I shall only add further, that they commend to our ardent Affections and Endeavours, true Holiness, as distinguished from the most refined, unregenerate Morality. The Doctor saw the absolute necessity of this, and speaks with great jealousy of those who seem in their discourses to make it their highest aim to improve and cultivate some moral Virtues, as Justice, Temperance, Benignity, &c. by Philosophic helps, representing them as becoming the dignity of the Humane Nature, as agreeable to Reason, as beneficial to Societies, and but transiently speak of the Supernatural Operation of the Holy Spirit, that is as requisite to free the Soul from the Chains of Sin, as to release the Body at the last Day from the Bands of Death, that seldom preach of Evangelical Graces, Faith in the Redeemer, Love to God for his admirable Mercy in our Salvation, Zeal for his Glory, Humility in ascribing all that we can return in grateful Obedience, to the most free and powerful Grace of God in Christ, which are the vital principles of good Works, and derive the noblest forms to all Virtues. Indeed Men may be composed and considerate ⟨image 4⟩in their Words and Actions, may abstain from gross Enormities, and do many praise-worthy Actions by the rules of moral Prudence, yet without the infusion of divine Grace to cleanse their stained Natures, to renew them according to the Image of God shining in the Gospel, to act them from Motives superior to all that Moral Wisdom propounds, all their Virtues of what elevation soever, though in an heroic degree, cannot make them real Saints. As the Plant Animal has a faint resemblance of the sensitive Life, but remains in the lower rank of Vegetables: so these have a shadow, an appearance of the Life of God, but continue in the corrupt state of Nature. And the difference is greater between sanctifying saving Graces wrought by the special Power of the Spirit, with the holy Operations flowing from them, and the virtuous Habits and Actions that are the effects of Moral Counsel and Constancy, then between true Pearls produced by the Celestial Beams of the Sun, and counterfeit ones formed by the smoky heat of the Fire. In short, the Lord Jesus our Saviour and Judge, who purchased the Heavenly Glory, and has sole power to give the actual possession of it, assures us, that unless a Man be born of the Spirit, he can never enter into the kingdom of God.
I shall only add further, that they commend to our ardent Affections and Endeavours, true Holiness, as distinguish'd from the most refin'd, unregenerate Morality. The Doctor saw the absolute necessity of this, and speaks with great jealousy of those who seem in their discourses to make it their highest aim to improve and cultivate some moral Vertues, as Iustice, Temperance, Benignity, &c. by Philosophick helps, representing them as becomming the dignity of the Humane Nature, as agreeable to Reason, as beneficial to Societies, and but transiently speak of the Supernatural Operation of the Holy Spirit, that is as requisite to free the Soul from the Chains of Sin, as to release the Body at the last Day from the Bands of Death, that seldom preach of Evangelical Graces, Faith in the Redeemer, Love to God for his admirable Mercy in our Salvation, Zeal for his Glory, Humility in ascribing all that we can return in grateful Obedience, to the most free and powerful Grace of God in Christ, which are the vital principles of good Works, and derive the noblest forms to all Vertues. Indeed Men may be compos'd and considerate ⟨image 4⟩in their Words and Actions, may abstain from gross Enormities, and do many praise-worthy Actions by the rules of moral Prudence, yet without the infusion of divine Grace to cleanse their stained Natures, to renew them according to the Image of God shining in the Gospel, to act them from Motives superiour to all that Moral Wisdom propounds, all their Vertues of what elevation soever, though in an heroick degree, cannot make them real Saints. As the Plant Animal has a faint resemblance of the sensitive Life, but remains in the lower rank of Vegitables: so these have a shadow, an appearance of the Life of God, but continue in the corrupt state of Nature. And the difference is greater between sanctifying saving Graces wrought by the special Power of the Spirit, with the holy Operations flowing from them, and the vertuous Habits and Actions that are the effects of Moral Counsel and Constancy, then between true Pearls produced by the Celestial Beams of the Sun, and counterfeit ones formed by the smoaky heat of the Fire. In short, the Lord Iesus our Saviour and Iudge, who purchas'd the Heavenly Glory, and has sole power to give the actual possession of it, assures us, that unless a Man be born of the Spirit, he can never enter into the kingdom of God.
