IN THE SANCTIFICATION OF BELIEVERS. 281 immediately, and by the influence hereof into their acts wrought in believers, wherein their holiness Both consist. Some few testimonies of many shall suffice as to its pre- sent confirmation. The work of it is expressed, Deut. xxx. 6. " The " Lord thy God will circumcise thy heart, to love the " Lord thy God with all thy heart, and all thy soul, " that thou mayest live." The end of holiness is, that we may live, and the principal work of holiness is, to love the Lord our God with all our hearts and souls. And this is the effect of God's circumcising our hearts, without which it will not be. Every act of love and fear, and consequently ofevery dutyof holiness whatever, is consequential unto God's circumcising of our hearts. But it should seem that this work of God is only a re- moval ofhinderances, and doth not express the collation of the principle which we assert. I answer, that al- though it were easy to demonstrate, that this work of circumcising our hearts cannot be effected without an implantation of the principle pleaded for in them, yet it shall suffice, at present, to evince from hence, that this effectual work of God upon our hearts is antece- dently necessary unto all acts of holiness in us. But herewithal, God writes his law in our hearts, Jer. xxxi. 33. I will put my law in their inwardparts, andwrite it in their hearts. The habit or principle which we have described, is nothing but a transcript of the law of God implanted and abiding on our hearts, whereby we comply with, and answer unto the whole will of God therein. This is holiness in the habit and princi- ple of it. This is more fully expressed, Ezek. xxxvi. 26, 27. " A new heart will I give you, and a new spi- " rit will I put within you, and cause you to walk in " my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and " do them." The whole of all that actual obedience, and all those duties of holiness which God requireth of us, is contained in these expressions: Ye shall walk In my statutes, and keep my judobuts, to do them. Ante- cedent hereunto, and as the principle and cause thereof, God gives a new heart, and a new spirit. This new heart is an heart with the law of God written in it, as before- mentioned; and this new spirit is the habitualin- clination of that heart unto the life of God, or all duties of obedience. And herein the whole of what we have asserted is confirmed, namely, that antecedently unto all duties and acts of holiness whatever, and as thenext cause of them, there is, by the Holy Ghost, a newspi and duties do they become holy, and no otherwise. Sect. 10. For the further explanation of it, I shall only add three things: (1.) That this habit or principle thus wrought and a- biding in us, doth not, if I may so say, firm its own station, or abide and continue in us by its own natural efficacy, in adhering unto the faculties of our souls. Habits that are acquired by many actions, have a na- tural efficacy to preserve themselves, until some oppo- sition that is too hard for them, prevail against them, which is frequently (tho' not easily) done. But this is preserved in us, by the constant powerful actings and influence of the Holy Ghost. He which works it in us, doth also preserve it in us. And the reasonhereof is, because the spring of it is in our head, Christ Jesus; it being only an emanation of virtue and power from him unto usby the Holy Ghost; if this be not actually and always continued, whatever is in us, would die and wither of itself. See Eph. iv. 16. Col. iii. 3. John iv. 14. It is in us as the fructifying sap is in a branch of the vine or olive. It is there really and formally, and is the next cause of the fruit-bearing of the branch. But it doth not live and abide by itself, but by a con- tinual emanation and communication from the root. Let that be intercepted, and it quickly withers. So is it with this principle in us, with respect unto its root, Christ Jesus. (2.) Though this principle or habit of holiness be of the same kind or nature in all believers, in all that are sanctified, yet there are in them very distinct degreesof it. In some it is more strong, lively, vigorous, and flourishing, in others more weak, feeble, and unactive, and this in so great variety, and on so many occasions, as cannot be here spoken unto. (3.) That although this habit and principle is not ac- quired by any, or many acts of duty or obedience, yet is it in a way of duty, preserved, increased, strength- ened, and improved thereby. God hath appointed that we should live in the exercise ofit, and in and by the multiplication of its acts and duties, it is kept alive and stirred up, without which it will be weakened and decay. Sect. 11. This being what I intend as to the sub- stance of it, we must in the next place shew, that there is such a spiritual habit' or principle of spiritual life
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