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but an Almighty power can sanctify a dead sinner; the same power that wrought in raising a dead Saviour, is needful for the raising a dead sinner, Eph. i. 19, 20. and hence it is that the power of the Holy Ghost is so much spoken of in the word.

3dly, This work of sanctification, ascribed to the Holy Ghost, shews that it is always done in infinite wisdom. All divine acts are wrought in wisdom; there is a depth in them all. There is wisdom as to the persons, and wisdom as to the way. There is wisdom as to the persons; all the elect of God, all the redeemed, and none but they, are sanctified. As the Redeemer knew who were given to him, and therefore he laid down his life for them; so the Holy Ghost knows who the Son redeems, and he sanctifies them to his praise. It is always done in great and unsearchable wisdom. No man knows this way of the Spirit; Every one that is born of the Spirit is born that way, John iii. 8.; he cannot tell how the work is wrought, and yet it is wrought, because an Almighty arm is at the working of it.

4thly, This work having so great a worker, doubtless hath a great effect. If I may so say, election has not so great an immediate effect; for there are a great many elected, who are a long while before they are called; the sprinkling of the blood of Jesus, and the virtue of his redemption, doth not reach its effect so quickly, because there are a great many whom Christ died for that are a long while before they come to him, and receive the power of his grace. But the operation of the Holy Ghost in sanctifying us, hath a sensible and an immediate effect. There is always something in it that may be presently, sensibly, and undeniably known. I do not say it is always so; but there is nothing spoken of in the word, as a more sensible thing than is the work of the Holy Ghost. It is expressed to us by all those words by which the greatest changes that ever were wrought are expressed. It is expressed by creation, 2 Cor. iv. 6. God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts. Was there ever so great a change in this world as creation? When nothing became all things, that was the greatest change imaginable; a change from nothing into being; this is the greatest change that can

possibly enter into the mind of a man. It is expressed by the change from death to life, at the resurrection. And is not that a great change; when the body that hath lain in the rottenness of the grave for so many ages, shall be raised up a glorious temple to the Holy Ghost? It is also expressed by opening the eyes of the blind. You read in the gospel, John ix. of one who was born blind, whose eyes Christ opened: now let any of you enter into a serious consideration of the marvellous change that this man found; doubtless he had heard of the sun, and the moon, and the stars; and some dark notion he might have of them; but he could have no imagination at all of light and colours, he could form no proper idea of them but now, when our Lord had opened his eyes, and he looked up to heaven and saw the glory of that creature the sun, which he never saw before; when he looked about him, and saw a world filled with fine things that he never saw before, doubtless he found a wonderful change; and it is a great wonder, if he came to himself in a long time after. So this change that is wrought by the Spirit in regeneration, is just like the opening of the eyes of a man born blind: he had heard tell of Jesus Christ, and the new world of grace, but he never saw it before, till the Spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Christ came, and then the eyes of his understanding were opened.. May the Lord so enlighten and enliven us by his Spirit! Amen.

SERMON VII.

1 PETER i. 2.

Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience, and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ: Grace unto you, and peace be multiplied. THROUGH sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience, is the clause I am now upon. I was speaking in my last discourse of this third work of the third person in the Godhead, in the

Salvation of a sinner. Election is ascribed to the Father, redemption by blood to the Son, and sanctification unto the Holy Ghost. Of this sanctification of the Spirit, that is the work of the third person in the Godhead about our salvation, I proposed to speak three things. 1st, Of sanctification itself. 2dly, That it is called sanctification of the Spirit. 3dly, That this sanctification is, said in the text to be unto obedience. Of the first of these I have spoken all that I intended; both of the nature of sanctification itself, together with its agreement with the blessings of justification, and its difference therefrom. I began also to speak unto the second particular-that sanctification is here said to be of the Spirit. I mentioned three things, as contained in this, though indeed it is the first of them that is principally meant ;—that this sanctification of the Spirit is chiefly to be understood with respect to its author, the Holy Ghost: and what that implied I then spoke to.

