becoming conceptions of the Divine Majesty, a reverential fear of him, a love to him, earnest desires of communion with him, and of being made partakers of what he has to impart. They have a right to plead the promises; and in so doing, are encouraged to hope for the blessings they contain.

5. As God's children are prone to backslide from him, and so have need of restoring grace, he will recover and humble them, and thereby prevent their total apostasy. This he sometimes does by afflictions, which the apostle calls fatherly chastisements, and which he reckons not only consistent with his love, but evidences of it. Whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth ;' and 'if ye be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards, and not sons.' The apostle speaks here, of afflictions, not as considered absolutely in themselves, but as proceeding from the love of God, as designed to do them good, and as adapted to the present state, in which they are training up for the glorious inheritance reserved for them in heaven, and need some trying dispensations which may put them in mind of that state of perfect blessedness which is laid up for them. These afflictions are rendered subservient to their present and future advantage. In the present life, they bring forth the peaceful fruits of righteousness' to them; and when they are in the end perfectly freed from them, they will tend to enhance their joy and praise. This leads us to consider another privilege, which is so great that it crowns all those they are now possessed of.

6. They shall, at last, be brought into God's immediate presence, and satisfied with his likeness. The apostle, speaking of the perfect blessedness of the saints, when raised from the dead, and delivered from the bondage of corruption, and made partakers of the glorious liberty of the sons of God, calls it by way of eminence, the adoption, to wit, the redemption of their bodies.' This signifies, not only the full manifestation of their adoption, but their taking possession of their inheritance, which they are now waiting and hoping for, and which is too great for the heart of man to conceive of in this present state. Now,' says the apostle, ' are we the sons of God; and it doth not yet appear what we shall be ; but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.' Hence, all the blessings which we have either in hand or in hope, the blessings of both worlds, the blessings which are conferred upon us from our conversion to our glorification, are the privileges which God bestows on those who are his adopted children.

The Connection between Adoption and Justification.

'h

From what has been said concerning adoption, we may take occasion to observe how, in some respects, it agrees with justification, or may indeed be reckoned a branch of it, and, in other respects, includes something which is an ingredient in sanctification. We formerly observed, when treating of justification, that, when God forgives sin, he confers on his people a right to life, or to all the blessings of the covenant of grace, in which are contained the promises which belong to the life that now is, and that which is to come. These are the privileges which God's adopted children are made partakers of; and in this respect some divines suppose that adoption is included in our justification.i

k

If justification be explained as denoting an immanent act in God, whereby the elect are considered, in the covenant between the Father and the Son, as in Christ their federal head; they are then considered as the adopted children of God in Christ. Accordingly, when described as chosen in Christ unto eternal life, they are said to be predestinated unto the adoption of children;' which is a privilege to be obtained by Jesus Christ. In this respect all the elect are called Christ's 'seed that shall serve him,'' whom he had a special regard to, when he made his soul an offering for sin, and concerning whom he had the promise made to him in the covenant which passed between the Father and him, that he should see them, and the pleasure of the Lord,' with respect to their everlasting salvation, should prosper in his hand.'m Now, when Christ is considered as the head of the elect, who

g Heb. xii. 6, 8, 11. k Eph. i. 5,

h1 John iii. 2.

i Vid. Turret. Theol. Elenct. Tom. 2. Loc. 16. § 7.

1 Psal. xxii. 30.

m Isa. lii. 10.

are in this sense called his sons whom he has engaged to bring to glory, faith is the fruit and consequence of adoption. Accordingly, the apostle says, Because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father.'"

But as justification is a declared act, and is said to be by faith; so adoption, agreeing with it, is of the same nature. Accordingly we are said to be the 'children of God by faith; that is, it is by faith that we have a right to claim the relation of children, together with the privileges which are the result of it.

Moreover, as adoption includes a person's being made meet for the inheritance which God has reserved for him, and his being endowed with the temper and disposition of his children, consisting in humility, heavenly-mindedness, love to him, dependence upon him, a zeal for his glory, a likeness to Christ, a having in some measure the same mind in us which was in him, it in this respect agrees with sanctification,—which is what we are next to consider.

SANCTIFICATION.

QUESTION LXXV. What is sanctification ?

