1. We cannot ourselves. We could defile ourselves, but we cannot cleanse ourselves ; as little children defile themselves, but the nurse must make them clean. A sheep can wander of itself, but it is brought home upon the shepherd's shoulders. Domine, errare per me potui, redire non potui. God, that gave us his image at first, must again stamp it on the soul. Who can repair nature depraved but the author of nature ? When a watch is out of order we send it to the workman : Eph. ii. 10, ' We are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, that we might walk therein ; ' Lev. xxi. 8, ' I the Lord that sanctify thee am holy.' It is God's prerogative.
2. The means cannot without God. It is by the truth, but God is the principal cause. Sanctification is ascribed to many causes. To God the Father, as he decreeth it : Jude 1, ' To them that are sancti- fied by God the Father.' To the Son, as he merited it : Eph. v. 25, 26, * He gave himself for the church, that he might sanctify and cleanse it.' To the Holy Ghost, as he effects it: 2 Thes. ii. 13, ' God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation, through sanctifica- tion of the Spirit,' To faith, as it receiveth the grace of God: Acts XV. 9, ' Purifying their hearts by faith.' To the word, as the instru- ment of begetting it : John xv. 3, ' Now ye are clean, through the word which I have spoken unto you ;' it is the external means, but all efficacy is of God, and grace is his creature ; else what should be the reason why the same word, preached by the same minister, worketh on some and hardeneth others, at least it amendeth them not ? Lydia alone is converted, because the Lord ' opened her heart,' Acts xvi. 14. Man's will doth not put the difference, but God's grace.
Use. It presseth us —
416 SERMONS UPON JOHN XVII. [SeR. XXVI.
1. To wait and look for it from God. A plant thriveth better by tlie dew of heaven than when watered by the hand. We may say as l*eter, Acts iii. 12, ' Why look ye so earnestly on us, as though by <.>ur own power and holiness we had made this man to walk ? ' ' Am I in the place of Godr^ ' saith Jacob to Eachel, Gen. xxx. 2. When you look only to the teacher's gifts, you lose the divine operation ; it may fill your heads with fancies and notions, but not your hearts with grace.
2. To praise the Lord when it is accomplished : 1 Cor. iii. 5, ' What is Paul, or what is Apollos, but ministers by whom ye have believed ? ' as if children should thank the servants for what they have. Grace maketh us more in debt ; you have received it from him, not from yourselves : 'Not I, but the grace of God in me;' 'Thy i)ound hath gained ten pounds.' If you have any holiness, any good work, it is not of yourselves, but of God. Every act, every degree of holiness, is from God.
Thirdly, For whom he prayeth, the apostles.
1. Tliat were already holy : John xiii. 10, ' Ye are clean ;' and in the verse immediately preceding, 'They are not of the world;' yet now, ' Sanctify them,' let their hearts be more heavenly, and their lives more pure every day.
Observe, those that are sanctified need to be sanctified more and more : Rev. xxii. 11, ' He that is righteous, let him be righteous still; lie that is holy, let him be holy still.'
[1.] Our inward sanctification must increase, because of the weak- ness of present grace and the relics of corruption : 2 Cor. iv. 16, ' Though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed (lay by day.' It is not a work to be done at once : 1 Thes. v. 23, ' And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly ; and I pray God your whole spirit, soul and body, be preserved blameless unto the com- ing of our Lord Jesus Christ.' It is perfect in parts at first ; the new creature doth not come out maimed ; but not in degrees : there is need of more sanctification in spirit, in soul, in body ; the kingdom of hea- ven increaseth by degrees.
[2.] Our outward man must be cleansed day by day, because of new defilements : John xiii. 10, ' He that is washed needeth not but to wash his feet, but is clean every whit.' It is an allusion to a man connng from the bath ; his feet contract soil in the passage. Your persons are sanctified by the Spirit ; but when you are never so holy, there are new defilements.
Use 1. Be not satisfied with any present degrees of grace. There is a holy covetousness : ' I count not myself to have attained,' Phil, iii. 14. Christ is so full that we cannot receive all at once.
2. It is a strange conceit in any to think they may be too good. When we begin to be unwilling to grow better, we begin to wax worse ; it is a good degree of grace to know our defects.