AND GOSPELI10LI And to say, that what God so promiseth to work, he will not work or effect indeed, but only persuade and prevail with us to do it, is through the pride of unbe- lief to defy the truth and grace of God, and with the spoils of them to adorn our own righteousness and power. Now God bath multiplied his promises to this purpose, so that we shall need to call over only some of them in way of instance, Jer. xxxi. 33. a, I will put my " law in your inward parts, and write it in your hearts, " and will be your God, and ye shall be my people." Chap. xxxii. 39, 40. 9 1 will give them one heart and uone way, that they may fear me for ever; and I will " put my fear in their hearts, that they shall not depart " fromme." Ezek. xxxvi. 26, 27. " A new heart will " I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you; u and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, " and I will give you an heart of flesh; and I will put ao my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do " them." Ver. 25. " 1 will sprinkle clean water upon " you, and you shall be clean from all your filthiness." Ver. 29. " I,will also save you from all your unclean - aHess." The whole of our sanctification and holiness is comprised in these promises. To be cleansed from the .defilements of sin, whatever they be, to have an heart inclined, disposed, enabled -to fear the Lord al- ways, and to walk in all his ways and statutes accord- ingly, with an internal habitual conformity of the whole soul unto the law of God, is to be sanctified, or to be holy. And all this God promiseth directly- to work in us, and to accomplish himself. In the faith of these promises, and for the fulfilling of them, the apostle prayeth for the Thessalonians, as we observed at our entrance, ''That the God of peace himself would sane- " tify them throughout; whereby their whole spirits, " souls and bodies, might be preserved blamelessto the "coming of Jesus Christ." And hence is evident what we before observed, that what is absolutely in our own power, is not of the nature of, nor doth necessarily be- long unto holiness, whatever it be. The best of the intellectual or moral habitsofour minds, which are but the natural improvement and exercise of our faculties, neither are nor can be our holiness; nor do the best of our moral duties, as merely and only so, belong there- unto. By these moral habits and duties, we under- stand the powers, faculties, or abilities of our souls, NESS EXPLAINED. ?O.i exercised with respect and in obedience unto the com- mands of God, as excited, persuaded, and guided by outward motives, rules, arguments, and considerations. Plainly, all the power we have of. ourselves to obey the law.of God, and all that we do in the pursuit and ex- ercise of that power, upon any reasons, motives, or considerations whatever, which may all be resolved into fear of punishment, and hope of reward, with some present satisfactions of mind on the account of ease in . conscience within, or outward reputation, whether in abstinence from sin, or the performance of duties, are intended hereby, and are not that holiness which we inquire after. And the reason is plain, even because those things are not wrought in us by the power of the especial grace of God in the pursuit of the especial pro- mise of the covenant, as all true holiness is. If any shall say, that they are so wrought in us, they do ex- pressly change the nature of them. For thereby those powers would be no more natural, but supernatural; and those duties would be nomore merely moral, but evangelical and spiritual, which is togrant -all we con- tend for. Wherefore, that which men call moral vir- tue, is so far from being the whole of internalgrace or holiness, that if it be no more than so, it belongs not at all unto it, as not being effected in us lay the especial ,grace of God, according to the tenor and promise of the covenant. Sect. 14. And we may here divert a little, to con- sider what ought to be the frame of our minds, in the pursuit of holiness with respect unto thesethings, name- ly, what regard we ought to have unto the command, on the one hand, and to the promise on the other; to our own duty, and to the grace of God. Some would separate these things as inconsistent. A command, they suppose leaves no room for a promise, at least not such a promise, as wherein God should take on himself to work in us what the command requires of us. And a promise, they think, takes off all the influencing-autho- rity of the command. If holiness be our duty, there is no room for grace in this matter; and if it be an effect of grace, there is no place for duty. But all these ar- goings are a fruit of the wisdomof the flesh before-men- tioned, and we have beforedisproved them. The wis- dom that is from above teacheth us other things. It is true, our works and grace are opposed in the matter of justification, as utterly inconsistent; If it be of works;
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