CHAPTER III.
HOLINESS NECESSARY FROM THE COMMANDS OF GOD.
Necessity of holiness proved from the commands of God in the law and the gospel.
III. We have evinced the necessity of holiness from the nature and the decrees of God ; our next argument shall be taken from his word
CHAP. III.] THE COMMANDS OF GOD. 605
or commands, as the nature and order of tliese things do require. And in this case it is needless to produce instances of God's com- mands that we should be holy; it is the concurrent voice of the law and gospel. Our apostle sums up the whole matter, 1 Thess. iv. 1-3, " We exhort you, that as ye have received of us how ye ought to walk and to please God, so ye would abound more and more. For ye know what commandments we gave you by the Lord Jesus. For this is the will of God, even your sanctification," or holiness ; whereunto he adds one especial instance. This is that which the command- ments of Christ require, yea, this is the sum of the whole command- ing will of God. The substance of the law is, " Be ye holy ; for I the Lord your God am holy," Lev. xix. 2 ; the same with what it is re- ferred unto by our Saviour, Matt. xxii. 37-39. And whereas holi- ness may be reduced unto two heads, — L The renovation of the image of God in us; 2. Universal actual obedience, — they are the sum of the preceptive part of the gospel, Eph. iv. 22-24; Tit. ii. 11, 12. Hereof, therefore, there needeth no farther confirmation by especial testimonies.
Our inquiry must be, what /orce there is in this argument, or whence we do conclude unto a necessity of holiness from the com- mands of God. To this end the nature and proper adjuncts of these commands are to be considered, — that is, we are to get our minds and consciences affected with them, so as to endeavour after holiness on their account, or with resjoect unto them : for whatever we may do which seems to have the matter of holiness in it, if we do it not with respect unto God's command, it hath not the nature of holiness in it; for our holiness is our conformity and obedience to the will of God, and it is a respect unto a command which makes any thing to be obedience, or gives it the formal nature thereof. Wherefore, as God rejects that from any place in his fear, worship, or service, which is resolved only into the doctrines or precepts of men, Isa. xxix. 13, 14; so for men to pretend unto I know not what freedom, light, and readiness unto all holiness, from a principle within, without respect unto the commands of God without, as given in his word, is to make themselves their own god, and to despise obedience unto him who is over all, God blessed for ever. Then are we the servants of God, then are we the disciples of Christ, when we do what is commanded us, and because it is commanded us. And what we are not in- fluenced unto by the authority of God in his commands, we are not principled for by the Spirit of God administered in the promises. Whatever good any man doth in any kind, if the reason why he doth it be not God's command, it belongs neither to holiness nor obe- dience. Our inquiry, therefore, is after those things in the com- mands of God which put such an indispensable obligation upon us
006 HOLINESS NECESSARY FROM [BOOK V.
unto holiness, as that whatever we may be or may have without it will be of no use or advantage unto us, as unto eternal blessed- ness or the enjoyment of him.
But to make our way more clear and safe, one thing must yet be premised unto these considerations; and this is, that Ood's coin- man ds Joy holiness may be considered two ways: — 1. As they belong unto and are parts of the covenant of works; 2. As they belong and are inseparably annexed unto the covenant of grace. In both respects they are materially and formally the same ; that is, the same things are required in them, and the same person requires them, and so their obligation is joint and equal. Not only the com- mands of the new covenant do oblige us unto holiness, but those of the old also, as to the matter and substance of them. But there is a great difference in the manner and ends of these commands as con- sidered so distinctly. For, —
1. The commands of God, as under the old covenant, do so re- quire universal holiness of us, in all acts, duties, and degrees of them, that upon the least failure, in substance, circumstance, or de- gree, they allow of nothing else we do, but determine us trans- gressors of the whole law; for, with respect unto them, "whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all," James ii. 10. Now, I acknowledge that although there ariseth from hence an obligation unto holiness to them who are under that covenant, and such a necessity of it as that without it they must certainly perish, yet no argument of the nature with those which I insist upon can hence be taken to press us unto it : for no arguments are forcible unto this purpose but such as include encouragements in them unto what they urge ; but that this consideration of the com- mand knoweth nothing of, seeing a compliance with it is, in our lapsed condition, absolutely impossible, and for the things that are so, we can have no endeavours. And hence it is that no man influenced only by the commands of the law, or first covenant, absolutely con- sidered, whatever in particular he might be forced or compelled vmto, did ever sincerely aim or endeavour after universal holiness.