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.

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 virtue 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 scoff 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,

1. The name or expression itself 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 sense 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 sense they intend unto any expression used concerning the same matter in the gospel. But all men must needs submit unto it, that at least the main part, if not the whole of religion, consists in moral virtue, 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 abhor, 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 whilst 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 man's wisdom teacheth, but which are taught by the Holy Ghost." It is granted to be the wisdom and skill of men farther to explain and declare the truths that are taught in the gospel, by sound and wholesome words of their own; which yet all of them, as to their propriety and significancy, are to be tried and measured by the Scripture itself. 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, philoso

phical notions and terms, and those the most common, obvious, and vulgar that ever obtained among the heathen of old. "Virtuous living," they tell us, "is the way to heaven;" but what this virtue is, or what is a life of virtue, they have added as little in the declaration of as any persons that ever made such a noise about them.

2. That ambiguous term moral 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 applied 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 sphere of morality, are called graces and duties, theological, spiritual, supernatural, evangelical, divine; in opposition unto all such habits of the mind and duties as, being required by the law of nature, and as they are so required, are merely moral. In neither sense can it with any tolerable congruity of speech be said that moral virtue is our holiness, especially the whole of it. But because the duties of holiness have, the most of them, a morality in them, as moral 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.

3. It is, as was before intimated, somewhat uncertain what the great pleaders for moral virtue 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 virtuous 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 useful unto mankind. But let it be supposed to be never so exact, and the course of it most diligently attended unto, I defy 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 defy all the men in the world to prove that this moral virtue is the sum of our obedience to God, whilst the gospel is owned for a declaration of his will and our duty. It is true, all the duties of this moral virtue 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.

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 alleged 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 virtue 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.

5. If it be said that by this moral virtue they intend no exclusion of Jesus Christ, but include a respect unto him, I desire only to ask whether they design by it such a habit of mind, and such acts thence proceeding, as have the properties before described, as to their causes, rise, effects, use, and relation unto Christ and the covenant, such as are expressly and plainly in the Scripture assigned unto evangelical holiness? Is this moral virtue that which God hath predestinated or chosen us unto before the foundation of the world? Is it that which he worketh in us in the pursuit of electing love? Is it that which gives us a new heart, with the law of God written in it? Is it a principle of spiritual life, disposing, inclining, enabling us to live to

God, according to the gospel, produced in us by the effectual operation of the Holy Ghost, not educed out of the natural powers of our own souls by the mere application of external means? Is it that which is purchased and procured for us by Jesus Christ, and the increase whereof in us he continueth to intercede for? Is it the image of God in us, and doth our conformity unto the Lord Christ consist therein? If it be so, if moral virtue answer all these properties and adjuncts of holiness, then the whole contest in this matter is, whether the Holy Spirit or these men be wisest, and know best how to express the things of God rationally and significantly. But if the moral virtue they speak of be unconcerned in these things, if none of them belongs unto it, if it may and doth consist without it, it will appear at length to be no more, as to our acceptance before God, than what one of the greatest moralists in the world complained that he found it when he was dying," a mere empty name." But this fulsome Pelagian figment of a holiness, or evangelical righteousness, whose principle should be natural reason, and whose rule is the law of nature as explained in the Scripture, whose use and end is acceptation with God and justification before him,-whereby those who plead for it, the most of them, seem to understand no more but outward acts of honesty, nor do practise so much,-being absolutely opposite unto and destructive of the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, being the mere doctrine of the Quakers, by whom it is better and more intelligibly expressed than by some new patrons of it amongst us, will not, in the examination of it, create any great trouble unto such as look upon the Scripture to be a revelation of the mind of God in these things.

CHAPTER VII.

OF THE ACTS AND DUTIES OF HOLINESS.

Actual inherent righteousness in duties of holiness and obedience explained—The work of the Holy Spirit with respect thereunto-Distribution of the positive duties of holiness-Internal duties of holiness-External duties and their difference-Effectual operation of the Holy Spirit necessary unto every act of holiness-Dependence on providence with respect unto things natural, and on grace with respect unto things supernatural, compared-Arguments to prove the necessity of actual grace unto every duty of holiness-Contrary designs and expressions of the Scripture and some men about duties of holiness.

II. THE second part of the work of the Spirit of God in our sanctification respects the acts and duties of holy obedience; for what we have before treated of chiefly concerns the principle of it as habitually resident in our souls, and that both as unto its first infusion into

us, as also its preservation and increase in us. But we are not endued with such a principle or power to act it at our pleasure, or as we see good, but God, moreover, "worketh in us both to will and to do of his good pleasure." And all these acts and duties of holiness or gospel obedience are of two sorts, or may be referred unto two heads:-First, Such as have the will of God in positive commands for their object, which they respect in duties internal and external, wherein we do what God requireth. Secondly, Such as respect divine prohibitions, which consist in the actings of grace or holiness in an opposition unto or the mortification of sin. And what is the work of the Holy Spirit, what is the aid which he affords us, in both these sorts of duties, must be declared:—

1. The acts and duties of the first sort, respecting positive divine commands, fall under a double distinction; for they are in their own nature either, (1.) Internal only, or, (2.) External also. There may be internal acts of holiness that have no external effects; but no external acts or duties are any part of holiness which are only so and no more: for it is required thereunto that they be quickened and sanctified by internal actings of grace. Two persons may, therefore, at the same time, perform the same commanded duties, and in the same outward manner, yet may it be the duty of evangelical holiness in the one and not in the other; as it was with Cain and Abel, with the other apostles and Judas: for if faith and love be not acted in either of them, what they do is duty but equivocally, properly it is not so.

(1.) By the duties of holiness that are internal only, I intend all acts of faith, love, trust, hope, fear, reverence, delight, that have God for their immediate object, but go not forth nor exert themselves in any external duties. And in these doth our spiritual life unto God principally consist; for they are as the first acts of life, which principally evidence the strength or decays of it. And from these we may take the best measure of our spiritual health and interest in holiness; for we may abound in outward duties, and yet our hearts be very much alienated from the life of God: yea, sometimes men may endeavour to make up what is wanting with them by a multitude of outward duties, and so have "a name to live" when they are "dead," wherein the true nature of hypocrisy and superstition doth consist, Isa. i. 11-15. But when the internal actings of faith,-fear, trust, and love,-abound and are constant in us, they evidence a vigorous and healthy condition of soul.

(2.) Duties that are external, also, are of two sorts, or are distinguished with respect unto their objects and ends; for,-[1.] God himself is the object and end of some of them, as of prayer and praises, whether private or more solemn. And of this nature are