72 Of Natural, Moral, and Civil Liberty.. S E R ni. our progrefs in virtue, requireth the vigorous III. exertion of our own abilities, and we muft work out our own falvation, our deliverance from the vaffalage of fin, with fear and trembling; which, fo fir from being fuper- feded, is greatly encouraged, and we are animated to diligence in it, by God's work- ing in us both to will and to do, of his own good pleafure. We do not at once grow up to perfection in religion and moral liberty ;. bad habits are not immediately unlearned, . good ones acquired, and temptations con- quered, but we muft advance gradually;. and nothing is more agreeable to the gene- ral firain of the New Teftament declara- tions, as nothing is more rational in itfelf, . than that we fhould make the Rate of our minds, with refpet to liberty and virtue, the objeé of our confiant attention, that we may grow up to maturity in every good difpofition, to a power over our own wills, and to an eftablifhed freedom from the dif- quieting importunities of irregular affections, Thus we affert ourfelves into liberty, and by degrees arrive to perfe&ion, with a de- lightful fruition of it, having received what the apoftle calleth the fpirit not of bondage, 'working to fear, but of adoption, whereby we know we are the children of God, and cry
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