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What is the doctrine of Calvinism?
The Application of Redemption
Thomas Watso (1620—1686) 
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'The life that I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God. (Gal. 2:20)
The Spirit applies to us the redemption purchased by Christ by working faith in us. Christ is the glory, and faith in Christ the comfort, of the gospel.
What are the kinds of faith?
The Bible reveals that not all faith is saving faith. Four kinds of faith are set forth in the Scriptures. (1) An historical or dogmatic faith, which is believing the truths revealed in the Word, because of divine authority. (2) There is a temporary faith, which lasts for a time, and then vanishes. 'Yet has he no root in himself, but endures for a while' (Matt 13:21). A temporary faith is like Jonah's gourd, which came up in a night and withered (Jon. 4:10). (3) A miraculous faith, which was granted to the apostles, to work miracles for the confirmation of the gospel. This Judas had; he cast out devils, yet was cast out to the devil. (4) A true justifying faith, which is called 'A faith of the operation of God,' and is a jewel hung only upon the elect (Col 2:12).
What is Justifying Faith?
I shall show, (1) What it is not: It is not a bare acknowledgment that Christ is a Saviour. There must be an acknowledgment, but that is not sufficient to justify. The devils acknowledged Christ's Godhead: 'Jesus the Son of God! (Matt. 8:29). There may be an assent to divine truth, and yet no work of grace on the heart. Many assent in their judgments, that sin is an evil thing, but they go on in sin, whose corruptions are stronger than their convictions; and that Christ is excellent; they cheapen the pearl, but do not buy.
(2) What Justifying Faith is: True justifying faith consists of three things:
a. Self-renunciation. Faith is going out of one's self, being taken off from our own merits, and seeing we have no righteousness of our own. 'Not having mine own righteousness' (Phil. 3:9). Self-righteousness is a broken reed, which the soul dares not lean on. Repentance and faith are both humbling graces; by repentance a man abhors himself, by faith he goes out of himself. As Israel in their wilderness march, behind them saw Pharaoh and his chariots pursuing, before them the Red Sea ready to devour; so the sinner behind sees God's justice pursuing him for sin, and before hell is ready to devour him; and in this forlorn condition, he sees nothing in himself to help, but he must perish unless he can find help in another, even Christ.
b. Reliance. The soul casts itself upon Jesus Christ; faith rests on Christ's person. Faith believes the promise; but that which faith rests upon in the promise is the person of Christ: therefore the spouse is said to 'lean upon her Beloved' (Song of Sol. 8:5). Faith is described to be 'believing on the name of the Son of God' (1 John 3:23), viz. on his person. The promise is but the cabinet, Christ is the jewel in it which faith embraces; the promise is but the dish, Christ is the food in it which faith feeds on. Faith rests on Christ's person, 'as he was crucified.' It glories in the cross of Christ (Gal. 6:14). To consider Christ crowned with all manner of excellencies, stirs up admiration and wonder; but Christ looked upon as bleeding and dying, is the proper object of our faith; it is called therefore 'faith in his blood' (Rom. 3:25).
c. Appropriation, or applying Christ to ourselves. A medicine, though it be ever so sovereign, if not applied, will do no good; though the plaster be made of Christ's own blood, it will not heal, unless applied by faith; the blood of God, without faith in God, will not save. This applying of Christ is called receiving him (John 1:12). The hand receiving gold, enriches; so the hand of faith, receiving Christ's golden merits with salvation, enriches us.
How is faith wrought?
By the blessed Spirit; who is called the 'Spirit of grace,' because he is the spring of all grace (Zech. 12:10). Faith is the chief work which the Spirit of God works in a man's heart. In making the world God did but speak a word, but in working faith he puts forth his arm (Luke 1:51). The Spirit's working faith is called, 'The exceeding greatness of God's power' (Eph. 1:19). What a power was put forth in raising Christ from the grave when such a tombstone lay upon him as 'the sins of all the world'! yet he was raised up by the Spirit. The same power is put forth by the Spirit of God in working faith. The Spirit irradiates the mind, and subdues the will. The will is like a garrison, which holds out against God: the Spirit with sweet violence conquers, or rather changes it; making the sinner willing to have Christ upon any terms, to be ruled by him as well as saved by him.
Wherein lies the preciousness of faith?
1. In its being the chief gospel-grace, the head of the graces. As gold among the metals, so is faith among the graces. Clement of Alexandria calls the other graces the daughters of faith. In heaven, love will be the chief grace; but, while we are here, love must give place to faith. Love takes possession of glory, but faith gives a title to it. Love is the crowning grace in heaven, but faith is the conquering grace upon earth. 'This is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith' (1 John 5:4).
2. In its having influence upon all the graces, and setting them to work: not a grace stirs till faith set it to work. As the clothier sets the poor to work, sets their wheel going; so faith sets hope to work. The heir must believe his tide to an estate in reversion before he can hope for it; faith believes its tide to glory, and then hope waits for it. If faith did not feed the lamp of hope with oil, it would soon die. Faith sets love to work. 'Faith which worketh by love' (Gal. 5:6). Believing the mercy and merit of Christ causes a flame of love to ascend. Faith sets patience to work. 'Be followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the promises' (Heb. 6:12). Faith believes the glorious rewards given to suffering. This makes the soul patient in suffering. Thus faith is the master-wheel, it sets all the other graces running.
3. In its being the grace which God honours to justify and save. Thus indeed it is 'precious faith,' as the apostle calls it (2 Pet. 1:1). The other graces help to sanctify, but it is faith that justifies. 'Being justified by faith' (Rom. 5:1). Repentance or love do not justify, but faith does.
How does faith justify (i.e. bring a guilty sinner into a right standing before a Holy God)?
1. Faith does not justify as it is a work, which would make a Christ of our faith; but faith justifies, as it lays hold of the object, that is, Christ's merits. If a man had a precious stone in a ring that could heal, we should say the ring heals; but properly it is not the ring, but the precious stone in the ring that heals. Thus faith saves and justifies, but it is not any inherent virtue in faith, but as it lays hold on Christ it justifies.
2. Faith does not justify as it exercises grace. It cannot be denied, that faith invigorates all the graces, puts strength and liveliness into them, but it does not justify under this notion. Faith works by love, but it does not justify as it works by love, but as it applies Christ's merits.
Why should faith save and justify more than any other grace?
1. Because of God's purpose. He has appointed this grace to be justifying; and he does it, because faith is a grace that takes a man off himself, and gives all the honour to Christ and free grace. 'Strong in faith, giving glory to God' (Rom. 4:20). Therefore God has put this honour on faith, to make it saving and justifying. The king's stamp makes the coin pass for current; if he would put his stamp upon leather, as well as silver, it would make it current: so God having put his sanction, the stamp of his authority and institution upon faith, makes it to be justifying and saving.
2. Because faith makes us one with Christ (Eph. 3:17). It is espousing, incorporating grace, it gives us coalition and union with Christ's person. Other graces make us like Christ, faith makes us members of Christ.
Use one (i.e. the first way this teaching may be applied): Of exhortation. Let us above all things labour for faith. Fides est sanctissimum humani pectorls bonum--'Above all, taking the shield of faith' (Eph. 6:16). Faith will be of more use to us than any grace; as an eye, though dim, was of more use to an Israelite than all the other members of his body, a strong arm, or a nimble foot. It was his eye looking on the brazen serpent that cured him (cf. Numb. 21). It is not knowledge, though angelic, not repentance, though we could shed rivers of tears, which could justify us, only faith, whereby we look on Christ. 'Without faith it is impossible to please God' (Heb. 11:6). If we do not please him by believing, he will not please us in saving. Faith is the condition of the covenant of grace; without faith, without covenant; and without covenant, without hope (Eph 2:12).
Use two: Of trial. Let us try (examine ourselves) whether we have faith. There is something that looks like faith, and is not, as a Bristol-stone looks like a diamond. Some plants have the same leaf with others, but the herbalist can distinguish them by the root and taste. Some faith may look like true faith, but it may be distinguished by the fruits. Let us be serious in the trial of our faith. Much depends upon our faith; for if our faith be not good, nothing good comes from us, even our duties and graces are adulterated.
How then shall we know a true faith? by the noble effects.
1. Faith is a Christ-prizing grace, it puts a high valuation upon Christ. 'To you that believe he is precious' (1 Pet. 2:7). Paul best knew Christ. 'Have I not seen Jesus Christ our Lord? (1 Cor. 9:1). He saw Christ with his bodily eyes in a vision, when he was caught up into the third heaven; and with the eye of his faith in the Holy Supper; therefore he best knew Christ. And see how he styles all things in comparison of him. 'I count all things but dung, that I may win Christ' (Phil. 3:8). Do we set a high estimate upon Christ? Could we be willing to part with the wedge of gold for the pearl of price? Gregory Nazianzen blessed God he had anything to lose for Christ's sake.
2. Faith is a refining grace. 'Mystery of faith in a pure conscience' (1 Tim. 3:9). Faith is in the soul as fire among metals; it refines and purifies. Morality may wash the outside, faith washes the inside. 'Having purified their hearts by faith' (Acts 15:9). Faith makes the heart a sacristy or holy of holies. Faith is a virgin-grace: though it does not take away the life of sin, yet it takes away the love of sin. Examine if your hearts be an unclean fountain, sending out the mud and dirt of pride and envy. If there be legions of lusts in your soul, there is no faith. Faith is a heavenly plant, which will not grow in an impure soil.
3. Faith is an obedient grace. 'The obedience of faith' (Rom. 16:26). Faith melts our will into God's. It runs at God's call. If God commands duty (though cross to flesh and blood), faith obeys. 'By faith Abraham obeyed' (Heb. 11:8). Faith is not an idle grace; as it has an eye to see Christ, so it has a hand to work for him. It not only believes God's promise, but obeys his command. It is not having knowledge that will evidence you to be believers; the devil has knowledge, but lacks obedience, and that makes him a devil. The true obedience of faith is a cheerful obedience. God's commands do not seem grievous. Have you obedience, and obey cheerfully? Do you look upon God's command as your burden, or privilege; as an iron fetter about your leg, or as a gold chain about your neck.
4. Faith is an assimilating grace. It changes the soul into the image of the object; it makes it like Christ. Never did any look upon Christ with a believing eye, but he was made like Christ. A deformed person may look even on a beautiful object, and not be made beautiful; but faith looking on Christ transforms a man, and turns him into his similitude. Looking on a bleeding Christ causes a soft bleeding heart; looking on a holy Christ causes sanctity of heart; looking on a humble Christ makes the soul humble. As the chameleon is changed into the colour of that which it looks upon, so faith, looking on Christ, changes the Christian into the similitude of Christ.
5. True faith grows. All living things grow. 'From faith to faith' (Rom. 1:17).
How may we judge of the growth of faith?
Growth of faith is judged by strength. We can do that now, which we could not do before. When one is man-grown, he can do that which he could not do when he was a child; he can carry a heavier burden; so you can bear crosses with more patience.
Growth of faith is seen by doing duties in a more spiritual manner, with more fervency; we put coals to the incense, from a principle of love to God. When an apple has done growing in bigness, it grows in sweetness; so you perform duties in love and are sweeter, and come off with a better relish.
But I fear I have no faith.
We must distinguish between weakness of faith and no faith. A weak faith is true. The bruised reed is but weak, yet it is such as Christ will not break. Though your faith be weak, be not discouraged, for the following reasons:
1. A weak faith may receive a strong Christ. A weak hand can tie the knot in marriage as well as a strong one; and a weak eye might have seen the brazen serpent. The woman in the gospel did but touch Christ's garment, and received virtue from him. It was the touch of faith.
2. The promise is not made to strong faith, but to true faith. The promise says not whosoever has a giant-faith, that can remove mountains, that can stop the mouths of lions, shall be saved; but whosoever believes, be his faith ever so small. Though Christ sometimes chides a weak faith, yet that it may not be discouraged, he makes it a promise. Beatt qui esuriunt. (Matt. 5:3).
