Thomas Manton · 7 of 67

Verse 1. · Part 4

Use 1. It serveth for conviction. If God’s people are a sanctified people, then here is but sad news for two sorts of persons. (1.) The profane, that care not for holiness; God hath no birthright for such Esaus; the portion of the Lord are a holy portion, but these have ‘a spot that is not as the spot of his children,’ Deut. xxxii. 5. See what John speaketh of such persons as wallow in their filthiness: 1 John iii. 8, ‘He that committeth sin is of the devil, for the devil sinneth from the beginning,’ ὁ ποιῶν ἁμαρτίαν, he that tradeth in sin, and maketh it his work and business. You may presume that you belong to God, but you are of the devil; you have not, indeed, the least pretence of a claim, and do not go so far as hypocrites, being so little careful to be holy, that you are not moral. Are you called? from what? where is the least evidence of it? Ay! but our hearts are better than we show for. This is to appeal to a witness that cannot be found; it is all one as if a man should claim to another’s land, and pretend that he hath lost the evidences. Your guilt is written in legible characters, that he that runneth may read it. (2.) It convinceth persons that scoff at holiness. Scoffing is the overflow of gall and malice, and a black mark, let it be found where it will. In the general it argueth a bad spirit, but especially when religion is made a byword and a reproach. When you deride men for their holiness, you deride them for that which is the express image of the glorious God, and so deride God himself. Holy brethren, as the saints are styled, Heb. iii. 1, should no more be a disgrace than holy Father, as God himself is styled, John xvii. 11. You hate God more than you do the saints, if you hate them for their holiness, which shineth in them with a faint lustre, but is infinitely and originally in God. Take heed of ‘the chair of scorners.’ Those are dogs that are without, Rev. xxii. 15, that bark at the splendour of God’s image, that make saints a word of disgrace. Scoffing Ishmaels that will be mocking are sure to be cast out, Gen. xxi. 9; they do not belong to God. The apostle interprets that mocking to be persecution, Gal. iv. 27; so it is in God’s account; and yet it is always found in those that are ‘born after the flesh,’ Profane spirits think religion a matter of nothing; and men are wont to mock at those which make a great matter of what they account nothing. Oh! remember, holiness is the badge of those which are the Lord’s called people, and it should be a matter of reverence, not reproach.

Use 2. Again, it serveth for caution, to prevent mistakes. Christians, look to your sanctification: Ps. iv. 3, ‘Know that God hath set apart him that is godly for himself.’ The beast’s worshippers have the beast’s mark, Rev. xiii. 16. So also God’s children are stamped with his seal and impress: 2 Tim. ii. 19, ‘The foundation of the Lord standeth sure, having this seal,’ &c., they are sealed with a mark of preservation, ‘The Lord knows those that are his;’ and they are sealed with a mark of distinction, ‘Let every one that nameth the name of God depart from iniquity.’ As Cain is stamped on both sides, so hath God’s seal a double motto—one that noteth his owning the saints, the other that noteth their temper and disposition; they depart from iniquity. Take heed, then, have you this seal and impress? There are many things that look like sanctification, but are not. I shall touch upon four—civility, formality, restraining grace and temporary grace.

