The spirit of man is the candle of the LORD, searching all the inward parts of the belly.
— Proverbs 20:27
But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God.
— 1 Corinthians 2:10
O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out! For who hath known the mind of the Lord? or who hath been his counsellor?
— Romans 11:33-34
But Jesus answered them, My Father worketh hitherto, and I work.
— John 5:17
And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever;
— John 14:16
And there are diversities of operations, but it is the same God which worketh all in all. But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit withal.
— 1 Corinthians 12:6 -7
And when he is come, he will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment: Of sin, because they believe not on me;
— John 16:8-9
Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.
— Romans 8:26
But Noah found grace in the eyes of the LORD.
— Genesis 6:8
By faith Noah, being warned of God of things not seen as yet, moved with fear, prepared an ark to the saving of his house; by the which he condemned the world, and became heir of the righteousness which is by faith.
— Hebrews 11:7
The Positive Work of the Spirit in the Sanctification of Believers, by John Owen. The following contains an excerpt from Chapter Six of Book Four of his work, “On the Holy Spirit — Pneumatologia.”
“Search the Scriptures…” — John 5.39
Chapter VI.
The distinction we make between the acts of the Holy Ghost in the work of sanctification concerns the order of teaching and instruction more than any order of precedence that exists between the acts themselves. For what we have passed through concerning the cleansing of our natures and our persons, does not precede in order of time those other acts which leave a real and positive effect upon the soul (which is what we are about to describe); nor does it absolutely precede them in order of nature. Yes, many of the means by which the Holy Ghost purifies us, consist in this other work of his, which now lies before us. Thus we only distinguish them and put them into this order, as the Scripture does, to guide our understanding of them, and further our apprehension of them.
We therefore now proceed to that part of the work of the Holy Spirit by which he communicates the great, permanent, positive effect of holiness to the souls of believers, and by which he guides and assists them in all acts, works, and duties of holiness whatsoever. Without this guidance and assistance, whatever we do is not holy, nor does it in any way belong to holiness. We will reduce this part of His work to two heads, which we will first propose, and afterward clarify and vindicate.
Our FIRST assertion is this:
That in the sanctification of believers, the Holy Ghost works in them, in their whole soul — their mind, will, and affections — a gracious, supernatural habit, principle, and disposition of living to God; in which the substance or essence, the life and being, of holiness consists.
This is that spirit which is born of the Spirit, that new creature, that new and divine nature which is worked in them, and of which they are made partakers. In this consists that image of God to which our natures are repaired by the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and by which we are made conformable to God, firmly and steadfastly adhering to him through faith and love. It has been fully proved in our assertion and description of the work of regeneration, that there is such a divine principle — such a gracious, supernatural habit — worked in all those who are born again,. It is therefore acknowledged that the first supernatural infusion or communication of this principle of spiritual light and life — preparing, fitting, and enabling all the faculties of our souls for the duties of holiness, according to the mind of God — belongs to the work of our first CONVERSION.
But the preservation, cherishing, and increase of this principle, belong to our SANCTIFICATION, because both its infusion and preservation are necessarily required for holiness. Hereby the tree is made good, so that its fruit may be good, and without which it will not be good.1 This is our new nature. It does not arise from precedent actions of holiness; rather it is the root of them all. Habits acquired by a multitude of acts, whether in moral or artificial things, are not a “new nature,” nor can they be called that; such habits are a readiness to act only from use and custom. But this new nature is from God, its parent; it is what is born in us of God. And it is common to or the same in all believers as to its kind and being, even if not as to its degrees and exercise. It is that which we cannot learn, and which cannot be taught to us except by God, just as he teaches other creatures in whom he plants a natural instinct. We have said something before about the beauty and glory of this nature, as being absolutely inexpressible. Conformity to God, likeness to Christ, compliance with the Holy Spirit, interest in the family of God, fellowship with angels, separation from darkness and the world, all consist in this.
SECONDLY,
The matter of our holiness consists in our actual obedience to God, according to the tenor of the covenant of grace; for God promises to write his law in our hearts, so that we may fear him and walk in his statutes.
