God Exalted, Man Humbled & Chri (continued)
internal principle: still, it is the same thing. Nothing will be produced but only an improvement and new modification of those principles that are exercised. Therefore it follows that saving grace in the heart, can't be produced in man by mere exercise of what perfections he has in him already, though never so much assisted by moral suasion, and never so much assisted in the exercise of his natural principles, unless there be something more than all this, viz., an immediate infusion or operation of the Divine Being upon the soul. Grace must be the immediate work of God, and properly a production of His Almighty power on the soul.
CHAPTER II.
SHEWING WHEREIN ALL SAVING GRACE DOES SUMMARILY
CONSIST.
THE next thing that arises for consideration is, What is the nature of this principle in the soul that is so entirely diverse from all that is naturally in the soul ? Here I would observe,—
1. That that saving grace that is in the hearts of the saints, that within them [which is] above nature, and entirely distinguishes 'em from all unconverted men, is radically but one—i.e., however various its exercises are, yet it is but one in its root; 'tis one individual principle in the heart.
'Tis common for us to speak of various graces of the Spirit of God as though they were so many different principles of holiness, and to call them by distinct names as such,—repentance, humility, resignation, thankfulness, &c. But we err if we imagine that these in their first source and root in the heart are properly distinct principles. They all come from the same fountain, and are, indeed, the various exertions and conditions of the same thing; only different denominations