3. A weak faith may be fruitful. Weakest things multiply most; the vine is a weak plant, but it is fruitful. Weak Christians may have strong affections. How strong is the first love, which is after the first planting of faith!
4. Weak faith may be growing. Seeds spring up by degrees; first the blade, then the ear, then the full corn in the ear. Therefore, be not discouraged. God who would have us receive them that are weak in faith, will not himself refuse them (Rom. 14:1). A weak believer is a member of Christ; and though Christ will cut off rotten members from his body, he will not cut off weak members.
Chapter Two:
EFFECTUAL CALLING
'Them he also called.' (Rom 8:30)
Question: WHAT IS EFFECTUAL CALLING?
Answer: It is a gracious work of the Spirit, whereby he causes us to embrace Christ freely, as he is offered to us in the gospel.
In this verse (Rom. 8:30 cited above) is the golden chain of salvation, made up of four links, of which one is vocation. 'Them he also called.' Calling is nova creation, 'a new creation,' the first resurrection. There is a two-fold call: (1) An outward call; (2) An inward call.
1. An outward call, which is God's offer of grace to sinners, inviting them to come and accept of Christ and salvation. 'Many are called, but few chosen' (Matt. 20:16). This call shows men what they ought to do in order to experience salvation, and renders them inexcusable in case of disobedience.
2. There is an inward call, when God with the offer of grace works grace. By this call the heart is renewed, and the will is effectually drawn to embrace Christ. The outward call brings men to a profession of Christ, the inward to a possession of Christ.
What are the means of this effectual call?
Every creature has a voice to call us. The heavens call to us to behold God's glory (Psalm 19:1). Conscience calls to us. God's judgments call us to repent. 'Hear you the rod' (Mic. 6:9). But every voice does not convert. There are two means of our effectual call:
1. The 'preaching of the word,' which is the sounding of God's silver trumpet in men's ears. God speaks not by an oracle, he calls by his ministers. Samuel thought it had been the voice of Eli only that called him; but it was God's voice (1 Sam. 3:6). So, perhaps, you think it is only the minister that speaks to you in the word, but it is God himself who speaks. Therefore Christ is said to speak to us from heaven (Heb. 12:25). How does he speak but by his ministers? God speaks as a king speaks, by his ambassadors. Know, that in every sermon preached, God calls to you; and to refuse the message we bring, is to refuse God himself.
2. The other means of our effectual call is the Holy Spirit. The ministry of the word is the pipe or organ; the Spirit of God blowing in it, effectually changes men's hearts. 'While Peter spake, the Holy Spirit fell on all them that heard the word of God' (Acts 10:44). Ministers knock at the door of men's hearts, the Spirit comes with a key and opens the door. 'A certain woman named Lydia, whose heart the Lord opened' (Acts 16:14).
From what does God call men?
1. From sin. He calls them from their ignorance and unbelief (1 Pet. 1:14). By nature the understanding is enveloped with darkness. God calls men 'from darkness to light,' as if one should be called out of a dungeon to behold the light of the sun (Eph. 5:8).
2. From danger. As the angels called Lot out of Sodom, when it was ready to rain fire; so God calls his people from the fire and brimstone of hell, and from all those curses to which they were exposed.
3. He calls them out of the world; as Christ called Matthew from the receipt of custom. 'They are not of the world' (John 17:16). Such as are divinely called, are not natives here, but pilgrims; they do not conform to the world, or follow its sinful fashions; they are not of the world; though they five here, yet they trade in the heavenly country. The world is a place where Satan's throne is (Rev. 2:13). It is a stage on which sin every day acts its part. Now such as are called are in the world but not of it.
To what does God call men?
1. He calls them to holiness. 'God has not called us to uncleanness, but unto holiness' (1 Thess. 4:7). Holiness is the livery, or silver star which the godly wear. Knam kodsheca, 'The people of your holiness' (Isa. 63:18). The called of God are anointed with the consecrating oil of the Spirit: 'You have an unction from the Holy One' (1 John 2:20).
2. God calls them to glory, as if a man were called out of a prison to sit upon a throne. 'Who has called you to his kingdom and glory' (1 Thess. 2:12). Whom God calls he crowns with a weight of glory (2 Cor. 4:17). The Hebrew word for glory (Kabod) signifies pondus, a weight. The weight of glory adds to the worth, the weightier gold is the more it is worth. This glory is not transient, but permanent, an eternal weight; it is better felt than expressed.
What is the cause of the effectual call?
God's electing-love. 'Whom he predestinated, them he also called' (Rom. 8:30). Election is the fountain-cause of our vocation. It is not because some are more worthy to partake of the heavenly calling than others, for we were 'all in our blood' (Ezek. 16:6). What worthiness is in us? What worthiness was there in Mary Magdalene out of whom seven devils were cast? What worthiness in the Corinthians, when God began to call them by his gospel? They were fornicators, effeminate, idolaters. 'Such were some of you, but you are washed' (1 Cor. 6:11). Before effectual calling, we are not only 'without strength' (Rom. 5:6), but 'enemies' (Col. 1:2). So that the foundation of vocation is election.
What are the qualifications of this call?
1. It is a powerful call. Ferba Dei sunt opera--'The words of God are works' (Luther). God puts forth infinite power in calling home a sinner to himself; he not only puts forth his voice but his arm. The apostle speaks of the exceeding greatness of his power, which he exercises towards them that believe (Eph. 1:19). God rides forth conquering in the chariot of his gospel; he conquers the pride of the heart, and makes the will, which stood out as a fort-royal, to yield and stoop to his grace; he makes the stony heart bleed. Oh, it is a mighty call! Why then do the Arminians seem to talk of a moral persuasion, that God in the conversion of a sinner only morally persuades and no more; sets his promises before men to allure them to good, and his threatenings; to deter them from evil; and that is all he does? But surely moral persuasions alone are insufficient to the effectual call. How can the bare proposal of promises and threatenings convert a soul? This amounts not to a new creation, or that power which raised Christ from the dead. God not only persuades, but enables (Ezek. 36:27). If God, in conversion, should only morally persuade, that is, set good and evil before men, then he does not put forth so much power in saving men as the devil does in destroying them. Satan not only propounds tempting objects to men, but concurs with his temptations, therefore he is said to 'work in the children of disobedience' (Eph. 2:2). The Greek word, to work, signifies imperii vim (Camerarius), the power Satan has in carrying men to sin. And shall not God's power in converting be greater than Satan's power in seducing? The effectual call is mighty and powerful. God puts forth a divine energy, nay, a kind of omnipotence; it is such a powerful call, that the will of man has no power effectually to resist.
2. It is a high calling. 'I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God' (Phil. 3:14). It is a high, calling,
(1) because we are called to high exercises of religion; to be crucified to the world, to live by faith, to do angels' work, to love God, to be living organs of his praise, to hold communion with the Father and the Son (1 John 1:3).
(2) It is a high calling, because we are called to high privileges, to justification and adoption, to be kings and priests unto God. We are called to the fellowship of angels, to be co-heirs with Christ (Heb. 12:24; Rom. 8:17). They who are effectually called are candidates for heaven, they are princes in all lands, though princes in disguise (Psa. 45:16).
3. It is an immutable call. 'The gifts and calling of God are without repentance' (Rom. 11:29); that is, those gifts that flow from election (as vocation and justification) are without repentance. God repented he called Saul to be a king; but he never repents of calling a sinner to be a saint.
Use one: See the necessity of the effectual call. A man cannot go to heaven without it. First, we must be called before we are glorified (Rom. 8:30). A man uncalled can lay claim to nothing in the Bible but threatenings. A man in the state of nature is not fit for heaven, no more than a man in his filth and his rags is fit to come into a king's presence. A man in his natural state is a God-hater, and is he fit for heaven? (Rom. 1:30). Will God lay his enemy in his bosom?
Use two: Of trial whether we are effectually called. This we may know by its antecedent and consequent.
(1) By the antecedent. Before this effectual call, a humbling work passes upon the soul. A man is convinced of sin; he sees he is a sinner and nothing but a sinner; the fallow ground of his heart is broken up (Jer. 4:3). As the husbandman breaks the clods, then casts in the seed; so God, by the convincing work of the law, breaks a sinner's heart, and makes it fit to receive the seeds of grace. Such as were never convinced are never called. 'He shall convince the world of sin' (John 16:8). Conviction is the first step in conversion.
(2) By the consequences, which are two. (a) He who is savingly called answers to God's call. When God called Samuel, he answered, 'Speak, Lord, your servant heareth' (1 Sam. 3:10). When God calls you to an act of religion, do you run at God's call? 'I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision' (Acts 26:19). If God calls to duties contrary to flesh and blood, we obey his voice in everything; true obedience is like the needle, which points that way which the loadstone draws (as iron attracts a needle of a compass). Such as are deaf to God's call show they are not called by grace. (b) He who is effectually called stops his ears to all other calls which would call him off from God. As God has his call, so there are other contrary calls. Satan calls by a temptation, lust calls, evil company calls; but as the adder stops its ear against the voice of the charmer, so he who is effectually called stops his ear against all the charms of the flesh and the devil.
Use three: Of comfort to those who are the called of God. This call evidences election. 'Whom he predestinated, them he also called' (Rom. 8:30). Election is the cause of our vocation, and vocation is the sign of our election. Election is the first link of the golden chain of salvation, vocation is the second. He who has the second link of the chain is sure of the first. As by the stream we are led to the fountain, so by vocation we ascend to election. Calling is an earnest and pledge of glory. 'God has chosen you to salvation, through sanctification' (2 Thess 2:13). We may read God's predestinating love in the work of grace in our heart.
Use four: Let such as are called be thankful to God for that unspeakable blessing. Be thankful to all the persons in the Trinity, to the Father's mercy, to the Son's merit, to the Spirit's efficacy. To make you thankful, consider, when you had offended God, he called you; when God needed you not, but had millions of glorified saints and angels to praise him, he called you. Consider what you were before God called you. You were in your sins. When God called Paul, he found him persecuting; when he called Matthew, he found him at the receipt of custom; when he called Zacchaeus, he found him using extortion. When God calls a man by his grace, he finds him seeking after his lusts; as when Saul (Before Saul became king) was called to the kingdom, he was seeking the asses. That God should call you when you were in the hot pursuit of sin, admire his love, exalt his praise. Again, that God should call you, and pass by others, what mercy is this! 'Even so, Father, for so it seemed good in your sight' (Matt. 11:26). That God should pass by wise and noble persons, of sweeter disposition, acuter parts, guilty of less vice, and that the lot of free grace should fall upon you -- oh astonishing love of God! It was a great favour to Samuel that God called to him, and revealed his mind to him, and passed by Eli, though a priest and a judge in Israel (1 Sam. 3:6); so, that God should call to you, a flagitious sinner, and pass by others of higher birth and better morals, calls aloud for praise. As God so governs the clouds, that he makes them rain upon one place, and not upon another; so at a sermon the Lord opens the heart of one, and another is no more affected with it than a deaf man with the sound of music. Here is the banner of free grace displayed, and here should the trophies of praise be erected. Elijah and Elisha were walking together; on a sudden there came a chariot of fire, and carried Elijah up to heaven, but left: Elisha behind; so, when two are walking together, husband and wife, father and child, that God should call one by his grace, but leave the other, carry up one in a triumphant chariot to heaven, but let the other perish eternally--oh infinite rich grace! How should they that are called be affected with God's discriminating love! How should the vessels of mercy run over with thankfulness! How should they stand upon Mount Gerizim, blessing and praising God! Oh begin the work of heaven here! Such as are patterns of mercy should be trumpeters of praise. Thus Paul being called of God, and seeing what a debtor he was to free grace, breaks forth into admiration and gratitude (1 Tim. 1:12).
Use five: To the called. Walk worthy of your high calling. 'I beseech you, that you walk worthy of the vocation wherewith you are called' (Eph. 4:1); in two things.
(1) Walk compassionately. Pity such as are yet uncalled. Have you a child that God has not yet called, a wife, a servant? Weep over their dying souls; they are in their blood, 'under the power of Satan.' Oh pity them! Let their sins more trouble you than your own sufferings. If you pity an ox or ass going astray, will you not pity a soul going astray? Show your piety by your pity.