And concerning this, in general, we may observe two things:
1. There is a certain fixed rule and measure of this obedience, in conformity and correspondence to what it consists of. This is the revealed will of God in the Scripture, Mic. 6.8.2 God’s will, I say, as revealed to us in the word, is the rule of our obedience.
Obedience must have a rule, which nothing else can pretend to be. The secret will or the hidden purposes of God are not the rule of our obedience, Deu 29.29;3 much less are our own imaginations, inclinations, or reason. Nor does anything belong to this rule, that we do in compliance with these things, or by their direction, however plausible they may be, Col 2.18-23.4 But the word of God is the adequate rule of all holy obedience:
(1.) It is so materially. All that is commanded in the word of God belongs to our obedience, and nothing else does. Hence we are strictly required neither to add to it, nor to diminish or take anything away from it, Deu 4.2, 12.32; Josh 1.7; Pro 30.6; Rev 22.18-19.
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Footnotes:
1 Joh 15:2 “Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit He prunes, that it may bear more fruit. Joh 15:5 “I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing. Joh 15:8 “By this My Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit; so you will be My disciples.
2 Mic 6:8 He has shown you, O man, what is good; And what does the LORD require of you But to do justly, To love mercy, And to walk humbly with your God?
3 Deu 29:29 “The secret things belong to the LORD our God, but those things which are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law.
4 Col 2:18 Let no one cheat you of your reward, taking delight in false humility and worship of angels, intruding into those things which he has not seen, vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind, 19 and not holding fast to the Head, from whom all the body, nourished and knit together by joints and ligaments, grows with the increase that is from God. 20 Therefore, if you died with Christ from the basic principles of the world, why, as though living in the world, do you subject yourselves to regulations– 21 “Do not touch, do not taste, do not handle,” 22 which all concern things which perish with the using– according to the commandments and doctrines of men? 23 These things indeed have an appearance of wisdom in self-imposed religion, false humility, and neglect of the body, but are of no value against the indulgence of the flesh.
(2.) It is so formally; that is, not only are we to do what is commanded, and all that is commanded, and nothing else — but whatever we do, we are to do it because it is commanded, or else it is no part of our obedience or holiness, Deu 6.24-25; 29.29; Psa 119.9.1
I know there is an inbred light of nature yet remaining in us, which gives great direction as to moral good and evil, commanding the one and forbidding the other, Rom 2.14-15.2 But this light, however it may be made subservient and subordinate to the word of God, is not the rule of gospel holiness as such, nor is it any part of it. The law which God writes in our hearts by his grace, corresponds to the law that is written in the word which is given to us. And just as the first is the only principle of our evangelical obedience, so the latter is the only rule or it. For this end, God has promised that his Spirit and his word will always accompany one another — the one to quicken our souls, and the other to guide our lives, Isa 59.21.3
The word of God may be considered as our rule in a threefold respect:
(1.) As it requires the image of God in us. The habitual rectitude of our nature with respect to God and our living to him, is enjoined of us in the word; yes, and it is worked in us by the word. The whole renovation of our nature, the whole principle of holiness described before, is nothing but the word changed into grace in our hearts; for we are born again by the incorruptible seed of the word of God. The Spirit works nothing in us except what the word first requires of us. The word is therefore the rule of the inward principle of spiritual life. And the growth of this principle is nothing but its increase in conformity to that word.
(2.) With respect to all the actual frames, designs, and purposes of the heart. All the internal actings of our minds, all the volitions of the will, all the motions of our affections, are to be regulated by that word which requires us to love the Lord our God with all our minds, all our souls, and all our strength. Their regularity or irregularity is to be tested by it. All that holiness which is in them, consists in their conformity to the revealed will of God.
(3.) With respect to all our outward actions and duties, both private and public, of piety and of righteousness, towards ourselves or others, Tit 2.12.4
This is the rule of our holiness. We are holy only so far as what we are, and what we do, correspond to the word of God. Whatever acts of devotion or duties of morality may be performed without respect to this rule, do not belong to our sanctification.
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Footnotes:
1 Deu 6:24 `And the LORD commanded us to observe all these statutes, to fear the LORD our God, for our good always, that He might preserve us alive, as it is this day. 25 `Then it will be righteousness for us, if we are careful to observe all these commandments before the LORD our God, as He has commanded us.’ Psa 119:9 How can a young man cleanse his way? By taking heed according to Your word.
