Being, and then we live an Holy life: He that San- Chap. 12. Etifieth, and they who are Sanctified are all of one. Hebr. 2. 11. Hence Camero obferves, that between De Ecclef. Chrift and Believers there is a wonderful Commu- 223. nion of Nature: Both have an humane Nature Santified by the Holy Spirit; he was conceived by the Holy Spirit; they are regenerated by it, that they may live unto God but to make this point the clearer, I fhall confider the two parts of the new Creature; that is, Faith, and Love: I call them fo, because the Apostle, who faith, Neither Circumcifion availeth any thing, nor uncircumcifion, but a new Creature,Gal.6.15. faith alfo,Neither Circumcifion availeth, nor uncircumcifion, but Faith which worketh by Love, Gal. 5.6. intimating, that Faith and Love are two great parts of the new Creature: an holy Life flows from both thefe; Hence fomeLearned Divines obferve, that the good Acts of Heathens have an effential defect in them, the good Acts of Believers have only a gradual defect; but the good Acts of Heathens have an effential one; in that they do not flow from Faith and Love, and fo cannot Center in the Glory of God; Therefore St. Auftin retracts that Retr. lib.1. Speech, wherein he faid, Philofophos virtutis luce cap. 3. fulciffe, that the Philofophers did fhine with the light of virtue: But to speak diftinctly of these two Graces. First, An Holy Life iffues out of Faith; an holy Life is virtually in Faith, and proceeds actually from it; Faith fees the commands of God to be, as they are, richly Engraven with the Stamps and Signa tures of Divine purity and equity; fuch as Proclaim that God is in them of a truth, and that they are the very Counterpains of his Heart; and from hence Chap. 12. it preffes the Believer unto obedience, and fecretly dictates, that these are the very Will of God, and must be done; Thy word is very pure, therefore thy Servant loveth it: Saith David, Pfal. 119. 140. The Emphatical [therefore ] in the Text cannot be practically understood by any thing but Faith; the Carnal Mind, which is enmity to God, would argue from the purity of the command to the hatred of it; but Faith, fuch is its Divine Genius, argues from thence to Love and Obedience. It doth not only point out the Divine Authority which is ftampt upon the command, but fhew the purity and rectitude which is there to attract us into our duty; and that we may do it in a free filial manner. Faith derives a free Spirit from Chrift to make obedience eafie and natural to us; a Man with his old Heart drudges in the ways of God, and brings forth duties as the Bond-woman did her Son, in a dead Servile manner; but when Faith comes, the commands are eafie; and the Will is upon the Wheel, ready to move sweetly and ftrongly in compliance thereunto: The Believer is Spirited and new Natured for Obedience; his Heart is in a posture to do the Will of God; every where Faith finds Arguments and Impulfives for it: Doth it look upon the Life of Chrift? it immediately concludes, these are the steps of our dear Lord, and fhall we not follow him? After whom fhall we walk if not after him? It's true he walked in pure finlefs perfection, fuch as we cannot reach; but the gracious Covenant hath stooped to our frailty, and made us fure that fincerity will be accepted, and how can we deny it, or refufe to comply with fuch condefcending Grace? Doth it look upon Christs wounds and bloody Death? thefe these will caft shame and confufion upon an unho- Chap. 12. ly life: May any one imagine that our Saviour bore the Curfe and Wrath of God, that we might provoke it; or expiated our fins at fo dear a rate, as his own Blood and Life, that we might indulge them? who fees not now that Sin is bloody,and holiness amiable? and what eafie terms are propofed to us, when the Death and Curse was only Chrift's, and the fincere Obedience is all that is required to be ours? Doth it look up for the Spirit, the purchase of Christ's death? We well know where that is to be found: the more we walk in the holy Commands and ways of God, the more are we like to have of the gales and Divine comforts of it; while we are obeying and doing the Will of God, that Spirit will ufher in affiftances and Heavenly confolations upon us; to give us an experimental proof of that Promife, That the Holy Spirit is given to them that obey him: doth it look within the vail, to the Rivers of pleasures and plenitudes