(2) Walk holily. Yours is a holy calling (2 Tim. 1:9). You are called to be saints' (Rom. 1:7). Show your vocation by a Bible conversation. Shall not flowers smell sweeter than weeds? Shall not they who are ennobled with grace have more fragrance in their lives than sinners? 'As he who has called you is holy, so be you holy in all manner of conversation' (1 Pet. 1:15). Oh dishonour not your high calling by any sordid carriage! When Antigonus was going to defile himself with women, one told him, 'he was a king's son.' Oh remember your dignity; 'called of God', of the blood-royal of heaven! Do nothing unworthy of your honourable calling. Scipio refused the embraces of an harlot, because he was general of an army.' Abhor all motions to sin, because of your high calling. It is not fit for those who are the called of God, to do as others; though others of the Jews did drink wine, it was not fit for the Nazarite, because he had a vow of separation upon him, and had promised abstinence. Though Pagans and nominal Christians take liberty to sin, yet it is not fit for those who are called out of the world, and have the mark of election upon them to do so. You are consecrated persons, your bodies are the temples of the Holy Spirit, and your bodies must be a sacristy, or holy of holies.
Chapter Three:
JUSTIFICATION
'Being justified freely by his grace.' Rom. 3:24
Question: WHAT IS JUSTIFICATION?
Answer: It is an act of God's free grace, whereby he pardons all our sins, and accepts us as righteous in his sight, only for the righteousness of Christ, imputed to us, and received by faith alone.
Justification is the very hinge and pillar of Christianity. An error about justification is dangerous, like a defect in a foundation. Justification by Christ is a spring of the water of life. To have the poison of corrupt doctrine cast into this spring is damnable. It was a saying of Luther, 'that after his death the doctrine of 'justification would be corrupted.' In these latter times, the Arminians and Socinians have cast a dead fly into this box of precious ointment.
I shall endeavour to follow the star of Scripture to light me through this mysterious point.
I. What is meant by justification?
It is verbum forense, a word borrowed from law-courts, wherein a person arraigned is pronounced righteous, and is openly absolved. God, in justifying a person, pronounces him to be righteous, and looks upon him as if he had not sinned.
What is the source of justification?
The causa, the inward impellant motive or ground of justification, is the free grace of God: 'being justified freely by his grace.' Ambrose expounds this, as 'not of the grace wrought within us, but the free grace of God.' The first wheel that sets all the rest running is the love and favour of God; as a king freely pardons a delinquent. Justification is a mercy spun out of the bowels of free grace. God does not justify us because we are worthy, but by justifying us makes us worthy.
What is the ground, or that by which a sinner is justified?
The ground of our justification is Christ's satisfaction made to his Father. If it be asked, how can it stand with God's justice and holiness to pronounce us innocent when we are guilty? The answer is, that Christ having made satisfaction for our fault, God may, in equity and justice, pronounce us righteous. It is a just thing for a creditor to discharge a debtor of the debt, when a satisfaction is made by the surety.
But how was Christ's satisfaction meritorious, and so sufficient to justify?
In respect of the divine nature. As he was man he suffered, as God he satisfied. By Christ's death and merits, God's justice is more abundantly satisfied than if we had suffered the pains of hell for ever.
Wherein lies the method of our justification?
In the imputation of Christ's righteousness to us. 'This is the name whereby he shall be called, 'Jehovah Tzidkennu, 'THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS (Jer. 23:6). 'He is made to us righteousness' (1 Cor. 1:30). This righteousness of Christ, which justifies us, is a better righteousness than the angels'; for theirs is the righteousness of creatures, this of God.
What is the means or instrument of our justification?
Faith. 'Being justified by faith' (Rom. 5:1). The dignity is not in faith as a grace, but relatively, as it lays hold on Christ's merits.
What is the efficient cause of our justification?
The whole Trinity. All the persons in the blessed Trinity have a hand in the justification of a sinner: opera Trinitatis ad extra sunt indivisa. God the Father is said to justify. 'It is God that justifies' (Rom. 8:33). God the Son is said to justify. 'By him all that believe are justified' (Acts 13:39). God the Holy Spirit is said to justify. 'But you are justified by the Spirit of our God' (1 Cor. 6:11). God the Father justifies, as he pronounces us righteous; God the Son justifies, as he imputes his righteousness to us; and God the Holy Spirit justifies, as he clears up our justification, and seals us up to the day of redemption.
What is the end of our justification?
The end is, (1) that God may inherit praise. 'To the praise of the glory of his grace' (Eph. 1:6). Hereby God raises the everlasting trophies of his own honour. How will the justified sinner proclaim the love of God, and make heaven ring with his praises!
(2) That the justified person may inherit glory. 'Whom he justified, them he also glorified' (Rom. 8:30). God in justifying, not only absolves a soul from guilt, but advances him to dignity: as Joseph was not only loosed from prison, but made lord of the kingdom. Justification is crowned with glorification.
Are we justified from eternity?
No, for, (1) by nature we are under a sentence of condemnation (John 3:18). We could never have been condemned, if we were justified from eternity.
(2) The Scripture confines justification to those who believe and repent. 'Repent, that your sins may be blotted out' (Acts 3:19). Therefore their sins were uncancelled, and their persons unjustified, till they did repent. Though God does not justify us for our repentance, yet not without it. The Antinomians erroneously hold, that we are justified from eternity. This doctrine is a key which opens the door to all licentiousness; for what sins do they care not to commit, so long as they hold they are ab aeterno justified whether they repent or not?
II. Before I come to the uses, I shall lay down four maxims or positions about justification.
1. That justification confers a real benefit upon the person justified. The acquitting and discharging of the debtor, by virtue of the satisfaction made by the surety, is a real benefit to the debtor. A robe of righteousness, and a crown of righteousness, are real benefits.
2. All believers are alike justified: justificatio non recipit magis et minus (justification does not apply to some more than to others.) Though there are degrees in grace, yet not in justification; one is not justified more than another; the weakest believer is as perfectly justified as the strongest; Mary Magdalene is as much justified as the Virgin Mary. This may be a cordial to a weak believer. Though you have but a drachm of faith, you are as truly justified as he who is of the highest stature in Christ.
3. Whomsoever God justifies, he sanctifies. 'But you are sanctified, but you are justified' (1 Cor. 6:11). The Papists (Roman Catholics) calumniate Protestants; they report them to hold that men continuing 'in sin are justified; whereas all our Protestant writers affirm, that righteousness imputed, for justification, and righteousness inherent, for sanctification, must be inseparably united. Holiness indeed is not the cause of our justification, but it is the attendant; as the heat in the sun is not the cause of its light, but it is the attendant. It is absurd to imagine that God should justify a people, and they should still go on in sin. If God should justify a people and not sanctify them, he would justify a people whom he could not glorify. A holy God cannot lay a sinner in his bosom. The metal is first refined, before the king's stamp is put upon it; so the soul is first refined with holiness, before God puts the royal stamp of justification upon it.
4. Justification is inamissibilis; it is a fixed permanent thing, it can never be lost. The Arminians hold an apostasy from justification; today justified, tomorrow unjustified; today a Peter, tomorrow a Judas; today a member of Christ, tomorrow a limb of Satan. This is a most uncomfortable doctrine. Justified persons may fall from degrees of grace, they may leave their first love, they may lose God's favour for a time, but not lose their justification. If they are justified they are elected; and they can no more fall from their justification than from their election. If they are justified they have union with Christ and can a member of Christ be broken off? If one justified person may fall away from Christ, all may; and so Christ would be a head without a body.
Use one: See from hence, that there is nothing within us that could justify, but something without us; not any righteousness inherent, but imputed. We may as well look for a star in the earth as for justification in our own righteousness. The Papists say we are justified by works; but the apostle confutes it, for he says, 'not of works, lest any man should boast' (Eph. 2:9. The Papists say, 'the works done by an unregenerate man indeed cannot justify him, but works done by a regenerate man may justify.' This is most false, as may be proved both by example and reason.
1. By example. Abraham was a regenerate man; but Abraham was not justified by works, but by faith. Abraham 'believed God, and it was counted to him for righteousness' (Rom. 4:3)
2. By reason. How can those works justify us which defile us? 'Our righteousnesses are as filthy rags' (Isa. 64:6). Bona opera non praecedunt justificationem, sed sequuntur justficatum: good works are not an usher to go before justification, but a handmaid to follow it.
But does not the apostle James say that Abraham was justified by works?
The answer is easy. Works declare us to be righteous before men, but they do not make us righteous before God. Works are evidences of our justification, not causes. The only name graven upon the golden plate of Christ our High Priest must be, THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS.
Use two: Of exhortation. (1) Adore the infinite wisdom and goodness of God that found out a way to justify us by 'rich grace and precious blood.' We were all involved in guilt; none of us could plead not guilty; and being guilty, we lay under a sentence of death. Now that the judge himself should find out a way to justify us, and the creditor himself contrive a way to have the debt paid, and not distress the debtor, should fill us with wonder and love. The angels admire the mystery of free grace in this new way of justifying and saving lost man (1 Pet. 1:12), and should not we, who are nearly concerned in it, and on whom the benefit is devolved, cry out with the apostle, 'O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God!'
(2) Labour for this high privilege of justification. There is balm in Gilead; Christ has laid down his blood as the price of our justification; and he offers himself and all his merits to us, to justify; he invites us to come to him; he has promised to give his Spirit, to enable us to do what is required. Why then, sinners, will you not look after this great privilege of justification? Why starve in the midst of plenty? Why perish when there is a remedy to save you? Would not he be thought to be distracted, who having a pardon offered him, only upon the acknowledgment of ,his fault, and promising amendment, should bid the prince keep his pardon to himself; for his part, he was in love with his chains and fetters, and would die? You who neglect justification offered you freely by Christ in the gospel are this infatuated person. Is the love of Christ to be slighted? Is your soul, is heaven worth nothing? Oh then look after justification through Christ's blood!
Consider (1) the necessity of being justified. If we are not justified, we cannot be glorified. 'Whom he justified, them he also glorified' (Rom. 8:30). He who is outlawed, and all his goods confiscated, must be brought into favour with his prince before he can be restored to his former rights and liberties; so, we must have our sins forgiven, and be brought into God's favour by justification, before we can be restored to the liberty of the sons of God, and have a right to that happiness we forfeited in Adam.
(2) The utility and benefit. By justification we enjoy peace in our conscience; a richer jewel than any prince wears in his crown. 'Being justified by faith, we have peace with God' (Rom. 5:1). Peace can sweeten all our afflictions; it turns our water into wine. How happy is a justified person who has the power of God to guard him, and the peace of God to comfort him! Peace flowing from justification is an antidote against the fear of death and hell. 'It is God that justifies, who is he that condemns? (Rom. 8:33,34). Therefore labour for this justification by Christ. This privilege is obtained by believing 'in Christ.' 'By him all that believe are justified' (Acts 13:39). 'Whom God has set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood' (Rom. 3:25). Faith unites us to Christ; and having union with his person we partake of his merits, and the glorious salvation which comes by him.
Use three: Comfort to the justified. (1) It is comfort in case of failings. Alas! how defective are the godly! they come short in every duty; but though believers should be humbled under their defects, they should not despond. They are not to be justified by their duties or graces, but by the righteousness of Christ. Their duties are mixed with sin, but that righteousness which justifies them is a perfect righteousness.
(2) Comfort in case of hard censures. The world censures the people of God is proud and hypocritical, and the troublers of Israel; but though men censure and condemn the godly, yet God has justified them, and as he has now justified them, so at the day of judgment he will openly justify them, and pronounce them righteous before men and angels. God is so just and holy a judge, that having once justified his people he will never condemn them. Pilate justified Christ, saying, 'I find no fault in him;' yet after this he condemned him; but God having publicly justified his saints, he will never condemn them; for 'whom he justified, them he also glorified.'
Chapter Four:
ADOPTION
'As many as received him to them gave he power to become the sons of God,
even to them that believe on his name.' (John 1:12)
Having spoken of the great points of faith and justification, we come next to adoption.