2 Rom 2:14 for when Gentiles, who do not have the law, by nature do the things in the law, these, although not having the law, are a law to themselves, 15 who show the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and between themselves their thoughts accusing or else excusing them)
3 Isa 59:21 “As for Me,” says the LORD, “this is My covenant with them: My Spirit who is upon you, and My words which I have put in your mouth, shall not depart from your mouth, nor from the mouth of your descendants, nor from the mouth of your descendants’ descendants,” says the LORD, “from this time and forevermore.”
4 Tit 2:12 teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in the present age;
2. Just as there is a rule for our performance of this obedience, so there is a rule for the acceptance of our obedience with God; and this is the tenor of the new covenant, Gen 17.1.1 What corresponds to this rule is accepted, and what does not correspond is rejected, both as to the universality of the whole, and the sincerity that accompanies each particular duty in it. These two things, universality and sincerity, correspond now (as to some certain ends of it) to the legal perfection required of us at the beginning.
In the estate of original righteousness, the rule of our acceptance with God in our obedience was the law and the covenant of works. And this required that our obedience should be absolutely perfect in its parts and degrees, without the least intermixture of sin with our good, nor interposition in the least instance, of anything that was inconsistent with that covenant. But now, even though we are renewed again by grace into the image of God really and truly (yet not absolutely nor perfectly, but only in part), we still have remaining in us a contrary principle of ignorance and sin, which we must always conflict with, Gal 5.16-17.2 This is why God, in the covenant of grace, is pleased to accept that holy obedience which is universal in all its parts in all known instances of duty, and sincere as to the manner of its performance. It is not our present work to declare what in particular is required for this; I only aim to fix in general the rule of the acceptance of this holy obedience.
Now, the reason for this acceptance is not that a lower and more imperfect kind of righteousness, holiness, and obedience, will meet all the ends of God and his glory now, under the new covenant, than they would have met under the old. Nothing can be imagined that is more distant from the truth, nor more dishonorable to the gospel, or that seems nearer to making Christ the minister of sin. For what else would he be, if he had procured God’s acceptance of a weak and imperfect obedience — accompanied with many failings, infirmities, and sins, being complete in nothing — in the place and stead of what he first required of us, which was complete, perfect, and absolutely sinless? Indeed, God determined to exalt and glorify the holy properties of his nature in a more eminent and glorious manner under the new covenant, than he did under the old. It is for this reason and end alone that it is so exalted and preferred above it. Thus it was necessary that there should be a righteousness and obedience required in this new covenant, that is far more complete, eminent, and glorious than what was required in the old. But the reason for this difference lies solely in this: that our evangelical obedience, which is accepted by God according to the tenor of the new covenant, does not hold the same place which our obedience held under the covenant of works.
For in that covenant, it would have been our righteousness absolutely before God, by which we would have been justified in his sight — namely, the works of the law — and for which, in a due proportion of justice, we would have been eternally rewarded. But this place is now filled by the righteousness and obedience of Christ, our mediator. Being the obedience of the Son of God, it is far more eminent and glorious, or it tends more to manifest the properties of God’s nature, and to exalt his glory in this, than all that we could have done if we had abided steadfast in the covenant of works. “What, then,” some may ask, “does our holiness and obedience serve, and what is the necessity of them?” I must defer answering this inquiry to its proper place, where I will prove at
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Footnotes:
1 Gen 17:1 When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the LORD appeared to Abram and said to him, “I am Almighty God; walk before Me and be blameless.
2 Gal 5:16 I say then: Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. 17 For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another, so that you do not do the things that you wish.
large the necessity of this holiness, and demonstrate it from its proper principles and ends. In the meantime I will only say in general, that as God requires it of us, so he has appointed it as the only means by which we may express our subjection to him, our dependence on him, our fruitfulness, and our thankfulness; it is the only way of our communion and intercourse with him, of using and improving the effects of his love, and the benefits of the mediation of Christ, by which we may glorify him in this world; and it is the only orderly way by which we may be made fit for the inheritance of the saints in light. This is sufficient, in general, to manifest both its necessity and its use. These things being premised in general then, I will comprise what I further have to offer in the declaration and vindication of gospel sanctification and holiness, in the two ensuing assertions:
I. There is worked and preserved in the minds and souls of all believers, by the Spirit of God, a supernatural principle or habit of grace and holiness, by which they are made fit for and enabled to live to God, and perform that obedience which he requires and accepts through Christ in the covenant of grace. It is essentially or specifically distinct from all natural habits, both intellectual and moral, however or by whatever means they are acquired or improved.
