3 82 THE NATURE OF SANCTIFICATION [eOOK IY.
lierein. When we find sucli constraining motives unto holiness upon us as will not allow the least subducting of our souls from a univer- sal attendance unto it, purely on the ends of the gospel, without re- spect unto those now discarded, it is an evidence that the wisdom of God hath prevailed against that of the flesh in our minds.
Wherefore holiness, with the fruits of it, with respect unto their proper ends, which shall afterward be declared, is all that God re- quireth of us. And this he declares in the tenor of the covenant with Abraham, Gen. xvii .1, "I am the Almighty God ; walk before me, and be thou perfect ;" — "This is that, and this is all, that I require of thee, namely, thy holy obedience ; for all other things wherein thou art concerned, I take them all upon my own almighty power or all-suf- ficiency:" as he says elsewhere, that the "whole of man is to fear God and keep his commandments."" And the consideration hereof, taken singly and by itself, is sufficient, with all that have .any regard unto God or their own eternal welfare, to convince them of what import- ance these things are unto them.
7. But neither yet are we left in this matter merely under the authority of God's command, with an expectation of our compliance Avith it from our own ability and power ; God, moreover, hath pro- mised to sanctify us, or to work this holiness in us, the considera- tion whereof will give us yet a nearer prospect into its nature. He that requires it of us knows that we have it not of ourselves. When we were in our best condition by nature, in the state of original holi- ness, vested with the image of God, we preserved it not ; and is it likely that now, in the state of lapsed and depraved nature, it is in our own power to restore ourselves, to re-introduce the image of God into our souls, and that in a far more eminent manner than it was at first created by God? What needed all that contrivance of infinite wisdom and grace for the reparation of our nature by Jesus Christ, if holiness, wherein it doth consist, be in our own power, and educed out of the natural faculties of our souls? There can no more fond imagination befall the minds of men than that defiled nature is able to cleanse itself, or depraved nature to rectify itself, or that we, who have lost that image of God which he created in us and with us, should create it again in ourselves by our own endeavours. Wherefore, when God commandeth and requireth us to be holy, he commands us to be that which by nature and of ourselves we are not ; and not only so, but that which we have not of ourselves a power to attain unto. Whatever, therefore, is absolutely in our own power is not of that holiness which God requireth of us; for what we can do ourselves, there is neither necessity nor reason why God should promise to work in us by his grace. And to say that what God so promiseth to work, he will not work or effect indeed, but only per-
CHAP. I.] AND GOSPEL HOLINESS EXPLAINED. 883
suade and prevail with us to do it, is, through the pride of unbelief, to defy the truth and grace of God, and with the spoils of them to adorn our own righteousness and power. Now, God hath multiplied his promises to this purpose, so that we shall need to call over only some of them in way of instance : Jer. xxxi. 83, "I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people." Chap, xxxii. 89, 40, "I will give them one heart, and one way, that they may fear me for ever ; and I will put my fear in their hearts, that they shall not depart from me." Ezek. xxxvi. 26, 27, "A new heart will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you : and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them." Verse 25, "I will sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean ; from all your fllthiness will I cleanse you." Verse 29, " I will also save you from all your uncleannesses." The whole of our sanc- tification and holiness is comprised in these promises. To be cleansed from the defilements of sin, whatever they be, to have a heart inclined, disposed, enabled, to fear the Lord always, and to walk in all his ways and statutes accordingly, with an internal habitual conformity of the whole soul unto the law of God, is to be sanctified or to be holy. And all this God promiseth directly to work in us and to accom- plish himself. In the faith of these promises, and for the fulfilling of them, the apostle prayeth for the Thessalonians, as we observed at our entrance, that "the God of jieace himself would sanctify them throughout," whereby " their whole spirits, souls, and bodies, might be preserved blameless to the coming of Jesus Christ." And hence is evident what we before observed, that what is absolutely in our own power is not of the nature of, nor doth necessarily belong unto, holiness, whatever it be. The best of the intellectual or moral habits of our minds, which are but the natural improvement and exercise of our faculties, neither are nor can be our holiness; nor do the best of our moral duties, as merely and only so, belong there- unto. By these moral habits and duties we understand the powers, faculties, or abilities of our souls, exercised with respect and in obe- dience unto the commands of God, as excited, persuaded, and guided by outward motives, rules, arguments, and considerations. Plainly, all the jDower we have of ourselves to obey the law of God, and all that we do in the pursuit and exercise of that power, upon any rea- sons, motives, or considerations whatever, — which may all be resolved into fear of punishment and hope of reward, with some present satis- faction of mind, on the account of ease in conscience within or out- Avard reputation, whether in abstinence from sin or the performance of duties, — ai-e intended hereby, and are not that holiness which