The qualification of the persons is, 'As many as received him.' Receiving is put for believing, as is clear by the last words, 'to them that believe in his name.' The specification of the privilege is, 'to them gave he power to become the sons of God.' The Greek word for power, exousia, signifies dignity and prerogative: he dignified them to become the sons of God.
Our sonship differs from Christ's. He was the Son of God by eternal generation, a son before time; but our sonship is, (1) By creation. 'We are his offspring' (Acts 17:28). This is no privilege; for men may have God for their Father by creation, and yet have the devil for their father.
(2) Our sonship is by adoption. 'He gave them power to become the sons of God.'
Adoption is twofold. External and federal: as those who live in a visible church, and make a profession of God, are sons. 'The children of the kingdom shall be cast out' (Matt. 8:12). Real and gracious: as they are sons who are God's favourites, and are heirs of glory. Before I proceed to the questions, I shall lay down three positions.
I. Adoption takes in all nations. A first adoption was confined to the people of the Jews, who alone were grafted into the true olive, and were dignified with glorious privileges. 'Who are Israelites, to whom pertains the adoption and the glory' (Rom. 9:4). But now, in the time of the gospel, the charter is enlarged, and the believing Gentiles are within the line of communication, and have a right to the privileges of adoption as wen as the Jews. 'In every nation he that fears God and works righteousness is accepted with him' (Acts 10:35).
II. Adoption takes in both sexes, females as well as males. 'I will be a father unto you, and you shall be my sons and daughters' (2 Cor. 6:18). I have read, that in some countries, females are excluded from the supreme dignity, as by the Salique law in France, no woman can inherit a crown; but of spiritual privileges, females are as capable as males. Every gracious soul (of whatever sex) lays claim to adoption, and has an interest in God as a father. 'You shall be my sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty.'
III. Adoption is an act of pure grace. 'Having predestinated us to the adoption of children, according to the good pleasure of his will' (Eph. 1:5). Adoption is a mercy spun out of the bowels of free grace. All by nature are strangers, therefore have no right to sonship. God is pleased to adopt one, and not another; to make one a vessel of glory, another a vessel of wrath. The adopted heir may cry out, 'Lord, how is it, that you wilt show yourself to me, and not unto the world?
What is this filiation or adoption?
It is taking a stranger into the relation of a son and heir; as Moses was the adopted son of King Pharaoh's daughter (Ex. 2:10), and Esther was the adopted child of her cousin Mordicai (Esth. 2:7). Thus God adopts us into the family of heaven, and God in adopting us does two things:
(1) He ennobles us with his name. He who is adopted bears the name of him who adopts him. 'I will write on him the name of my God' (Rev. 3:12).
(2) God consecrates us with his Spirit. Whom he adopts, he anoints;
whom he makes sons, he makes saints. When a man adopts another for his son and heir, he may put his name upon him, but he cannot put his disposition into him; if he be of a morose rugged nature, he cannot alter it; but whom God adopts he sanctifies; he not only gives a new name but a new nature (2 Pet. 1:4). He turns the wolf into a lamb; he makes the heart humble and gracious; he works such a change as if another soul dwelt in the same body.
From what state does God take us when he adopts us?
From a state of sin and misery. Pharaoh's daughter took Moses out of the ark of bulrushes in the water, and adopted him for her son. God did not take us out of the water, but out of our blood, and adopted us (Ezek. 16:6). He adopted us from slavery; it is a mercy to redeem a slave but it is more to adopt him.
To what does God adopt us?
(1) He adopts us to a state of excellence. It were much for God to take a clod of dust, and make it a star; it is more for him to take a piece of clay and sin, and adopt it for his heir.
(2) God adopts us to a state of liberty. Adoption is a state of freedom; a slave being adopted is made a free man. 'You are no more a servant but a son' (Gal. 4:7). How is an adopted son free? Not to do what he wants; but he is free from the dominion of sin, the tyranny of Satan, and the curse of the law. He is free in the manner of worship. He has God's free Spirit, which makes him free and cheerful in the service of God; he is 'joyful in the house of prayer' (Isa. 56:7).
(3) God adopts us to a state of dignity. He makes us heirs of promise, he installs us into honor. 'Since you were precious in my sight, you have been honourable' (Isa. 43:4). The adopted are God's treasure (Exod. 19:5); his jewels (Mal. 3:17); his first-born (Heb. 12:23). They have angels for their life-guards (Heb. 1:14). They are of the blood royal of heaven (1 John 3:9). The Scripture has set forth their spiritual heraldry; they have their escutcheon or coat-armour; sometimes the lion for courage (Prov. 28:1); sometimes the dove of meekness (Song of Sol. 2:14); sometimes the eagle for flight (Isa. 40:31). Thus you see their coat of arms displayed.
(4) What is honour without inheritance? God adopts all his sons to an inheritance. 'It is your father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom' (Luke 12:32). It is no disparagement to be the sons of God. To reproach the saints, is as if Shimei had reproached David when he was going to be made king. Adoption ends in coronation. The kingdom God gives his adopted sons and heirs excels all earthly monarchies.
(a) In riches. 'The gates are of pearl, and the streets of pure gold, as it were transparent glass' (Rev. 21:21).
(b) In tranquillity. It is peaceable, and the white lily of peace is the best flower in a prince's crown. Pax una triumphis innumeris melior [One peace is better than innumerable triumphs]. No divisions at home, or invasions abroad; no more the noise of the drum or cannon; but the voice of harpers harping is the hieroglyphic of peace (Rev. 14:2).
(c) In stability. Other kingdoms are corruptible; though they have heads of gold they have feet of clay. But the kingdom into which the saints are adopted runs parallel with eternity; it is a kingdom that cannot be shaken (Heb. 12:28). The heirs of heaven reign for ever and ever (Rev. 22:5).
What is the organic or instrumental cause of adoption?
Faith interests us in the privilege of adoption. 'You are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus' (Gal. 3:26). Before faith is wrought, we are spiritually illegitimate, we have no relation to God as a father. An unbeliever may call God judge, but not father. Faith is the affiliating grace; it confers upon us the tide of sonship, and gives us right to inherit.
Why is faith the instrument of adoption more than any other grace?
Faith is a quickening grace, the vital artery of the soul. 'The just shall live by faith' (Hab. 2:4). Life makes us capable of adoption, dead children are never adopted. It makes us Christ's brethren, and so God comes to be our Father.
Use one: (1) See the amazing love of God, in making us his sons. Plato gave God thanks that he had made him a man, and not only a man but a philosopher; but it is infinitely more, that he should invest us with the prerogative of sons. It is love in God to feed us, but more to adopt us. 'Behold, what manner of love the Father has bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God!' (1 John 3:1). It is an ecce admirantis, a behold of wonder.
The wonder of God's love in adopting us will appear the more if we consider these six things:
(a) That God should adopt us when he had a Son of his own. Men adopt because they lack children, and desire to have some to bear their name; but that God should adopt us when he had a Son of his own, the Lord Jesus, is a wonder of love. Christ is called 'God's dear Son' (Col. 1:13). A Son more worthy than the angels. 'Being made so much better than the angels' (Heb. 1:4). Now, since God had a Son of his own, and such a Son, how wonderful God's love in adopting us! We needed a Father, but he did not need sons.
(b) Consider what we were before God adopted us. We were very deformed; and a man will scarce adopt him for his heir that is crooked and ill-favoured, but rather him that has some beauty. Mordecai adopted Esther, because she was fair. When we were in our blood God adopted us. 'When I saw you polluted in your blood, it was the time of love' (Ezek. 16:6,8). God did not adopt us when we were bespangled with the jewels of holiness, and had the angels' glory upon us; but when we were black as Ethiopians, diseased as lepers, was the time of his love.
(c) That God should be at so great expense in adopting us. When men adopt, they have only some deed sealed, and the thing is effected; but when God adopts, it puts him to a far greater expense; it sets his wisdom to work to find out a way to adopt us. It was no easy thing to make heirs of wrath, heirs of the promise. When God had found out a way to adopt, it was no easy way. Our adoption was purchased at a dear rate; for when God was about to make us sons and heirs, he could not seal the deed but by the blood of his own Son. Here is the wonder of God's love in adopting us that he should be at all this expense to accomplish it.
(d) That God should adopt his enemies. If a man adopts another for his heir, he will not adopt his mortal enemy; but that God should adopt us, when we were not only strangers, but enemies, is the wonder of his love. For God to have pardoned his enemies had been much; but to adopt them for his heirs, sets the angels in heaven wondering.
(e) That God should take great numbers out of the devil's family, and adopt them into the family of heaven. Christ is said to bring many sons to glory (Heb. 2:10). Men adopt usually but one heir, but God is resolved to increase his family, he brings many sons to glory. God's adopting millions is the wonder of love. Had but one been adopted, all of us might have despaired; but he brings many sons to glory, which opens a door of hope to us.
(f) That God should confer so great honour upon us, in adopting us. David thought it no small honour that he should be a king's son-in-law (1 Sam 18:18). But what honour to be the sons of the high God! The more honour God has put upon us in adopting us, the more he has magnified his love toward us. What honour that God has made us so near in alliance to him, sons of God the Father, members of God the Son, temples of God the Holy Spirit! that he has made us as the angels (Matt. 22:30); nay, in some sense, superior to the angels! All this proclaims the wonder of God's love in adopting us.
(2) See the sad condition of such as live and die in unbelief. They are not the sons of God. 'To as many as become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name.' No faith, no sonship. Unbelievers have no sign of sonship; they know not God. All of God's children know their Father, but the wicked do not know him. 'They proceed from evil to evil, and know not me, says the Lord (Jer. 9:3). Unbelievers are 'dead in trespasses' (Eph. 2:1). God has no dead children; and not being children, they have no right to inherit.
Use two: Try whether you are adopted. All the world is divided into two ranks, the sons of God, and the heirs of hell. 'To them he gave power to become the sons of God' (John 1:12). Let us put ourselves on a trial. It is no sign we are adopted sons, because we are sons of godly parents. The Jews boasted that they were of Abraham's seed, and thought they thereby must be good, because they came of such a holy line. But adoption does not come by blood. Many godly parents have wicked sons; Abraham had an Ishmael; Isaac an Essau. The corn that is sown pure brings forth grain with a husk; so from him who is holy the child springs that is unholy. So that, as Jerome says, non nascimur filii [We are not born sons]; we are not God's sons as we are born of godly parents, but by adoption and grace. Well, then, let us test to determine if we are the adopted sons and daughters of God.
I. The first sign of adoption is obedience. A son obeys his father. 'I set before the sons of the house of the Rechabites pots full of wine, and cups, and said unto them, 'drink wine.' But they said, 'We will drink no wine, for Jonadab the son of Rechab our father commanded us, saying, 'You shall drink no wine'' (Jer. 35:5). So, when God says drink not in sin's enchanted cup, an adopted child says, my heavenly Father has commanded me, and I dare not drink. A gracious soul not only believes God's promise, but obeys his command. True child-like obedience must be regular, which implies five things:
(1) It must be done by a right rule. Obedience must have the word for its rule. Lydius lapis [This is the touchstone]. 'To the law and to the testimony' (Isa. 8:20). If our obedience be not according to the word, it is offering up strange fire; it is will worship; and God will say, 'Who has required this at your hand? The apostle condemns worshipping of angels, which had a show of humility (Col. 2:18). The Jews might say that they were loath to be so bold as to go to God in their own persons; they would be more humble, and prostrate themselves before the angels, desiring them to be their mediators to God. Here was a show of humility in their angel worship; but it was abominable, because they had no word of God to warrant it; it was not obedience, but idolatry. Child-like obedience is that which is consonant to our Father's revealed will.
(2) It must be done from a right principle, from the noble principle of faith. 'The obedience of faith' (Rom. 16:26). Quicquid decorum est ex-fide proficiscitur [All acceptable works proceed from faith] (Augustine). A crabtree may bear fruit fair to the eye, but it is sour because it does not come from a good root. A moral person may give God outward obedience, which to the eyes of others may seem glorious; but his obedience is sour, because it comes not from the sweet and pleasant root of faith. A child of God gives him the obedience of faith, and that meliorates and sweetens his services, and makes them come off with a better relish. 'By faith Abel offered a better sacrifice than Cain' (Heb. 11:4).