II. There is an immediate work or effectual operation of the Holy Spirit by his grace required for every act of holy obedience, whether it is only internal in faith and love, or external also — that is, for all the holy actings of our understandings, wills, and affections, and for all our duties of obedience in walking before God.
I. I affirm that the first of these assertions is not only true, but of so great a weight and importance that our hope of life and salvation depends on it; it is the second great principle constituting our Christian profession. There are four things that are to be confirmed concerning it:
1. That there is such a supernatural habit or principle infused or created in believers by the Holy Ghost, and always abiding in them.
2. That, according to the nature of all habits, it inclines and disposes the mind, will, and affections, to acts of holiness suitable to its own nature, and with regard to its proper end, and to make us fit to live to God.
3. That it not only inclines and disposes the mind, but it gives it power, and enables it to live to God in all holy obedience.
4. That it differs specifically from all other habits, intellectual or moral, that we may acquire or attain by any means, or spiritual gifts that may be conferred on any persons whatsoever.
In handling these things, I will manifest the difference between a spiritual, supernatural life of evangelical holiness, and a course of moral virtue — which some, to the rejection of the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, endeavor to substitute in its place. We must partake of such a spiritual, heavenly, supernatural life in this world (so designated from its nature, causes, acts, and ends), if we ever intend to attain eternal life in another.
And in this we will take whatever view we are able to, of the nature, glory, and beauty of holiness; and I confess that I can comprehend but little of them. It is a matter, indeed, often spoken to; but the essence and true nature of it are greatly hidden from the eyes of all living men. It is the sense of what the Scripture proposes, what I believe, and what I desire to experience, that I will endeavor to declare. But just as we are not perfect in the duties of holiness in this life, so we are no more perfect in the knowledge of its nature.
First, therefore, I say, it is a gracious, supernatural habit, or a principle of spiritual life. And with respect to this, I will briefly do these three things:
1. Show what I mean by such a habit.
2. Prove that such a habit is required for holiness, indeed, the nature of holiness consists in it. 3. Declare in general its properties.
1. Our first inquiry is after the essence and form of holiness, from which anyone is truly and really made and designated holy; or what the formal reason is for that holiness which our nature partakes of in this world. This must be something special, something excellent and sacred, which constitutes the great and only difference between men, on their own part, in the sight of God, with respect to eternity. Everyone who has this holiness pleases God, and is accepted by him, and will come to enjoy him; and everyone who does not have it, is rejected by him, here and hereafter.
In the first place, this holiness does not consist in any single acts of obedience to God, even though they are good in their own nature, and acceptable to him. For indeed, many such acts may be performed by unholy persons, of which the Scripture abounds with examples.
Cain’s sacrifice and Ahab’s repentance were signal, single acts of obedience materially; and yet they were not acts of holiness formally, nor did either make or designate these men holy. Our apostle tells us that men may “give all their goods to feed the poor, and their bodies to be burned, and yet be nothing,” 1Cor 13.3; yet who can go further in single acts? Such fruits may spring from seed that has no root. Single acts may evidence holiness, as Abraham’s obedience did in sacrificing his son; but none is constituted holy by them; nor will a series, a course, or a multiplication of acts and duties of obedience, either constitute or designate anyone holy, Isa 1.11-15.1 All the duties — a series and multiplication of which, in that passage, were rejected for lack of holiness — were good in themselves, and appointed by God.