ANSWER. Sanctification is a work of God's grace, whereby they whom God hath, before the foundation of the world, chosen to be holy, are in time, through the powerful operation of his Spirit, applying the death and resurrection of Christ unto them, renewed in their whole man, after the image of God, having the seeds of repentance unto life, and of all other saving graces, put into their hearts; and those graces so stirred up, increased, and strengthened, as that they more and more die unto sin, and rise unto newness of life.

The meaning of the word Sanctify.'

We shall show what we are to understand by the word sanctify.' Sanctifying is sometimes considered as what has God for its object. Thus he is said to 'sanctify himself,' when he appears in the glory of his holiness, and gives occasion to the world to adore that perfection. This he is sometimes represented as doing, when he punishes sin in a visible and exemplary manner. Thus, when God threatens to call for a sword,' and to 'plead against a rebellious people with pestilence and with blood,' he is said, by this means, to magnify and sanctify himself,' so as to be known,' that is, as a holy God, in the eyes of many nations.' Likewise, when he fulfils his promises, and thereby advances his holiness, as when he brought his people out of captivity, and gathered them out of the countries in which they had been scattered, he is said to be 'sanctified in them.'P And he is sanctified by his people, when they give him the glory which is due to his holiness, as thus displayed and magnified by him. Thus, God's people are said to sanctify the Lord of hosts,' when they make him the object of their fear and of their dread.' This, however, is not the sense in which we are here to understand the word 'sanctify.' But we are to consider it as applied to men. In this respect it is taken in various senses. Sometimes it is used to denote their consecration or separation to God. Thus, our Saviour says, when devoting and applying himself to the work for which he came into the world, For their sakes I sanctify myself." But this is not the sense in which it is to be understood in this Answer. Moreover, it is often taken in scripture for persons being devoted to God to minister in holy things. Thus, Aaron and his sons were 'sanctified, that they might minister unto him in the priest's office.'s It is sometimes taken also for an external federal dedication to God, to walk before him as a peculiar people in observance of his holy institutions. Thus, when Israel consented to be God's people, they are styled, 'holiness unto the Lord,'t the holy seed,'" and 'a holy nation.' And the church under the gospel-dispensation, as consecrated and professing subjection to Christ,

p Ezek. xxxviii. 21-23.

8 Exod. xxviii. 41.

q Isa. viii. 13. x 1 Pet. ii. 9.

or as separated to his service and waiting for his presence while engaged in all those ordinances which he has appointed in the gospel, is described as called to be saints; and, as thus sanctified, they are related to him in an external and visible way. Neither is this, however, the sense in which the word is understood in this Answer.

We are here to understand sanctification as a special discriminating grace, whereby persons are, not externally only, but really devoted to Christ by faith. It is the internal beauty of the soul; whereby all the faculties being renewed, and a powerful effectual change wrought in them, they are enabled to turn from sin unto God, and exercise all those graces by which they walk in holiness and righteousness before him all the days of their lives,' till this work, which is gradually carried on here, shall be brought to perfection hereafter.

What Sanctification includes.

Sanctification, as described in this Answer, may be considered as including several graces which have been already insisted on, namely, regeneration, effectual calling, and faith. There is also another grace connected with it, which will be particularly insisted on under the next Answer, namely, repentance unto life. All these graces are said to be wrought by the powerful operation of the Spirit in those who were, before the foundation of the world, chosen to be holy. Regeneration is styled by some initial sanctification,' as all graces take their rise from the principle which is therein implanted. Effectual calling, or conversion, is that whereby we are brought into the way of holiness, and internally disposed to walk in it. Faith is that grace whereby this work is promoted; as all holy actions proceed from it, as deriving strength from Christ to perform them. Repentance is that whereby the work of sanctification discovers itself in the soul's abhorring and fleeing from everything which tends to defile it, and approves itself to God as one who is of purer eyes than to behold iniquity without the greatest detestation. But as these graces either have been or will be particularly insisted on in their proper place, we shall more especially consider sanctification as a progressive work. As such it is distinguished from them; and, as the subject of it, we daily consecrate or devote ourselves to God, our actions have all a tendency to advance his glory, and, by the Spirit, we are enabled more and more to die unto sin and to live unto righteousness. It is therefore not merely one act of grace, but includes the whole progress of the work of grace, as gradually carried on till perfected in glory. This is what we are particularly to consider.

