Thomas Manton · 6 of 67

Verse 1. · Part 3

Let us now come to the manifestations and effects of this calling; and the first effect mentioned is sanctification, sanctified in God the Father. Where you may note two things:—(1.) The state, sanctified; (2.) The author of it, by God the Father.

1. The state, ἡγιασμένοις, ‘to them which are sanctified;’ instead of which some copies have, ἠγαπημένοις, ‘beloved by God the Father:’ but let us keep to our own reading, the other being a mistake, and in few Greek copies. The note is:—

Obs. That God’s people, whom he hath called out of the world to himself, are a sanctified people. I shall show you—(1.) What it is to be sanctified; and then (2.) Why God’s called people must be sanctified.

First, What it is to be sanctified. There are many acceptions of the term; the most famous are two—to sanctify is either to set apart, or to cleanse. These two notions will be enough for our purpose, if in each of them we suppose both something privative, and something positive; as when it signifieth to set apart, you must conceive not only a setting apart from common use, but a dedication to holy uses, or a setting apart for God, which is the most proper acception of the word. So when it signifieth to cleanse, you must not only conceive a purgation from filthiness, but a plantation of seeds of grace; not only an abolition of natural corruption, but a renovation of God’s image. In this method let us a little consider the thing in hand.

1. To sanctify is to set apart and dedicate. Now, God’s people are set apart by God, Ps. iv. 3, and they dedicate themselves to his use and service: 2 Tim. ii. 21, ‘Vessels of honour for the master’s use.’ They are set apart by God both in time and before time. Be fore all time they are set apart by God’s decree, to be a holy seed to himself in and by Christ, separated from the perishing world to be vessels of honour; as the reprobate are called ‘vessels of wrath and dishonour;’ thus we are said to be ‘chosen to be holy,’ Eph. i. 4. But then in time they are regenerated, and actually set apart. Sanctification is an actual election (as before) by which we are set apart from the perishing world to act for God, and to seek the things that make for his glory. Thus we are called God’s ‘first-fruits,’ which were the Lord’s portion, James i. 18, and is there made a fruit of regeneration. And thus we are said to be ‘a holy priesthood,’ 1 Peter ii. 9, the priests being men set apart to minister in God’s presence. Now, this consecration inferreth a holy preciseness and singularity in the godly, that they may ‘keep themselves unspotted from the world,’ James i. 28, as holy things were to be kept from a common use; and it implieth that every sin is a kind of sacrilege, it stealeth a holy thing from God. But over and above all this, they dedicate themselves, or set apart themselves, by the consent of their own vows: Rom. xii. 1, ‘Present yourselves,’ &c., as every man was to bring his own sacrifice; and for this dedication the Lord calleth when he saith, ‘My son, give me thy heart;’ because God loveth to put the honour upon us of a gift, when it is but a debt; and because our voluntary consent to this surrender is a necessary fruit of grace, and the immediate effect of his own choice.