(3) It must be done to a right end. Finis speci cat actionem [The end determines the value of the deed]; the end of obedience is glorifying God. That which has spoiled many glorious services, is, that the end has been wrong. 'When you doest thine alms, do not sound a trumpet, as the hypocrites do, that they may have glory of men' (Matt. 6:2). Good works should shine, but not blaze. 'If I give my body to be burnt, and have not charity, it profits me nothing' (1 Cor. 13:3). The same I must say of a sincere aim; if I obey never so much, and have not a sincere aim, it profits me nothing. True obedience looks at God in all things. 'That Christ may be magnified' (Phil. 1:20). Though a child of God shoots short, yet he takes a right aim.
(4) True child-like obedience must be uniform. A child of God makes conscience of one command as well as another. Quicquid propter Deumfit aequaliter fit [All things done for God are done with equal zeal]. All God's commands have the same stamp of divine authority upon them; and if I obey one precept because my heavenly Father commands me, by the same rule I must obey all. As the blood runs through all the veins of the body, and the sun in the firmament runs through all the signs of the zodiac; so true childlike obedience runs through the first and second table. 'When I have respect unto all your commandments' (Psa. 119:6). To obey God in some things of religion and not in others, shows an unsound heart; like Esau, who obeyed his father in bringing him venison, but not in a greater matter, as the choice of his wife. Child-like obedience moves towards every command of God, as the needle points that way which the load-stone draws. If God call to duties which are cross to flesh and blood, if we are children, we shall still obey our Father.
But who can obey God in all things?
Though an adopted heir of heaven cannot obey every precept perfectly, yet he does evangelically. He approves of every command. 'I consent to the law, that it is good' (Rom. 7:16). He delights in every command. 'O how love I your law' (Psalm 119:97). His desire is to obey every command. 'O that my ways were directed to keep your statutes' (Psa. 119:97). Wherein he comes short, he looks up to Christ's blood to supply his defects. This is evangelical obedience; which, though it be not to satisfaction, it is to acceptation.
(5) True childlike obedience is constant. 'Blessed is he that doeth righteousness at all times' (Psa. 106:3). Child-like obedience is not like a high colour in a fit, which is soon over; but like a right sanguine complexion, which abides; and like the fire on the altar, which was kept always burning (Lev. 6:13).
II. The second sign of adoption is to love to be in our Father's presence. The child who loves his father is never so well as when he is near him. Are we children? We love the presence of God in his ordinances. In prayer we speak to God, in the preaching of his word he speaks to us; and how does every child of God delight to hear his Father's voice! 'My soul thirsts for you, to see your glory so as I have seen you in the sanctuary' (Psa. 63:1,2). Such as disregard ordinances are not God's children, because they care not to be in God's presence. 'Cain went out from the presence of the Lord' (Gen. 4:16). Not that he could go out of God's sight, but the meaning is, 'Cain went out from the church and people of God, where the Lord gave visible tokens of his presence.'
III. The third sign of adoption is to have the guidance of God's Spirit. 'As many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God' (Rom. 8:14). It is not enough that the child have life, but it must be led every step by the nurse; so the adopted child must not only be born of God, but have the manuduction of the Spirit to lead him in a course of holiness. 'I taught Ephraim also to go, taking them by their arms' (Hos. 11:3). As Israel was led by the pillar of fire, so God's children are led by the Spirit. The adopted ones need God's Spirit to lead them, since they are apt to go wrong. The fleshy part inclines to sin; the understanding and conscience are to guide the will, but the will is imperious and rebels; therefore, God's children need the Spirit to check corruption and lead them in the right way. As wicked men are led by the evil spirit -- the spirit of Satan led Herod to incest, Ahab to murder, Judas to treason -- so the good Spirit leads God's children into virtuous actions.
But enthusiasts pretend to be led by the Spirit, when it is an ignis fatuus, a delusion.
The Spirit's guidance is agreeable to the Word; enthusiasts leave the Word. 'Your Word is truth' (John 17:17). 'The Spirit guides into all truth' (John 16:13). The Word's teaching and the Spirit's leading agree together.
IV. The fourth sign is, that if we are adopted we have an entire love to all God's children. 'Love the brotherhood' (1 Pet. 2:17). We bear affection to God's children, though they have some infirmities. There are spots in God's children (Deut. 32:5); but we must love the beautiful face of holiness though it has a scar in it. If we are adopted, we love the good we see in God's children: we admire their graces, we pass by their imprudencies. If we cannot love them because they have some failings, how do we think God can love us? Can we plead exemption? By these signs we know our adoption.
Use three: Rejoice in the benefits of adoption.
What are the benefits which accrue to God's children?
(1) They have great privileges. King's children have great privileges and freedoms. They do not pay custom (Matt. 17:25). God's children are privileged persons, they are privileged from the hurt of everything. 'Nothing shall by any means hurt you' (Luke 10:19). Hit you it may, but not hurt you. 'There shall no evil befall you' (Psa. 91:10). God says not, 'No affliction shall befall his children', but, 'No evil; the hurt and poison of it is taken away.' Affliction to a wicked man has evil in it, it makes him worse; it makes him curse and blaspheme. 'Men were scorched with great heat, and blasphemed the name of God' (Rev. 16:9). But no evil befalls a child of God; he is bettered by affliction (Heb. 12:10). The furnace makes gold purer. Again, no evil befalls the adopted, because no condemnation. 'It is God that justifies; who is he that condemns?' (Rom. 8:33). What a blessed privilege is this, to be freed from the sting of affliction, and the curse of the law! to be in such a condition that nothing can hurt us! When the dragon has poisoned the water, the unicorn with his horn extracts and draws out the poison; so Jesus Christ has drawn out the poison of every affliction, that it cannot injure the saints.
(2) The second benefit, if we are adopted, is that we have an interest in all the promises. The promises are children's bread. 'Believers are heirs of the promises' (Heb. 6:17). The promises are sure. God's truth, which is the brightest pearl in his crown, is pawned in a promise. The promises are suitable, like a medical garden, in which there is no disease but there is some herb to cure it. In the dark night of desertion God has promised to be a sun; in temptation, to tread down Satan (Rom. 16:20). Does sin prevail? He has promised to take away its kingly power (Rom. 6:14). Oh the heavenly comforts which are distilled from the promises! But who has a right to these? Believers only are heirs of the promise. There is not a promise in the Bible but a believer may say, 'This is mine.'
Use four: Extol and magnify God's mercy, who has adopted you into his family; who, of slaves, has made you sons; of heirs of hell, heirs of the promise. Adoption is a free gift. He gave them power, or dignity, to become the sons of God. As a thread of silver runs through a whole piece of work, so free grace runs through the whole privilege of adoption. Adoption is a greater mercy than Adam had in paradise; he was a son by creation, but here is a further sonship by adoption. To make us thankful, consider, in civil adoption there is some worth and excellence in the person to be adopted; but there was no worth in us, neither beauty, nor parentage, nor virtue; nothing in us to move God to bestow the prerogative of sonship upon us. We have enough in us to move God to correct us, but nothing to move him to adopt us, therefore exalt free grace; begin the work of angels here; bless him with your praises who has blessed you in making you his sons and daughters.
Chapter Five:
SANCTIFICATION
'For this is the will of God, even your sanctification.' (1 Thess. 4:3)
The word sanctification signifies to consecrate and set apart to a holy use: thus they are sanctified persons who are separated from the world, and set apart for God's service. Sanctification has a privative and a positive part (aspect).
I. A privative part, which lies in the purging out of sin. Sin is compared to leaven which sours; and to leprosy, which defiles. Sanctification purges out the old leaven' (1 Cor. 5:7). Though it takes not away the life, yet it takes away the love of sin.
II. A positive part, which is the spiritual refining of the soul; which in Scripture is called a 'renewing of our mind,' (Rom. 12:2), and a 'partaking of the divine nature' (2 Pet. 1:4). The priests in the law were not only washed in the great laver, but adorned with glorious apparel (Exod 28:2); so sanctification not only washes from sin, but adorns with purity.
What is sanctification?
It is a principle of grace savingly wrought (i.e. produced by God), whereby the heart becomes holy, and is made after God's own heart. A sanctified person bears not only God's name, but his image. In opening the nature of sanctification, I shall lay down these seven positions:
(1) Sanctification is a supernatural thing; it is divinely infused. We are naturally polluted, and to cleanse, God takes to be his prerogative. 'I am the Lord which sanctify you' (Lev. 21:8). Weeds grow of themselves. Flowers are planted. Sanctification is a flower of the Spirit's planting, therefore it is called, 'the sanctification of the Spirit' (1 Pet 1:2).
(2) Sanctification is an intrinsic thing; it lies chiefly in the heart. It is called 'the adorning the hidden man of the heart' (1 Pet. 3:4). The dew wets the leaf, the sap is hid in the root; so the religion of some consists only in externals, but sanctification is deeply rooted in the soul. 'In the hidden part you shalt make me to know wisdom' (Psalm 51:6).
(3) Sanctification is an extensive thing: it spreads into the whole 'The God of peace sanctify you wholly' (1 Thess. 5:23). As original corruption has depraved all the faculties -- 'the whole head is sick, the whole heart faint,' no part sound, as if the whole mass of blood were corrupted -- so sanctification goes over the whole soul. After the fall, there was ignorance in the mind; but in sanctification, we are 'light in the Lord' (Eph. 5:8). After the fall, the will was depraved; there was not only impotence to good, but obstinacy. In sanctification, there is a blessed pliableness in the will; it symbolizes and comports with the will of God. After the fall, the affections were misplaced on wrong objects; in sanctification, they are turned into a sweet order and harmony, the grief placed on sin, the love on God, the joy on heaven. Thus sanctification spreads itself as far as original corruption; it goes over the whole soul: 'the God of peace sanctify you wholly.' He is not a sanctified person who is good only in some part, but who is all over sanctified; therefore, in Scripture, grace is called a d new man,' not a new eye or a new tongue, but a 'new man' (Col. 3:10). A good Christian, though he be sanctified but in part, yet in every part.
(4) Sanctification is an intense and ardent thing. Qualitates sunt in subjecto intensive [Its properties burn within the believer]. 'Fervent in spirit' (Rom. 12:11). Sanctification is not a dead form, but it is inflamed into zeal. We call water hot, when it is so in the third or fourth degree; so he is holy whose religion is heated to some degree, and his heart boils over in love to God.
(5) Sanctification is a beautiful thing. It makes God and angels fall in love with us. 'The beauties of holiness' (Psa. 110:3). As the sun is to the world, so is sanctification to the soul, beautifying and bespangling it in God's eyes. That which makes God glorious must make us so. Holiness is the most sparkling jewel in the Godhead. 'Glorious in holiness' (Exod. 15:11). Sanctification is the first fruit of the Spirit; it is heaven begun in the soul. Sanctification and glory differ only in degree: sanctification is glory in the seed, and glory is sanctification in the flower. Holiness is the quintessence of happiness.
(6) Sanctification is an abiding thing. 'His seed remained in him' (1 John 3:9). He who is truly sanctified, cannot fall from that state. Indeed, seeming holiness may be lost, colours may wash off, sanctification may suffer an eclipse. 'You have left your first love' (Rev. 2:4). True sanctification is a blossom of eternity. 'The anointing which you have received abides in you' (1 John 2:27). He who is truly sanctified can no more fall away than the angels which are fixed in their heavenly orbs.