I. Sanctification includes a continual devotedness to God. As the first act of faith consists in making a surrender of ourselves to Christ, depending on his assistance in beginning the work of obedience in the exercise of all Christian graces; so sanctification is the continuance of this surrender and dependence. When we are converted, we receive Christ Jesus the Lord; and in sanctification we walk in him, exercise a daily dependence on him in the execution of all his offices, make his word our rule, and delight in it after the inward man. How difficult soever the duties are which he commands, we take pleasure in the performance of them, make religion our great business, and, in order to this, conclude that every thing we receive from him is to be improved to his glory. And as every duty is to be performed by faith; so what was formerly observed concerning the life of faith, is to be considered as an expedient to promote the work of sanctification.

1

II. In the carrying on of the work of sanctification, we are to endeavour, to our utmost, to guard against the prevailing power of sin, by all those methods which are prescribed in the gospel; that so it may not have dominion over us. This is generally styled the work of mortification. The apostle speaks of our old man being crucified with Christ, and the body of sin destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin; ' of our crucifying the flesh with the affections and lusts;' and of our 'mortifying the deeds of the body through the Spirit,' that is, by his assistance and grace, which is necessary to our success. This is a very difficult work, espey Rom. i. 7.

z Luke i. 75.

a Rom. vi. 6.

b Gal. v. 24.

c Rom. viii. 13.

cially considering the prevalence of corruption,-the multitude of temptations to which we are exposed,-the subtilty and watchfulness of Satan, who walks about like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour,-the treachery of our own hearts, which are so prone to depart from God,-the fickleness and instability of our resolutions, the irregularity of our affections, and the constant efforts made by corrupt nature to gain the ascendency over them, and turn them aside from God. Corrupt nature sometimes gains the ascendency by presenting things in a false view, calling evil good, and good evil; representing some things as harmless and not displeasing to God, which are most pernicious and offensive; endeavouring to lead us into mistakes as to the matter of sin or duty, and to persuade us that those things will issue well which are likely to prove bitterness in the end; and attempting to make us believe that we are in a right and safe way, when in reality we are walking contrary to God, and corrupt nature is gaining strength. This, however, will be farther considered, when we speak concerning the imperfection of sanctification in believers. Now, the difficulties which we have stated render it necessary for us to make use of those methods which God has prescribed for the mortification of sin.

1. We must endeavour to maintain a constant sense of the heinous nature of sin, as it is contrary to the holiness of God, a stain which cannot be washed away but by the blood of Jesus, the highest display of ingratitude for all the benefits which we have received, a bitter and an only evil, the abominable thing that God hates. It is to be considered not only as condemning, but as defiling; that, by so considering it, we may maintain a constant abhorrence of it, and that not only of those sins which expose us to scorn and reproach in the eye of the world, but of every thing which is in itself sinful, as contrary to the law of God.

2. We must be watchful against the breakings forth of corrupt nature; observe the frame and disposition of our spirits, and the deceitfulness of sin, which has a tendency to harden us; and avoid all occasions of or incentives to it, hating even the garment spotted by the flesh,'e abstaining from all appearance of evil. We may add, that we are frequently to examine ourselves with respect to our behaviour in every state of life; whether sin be gaining or losing ground in us; whether we make conscience of performing every duty, both personal and relative; what guilt we contract by sins of omission, or the want of that fervency of spirit which has a tendency to beget a formal, dead, and stupid frame and temper of mind, and thereby hinder the progress of the work of sanctification. But that which is the prin cipal if not the only expedient which will prove effectual for the mortifying of sin, is our seeking help against it from him who is able to give us the victory over it.

3. Whatever attempts we use against the prevailing power of sin, in order to the mortifying of it, must be performed by faith; seeking and deriving that help from Christ which is necessary to our success. Hence, as the dominion of sin consists in its rendering us guilty in the sight of God, so that the conscience is burdened by reason of the dread which it has of the punishment which is due to us, and of the condemning sentence of the law to which we are liable; and as its mortification, in this respect, consists in our deliverance from that which makes us so uneasy; no expedient can be used to mortify it, but our looking by faith to Christ as a propitiation for sin, whereby we are enabled to behold the debt which we had contracted cancelled, the indictment superseded, and the condemning sentence repealed, whence the soul concludes that iniquity shall not be its ruin. This is the only method we are to take when oppressed with a sense of the guilt of sin, which is daily committed by us. It was shadowed forth by the Israelites looking to the brazen serpent, a type of Christ crucified, when they were stung with fiery serpents, which occasioned exquisite pain, and would, without this expedient, have brought immediate death. Thus the deadly wound of sin is healed by the sovereign balm of Christ's blood applied by faith; and we, by his having fulfilled the law, may be said to be dead to it, as freed from its curse and from all the sad consequences which would follow.

