness and Obedience of Christ our Mediator which being the Obedience of the Son of God is far more eminent and glorious or tends more to the Manifestation of the Properties of Gods Nature and therein the Exaltation of his Glory than all that we should have done had we abode steadfast in the Covenant of Works Whereunto then it may be some will say serves our Holiness and Obedience and what is the Necessity of it I must deferre the answering of this Enquiry unto its proper place where I shall prove at large the Necessity of this Holiness and demonstrate it from its proper Principles and Ends. In the mean time I say only in general that as God requireth it of us so he hath appointed it as the only means whereby we may express our Subjection to him our Dependance on him our Fruitfulness and Thankfulness the only Way of our Communion and Entercourse with him of using and improving the Effects of his Love the Benefits of the Mediation of Christ whereby we may glorifie him in this World and the only orderly way whereby we may be made meet for the Inheritance of the Saints in Light which is sufficient in general to manifest both its Necessity and its use These things being then in general premised I shall comprize what I have further to offer in the Declaration and Vindication of Gospel-Sanctification and Holiness in the two ensuing Assertions Sect. 5 1. There is wrought and preserved in the Minds and Souls of all Believers by the Spirit of God a supernatural Principle or Habit of Grace and Holiness whereby they are made meet and enabled to live unto God and perform that Obedience which he requireth and accepteth through Christ in the Covenant of Grace essentially or specifically distinct from all natural Habits intellectual and moral however or by what Means soever acquired or improved 2. There is an immediate Work or effectual Operation of the Holy Spirit by his Grace required unto every Act of holy Obedience whether internal only in Faith and Love or external also that is unto all the holy Actings of our Vnderstandings Wills and Affections and unto all Duties of Obedience in our Walking before God The First of these Assertions I affirm not only to be true but of so great weight and importance that our Hope of Life and Salvation depends thereon and it is the second great Principle constituting our Christian Profession And there are Four things that are to be confirmed concerning it 1 That there is such an Habit or Principle supernatural Infused or Created in Believers by the Holy Ghost and alwayes abiding in them 2 That according to the Nature of all Habits it inclines and disposeth the Mind Will and Affections unto Acts of Holiness suitable unto its own Nature and with regard unto its proper End and to make us meet to live unto God 3 It doth not only encline and dispose the Mind but gives it Power and enables it to live unto God in all Holy Obedience 4 That it differs specifically from all other Habits Intellectual or Morall that by any Means we may acquire or attain or spiritual Gifts that may be conferred on any Persons whatever Sect. 6 In the handling of these things I shall manifest the Difference that is between a spiritual supernatural Life of Evangelical Holiness and a Course of Moral Vertue which some to the rejection of the Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ do endeavour to substitute in the Room
need not here to be further insisted on Sect. 30 The present Assertion which we are to prove is That there is in and by the Grace of Regeneration and Sanctification a Power and Ability given unto us of living unto God or performing all the Duties of acceptable Obedience This is the first Act of that Spiritual Habit arising out of it and inseparable from it It is called Strength or Power Isa. 40. 31. They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength that is for and unto Obedience or walking with God without Weariness Strength they have and in their Walking with God it is renewed or encreased By the same Grace are we strengthened with all might according to the glorious Power of God Col. 1. 11. or strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man Ephes. 3. 16. whereby we can do all things through Christ that strengtheneth us Phil. 4. 13. In our Calling or Conversion to God all things are given unto us by his Divine Power which pertain unto Life and Godliness 2 Pet. 1. 3. every thing that is needfull to enable us unto a holy Life The Habit and Principle of Grace that is wrought in Believers gives them new Power and spiritual Strength unto all Dutyes of Obedience The Water of the Spirit therein is not only a Well of Water abiding in them but it springeth up into everlasting Life Joh. 4. 14. or enables us continually to such gracious Actings as have a Tendency thereunto There is a sufficiency in the Grace of God bestowed on them that Believe to enable them unto the Obedience required of them So God told our Apostle when he was ready to faint under his Temptations that his Grace was sufficient for him 2 Cor. 12. 9. or there is a Power in all that are sanctified whereby they are able to yield all holy Obedience unto God They are alive unto God alive to Righteousness and Holiness They have a Principle of spiritual Life and where there is Life there is Power in its Kind and for its End Whence there is not in our Sanctification only a Principle or inherent Habit of Grace bestowed on us whereby we really and habitually as to State and Condition differ from all unregenerate persons whatever but there belongs moreover thereunto an active Power or an Ability for and unto spiritual holy Obedience which none are partakers of but those who are so sanctified And unto this Power there is a respect in all the Commands or Precepts of Obedience that belong to the New Covenant The Commands of each Covenant respect the Power given in and by it Whatever God required or doth require of any by vertue of the Old Covenant or the Precepts thereof it was on the Account of and proportionate unto the strength given under and by that Covenant And that we have lost that strength by the Entrance of sin exempts us not from the Authority of the Command and thence it is that we are righteously obliged to doe what we have no Power to perform So also the Command of God under the new Covenant as to all that Obedience which he requireth of us respects that Power which is given and communicated unto us thereby And this is that Power which belongs unto the New Creature the Habit and Principle of Grace and Holiness which as we have proved is wrought by the Holy Ghost in all Believers Sect. 31 We may therefore enquire into the Nature of this spiritual Power what it is and wherein it doth consist Now this cannot be clearly understood without a due Consideration of that Impotency unto all spiritual good which is in us by Nature which it cures and takes away This we have before at large declared and thither the Reader is referred When we know what it is to be without Power or Strength in Spiritual things we may thence learn what it is to have them To this purpose we may consider that there are three things or Faculties in our Souls which are the Subject of all Power or Impotency in spiritual things namely our Vnderstandings Wills and Affections That our spiritual Impotency ariseth from their Depravation hath been proved before and what Power we have for holy spiritual Obedience it must consist in some especial Ability communicated distinctly unto all these Faculties And our Enquiry therefore is What is this Power in the Mind what in the Will and what in the Affections And 1 This power in the Mind consists in a spiritual Light and Ability to discern spiritual Things in a spiritual Manner which Men in the state of Nature are utterly devoyd of 1 Cor. 2. 13 14. The Holy Spirit in the first Communication of the Principle of spiritual Life and Holiness shines into our Hearts to give us the knowledge of the Glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ 2 Cor. 4. 6. yea this strengthening of the Mind by saving Illumination is the most eminent Act of our Sanctification Without this there is a Veil with Fear and Bondage upon us that we cannot see into spiritual things But where the Spirit of God is where he comes with his sanctifying Grace there is Liberty And thereby we all with open face beholding as in a Glass the Glory of the Lord are changed into the same Image from Glory to Glory 2 Cor. 3. 18. See Ephes. 1. 