(2.) That an unregenerate person should keep any one of God's commandments as he ought is impossible, not from the nature of God's commands, but from his own state and condition.
(3.) That a person, though regenerate, yet being so but in part, and carrying about with him a body of death, should keep the commands of God in a perfection of obedience, according to the law of the cove- nant of works, is impossible from the condition of a regenerate man, and not from the nature of God's commands.
What is it, now, that Mr B. opposes? or what is that he asserts?
I suppose he declares his mind in his Lesser Catechism, chap. vii. ques. 1, where he proposes his question in the words of the ruler amongst the Jews, " What good shall a man do that he may have eternal life?" An answer of it follows in that of our Saviour, Matt, xix. 17-19, " If thou wilt enter into life, keep the command ments/""
The intendment of this inquiry must be the same with his that made it, as his argument in the whole is, or the answer of our Sa- viour is no way suited thereunto. Now, it is most evident that the inquiry was made according to the principles of the Pharisees, who expected justification by the works of the law, according to the tenor of a covenant of works; to which presumption of theirs our Saviour suits his answer, and seeing they sought to be justified and saved, as it were, by the works of the law, to the law he sends them. This, then, being Mr B.'s sense, wherein he affirms that it is possible to keep the commandments so as, for doing good and keeping them, to enter into life, I shall only remit him, as our Saviour did the
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Pharisee, to the law; but yet I shall withal pray that our merciful Lord would not leave him to the foolish choice of his own darkened heart, but in his due time, "by the blood of the covenant," which yet he seems to despise, send him forth " out of the pit wherein is no water."
Q. But though it be possible to keep the commandments, yet is it not enough if lue desire and endeavour to keep them, although we actually keep them not? and doth not God accept the will for the deed?
A. 1 Cor. vii. 19; Matt. vii. 21, 24, 26; James i. 25; Kom. ii. 10; John xiii. 17; Luke xi. 28; 2 Cor. v. 10; Matt. xvi. 27; Rev. xxii. 12; Matt. xix. 17-19; in all which places there is mention of doing the will of God, of keeping the com- mandments of God.
The aim of this question is to take advantage of what hath been delivered by some, not as an ordinary rule for all men to walk by, but as an extraordinary relief for some in distress. When poor souls are bowed down under the sense of their own weakness and insufficiency for obedience, and the exceeding unsuitableness of their best per- formances to the spiritual and exact perfection of the law of God (thiugs which the proud Pharisees of the world are unacquainted withal), to support them under their distress, they have been by some directed to the consideration of the sincerity that was in the obedience which they did yield, and guided to examine that by their desires and endeavours. Now, as this direction is not without a good foundation in the Scripture, Nehemiah describing the saints of God by this character, that they " desire to fear the name of God," chap. i. 11, and David everywhere professing this as an eminent property of a child of God, so they who gave it were very far from understanding such desires as may be pretended as a colour for sloth and negligence, to give countenance to the souls and consciences of men in a willing neglect of the performance of such duties as they are to press after; but such they intend as had adjoined to them, and accompanying of them, earnest, continual, sincere endeavours (as Mr B. acknowledge th) to walk before God in all well-pleasing, though they could not attain to that perfection of obedience that is required. And in this case, though we make not application of the particular rule of accepting the will for the deed to the general case yet we fear not to say that this is all the perfection which the best of the saints of God in this life attain to, and which, according to the tenor of that covenant wherein we now walk with God in Jesus Christ, is accepted. This is all the doing or keeping of the com- mandments that is intended in any of the places quoted by Mr B., unless that last, wherein our Saviour sends that proud Pharisee, according to his own principles, to the righteousness of the law which he followed after, but could not attain. But of this more afterward. He farther ar<rues: —
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Q. Though it he not only possible but also necessary to keep the command- ments, yet is it lawful so to do that we may have a right to eternal life and the heavenly inheritance? May we seek for honour, and glory, and immortality, by well-doing ? Is it the tenor of the gospel that we should live uprightly in ex- pectation of the hope hereafter? And, finally, ought -we to suffer for the kingdom of God, and not, as some are pleased to mince that matter, froin the kingdom of God? Where are the testimonies of Scripture to this purpose?