2. To sanctify is to cleanse, together with its positive act, to renew and adorn with grace.

Let us first speak of the privative or cleansing work; this notion is necessary to be added to the former. They that are sanctified must not only be separated to a holy use, but must also be cleansed: as to sanctify signifieth to separate, so there is a difference between them and others; and as it signifieth to cleanse, so there is a difference between them and themselves. They differ from others, because they are a people set apart to act and live for God; they trade for God, eat for God, drink for God, more or less, all is for God’s glory, 1 Cor. x. 31, and so are a distinct company from the men of the world, who are merely swayed by their own interests, a company that merely act for themselves in all that they do. And then there is a difference between them and themselves, for sanctification is the cleansing of a thing that was once filthy: 1 Cor. vi. 11, ‘Such were some of you, but now ye are washed, but now ye are sanctified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God;’ they are not the same men they were before. We all come into the world polluted with the stain of sin, which is purged and done away by degrees, and at death wholly, and never before. When Christ cometh to bring us to God as the fruits of his purchase, then we are ‘without spot and blemish,’ Eph. v. 27. The Papists cavil, yea, trifle, when they argue from that place, that either we must grant a perfection in this life; or a purgation after death, or how else cometh the soul to be without spot and blemish? I answer—That place asserts the thing to the comfort of the elect, that once they shall get rid of the filthy spots of sin; but for the time, most probably in the moment of expiring. As the soul in the very moment wherein it is joined to the body becometh sinful, so in the moment wherein it leaveth the body it is sanctified, and presented by Christ to God; as many pious souls breathe out their last with the profession of this hope. Then we shall be cleansed indeed; now the work is in fieri, it is a-doing. The work of grace for the present consists in rubbing away the old filth, and weakening original corruption more and more; as also in washing off the new defilement which we contract every day by conversing in the world. See John xiii. 10, where our Saviour alludeth to a man that hath been bathing himself, but after his return by treading on the ground again staineth his feet, and needeth another washing, of his feet at least. So by conversing in the world, there are stains and spots contracted, which must always be washed off by daily repentance, besides our general bathing at first conversion or regeneration, Titus iii. 5. I have no more to say to this cleansing work, but only this, that it is not merely like the washing off of spots, but like the purging of sick matters or ill humours out of the body; it is a work done with much reluctation of corrupt nature, and therefore it is expressed by ‘subduing our iniquities,’ Micah vii. 19. In outward filthiness there is no actual resistance, as there is in sin.

But to speak now of the positive work, or the decking and adorning the soul with grace. As the priests under the law, when they came to minister before the Lord, were not only washed in the great laver, but adorned with gorgeous apparel, so to be sanctified is more than to be purified; for besides the expulsion of sin, there is an infusion of grace, a disposition wrought clean contrary to what we had before, therefore called ‘a new heart and a new spirit;’ see Ezek. xxxvi. 25-27; from whence also there floweth newness of life and conversation; there is a new heart or conformity to God’s nature, and a new life or conformity to God’s will. The pattern of that sanctification which is wrought in the heart is God’s nature or image, 2 Peter i. 4, Eph. iv. 24; and the pattern of that sanctification which is wrought in the life is God’s law or revealed will, 1 Thes. iv. 3; the one is our habitual holiness, and the other our actual.

[1.] For habitual sanctification, or that which is wrought in the heart, I observe, that it is thorough but not full; there must be all grace, and every faculty must be adorned with grace:1 Thes. v. 23, ‘The very God of peace sanctify you wholly: I pray God your whole spirit, soul, and body be preserved blameless until the coming of Jesus Christ.’ All of man is made up of spirit, soul, and body; that is the theological distinction of the faculties:—the spirit, that is the more rational and angelical part of the soul, understanding, conscience, will; and then there is soul, the lower part, the more brutish and sensual affections and desires; and then body, the outward man, the instrument of soul, which needeth to be sanctified, that is, kept in a good order and frame, that it may not rebel, or disobey the motions of the better part. You see, then, every faculty must be seasoned with the new nature; this leaven must get into the whole lump; the mind, memory, conscience, will, desires, delights, all must be brought into conformity to the image of God. And as every faculty must be sanctified, so there must be every grace. In conversion there is introduced into the soul a stock of truth, and a frame of grace, called in other terms ‘the anointing,’ 1 John ii. 27, and ‘the seed of God,’ 1 John iii. 9. There is a stock of truth brought into the understanding to season that; not that every one that is regenerate doth actually know all truths, but there is a saving light and knowledge of things necessary; they see enough to avoid courses of damnation, and to cleave to the ways of God: and there is an inquisitiveness after truth, and a suitableness to them when they are revealed; they are teachable, though actually ignorant; there is something in their hearts that carrieth a cognation and proportion to every truth, and claimeth kin of it whenever it is revealed. And then there is a frame of grace; for the mind is not only enlightened, but the will and affections are sanctified, and the heart inclined to choose the ways of God, and to obey him whenever occasion is offered. The habits of all grace are brought into the heart by regeneration, as original sin containeth the seeds and habits of all sin: though there be not explicit workings of all graces at that time, yet they are introduced, and make up one sincere bent of the soul towards God, called ‘Holiness in truth,’ Eph. vi. 24. Thus you see the new creature doth not come out maimed; the person sanctified hath all the parts of a new man, not one member is wanting. But now though this sanctification be thorough, yet it is not full and complete for degrees; every part is sanctified, but every part is not wholly sanctified. In the most gracious there is a double principle—hell and heaven, Adam and Jesus, the flesh and the spirit, the law of the members, and the law of the mind. Such a medley and composition are we during the present state! ‘We know but in part,’ and we are sanctified but in part, and there being such a mixture in the principles of operation, every action is mixed. It is notable, that there is no commendable act in scripture recorded but there is some mixture of corruption in it, even in the most heroical exercises and discoveries of faith: Moses believeth, and therefore smiteth the rock, but he smiteth twice; Sarah believeth the promise, but giveth her maid to Abraham; Rebecca was told that the elder should serve the younger, and believeth it, but yet she sets Jacob a-work to get the blessing by a wile; Rahab saveth the spies, but maketh a lie, &c. Thus is our wine mingled with water, our honey with wax, Cant. v. 1, and our silver with tin. All the trial is, that the better part prevaileth; and that we are still growing and hasting on to perfection, as the morning sun doth to high noon, Prov. iv. 18.

