Let us first speak of the privative or cleansing work; this notion is necessary to be added to the former: They that are sanctified must not only be separated to an holy use, but must also be cleansed: as to sanctify signifieth to separate, so there is a difference between them and others; and as it signifieth to cleanse, so there is a difference between them and themselves. They differ from others, because they are a people set apart to act and live for God; they trade for God, eat for God, drink for God, more or less, all is for *Gods glory, and so are a distinct company from the men of the world, who are merely swayed by their own interests, a company that merely act for themselves in all that they do. And then there is a difference between them and themselves, for Sanctification is the cleansing of a thing that was once filthy: 1 Cor. 6. 11. Such were some of you, but now ye are washed, but now ye are sanctified in the Name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God: they are not the same men they were before. We all come into the world polluted with the stain of sin, which is purged and done away by degrees, and at death wholly, and never before: When Christ cometh to bring us to God as the fruits of his Purchase, ⟨p. 29⟩then we are without spot and blemish, Ephes. 5. 26. The Papists cavil, ••• trifle, when they argue from that place, that either we must grant a perfection in this life, or a purgation after death, or how else cometh the Soul to be without spot and blemish▪ I answer, That place asserts the thing to the comfort of the Elect, that once they shall get rid of the filthy spots of sin▪ but for the time, most probably in the moment of expiring: As the Soul in the very moment wherein it is joined to the body becometh sinful; so in the moment wherein it leaveth the body 'tis sanctified, and presented by Christ to God; as many pious Souls breathe out their last with the profession of this hope: Then we shall be cleansed indeed; now the work is in fieri, 'tis a doing: The work of grace for the present consists in rubbing away the old filth, and *weakening original corruption more and more; as also in washing off the new defilement which we contract every day by conversing in the world: See John 13. 10.
Let us first speak of the privative or cleansing work; this notion is necessary to be added to the former: They that are sanctified must not only be separated to an holy use, but must also be cleansed: as to sanctifie signifieth to separate, so there is a difference between them and others; and as it signifieth to cleanse, so there is a difference between them and themselves. They differ from others, because they are a people set apart to act and live for God; they trade for God, eat for God, drink for God, more or less, all is for *Gods glory, and so are a distinct company from the men of the world, who are meerly swayed by their own interests, a company that meerly act for themselves in all that they do. And then there is a difference between them and themselves, for Sanctification is the cleansing of a thing that was once filthy: 1 Cor. 6. 11. Such were some of you, but now ye are washed, but now ye are sanctified in the Name of the Lord Iesus, and by the Spirit of our God: they are not the same men they were before. We all come into the world polluted with the stain of sin, which is purged and done away by degrees, and at death wholly, and never before: When Christ cometh to bring us to God as the fruits of his Purchase, ⟨p. 29⟩then we are without spot and blemish, Ephes. 5. 26. The Papists cavil, ••• trifle, when they argue from that place, that either we must grant a perfection in this life, or a purgation after death, or how else cometh the Soul to be without spot and blemish▪ I answer, That place asserts the thing to the comfort of the Elect, that once they shall get rid of the filthy spots of sin▪ but for the time, most probably in the moment of expiring: As the Soul in the very moment wherein it is joyned to the body becometh sinful; so in the moment wherein it leaveth the body 'tis sanctified, and presented by Christ to God; as many pious Souls breathe out their last with the profession of this hope: Then we shall be cleansed indeed; now the work is in fieri, 'tis a doing: The work of grace for the present consists in rubbing away the old filth, and *weakening original corruption more and more; as also in washing off the new defilement which we contract every day by conversing in the world: See
- *1. Cor. 10. 31
- *So obstinate is mans heart, that that is all that can be don•; the weakening of sin, but not the destruction of it.So obstinate is mans heart, that that is all that can be don•; the weakening of sin, but not the dest•u•tion of it.
