A Body of Practical Divinity

1. The Case of an Unregenerate Man is such, that he cannot perfectly obey all God's Commands. He may as well touch the Stars, or span the Ocean, as yield exact Obedience to the Law. A Person unregenerate cannot act Spiritually, he cannot pray in the Holy Ghost, he cannot live by Faith, he cannot do Duty out of love to Duty; and if he cannot do Duty Spiritually, then much less Perfectly. Now that a Natural Man cannot yield perfect Obedience to the Moral Law, is evident: (1.) Because he is Spiritually dead, Eph. 2.1. And being so, how can he keep the ⟨p. 389⟩Commandments of God perfectly? A dead Man is not fit for Action. A Sinner hath the Symptoms of Death upon him. 1. He hath no Sense; a Dead Man hath no Sense: He hath no Sense of the Evil of Sin, of God's Holiness and Veracity; therefore he is said to be without feeling, Eph. 4.19. 2. He hath no Strength, Rom. 5.6. What Strength hath a dead Man? A Natural Man hath no Strength to deny himself, to resist Temptation; he is dead: And can a dead Man fulfil the Moral Law? (2.) A natural Man cannot perfectly keep all God's Commandments, because he is so interlarded with Sin. He is born in Sin, Psal. 51.5. Job 15.16. —He drinks Iniquity as Water. All the Imagination of his Thoughts are evil, and only evil, Gen. 6.5. Now the least Evil Thought is [Greek or Hebrew], a Breach of the Royal Law: And if there be Defection, there cannot be Perfection. And as a natural Man hath no Power to keep the Moral Law, so he hath no Will. He is not only Dead, but worse than dead. A dead Man doth no Hurt, but there is a Life of Resistance against God goes along with the Death of sin? A Natural Man not only cannot keep the Law through Weakness, but he breaks it through Wilfulness. Jer. 44.17. We will do whatsoever goeth out of our Mouth, to burn Incense to the Queen of Heaven.