[2.] For actual sanctification, which standeth in a conformity to God’s will, when the heart is changed so as the life, thoughts, words, actions, all are sanctified: there is a spirit of holiness working within, and breathing without, in sanctified discourse and holy exercises; all the actions savour of grace. Now our actions are sanctified and savour of grace when they are performed upon new principles and new ends.

(1.) New principles: Duty swayeth the conscience, and love inclineth the heart, 1 Tim. i. 5, ‘The end of the commandment is charity, out of a pure heart and good conscience, and faith unfeigned.’ No act is gracious and an act of pure obedience, unless it have these qualifications. It is not the matter that maketh the work good, but the principles: all that we do must come from a principle of faith, love, and obedience. Obedience respects the command, love the kindness and merit of the lawgiver, and faith his bounty and reward: the first swayeth the conscience, the second inclineth the heart, and the third giveth encouragement. This is to do duties with a gospel frame of spirit; obedience takes notice of the laws of God, love of the kindness of God, and faith of the rewards of God; and so obedience showeth us the matter of the duty, and faith the encouragement; so that whatever is done as an act of the new nature or sanctified estate, it is an act of obedience, out of gratitude, upon the encouragement of our glorious hopes and advantages in Christ. As if it be asked, Why do I do it? God hath commanded it, 1 Thes. iv. 3, and v. 18; His will is motive enough; God will have it so. Why with such strength of affection and earnestness? God hath deserved it, because of his love and bounty in Christ, 2 Cor. v. 14, 15; Titus ii. 11-14. Conscience is sensible of the obligation, and love and hope sweetens the duty. There is a natural conscience of good and evil, which is known by legal aims and carnal motives. What is done out of natural conscience is not done out of obedience and thankfulness, but out of bondage, and with a servile frame of spirit; like fruits that are ripened by art and force, not naturally nor kindly.

