Secondly, The command of God that we should be holy is not to be considered only as an effect of power and authority, which we Tnust submit unto, but as a fruit of infinite wisdom and goodness also, which it is our highest advantage and interest to comply withal. And this introduceth a peculiar necessity of holiness, from the con- sideration of what is equal, reasonable, ingenuous; the contrary whereunto is foolish, perverse, ungrateful, every way unbecoming rational creatures. Where nothing can be discerned in commands but mere authority, will, and pleasure, they are looked on as merely respecting the good of them that command, and not at all theirs who are to obey, which disheartens and weakens the principle of obedience. Now, though God, because his dominion over us is sovereign and absolute, might have justly left unto us no other rea- son or motive of our obedience, and, it may be, did so deal with the church of old, as to some particular, temporary, ceremonial institu- tions ; yet he doth not, nor ever did so, as to the main of their obe- dience. But as he proposeth his law as an effect of infinite wisdom, love, and goodness, so he declares and pleads that all his commands are just and equal in themselves, good and useful unto us, and that our compliance with them is our present as well as it will be our future happiness. And that this is so, that the command of God requiring that we should be holy, as a fruit of wisdom and goodness, is equal and advantageous unto ourselves, appears from all the con- siderations of it : —
1. Look upon it formally, as a law prescribed unto us, and it is so, because the obedience in holiness which it requires is propor- tioned unto the strength and power which we have to obey, which declares it equal unto us, and an effect of infinite wisdom and good-
CHAP. III.] THE COMMANDS OF GOD. 617
ness in God. The command, as we showed before, may be considered either as it belonged unto the old covenant, or as it is annexed unto, and so is a part of, the new. In the first way, as it belonged unto the old covenant, the strength of grace which we had originally from God under the law of creation was sufficient to enable us unto all that holy obedience which was required therein, and our not doing so was from wilful rebellion, and not from any impotency or weak- ness in us. We fell not from our first estate for want of power to obey, but by the neglect of the exercise of that power which we had. God made us upright, but we sought out many inventions. And in the latter way, as it belongs to the covenant of grace, there is, by virtue of that covenant, a supply of spiritual strength given in by the promise unto all them who are taken into it, enabling them to answer the commands for holiness, according to the rule of the ac- ceptance of their obedience, before laid down. No man who is instated in the covenant of grace comes short or fails of the performance of that obedience which is required and accepted in that covenant merely for want of power and spiritual strength; for God therein, according to his divine power, gives unto us "all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue," 2 Pet. i. 3.
It is true, this grace or strength is administered unto them by cer- tain ways and means, which if they attend not unto they will come short of it. But this I say, in the careful, diligent, sedulous use of those means appointed, none who belong to the covenant of grace shall ever fail of that power and ability which shall render the com- mands of the gospel easy and not grievous unto them, and whereby they may so fulfil them as infallibly to be accepted. This the Scrip- ture is plain in, where Christ himself tells us that " his yoke is easy, and his burden light," Matt. xi. 30 ; and his holy apostle, that " his com- mandments are not grievous," 1 John v. 3 : for if they should exceed all the strength which we either have or he is pleased to give unto us, they would be like the Jewish ceremonies, — a yoke which we could not bear, and a law not only grievous but unprofitable. But, on the contrary, our apostle expressly affirms (and so may we) that " he could do all things," — that is, in the way and manner, and unto the end for which they are required in the gospel, — " through Christ that strengthened him. Some would confound these things, and cast all into disorder. They would have men that are under the old cove- nant to have a power and spiritual strength to fulfil the commands of the new; which God hath never spoken of nor declared, and which, indeed, is contrary to the whole design of his grace. They would have men who have broken the old covenant, and forfeited all their strength and ability which they had by it for obedience, and who
618 HOLINESS NECESSARY FROM [BOOK V.