Again, sin is said to have dominion over us, in all the powers and faculties of

d See Quest. lxxviii.

e Jude 23.

f 2 Thess. v. 22.

As

our souls being enslaved by it, whereby, as the apostle expresses it, we are carnal, sold under sin;'8 in our being weak and unable to perform what is good; and in the corruption of nature being so predominant, that we are, as it were, carried down the stream, which we strive against, but in vain. Now, in this respect, sin is to be mortified by a fiducial application to Christ for help against it. We are to consider him as having undertaken to deliver not only from the condemning, but from the prevailing power of sin. His delivering us from this is a part of the work which he is now engaged in; wherein he applies the redemption he purchased, by the powerful influences of the Holy Spirit, and the soul seeks to him for them. it is natural for us, when we are in imminent danger of present ruin, or are assaulted by an enemy whose superior force we are not able to withstand, to cry out to some kind friend for help; or when we are in danger of death, by some disease which nature is ready to sink under, to apply ourselves to the physician for relief; so the believer is to apply to Christ for strength against the prevailing power of indwelling sin, and for grace to make him more than a conqueror over it; and Christ, by his Spirit, enables us, as the apostle says, to mortify the deeds of the body.'h In order to our thus applying to Christ, we take encouragement from the promises of God, and from the connection which there is between Christ's having made satisfaction for sin, and his delivering his redeemed people from the power of it. The apostle says, Sin shall not have dominion over you; for ye are not under the law,' that is, under the condemning sentence of it, but under grace, i as having an interest in that grace which has engaged to deliver from sin. In both these respects, we consider Christ, not only as able, but as having undertaken, to deliver his people from all their spiritual enemies, to relieve them in all their straits and exigencies, and to bring them off safe and victorious. This is the method which we are to take to mortify sin; and it is a never-failing remedy. What was observed under the foregoing Heads, concerning our endeavouring to see the evil of sin, and exercising watchfulness against the occasions of it, are necessary duties, without which sin will gain strength. The victory over it, however, is principally owing to our deriving righteousness and strength, by faith, from Christ; whereby he has the glory of a conqueror over it, and we have the advantage of receiving this privilege as applying ourselves to him, and relying upon him, for it.

Having considered the way in which sin is to be mortified agreeably to the gospel-rule, we shall, before we close this Head, take notice of some other methods which many rest in, thinking thereby to free themselves from the dominion of sin, which will not answer that end. Some, who do not duly consider the spirituality of the law of God, have no other notion of sin than as it discovers itself in those gross enormities which are matter of public scandal or reproach in the eye of the world. Such sentiments of moral evil the apostle Paul had before his conversion; he says, I was alive without the law once; and, I had not known lust, except the law had said, Thou shalt not covet.' Sin' did not appear to be sin;' that is, nothing was thought sin by him but that which was openly scandalous, and deemed so by universal consent. He hence says elsewhere, that touching the righteousness which is in the law, he was blameless.'m Ephraim also is represented as saying, In all my labour they shall find none iniquity in me that were sin.'n sons of the class to which we refer think they shall come off well, if they can say that they are not guilty of some enormous crimes; so that none can charge them with those open debaucheries or other sins which are not to be mentioned among Christians. Or if, through any change in their condition of life, or by being delivered from those temptations which gave occasion to them, or by their natural temper being less inclined to them than before, they abstain from such crimes, they call their abstinence a mortifying of sin; though the most that can be said of it is, that sin is only curbed or confined, and their natural inclinations to it abated, while it is far from being dead. Others who will allow that sin is of a far larger extent, and includes that which prevails in the heart, as well as that which renders itself visible in the life, and contains the omission of duties, as well as the actual commission

Per