A Body of Practical Divinity

Quest. What are the Counterfeits of Sanctification?

Resp. There is something looks like Sanctification, which is not.

1. The first Counterfeit of Sanctification is Moral Virtue. To be just, temperate, to be of a fair deportment, not having ones Scocheon blotted with ignominious scandal, this is good, but not enough: this is not Sanctification. A field flower differs from a garden flower. 1. Heathens have attained to Morality; Cato, Socrates, Aristides: Civility is but Nature refined; there's nothing of Christ there: the heart may be foul and impure, under these fair Leaves of Civility, the worm of Unbelief may be hid. 2. A Moral Person hath a secret antipathy against Grace: he hates Vice, and he hates Grace as much as Vice. The Snake hath a fine colour, but a sting. A Person adorned and cultivated with Moral Virtue, hath a secret spleen against Sanctity: Those Stoics which were the chief of the moralized Heathens, were the bitterest Enemies St. Paul had, Acts 17.18.

1. The first Counterfeit of Sanctification is Moral Vertue. To be just, temperate, to be of a fair deportment, not having ones Scocheon blotted with ignominious scandal, this is good, but not enough: this is not Sanctification. A field flower differs from a garden flower. 1. Heathens have attain'd to Morality; Cato, Socrates, Aristides: Civility is but Nature refined; there's nothing of Christ there: the heart may be foul and impure, under these fair Leaves of Civility, the worm of Unbelief may be hid. 2. A Moral Person hath a secret antipathy against Grace: he hates Vice, and he hates Grace as much as Vice. The Snake hath a fine colour, but a sting. A Person adorned and cultivated with Moral Vertue, hath a secret spleen against Sanctity: Those Stoicks which were the chief of the moralized Heathens, were the bitterest Enemies St. Paul had,