sanctified by faith that is in Christ,*

But in cer

tain particulars they differ. Justification refers to our state; sanctification to our character, and to that personal holiness to which we attain through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ. For by faith in him our hearts are purified ;† "and of his fulness have all we received, and grace for grace." All the virtue and goodness ever found in man are derived from Christ, and, in a sound sense, were first in him. When the Apostle spake of his extraordinary labours in the cause of Christ, how remarkable is his language! how unintelligible to the children of this world! ** By the grace of God I am what I am.-I laboured more abundantly than they all yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me." This view of the doctrine proves at once the necessity of holiness, and of that genuine humility, which is one essential branch of it. We make important distinctions between justification and sanctification: but it is a pernicious error to believe that we can have the one without the other; that we can for instance, have Christ without holiness, or holiness without Christ. It appears indeed, that there is a preparatory work of the Spirit convincing a man of sin before he receives Christ; but whenever he does receive him, he receives at the same instant a measure of renewing grace, and knows from experience, that Christ is a Saviour from sin. And in succeeding and repeated acts of faith his justification becomes more evident, and his sanctification more perfect. If therefore any of you are yet strangers to a change of this nature, from sin to holiness, it is clear, you are not yet justified by faith.

* Acts, xxvi. 18. + Acts, xv. 9. John, i. 16. § 1 Cor. xv. 10.

Believers are exhorted by the Apostle Jude to "build up themselves on their most holy faith.” And I have often thought that holiness is in the nature of saving faith much after the manner that warmth is in the rays of the sun; at least that it is inseparable from it. How can it be otherwise, since faith is a fruit of the Holy Spirit* produced in the heart for a holy purpose? You cannot look to Christ so as to be saved by him without becoming, in some degree, like him. "Beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, we are changed into the same image."+ Hence the exhortation to "put on the Lord Jesus Christ,"‡ and to have that "mind in us which was in Christ Jesus." And if any one profess to be in Christ, he is admonished, that he "ought himself also so to walk, even as he walked."|| All pretences therefore to faith, and all appearances of it without personal holiness are counterfeit and of no value.

It was foretold concerning the people of Christ that they should be "willing" (that is, to serve him) "in the day of his power, in the beauties of holiness." And the faith by which they receive Christ is called "the faith of God's elect,”** be cause none ever have it but those whom "he hath chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world, that they should be holy, and without blame before him in love.”†† It is also expressly said of the same faith, that it "worketh by love." It is not a weak and inefficient thing, as men commonly imagine; but a principle of wonderful efficacy. It gives an entirely new impulse to the faculties; and draws forth all the energies of the soul into

* Gal. v. 22. + 2 Cor. iii. 18. ‡ Rom. xiii. 14. § Phil. ii. 5. || 1 John, ii. 6. 1 Pc. 3. ** Tit. i. 1. ++ Eph. i.4. ‡‡ Gal. v. 6.

F

action for the cause, and truth, and glory of God, and the best interests of man. The believer loves the Saviour, who has washed him from his sins in his own blood, the law which he has magnified, the souls, who partake with him of the same grace, and the word which makes known the great salvation. He is constrained by the love of Christ to live no longer to himself, as he did in the days of his folly; but to him that died for him and rose again. And so powerful is the influence of this love, that all motives of an opposite kind arising from self-indulgence, worldly advantages, and the fear of man fall mortified and vanquished before it.

The Son of God, by a mysterious and astonishing act of love, "gave himself for us," with this leading object in view, "that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people zealous of good works." And there is no power in earth, or hell, no subtilty, or device of any enemy that can frustrate the Lord's designs; for "my counsel," he says, "shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure." To do good therefore is the Christian's delight, the manifestation of the life of faith, the employment to which the new nature will ever incline, and the design of our redemption. Moreover, we are assured that "this is the will of God, even our sanctification."§ And since it is his will, it cannot fail to take place; for "he doeth according to his will in the army of heaven, and among the inhabitants of the earth; and none can stay his hand, or say unto him, What doest thou?" And that celebrated heathen monarch, whose convictions led him thus to speak of

* 2 Cor. v. 14. Tit. ii. 14. ‡ Isa. xlvi. 10. § 1 Thes. iv. 3.

the true God, was constrained also to add, "Now I Nebuchadnezzar praise and extol and honour the King of heaven, all whose works are truth, and his ways judgment: and those that walk in pride he is able to abase." I am convinced, that no real Christian will abuse the doctrines of God's sovereignty and absolute decrees, so as to infer that he has nothing to do, and that his own exertions are useless, and not required. No, he will rather consider, that all his exertions are parts of the divine decrees, and made necessary by them; or as links of an immense chain, extending backward into eternity, before the world was made, and reaching forward through time into eternity, when this world shall have passed away. But I shall refer you to a few more passages, which bear directly on this high subject. The first is in the eighth to the Romans: "For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son. Moreover, whom he did predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified." Here, you see, several links of the chain above alluded to are specified. The next is the Apostle's congratulatory address to the believ ers at Thessalonica, in the second chapter of his second Epistle; "But we are bound to give thanks alway to God for you, brethren beloved of the Lord, because God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth." To which I add his words to the Ephesians in the second chapter: "We are his workmanship, created in Christ Je sus unto good works, which God hath before or

* Dan. iv. 37.

dained that we should walk in them."

Now it appears from hence, that no man has any reason to say, 'If I am elect I shall be saved, whatever I believe, and do what I will: but if I am not elect, I shall be lost, do what I can.' This is the language of them who know not the scriptures; and it is also the language of blasphemy, and betrays enmity to the truth of God. For God has chosen some sinners from among others on purpose, that they may be sanctified, or made holy, and believe the truth; and do good works in their way to the kingdom of glory: and without these they can have no hope but that of the hypocrite which shall perish. The Apostle Peter also reminds believers, to the same effect, that they are "elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience;"* and in another place proves at length, that it is by our obedience we must make our calling and election sure." Learn then to make a holy and salutary use of these sublime doctrines, as you are clearly taught to do in the scripture; for they afford the strongest encouragement to hope, and also to activity in the concerns of the soul, in as much as they give you assurance of success, and that your labour shall not be in vain in the Lord.

That all, who are justified by faith, are made personally holy is abundantly evident from the account which the scripture gives of the office and work of the Holy Spirit in believers. All that we know of God, of Christ, and of the holy scripture, to any spiritual and saving purpose, comes to us in this way, by supernatural influence. "It is the

* 1 Pet. i. 2. + 2 Pet. i.