2. Our Lord Jesus Christ affirms that men are sanctified by the faith that is in him: Acts xxvi. 18, "That they may receive for- giveness of sins, and an inheritance among them that are sanctified by faith that is in me." If there were any other way or means where- by men might be sanctified or made holy, he would not have con- fined it unto the "faith that is in him;" at least, there is no other way to attain that holiness which may bring tliem unto the heavenly inheritance, or make them meet for it, Col. i. 12, which alone we in- quire after. And, indeed, there can be no greater contempt cast on the Lord Jesus, and on the duty of believing in him, whereunto he
414 BELIEVERS THE OBJECT OF SANCTIFICATION, [BOOK IV.
makes this oue of his principal motives, than to imagine that without faith in him any one can be made holy.
3. Faith is the instrumental cause of our sanctification ; so that where it is not, no holiness can be wrought in us, " God purifieth our hearts by faith," Acts xv. 9, and not otherwise; and where the heart is not purified, there is no holiness. All the duties in the world will not denominate him holy whose heart is not purified ; nor will any such duties be holy themselves, seeing unto the unclean all things are unclean. All the obedience that is accepted with God is the " obedience of faith," Rom. i. 5 ; thence it springs, and therewith is it animated. So is it expressed, 1 Pet. i. 20-22, " You who by Christ do believe in God, and have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit." It is from faith in God through Jesus Christ, acting itself in obedience unto the gospel, that we purify or cleanse our souls; which is our sanctification. See Col. ii. 12-14, iii. 7-11.
4. All grace is originally intrusted in and with Jesus Christ. The image of God being lost in Adam, whatever was prepared or is used for the renovation of it in our natures and persons, wherein gospel holiness doth consist, was to be treasured up in him as the second Adam, by whom many are to be made alive who died in the first. It pleased the Father that " in him should all fulness dwell," — as the fulness of the Godhead, in and for his own divine personal subsist- ence, so the fulness of all grace for supplies unto us, that " of his fulness we might receive grace for grace." He is made the head unto the whole new creation, not only of power and rule, but of life and influence. God hath given him for a " covenant to the people," and communicates nothing that belongs properly to the covenant of grace, as our sanctification and holiness do, unto any, but in and through him. And we receive nothing by him but by virtue of re- lation unto him, or especial interest in him, or union with him. Where there is an especial communication, there must be an espe- cial relation whereon it doth depend and whence it doth proceed; as the relation of the members unto the head is the cause and means why vital spirits are thence derived unto them. We must be in Christ as the branch is in the vine, or we can derive nothing from him : John xv. 4, " As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me." What- ever any way belongeth unto holiness is our fruit, and nothing else is fruit but what belongeth thereunto. Now this our Saviour affirms that we can bring forth nothing of, unless we are in him and do abide in him. Now, our being in Christ and abiding in him is by faith, without which we can derive nothing from him, and consequently never be partakers of holiness in the least degree. But these things
CHAP. III.] AND SUBJECT OF GOSPEL HOLINESS. 415
must be afterward spoken unto more at large. It is, therefore, un- deniably evident that believers only are sanctified and holy ; all others are unclean, nor is any thing they do holy, or so esteemed of God.
And the due consideration hereof discovers many pernicious mis- takes that are about this matter, both notional and practical; for, — 1. There are some who would carry holiness beyond the bounds of an especial relation unto Christ, or would carry that relation beyond the only bond of it, Avhich is faith; for they would have it to be no more than moral honesty or virtue, and so cannot with any modesty deny it unto those heathens who endeavoured after them according to the light of nature. And what need, then, is there of Jesus Christ? I can and do commend moral virtues and honesty as much as any man ought to do, and am sure enough there is no grace wliere they are not ; yet to make any thing to be our holiness that is not derived from Jesus Christ, I know not what I do more abhor. An imagina- tion hereof dethrones Christ from his glory, and overthrows the whole gospel. But we have a sort of men who plead that heathens may be eternally saved, so large and indulgent is their charity, and in the meantime endeavour, by all means possible, to destroy, temporally at least, all those Christians who stoop not to a compliance with all their imaginations. 2. Others there are who proceed much farther, and yet do but deceive themselves in the issue. Notions they have of good and evil by the light of nature, Rom. ii. 14, 15. As they come with men into the world, and grow up with them as they come to the exercise of their reason, so they are not stifled without offering violence to the principles of nature by the power of sin; as it comes to pass in many, Eph. iv. 19; 1 Tim. iv. 2; Rom. i. 31. These notions, therefore, are in many improved in process of time by convictions from the law, and great effects are produced hereby; for when the soul is once effectually convinced of sin, righteousness, and judg- ment, it cannot but endeavour after a deliverance from the one and an attainment of the other, that so it may be well with it at the last day. And here lie the springs or foundations of all the moral differ- ences that we see amongst mankind. Some give themselves up unto all abominations, lascivioiisness, uncleanness, drunkenness, frauds, oppressions, blasphemies, persecutions, as having no bounds fixed unto their lusts but what are given them by their own impotency or dread of human laws. Others endeavour to be sober, temperate, just, honest and upright in their dealings, with a sedulous jDerformance of religious duties. This difference ariseth from the different power and efficacy of legal convictions upon the minds of men. And these convictions are in many variously improved, according to the light they receive in the means of knowledge which they do enjoy, or the errors and superstitions which they are misguided unto ; for on this