17 18. Sect. 32 Wherefore all sanctified Believers have an Ability and Power in the renewed Mind and Understanding to see know discern and receive spiritual Things the Mysteries of the Gospel the Mind of Christ in a due and spiritual Manner It is true they have not all of them this Power and Ability in the same Degree but every one of them hath a sufficiency of it so as to discern what concerns themselves and their Dutyes necessarily Some of them seem indeed to be very low in Knowledge and in comparison of others very Ignorant For there are different Degrees in these things Ephes. 4. 7. And some of them are kept in that Condition by their own Negligence and Sloth They do not use as they ought nor improve those Means of Growing in Grace and in the Knowledge of Jesus Christ which God prescribes unto them as Heb. 6. 14 15 16. But every one who is truely sanctified and who thereby hath received the least Degree of saving Grace hath Light enough to understand the spiritual Things of the Gospel in a spiritual Manner When the Mysteries of the Gospel are Preached unto Believers some of them may be so declared as that those of meaner Capacities and Abilities may not be able to comprehend aright the Doctrine of them which yet is necessary to be so proposed for the Edification of those who are more grown in Knowledge Nevertheless there is not any the meanest of them but hath a spiritual insight into the things themselves intended so far as they are necessary unto their Faith and Obedience in the Condition wherein they are This the Scripture gives
hath neither the Root of it nor any Fruit that doth so much as resemble it But it is to be lamented that such Multitudes of Rational Creatures living under the Means of Light and Grace should so vainly and wofully delude their own Souls That which they aim at and intend is to have that in them whereby they may be accepted with God Now not to insist on what will absolutely frustrate all the Designs of such persons namely their want of Faith in Christ and an Interest in his Righteousness thereby which they are regardless of all that they project and design is as farre beneath that Holiness which God requireth of them and which they think hereby to obtain as the Earth is beneath the Heavens All that they do in this kind is utterly lost it will never be either a Righteousness unto them or an Holiness in them But this Deceit is frequently rebuked God only by his Grace can remove and take it away from the Minds of Men. Sect. 41 2 And we may Learn hence not to be imposed on by Gifts though never so usefull with a plausible Profession thereon These things go a great way in the World and many deceive both themselves and others by them Gifts are from the Holy Ghost in an especial manner and therefore greatly to be esteemed They are also frequently usefull in and unto the Church For the Manifestation of the Spirit is given unto men to profit withall And they put men on such Duties as have a great shew and Appearance of Holiness By the help of them alone may men pray and preach and maintain spiritual Communication among them with whom they do converse And as Circumstances may be ordered they put sundry persons on a frequent performance of these Duties and so keep them up to an Eminency in Profession But yet when all is done they are not Holiness nor are the Duties performed in the strength of them alone Duties of Evangelical Obedience accepted of God in them by whom they are performed and they may be where there is nothing of Holiness at all They are not indeed only consistent with Holiness but subservient unto it and exceeding promoters of it in Souls that are really Gracious But they may be alone without Grace and then are they apt to deceive the Mind with a pretence of being and doing what they are not nor doe Let them be called to an Account by the Nature and Properties of that Habit and Principle of Grace which is in all true Holiness as before explained and it will quickly appear how short they come thereof For as their Subject where they have their Residence is the mind only and not the Will or Affections any further but as they are influenced or restrained by Light so they do not renew nor change the Mind it self so as to transform it into the Image of God Neither do they give the Soul a general Inclination unto all Acts and Duties of Obedience but only a Readiness for that Duty which their Exercise doth peculiarly consist in Wherefore they answer no one Property of true Holiness and we have not seldom seen Discoveries made thereof Sect. 42 Least of all can Morality or a Course of Moral Dutyes when it is alone maintain any pretence hereunto We have had Attempts to prove that there is no specifical Difference between Common and Saving Grace but that they are both of the same Kind differing only in Degrees But some as though this ground were already gained and needed no more contending about do adde without any Consideration of these petty distinctions of Common and Saving Grace that Morality is Grace and Grace is Morality and nothing else To be a Gracious Holy man according to the Gospel and to be a Moral man is all one with them And as yet it is not declared whether there be any Difference between Evangelical Holiness and Philosophical Morality Wherefore I shall proceed to the Second Thing proposed And this is further to prove That this Habit or Gracious Principle of Holiness is specifically distinct from all other Habits of the Mind whatever whether Intellectual or Moral Connate or Acquired as also from all that Common Grace and the Effects of it whereof any Persons not really sanctified may be made partakers Sect. 43 The Truth of this Assertion is indeed sufficiently evident from the Description we have given of this spiritual Habit its Nature and Properties But whereas there are also other Respects giving further Confirmation of the same Truth I shall call over the most important of them after some few things have been premised As 1. An Habit of what sort soever it be qualifies the Subject wherein it is so that it may be denominated from it and make the Actions proceeding from it to be suited unto it or to be of the same Nature with it As Aristotle sayes Vertue is an Habit which maketh him that hath it Good or Vertuous and his Actions good Now all Moral Habits are seated in the Will Intellectual Habits are not immediately affective of Good or Evil but as the Will is influenced by them These Habits do encline dispose and enable the Will to act according to their Nature And in all the Acts of our Wills and so all external Works which proceed from them two things are considered First the Act it self or the Work done and Secondly the End for which it is done And both these things are respected by the Habit it self though not immediately yet by vertue of its Acts. It is moreover necessary and natural that every Act of the Will every Work of a Man be for a certain End Two things therefore are to be considered in all our Obedience 1 The Duty it self we doe and 2 The End for which we doe it If any Habit therefore doth not encline and dispose the Will unto the proper End of Duty as well as unto the Duty it self it is not of that Kind from whence true Gospel Obedience doth proceed For the End of every Act of Gospel Obedience which is the Glory of God in Jesus Christ is Essential unto it Let us then take all the Habits of Moral Vertue and we shall find that however they may incline and dispose the Will unto such Acts of Vertue as materially are Duties of Obedience yet they do it not with respect unto this End If it be said that such Moral Habits do so incline the Will unto Duties of Obedience with respect unto this End then is there no need of the Grace of Jesus Christ or the Gospel to enable men to Live unto God according to the Tenor of the Covenant of Grace which some seem to aim at Sect. 44 2. Whereas it is the End that gives all our Duties their special Nature this is two-fold 1 The next and 2 The ultimate or it is particular or universal And these may be different in the same Action As a man may give Almes to the poor his next Particular End