(7) Sanctification is a progressive thing. It is growing; it is compared to seed which grows: first the blade springs up, then the ear, then the ripe corn in the car; such as are already sanctified may be more sanctified (2 Cor. 7:1). Justification does not admit of degrees; a believer cannot be more elected or justified than he is, but he may be more sanctified than he is. Sanctification is stiff increasing, like the morning sun, which grows brighter to the full meridian. Knowledge is said to increase, and faith to increase (Col. 1:10; 2 Cor. 10:15). A Christian is continually adding a cubit to his spiritual stature. It is not with us as it was with Christ, who received the Spirit without measure; for Christ could not be more holy than he was. We have the Spirit only in measure, and may be still augmenting (add to) our grace; as Apelles, when he had drawn a picture, would be still mending it with his pencil. The image of God is drawn but imperfectly in us, therefore we must be still mending it, and drawing it in more lively colours. Sanctification is progressive; if it does not grow, it is because it does not live. Thus you see the nature of sanctification.
What are the counterfeits of sanctification?
There are things which look like sanctification, but are not.
(1) The first counterfeit of sanctification is moral virtue. To be just, to be temperate, to be of a fair deportment, not to have one's escutcheon blotted with ignominious scandal is good, but not enough: it is not sanctification. A field-flower differs from a garden-flower. Heathens have attained to morality; as Cato, Socrates, and Aristides. Civility is but nature refined; there is nothing of Christ there and the heart may be foul and impure. Under these fair leaves of civility the worm of unbelief may be hid. A moral person has a secret antipathy against grace: he hates vice, and he hates grace as much as vice. The snake has a fine colour, but a sting. A person adorned and cultivated with moral virtue, has a secret spleen against sanctity. The Stoics who were the chief of the moralized heathens, were the bitterest enemies Paul had (Acts 17:18).
(2) The second counterfeit of sanctification is superstitious devotion. This abounds in Popery (Roman Catholicism); adorations, images, altars, vestments, and holy water, which I look upon as a religious frenzy, and is far from sanctification. It does not put any intrinsic goodness into a man, it does not make a man better. If the legal purifications and washings, which were of God's own appointing, did not make those who used them more holy; and the priests, who wore holy garments, and had holy oil poured on them, were not more holy without the anointing of the Spirit; then surely those superstitious innovations in religion, which God never appointed, cannot contribute any holiness to men. A superstitious holiness costs no great labour; there is nothing of the heart in it. If to tell over a few beads (recite the Rosary), or bow to an image, or sprinkle themselves with holy water were sanctification, and all that is required of them that should be saved, then hell would be empty, none would come there.
(3) The third counterfeit of sanctification is hypocrisy; when men make a pretence of that holiness which they have not. As a comet may shine like a star, a lustre may shine from their profession that dazzles the eyes of the beholders. 'Having a form of godliness, but denying the power' (2 Tim. 3:5). These are lamps without oil; whited sepulchres, like the Egyptian temples, which had fair outsides, but within spiders and apes. The apostle speaks of true holiness (Eph. 4:24), implying that there is holiness which is spurious and feigned. 'You have a name to live, but are dead' (Rev. 3:1); like pictures and statues which are destitute of a vital principle. Like 'clouds without water (Jude 12), they pretend to be full of the Spirit, but are empty clouds. This show of sanctification is a self-delusion. He who takes copper instead of gold, wrongs himself; the most counterfeit saint deceives others while he lives, but deceives himself when he dies. To pretend to holiness when there is none is a vain thing. What were the foolish virgins better for their blazing lamps, when they lacked oil? What is the lamp of profession without the oil of saving grace? What comfort will a show of holiness yield at last? Will painted gold enrich? painted wine refresh him that is thirsty? or painted holiness be a cordial at the hour of death? A pretence of sanctification is not to be rested in. Many ships, that have had the name of the 'Hope', the 'Safeguard', the 'Triumph', have been cast away upon rocks; so, many who have had the name of saints, have been cast into hell.
(4) The fourth counterfeit of sanctification is restraining grace, when men forbear vice, though they do not hate it. This may be the sinner's motto, 'Fain I would, but I dare not' ('I want to, and I would, if I thought I could get away with it'). The dog has a mind to the bone, -but is afraid of the cudgel; so men have a mind to lust, but conscience stands as the angel, with a flaming sword, and affrights: they have a mind to revenge, but the fear of hell is a curb-bit to check them. There is no change of heart; sin is curbed, but not cured. A lion may be in chains, but is a lion still.
(5) The fifth counterfeit of sanctification is common grace, which is a slight, transient work of the Spirit, but does not amount to conversion. There is some light in the judgment, but it is not humbling; some checks in the conscience, but they are not awakening. This looks like sanctification, but is not. Men have convictions wrought in them, but they break loose from them again, like the deer, which, being shot, shakes out the arrow. After conviction, men go into the house of mirth, take the harp to drive away the spirit of sadness, and so all dies and comes to nothing.
Wherein appears the necessity of sanctification ?
In six things: (1) God has called us to it. 'Who has called us to glory and virtue (2 Pet. 1:3); to virtue, as well as glory. 'God-has not called us to uncleanness, but unto holiness' (1 Thess. 4:7). We have no call to sin, we may have a temptation, but no call; no call to be proud, or unclean; but we have a call to be holy.
(2) Without sanctification there is no evidencing our justification. Justification and sanctification go together. 'But you are sanctified, but you are justified' (1 Cor 6:2). 'Pardoning iniquity' (Mic. 7:18); there is justification. 'He will subdue our iniquities' (v. 19); there is sanctification. 'Out of Christ's side came blood and water' (John 19:34); blood for justification; water for sanctification. Such as have not the water out -of Christ's side to cleanse them, shall never have the blood out of his side to save them.
(3) Without sanctification we have no title to the new covenant. The covenant of grace is our charter for heaven. The tenure of the covenant is, 'that God will be our God.' But who are interested (have a part) in the covenant, and may plead the benefit of it? sanctified persons only. 'A new heart will I give you, and I will put my Spirit within you, and I will be your God' (Ezek. 26:26). If a man makes a will, none but such persons as are named in the will can lay claim to the will; so God makes a will and testament, but it is restrained and limited to such as are sanctified; and it is high presumption for any one else to lay claim to the will.
(4) There is no going to heaven without sanctification. 'Without holiness no man shall see the Lord' (Heb 12:14). God is a holy God, and he will suffer no unholy creature to come near him. A king will not suffer a man with plague-sores to approach into his presence. Heaven is not like Noah's ark, where the clean beasts and the unclean entered. No unclean beasts come into the heavenly ark; for though God suffer the wicked to live awhile on the earth, he will never allow heaven to be pestered with such vermin. Are they fit to see God who wallow in wickedness? Will God ever lay such vipers in his bosom? 'Without holiness no man shall see the Lord.' It must be a clear eye that sees a bright object: only a holy heart can see God in his glory. Sinners may see God as an enemy, but not as a friend; may have an affrighting vision of him, but not a beatific vision; they may see the flaming sword, but not the mercy-seat. Oh then, what need is there of sanctification.
(5) Without sanctification all our holy things are defiled. 'Unto them that are defiled is nothing pure' (Tit. 1:15). Under the law, if a man who was unclean by a dead body carried a piece of holy flesh in his skirt, the holy flesh would not cleanse him, but it would be polluted by him (Hag. 2:12,13). This is an emblem of a sinner's polluting his holy offering. A foul stomach turns the best food into ill humours; so an unsanctified heart pollutes prayers, alms, sacraments. This evinces the necessity of sanctification. Sanctification makes our holy things accepted. A holy heart is the altar which sanctifies the offering; if not to satisfaction, to acceptation.
(6) Without sanctification we can show no sign of our election (2 Thess. 2:13). Election is the cause of our salvation, sanctification is our evidence. Sanctification is the ear-mark of Christ's elect sheep.
What are the signs of sanctification?
First, such as are sanctified can remember a time when they were unsanctified (Tit. 3:3). We were in our blood, and then God washed us with water, and anointed us with oil (Ezek. 16:9). Those trees of righteousness that blossom and bear almonds, can remember when they were like Aaron's dry rod, not one blossom of holiness growing. A sanctified soul can remember when it was estranged from God through ignorance and vanity, and when free grace planted this flower of holiness in it.
A second sign of sanctification is the indwelling of the Spirit: 'The Holy Spirit which dwelleth in us' (2 Tim. 1:14). As the unclean spirit dwells in the wicked and carries them to pride, lust, revenge -- the devil enters into these swine (Acts 5:3) -- so the Spirit of God dwells in the elect, as their guide and comforter. The Spirit possesses the saints. God's Spirit sanctifies the fancy, causing it to mint holy thoughts; and sanctifies the will by putting a new bias upon it, whereby it is inclined to good. He who is sanctified has the influence of the Spirit, though not the essence.
A third sign of sanctification is an antipathy against sin (Psa. 119:104). A hypocrite may leave sin, yet love it; as a serpent casts its coat, but keeps its sting; but a sanctified person can say he not only leaves sin, but loathes it. As there are antipathies in nature between the vine and laurel, so in a sanctified soul there is a holy antipathy against sin; and antipathies can never be reconciled. Because a man has an antipathy against sin, he cannot but oppose it, and seek the destruction of it.
A fourth sign of sanctification is the spiritual performance of duties, with the heart, and from a principle of love. The sanctified soul prays out of a love to prayer, and 'calls the Sabbath a delight' (Isa. 58:13). A man may have gifts to admiration; he may speak as an angel dropped out of heaven, yet he may be carnal in spiritual things; his services may not come from a renewed principle, nor be carried upon the wings of delight in duty. A sanctified soul worships God in the Spirit (1 Pet. 2:5). God judges not of our duties by their length, but by the love from which they spring.
A fifth sign is a well-ordered life. 'Be you holy in all manner of conversation' (in all areas of life) (1 Pet. 1:15). Where the heart is sanctified the life will be so too. The temple had gold without as well as within. As in a piece of coin there is not only the king's image within the ring, but his superscription without; so where there is sanctification, there is not only God's image in the heart, but a superscription of holiness written in the life. Some say they have good hearts, but their lives are vicious. 'There is a generation that are pure in their own eyes, and yet is not washed from their filthiness' (Prov. 30:12). If the water be foul in the bucket, it cannot be clean in the well. 'The king's daughter is all glorious within' (Psa. 45:13). There is holiness of heart. 'Her clothing is of wrought gold.' There is holiness of life. Grace is most beautiful when its light so shines that others may see it; this adorns religion, and makes proselytes to the faith.
A sixth sign is steadfast resolution. He is resolved never to part with his holiness. Let others reproach it, he loves it the more. Let water be sprinkled on the fire, it bums the more. He says, as David, when Michal reproached him for dancing before the ark, 'If this be to be vile, I will yet be more vile' (2 Sam. 6:22). Let others persecute him for his holiness, he says as Paul, 'None of these things move me' (Acts 20:24). He prefers sanctity before safety, and had rather keep his conscience pure than his skin whole. He says as Job, 'My integrity I will hold fast, and not let it go' (Job 27:6). He will rather part with his life than his conscience.
Use one: The main thing a Christian should look after is sanctification. This is the unum necessarium, 'the one thing needful.' Sanctification is our purest complexion, it makes us as the heaven, bespangled with stars; it is our nobility, by it we are born of God and partake of the divine nature; it is our riches, therefore compared to rows of jewels, and chains of gold (Song of Sol. 1:10). It is our best certificate for heaven. What evidence have we else to show? Have we knowledge? So has the devil. Do we profess religion? Satan often appears in Samuel's mantle, and transforms himself into an angel of light. But our certificate for heaven is sanctification. Sanctification is the firstfruits of the Spirit; the only coin that will pass current in the other world. Sanctification is the evidence of God's love. We cannot know God's love by giving us health, riches, success; but by drawing his image of sanctification on us by the pencil of the Holy Spirit it is known.
Oh the misery of such as are destitute of a principle of sanctification! They are spiritually dead (Eph. 2:1). Though they breathe, yet they do not live. The greatest part of the world remains unsanctified. 'The world lies in wickedness' (1 John 5:19). That is, the major part of the world. Many call themselves Christians, but blot out the word saints. You may as well call him a man who lacks reason, as him a Christian who lacks grace. Nay, which is worse, some are buoyed up to such a height of wickedness, that they hate and deride sanctification. They hate it. It is bad to lack it, it is worse to hate it. They embrace the form of religion, but hate the power. The vulture hates sweet smells, so do they the perfumes of holiness. They say in derision, 'These are your holy ones!' To deride sanctification argues a high degree of atheism, and is a black brand of reprobation. Scoffing Ishmael was cast out of Abraham's family (Gen. 21:9); and such as scoff at holiness shall be cast out of heaven.
