(1.) If God can accept of a righteousness unto justification infe- rior unto or short of what he required by the law, how great se- verity must it be thought in him to bind his creatures unto such an exact obedience and righteousness at first as he could and might have dispensed withal ! If he doth accept of sincere obedience now unto our justification, why did he not do so before, but obliged man- kind unto absolute perfection according to the law, for coming short wherein they all perished? Or shall we say that God hath changed his mind in this matter, and that he doth not stand so much now on rigid and perfect obedience for our justification as he did formerly? Where, then, is the glory of his immutability, of his essential holiness, of the absolute rectitude of his nature and will ? Besides, —
(2.) What shall become of the honour and holiness of the gospel on this supposition? Must it not be looked on as a doctrine less holy than that of the law? for whereas the law required absolute, perfect, sinless holiness unto our justification, the gospel admits of that to the same end, on this supposition, which is every way imper- fect, and consistent with a multitude of sins and failings? What can be spoken more to the derogation of it? Nay, would not this indeed make " Christ the minister of sin," which our apostle rejects with so much detestation. Gal. ii. 17? for to say that he hath merited that our imperfect obedience, attended with many and great sins (" for there is no man that liveth and sinneth not"), should be accepted unto our justification, instead of the perfect and sinless obedience required
CHAP. III.] THE COMMANDS OF GOD. 609
under the law, is plainly to make him the minister of sin, or one that hath acquired some liberty for sin beyond whatever the law allowed. And thus, upon the whole matter, both Christ and the gospel, in whom and whereby God unquestionably designed to declare the holiness and righteousness of his own nature much more gloriously than ever he had done any other way, should be the great means to darken and obscure them ; for in and by them, on this supposition, God must be thought (and is declared) to accept of a righteousness unto our justification unspeakably inferior unto what he required before.
It must be granted, therefore, that the end of gospel commands, requiring the obedience of holiness in us, is not that thereby or thereon we should be justified. God hath therein provided another righteousness for that end, which fully, perfectly, absolutely answers all that the law requires, and on some considerations is far more glorious than what the law either did or could require. And hereby hath he exalted more than ever the honour of his own holiness and righteousness, whereof the external instrument is the gospel; which is also, therefore, most holy. Now, this is no other but the righteous- ness of Christ imputed unto us ; for " he is the end of the law for righteousness unto them that do believe," Rom. x. 4. But God hath now appointed other ends imto our holiness, and so unto his com- mand of it, under the gospel, all of them consistent with the nature of that obedience which he will accept of us, and such as we may attain through the power of grace; and so all of them offering new encouragements, as well as enforcements, unto our endeavours after it. But because these ends will be the subject of most of our ensuing arguments, I shall not here insist upon them. I shall only add two things in general: — [1.] That God hath no design for his own glory in us or by us, in this world or unto eternity, — that there is no especial communion that we can have with him by Jesus Christ, nor any capacity for us to enjoy him, — but holiness is necessary unto it, as a means unto its end. [2.] These present ends of it under the gospel are such as that God doth no less indispensably require it of us now than he did when our justification was proposed as the end of it. They are such, in brief, as God upon the account of them judgeth meet to command us to be holy in all manner of holiness; which what obligation and necessity it puts upon us so to be, we are now to inquire: —
First, The first thing considerable in the command of God to this purpose is the authority wherewith it is accompanied. It is indis- pensably necessary that we should be holy on the account of the authority of God's command. Authority, wherever it is just and exerted in a due and equal manner, cameth along with it an obliga-
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610 HOLINESS NECESSARY FROM [BOOK V.
tion unto obedience. Take this away, and you will fill the whole world with disorder. If the authority of parents, masters, and magis- trates, did not oblige children, servants, and subjects unto obedience, the world could not abide one moment out of hellish confusion. God himself maketh use of this argument in general, to convince men of the necessity of obedience: " A son honoureth his father, and a ser- vant his master: if then I be a father, Avhere is mine honour? and if I be a master, where is my fear? saith the Lord of hosts unto you, O priests, that despise my name," Mai. i. 6; — " If in all particular rela- tions, where there is any thing of superiority, which hath the least parcel of authority accompanying of it, obedience is expected and ex- acted, is it not due to me, who have all the authority of all sovereign relations in me towards you?" And there are two things that enforce the obligation from the command on this consideration, jus inipe- randi and vis exsequendi, both comprised in that of the apostle James, chap. iv. 12, " There is one lawgiver, who is able to save and to destroy : " —