(2.) New ends. Here indeed the discovery is most sensible; principles are more hidden, and discovered mostly by ends. Now the only end must be God’s glory. All that is done in the spiritual life, be it an act of piety, justice, temperance, or charity, it must be done with this aim, that God may be glorified by our obedience to his will: I owe this duty to God, and I must do it for God’s sake; be it a duty of worship, or in your civil relation and traffic; as if I pray, the last end of prayer must be God’s glory, whether I seek grace and pardon, or the conveniences and supports of the present life. Grace still sublimateth the intention of the creature, therefore carnal men are taxed for praying out of self-interests: Hosea vii. 14, ‘They have not cried unto me when they howled upon their beds; they assembled themselves for corn, and wine, and oil.’ It is but a brutish cry when men seek only their own commodity and welfare; as beasts will howl when they are sensible of any smart and injury; dogs or any brute beasts may do the same; there is no act of grace in it. So in charity, many men make it a kind of bargain and traffic; they do it ‘to be seen of men,’ Mat. vi. 2, to gratify their wordly interests, not to please God or honour God, for their credit and repute, to be well thought of; and there Christ saith, μισθὸν αὐτῶν ἀπέχουσιν, that is, they have that which they look for; for other things they give God a discharge and acquittance. Briefly, the aims of men not regenerate or sanctified are either carnal, or natural, or legal. (1st.) Carnal, when men make a market of religion, their worship, righteousness, and charity is set to sale, and by a vile submission made to stoop to their own private interests; as the Pharisees made long prayers to devour widows’ houses, that is, to beget a fame and repute of honesty, that they might be intrusted with the management of their estates. So some may pray to show parts, preach out of envy, and to rival others in esteem, Phil. i. 15. Often is this vile scorn put upon God, that his worship is made a cover and pretence to unclean intents; which is as if a cup of gold, made for a king to drink of, should be filled with excrements; or as if we did set up another god beside him; for that which we make our utmost end, we make it our God; as false teachers are said to make ‘their belly their God,’ Phil. iii. 19, because all that they did was for belly cheer, to flow in abundance of wealth and worldly pleasures, by this means setting up the belly, and the concernments of the belly in God’s stead. (2d.) There are natural ends. It is grace, as I said, that sublimateth the intention of the creature. A carnal man can go no higher than self, as water cannot ascend beyond its spring. Now all natural men are not hypocrites, to put on a pretence of strictness out of design: the apostle saith, ‘They do by nature the things contained in the law.’ Rom. ii. 14; that is, upon the impulses of natural conscience, they avoid such sins as nature discovereth, upon such arguments and reasons as nature suggesteth. If they worship, it is to satisfy their own consciences; if they be strict and temperate, it is not out of reasons of obedience, but because the matter of carnal pleasure is gross and burdensome, and hindereth the free contemplation of the mind; or because these pleasures emasculate and quench their natural bravery, and so hinder their reputation in the world. If they be just, it is to maintain commerce between man and man; if they be kind in their relations, it is for their own peace and quiet; nothing is done as in and to the Lord, as the apostle enjoineth, Eph. v. God is neither at the beginning nor at the end of any of these actions; the love of God is not their spring and rise, nor the glory of God their aim. If they pray, there is no intention beyond self, and the welfare of their own natures; the matter is but the outward work of the law, ἔργον νόμου, Rom. ii. 15, and their aim is but the freedom and welfare of nature. (3d.) There are legal ends. When wicked men are most devout, it is but to quiet conscience, to satisfy God for their sins by their duties; they would fain buy out their peace with heaven at any rate: Micah vi. 6-8, ‘Wherewith shall I come before him? what shall I give for the sins of my soul?’ They are devout, charitable, that by diligence in worship, and exceeding in charity, they may expiate the offences of a carnal life. If peace of conscience were to be purchased with money, they would not spare; they would rather part with anything than their corruptions, because nothing is so dear to a carnal heart as sin. So that you see devout nature is very corrupt and perverse, and therefore all its actions are justly hated of God: Prov. xxi. 27, ‘The sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination; how much more when he offereth it with an evil mind?’ that is, to buy an indulgence in other sins, that he may sin them freely and with leave from heaven. In short, all their duties of worship and charity are performed as a sin-offering, and not as a thank-offering; to satisfy God, not to glorify him; usually they are extorted from him in a pang of conscience, as a mariner casts out his goods in a storm, or a traveller yieldeth his money when beset with thieves; there is no true delight in God or in obedience. And thus I have showed you what it is to be sanctified in heart and life, which was the first thing propounded.

Secondly, Let me now show why God’s called people must be sanctified, and that briefly and in few words.

