^ It was a profanation in Belshazzar to drink in the cups of the temple.
VeR. 1.] UPON THE EPISTLE OF JUDE. 27
2. To sanctify is to cleanse, together with its positive act, to renew and adorn with grace.
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 a 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 God's glory, 1 Cor. X. 31, 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. vi. 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 witli 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, then we are ' without spot and blemish,' Eph. V. 27. The Papists cavil, yea, 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 it is 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, it is a-doing. The work of grace for the present consists in rub- bing away the old filth, and weakening original corruption more and more ; i as also in washing off the new defilement which we contract every day by conversing in the world. See John xiii. 10, where our Saviour alludeth to a man that hath been bathing himself, but after his return by treading on the ground again staineth his feet, and needeth another washing, of his feet at least. So by conversing in the world, there are stains and spots contracted, which must always be washed off by daily repentance, besides our general bathing at first conversion or regeneration, Titus iii. 5. I have no more to say to this cleansing work, but only this, that it is not merely like the washing off of spots, but like tlie purging of sick matters or ill humours out of the body ; it is a work done with much reluctation of corrupt nature, and therefore it is expressed by * subduing our iniquities,' Micah vii. 19. In outward filthiness there is no actual resistance, as there is in sin.
But to speak now of the positive work, or the decking and adorning the soul with grace. As the priests under the law, when they came to minister before the Lord, were not only washed in the great laver,
1 So obstinate is man's heart, that that is all that can be done ; the weakening of sin, but not the destruction of it.
28 AN EXPOSITION, WITH NOTES, [VeR. 1.
but adorned with gorgeous apparel, so to be sanctified is more than to be purified ; for besides the expulsion of sin, there is an infusion of grace, a disposition wrought clean contrary to what we had before, therefore called ' a new heart and a new spirit ; ' see Ezek. xxxvi. 25-27 ; from whence also there floweth newness of life and conversa- tion; there is a new heart or conformity to God's nature, and a new life or conformity to God's will. The pattern of that sanctification which is wrought in the heart is God's nature or image, 2 Peter i. 4, Eph. iv. 24 ; and the pattern of that sanctification which is wrought in tiie life is God's law or revealed will, 1 Thes. iv. 3 , the one is our habitual holiness, and the other our actual.
[1.] For habitual sanctification, or that which is wrought in the heart, I observe, that it is thorough but not full ; there must be all grace, and every faculty must be adorned with grace : i 1 Thes. v. 23, ' The very God of peace sanctify you wholly : I pray God your whole s^)irit, soul, and body be preserved blameless until the coming of Jesus Christ.' All of man is made up of spirit, soul, and body ; that is the theological distinction of the faculties : — the spirit, that is the more rational and angelical part of the soul, understanding, conscience, will ; and then there is soul, the lower part, the more brutish and sensual affections and desires ; and then body, the outward man, the instrument of soul, which needeth to be sanctified, that is, kept in a good order and frame, that it may not rebel, or disobey the motions of the better part. You see, then, every faculty must be seasoned with the new nature ; 2 this leaven must get into the whole lump ; the mind, memory, conscience, will, desires, delights, all must be brought into conformity to the image of God. And as every faculty must be sanc- tified, so there must be every grace. In conversion there is introduced into the soul a stock of truth, and a frame of grace, called in other terms ' the anointing,' 1 John ii. 27, and ' the seed of God,' 1 John iii. 9. There is a stock of truth brought into the understanding to season that ; not that every one that is regenerate doth actually know all truths, but there is a saving light and knowledge of things neces- sary ; they see enough to avoid courses of damnation, and to cleave to the ways of God : and there is an inquisitiveness after truth, and a suitableness to them when they are revealed ; they are teachable, though actually ignorant ; there is something in their hearts that carrieth a cognation and proportion to every truth, and claimeth kin of it whenever it is revealed. And then there is a frame of grace ; for the mind is not only enlightened, but the will and aff'ectious are sanctified, and the heart inclined to choose the ways of God, and to obey him whenever occasion is offered. The habits of all grace are brought into the heart by regeneration, as original sin containeth the seeds and habits of all sin : though there be not explicit workings of all graces at that time, yet they are introduced, and make up one sincere bent of the soul towards God, called ' Holiness in truth,' Eph. vi. 24. Thus you see the new creature doth not come out maimed ; the person sanctified hath all the parts of a new man, not one member is