holy, but common and profane; no less a nullity in Chap. 12. Spirituals than a Creature, if cut off from God the Fountain of Being, would be in Naturals: Hence

Moralibus. Those Acts which

Quicquid boni fit, & non propter hoc fit propter quod fieri debet, etfi officio videtur bonum, ipso non reEto fine peccatum eft, Contra Jul.1.4. c. 3.

St. Austin tells us, That which is good in officio, may yet be sin in fine; For, as the Schools speak, Finis dat speciem in are good in the matter of them, may be utterly marred by perverse Intention: It becomes us than to look to the scope of our Actions. Our Saviour Christ, the great Exemplar of Sanctity, tells us, That he fought not his own Glory, but his Father's, Joh. 8. 50. compared with Joh. 7. 18. He was Deus de Deo, God of God; the Eternal Creator; yet as he was in forma fervi, in the form of a Servant, a Man in time, he fought not his own Glory, but his Father's. We fee here what is the Design of an holy Life; it is that God may be glorified: our Holiness should shine as a little Beam or Spark from the Holy one; the drops and measures of Mercy in us should point out that infinite Ocean of Mercy which is in him: We should by our Obedience tell the World, that God is Supream, and by our sincerity testifie, that he is omniscient, and present every where; we should study how to serve the • Interest of the Blessed God, how to shew forth his Praise, how to unfold his Glory in an holy righteous, humble, heavenly Conversation; still there should be Oculus in metam, a pure Intention at the Glory of God: If we are by a pure Intention joyned to that great End, then our Works will be spiritualized; our Holiness will never see corruption; there will be be a kind of Immortality in every goodAction: but if we are off from that great End, our Holiness perishes, Ggg

or

Chap. 12. or rather is none at all. There is a worm at the ☑ Root; one base, low, inferiour End or other putrifies the good Work, and makes it moulder into nothing. When the Woman in the Revelations was ready to be delivered, the Dragon stood before her to devour her

Child, but it was caught up to God and his Throne. Nerimb. de A devout Papist glosses it thus; When we bring Kit. Div. forth our good Works, Satan stands before us to devour them by one false Intention or other, and will cera tainly do it, unleß by a pure one they be caught up to God and his Glory. Another expoftulates thus, Quid juvat bonorum operum prolem gignere, & eam per Intentionis depravationem necare? What profits it to beget a progeny of Good Works, and to kill it by a depraved Intention? A Man, who wants a right Intention, murders his best progeny. The Church therefore tells us, That all her fruits were laid up for Christ, Cant. 7. 13. Propter te, Domine, propter te, is the holy Man's Motto; all his good Works are by a pure Intention confecrated unto God: When an Hypocrite doeth good Works, the center and compass of all is himself only; and upon that account, those Works are not good in the Eyes of God: But when a Saint doeth good Works, they fall into God's Bofom, and center in his Glory. To conclude; Where pure Love adheres to God as the Supream Good, there a pure Intention will dedicate the Life to his Glory, as the ultimate End; then and not before may we call the Life holy.

Fourthly, An holy Life is humble and dependant upon the influences of God's Spirit and Grace. Hence the Apostle bids us, Work out our Salvation with fear and trembling, Phil. 2. 12. That is, with all humility: And the Reason is added, For God worketh to will, and to do of his good pleasure, verf.13. which Chap. 12. would be no Reason at all, if we could stand upon our own bottom, and work out our Salvation without any dependance upon that Grace, which worketh the Will and the Deed: But if, as the reason tells us, God works the Will and the deed of his good pleasure, then we have all the reason in the World to work it out with fear and trembling; as knowing our dependance upon God and his Grace. Again, The Apostle faith of himself, I laboured more abundantly than they all; yet not I, but the Grace of God, which was with me, I Cor.15.10. Observe his great caution; he ascribes nothing to himself, but all to Grace. He faid indeed, I laboured; yet he piouflly retracts it, saying, yet not-I, but the Grace of God. He afcribes all to Grace, because in all his labours he was in an humble dependance upon it, as being that with. out which he could do nothing. This note of an holy Life doth also shew, that the Moral Vertues of the Heathens were not right: they were indeed wife, sober, just, merciful; but what was their posture in their doing these things? how did they crow, and reflect upon themselves, and cry up their own Reason and Will, as the only Fountains of Vertue? The Philosopher, faith Epictetus, expects all Iξ ἱἑαυτë from bim Ench. c. 17. Self. Deorum immortalium munus est, quod vivimus, Philofophiæ, quod benè vivimus, Our Life is from the Epift. 90. Gods; but, which is greater than Life, our Vertue is from Philosophy. Thus Seneca, their Virtuoso, could vie perfection with God himself: Hoc est quod Epist. 48. Philofophia mihi promittit, ut me parem Deo faciat, faith Seneca: Philosophy was to make him equal to God. Nay, there is a strain higher; Est aliquid, quo Epift. 53. Sapiens antecedet Deum, ille Naturæ beneficio, non

