1st. To make clean physically, or morally. (1.) Ceremonial purification, Heb. ix., 13. (2.) To render clean in a moral sense, 1 Cor. vi., 11 ; Heb. xiii., 12. Hence the phrase " them that are sanctified" is convertible with believers, 1 Cor. i., 2.
2d. To set apart from a common to a sacred use, to devote, (1.) spoken of things, Matt, xxiii., 17 ; (2.) spoken of persons, John x., 36 ; (3.) to regard and venerate as holy, Matt, vi., 9 ; 1 Pet. iii., 15.
"Ay cog, as an adjective, pure, holy, as a noun, saint, is also used in two distinct senses, corresponding to those of the verb.
1st. Pure, clean ; (1.) ceremonially, (2.) morally, Eph. i., 4, (3.) as a noun, saints, sanctified ones, Rom. i. 7 ; viii., 27.
2d. Consecrated, devoted, Matt, iv., 5 ; Acts vi., 13 ; xxi., 28 ; Heb. ix., 3. This word is also used in ascriptions of praise to God, John xvii., 11 ; Rev. iv., 8.
2. What are the different views entertained as to the nature of sanctification ?
Pelagians denying original sin and the moral inability of man, and holding that sin can be predicated only of acts of the will, and not of inherent states or dispositions, consequently regard sanctification as nothiug more than a moral reformation of life and habits, wrought under the influence of the truth in the natu- ral strength of the sinner himself.
APPLICATION OF REDEMPTION. 403
The advocates of the "exercise scheme" hold that we can find nothing in the soul than the agent and his exercises. Kegenera- tion, therefore, is nothing more than the cessation from a series of unholy, and the inauguration of a series of holy exercises ; and sanctification the maintenance of those holy exercises. One party, represented by Dr. Emmons, say that God immediately effects these holy exercises. Another party, represented by Dr. Taylor, of New Haven, held that the man himself determines the character of his own exercises by choosing God as his chief good ; the Holy Spirit in some unexplained way assisting. See above, Chap. XXVI., questions 5 and 6.
3d. Many members of the Church of England, as distinguished from the evangelical party in that church, hold that a man con- forming to the church, which is the condition of the Gospel cove- nant, is introduced to all the benefits of that covenant, and in the decent performance of relative duties and observance of the sacraments, is enabled to do all that is now required of him, and to attain to all the moral good now possible or desirable.
4th. The orthodox doctrine is that the Holy Ghost, by his constant influences upon the whole soul in all its faculties, through the instrumentality of the truth, nourishes, exercises, and develops those holy principles and dispositions which he im- planted in the new birth, until by a constant progress, all sinful dispositions being mortified and extirpated, and all holy disposi- tions being fully matured, the subject of this grace is brought immediately upon death to the measure of the stature of perfect manhood in Christ.
Con. Faith, Chap. XIII. ; L. Cat., question 75 ; S. Cat., question 35.
3. How can it be shown that sanctification involves more than mere reformation ?
See above, Chap. XXVI., question 12.
4. How may it be shown that it involves more than the pro- duction of holy exercises ?
See above, Chap. XXVI., questions 7-10.
Besides the arguments presented in the chapter above referred
404 SANCTIFICATION.
to, this truth is established by the evidence of those passages of Scripture which distinguish between the change wrought in the heart and the effects of that change in the actions, Matt, xii., 33-35 ; Luke vi.5 43-45.
5. What relation does sanetification sustain to regeneration ?
Eegeneration is the creative act of the Holy Spirit, implant- ing a new principle of spiritual life in the soul. Conversion is the first exercise of that new gracious principle, in the spontane- ous turning of the new born sinner to God. Sanetification is the sustaining and developing work of the Holy Ghost, bringing all the faculties of the soul more and more perfectly under the puri- fying and regulating influence of the implanted principle of spir- itual life.
6. What is the relation which justification and sanetification sustain to each other ?