" 0 homo cognosce in prreceptione quid debeas habere ; in corruptione cognosce tuo te vitio non habere; in oratione cognosce unde accipias quod yis habere." — Idem, de Corrupt, et Grat. cap. iii.
" Mandando impossibilia, non prevaricatores homines fecit, sed huniiles; ut omne os obstmatur ; et subditus fiat omnis mundus Deo. Accipientes nempe mandatum, sen- tientcs defectum, claraabiraus in coelum." — Bernard. Serm. l. in Cant.
" Quamvis dicamus Dei donum esse obedientiam, tamen homines exhortamur ad eam : sed illis qui Ycritatis exhortationem obedienter audiunt, ipsum donum Dei datum est, hoc est, obeilientcr audire; illis autem qui non sic audiunt, non est datum." August, de Douo Perseverant. cap. xiv.
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only useful for the more easy discharge of our duty, not necessary unto the very being of duty itself; which is the Pelagianism anathe- matized 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.
8. God is pleased to make these exhortations and promises to be " vehicula gratise," — the means of communicating spiritual life and strength unto men; and he hath appointed them unto this end, be- cause, 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, James i. 18; 1 Pet. i. 23. And this, in their dispensation under the covenant of grace, is their proper end. God may, there- fore, wisely make use of them, and command them to be used to- wards men, notwithstanding all their own disability savingly to com- ply with them, seeing he can, will, and doth himself make them effectual unto the end aimed at.
But it will be farther objected, " That if men are thus utterly de- void of a principle of spiritual life, of all power to live unto God, — that is, to repent, believe, and yield obedience, — is it righteous that they should perish eternally merely for their disability, or their not doing that which they are not able to do? This would be to re- quire brick and to give no straw, yea, to require much where no- thing is given. But the Scripture everywhere chargeth the destruc- tion of men upon their wilful sin, not their weakness or disability." / Ans. 1. Men's disability to live to God is their sin. Whatever, therefore, ensues thereon may be justly charged on them. It is that which came on us by the sin of our oiature in our first parents, all whose consequents are our sin and our misery. Bom. v. 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 ways.
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 mea- sures of them, to comply with his mind and will, which they volun- tarily neglect ; and this of itself is sufficient to bear the charge of their eternal ruin. 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, vicious 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
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put forth a free positive act of their wills in the rejection of it, either directly or interpretatively, in preferring somewhat else be- fore it. As " they cannot come to Christ except 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 fa- natical 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 deter- mine where the blame must lie.
Secondly, There is in this death an actxLol cessation of all vital acts. From this defect of power, or the want of a principle of spiri- tual life, it is that men in the state of nature can perform no vital act of spiritual obedience, — nothing that is spiritually good, or sav- ing, or acceptable with God, according to the tenor of the new cove- nant; 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," Eph. iv. 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 v. 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.