(3.) No man, without the light of saving faith, can constantly and universally approve of the revelation of the will of God, as unto our holiness and obedience.
To make this evident, which is the foundation of our present dis- covery of the acting of saving faith, we must consider, — [1.] What it is that is to be approved. [2.] What this approbation is, or wherein it doth consist: —
[1.] That which is to be approved is the holiness and obedience which God requireth in us, our natures, and actions, and accepts from us, or accepts in us. It is not particular duties as they occur unto us, taken alone and by themselves, but the universal correspondence of our natures and actions unto the will of God. The Scripture giveth us various descriptions of it, because of the variety of graces and gracious operations which concur therein. We may here mention some of its principal concerns, having handled the nature of it at large elsewhere; for it may be considered, — 1st. As unto its founda- tion, spring, and causes: and this is the universal renovation of our natures into the image of God, Eph. iv. 24; or the change of our whole souls, in all their faculties and powers, into his likeness, where- by we become new creatures, or the workmanship of God created in Christ Jesus unto good works, 2 Cor. v. 17, Eph. ii. 10; wherein we
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are originally and formally sanctified throughout, in our " whole spirit, and soul, and body," 1 Thess. v. 23. It is the whole law of God written in our hearts, transforming them into the image of the divine holiness, represented therein. And this, next unto the blood of Christ and his righteousness, is the principal spring of peace, rest, and complacency, in and unto the souls of believers: it is their joy and satisfaction to find themselves restored unto a likeness and con- formity unto God, as we shall see farther immediately. And where there is not some gracious sense and experience hereof, there is no- thing but disorder and confusion in the soul; nothing can give it a sweet composure, a satisfaction in itself, a complacency with what it is, but a spiritual sense of this renovation of the image of God in it.
Idly. It may be considered as unto its permanent p7-inciple in the mind and affections; and this, because of its near relation unto Christ, its conjunction with him, and deiivation from him, is some- times said to be Christ himself Hence we live, yet not so much we as Christ liveth in us. Gal. ii. 20 ; for "without him we can do nothing," John XV. 5 ; for " he is our life," Col. iii. 4. As it resides in believers, it is a permanent principle of spiritual life, light, love, and power, acting in the whole soul and all the faculties of the mind, enabling them to cleave unto God with purpose of heart, and to live unto him in all the acts and duties of spiritual life : this is that whereby the Holy Ghost is " in them a well of water, springing up into ever- lasting life," John iv. 14. It is the spirit that is born of the Spirit; it is the divine nature, whereof we are made partakers by the pro- mises; it is a principle of victorious faith and love, with all graces any way requisite unto duties of holy obedience ; as to the matter or manner of their performance, enabling the soul unto all the acts of the life of God, with delight, joy, and complacency.
This it is in its nature. However, as unto degrees of its operation and manifestation, it may be very low and weak in some true be- lievers, at least for a season; but there are none Avho really are so, but there is in them a spiritually vital principle of obedience, or of living unto God, that is participant of the nature of that which we have described ; and if it be attended unto, it will evidence itself in its power and operations unto the gTacious refreshment and satisfac- tion of the soul wherein it is. And there are few who are so destitute of those evidences but that they are able to say, " Whereas I was blind, now I see, though I know not how my eyes were opened ; whereas I was dead, I find motions of a new life in me, in breathing after grace, in hungering and thirsting after righteousness, though I know not how I was quickened."
3dly. It may be considered as unto its disposition, inclinations, and motions. These are the first actings of a vital principle; as the
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first actings of sin are called " tlie motions of sin" working in our members, Rom. vii. 5. Such motions and inclinations unto obedience do work in the minds of believers, from this principle of holiness; it produceth in them a constant, invariable disposition unto all duties of the life of God. It is a new nature, and a nature cannot be with- out suitable inclinations and motions; and this new spiritual dispo- sition consists in a constant complacency of mind in that which is good and according to the will of God, in an adherence by love unto it, in a readiness and fixedness of mind with respect unto particular duties. In brief, it is that which David describes in the 119th Psalm throughout, and that which is figuratively foretold concerning the efficacy of the grace of the gospel in changing the natures and dispositions of those that are partakers of it, Isa. xi. 6-8.