least the main parts if not the whole of Religion consists in Moral Vertue though it be altogether uncertain what they intend by the one or the other These are they who scarce think any thing intelligible when declared in the words of the Scripture which one hath openly traduced as a ridiculous Jargon They like not they seem to abhorre the speaking of Spiritual Things in the Words which the Holy Ghost teacheth the only Reason whereof is because they understand not the things themselves And whilest they are foolishness unto any it is no wonder the terms whereby they are declared seem also so to be But such as have received the Spirit of Christ and do know the Mind of Christ which profane Scoffers are sufficiently remote from do best receive the Truth and apprehend it when declared not in the Words which Mans Wisdom teacheth but which are taught by the Holy Ghost It is granted to be the Wisdom and Skill of men further to explain and declare the Truths that are taught in the Gospel by sound and wholsom words of their own which yet all of them as to their Propriety and Significancy are to be tryed and measured by the Scripture it self But we have a new Way of teaching spiritual Things sprung up among some who being ignorant of the whole Mystery of the Gospel and therefore despising it would debase all the glorious Truths of it and the Declaration made of them into dry barren sapless Philosophical Notions and Terms and those the most common obvious and vulgar that ever obtained among the Heathen of old Vertuous Living they tell us is the Way to Heaven but what this Vertue is or what is a Life of Vertue they have added as little in the Declaration of as any Persons that ever made such a Noyse about them Sect. 79 2 That ambiguous Term Morall hath by Usage obtained a double Signification with respect unto an Opposition unto other things which either are not so or are more than so For sometimes it is applyed unto the Worship of God and so is opposed unto Instituted That Religious Worship which is prescribed in the Decalogue or required by the Law of Creation is commonly called Moral and that in Opposition unto those Rites and Ordinances which are of a superadded Arbitrary Institution Again it is opposed unto things that are more than merely moral namely Spiritual Theological or Divine So the Graces of the Spirit as Faith Love Hope in all their Exercise whatever they may have of Morality in them or however they may be exercised in and about moral Things and Duties yet because of sundry Respects wherein they exceed the Sphear of Morality are called Graces and Duties Theological Spiritual Supernatural Evangelical Divine in Opposition unto all such Habits of the Mind and Duties which being required by the Law of Nature and as they are so required are merely moral In neither sence can it with any tolerable Congruity of speech be said that Moral Vertue is our Holiness especially the whole of it But because the Duties of Holiness have the most of them a Morality in them as Morall is opposed to Instituted some would have them have nothing also in them as Moral is opposed to Supernatural and Theological But that the Principle and Acts of Holiness are of another special Nature hath been sufficiently now declared Sect. 80 3 It is as was before intimated somewhat uncertain what the great Pleaders for Moral Vertue do intend by it Many seem to design no more but that Honesty and Integrity of Life which was found among some of the Heathens in their vertuous Lives and Actions And indeed it were heartily to be wished that we might see more of it amongst some that are called Christians For many things they did were Materially good and usefull unto Mankind But let it be supposed to be never so exact and the Course of it most diligently attended unto I defie it as to its being the Holiness required of us in the Gospel according unto the terms of the Covenant of Grace and that because it hath none of those Qualifications which we have proved Essentially to belong thereunto And I defie all the men in the World to prove that this Moral Vertue is the summe of our Obedience to God whilest the Gospel is owned for a Declaration of his Will and our Duty It is true all the Duties of this Moral Vertue are required of us but in the Exercise of every one of them there is more required of us than belongs unto their Morality as namely that they be done in Faith and Love to God through Jesus Christ and many things are required of us as necessary parts of our Obedience which belong not thereunto at all Sect. 81 4 Some give us such a Description of Morality as that it should be of the same extent with the Light and Law of Nature or the Dictates of it as rectified and declared unto us in the Scripture And this I confess requires of us the Obedience which is due towards God by the Law of our Creation and according to the Covenant of Works materially and formally But what is this unto Evangelical Holiness and Obedience Why it is alleadged that Religion before the Entrance of Sin and under the Gospel is one and the same and therefore there is no difference between the Duties of Obedience required in the one and the other And it is true that they are so far the same as that they have the same Author the same Object the same End and so also had the Religion under the Law which was therefore so far the same with them But that they are the same as to all the Acts of our Obedience and the Manner of their Performance is a vain Imagination Is there no Alteration made in Religion by the Interposition of the Person of Christ to be Incarnate and his Mediation No Augmentation of the Object of Faith No Change in the Abolishing of the Old Covenant and the Establishment of the New the Covenant between God and Man being that which gives the especial form and kind unto Religion the Measure and Denomination of it No Alteration in the Principles Aids Assistances and whole Nature of our Obedience unto God The whole Mystery of Godliness must be renounced if we intend to give way unto such Imaginations Be it so then that this Moral Vertue and the Practice of it do contain and express all that Obedience materially considered which was required by the Law of Nature in the Covenant of Works yet I deny it to be our Holiness or Evangelical Obedience and that as for many other Reasons so principally because it hath not that respect unto Jesus Christ which our Sanctification hath Sect. 82 5 If it be said that by this Moral Vertue they intend no Exclusion of Jesus Christ but include a respect unto him I desire only to ask whether they design by it such an Habit of Mind and such Acts
ver 18. being acted by him and not by the vitious depraved principles of our corrupted Nature Rom. 8. 4. Walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit To walk after the flesh is to have the principles of indwelling sin acting its self in us unto the production and perpetration of actual sins Wherefore to walk after the Spirit is to have the Spirit acting in us to the effecting of all gracious Acts and Duties And this is given unto us in command that we neglect not his motions in us but comply with them in a way of Diligence and Duty see ver 14. 15. So are we injoyned to attend unto particular Duties through the Holy Ghost that dwelleth in us 2 Tim. 1. 14. that is through his Assistance without which we can do nothing Sect. 12 2 As we are said to be led and acted by him so he is declared to be the Authour of all gracious Actings in us Galat. 5. 22. 23. The fruit of the Spirit is love joy peace long-suffering gentleness goodness meekness temperance All these things are wrought and brought forth in us by the Spirit for they are his fruits And not onely the Habit of them but all their Actings in all their Exercise are from him Every Act of Faith is Faith and every Act of Love is Love and consequently no Act of them is of our selves but every one of them is a fruit of the Spirit of God So in another place he adds an universal affirmative comprehending all instances of particular Graces and their Exercise Ephes. 5. 9. The fruit of the Spirit is in all Goodness and Righteousness and Truth Unto these three heads all Actings of Grace all Duties of Obedience all parts of Holiness may be reduced And it is through the supplies of the Spirit that he trusteth for a good issue of his Obedience Phil. 1. 19. So is it expressely in the Promise of the Covenant Ezek. 36. 27. I will put my Spirit within you and cause you to walk in my Statutes and ye shall keep my Judgments and doe them This is the whole that God requireth of us and it is all wrought in us by his Spirit So also Chap. 11. 19 20. Jerem. 32. 39 40. All the Obedience and Holiness that God requires of us in the Covenant all Duties and Actings of Grace are promised to be wrought in us by the Spirit after we are assured that of our selves we can doe nothing Sect. 13 3 Particular Graces and their Exercise are assigned unto his acting and working in us Gal. 5. 5. We through the Spirit wait for the Hope of Righteousness by Faith The hope of the Righteousness of Faith is the thing hoped for thereby All that we look for or expect in this World or hereafter is by the Righteousness of Faith Our quiet waiting for this is an especial Gospel Grace and Duty This we do not of our selves but through the Spirit Phil. 3. 3. We worship God in the Spirit love the brethren in the Spirit Col. 1. 8. we purifie our souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned love of the Brethren 1 Pet. 1. 