1. Civility, which is nothing else but a fair demeanour in the world, or, in the apostle’s expression, ‘a fair show in the flesh,’ a darker representation of holiness, rather heathenish strictness than Christian. You may descry it by these notes:—(1.) It is usually accompanied with ignorance, and little knowledge of God’s institutions. Men live well, are no drunkards, no swearers, but know little of God, have no insight in matters of religion; like Nicodemus, a strict Pharisee, but grossly ignorant, John iii. 10. Spiritual life beginneth with knowledge, and endeth in a rational strictness, and what they do, they do upon principles. Conscience is swayed by the acknowledgment of God’s will. Others live plausibly, but know not the ground and reason of their actions, and therefore are soon satisfied; never troubled about imperfections, because where there is no light there is not that tenderness which is found in real Christians, who look into the purity of the law, and are troubled because they know so much of the will of God, and do so far come short of it, as in a clear glass the least mote is soon espied. (2.) There is little of Christ in such souls; for a man that is satisfied with his own righteousness doth not prize Christ. Paul, a Pharisee, counted his works ‘gain,’ which afterward he found to be ‘loss,’ Phil. iii. 7. By gain he meaneth an advantage to procure the favour of God. Self is wont to take up all their thoughts, and therefore moral strains suit more with them than gospel comforts, and doctrines that breed faith. The law is more natural to men than the gospel, and therefore with those that are of a moral disposition, and no more, it findeth better entertainment and welcome than the gospel doth. There is no ‘hungering and thirsting’ after Christ; they do not see the need of the sweetness of his grace, of the help of his Spirit, going on in a plausible, moral course, without rub or difficulty. Whereas, in the spiritual life, Christ doth all, and every day they see more cause to bless God for him, Gal. ii. 20. (3.) Usually there is some great prevailing sin. Civility is but a freer slavery; one way or another Satan holdeth them captive, and their honesty and fair show to the world is but to serve their carnal interests, to hide a lust or feed a lust, and most commonly this sin is worldliness. Christ’s young man, that had ‘kept all those things from his youth,’ had ‘great possessions,’ and they were a great snare to his heart, Mat. xix. 22. The sin of the Pharisees was vainglory and ambition. Some morsel there is reserved under the tongue, some sin kept with the greater allowance from conscience, and the less shame from abroad, because otherwise the life is fair and honest. (4.) There is a greater care about actions than lusts. Wrath, and pride, and wanton thoughts, are digested, because there is no violence and uncleanness in the conversation. Civility is all for the carriage, nothing for tempering the affections to such an order and moderation as becometh grace. Paul complaineth of his lusts, and the law of sin within, Rom. vii.; yea, of such sinful workings as do not fall under the cognisance and discovery of the light of nature, Rom. vii. 7, the first risings and stirrings of sin forbidden in the tenth commandment, the least rebellion of nature. Thus for civility.

2. Formality, or pretended grace: you may be deceived in that; and therefore the apostle speaketh Of a ‘true holiness,’ ἐν ὁσιότητι τῆς ἀληθείας, Eph. iv. 24, in opposition to that which is feigned and counterfeit. Now, false grace is always acted by foreign and external considerations; as pupils have not a principle of life within them, but are moved by an external force. The hypocrite’s principles of motion are without him, as carnal respects, self-ends, &c. True grace hath an inward propensity to comply with the will of God; there is a ‘law upon their bowels;’ by-ends work by constraint, and carry the soul contrary to its native inclination; a man would not do such a thing, were it not for such ends; therefore the apostle saith, 1 Peter v, 2, ‘Feed the flock that is among you, not by constraint, but willingly; not for filthy lucre, but of a ready mind.’ When a man acteth genuinely in a work; his own heart carrieth him to it more than all outward encouragements. Again, false grace is shy of God’s presence and sight: pretences are to deceive men; therefore such persons strive to get God out of their thoughts, they know his eye will find them out. But now truth of grace is ready to draw everything into God’s sight; though they tremble to think what defects God can find in them, yet they appeal to him for the sincerity of their hearts: John xxi. 17, ‘Lord, thou knowest all things, and thou knowest that I love thee.’ He would not excuse miscarriages; yet, for the general temper and bent of his heart, he referreth himself to God’s omnisciency. So Job xxxi. 6, ‘Let me be weighed in an even balance, that God may know mine integrity;’ and yet elsewhere he saith, Job xlii. 5, 6.’ Mine eye seeth thee, and therefore I abhor myself in dust and ashes,’ in the one place he appealeth to God, for he was confident that his integrity would hold weight; and yet in the other he could even loathe himself when he thought of God, because of so many defects and failings. So David, Ps. cxxxix. 23, ‘Search me, O Lord, and know my heart,’ &c. No doubt David was sensible that God could find enough in him; but Lord, search, see if anything be allowed with full leave of conscience. Again, false grace doth not grow, unless it be worse and worse. Pretences wither rather than thrive: God complaineth, Jer. vii. 24, that ‘they went backward rather than forward.’ False grace is always declining till it be wholly lost; like bad salt, that loseth of its acrimony and smartness every day till it be cast to the dunghill. But now true grace, from a grain it groweth into a tree, Mat. xiii., from a morning glimpse to a perfect noon, Prov. iv. 18, from smoking flax it is blown up into a flame. The least meal in the barrel, and oil in the cruse, when it is fed with a supply from heaven, shall prosper into abundance. Nicodemus, that at first came to Christ by night, after boldly declareth himself for him, John xix. 39. Grace gets ground upon the flesh, and holiness by degrees advanceth into a triumph. Examine, then, whether you increase or decrease: if you go backward from zeal to coldness, from strictness to looseness; if you lose your care of duty, and choiceness of spirit, and there be no complaining, it is a sign grace was never wrought in truth. Once more, false grace is not accompanied with humility. When men, the more they profess, the prouder they grow, and more self -conceited, there is cause of suspicion. With true grace there always goeth along a spiritual poverty, or a sense of our spiritual wants; the more knowledge, the more they discern their ignorance; compare 1 Cor. viii. 2, with Prov. xxx. 2, 3; the more faith, the more they bewail unbelief, and see a need of increase and further growth: Mark ix. 24, ‘Lord, I believe, help mine unbelief.’ Oh! I want faith, what shall I do? still I am haunted with prejudicial and lessening thoughts of God’s all-sufficiency and goodness. It is excellent when the soul is thus kept hungry and humble under our enjoyments, and we ‘forget the things that are behind,’ because ‘the things that are before us,’ or not yet attained, are much more, Phil. iii. 13.

