Secondly, The flatter of our holiness consists in our actual obe- dience unto God, according to the tenor of the covenant of gi'ace ; 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 ride and measure of this obe- dience, in a conformity and answerableness whereunto it doth con- sist. This is the revealed will of God in the Scripture, Micah vi. 8. God's 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
470 THE POSITIVE WORK OF THE SPIRIT [BOOK IV.
be. The secret will or hidden purposes of God are not the rule of our obedience, Deut. xxix. 29, much less are our own imaginations, inclinations, or reason so; neither doth any thing, though never so specious, which we do in compliance with them, or by their direction, belong thereunto, Col. ii. 18-23. But the word of God is the ade- quate 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. iv. 2, xii. 82; Josh. i. 7; Prov. xxx. 6; Rev. xxii. 18, 19. (2.) It is ?>o formally ; that is, we are not only to do 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. vi. 24, 25, xxix. 29; Ps. cxix. 9. I know there is an inbred 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. ii. 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 Spirit and his word shall always accompany one another, the one to quicken our souls, and the other to guide our lives, Isa. lix. 21- And the word of God may be considered as our rule in a threefold respect: — (1.) As it requires the image of Ood in us. The habitual rectitude of our nature with respect unto God and our living to him is enjoined us in the word, yea, and wrought in us thereby. The whole renovation of our nature, 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 vvorketh 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.) M'^ith 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 and public, of piety, of righteousness, towards ourselves or others, Titus ii. 12. This is the rule of our holiness. So far as what we are and
CHAP. VI.] IN THE SANCTIFICATION OF BELIEVERS. 471
what we do answer thereunto, so far are we holy, and no farther. Whatever acts of devotion or duties of morahty may be performed without respect hereunto belong not to our sanctification.
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. xvii. 1. What answers here- unto is accepted, and what doth not so is rejected, both as to the universality of the whole and the sincerity that accompanies each particular duty in it. And these two things, universality and sin- cerity, answer now, as to some certain ends, the legal jDerfection 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 cove- nant of works ; and this required that it should be absolutely jDerfect in parts and degrees, without the least intermixture of sin with our good, or interposition of it in the least instance, Avhich was incon- sistent with that covenant. But now, although we are renewed again by grace into the image of God really and truly (yet not absolutely nor jDerfectly, but only in part), we have yet remaining in us a contrary principle of ignorance and sin, which we must always conflict withal, Gal. V. 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, holiness, 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, or that seems to have a nearer approach unto the mak- ing of Christ the minister of sin; for what would he be else, if he had procured that God would accept of a weak, imjDerfect obedience, accompanied with many failings, infirmities, and sins, being in no- thing complete, in the room and stead of that which was complete, perfect, and absolutely sinless, which he first required of us? Yea, God having determined to exalt and glorify the holy properties of his nature in a more eminent and glorious manner under the new cove- nant 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 righteous- ness and obedience required therein far more complete, eminent, and glorious than that required in the other. But the reason of this dif- ference lies solely herein, that our evangelical obedience, which is accepted Avith God, according to the tenor of the new covenant, doth not hold the same place which our obedience should have had under