The sound believer. A treatise of evangelical conversion. Discovering the work of Christ's spirit,…

our Holiness hath no other primary Pattern but God's Holiness, so that our Sanctification ⟨p. 220⟩is not the Righteousness and Holiness as it is inherent in Christ, for that is the Matter of our Justification, and therefore Sanctification must be that Holiness which is derived unto us from Christ, whereby we are made like unto him; and thus Christ is made Sanctification unto us, 1 Cor. 1.30. There should be no Difference between Christ our Righteousness and Sanctification, if that Holiness which is in Christ should be both unto us. Hence also Sanctification is not the immediate Operation of the Spirit upon us, without created Habits of Grace abiding in us, as the Spirit that came upon Balaam, and mightily affected him for a Time, but left him as destitute of any Grace or Change of his Nature as the Ass he rode on; no, no, it renews you unto the Image of God himself, if you be truly sanctified. And therefore let all these Dreams of the Familists (denying all inherent Graces, but only those which are in Christ, to be in the Saints) let them vanish and perish from under the Sun, and the good Lord reduce all such who in Simplicity are misled from this blessed Truth of God. I will not now enter into the Depth concerning the Means of our Sanctification in Mortification by Christ's Death and Vivication by the Resurrection of Christ: This may suffice for Explication of the Nature of it.

Only see and for ever prize this Privilege, all you blessed Souls, whom the Lord hath justified; thou hast many sad Complaints, what is it to me, if I be justified in Christ, and be saved at last by Christ, and my Heart remain all this while unholy & unsubdued unto the Will of Christ; that he should comfort me, and my holy Heart be alway grieving of him; what tho' the Lord save me from Misery, but saves me not from my Sin; Oh consider this Benefit. It is true, thou findest a woeful, sinful Nature within thee, cross ⟨p. 221⟩and contrary unto Holiness, and leading thee daily in Captivity; yet remember the Lord hath given thee another Nature, a new Nature; there is something else within thee, which makes thee wrestle against Sin; and shall in Time prevail over all Sin,