It is not in our sanctification, as it is in our justification ; our justification is complete and perfect, no defect is found there; but the new creature labours under many defects : all believers are equally justified, but not equally sanctified. Therefore you read, 2 Cor. iv. 16. that " the inward man is renewed day by day :* And 2 Pet. iii. 18. Christians are exhorted " to grow in grace, and " in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour :" if this work were perfect, and finished at once, as justification is, there could be no renewing day by day, nor growth in grace. Perfectum est cui nihil deest $ cui nihil addi potest ; i. e. that is perfect which wants no- thing, and to which nothing can be added. The apostle indeed prays for the Thessalonians, " that God would sanctify them,1' o'aoIsXsi;, — wholly, perfectly, 1 Thes. v. 23. And this is matter of prayer and hope ; for, at last, it will grow up to perfection ; but this perfect holiness is reserved for the perfect state in the world to come, and none but * deluded, proud spirits boast of it here : but when " that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part " shall be done away," 1 Cor. xiii. 9, 10. And upon the imper- fection of the new creature in every faculty, that warfare and daily conflict spoken of, Gal. V. 17. and experienced by every Christian, is grounded ; grace rises gradually in the soul, as the sun doth in the heavens, " which shineth more and more unto a " perfect day," Prov. iv. 18.
Fifthly, To conclude; This life with which the regenerate are quickened, is an everlasting life. " This is the record, that God " hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son," 1 John v. 11. This principle of life, is the seed of God; and that remains in the soul for ever, 1 John iii. 9- It is no transient, vanishing thing, but a fixed, permanent principle, which abides in the soul for ever ; a man may lose his gifts, but grace abides'; the soul may, and must be separated from the body, but grace cannot be sepa- rated from the soul : when all forsake us, this will not leave us.
* Perfection of sanctification is not found in this life, unless in the dreams of &orae fanatics. Ajnes.
92 THE METHOD OF GRACE. SERM. V.
This infused principle is therefore vastly different, both from the extraordinary gifts of prophecy, wherein the Spirit was sometimes said to come upon men, under the Old Testament, 1 Sam. x. 6, 10. and from the common vanishing effects he sometimes pro- duceth in the unregenerate, of which we have frequent accounts in the New Testament, Heb. vi. 4. and John v. 35. It is one thing for the Spirit to come upon a man in the way of present in- fluence and assistance, and another thing to dwell in a man as in his temple.
And thus of the nature and quality of this blessed work of the Spirit in quickening us.
Secondly, Having seen the nature and properties of the spiritual life, we are concerned in the next place to enquire into the way and manner in which it is wrought and infused by the Spirit, and here we must say,
First of all, that the work is wrought in the soul very mysterious- ly ; so Christ tells Nicodemus, John iii. 8. " The wind bloweth " where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst " not tell whence it cometh, or whither it goeth, so is every one " that is born of the Spirit." There be many opinions among philosophers about the original of wind ; but we have no certain knowledge of it ; we describe it by its effects and properties, but know little of its original : and if the works of God in nature be so obstruse, and unsearchable, how much more so are these sub- lime, and supernatural works of the Spirit ?
We are not able to solve the Phaenomena of nature, we can give no account of our own formation in the womb, Eccl. xi. 5. Who can exactly describe how the parts of the body are formed, and the soul infused ? " It is curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the " earth," as the Psalmist speaks, Psal. cxxxix. 16. but how, we know not. Basil saith, divers questions may be moved about a. fly, which may puzzle the greatest philosopher : we know little of the forms and essences of natural things, much less of these profound, and abstruse spiritual things.
Secondly, But though we cannot pry into these secrets by the eye of reason, yet God hath revealed this to us in his word, that it is wrought by his own Almighty Power, Eph. i. 19. The apostle ascribes this work to the exceeding greatness of the power of God ; and this must needs be, if we consider how the Spirit of God ex- presses it in scripture by a new creation ; i. e. a giving being to something out of nothing, Eph. ii. 10. In this it differs from all the effects of human power, for man always works upon some pre- existent matter, but here is no such matter ; all that is in man, the subject of this work, is only a passive capacity, or receptivity, but nothing is found in him to contribute towards this work ; this
8ERM. V. THE METHOD OF GRACE. 9$
supernatural life is not, nor can it be educed out of natural prin- ciples; this wholly transcends the sphere of all natural power; but of this more anon.
Thirdly, This also we may affirm of it, that this divine life is in- fused into all the natural faculties and powers of the soul, not one exempted, 1 Thes. v. 23. The whole soul and spirit is the reci- pient subject of it ; and with respect to this general infusion into all the faculties and powers of the soul, it is called a new creature, a new man, having an integral perfection, and fulness of all its parts and members ; it becomes light in the mind, John xvii. 3. Obedience in the will, 1 Pet. i. 2. In the affections an heavenly temper and tenderness, Col. hi. 1, 2. And so is variously deno- minated, even as the sea is from the several shores it washes, though it be one and the same sea. And here, we must observe, lies one main difference betwixt a regenerate soul and an hypocrite ; * the one is all of a piece, as I may say, the principle of spiritual life runs into all, and every faculty and affection, and sanctifies or renews the whole man ; whereas the change upon hypocrites is. but partial and particular ; he may have new light, but no new love ; a new tongue, but not a new heart ; this or that vice may be reformed, but the whole course of his life is not altered.
Fourthly, and lastly, This infusion of spiritual life is done instan- taneously, as all creation work' is ; hence it is resembled to that plas- tic power, which, in a moment, made the light to shine out of dark- ness; just so God shines into our hearts, 2 Cor. iv. 6.