Use two: Above all things pursue after sanctification. Seek grace more than gold. 'Keep her, for she is your life' (Prov. 4:13).
What are the chief inducements to sanctification?
(1) It is the will of God that we should be holy, as says the text, 'This is the will of God, your sanctification.' As God's word must be the rule, so his will, the reason of our actions. This is the will of God, our sanctification. Perhaps it is not the will of God we should be rich, but it is his will that we should be holy. God's will is our warrant.
(2) Jesus Christ has died for our sanctification. Christ shed his blood to wash off our impurity. The cross was both an altar and a laver. 'Who gave himself for us to redeem us from all iniquity' (Tit. 2:14). If we could be saved without holiness, Christ needed not have died. Christ died, not only to save us from wrath, but from sin.
(3) Sanctification makes us resemble God. It was Adam's sin that he aspired to be like God in omniscience, but we must endeavour to be like him in sanctity. It is a clear glass in which we can see a face; it is a holy heart in which something of God can be seen. Nothing of God can be seen in an unsanctified man, but you may see Satan's picture in him. Envy is the devil's eye, hypocrisy his cloven foot; but nothing of God's image can be seen in him.
(4) Sanctification is that which God bears a great love to. Not any outward ornaments, high blood, or worldly grandeur, draws God's love, but a heart embellished with holiness does. Christ never admired anything but the beauty of holiness: he slighted the glorious buildings of the temple, but admired the woman's faith, and said, 'O woman, great is your faith.' Antorfundatur similitudine. As a king delights to see his image upon a piece of coin, so, where God sees his likeness he gives his love.' The Lord has two heavens to dwell in, and the holy heart is one of them.
(5) Sanctification is the only thing that makes us differ from the wicked. God's people have his seal upon them. 'The foundation of God standeth sure, having this seal, the Lord knows them that are his', and, 'Let every one that names the name of Christ depart from iniquity' (2 Tim. 2:19). The godly are scaled with a double seal, a seal of election, 'The Lord knoweth who are his,' and a seal of sanctification, 'Let every one that names the name of Christ depart from iniquity.' This is the name by which God's people are known, 'The people of your holiness' (Isa. 63:18). As chastity distinguishes a virtuous woman from a harlot, so sanctification distinguishes God's people from others. 'You have received an unction from the Holy One' (1 John 2:2).
(6) It is as great a shame to have the name of a Christian, yet lack sanctity, as to have the name of a steward and lack fidelity; or the name of a virgin and lack chastity. It exposes religion to reproach, to be baptized into the name of Christ while unholy, and to have eyes full of tears on a sabbath, and on a weekday eyes full of adultery (2 Pet. 2:14); to be so devout at the Lord's table, as if men were stepping into heaven, and so profane the week after, as if they came out of hell; to have the name of Christians while unholy is a scandal to religion, and makes the ways of God evil spoken of.
(7) Sanctification fits for heaven: 'Who has called us to glory and virtue' (2 Pet. 1:3). Glory is the throne, and sanctification is the step by which we ascend to it. As you first cleanse the vessel, and then pour in the wine; so God first cleanses us by sanctification, and then pours in the wine of glory. Solomon was first anointed with oil, and then was a king. (1 Kings 1:39). First God anoints us with the holy oil of his Spirit, and then sets the crown of happiness upon our head. Pureness of heart and seeing God are linked together (Matt. 5:8).
How may sanctification be attained?
(1) Be conversant in the word of God. 'Sanctify them through your truth' (John 17:17). The word is both a glass to show us the spots of our soul, and a laver to wash them away. The word has a transforming virtue in it; it irradiates the mind, and consecrates the heart.
(2) Get faith in Christ's blood. 'Having purified their hearts by faith' (Acts 15:9). She in the gospel who touched the hem of Christ's garment was healed. A touch of faith purifies. Nothing can have a greater force upon the heart, to sanctify it, than faith. if I believe Christ and his merits are mine, how can I sin against him? Justifying faith does that in a spiritual sense which miraculous faith does, it removes mountains, the mountains of pride, lust, envy. Faith and the love of sin are inconsistent.
(3) Breathe after the Spirit. It is called 'the sanctification of the Spirit' (2 Thess. 2:13). . The Spirit sanctifies the heart, as lightning purifies the air, and as fire refines metals. Omne agens generat sibi simile. [The Spirit at work generates its own likeness everywhere.] The Spirit stamps the impression of its own sanctity upon the heart, as the seal prints its likeness upon the wax. The Spirit of God in a man perfumes him with holiness, and makes his heart a map of heaven.
(4) Associate with sanctified persons. They may, by their counsel, prayers, and holy example, be a means to make you holy. As the communion of saints is in our creed, so it should be in our company. 'He that walks with the wise shall be wise' (Prov. 13:20). Association begets assimilation (gives birth to likeness).
(5) Pray for sanctification. Job propounds a question: 'Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean?' (Job 14:4). God can do it. Out of an unholy heart he can produce grace. Oh! Make David's prayer your own, 'Create in me a clean heart, O God' (Psa. 51:10). Lay your heart before the Lord, and say, 'Lord, my unsanctified heart pollutes all it touches. I am not fit to live with such a heart, for I cannot honour you; nor die with such a heart, for I cannot see you. Oh create in me a new heart! Lord, consecrate my heart, and make it your temple, and your praises shall be sung there for ever.'
Use three: Has God brought a clean thing out of an unclean? has he sanctified you? Wear this jewel of sanctification with thankfulness. 'Giving thanks to the Father, who has made us fit for the inheritance' (Col. 1:12). Christian, you could defile yourself, but not sanctify yourself; but God has done it, he has not only chained up sin, but changed your nature, and made you as a king's daughter, all glorious within. He has put upon you the breastplate of holiness, which, though it may be shot at, can never be shot through. Are there any here that are sanctified? God has done more for you than millions, who may be illumined, but are not sanctified. He has done more for you than if he had made you the sons of princes, and caused you to ride upon the high places of the earth. Are you sanctified? Heaven is begun in you; for happiness is nothing but the quintessence of holiness. Oh, how thankful should you be to God! Do as that blind man in the gospel did after he had received his sight, who 'followed Christ, glorifying God' (Luke 18:43). Make heaven ring with God's praises.
Chapter Six:
ASSURANCE
Question: What are the benefits which flow from sanctification? Answer: Assurance of God's love, peace of conscience, joy in the Holy Spirit, increase of grace, and perseverance therein to the end.
I. The first benefit flowing from sanctification is assurance of God's love. 'Give diligence to make your calling and election sure' (2 Pet. 1:10). Sanctification is the seed, assurance is the flower which grows out of it: assurance is a consequent (result) of sanctification. The saints of old had it. 'We know that we know him' (1 John 2:3). 'I know whom I have believed' (2 Tim. 1:12). Here was sensus fidei, 'the reflex act of faith': and 'Christ has loved me' (Gal. 2:20). Here is faith flourishing into assurance. Aecolampadius, when sick, pointed to his heart, saying, 'Hic sat lucis', 'Here I have light enough', meaning comfort and assurance.
Have all sanctified persons assurance?
They have a right to it, and I incline to believe that all have it in some degree before their last expiring; though their comfort may be so feeble, and their vital spirits so weak, that they cannot express what they feel. But I dare not positively affirm that all have assurance in the first moment of their sanctification. A letter may be written, when it is not sealed; so grace may be written in the heart, and the Spirit may not set the seal of assurance to it. God is a free agent, and may give or suspend assurance pro licito, as he pleases. Where there is the sanctifying work of the Spirit, he may withhold the sealing work, partly to keep the soul humble; partly to punish our careless walking -- as when we neglect our spiritual watch, grow remiss in duty, and walk under a cloud, we quench the graces of the Spirit, and God withholds the comforts; and partly to put a difference between earth and heaven. This I the rather speak to bear up the hearts of God's people, who are dejected because they have no assurance. You may have the water of the Spirit poured on you in sanctification, though not the oil of gladness in assurance. There may be faith of adherence, and not of evidence; there may be life in the root, when there is no fruit in the branches to be seen; so faith in the heart, when no fruit of assurance.
What is Assurance?
It is not any vocal or audible voice, or brought to us by the help of an angel or revelation. Assurance consists of a practical syllogism, in which the word of God makes the major, conscience the minor, and the Spirit of God the conclusion. The Word says, 'He that fears and loves God is loved of God;' there is the major proposition; then conscience makes the minor, 'But I fear and love God;' then the Spirit makes the conclusion, 'Therefore you are loved of God; , and this is what the apostle calls 'The witnessing of the Spirit with our spirits, that we are his children' (Rom. 8:16).
Has a sanctified soul such an assurance as excludes all doubting?
He has that which bears up his heart from sinking, he has such- an earnest of the Spirit, that he would not part with it for the richest prize; but his assurance, though infallible, is not perfect. There will be sometimes a trepidation, but he is safe amidst fears and doubts; as a ship lies safe at anchor, though shaken by the wind. If a Christian had no doubts there would be no unbelief in him; had he no doubts there would be no difference between grace militant and grace triumphant.' Had not David sometimes his ebbings as well as flowings? Like the mariner, who sometimes cries out, stellam video, 'I see a star,' and then cries the star is out of sight. Sometimes we hear David say, 'Your lovingkindness is before mine eyes' (Psa. 26:3). At another time he is at a loss: 'Lord, where are your former lovingkindnesses? (Psa. 89:49). There may fall out an eclipse in a Christian's assurance, to put him upon longing after heaven, where there shall not be the least doubting; where the banner of God's love shall be always displayed upon the soul; where the light of God's face shall be without clouds, and have no sun-setting; and where the saints shall have an uninterrupted assurance, and be ever with the Lord.
What are the differences between true assurance and presumption?
(1) They differ in the method or manner of working. Divine assurance flows from humiliation for sin; I speak not of the measure of humiliation, but the truth. There are in Palermo reeds growing, in which there is a sugared juice; a soul humbled for sin is the bruised reed, in which grows this sweet assurance. God's Spirit is a spirit of bondage before it is a spirit of adoption; but presumption arises without any humbling word of the Spirit. 'How came you by the venison so soon?' (a reference to Isaac inquiring of Jacob's stew. Jacob presumed it was Esau for he had little to substantiate it was so). The plough goes before the seed be sown; the heart must be ploughed up by humiliation and repentance, before God sows the seed of assurance.
(2) He who has a real assurance will take heed of that which will weaken and darken his assurance; he is fearful of the forbidden fruit. He knows, though he cannot sin away his soul, yet he may sin away his assurance. But he who has the ignisfatuus of presumption does not fear defiling his garments; he is bold in sin. 'Will you not cry unto me, My Father? Behold, you have done as many evil things as you could' (Jer. 3:4,5). Balaam said, 'My God,' yet was a sorcerer. It is a sign he has no money about him, who fears not to travel all hours in the night. It is a sign he has not the jewel of assurance, who fears not the works of darkness.
(3) True assurance is built upon a Scripture basis. The word says, 'The effect of righteousness shall be quietness and assurance for ever' (Isa. 32:17). A Christian's assurance is built upon this Scripture. God has sown the seed of righteousness in his soul, and this seed has brought forth the harvest of assurance; but presumption is a spurious thing; it has not Scripture to show for its warrant; it is like a will without seal and witnesses, which is null and void in law. Presumption lacks both the witness of the word, and the seal of the Spirit.
(4) Assurance flowing from sanctification always keeps the heart in a lowly posture. 'Lord', says the soul, 'what am I, that, passing by so many, the golden beams of your love should shine upon me?' Paul had assurance. Is he proud of this jewel? No. 'To me who am less than the least of all saints' (Eph. 3:8). The more love a Christian receives from God, the more he sees himself a debtor to free grace, and the sense of his debt keeps his heart humble; but presumption is bred of pride. He who presumes disdains; he thinks himself better than others. 'God, I thank you that I am not as other men are . . . or even as this publican' (Luke 18:11). Feathers fly up, but gold descends; so the heart of him who has this golden assurance descends in humility.