3. The next thing is restraining grace, which is nothing else but an awe upon the conscience, inclining men to forbear sin, though they do not hate it. Now you may discern it, partly because love is of little use and force with such kind of spirits; they are chained up by their own fears. The great evangelic motive is mercy: Rom. xii. 1, ‘I beseech you by the mercies of God.’ The heart is most ingenuous when it yieldeth to such entreaties. It is good to serve God with reverence, but a servile awe hath little of grace in it. It is true, in deed, it is better to have a slavish fear than none at all; therefore David saith to them that would be held in with no other restraints, Ps. iv. 4, ‘Stand in awe, and sin not.’ To cool and charm their fury he maketh use of the argument of God’s vengeance; though this is also the fault of slavish spirits, that carnal respects and thoughts of outward inconvenience do equally sway them, as a servile fear of God’s judgments. Again, you may know it, because it doth not destroy sin, but only prohibit the exercise of it. Abimelech’s lust was not quenched, yet God withheld him from sinning against Sarah, Gen. xx. 6. The heart is not renewed, though the action be checked; as Israel had an adulterous heart towards God, when ‘her way was hedged up with thorns,’ Hosea ii. 6. Again, it is their trouble that they are held in the stocks of conscience; they would fain be enlarged and find out their own paths.

4. The next thing that looketh like sanctification, but is not, is common grace. This is a distinct thing from all the rest, yet I call it common grace, because it may be in them that fall away and depart from God. It differeth from civility, because it is more Christian and evangelical; from formality, because that is only in pretence and show, whereas this is a real work upon the soul; from restraining grace, because that is only conversant about sins and duties out of a servile awe of God, but this seemeth to carry out the soul with some affection to Christ. It is a common work, good in itself, which God ordaineth in some to be a preparation and beginning of the work of grace. Of this the apostle speaketh, Heb. vi. 4, 5, where he calleth it ‘an enlightening,’ ‘a taste of Christ and of the powers of the world to come,’ and a ‘partaking of the Holy Ghost;’ meaning the gifts of the Spirit, abilities for holy duties, &c., of all which elsewhere; only now let me note three things:—(1.) That the light there spoken of is not humbling; (2.) The taste is not ravishing, and drawing out the soul after more of Christ; (3.) Their gifts are not renewing and sanctifying.

