NATURAL AND SPIRITUAL, COMPARED. 171 are unclean, because their consciences and minds are de- ence between the duties themselves, whereof one is ac- filed, Tit. i. 15. Sa their praying is said to be an abo- mination, and their plowing sin. It doth not therefore appear what is otherwise in them, or to them. But as there are good duties which have sin adhering to them, Isa. lxiv. 6. so there are sins which have good in them. For bon= oritur ex integris, mutton ex quocunque de- fectu. Such are the duties of men unregenerate. For- mally, and unto them, they are sin; materially, and in themselves, they are good. This gives them a differ- ence from, and a preference above such sins, as are every way sinful. As they are duties, they are good; as they are the duties of such persons, they are evil, be- cause necessarily defective in what should preserve them, from being so. And, on this ground, they ought to attend unto them, and may be pressed thereunto. Sect. 26.(2.) That which is good materially and in itself, though vitiated from the relation which it bath to the person by whom it is performed, is approved, and bath its acceptation in its proper place. For duties may be performed two ways. (l.) In hypocrisy and pre- tence, so they are utterly abhorred of God in matter and manner; that is such a poisonous ingredient as viti- ates the whole, Ise. i. 11, 12, is, 14. Hos. i. 4. (2.) In integrity accordingunto present light and conviction, which, for the substance of them, are approved. And no man is to be exhorted to do any thing in hypocrisy; see Matth. x. 21. And, on this account also, that the duties themselves are acceptable, men may be pressed to them. But, (S.) It must be granted, that the same duty, for the substance of it in general, and performed according to the same rule as to the outward manner of it, may be accepted in or from one, and rejected in or from another. Sowas it with the sacrifices of Cain and Abel. And not only so, but the same rejected duty may have degrees of evil, for which it is rejected, and be moresinful in and unto one than unto another. But we must observe, that the difference doth not relate merely unto the different states of the persons by whom such are performed; as, because one is in the state of grace, whose duties are accepted; and another in the state ofnature, whose duties are rejected, as their per- sons are. For although the acceptation of our persons be a necessary condition for the acceptation of our du. ties, as God first had respect unto Abel, and then unto his of}çrings; yet there is always a real specifical differ,- cepted, and the other rejected¡ although, it may be unto us, it be every way imperceptible.' As in the of- ferings of Cain and Abel, that of Abel was offered in faith, the defect whereof in the other caused it to be refused. Suppose duties therefore to be every way the same as to the principles, rule and ends, or whatever is necessary to render them good in their kind; and they would be all equally accepted with God, by whom- soever they are performed, for he is no accepter of persons. But this cannot be, but where those that perform them are partakers of the same grace. It is therefore the wills of men only that vitiate their duties, which are required of them as good; and if so they may justly be required of them. The defect is not im- mediately in their state, but in their wills and their perversity. Sect. 27:-4thly, The will of God is the rule of all mens obedience. This they are all bound to attend un- to; and if what they do through their own defect prove eventually sin unto them, yet the commandment is just and holy, and the observance of it justly prescribed unto them. The law is the moral cause of the perfor- mance of the duties it requires, but not of the sinful manner of their performance. And God bath not lost his right of commanding men, because they by their sin, have lost their power to fulfil his commands. And if the equity of the command doth arise from the pro- portioning of strength that men have to answer it, he that by contracting the highest moral disability that depraved habits of mind can introduce, or a course of sinning produce in him, is freed from owning obedience unto any of God's commands; seeing all confess that such an habit of sin may be contracted, as will de. prive them in whom it is, of all power of obedience: Wherefore; Sect. 28. -4. Preachers of the gospel and others have sufficient warrant to press upon all men, the duties of faith, repentance, and obedience, although they know that in themselves they have not a sufficiency of ability for their dueperformance: For, (I.) It is the will and command of God that so they should do, and that is the rule of all our duties. They are not to consider what man can do or will do, but what God requires. To malte a judgment of mens ability, and to accommodate the çommands of ÇIod suntp them accordingly, is not $3
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