Remains of that reverend and learned divine, John Preston, Dr. in Divinity, chaplain in…Remaines of that reverend and learned divine, Iohn Preston, Dr. in Divinity, chaplaine in…

Secondly, as it gives strength and other excellent qualities above nature, so it adds unto it holiness; ¹it puts a tincture, and a good dye upon all your actions, it warmeth the gift of the mind, and puts the heart in a frame of grace: many men have a kind of strength, but they want holiness and sanctification with it; now a man is said to be a holy man, when the soul is separated and divorc'st from things that are contrary to its salvation and happiness, and joined and united unto Christ wholly and totally; then and not till then, is a man a true holy man: it is with a holy man in this case, as it is with a spouse, she is separated from others, and united unto her husband: therefore they that have the Spirit, have holiness with it: the vessels in the time of the Law they were holy vessels; because they were appointed for Gods worship: in like manner, when the Spirit comes into the heart, it sanctifies it, and makes him a holy man, by making him in all his aims and ends, to pitch upon Gods glory, and this can no ⟨p. 144⟩man do till Christ be his. As in the Canticles, the Church saith, I am my beloveds, and my beloved is mine: that is, because he is my husband, and I am his spouse; therefore I will labour to be like him in holiness, and our Saviour prayeth for this holiness for his Disciples, John 17. 17. ²Sanctify them through thy truth, thy Word is truth: the Word is the means to work holiness in them: when the Word comes, then comes holiness, but when profit or pleasure comes to take place, then the Spirit of holiness is as it were plucked from them, but when they have the Spirit then they see the vanity of these earthly things, and therefore it is that men are deceived with false and counterfeit wares, because they want the Spirit of discerning, but when the Spirit of God comes into the heart of a Christian, then it shows him the vanity of these things, and this he doth by enlightening the mind: and therefore it is that they are kept from playing the adulteresses with these things, because they have the Spirit of discerning: Now examine what strength above nature, what conjunction of holiness have you with it, what Spirit of discerning have you: are not these things in you? then you have not the Spirit.