[1.] That light is not humbling. He saith, they are ‘enlightened,’ but he doth not say they are humbled. Foundations totter that are not laid deep enough. The more true light a man hath, the more cause of self-abasement will he find in himself. You can never magnify Christ enough, and you can never debase self enough; and certainly Christ is most exalted when you are most abased, Isa. ii. 19. Dagon must fall upon his face if you mean to set up the ark; and if Christ shall be precious to you, you must be vile in your own eyes; none have such true revivings as the humble, Isa. lvii. 15, 16. True humiliation is far from weakening your comforts, it maketh them more full and sure; therefore a main thing that was wanting in those spoken of in Heb. vi., was humiliation, and their fault was a rash closing with Christ in the pride of their hearts.

[2.] Their taste was not ravishing and affecting the heart so as to engage it to seek after Christ; they had but loose and slight desires of happiness, glances upon the glory of heaven and the comforts of the gospel, which possibly might stir up a wish, ‘Oh! that I might die the death of the righteous,’ &c. They were not serious and holy desires after Christ, after grace and strength to serve him. The saints, that have a taste, groan after a fuller communion in his graces as well as comforts, Rom. vii. 24, Ps. cxix. 5; that experience which they have had of Christ maketh them long for more. But now in temporaries there is a loose assent and slight affection, a taste enough to prevail with them, to make some profession for a while, a rejoicing for a season, &c.

[3.] Their gifts are not renewing and sanctifying; such possibly as may make them useful to the church, but do not change the heart. The apostle saith, they were made ‘partakers of the Holy Ghost;’ that is, had some share—it may be a plentiful share,—of church gifts, so as to be able to carry on duties to the edification and comfort of others. But, alas! what is a man the better, if the heart be oppressed with sins in the meantime, and be not upright with God? 1 Cor. xiii. 1, ‘Though I speak with the tongues of men and angels, and have not charity, I am become but as a sounding brass and tinkling cymbal.’ Though you can speak of the things of God with much enlargement and affection, pray sweetly, all is but as tinkling with God, if there be not saving grace. It is a great evidence that we are such as the apostle speaketh of, when the affection doth not answer the expression of a duty, nor the life our knowledge, and gifts have not a proportionable influence upon practice. So much for that point.

Having spoken of the state, I come now to speak of the author of it, God the Father. But why is it so distinctly attributed to the Father? Is not Christ ‘our sanctification?’ 1 Cor. i. 30, and is it not called ‘the sanctification of the Spirit?’ 2 Thes. ii. 13. The answer shall draw out the strength of the phrase in these propositions. (1.) It is true that the whole Trinity, one way or other, concurreth to the work of holiness; those works ad extra are indivisa, common to all the persons—the Father sanctifieth, the Son sanctifieth, and the Holy Ghost sanctifieth: the same may be said of preserving and calling. (2.) Though all work jointly, yet there are distinct personal operations, by which they make way for the glory of each other; the love of the Father for the glory of the Son, and the glory of the Son for the power of the Spirit. See how the scripture followeth these things. You shall find first, that no man cometh to the Son, but from the Father, by election: John vi. 37, ‘All that the Father giveth me shall come to me:’ so ver. 65, ‘No man cometh unto me, unless it be given him of my Father,’ Look again and you shall find that no man cometh to the Father from the bondage of sin and Satan, but by the Son, through his redemption and mediation: John xiv. 6, ‘I am the way, the truth, and the life; no man cometh unto the Father but by me.’ Again, you shall see no man is united to the Son but by the Holy Ghost, who worketh in those whom the Father did choose, and the Son redeem; and therefore ‘the sanctification of the Spirit’ is as necessary as ‘the blood of Jesus,’ 1 Peter i. 2. So that you see all have their distinct work; the inchoation is from the Father, the dispensation by the Son, and the consummation by the Spirit: from the Father, in the Son, and through the Spirit. There is God’s choice, Christ’s purchase, and the Spirit’s application; all are joined in one verse,—for indeed they must not be severed,—even in the place last alleged, 1 Peter i. 2. (3.) Because the first distinct operation is the Father’s, therefore the whole work in scripture is often ascribed to him. He is said to justify;’ the justifier of them that believe in Jesus,’ Rom. iii. 26. So he is said elsewhere to purge: John xv. 1, 2, ‘I am the vine, and my Father is the husbandman; he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit.’ All dependeth upon the decree of his love. Christ doth not work upon a person, unless he be given to him by the Father; and, therefore, he being first in order and operation, the whole work is made his work: ‘Sanctified in God the Father.’ Observe:—

