2. Those that Peter speaks of, were such that only had escaped gross Pollution through the common Operations of the Spirit; it appears, their swinish Nature was never changed: he therefore ⟨p. 264⟩saith, It is happened to them according to the true Proverb, The Dog it 1turned to his Vomit again, and the Sow that was washed to her wallowing in the Mire. Such therefore never were sanctified in Heart, they never experienced the Effects of Christ's Blood, not that Soul-purifying Virtue that is in it; they were cleansed from gross Idolatry, through the Knowledge of Christ, and also from some gross Acts of Profaneness; they had obtained a reformed, but no renewed Life of Grace and Holiness; therefore such fall into Sin again, and are so overcome, that the latter End is worse with them than the Beginning. As to true Believers, see what the Apostle says; For by one Offering he hath perfected for ever them that are 2sanctified. By this one Offering our Lord Jesus hath procured our Sanctification perpetually to be continued; the Death of Christ hath special influence unto the mortification of Sin: in the Death of the Cross, Our Old Man is crucified, that the Body of Sin might be destroyed: Sin is mortified, and we are sanctified by virtue of the Death of Christ; and we hereby through his Grace come to be planted into the Likeness of his Death. And as Paul 3in another place saith, Being made conformable unto his Death: This 4Conformity is not in our Natural Death, or in our being put to death for him; but Christ dying for our Sins is the procuring Cause of our dying to Sin: therefore we must look for the Death of our Sins in the Death of Christ, as the proper Effect thereof. Virtue goeth from the Death of Christ, to the subduing and destroying of Sin; his Death was not only a Passive Example, but is accompanied with Power, conforming and changing us into his Likeness: 'Tis the great Ordinance of God to this very End, it is by a fellowship or participation in his suffering; we are never made conformable to the Death of Christ, till we die to Sin: the Death of Christ was designed to be the Death of Sin. And as certain as Christ died for the Sins of all the Elect, so certain it is they shall all, first or last, feel the powerful Effects thereof in the Death of their Sins. The Corn fell into the Ground and died, and shall produce all the Increase that virtually was hid in it:
2. Those that Peter speaks of, were such that only had escaped gross Pollution through the common Operations of the Spirit; it appears, their swinish Nature was never changed: he therefore ⟨p. 264⟩saith, It is happened to them according to the true Proverb, The Dog it 1turned to his Vomit again, and the Sow that was washed to her wallowing in the Mire. Such therefore never were sanctified in Heart, they never experienced the Effects of Christ's Blood, not that Soul-purifying Virtue that is in it; they were cleansed from gross Idolatry, through the Knowledg of Christ, and also from some gross Acts of Prophaneness; they had obtained a reformed, but no renewed Life of Grace and Holiness; therefore such fall into Sin again, and are so overcome, that the latter End is worse with them than the Beginning. As to true Believers, see what the Apostle says; For by one Offering he hath perfected for ever them that are 2sanctified. By this one Offering our Lord Jesus hath procured our Sanctification perpetually to be continued; the Death of Christ hath special influence unto the mortification of Sin: in the Death of the Cross, Our Old Man is crucified, that the Body of Sin might be destroyed: Sin is mortified, and we are sanctified by virtue of the Death of Christ; and we hereby through his Grace come to be planted into the Likeness of his Death. And as Paul 3in another place saith, Being made conformable unto his Death: This 4Conformity is not in our Natural Death, or in our being put to death for him; but Christ dying for our Sins is the procuring Cause of our dying to Sin: therefore we must look for the Death of our Sins in the Death of Christ, as the proper Effect thereof. Virtue goeth from the Death of Christ, to the subduing and destroying of Sin; his Death was not only a Passive Example, but is accompanied with Power, conforming and changing us into his Likeness: 'Tis the great Ordinance of God to this very End, it is by a fellowship or participation in his suffering; we are never made conformable to the Death of Christ, till we die to Sin: the Death of Christ was designed to be the Death of Sin. And as certain as Christ died for the Sins of all the Elect, so certain it is they shall all, first or last, feel the powerful Effects thereof in the Death of their Sins. The Corn fell into the Ground and died, and shall produce all the Increase that virtually was hid in it:
- 1Ver. 22.
- 2Heb. 10. 14.
- 3Rom. 6. 5.
- 4Phil. 3. 10, 11, 12.
