This title is ascribed unto God only by our apostle, and by him frequently, Rom. xv. 33, xvi. 20; 2 Cor. xiii. 11; Phil. iv. 9; Heb. xiii. 20. Were it unto our present purpose to discourse concerning the general nature of peace, I might show how it is comprehensive of all order, rest, and blessedness, and all that is in them. On this account the enclosure of it in this title unto God, as its only possessor and author, belongs to the glory of his sovereign diadem. Every thing that is contrary unto it is evil, and of the evil one ; yea, all that is evil is so, because of its contrariety unto peace. Well, therefore, may God be styled "The God of peace." But these things I may not here stay to explain, although the words are so comprehensive and expressive of the whole work of sanctification, and that holiness which is the effect thereof, as that I shall choose to found my whole dis- course concerning this subject upon them. That which offers itself unto our present design from this expression is the peculiar respect unto the work of our sanctification which lies in this especial property of God. Wherefore is he said to sanctify us as the God of peace? 1. Because it is a fruit and effect of that peace with himself which he hath made and prepared for us by Jesus Christ ; for he was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself, destroying the enmity
CHAP. I.] AND GOSPEL HOLINESS EXPLAINED. S69
which entered by sin, and laying the foundation of eternal peace. From hence it is that he will sanctify us, or make us holy; without a respect whereunto he would no more do so than he will sanctify again the angels that have sinned, for whom there is no peace made nor atonement. 2. God, by the sanctification of our natures and persons, preserves that peace with himself in its exercise which he made and procured by the mediation of Christ, without which it could not be kept or continued; for in the duties and fruits thereof consist all those actings towards God which a state of reconciliation, peace, and friendship, do require. It is holiness that keeps up a sense of peace with God, and prevents those spiritual breaches which the remainders of our enmity would occasion. Hence God, as the author of our peace, is the author of our holiness. God, even God himself, the God of peace, doth sanctify us. How this is done immediately by the Holy Ghost, the Spirit of love and peace, and wherein the nature of this work doth consist, are the things which must afterward be more fully declared. And he is here said to sanctify us oXonXiTg, that is, " universally and completely," carrying on the work until it comes to perfection; for two things are intended in that expres- sion:— First, That our whole natU7'e is the subject of this work, and not any one faculty or part of it. Second, That as the work itself is sincere and universal, communicating all parts of real holiness unto our whole nature, so it is carried on to completeness and perfection. Both these, in the ensuing words, the apostle expresseth as the end and design of his prayer for them, and the effect of the work of grace which he prayed for: ior, first, The subject of this sanctification he makes to be our whole natures, which he distributes unto our entire spirits, souls, and bodies ; and, second, The end of the whole is, the })reservation of us blameless in the peace of God unto the coming of Christ;— which will both of them be, immediately, more fully spoken unto. Wherefore, —
Sanctification, as here described, is the immediate work of God hy his Spirit upon our ivliole nature, proceeding from the p)eace made for us hy Jesus Chinst, tuherehy, heing changed into his likeness, tve are kept entirely in peace luith God, and are preserved unblamable, or in a state of gracious acceptation ivith him, according to the terms of the covenant, unto the end.
The nature of this work, and its effect, which is our holiness, with the necessity of them both, we must on many accounts, with our ut- most diligence, inquire and search into. This both the importance of the truth itself, and the opposition that is made unto it, render necessary. Besides, whereas we are in the declaration of the especial operations of the Holy Ghost, although he be not so denominated ori- ginally from this peculiar work, as though he should be called "holy"
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merely because lie is the author of holmess in all that are made par- takers of it, which we have before disproved, yet there is a general consent, in words at least, among all who are called Christians, that this is his immediate and proper work, or that he is the only sancti- fier of all them that do believe; — and this I shall take as yet for granted, although some among us, who not only pretend high to the preaching of holiness (whatever be their practice), but reproach others as weakening the necessity of it, do talk at such a rate as if in the holiness which they pleaded for he had nothing to do in a peculiar manner; for it is no news to meet with quaint and gilded discourses about holiness, intermixed with scoffing reflections on the work of the Holy Ghost therein. This work, therefore, of his, we are in an espe- cial manner to attend unto, unless we would be found among the number of such as those who own themselves, and teach their chil- dren, that " the Holy Ghost sanctifies all the elect of God," and yet not only despise the work of holiness in themselves, but deride those who plead an interest therein as an effect of the sanctification of the Spirit; for such fruits of secret atheism doth the world abound withal. But our principal duty in this world is, to know aright what it is to be holy, and so to be indeed.