Obs. 1. That sanctification is God’s work, wrought in us by the Father. To cleanse the heart is beyond the power of the creature; it can no more make itself holy, than make itself to be. We could defile ourselves, but we cannot cleanse ourselves: as the sheep can go astray of itself, but it can never return to the fold without the shepherd’s care and help. Lusts are too hard for us, and so are the duties of obedience. God, that gave us his image at first, must again plant it in the soul. Who can repair nature depraved, but the author of nature? When a watch is out of order we send it to the workman: ‘We are his workmanship in Christ,’ Eph. ii. 10. God taketh it to his prerogative: Lev. xxi. 8, ‘I am the Lord that sanctifieth thee.’ Grace is his immediate creature; man’s will contributeth nothing to the work but resistance and rebellion; and outward means work not, unless God put in with them; else why should the same word preached by the same minister work in some and harden others? All the difference ariseth from God’s grace, which acteth according to pleasure. Well, then:—

Use 1. Let us wait upon God till the work be accomplished. Our wills are obstinate and perverse, but God never made a creature too hard for himself; he is able to do this thing for us, and it is our comfort we have such a God to go to. The heathens, that groped and felt after God, were to seek of a power to quell their lusts, and therefore were put upon sad remedies: whereas all is made easy to you in the power of God through Christ. Crates gave this advice to one that came to him to know how he should subdue the lust of uncleanness; he answered, that he should either famish himself or hang himself; they knew no remedy but offering violence to nature, or else death and despair. Democritus blinded himself, because he could not look upon women without lusting after them. Now God teacheth us to put out the eye of our lust, not of our bodies. Bless God that you know whose work it is, and to whom to go for sanctification.

Use 2. Praise the Lord whenever this work is accomplished. Not I, but grace; it must not be ascribed to our works, or to any power that is in ourselves, but to God’s mercy, Christ’s merits, and the Spirit’s efficacy. There is God’s grant: ‘To her it was granted to be covered with fine linen, the righteousness of the saints,’ Rev. xix. 8. God the Father giveth leave or issueth forth an authentic act and decree in the court of heaven; as Esther by the grant of the king was supplied out of the king’s wardrobe. Then there is Christ’s merit; the stream wherein we are washed floweth out of Christ’s own heart: 1 John i. 7, ‘The blood of Christ cleanseth us from all sin.’ Then there is the Spirit’s efficacy; no less power will vanquish the proud heart of man. It is notable, that grace is expressed not only by the notion of creation, Ps. li. 10; Eph. ii. 10; 2 Cor. iv. 6, which is a making things out of nothing, but also by victory, Luke xi. 21, 22; 2 Cor. x. 5; 1 John iv. 4, or a powerful overcoming of opposition. In creation, as there was nothing to help, so there was nothing to resist and hinder; but in man there is, besides a death in sin, a life of resistance against grace; therefore sanctification must entirely be ascribed to God: we deserve it not, it cometh from the Father’s good-will and Christ’s merit; we work it not, it is accomplished by the power of the Holy Ghost

