Therefore we ought to desire to be sealed by the Spirit, in regard of an holy impression ; and then that the Holy Spirit would shine upon his own graces, so as we may clearly sec what is wrought in us above nature ; and because this is furthered by revealing his love in Christ in adoption to us, we must desire of God to vouchsafe the Spirit of revelation, to reveal the mj'steries of his truth unto us, and our portion in them in particular, and so our adoption ; and in the mean time to wait and attend his good plea- sure in the use of all good means. Thus we waiting, God will so far reveal himself in love to us, as shall assure us of his love, and stir up love again ; and the same Spirit that is a Spirit of revelation will be a Spirit of sanctification, and so adoption. Dignity, and fitting qualities suitable to dignity, go both together.
In that grand inquiry about our condition, there is a gi'eat miscarriage when men will begin with the first work of the Father in election, then pass to redemption by Christ : I am God's, and Christ hath redeemed me ; and never think of the action of the third person in sanctification, which is the nearest action upon the soul, as the third person himself is nearest unto us ; and so fetch their first rise where they should set up their last rest. Whereas we should begin our inquiry in the work of the third per- son, which is next unto us ; and then upon good grounds we may know our redemption and election.
The Holy Spirit is both a Spirit of revelation and of sanctification together, as hath been said ; for together with opening the love of the Father and the Son, he fitteth us by grace for communication with them.
People out of self-love will have conceits of the Father's and Son's love severed from the work of the Spirit upon their hearts, which will prove a dangerous illusion. Although the whole work of grace by the Spirit arise from the Father's and Son's love, witnessed by the Spirit, yet the proof of the Father's love to us in particular, ariseth from some knowledge of the work of the Spirit ; the error is not in thinking of the Father's and Son's love, but in a strengthening themselves by a pleasing powerless thought of it against the work of grace by the Spirit, which their corruption withstands. So they will carve out of the work of the Trinity what they think agreeable to their lusts, whereas otherwise, if their heart were upright, they would for this very end think of God's love and Christ's, to quicken them to duty and to arm them against corruption.
' To the day of redemption.
1 . There is a double redemption : redemption of the soul by the first coming of Christ to shed his blood for us ; redemption of our bodies from corruption by his second coming. We have not the perfect consummation and accomplishment of that which Christ wrought in his first coming till his second coming. Then there shall be a total redemption of our souls, and bodies, and conditions. There is a double redemption, as there is a double coming of Christ, the first and the second ; the one to redeem our
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souls from sin and Satan, and to give us title to heaven ; the other to redeem our bodies from corruption, when Christ shall come ' to be glorious in his saints,' 2 Thes. i. 10. As likewise there is a double resurrection, the first and the second, and a double regeneration, of soul and body.
In sickness and vreakness of body, or when age hath overtaken us that we cannot live long here, and the horror of the grave, the house of dark- ness, is presented to us ; Oh let us think there will be a redemption of our bodies as well as of our souls ! Christ will redeem our bodies from corruption, as he came to work the redemption of our souls from sin and death ; and he that will redeem our bodies out of the grave, he will redeem his church out of miser}'. He will call the Jews ; he that will do the greater will do the inferior. When we hear of this, let us think with com- fort of all the promises that are yet unperformed.
2. Secondly, Full redemption is not yet. What need I bring Scripture to prove it. It is a point that every man's experience teacheth. Alas ! let our bodies speak : we are not free from sickness and diseases ; nay, what is our life but a going to corruption ? The sentence is passed upon us, ' earth returneth to earth,' Gen. iii. 19. Till death we are going to death ; so besides sickness and weakness here, we must die, and after death be subject to corniption. The apostle in this respect calleth our body ' a vile body,'* Philip, iii. 21. As for our souls, though they be freed from the guilt and damnation of sin, yet there are remainders of corruption that breed fear and terror ; and though they be freed from the rule of Satan, yet not from his molestation and vexations by temptations. In a word, our whole state and condition in this world is a state and condition of misery ; we are followed with many afflictions, so that there is not yet perfect redemption, whether we look to body, soul, or state ; the body being subject to diseases, the soul to infii'mities, the state to misery.