2. Our keeping the Commandments must be uniform. We must make Conscience of one Commandment as well as another, Psal. 119.6. Then shall I not be ashamed, when I have respect to all thy Commandments. Every Commandment hath a Jus divinum, the same stamp of Divine Authority upon it: And if I obey one Precept, because God commands, by the same Reason I must obey all. Some obey the Commands of the first Table, but are careless in the Duties of the second: And so, è contra. Physicians have a Rule, when the Body sweats in one part, but is cold in another, it is a sign of a Distemper. So when Men seem Zealous in some Duties of Religion, but are Cold and Frozen in another, it is a sign of Hypocrisy. We must have respect to all Gods Commandments. Quest. But who can keep all Commandments? Resp. There is a fulfilling of Gods Commands, and a keeping them: Though we cannot fulfil all, yet we may be said to keep them in an Evangelical Sense. We may facere, though not perficere: We keep the Commandments Evangelically. 1. Where we make Conscience of every Command: Though we come short in every Duty, yet we dare not neglect any Duty. 2. Our desire is to keep every Commandment, Psal. 119.5. O that my ways were directed to keep thy Statutes. What we want in Strength, we make up in Will. 3. We grieve that we can do no better. When we fail, we weep: We prefer Bills of Complaint against our selves, and judge our selves for our Failings, Rom. 7.24. 4. We do elicere conatum, we endeavour to obey every Commandment, Phil. 3.14 I press toward the mark. We strive as in an Agony, and if it lay in our power we would fully comport with every Commandment. 5. When we fall short, and are unable to come up to the full Latitude of the Law, we look to Christs Blood to sprinkle our imperfect Obedience; and with the grains of his Merits cast into the Scales to make it pass current. This is in an Evangelical Sense to keep all the Commandments; and though it be not to Satisfaction, yet it is to Acceptation.
2. Our keeping the Commandments must be uniform. We must make Conscience of one Commandment as well as another, Psal. 119.6. Then shall I not be ashamed, when I have respect to all thy Commandments. Every Commandment hath a Ius divinum, the same stamp of Divine Authority upon it: And if I obey one Precept, because God commands, by the same Reason I must obey all. Some obey the Commands of the first Table, but are careless in the Duties of the second: And so, è contra. Physicians have a Rule, when the Body sweats in one part, but is cold in another, it is a sign of a Distemper. So when Men seem Zealous in some Duties of Religion, but are Cold and Frozen in another, it is a sign of Hypocrisie. We must have respect to all Gods Commandments. Quest. But who can keep all Commandments? Resp. There is a fulfilling of Gods Commands, and a keeping them: Though we cannot fulfill all, yet we may be said to keep them in an Evangelical Sense. We may facere, though not perficere: We keep the Commandments Evangelically. 1. Where we make Conscience of every Command: Though we come short in every Duty, yet we dare not neglect any Duty. 2. Our desire is to keep every Commandment, Psal. 119.5. O that my ways were directed to keep thy Statutes. What we want in Strength, we make up in Will. 3. We grieve that we can do no better. When we fail, we weep: We prefer Bills of Complaint against our selves, and judge our selves for our Failings, Rom. 7.24. 4. We do elicere conatum, we endeavour to obey every Commandment, Phil. 3.14 I press toward the mark. We strive as in an Agony, and if it lay in our power we would fully comport with every Commandment. 5. When we fall short, and are unable to come up to the full Latitude of the Law, we look to Christs Blood to sprinkle our imperfect Obedience; and with the grains of his Merits cast into the Scales to make it pass current. This is in an Evangelical Sense to keep all the Commandments; and though it be not to Satisfaction, yet it is to Acceptation.
