Sanctification described, with the nature of the work of the Holy Spirit therein; which is progressive — The way and means whereby holiness is increased in believers, especially by faith and love, whose exercise is required in all duties of obedience; as also those graces whose exercise is occasional — The growth of holiness expressed in an allusion unto that of plants, with an insensible progress — Renders grace therein to be greatly admired; and is discerned in the answerableness of the work of the Spirit in sanctification and supplication — Objections against the progressive nature of holiness removed.
Having passed through the consideration of the general concernments of the work of sanctification, I shall, in the next place, give a description of it, and then explain it more particularly in its principal parts. And this I shall do, but under this express caution, that I do not hope nor design at once to represent the life, glory, and beauty of it, or to comprise all things that eminently belong unto it; only I shall set up some way-marks that may guide us in our progress or future inquiry into the nature and glory of it. And so I say that, —
Sanctification is an immediate work of the Spirit of God on the souls of believers, purifying and cleansing of their natures from the pollution and uncleanness of sin, renewing in them the image of God, and thereby enabling them, from a spiritual and habitual principle of grace, to yield obedience unto God, according unto the tenor and terms of the new covenant, by virtue of the life and death of Jesus Christ. Or more briefly:— It is the universal renovation of our natures by the Holy Spirit into the image of God, through Jesus Christ.
Hence it follows that our holiness, which is the fruit and effect of this work, the work as terminated in us, as it compriseth the renewed principle or image of God wrought in us, so it consists in a holy obedience unto God by Jesus Christ, according to the terms of the covenant of grace, from the principle of a renewed nature. Our apostle expresseth the whole more briefly yet, — namely, He that is in Christ Jesus is a new creature, 2 Cor. v. 17; for herein he expresseth both the renovation of our natures, the endowment of them with a new spiritual principle of life and operation, with actings towards God suitable thereunto. I shall take up the first general description of it, and in the consideration of its parts give some account of the nature of the work and its effects, and then shall distinctly prove and confirm the true nature of it, wherein it is opposed or called into question.
1. It is, as was before proved, and is by all confessed, the work in us of the Spirit of God. It is the renovation of the Holy Ghost whereby we are saved. And a real, internal, powerful, physical work it is, as we have proved before abundantly, and shall afterward more fully confirm. He doth not make us holy only by persuading us so to be. He doth not only require us to be holy, propose unto us motives unto holiness, give us convictions of its necessity, and thereby excite us unto the pursuit and attainment of it, though this he doth also by the word and ministration thereof. It is too high an impudency for anyone to pretend an owning of the gospel, and yet to deny a work of the Holy Ghost in our sanctification; and, therefore, both the old and new Pelagians did and do avow a work of his herein. But what is it that really they ascribe unto him? Merely the exciting our own abilities, aiding and assisting us in and unto the exercise of our own native power; which, when all is done, leaves the work to be our own and not his, and to us must the glory and praise of it be ascribed. But we have already sufficiently proved that the things thus promised of God and so effected are really wrought by the exceeding greatness of the power of the Spirit of God; and this will yet afterward be made more particularly to appear.
2. This work of sanctification differs from that of regeneration, as on other accounts, so especially on that of the manner of their being wrought. The work of regeneration is instantaneous, consisting in one single creating act. Hence it is not capable of degrees in any subject. No one is more or less regenerate than another; everyone in the world is absolutely so, or not so, and that equally, although there are degrees in their state on other reasons. But this work of sanctification is progressive, and admits of degrees. One may be more sanctified and more holy than another, who is yet truly sanctified and truly holy. It is begun at once, and carried on gradually. But this observation being of great importance, and such as, if rightly weighed, will contribute much light unto the nature of the whole work of sanctification and holiness, I shall divert in this chapter unto such an explanation and confirmation of it as may give an understanding and furtherance herein.