CXLV expository sermons upon the whole 17th chapter of the Gospel according to St.…

1. In the manner of working of it. The Spirit of God by the Word doth thus sanctify; therefore some understand this in the Text, by the truth, as formerly our Saviour prayed. God himself is the only Author of Sanctification. We cannot make our selves holy, no more then we can make our selves men, yet God works not in the order of grace immediately, no more then in the order of nature, where he makes use of second causes. Thus in the working of grace, he appointeth second means, as the Ministry and Ordinances; and therefore Paul, 1 Cor. 3. saith, They were Ministers by whom the Corinthians did believe; and there is no better discovery of true Sanctification, then to examine the manner and way how thou hast received it; for if the Spirit of God by the Word hath wrought it in thee, then fear not, this is of a more noble and supernatural being, then what morality or principles of civility can incline unto thee; As Christ himself was in his bodily nature conceived by the holy Ghost in an extraordinary manner. Thus is every one sanctified in an higher and more sublime way, then all the moral and prudential dictates of nature can carry us unto: Oh then prove thy self, what hath the Spirit of God and his Word done unto thee! That was not more wonderful in those who had a prophetical Spirit, then in such who are sanctified. To enable men to speak with strange Tongues, is not more admirable, then to give a man a strange heart to what he had once, and strange in respect of others.

1. In the manner of working of it. The Spirit of God by the Word doth thus sanctifie; therefore some understand this in the Text, by the truth, as formerly our Saviour prayed. God himself is the onely Authour of Sanctification. We cannot make our selves holy, no more then we can make our selves men, yet God works not in the order of grace immediately, no more then in the order of nature, where he makes use of second causes. Thus in the working of grace, he appointeth second means, as the Ministry and Ordinances; and therefore Paul, 1 Cor. 3. saith, They were Ministers by whom the Corinthians did beleeve; and there is no better discovery of true Sanctification, then to examine the manner and way how thou hast received it; for if the Spirit of God by the Word hath wrought it in thee, then fear not, this is of a more noble and supernatural being, then what morality or principles of civility can incline unto thee; As Christ himself was in his bodily nature conceived by the holy Ghost in an extraordinary manner. Thus is every one sanctified in an higher and more sublime way, then all the moral and prudential dictates of nature can carry us unto: Oh then prove thy self, what hath the Spirit of God and his Word done unto thee! That was not more wonderfull in those who had a prophetical Spirit, then in such who are sanctified. To enable men to speak with strange Tongues, is not more admirable, then to give a man a strange heart to what he had once, and strange in respect of others.