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 holi- ness? 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
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God, according to the gospel, produced in us by the effectual opera- tion of tlie 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 in- crease 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 ex- press 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 Pe- lagian figment of a holiness, or evangelical righteousness, whose prin- cij)le should be natural reason, and whose rule is the law of nature as explained in the Scrij^ture, 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 intel- ligibly 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 — Eifectual operation of the Holy Spirit necessary unto every act of holiness — Dependence on providence with respect unto things natui-al, 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 sanc- tification respects the acts and duties of holy obedience ; for what we have before treated of chiefly concerns the principle of it as habitu- ally resident in our souls, and that both as unto its first infusion into
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US, as also its preservation and increase in ns. But we are not en- dued 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 holi- ness or gospel obedience are of two sorts, or may be referred unto two heads: — First, Such as have the will of God in positive com- tnands 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, there- fore, 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, pro- perly it is not so.