Ggg 2

Suo

Deor.

Chap. 12. fuo, Sapiens eft, faith he; There is something wherein a wife Man hath the precedence of God: God is God by Nature, but the wise Marris so by his Reason and Will. They scorned that Vertue should be Res beneficiaria, a thing precarious or dependant upon the Grace of God; they would have it to be meerly and De Natura entirely their own. Virtutem nemo unquam acceptam Deo retulit, nimirùm rectè propter virtutem jure laudamur; in virtute rectè gloriamur; quod non contingeret, fi id donum à Deo, non à nobis haberemus, thus Cicero; No Man ever thank't God for being vertuous; for Vertue we are justly praised, in Vertue we rightly glory; which we could not do if it were from God, and not from our selves: And may we call this Holiness? No surely; it's horrible Impiety, and desperate Pride, for them thus to lift up themselves, and dethrone God the great Donor. The Angels by reflecting on their own excellencies in a thought, were turned into Devils: And, I confidently say it, Vertues, which by a proud reflex are turned back upon themselves, lose their Nature; being altogether independant upon God, the Fountain of goodness, they are no longer Vertues, but Fancies and Nullities. A proud Self-fubfifter is a Man in a posture as cross to the Gofpel as possibly can be: the tumor in his Heart makes him uncapable of that Grace which is given to the humble; the Self-fufficiency there makes it impossible for him to live by Faith, as the Just do; he depends not on God's Grace, and how can he live to his Glory? he is all to himself, and what can God be to him? Some Pagans, faith St. Austin, would not be Christians, quia fufficiunt fibi de bona vitâ fuâ, because they could live well of themselves: If a Man can stand upon his own bottom, and work out of his

Praf. in Pfal. 31.

OWD

own stock, to what purpose are Christ and Grace? Chap. 12. if he may be a Principle and End to himself, what need he go out of his own Circle? Such a Man as this, is an Idol to himself, fraught with Vanity and horrible Presumption; but utterly void of God and an holy Life. I shall say no more to this: An holy Life is a Life of dependance; the Just or holy Man lives by Faith; he looks to God, and is saved; he waits till Mercy come; he commits himself to God and his Grace; he leans and rolls upon him, as not bearing up his own weight; he cafts his burden on him, as being too much for himself. He gives himself to the Lord, resigning up all his property in himself,that God may be all in all; still he is in dependance upon him: He moves but under the First Mover; he acts but under the great Agent; when he fails towards Heaven, he looks for the holy gales; when he sows precious Seed, he waits for the Heaven--ly dews and Sun-beams: Still he depends upon Grace. In the 119. Pfal. where we have the breath-ings of Vital Religion, Dauid admirably sets forth, how in all his holy actings he did depend upon God: Thou hast commanded us to keep thy Precepts; but O that my ways were directed to do so, vers. 4, & 5. I will keep thy Statutes; but O forsake me not utterly, vers. 8. With my whole Heart have I fought thee, but. O let me not wander from thy Commandments, verf.10. I will run the way of thy Commandments, but do thou enlarge my Heart, verf. 32. I love thy Precepts; but quicken me, O Lord, according to thy loving kindness, verf.159. I have chosen thy Precepts; O let thine Hand help me, verf. 173. We fee here the true Picture of an holy Life: It is working and depending; it is Obedience and Influence in Conjunction. The holy Man very well knows, that the new Crea