22. See Eph. 1. 17. Act. 19. 31. Rom. 5. 5. Rom. 8. 15. 22 26. 1 Thes. 1. 6. Rom. 14. 17. Chap. 15. 13 16. of Faith it is said expressely that it is not of our selves it is the gift of God Ephes. 2. 7 8. Sect. 14 Thirdly There are Testimonies that are express unto the Position as before laid down Phil. 2. 13. It is God who worketh in you both to will and to doe of his good pleasure The things thus wrought are all things that appertain unto our Obedience and Salvation as is evident from the Connexion of the words with v. 12. Work out your Salvation with fear and trembling Hereunto two things are required 1 Power for such Operations or for all the Duties of Holiness and Obedience that are required of us That this we are indued withall that this is wrought in us bestowed upon us by the Holy Ghost hath been before abundantly confirmed But when this is done for us is there ought else yet remaining to be done Yea 2 There is the Actual Exercise of the Grace we have received How may this be Exercised All the whole work of Grace consists in the internal Acts of our Wills and external Operations in Duties suitable thereunto This therefore is incumbent on us this we are to look unto in our selves it is our Duty so to do namely to stir up and exercise the Grace we have received in and unto its proper Operations But it is so our Duty as that of our selves we cannot perform it It is God who worketh effectually in us all those gracious Acts of our Wills and all holy Operations in a way of Duty Every Act of our Wills so far as it is Gracious and Holy is the Act of the Spirit of God efficiently He worketh in us to will or the very Act of willing To say he doth only perswade us or excite and stirre up our Wills by his Grace to put forth their own Acts is to say he doth not do what the Apostle affirms him to do For if the gracious Actings of our Wills be so our own as not to be his he doth not work in us to will but only perswadeth us so to do But the same Apostle utterly excludeth this pretense 1 Cor. 15. 10. I laboured abundantly yet not I but the grace of God which was with me He had a Necessity incumbent on him of declaring the great labour he had undergone and the pains he had taken in preaching of the Gospel But yet immediately least any one should apprehend that he ascribed any thing to himself any gracious holy Actings in those Labours he addes his usual Epanorthosis Not I let me not be mistaken it was not I by any power of mine by any thing in me but it was all wrought in me by the free Grace of the Spirit of God Not I but Grace is the Apostles Assertion Suppose now that God by his Grace doth no more but aid assist and excite the Will in its Actings that he doth not effectually work all the gracious Actings of our Souls in all our Duties the Proposition would hold on the other hand Not Grace but I seeing the principal Relation of the Effect is unto the next and immediate Cause and thence hath it its Denomination And as he worketh them To Will in us so also To Doe that is Effectually to perform those Duties whereunto the gracious actings of our Wills are required Sect. 15 And what hath been spoken may suffice to prove that the Holy Spirit as the Author of our Sanctification worketh also in us all gracious Acts of Faith Love and Obedience wherein the first Part of our Actual Holiness and Righteousness doth consist And the Truth thus confirmed may be further improved unto our Instruction and Edification 1 It is easily hence discernible How contrary are the Designs
obtain Rom. 11. 7. and His Foundation standeth sure 2 Tim. 1. 19. His Purpose which is according unto Election is unchangeable and therefore the final Perseverance and Salvation of those concerned in it are everlastingly secured This is the Design of the Apostles Discourse Rom. 8. from v. 28. unto the end Because of the immutability of Gods Eternal Purpose in our Predestination and his effectual gracious Operations in the Pursuit and for the Execution thereof the Elect of God shall infallibly be carryed through all even the most dreadfull Oppositions that are made against them and be at length safely Landed in Glory And there is no greater Encouragement to grow and persist in Holiness then what is administred by this Assurance of a blessed End and Issue of it Sect. 22 Those have had Experience of that spiritual slumber and sloath which Vnbelief will cast us under of those Weaknesses Discouragements and Despondencies which Vncertainties Doubts Fears and Perplexities of what will be the Issue of things at last with them doe cast upon the Souls of men how Duties are discouraged spiritual Endeavours and Diligence are impaired Delight in God weakened and Love cooled by them will be able to make a right Judgement of the Truth of this Assertion Some think that this Apprehension of the immutability of Gods Purpose of Election and the Infallibility of the Salvation of Believers on that Account tends only to Carelesness and Security in sin and that to be alwayes in Fear Dread and Uncertainty of the End is the only Means to make us Watchfull unto Duties of Holiness It is very sad that any man should so far proclaim his inexperience and unacquaintedness with the Nature of Gospel Grace and Genius and Inclination of the New Creature and the proper workings of Faith as to be able thus to argue without a Check put upon him by himself and from his own Experience It is true were there no Difference between Faith and Presumption no Difference between the Spirit of Liberty under the Covenant of Grace and that of Bondage under the Old Covenant no Spirit of Adoption given unto Believers no Filial genuine Delight in and Adherence unto God ingenerated in them thereby there might be something in this Objection But if the Nature of Faith and of the New Creature the Operations of the one and Disposition of the other are such as they are declared to be in the Gospel and as Believers have Experience of them in their own Hearts men do but bewray their Ignorance whilest they contend that the Assurance of Gods unchangeable Love in Christ flowing from the Immutability of his Councel in Election doth any way impeach or doth not effectually promote the Industry of Believers in all Duties of Obedience Sect. 23 Suppose a Man that is on his Journey knoweth himself to be in his right Way and that passing on therein he shall certainly and infallibly come to his Journeys End especially if he will a little quicken his speed as Occasion shall require will you say that this is enough to make such a man Careless and Negligent and that it would be much more to his Advantage to be lost and bewildred in uncertain Paths and Wayes not knowing whither he goes nor whether he shall ever arrive at his Journeys End Common Experience declares the contrary as also how momentary and useless are those violent Fits and Gusts of Endeavours which proceed from Fear and Vncertainty both in things Spiritual and Temporal or Civil Whilest men are under the Power of Actual Impressions from such Fears they will convert to God yea that they will Momento turbinis and perfect Holiness in an instant But so soon as that Impression wears off as it will doe on every Occasion and upon none at all such Persons are as dead and cold towards God as the Lead or Iron which ran but now in a fiery stream is when the Heat is departed from it It is that Soul alone ordinarily which hath a comfortable Assurance of Gods Eternal Immutable Electing Love and thence of the blessed End of its own Course of Obedience who goeth on constantly and evenly in a Course of Holiness quickening his Course and doubling his speed as he hath Occasion from Trials or Opportunities And this is the very Design of our Apostle to explain and confirm Heb. 6. from the tenth Verse unto the end of the Chapter as is declared elsewhere Sect. 24 It appears from what hath been discoursed that the Electing Love of God is a powerfull constraining Motive unto Holiness and that which proves invincibly the Necessity of it in all who intend the Eternal Enjoyment of God But it will be said That if it be supposed or granted that those who are Actually Believers and have a sence of their Interest herein may make the use of it that is pleaded yet as for those who are unconverted or are otherwise uncertain of their spiritual State and Condition nothing can be so discouraging unto them as this Doctrine of Eternal Election Can they make any other Conclusion from it but that If they are not Elected all Care and Pains in and about Duties of Obedience are Vain if they are they are Needless The Removal of this Objection shall put a Close unto our Discourse on this Subject And I Answer Sect. 25 1 That we have shewed