2dly, I am now to take notice of this word, The sanctification of the Spirit, as it denotes the means whereby this work is wrought; and the rather is this to be taken notice of, because the word Spirit is frequently ascribed to the gospel; more especially this expression is frequently used by the apostle: in 2 Cor. iii. 6. The letter killeth, but the Spirit giveth life; and again, ver. 8. How shall not the ministration of the Spirit be rather glorious? and again, ver. 17. Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty; and again, in the last verse, We are changed from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord. This great work of sanctification is managed by the word of God; now, What word is it that God makes use of to sanctify a man? It is by the word of the gospel; for that is spe cially called the Spirit: and here is a point that lies remote from the knowledge and observation of the greatest part. They think, and it is a very natural thought, that the law is the mean of sanctification; that the law commanding is the mean of it. I would therefore shew, that it is not, but that the gospel is so. Now this thought, that the law is the mean of sanctification, is greatly fortified by these two considera. tions: 1st, The law is the measure and rule of holiness; that s past question. When the enquiry is, What is holiness? VOL. IV.

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What is pleasing to God? There is no answer can be given but this, "That which is according to his will; the law is "the certain sure rule of all holiness." 2dly, The law commands holiness, and that in the most forcible manner, by the greatest promises, and by the greatest threatenings. Fear and hope are the great engines that set all mankind at work; there would be no stirring in this world if it were not for fear and hope. All men's natural, civil, and moral actions are moved this way; they flee from that which they apprehend to be hurtful, out of fear; and they pursue what they apprehend to be good, out of hope. Now the law is the sure rule of duty, and the law is the forcible commander of it; and therefore it is that men are so apt to think that the law is the mean of sanctification; every natural man thinks he may be made holy by the law.

1st,

I would therefore prove this matter both negatively and positively. 1st, That the law is not the mean of sanctification. 2dly, That the gospel is so. That the law is not the mean of sanctification, I would prove by two things. It was never designed so to be; and it never effected it. It was never designed to be so by the Law-giver, and it was never found to be so by the law-receiver: and when these two are plainly seen and proved, the negative part will be sufficiently confirmed that the law is not the mean of sanctification. It was never made to be so; that is, the great and wise Lawgiver never gave his law to be the mean of sanctification: you may think strange of this, but I will give you three instances of it, which will abundantly confirm it. 1st, When the law was first made, and given to innocent Adam, it was not given as a mean of sanctification at all. When God gave the law to the first Adam, it was never given to make the man holy; for he was made holy before the law was given him; he came holy, pure, and perfect from the hand of God; the law was only given to be the rule of his conversation in that holy state, and the way of his continuance therein. Adam could not make himself holy by the law; sinless Adam could not; he was made holy before the law was given, and was to continue himself holy and happy by his obedience to the law. Oh that this were duly considered! that when God gave the law to the first man, it was not given to make him holy; for

he was made holy before. 2dly, The law was given in a great copy of it, at Mount Sinai, to sinful Israel, to a sinful people that had been carried away with the abominations of the Egyptians; and, except their retaining circumcision, the sign of God's covenant with their fathers, we find but little that there was left amongst them: they were greatly corrupted before God gave them the law. What a great work was there about purifying them? Now when God gave the law at Mount Sinai, it was not given to make the people holy; pray take heed to this: it was never given to make an unholy man to be holy. Wherefore then, saith the apostle, serveth the law? it was added because of transgressions, till the Seed should come, and was ordained by angels in the hand of a Mediator, Gal. iii. 19. The law was given at Mount Sinai, to convince the people of their sinfulness, that they might have recourse to their gospel, and their gospel was their sacrifices, which were typical of our Lord Jesus Christ. 3dly, The law is written in the word of God, and is daily to be preached by his servants whom he sends, but never that it may make people holy; rather to make them see their vileness, to make them see their uncleanness, and the desperate wickedness that was in them till gospel-grace cures them. This is the first thing -the law was never designed by God to make men holy.

2dly, It never did so, and it never can do so. I know I am now teaching a doctrine that a great many do not understand, and will not like because they do not understand. I will tell you what the law of God can do separately from the gospel; I am sure much hurt it will do to them that betake themselves to it as a mean of sanctification. We find several things concerning the law, separate from the gospel, in the word. 1st, It discovers sin; I say the law discovers sin; Now, saith the apostle, Rom. iii. 20. it is evident, that by the deeds of the law shall no flesh be justified in his sight. Why, how comes this to be so evident to you, Paul? it is not evident to a great many people : For by the law, saith he, is the knowledge of sin. Now can ever any man be justified by that which in its native light tends to discover his vileness? These things saith the law, to them that are under the law, that every month may be stopped, and that al the world may become guilty before God: therefore, by the deeds

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