Obs. 2. Again observe, that though the work of grace be immediately wrought by another person, yet our thoughts in believing must not stay till we ascend and come up to God the Father. You shall see the scripture carrieth out our acts of faith to him everywhere: Rom. iv. 24, ‘If we believe in him who raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead;’ that is, in God the Father. So John xii. 44, ‘He that believeth in me, believeth not in me, but in him that sent me.’ That not is not negative, but corrective. Not only in me, but his thoughts must ascend to the Father also, who manifesteth himself in me. So John xiv. 1, ‘Ye believe in God, believe also in me.’ Both expressions may be imperative. Besides believing in Christ, we must also believe in God, as the first fountain and author of grace. Now the reasons are—(1.) Because all grace beginneth with the Father. The first in order of being is first in order of working. It is the Father that floweth out to us in Christ and by the Spirit. Whatever Christ hath and is, he hath from him as the original author: 1 Cor. i. 30, ‘Of him Jesus Christ is made to us sanctification.’ The high priest went into the sanctuary before he blessed the people. So doth Jesus Christ sanctify you in the Father and from the Father. As Mediator certainly he is to be considered as God’s servant and instrument. Well, then, reason is in its progress till it climb up to the first cause of a thing. So should faith. Do not leave till you come to the Father, who is the highest fountain of grace. (2.) Because whatever is done to you by Christ, is done with a respect to his Father’s love: John xvii. 2, ‘Thou hast given him power over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many as thou hast given him.’ So see ver. 6, ‘I have manifested thy name unto them; thine they were, and them thou gavest me.’ That was the ground of Christ’s respect, the Father’s donation, or the charge he received from him; and therefore you must look upon the Father’s love as well as Christ’s care; for in all his respects to us he still acknowledgeth his obedience to the Father, and, indeed, it giveth us a double ground of hope. The Son loveth us because the Father required it, and the Father loveth us because the Son asketh it. If Christ be faithful to his Father, we are sure to be loved, or if the Father have any respect and love to Christ. (3.) Because it is a great support and comfort to faith to consider of the Father in the act of believing. Two are better than one; and it is often made a privilege to ‘have the Father and the Son,’ 1 John i. 3, and ii. 23, 24; 2 John 9., et alibi. There is the Father’s love and the Son’s merit. Either severally will not yield that joy and peace in believing, and therefore it is good to have them both together. There is no access to the Father but in the Son. What will guilt do with justice? stubble with consuming fire? God out of Christ is terrible rather than comfortable. Therefore it is said, 1 Peter i. 21, that ‘by him we believe in God;’ that is, by Christ through his merit we come comfortably to pitch upon God the Father. So again, Christ separate from the Father doth not yield such firm grounds of confidence. There must be some act of the Father to give us full security: for in the business of redemption God the Father is represented as the offended, wronged party, who is to receive satisfaction. We are sensible of the wrong and offence; conscience feeleth that. We must be also sensible of his favour and grace towards us. Now when we see him first in all acts of grace, that taketh away all jealousy and scruple. (4.) Because in the Father’s love there are many circumstances which are very engaging to the soul, which are not to be found in the rest of the divine persons; for he being first in order, hath the chiefest work ascribed to him; but especially are not to be found in Christ as Mediator. And because Christ as Mediator is most known to the creatures, I shall prosecute this matter with respect to that consideration. (1st.) In the Father’s love and acts of grace there is an original fulness. Christ’s fulness as Mediator is but derived out of the Father’s plenty: Col. i. 19, ‘It pleased the Father that in him all fulness should dwell.’ And it is limited by the Father’s will in the dispensation of it. All that Christ dispensed was according to the charge and commandment given him by his Father. See Mat. xx. 23, ‘It is not mine to give, save to those for whom it is prepared of my Father.’ Christ doth not deny his authority to give glory as well as grace; only he showeth how in all the dispensations proper to the Mediator he was limited by the will and counsel of the Father. And so he denieth to dispense the knowledge of times and seasons, because ‘the Father had kept it in his own power,’ Acts i. 7. So that now it is an engaging consideration to remember that the Father, whose will is absolute, who hath an original fulness of all grace, that he ‘himself loveth us,’ and is first in all acts of blessing. (2d.) In the Father’s acts you have the purest and freest apprehension of love. He began and first broke the business of our redemption. God the Son can have a higher motive, the Father’s will; but God the Father can have no higher motive than his own love. His elective law was the first rise and spring whence all that love that passeth out to the creature issueth forth, and therefore here we have the freest apprehension of love. There was a love of the Father anteceding the merit of Christ: John iii. 16, ‘God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son.’ There was the most independent and free act of love.