already that this Doctrine is revealed and proposed in the Scripture principally to acquaint Believers with their Priviledge Safety and Fountain of their Comforts Having therefore proved its Vsefulness unto them I have discharged all that is absolutely needfull to my present Purpose But I shall shew moreover that it hath its proper Benefit and Advantage towards others also For 2 Suppose the Doctrine of Personal Election be Preached unto Men together with the other Sacred Truths of the Gospel Two Conclusions it is possible may by sundry Persons be made from it First That whereas this is a Matter of great and Eternal Moment unto our Souls and there is no way to secure our Interest in it but by the Possession of its Fruits and Effects which are saving Faith and Holiness we will we must it is our Duty to use our utmost Endeavours by Attaining of them and Growth in them to make our Election sure And herein if we be sincere and diligent we shall not sail Others Secondly may conclude That if it be so indeed that those who shall be saved are chosen thereunto before the Foundation of the World then it is to no Purpose to go about to Believe or Obey seeing all things must fall out at last according as they were Fore-ordained Now I ask which of these Conclusions is I will not say most suited unto the Mind and Will of God with that Subjection of Soul and Conscience which we owe to his Soveraign Wisdom and Authority but whether of them is the most rational and most suitable to the Principles of sober Love of our selves and Care of our Immortal
Condition Nothing is more certain than that the latter Resolution will be infallibly Destructive if pursued of all the Everlasting Concernments of our Souls Death and Eternal Condemnation are the unavoidable Issues of it No man giving himself up to the Conduct of that Conclusion shall ever come to the Enjoyment of God But in the other way it is possible at least that a man may be found to be the Object of Gods Electing Love and so be saved But why doe I say it is possible there is nothing more infallibly certain than that he who pursues Sincerely and Diligently the Wayes of Faith and Obedience which are as we have often said the Fruits of Election shall obtain in the End Everlasting Blessedness and ordinarily shall have in this World a Comfortable Evidence of their own personal Election This therefore on all Accounts and towards all sorts of Persons in an invincible Argument of the Necessity of Holiness and a mighty Motive thereunto For it is unavoidable that if there be such a thing as personal Election and that the Fruits of it are Sanctification Faith and Obedience it is utterly impossible that without Holiness any one should see God the Reason of which Consequence is apparent unto all CHAP. III. Holiness Necessary from the Commands of God Necessity of Holiness proved from the Commands of God in the Law and the Gospel Sect. 1 WEE have evinced the Necessity of Holiness from the Nature and the Decrees of God Our next Argument shall be taken from his Word or Commands as the Nature and Order of these things do require And in this Case it is needless to produce Instances of Gods Commands that we should be Holy it is the concurrent Voyce of the Law of Gospel Our Apostle summes up the whole Matter 1 Thess. 4. 1 2 3. We exhort you that as you have received of us how you ought to walk and please God so you would abound more and more for you know that Commandment we gave you by the Lord Jesus for this is the Will of God even your Sanctification or Holiness whereunto he addes one special Instance This is that which the Commandments of Christ require yea this is the summe of the whole Commanding Will of God The substance of the Law is Be ye Holy for I the Lord your God am Holy Levit. 11. 44. the same with what it is referred unto by our Saviour Matth. 22. 37 39. And whereas Holiness may be reduced unto two Heads 1 The Renovation of the Image of God in us 2 Vniversal Actual Obedience they are the summe of the Perceptive Part of the Gospel Ephes. 4. 22 23 24. Tit. 2. 11 12. Hereof therefore there needeth no further Confirmation by especial Testimonies Sect. 2 Our Enquiry must be What Force there is in this Argument or whence we doe conclude unto a Necessity of Holiness from the Command of God To this End the Nature and proper Adjuncts of these Commands are to be considered that is we are to get our Minds and Consciences affected with them so as to endeavour after Holiness on their Account or with respect unto them For whatever we may doe which seems to have the Matter of Holiness in it if we do it not with respect unto Gods Command it hath not the Nature of Holiness in it For our Holiness is our Conformity and Obedience to the Will of God and it is a Respect unto a Command which makes any thing to be Obedience or gives it the formal Nature thereof Wherefore as God rejects That from any place in his Fear Worship or Service which is resolved only into the Doctrines or Precepts of Men Isa. 29. 13. so for men to pretend unto I know not what Freedom Light and Readiness unto all Holiness from a Principle within without Respect unto the Commands of God without as given in his Word is to make themselves this own God and to despise Obedience unto him who is over all God blessed for ever Then are we the Servants of God Then are we the Disciples of Christ when we doe what is Commanded us and because it is Commanded us And what we are not influenced unto by the Authority of God in his Commands we are not principled for by the Spirit of God administred in the Promises Whatever Good any man doth in any Kind if the Reason why he doth it be not Gods Command it belongs neither to Holiness nor Obedience Our Enquiry therefore is after those things in the Commands of God which put such an indispensible Obligation upon us unto Holiness as that whatever we may be or we may have without it will be of no Use or Advantage unto us as unto Eternal Blessedness or the Enjoyment of him Sect. 3 But to make our Way more clear and safe one thing must yet be premised unto these Considerations And this is that Gods Commands for Holiness may be considered two wayes 1 As they belong unto and are Parts of the Covenant of Works 2 As they belong and are inseparably annexed unto the Covenant of Grace In both respects they are materially and formally the same that is the same Things are required in them and the same Person requires them and so their Obligation is Joynt and Equal Not only the Commands of the New Covenant do oblige us unto Holiness but those of the Old also as to the Matter and Substance of them But there is a great Difference in the Manner and Ends of these Commands as considered so distinctly For 1 The Commands of God as under the Old Covenant do so require universal Holiness of us in all Acts Duties and Degrees of them that upon the least Failure in Substance Circumstance or Degree they allow of nothing else we doe but Determine us Trangressors of the whole Law For with respect unto them whosoever shall keep the whole Law and yet offend in one point is Guilty of all James 2. 10. Now I acknowledge that although there ariseth from hence an Obligation unto Holiness to them who are under that Covenant and such a Necessity of it as that without it they must certainly perish yet no Argument of the Nature with those which I insist upon can hence be taken to press us unto it For no Arguments are forceable unto this Purpose but such as include Encouragements in them unto what they urge But that this Consideration of the Command knoweth nothing of seeing a Complyance with it is in our Lapsed Condition absolutely impossible and for the Things that are so we can have no Endeavours And hence it is that no man influenced only by the Commands of the Law or first Covenant absolutely considered whatever in particular he might be forced or compelled unto did ever sincerely Ayme or Endeavour after universal Holiness Sect. 4 Men may be subdued by the Power of the Law and compelled to habituate themselves unto a strict Course of Duty and being advantaged therein by a sedate Natural Constitution desire
