PART III. of gracious A ea ons. 307 ward Anions. Thefe Exercifes of Grace are practical and produc- tive of good Works, not only in this Senfe, that they are of a pro- duEive Nature, ( for fo are all Exercifes of true Grace ) but they are the producing Acts. This is properly the Exercife of Grace in the An of the Will ; and this is properly the Practice of the Soul. And the Soul is the immediate Actor of no other Practice but this : The Motions of the Body follow from the Laws of Union between the Soul andBody, whichGod, and not the Soul has fix'd, and does main- tain. The An of the Soul, and the Exercife of Grace, that is ex- erted in the Performance ofa good Work, is the good Work it felt, fo far as the Soul is cmicerned in it, or fo far as it is the Soul's good Work. TheDeterminations of the Will, are indeed our very Ac- tions, fo far as they are properly ours, as Dr. Doddridge obferves. 1- In this Praaice of the Soul, is included the Aim and Intention of the Soul which is the Agent. For not only Ihould we not look on the Motions of a Statue, doing Juflice or diffributing Alm; by Clock- work, as any Acts of Obedience to Chrift in that Statue ; but neither would any Body call the voluntary Anions of a Man, externally and materially agreable to a Command of Chrift, by the Name of Obe- dience to Chrift, if he had never heard of Chrift, or any of his Com- mands, or had noThought of hisCommands in what he did. If the Acts of Obedience and good Fruits fpoken of, be looked upon, not as meer Motions of the Body, but as Acts of the Soul ; the whole Ex- ercife of the Spirit of the Mind, in the Action, muff be taken in, with the End acted for, and the Refpect the Soul then has to God, etc ; otherwife they are no Acts of Denial of ourfelves, or Obedience to God, or Service done to him, but fomething elfe. Such effective Ex- ercifes of Grace as thefe that I have now defcribed, many of the Martyrs have experienc'd in a high Degree. And all true Saints live a Life of fuchActs ofGrace as thefe ; as they all live a Life of gracious Works, of which thefe operative Exertions of Grace are the Life and Soul. And this is tlae Obedience and Fruit that God mainly looks at, as he looks at the Soul, more than the Body ; as much as the Soul, in the Conffitution of the human Nature, is the fuperiour Part. As God looks at the Obedience and Practice of the Man, he looks at the Practice of the Soul ; for the Soul is the Man in God's Sight ; For the Lordfeeth not as Man feeth, for He looketh on the Heart. And thus it is, that Obedience, goodWorks, good Fruit, are to be taken, when given in Scripture as a fure Evidence to our own Con fciences of a true Principle of Grace ; even as including the .Obedi- ence and Practice of the Soul, as preceeding and governing the Ac- tions of the Body. When Practice is given in Scripture as the main t Scripture Dottrine of Salvation. Sermon I. p. it i. X lEaide cc:
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