296 TETE POSITIVE WOE have occasionally, good purposes of leaving sin, and living unto God, then when something urgeth upon us more than ordinary, with the effects which suchpur- poses will produce. Afflictions, sicknesses, troubles, sense of great guilt, fear of death, and thelike, do usu- ally produce this frame. And although it is most re- mote from any pretence unto evangelical obedience, yet I could not but give a caution against it, because it is that whereby the generality of men in the world do de- lude themselves into eternal ruin. It is rare to find any that are so stubbornly profligate, but at one time or another, they project and design, yea, promise and engage unto a change of their course, and amendment of their lives, doing sundry things, it may be, in the pursuit of those designs and purposes: for they will thereon abstain from their old sins, with whose haunt they are much perplexed, and betake themselves unto the performance of those duties from whence they ex- pect most relief unto their consciences, and whose ne- glect loth most reflect upon them: especially will they do so, when the handof God is upon them in afflictions and dangers, Psal, lxxviii. 54, 35, 56, 87. And this produceth in them that kind of goodness, which God says, is like the morning cloud, or the early dete, things that make a fair appearance ofsomething, but immedi- ately vanish away, Hos. vi. 4. Certainly there need not much pains to convince any man, how unspeakably this comes short of that evangelical holiness which is a fruit of the sanctification of the Spirit. It hath neither the root of it, nor any fruit that doth so much as resem- ble it. But it is to be lamented, that such multitudes of rational creatures, living under the means of light and grace, should so vainly wand wofully delude their own soul. That which they aimat and intend, is to have that in them whereby they may be accepted with God. Now, not to insist on what will absolutely frus- trate all the designs of such persons, namely, their want of faith in Christ, andan interest in his righteousness thereby, which they are regardlessof; all that they pro- ject and design is as far beneath that holiness which God requireth ofthem, and which they think hereby to obtain, as the earth isbeneath the heavens. All that they do in this kind is utterly lost; it will never be ei- ther a righteousness unto them, or an holiness in them. But this deceit is frequently rebuked; God only, by his grace, can remove and take it away from the minds of men. IC OF TOTE SPIRIT Sect. 4l.(2.) And we may learn hence, not to be imposed on by gifts, though never so useful, with a plausible profession thereon. These things go a great way in the world, and many deceive both themselves and othersby them. Gifts are from the Holy Ghost in an especial manner; and therefore greatly to be esteem- ed. They are also frequently useful in and unto the church; for the manifestation of the Spirit is given unto men toprat withal. And they put men on such duties ashave a great shewand appearanceof holiness. By the helpof them alonemaymen pray and preach, and main- tain spiritual communication among them with whom they do converse. And, as circumstances maybe order- ed, they put sundry persons on a frequent performance of these duties; and so keep them up to an eminency in profession. But yet, when all is done, they are not ho liness, nor are the duties performed in the strength of them alone, duties of evangelical obedience accepted of God in them by whom they are performed; and they may be wherethere is nothing of holiness at all. They are not, indeed, only consistent with holiness, but subser- vient unto it, and exceeding promoters of it in the souls that are really gracious. But they may be alone, with- out grace, and then are they apt to deceive the mind with a pretence of being and doing what they are not, nor do. Let them be called toan account by the nature andproperties ofthat habit and principle of grace which is in all true holiness, as before explained, and it will quickly appear how short they come thereof: for, as their subject, where they have their residence, is the mind only, and not the will or affections, any further but as they are influenced or restrained by light, so they do not renew nor change the mind itself, so as to trans- form it into the image of God; neither do they give the soul a general inclination unto all acts and duties of obe- dience, but only a readiness for that duty which' their exercisedoth peculiarly consist in. Wherefore, theyan- swer no one property of true holiness, and we have not seldom seen discoveries made thereof. Sect. 45.Least of all can morality, or a course of moral duties, when it is alone, maintain any pretence hereunto. We have had attempts to prove, that there is no specifical difference between common and saving grace, but that they are both of the same kind, differ- ing only in degrees. But some, as though this ground were already gained, and needed no more contending
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