wherein themselves are meerly passive as hath elsewhere been demonstrated See Col. 1. 13. Sect. 21 This is that which I doe intend God at first made a Covenant with Mankind the First Covenant the Covenant of Works Herein he gave them Commands for Holy Obedience These Commands were not only possible unto them both for Matter and Manner by vertue of that Strength and Power which was concreated with them but easie and pleasant every way suited unto their Good and Satisfaction in that state and Condition This rendred their Obedience equal just reasonable and aggravated their Sin with the Guilt of the most horrible Folly and Ingratitude When by the Fall this Covenant was broken we lost therewith all Power and Ability to comply with its Commands in holy Obedience Hereupon the Law continued holy and the Commandement holy just and good as our Apostle speaks Rom. 7. 12. For what should make it otherwise seeing there was no Change in it by Sin nor did God require more or harder things of us than before But to us it became impossible for we had lost the strength by which alone we were enabled to Observe it And so the Commandement which was Ordained to Life we find to be unto Death Rom. 7. 10. Towards all therefore that remain in that State we say the Commandement is still just and holy but it is neither easie nor possible Hereon God brings in the Covenant of Grace by Christ and renews therein the Commands for holy Obedience as was before declared And here it is that men trouble themselves and others about the Power Ability and Free-will that men have as yet under the first Covenant and the Impotency that ensued on the Transgression of it to fulfill the Condition of the New Covenant and yield the Obedience required in it For this is the place where men make their great Contests about the Power of Free-will and the Possibility of Gods Command Let them but grant that it is the meer Work of Gods Sovereign and Almighty Grace effectually to enstate men in the New Covenant and we shall contend with them or against them that by vertue thereof they have that spiritual Strength and Grace administred unto them as render all the Commands of it to be not onely possible but easie also yea pleasant and every way suited unto the Principle of an Holy Life wherewith they are endued And this we make an Argument for the Necessity of Holiness The Argument we have under Consideration is that whereby we prove the Necessity of Holiness with respect unto Gods Command requiring it because it is a Fruit of Infinite Wisdom and Goodness It is so in an especial Manner as it belongs unto the New Covenant And therefore by our Disobedience or living in Sin unto the Contempt of Gods Authority we adde that of his Wisdom and Goodness also Now that it is so a Fruit of them appears in the first place from hence that it is proportioned unto the Strength and Ability which we have to Obey Hence Obedience in Holiness becomes equal easie and pleasant unto all Believers who sincerely attend unto it And this fully evinceth the Necessity of it from the Folly and Ingratitude of the contrary That these things and in them the Force of the present Argument may the better be apprehended I shall dispose them into the ensuing Observations Sect. 22 1 We do not say that any one hath this Power and Ability in himself or from himself God hath not in the New Covenant brought down his Command to the Power of Man but by his Grace he raiseth the Power of Man unto his Command The former were only a Complyance with the Sin of our Nature which God abhorres the latter is the Exaltation of his own Grace which he aymeth at It is not mens Strength in and of themselves the Power of Nature but the Grace which is administred in the Covenant that we intend For men to trust unto themselves herein as though they could do any thing of themselves is a Renunciation of all the Aids of Grace without which we can do nothing We can have no power from Christ unless we live in a Perswasion that we have none of our own Our whole spiritual Life is a Life of Faith and that is a Life of Dependance on Christ for what we have not of our selves This is that which ruines the Attempt of many for Holiness and renders what they doe though it be like unto the Acts and Duties of it not at all to belong unto it For what we do in our own strength is no part of Holiness as is evident from the preceding Description of it Neither doth the Scripture abound in any thing more than in Testifying that the Power and Ability we have to fulfill the Commands of God as given in the New Covenant is not our own nor from our selves but meerly from the Grace of God administred in that Covenant as John 15. 5. Phil. 2. 13. 2 Cor. 3. 5. It will be said then where lies the Difference Because it is the meer Work of Grace to instate us in the Covenant you conclude that we have no power of our own to that Purpose And if when we are in Covenant all our strength and power is still from Grace we are as to any Ability of our own to fulfill the Command of God as remote from it as ever I Answer The first Work of Grace is meerly upon us Hereby the Image of God is renewed our Hearts are changed and a Principle of spiritual Life is bestowed on us But this latter Work of Grace is in us and by us And the Strength or Ability which we have thereby is as truely our own as Adams was his which he had in the State of Innocency For he had his immediately from God and so have we ours though in a different way Sect. 23 2 There is no such Provision of spiritual Strength for any Man enabling him to comply with the Command of God for Holiness as to Countenance him in the least carnal Security or the least Neglect of the diligent Use of all those Means which God hath appointed for the Communication thereof unto us with the Preservation and Increase of it God who hath determined Graciously to give us supplyes thereof hath also declared that we are obliged unto our utmost diligence for the Participation of them and unto their due Exercise when received This innumerable Commands and Injunctions give Testimony unto but especially is the whole Method of Gods Grace and our Duty herein declared by the Apostle Peter 2 Epist. Chap. 1. v. 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11. which Discourse I have Opened and Improved elsewhere The summe is that God creating in us a new spiritual Nature and therewithall giving unto us all things appertaining unto Life and Godliness or a Gracious Ability for the Duties of an Holy Godly spiritual Life we are obliged to use all Means in the continual Exercise of all
Grace which will ascertain unto us our Eternal Election with our Effectual Vocation whereon we shall obtain an assured Joyfull Entrance into the Kingdom of Glory Sect. 24 3 This Administration of Grace and spiritual Strength is not equally Effectual at all Times There are Seasons wherein to Correct our Negligences in giving place to our Corruptions and Temptations or on other Grounds to discover unto us our own Frailty and Impotency with other Holy Ends of his own that God is pleased to withhold the powerfull Influences of his Grace and to leave us unto our selves In such Instances we shall assuredly come short of answering the Command for universal Holiness one way or other See Psal. 30. 6 7. But I speak of ordinary Cases and to prevent that slothfulness and Tergiversation unto this Duty of complying with all the Commands of God for Holiness which we are so obnoxious unto Sect. 25 4 We do not say That there is in the Covenant of Grace spiritual Strength administred so as that by Vertue thereof we should yield sinless and absolutely Perfect Obedience unto God or to render any one Duty so absolutely Perfect If any such there are or ever were who maintain such an Imputation of the Righteousness of Christ unto us as should render our own personal Obedience unnecessary they doe overthrow the Truth and Holiness of the Gospel And to say that we have such supplyes of Internal Strength as to render the Imputation of the Righteousness of Christ unto our Justification Unnecessay is to overthrow the Grace of the Gospel and the New Covenant it self But this alone we say There is Grace administred by the Promises of the Gospel enabling us to Perform the Obedience of it in that Way and Manner as God will accept And herein there are various Degrees whereof we ought constantly to ayme at the most Compleat and so to be perfecting Holiness in the Fear of the Lord. And where we signally come short of the best Rules and Examples it is principally from our Neglect of those Supplyes of Grace which are tendred in the Promises Sect. 26 5 There is a Two-fold Gracious Power Necessary to render the Command for Holiness and Obedience thereunto easie and pleasant 1. That which is Habitually Resident in the Hearts and Souls of Believers whereby they are constantly enclined and disposed unto all Fruits of Holiness This the Scripture calls our Life a New Principle of Life without which we are dead in Trespasses and Sins Where this is not whatever Arguments you constrain and press men withall to be Holy you do as it were but offer violence unto them endeavouring to force them against the sixed Bent and Inclination of their Minds By them all you do but set up a Damme against