What may excite us to look after assurance?
To consider how sweet it is and the noble and excellent effects it produces.
(1) How sweet it is. This is the manna in the golden pot; the white Stone, the wine of paradise which cheers the heart. How comfortable is God's smile! The sun is more refreshing when it shines out than when it is hid in a cloud; it is a pre-libation and a foretaste of glory, it puts a man in heaven before his time. None can know how delicious and ravishing it is, but such as have felt it; as none can know how sweet honey is, but they who have tasted it.
(2) The noble and excellent effects it produces.
(a) Assurance will make us love God, and praise him. Love is the soul of religion, the fat of the sacrifice; and who can love God as he who has assurance? The sun reflecting its beams on a burning-glass makes the glass burn that which is near it; so assurance (which is the reflection of God's love upon the soul) makes it burn in love to God. Paul was assured of Christ's love to him - 'Who has loved me;' and how was his heart fired with love! He valued and admired nothing but Christ (Phil. 3:8). As Christ was fastened to the cross, so he was fastened to Paul's heart. Praise is the quit-rent we pay to the crown of heaven. Who but he who has assurance of his justification can bless God, and give him the glory of what he has done for him? Can a man in a swoon or apoplexy praise God that he is alive? Can a Christian, staggering with fears about his spiritual condition, praise God that he is elected and justified? No! 'The living, the living, he shall praise you' (Isa. 38:19). Such as are enlivened with assurance are the fittest persons to sound forth God's praise.
(b) Assurance will drop sweetness into all our creature enjoyments; it will be as sugar to wine, an earnest of more; it will give a blessing with the venison. Guilt embitters our comforts; it is like drinking out of a wormwood cup; but assurance sweetens all health. The assurances of God's love are sweet riches, and with the assurance of a kingdom are delectable. A dinner of green herbs, with the assurance of God's love, is princely fare.
(c) Assurance will make us active and lively in God's service; it will excite prayer, and quicken obedience. As diligence begets assurance, so assurance begets diligence. Assurance will not (as the Papists say) breed self-security in the soul, but industry. Doubting discourages us in God's service, but the assurance of his favour breeds joy. 'The joy of the Lord is our strength' (Neh. 8:10). Assurance makes us mount up to heaven, as eagles, in holy duties; it is like the Spirit in Ezekiel's wheels, that moved them, and lifted them up. Faith will make us walk, but assurance will make us run: we shall never think we can do enough for God. Assurance will be as wings to the bird, as weights to the clock, to set all the wheels of obedience running.
(d) Assurance will be a golden shield to beat back temptation, and will triumph over it. There are two sorts of temptations that Satan uses. (i) He tempts to draw us to sin; but being assured of our justification will make this temptation vanish. What, Satan! shall I sin against him who has loved me, and washed me in his blood? Shall I return to folly after God has spoken peace? Shall I weaken my assurance, wound my conscience, grieve my Comforter? Avaunt, Satan! Tempt no more. (ii) Satan would make us question our interest in God, by telling us we are hypocrites, and God does not love us. Now there is no such shield against this temptation as assurance. What, Satan! have I a real work of grace in my heart, and the seal of the Spirit to witness it, and do you tell me God does not love me? Now I know you are an impostor, who goes about to disprove what I sensibly feel. If faith resists the devil, assurance will put him to flight.
(e) Assurance will make us contented though we have but little in the world. He who has enough is content. He who has sunlight is content, though he is without torchlight. A man that has assurance has enough: in uno salvatore omnes florent gemmae ad salutem. He has the riches of Christ's merit, a pledge of his love, an earnest of his glory; he is filled with the fulness of God; here is enough, and having enough he is content. 'The Lord is the portion of my inheritance ... the lines are fallen to me in pleasant places, and I have a goodly heritage' (Psa. 16:5,6). Assurance will rock the heart quiet. The reason of discontent is either because men have no interest in God, or do not know their interest. Paul says, 'I know whom I have believed' (2 Tim. 1:12). There was the assurance of his interest. And, 'As sorrowful, yet alway rejoicing,' (2 Cor. 6:10). There was his contentment. If you get assurance, and you will be out of the weekly bill of murmurers (you will no longer be a complainer); you will be discontented no more. Nothing can come amiss to him that has assurance. God is his. Has he lost a friend? -- his Father lives. Has he lost his only child? -- God has given him his only Son. Has he scarcity of bread? -- God has given him the finest of wheat, the bread of life. Are his comforts gone? -- He has the Comforter. Does he meet with storms on the sea? -- He knows where to put in for harbour; God is his portion, and heaven is his haven. This assurance gives sweet contentment in every condition.
(f) Assurance will bear up the heart in sufferings, it will make a Christian endure troubles with patience and cheerfulness. With patience, I say. 'You have need of patience' (Heb. 10:3-6). There are some meats which are hard of digestion, and only a good-stomach will concoct them; so affliction is a meat hard of digestion, but patience, like a good stomach, will be able to digest it; and whence comes patience but from assurance? 'Tribulation worketh patience, because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts' with cheerfulness (Rom. 5:3,5). Assurance is like the mariner's lantern on the deck, which gives light in a dark night. Assurance gives the light of comfort in affliction. 'You took joyfully the spoiling of your goods, knowing in yourselves,' there was assurance (Heb. 10:34). He that has assurance, can rejoice in tribulation; he can gather grapes of thorns, and honey out of the lion's carcass. Latimer said, 'When I sit alone, and can have a settled assurance of the state of my soul, and know that God is mine, I can laugh at all troubles, and nothing can daunt me.'
(g) Assurance will pacify a troubled conscience. He who has a disturbed vexatious conscience, carries a hell about him, Eheu quis intus scorpial but assurance cures the agony, and allays the fury of conscience. Conscience, which before was turned into a serpent, is now like a bee that has honey in its mouth, it speaks peace; tranquillus Deus, tranquillat omnia -- Tertullian. When God is pacified towards us, then conscience is pacified. If the heavens are quiet, and there are no winds stirring, the sea is quiet and calm; so if there be no anger in God's heart, if the tempest of his wrath does not blow, conscience is quiet and serene.
(h) Assurance will strengthen us against the fears of death. Such as lack it, cannot die with comfort; they are in aequilibrio, they hang in a doubtful suspense as to what shall become of them after death; but he who has assurance, has a happy and joyful passage out of the world; he knows he is passed from death to life; he is carried full sail to heaven! Though he cannot resist death, he overcomes it.
What shall they do who have not assurance?
(1) Let such ones labour to find grace. When the sun denies light to the earth, it may give forth its influence; so when God denies the light of his countenance, he may give the influence of his grace.
But how shall we know we have a real work of grace, and have a right to assurance? If we can resolve two queries: (a) Have we high appreciations of Jesus Christ? 'To you that believe he is precious' (1 Pet. 2:7). Christ is all made up of beauties and delights; our praises fall short of his worth, and is like spreading canvas upon a cloth of gold. How precious is his blood and incense! The one pacifies our conscience, the other perfumes our prayers. Can we say we have endearing thoughts of Christ? Do we esteem him our pearl of price, our bright Morningstar? Do we count all our earthly enjoyments but as dung in comparison of Christ? (Phil. 3:8). Do we prefer the worst things of Christ, before the best things of the world; the reproaches of Christ before the world's embraces? (Heb 11:26). (b) Have we the indwelling of the Spirit? 'The Holy Spirit which dwelleth in us' (2 Tim. 1:14).
But How may we know that we have the indwelling presence of the Spirit? Not by having sometimes good motions stirred up in us by the Spirit; for he may work in us but not dwell; but by the sanctifying power of the Spirit in our heart the Spirit infuses, divinam indolem, a divine nature; it stamps its own impress and effigy on the soul, making the complexion of it holy. The Spirit ennobles and raises the heart above the world. When Nebuchadnezzar had his understanding given him, he grazed no longer among the beasts, but returned to his throne, and minded the affairs of his kingdom; so when the Spirit of God dwells in a man, it carries his heart above the visible orbs; it makes him, superna anhelare [pant after heavenly things], thirst after Christ and glory. If we can find this, then we have grace, and so have a right to assurance.
(2) If you lack assurance, wait for it. If the figures are graven on the dial, it is but waiting a while, and the sun shines; so when grace is engraven in the heart, it is but waiting a while, and we shall have the sunshine of assurance. 'He that believes makes not haste' (Isa. 28:16). He will stay God's leisure. Say not, God has forsaken you, he will never lift up the light of his countenance; but rather say, as the church, 'I will wait upon the Lord, that hides his face from the house of Jacob,' (Isa. 8:17). (a) Has God waited for your conversion and will you not wait for his consolation? How long did he come wooing you by his Spirit? He waited till his head was filled with dew; he cried, 'Wilt you not be made clean? When shall it once be?' (Jer. 13:27). O Christian, did God wait for your love, and can you not wait for his? (b) Assurance is so sweet and precious, that it is worth waiting for; the price of it is above rubies, it cannot be valued with the gold of Ophir. Assurance of God's love is a pledge of election, it is the angels' banquet: what other joy have they? As Micah said, 'What have I more?' (Judges 18:24); so, when God assures the soul of his eternal purposes of love, what has he more to give? Whom God kisses he crowns. Assurance is the firstfruits of paradise. One smile of God's face, one glance of his eye, one crumb of the hidden manna is so sweet and delicious, that it deserves our waiting. (c) God has given a promise that we should not wait in vain. 'They shall not be ashamed that wait for me' (Isa. 49:23). Perhaps God reserves this cordial of assurance for a fainting time; he keeps sometimes his best wine until last. Assurance shall be reserved as an ingredient to sweeten the bitter cup of death.
How may deserted souls be comforted who are cast down for lack of assurance?
(1) Lack of assurance shall not hinder the success of the saint's prayers. Sin lived in puts a bar to our prayer; but lack of assurance does not hinder prayer; we may go to God still in an humble, fiducial manner. A Christian perhaps may think, because he does not see God's smiling face, God will not hear him. This is a mistake. 'I said in my haste, I am cut off from before thine eyes: nevertheless you heard the voice of my supplications' (Psa. 31:22). If we pour out sighs to heaven, God will hear every groan; and though he does not show us his face, he will lend us his ear.
(2) Faith may be strongest when assurance is weakest. The woman of Canaan had no assurance, but a glorious faith.' 'O woman, great is your faith' (Matt. 15:28). Rachel was more fair, but Leah was more fruitful. Assurance is more fair and lovely to look upon, but a fruitful faith God sees to be better for us. 'Blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believe (John 20:29).
(3) When God is out of sight, he is not out of covenant. 'My covenant shall stand fast' (Psa. 89:28). Though a wife does not see her husband's face for many years, yet the marriage-relation holds, and he will come again to her after a long voyage. God may be gone from the soul in desertion, but the covenant stands fast. 'The covenant of my peace shall not be removed' (Isa. 54:10). But one might object: 'But this promise was made to the Jews, and does not belong to us!' Yes it does, belong for us for verse 17 says, 'This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord.' This is true of all the servants of God, those who are now living, as well as those who lived in the time of the Jews.
What shall we do to get assurance?
(1) Keep a pure conscience. Let no guilt lie upon the conscience unrepented of. God seals no pardon before repentance. He will not pour the wine of assurance into a foul vessel. 'Let us draw near in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience!' (Heb. 10:22). Guilt dips the wings of comfort. He who is conscious to himself of secret sins, cannot draw near to God in full assurance; he cannot call God father, but judge. Keep conscience as clear as your eye, that no dust of sin can fall into it.
(2) If you would have assurance, be much in the exercise of grace. 'Exercise yourself unto godliness' (1 Tim. 4:7). Men grow rich by trading; so by trading in grace we grow rich in assurance. 'Make your election sure.' How? 'Add to your faith virtue, and to virtue knowl