VOL, XI. 25
886 DOCTKINE OF THE SAINTS' PERSEVERANCE. [CHAP.
The end of legal obedience was the gloiy of God as a rewarder accord- ing to merit in strict justice. The end of gospel obedience is the glory of God as a rewarder according to bounty, free grace, and mercy; under which consideration, neither needs the obedience rewardable to be commensurate to the reward, nor is the reward procured by that obedience. If it were, then it were of works, and not of grace, as tlie apostle tells us, Rom. iv. 4. So that the end of our obedience is to exalt God as a rewarder; yet that being as a rewarder of grace and bounty, the use. of our obedience is not to procure that reward (for that were to work, and to have a reward reckoned to us of debt, and not of grace), but only to make the Lord gracious, and to exalt him in our present subjection and in his future gift of grace, in nature of a free, bounteous reward. This, I say, is that gospel obedience which, by the doctrine insisted on, is promoted in the souls of believers.
Secondly, This being so, as was said, the gospel obedience whereof we speak, it is evident what principle it proceedeth from. Whereas there are two contrary principles in every regenerate man, as shall more fully afterward be declared, called in the Scripture " flesh and Spirit, the old and new man, indwelling sin and grace," which have both of them their seats and places in all and the same faculties of the soul, it is most evident that this obedience flows solely and merely from the latter principle, the Spirit, the new or inner man, the new creature which is wrought in believers. The strengthening and heightening of this principle the Holy Ghost lays at the bottom of the renewal and increase of gospel obedience. Eph. iii. 16-19, "I pray," saith the apostle, "that God would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man ; that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith ; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; and to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God." Their "strengthening with might by the Spirit in the inner man" is the foundation of their acting of and increasing in faith, love, knowledge, and assurance unto all the fulness of God. It is the "'new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness," that carries men out unto all acceptable obedience, as chap. iv. 24, of the same epistle. Look, whatsoever influences the other principle of the flesh hath into our obedience, so far it is defiled; for "that which is born of the flesh is flesh," John iii. 6, and all the fruits of it are abo- minable; hence are all the pollutions that cleave to our holy things. Yea, if at any time poor and mere selfish considerations do put men upon duties of obedience and abstaining from sin, as fear of ven- geance and destruction, and the like (which is made almost the only
X.] THE IMPROVEMENT OF THE DOCTRINK 387
motive to obedience by the doctrine of the saints' apostasy), their obedience in doing or abstaining is but as their fear of the Lord who were taught it by lions, and abominable unto him, 2 Kings xvii. 25, 32-34. This, then, being the nature of gospel obedience, and this the principle from whence it flows, it is evident, —
Thirdly, What are those motives which are suited to the promo- tion and carrying of it on in the hearts of believers; and what doc- trines have an eminent and singular tendency thereunto is also to be considered. Now, these must all of them be such as are suited to the cherishing of that principle of the new or inner man in the heart, to the nourishing and strengthening of the new creature ; such as are apt to ingenerate faith and love in the heart unto God ; such as reveal and discover those things in his nature, mind, and wall, Avhich are apt to endear and draw out the heart to him in communion. Discouraging, perplexing doctrines do but ill manure the soil from whence the fruits of obedience are to spring and grow. Look, then, I say, whatsoever gospel truth is of eminent usefulness to warm, foment, stir up, and quicken, the principle of grace in the heart, to draw out, increase, and cherish faith and love, that doctrine lies in a direct, immediate tendency to the promotion of holiness, godliness, and gospel obedience. Yea, and whereas to the carrying on of that course of obedience, it is necessary that the contrary principle unto it, which we mentioned before, be daily subdued, brought under, crucified, and mortified; there are no doctrines whatsoever that are of such and so direct and eminent a serviceableness to that end and purpose as those which inwrap such discoveries of God and his good- will in Christ as are fitted for the improvement also of the prin- ciple of grace in us. Hence the work of mortification in the Scrip- ture is everywhere assigned peculiarly to the ci'oss and death of Christ, — his love manifested therein, and his Spirit flowing therefrom. The doctrine of the law, indeed, humbles the soul /or Christ; but it is the doctrine of the gospel that humbles the soul in Christ.^ It is " the grace of God that hath appeared, that teacheth us effectually to deny all ungodliness and worldly lusts, and to live soberly, righte- ously, and godly in this present world," Tit. ii. 11, 12. He that will but with a little heed read chap. vi. to the Romans will know from whence mortification flows: which truly, by the w^ay, makes me ad- mire at the extreme darkness and blindness of some poor men wdio have of late undertaken to give directions for devotion and Avalking with God ; who, indeed, suitably to the most of the rest of their dis- courses,— all manifesting an " ignorance of the righteousness of God," Rom. X. 4, and a zealous endeavour to establish their own, — coming to propose ways and means for the mortifying of any sin or lust, tell you stories of biting the tongue, thrusting needles under the nails, ■' Rom. vi. 2_G, viii. 13, 2 Cor. v. 15; Rom. vii. 7; Gal. iii. 23.