a Stream of Waters which will not be Permanent nor turn the Course of the stream contrary to its natural Inclination Unto such the Cemmand for Holiness must needs be grievous and difficult But such a Disposition and Inclination or a Principle so inclining and disposing of us unto Duties of Holiness we have not in nor of our selves by Nature nor is it to be raised out of its Ruines For the carnal Mind which is in us all is Enmity against God which carrieth in it an Aversation unto every thing that is required of us in a way of Obedience as hath been proved at large And yet without this Habitual Principle we can never in a due Manner comply with any one Command of God that we should be Holy Want hereof is that which renders Obedience so grievous and Burdensome unto many They endure it for a Season and at length either violently or insensibly cast off its Yoke Light and Conviction have compelled them to take it on themselves and to attend unto the performance of those Duties which they dare not omit But having no Principle enabling or enclining them unto it all they doe though they do much and continue long therein is against the grain with them they find it difficult uneasie and wearisome Wherein they can be any Pretences countenance themselves in a Neglect of any part of it or Bribe their Consciences into a Complyance with what is contrary unto it they fail not to deliver themselves from their Burden And for the most part either insensibly by multiplyed Instances of the Neglect of Duties of Obedience or by some great Temptations before they leave the World they utterly leave all the Wayes of Holiness and Respect unto the Commands of God or if they continue any it is unto External Acts of Morality which pass with Approbation in the World the inward and spiritual part of Obedience they utterly Renounce The Reason hereof I say is because having no Principle within enabling them unto a Complyance with the Commands of God with Delight and Satisfaction they grow grievous and intolerable unto them So unto many on the same Ground the Worship of God is very burdensome unless it be borne for them by External Additions and Ornaments Sect. 27 2. There is an Actual Assistance of Effectual Grace required hereunto We are not put into that Condition by the Covenant as that we should be able to doe any thing of our selves without Actual Divine Assistance This were to set us free from our Dependance on God and to make us Gods unto our selves The Root still bears us and the Springs of our spiritual Life are in another And where both these are there the Command is Equal not onely in it self but unto us and Obedience unto it as easie as just Sect. 28 6 And both these sorts of Grace are Administred in the New Covenant suited unto the holy Obedience it requires 1. For the first it is that which God so frequently so expressely promiseth where he sayes that he will take away the Heart of Stone and give us an Heart of Flesh that he will write his Laws in our Hearts and put his Fear in our inward parts that we shall fear him and never depart from him that he will circumcise our Hearts to know and love him Which Promises and the Nature of the Grace contained in them I have before at large explained It is sufficient unto our present Purpose that in and by these Promises we are made partakers of the Divine Nature and are therein endowed with a constant Habitual Disposition and Inclination unto all Acts and Duties of Holiness For our Power followeth our Love and Inclinations as Impotency is a Consequent of their Deceit Sect. 29 And here we may stay a little to confirm our principal Assertion Upon the Supply of this Grace which gives both Strength for and a constant Inclination unto Holy Obedience the Command for it becomes equal and just meet and easie to be complyed withall For none can refuse a Complyance with it in any Instance but their so doing is contrary unto that Disposition and Inclination of the New Nature which God hath implanted in themselves So that in them to Sin
Sin who have not that Grace and Holiness in the Renovation of the Image of God which is pleaded for seem to have more peace and Quietness in their Minds They have not that inward Conflict which others complain of nor those Groans for Deliverance Yea they find satisfaction in their Lusts and Pleasures relieving themselves by them against any thing that occasioneth their Trouble Sect. 9 Ans. 1 For that Peace and Order which is pretended to be in the Minds of Men under the Power of Sin and not sanctified it is like that which is in Hell and the Kingdom of Darkness Sathan is not divided against himself nor is there such a Confusion and Disorder in his Kingdom as to destroy it but it hath a Consistency from the common End of all that is in it which is an Opposition unto God and all that is good Such a Peace and Order there may be in an unsanctified Mind There being no Active Principle in it for God and that which is spiritually Good all works one way and all its troubled streams have the same Course But yet they continually cast up mire and dirt There is onely that Peace in such Minds which the strong man armed that is Sathan keeps his Goods in untill a stronger than he comes to bind him And if any one think that Peace and Order to be sufficient for him wherein his Mind in all its Faculties acts uniformly against God or for Self Sin and the World without any Opposition or Contradiction he may find as much in Hell when he comes there Sect. 10 2 There is a Difference between a Confusion and a Rebellion Where a Confusion is in a State all Rule or Government is dissolved and every thing is let loose unto the utmost Disorder and Evil. But where the Rule is firm and stable there may be Rebellions that may give some parts and places Disturbances and Damage but yet the whole State is not disordered thereby So is it in the Condition of a sanctified Soul on the Account of the Remainders of Sin there may be Rebellion in it but there is no Confusion Grace keeps the Rule in the Mind and Heart firm and stable so that there is Peace and Assurance unto the whole state of the Person though Lusts and Corruptions will be rebelling and warring against it The Divine Order therefore of the Soul consisting in the Rule of Grace subordinating all to God in Christ is never overthrown by the Rebellion of Sin at any time be it never so vigorous or prevalent But in the state of unsanctified Persons though there be no Rebellion yet is there nothing but Confusion Sin hath the Rule and Dominion in them And however men may be pleased with it for a season yet is it nothing but perfect Disorder because it is a continual Opposition to God It is a Tyranny that overthrowes all Law and Rule and Order with respect unto our last and chiefest End Sect. 11 3 The Soul of a Believer hath that Satisfaction in this Conflict as that its Peace is not ordinarily disturbed and is never quite overthrown by it Such a Person knowes Sin to be his Enemy knowes its Design with the Aids and Assistances which are prepared for him against its Deceit and Violence and considering the Nature and End of this Contest is satisfied with it Yea the greatest hardships that Sin can reduce a Believer unto do but put him to the Exercise of those Graces and Duties wherein he receiveth great spiritual Satisfaction Such are Repentance Humiliation godly Sorrow self-Abasement and Abhorrency with fervent Outcryes for Deliverance Now although these things seem to have that which is grievous and dolorous prevailing in them yet the Graces of the Spirit of God being acted in them they are so suited unto the Nature of the New Creature and so belong unto the spiritual Order of the Soul that it finds secret Satisfaction in them all But the Trouble others meet withall in their own Hearts and Minds on the Account of Sin is from the severe Reflexions of their Consciences only and they receive them no otherwise but as certain Presages and Predictions of future and eternal Misery Sect. 12 4 A sanctified Person is secured of success in this Conflict which keeps blessed Peace and Order in his Soul during its Continuance There is a two-fold success against the Rebellious Actings of the Remainders of Indwelling Sin 1 In particular Instances 2 In the whole Cause And in both these have we sufficient Assurance of Success if we be not wanting unto our selves 1. For suppose the Contest be considered with respect unto any particular Lust and Corruption and that in Conjunction with some powerfull Temptation we have sufficient and blessed Assurance that abiding in the diligent Use of the Wayes and Means assigned unto us and the Improvement of the Assistance provided in the Covenant of Grace we shall not so fail of actual Success as that Lust should conceive bring forth and finish Sin 2 Cor. 2. 