1. For the honour of God, of every person in the Trinity, Father, Son, and Spirit. For the honour of the Father, that his choice may not be disparaged: Eph. i. 4, ‘He hath elected us to be holy;’ 2 Thes. ii. 14, ‘Chosen to the sanctification of the Spirit.’ There is some conscience in the world that maketh them adore strictness; mere morality hath some majesty with it in the eye of nature, but especially gospel holiness; whereas looseness is looked upon with scorn and contempt; so that his chosen people would be a dishonour to him if they were not sanctified. Therefore God the Father aimeth at it in all his dispensations; he chooseth us that we may be of a choice spirit. As when Esther was chosen out among the virgins, she was purified and decked with ornaments, and had garments given her out of the king’s wardrobe, so we are made holy, being chosen of God. And then he calleth us, that he may put this honour upon us in the eye of the world, to make us like himself: ‘Be ye holy, as he that hath called us is holy,’ 1 Peter i. 15. It were monstrous that God should set his affections upon a people altogether unlike him; that he should call them to be so near himself that continue corrupt and carnal. It is the aim of his providences as well as his special grace; we are afflicted ‘that we may be partakers of his holiness,’ Heb. xii. 10; threshed that our husk may fly off. God certainly delighteth not in the afflictions of his people; no, he ‘loveth the prosperity of the saints,’ Ps. xxxv. 27, but he had rather see them in any condition than see them sinful. Again, it is for the honour of God the Son, whose members we are. Head and members must be all of a piece, like one another. It were monstrous that Christ should have such a body as Nebuchadnezzar saw in his dream, where the head was of pure gold, and the thighs brass, and the feet iron, &c.; and it were an odd sight that a face of Europe should be put upon the body of a negro or Ethiopian; and as strange and odd it is that Christ should have a disproportioned body, quite unlike himself; yea, it is little for his honour that he should be the head of an ulcerous body, as well as a monstrous body. So much of sin as you continue, so much you disparage your Redeemer and put him to shame; therefore all Christ’s aim is to make us holy; for that end he redeemed us, that he might sanctify us, and make us a glorious church, without spot and wrinkle, Eph. v. 26, 27. When Christ was upon the cross, in the height of his love, he was devising what he should do for his church to make her honourable and glorious, and he pitched upon sanctification as the fittest blessing that he could bestow upon us. Every distinct society must have some distinct honour and privilege; now Christ had set apart the church as a distinct society to himself, and therefore he would not bestow upon her pomp and worldly greatness—other societies had enough of that—but holiness, grace, which is our splendour and ornament: Ps. xciii. 5, ‘Holiness becometh thy house, O Lord, for ever.’ And indeed this was a far better gift than any outward greatness and excellency could be; for moral excellences are far better than civil and natural. It is God’s own honour to be holy, therefore it is said that he is ‘glorious in holiness,’ Exod. xv. 11. He is elsewhere said to be ‘rich in mercy.’ Rom. x. 12; Eph. ii. 4; but here, ‘glorious in holiness.’ His treasure is his goodness, but that which he accounts his honour is his holiness or immaculate purity; as you know among men their wealth is distinguished from their honour. But in this gift Christ hath not only respect to the excellency of it, but to our need and want. Christ was then repairing and making up the ruins of the fall. Now we lost in Adam the purity of our natures as well as the favour of God; therefore, that the plaster might be as broad as the sore, he would not only reconcile us to God, but sanctify us; his blood was not only λύτρον, a price, but λούτρον, a laver, wherein to Wash us and make us clean: as under the law there was in the tabernacle a great laver as well as an altar, to show we must be washed and sanctified as well as reconciled to God; and Christ came not only to abolish the guilt of sin, which is against our interest, our peace and comfort, but also to destroy the power of sin, which is against God’s glory. And as this was Christ’s aim in redemption, so also in the gospel, and all the precious promises of it: he died that ordinances might be under a blessing, and conduce to the promotion of holiness; for so it is there in Eph. v. 26, ‘That he might sanctify us by the washing of water through the word.’ There is a treasure of grace purchased, and left in the church to be conveyed to us by the use of these ordinances. So John xvii. 19, ‘I sanctify myself for their sakes, that they may be sanctified through the truth.’ Whenever we come to the word, or enjoy the use of the seals, we may expect to reap the fruits of Christ’s purchase. Celsus objected against Christianity that it was a sanctuary for villains and men of a licentious life. Origen answered him, that it was not a sanctuary to nourish them in their evil practices, but an hospital to cure them. As under the law all the cities of refuge were cities of Levites and schools of instruction, so Christ hath made the church a school wherein to learn the trade of holiness; and the word and the seals, and all the ordinances, look that way. Lastly, it is for the honour of God the Spirit that the called people should be holy, because they are his charge, in pupilage to the Holy Ghost, for this end and reason, that they may be sanctified. Sanctification is made his personal operation: ‘The sanctification of the Spirit,’ 2 Thes. ii. 14, and 1 Peter i. 2. He is to shape and fashion all the vessels of glory, to deck the spouse of Christ with the jewels of the covenant. This is the great advantage that we have in the economy and dispensation of grace, that we have God to purpose it, God to purchase it, and God to work it; the Father, Word, and Spirit, who agree in one, to sanctify the creature and make it holy. Now it is a great grief to the Spirit when the work doth not go on and prosper in the soul; for he ‘worketh us to this very thing,’ and is therefore called ‘the Spirit of holiness.’ It is not for his honour to dwell in defiled temples, and to let the called people go naked and without their ornament. Well, then, you see, God, for his honour’s sake, will have his purposes accomplished for which he chose us, and Christ his purchase made good, and the Spirit who is left in charge to see all accomplished, he goeth on with the work.