of joy in Heaven, where pious Souls fee Truth in the original, and drink good at theFountain head? Nothing is more obvious than this, that an holy Life is the true way thither; who can rationally think that he can carry the blots and turpitudes of an impure Life into fuch a place,or that any thing less than fincereObedience can make him meet to enjoy God and holy Angels there? nothing can be more vain than fuch an imagination; as fure as Heaven is Heaven, an holy Life must be the way thither: Thus we see what a mighty influence Faith hath into Holiness; hence Ignatius faith, de· Cous nisi, Faith is the beginning of Life; without Epift. ad! Faith a Man cannot live an holy Life: And St. Austin Ephef. calls Faith,Omnium Bonorum Fundamentum, The Foun- De Fide ad dation of all good things. So good a thing as an holy Petr. Pro Chap. 12. Life cannot stand without it. A Fide (faith another) venitur ad bona opera;Unless we begin atFaith, we shall never come to an holy Life. To conclude this with that of the Apostle, Without Faith it is impoffible to· pleafe God, Hebr. 11.6. Therefore without Faith it is impoffible to lead an holy Life, which is very acceptable to him. The next thing is, An holy Life issues out of Divine Love; without this neither Heart nor Life can be right; not the Heart; the Will without Divine Love in it, is tota cupiditas, all concupifcence, pouring out it felf to every vanity that paffes by; not the Life;whatever good is done without that Love, is done Servilitèr,non liberalitèr : whate ever is in the hand,it is not done out of choice; in animo non facit, his Will concurres not as it ought; in God's account it is as if it were not done at all: Love is the root of an holy Life,the fummary of the Law; though the Precepts of the Law are many in diverfitate operis,in the diversity of the Work, yet they are but one in radice Charitatis, in the root of Charity. True Love is Donum amantis in amatum; the Soul, being drawn and called out of it self by the object loved, yields and furrenders up it felf thereunto; if thus we love God, there muit needs be an holy Life: the Heart, when given up and confecrated unto him, cannot chufe but carry the Life with it. It would be a prodigy in Nature if the Heart should go one way, and the Life another: True Love fets a great price upon its object; and if the object be, as God is, fupreme, it rates it above all things; if we fet the highest estimate upon God's Will and Glory,nothing can divert us from an holy Life, which complies with his Will, and promotes his Glory; it is irrational to neglect that which we value above all other other things: True Love feeks more and more Union Chap. 12. with God, to be one Spirit with him; to have idem velle, & idem nolle; to love as he loves, that is, Holinefs; to hate as he hates, that is Sin. It afpires after a further transformation into the Divine Imagé and likeness: it never thinks the Soul like enough or near enough to him; where it is thus, there an holy Life cannot be wanting; the Heart being affimilated to God, the Life muft needs answer the Heart, and fhine with the rays of the Divine Image which is there. True Love defires to have a complacential rest and delight in God; it flies to him like Noah's Dove to the Ark, there to repose it self; what weight is in a Body, that Love is in the Soul; weight Amor meus makes the Body move towards its center: Love makes Pondus me the Soul tend,by an holy Life,to center inGod the Su- um, Aust. preme goodness, leaving all other things as the Woman of Samaria did her Pitcher. It haftens in a way of Obedience to enjoy him: Thus we fee how an holy Life iffues out of a Regenerate Heart, and particularly out of Faith and Love; the Doctrine of it is not to be flubbered over, as if it did meerly confift in external Actions or Moralities. But we must search and fee, Whether there be a new Creature, a Work of Regeneration at the bottom of it. Job, being by his Friends charged as an hypocrite,tells them, That the root of the matter was found in him, Job 19. 28. He was not a Man of leaves,and outward appearances only, but the root of true Piety was in him; without this all good actions, how fpecious foever, are but like the Apples of Sodom, which, though fair to the Eye, upon a touch fall into afhes and fmoak. Thirdly, An holy Life proceeds out of a pure Intention; Bonum opus Intentio facit, Intentionem Fides Fff diri |