OF THE ACTS AND DUTIES OF J-IOLINESS. 514 sorts, or are distinguished with respect unto their ob- jects and. end: For, (1.) God himself is the object and end of some of them, as of prayer and praises, whether private or more solemn. And of this nature are all those which are commonly called duties of the first ta- ble, all such as belong unto the sanctification of the name of God in his worship. (g.) Some respect men of all sorts in their various capacities, and our various relations unto them, or have men for their object, but God for their end. And among these also I include those which principally regard ourselves, or our own persons. The whole of what we intend is summarily expressed by our apostle, Titus ii. 12. Sect. 5.Concerning all these acts and duties, whe- ther internal only, or external also, whether their pro- per object be God, ourselves, or other men, so far as they are acts of holiness, and are accepted with God, they proceed from a peculiar operation of the Holy Spirit in us. And herein, to make our intention the more evident, we may distinctly 'observe: (1.) That there is in the minds, wills, and affections of all believers, a meetness, fitness, readiness, and habi- tual disposition, unto the performance of all acts of obedience towards God, all duties of piety, charity, and righteousness, that are required of them, and hereby are they internally and habitually distinguished from them . that are not so. That it is so with them, and whence it comes to be so, we have before declared. This power and disposition is wrought and preserved in them by the Holy Ghost. (2.) No believercan of himself act, that is, actually exert or exercise this principle, or power of a spiritual life, in any one instance of any duty, internal or exter- nal towards God or men, so as that it shall be an act of holiness, or a duty accepted with God. He cannot, I say, do so of himself, by virtueof any power habitually inherent in him. We are not in this world entrusted with any such spiritual ability from God, as without further actual aid and assistance, to do any thing that is good: Therefore, (3.) That which, at present, I design to prove is, that the " actual aid, assistance, and internal operation " of the Spirit of God, is necessary, required, and u granted, unto the producing of every holy act of our "minds, wills, and affections, in every duty whatever:" Or, notwithstanding the power or ability which believ- ers have received in, or by habitual grace, they still stand in need of actual grace,, in, for, and unto every . single gracious holy act or duty towards God. And this I shall now a little furtherer explain, and then con- firm. Sect. 6. As it is in our natural lives with respect unto God's providence, so it is in our spiritual lives with respect unto his grace. He hath, in the works of nature, endowed us with a vital principle, or an act of the quickening soul upon the body, which is quickened thereby. By virtue hereof, we are enabled unto all vital acts, whether natural and necessary, or voluntary according to the constitution of our beings, which is intellectual. God breathed into man the breath of life, and he became a living soul, Gen. ii. 7. giving him a principle of life, he was fitted for, and enabled unto all theproper acts of that life. For a principle of life is an ability and disposition unto acts of life. But yet, whosoever is thus made a living soul, who is endued with this principle of life, he is not able, originally, without any motion or acting from God, as the first cause, or independently on him, to exert or put forth any -vital act: that which hath not this principle, as a dead carcase, bath no meetness unto vital actions, nor is capable either of motion or alteration, but as it re- ceives impressions from an outward principle of force, or an inward principle of corruption. But he, in whom it is, hath a fitness, readiness, and habitual power for all vital actions, yet so, as without the concurrence,of God in his energetical providence, moving and actuat- ing of him, he can do nothing; for, in God the live, andmove, andhave our being, Acts xvii. 25. And if any one could, of himself, perform an action without any concourse of divine operation, he must himself be absolutely the first and only cause of that action, that is, the creator of a new being. Sect. 7. It is so as unto our spiritual life. We are, by the grace of God through Jesus Christ, furnished with a principle of-it, in the way and for the ends be- fore described. Hereby are we enabled and disposed to live unto God in the exercise of spiritually vital acts, or theperformance of duties of holiness. And he who hath not this principle of spiritual life, is spiritually dead, as we have at large before manifested, and can do nothing at all that is spiritually good. He may be moved unto, and, as it were, compelled, by the power .v.G_........-
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy OTcyMjk=