2. Another reason why we must be sanctified is, because of the hopes to which we are called and the happiness which we expect. Now we cannot have it unless we be holy: Heb. xii, 14, ‘Without holiness no man shall see God.’ We are bidden in that verse to ‘follow peace,’ but chiefly ‘holiness;’ for it is not said that without peace no man shall see God. Peace may be often broken in the quarrel of truth and holiness, and so God’s children may be passively men of contention. Ay! but for all that they shall see God: but those that are not holy he cannot endure their presence, and therefore they shall never see his face, and enjoy him hereafter. Usually by a fond abuse we restrain the word saints to the saints departed. Ay! but we must be saints here, or else we shall never be saints hereafter. I mean true saints; for by another abuse the word saints is made matter of pretence in some, and matter of scorn by others; but to be saints indeed, that is all the evidence you have to show for your interest in your glorious hopes. What should others do with heaven that are not saints? How can they see God that have not a pure eye? A dusky glass cannot represent the image: the degree of vision is according to the degree of sanctification. And what should a carnal heart, that knoweth no other heaven but to eat, drink, and sleep, and wallow in sensual delights, do with ‘the inheritance of the saints in light?’ The apostle saith, we must be ‘made meet’ for such a state, Col. i. 12. The vessels of glory are first seasoned with grace. Alas! otherwise carnal men can no more tell what to do with heaven than swine with pearls. We do not look for a Turkish paradise, but a sinless state; not to bathe our souls in carnal pleasures, but to be consorts of the immaculate Lamb. Our hopes engage us to holiness: 1 John iii. 3, ‘He that hath this hope purifieth himself, as Christ is pure.’ If his heart be fastened upon such a hope as to see Christ as he is, and to be like him both for temper of soul and state of body, certainly he must needs be a holy man; he will be practising and trying here upon earth how he can conform to Christ, and begin his happiness as well as he can. Certainly he that expecteth that his body shall be ‘like to Christ’s glorious body,’ he will ‘possess his vessel in sanctification and in honour.’ He cannot use his body, that is under so great hopes, merely as a strainer for meats and drinks, and a channel for lust to pass through; his mind, that shall see God, he cannot fill it with chaff, or suffer it to be occupied with vanity, toying thoughts, and vile cares and unworthy projects; and his affections, that should cleave to God inseparably, to be prostituted to every base object. Thus, with respect to our hopes, we must be sanctified; the foundation and seed of glory is laid in grace, and that life begun which we must live for ever.