12. But if we be wanting unto our selves negligent in our known Duties and principal Concerns it is no wonder if we are sometimes cast into Disorder and foyled by the Powers of Sin But 2. As to the general Success in the whole Cause namely that Sin shall not utterly deface the Image of God in us nor absolutely or finally ruine our Souls which is its End and Tendency we have the Covenant Faithfulness of God which will not fail us for our security Rom. 6. 12. Wherefore notwithstanding this Opposition and all that is ascribed unto it there is Peace and Order preserved by the Power of Holiness in a sanctified Mind and Soul Sect. 13 Secondly But it will be further Objected That many Professors who pretend highly unto Sanctification and Holiness and whom you judge to be partakers of them are yet peevish froward morose unquiet in their Minds among their Relations and in the World yea much outward Vanity and Disorder which you make Tokens of the internal Confusion of the Minds of Men and the Power of Sin do either proceed from them or are carryed on by them And where then is the Advantage pretended that should render Holiness so indispensibly necessary unto us Ans. If there are any such the more shame for them and they must bear their own Judgement These things are diametrically opposite to the Work of Holiness and the Fruits of the Spirit Gal. 5. 22. And therefore I say 1 That many it may be are esteemed Holy and Sanctified who indeed are not so Though I will judge no man in particular yet I had rather pass this Judgement on any man that he hath no Grace than that on the other hand Grace doth not change our Natures and renew the Image of God in us 2 Many who are really holy may have the double Disadvantage first to be under such Circumstances as will frequently draw out their natural Infirmities and then to have them greatned and heightned
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
whence voluntary and meritorious 146 9 Obligation unto Holiness no less under the Gospel than under the Law 535 6 All Obstacles removed by effectual Grace 270 30 Obstinacy and Stubbornness of the Heart by Nature 277 45 Obstructions of the Growth of Holiness 350 10 Occasions of spiritual decays in Grace 354 How Christ Offered himself to God through the Eternal Spirit 143 8 Office of Witness-bearing unto the Lord Christ discharged by the Holy Spirit 149 13 One singular Spirit of God declared in the Scripture 33 8 The Holy Spirit One dividing as he pleaseth to others 94 21 Operations of the Spirit called the Spirit by a Metonymy 33 8 Divine Operations of all sorts ascribed to the Holy Spirit 59 24 All Divine Operations ascribed unto God absolutely 68 1 Operations of the Holy Spirit on the Humane Nature of Christ of two sorts 128 2 Operations of the Holy Spirit on the Humane Nature of Christ notwithstanding its personal Vnion with the Son 129 3 Operations of the Holy Spirit in Conversion suited unto the Powers of our Souls 270 31 Two-fold Operation of Christ as Three in One 162 Opening of the Heavens what it signifies 52 15 Opinions in the Primitive Church falsly fathered on spiritual Revelations 15 19 Opposition to the Spirit of God and his Works with the Grounds of it 21 25 Pretences of Opposition unto the Spirit of God examined 21 25 Oppositions against the Church suppressed by the Spirit of God 78 16 No Opposition between Gods Commands and his Grace 167 Vniversal Opposition between Sin and Grace 477 7 Order of Divine Dispensations dependeth on the Order of the subsistence of the Divine Persons 39 14 Order of subsistence of the Holy Spirit in the Blessed Trinity 66 33 Order of Operation depending on the Order of Subsistence not the Order of Promination ibid. Outward Order in the Church of no use without the Presence and Work of the Spirit 158 4 Order in Subsistence gives Order in Operation 162 Order of the Mind in its first Creation 212 15 Order of the Gospel inverted by Prejudices 235 58 Order of Precedency in the Acts of Sanctification 410 1 Skill in the Original Text necessary to the Exposition of the Scripture 30 4 Original of all things in their several kinds 73 9 Original of the Spirits Acting in all his Works towards the Church 89 15 Where Original Sin is denyed Regeneration cannot be effected 186 24 Original Order of our Souls wherein it consisted 568 6 Outward Manner and wayes of Divine Revelations 106 11 P. Pains of Death how loosed towards Christ. 147 11 Vanity of Papal Inventions for the Purification of Sin 379 380 Partial departure of the Spirit from any 91 19 Partial Works deceitfull 369 Two Parts of the Life of God 423 16 Particular good End not sufficient to render a Duty Good or Holy 441 44 Peace with God preserved by Sanctification 323 3 How God sanctifieth us as the God of Peace ibid. Pelagius his Artifices 177 9 Doctrine of Pelagius 183 20 Pelagianism renewed 255 5 Pelagianisme reduced unto its Head 256 7 Difference between Pelagians and Semi-Pelagians 262 19 Pelagian Grace inconsistent with Prayer 265 24 Pelagius his Prayer 266 25 Pelagian Grace rejected 458 73 Pen-men of the Scripture whether all holy 111 18 Pen-men of the Scripture not left unto the use of their own Natural Abilities 114 20 Sinless Perfection not attainable in this Life 547 25 Persecution of Erring Persons vain and fruitless 19 20 23 Person of the Spirit and his Operations distinguished 33 8 Third Person in the Trinity whence called the Spirit 34 9 Person of the Father the Fountain of the Trinity 38 13 Some things not proper to a Person assigned to the Holy Ghost in what sence 48 9 The Person of the Holy Spirit not poured out but his Gifts and Graces 87 13 Every Divine Person Author of the same Work 68 1 The Person of Christ how the Fountain of all Grace 455 The whole Person of a Believer the subject of Sanctification 365 Divine Persons succeeded not to each other in their Operations 70 3 Manifestation of the distinction of Persons in the Divine Nature a great End in the Work of the New Creation 155 2 All Personal Properties assigned unto the Holy Spirit in the Scripture 48 8 Personal Vnion or the Subsistence of both the Natures of Christ in one Person the necessary Consequent of Assumption 129 5 Personality of the Holy Spirit from John 14. 15 16. 60 61 25 Perswasive Efficacy of the Word Preached 258 12 Perswasion conferres no Strength 262 21 Perswasions enable not men to convert themselves 266 25 Perswasions of Perfection ruinous to Holiness 355 Pharisaical Confidence 397 12 Wise Philosophers of Old the greatest Despisers of the Gospel 221 222 Physical Operations of Grace proved 269 29 Pleas for Balaam answered 111 112 19 Pleas of Pelagians 263 21 Vain Pleas for the Power of Free-will in Opposition to the Aids of the Spirit 471 15 Pleas for Holiness by unholy persons uncomely and dangerous 498 2 Pleas for Moral Vertue examined 506 15 Pollution or spiritual Defilement in Sin 372 3 Pollution of Sin that property of it whereby it is opposed to the Holiness of God 374 4 Habitual Pollution inconsistent with any Holiness 378 Pouring forth of the Spirit 86 11 Pouring forth of the Spirit alwayes respects the times of the Gospel 87 12 Power ascribed unto the Holy Spirit 58 22 Powers and Operations of Secondary Causes to be owned 77 15 Power of the Mind with respect unto spiritual things examined 216 23 Power in the Mind by Nature to discern spiritual things 221 30 Power of spiritual Darkness 227 43 Power of Darkness in the Devil 228 45 Powers and Duties of the Mind 236 60 Power unto Obedience in the State of Innocency 241 8 Power in Natural men beyond what they do or will use 245 20 Power in the Faculties of Nature as Corrupted 250 29 Power of the Word to prevail on the Souls of Men whereon it depends 258 13 Spiritual Power in the Habit of Holiness 432 31 Commands of the Covenant respect the Power administred in the Covenant 432 30 Spiritual Power wherein it consists 432 31 No Power in Believers unto Duties of Holy Obedience without assistance of the Spirit 465 c. Power administred by Christ enabling us to be Holy 502 8 No Power given by one Covenant to fulfill the Commands of the other 544 20 All power unto Obedience from Grace 546 22 Two-fold power necessary unto Obedience 547 26 Practice of Moral Vertue not Gospel Holiness 459 77 Pravity of Sin with respect unto the Holiness of God Two-fold 377 6 Praying for the Spirit prescribed as our Duty 123 124 5 Difference between the Prayers of Wicked men and of Believers 164 6 Prayers of the Church prove Effectual Grace 265 24 Prayers for Grace and Holiness of what Nature 348 349 9 Prayer for the Holy Spirit in what sence 357 2