Nor does it consist in a habitual disposition of mind toward any outward duties of piety, devotion, or obedience, however obtained or acquired. There are such habits, both intellectual and moral. Intellectual habits are arts and sciences. When men, by custom, usage, and frequent acts in the exercise of any science, art, or mystery, get a ready facility in and for all its parts and duties, they have gained an intellectual habit in this. It is this way in moral things too, as to virtues and vices. There are some seeds and sparks of moral virtue remaining in the ruins of depraved nature, such as justice, temperance, fortitude, and the like. Hence God calls on profligate sinners to remember and “show themselves men,” or not to act contrary to the principles and light of nature, which are inseparable from us as men, Isa 46.8. These principles may be excited in the exercise of natural light, or improved by education, instruction, and example, or by an assiduous and diligent performance of their related acts and duties. Some may thereby attain such a readiness for them, and such a facility in them, that it is not easily changed or diverted by any outward means — and this is a moral habit.
1 Isa 1:11 “To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices to Me?” Says the LORD. “I have had enough of burnt offerings of rams And the fat of fed cattle. I do not delight in the blood of bulls, Or of lambs or goats. 12 “When you come to appear before Me, Who has required this from your hand, To trample My courts? 13 Bring no more futile sacrifices; Incense is an abomination to Me. The New Moons, the Sabbaths, and the calling of assemblies– I cannot endure iniquity and the sacred meeting. 14 Your New Moons and your appointed feasts My soul hates; They are a trouble to Me, I am weary of bearing them. 15 When you spread out your hands, I will hide My eyes from you; Even though you make many prayers, I will not hear. Your hands are full of blood.
In like manner, in the duties of piety and religion — in acts of outward obedience to God — men may so accustom themselves to these duties by these same means, that they have a habitual disposition to their exercise. I do not doubt it is so, to a high degree, with many superstitious persons. But in all these things, the acts still precede the habits of the same nature and kind which are produced by them, and not otherwise. But this holiness is such a habit or principle, that it is antecedent to all acts of the same kind, as we will prove. There never was, nor ever can be, any act or duty of true holiness performed by anyone, where there was not antecedently, in order of nature, a habit of holiness in the persons by whom they were performed. Many acts and duties that are good and approvable as to their substance, may be performed without this habit of holiness; but no one that has the proper form and nature of holiness can be without this habit.
And the reason is because every act of true holiness must have something supernatural in it from an internal renewed principle of grace; and what does not have it, whatever else it may be, is not an act or duty of true holiness.
I call this principle of holiness a habit. It is not as though it were absolutely the same as acquired habits, and would correspond in all things to our conceptions and descriptions of them. But we only call it a habit because, in its effects and manner of operation, it agrees in various things with acquired intellectual or moral habits. But it much more conforms to a natural, unchangeable instinct than to any acquired habit. That is why God charges men, that in their obedience to him, they did not act according to that instinct which other creatures have towards their lords and benefactors, Isa 1.3;1 and which those creatures cordially observe, Jer 8.7.2 But in this God “teaches us more than the beasts of the earth, and makes us wiser than the fowls of heaven,” Job 35.11.
Therefore, this is what I mean by it: a virtue, a power, a principle of spiritual life and grace, worked, created, infused into our souls, and inlaid in all our faculties, constantly abiding and unchangeably residing in them, which is antecedent to, and the next cause of, all acts of true holiness whatsoever. And as was said, this is what the nature of holiness consists in, and from which, in those who are adult, the actual discharge of all duties and works of holiness is inseparable. This always abides in and with all who are sanctified. This is why they are always holy, and not holy only when they are actually exercised in the duties of holiness. By this principle, they are prepared, disposed, and enabled to all duties of obedience, as we will show immediately; and it is by its influence in their acts and duties, that they become holy, and not otherwise.
To further explain this, I will only add three things:
(1.) That this habit or principle, thus worked and abiding in us, does not, if I may say so, firm its own station,3 or abide and continue in us by its own natural efficacy, in adhering to the faculties of our souls. Habits that are acquired by many actions have a natural efficacy to preserve themselves, until some opposition that is too hard for them, prevails against them — which is frequently (though not easily) done. But this principle is preserved in us by the constant powerful actings and influence of the Holy Ghost. He that works it in us, also preserves it in us. And the reason for this is because the spring of it is in Christ Jesus, our Head; it is only an emanation of
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Footnotes:
1 Isa 1:3 The ox knows its owner And the donkey its master’s crib; But Israel does not know, My people do not consider.”
2 Jer 8:7 “Even the stork in the heavens Knows her appointed times; And the turtledove, the swift, and the swallow Observe the
time of their coming. But My people do not know the judgment of the LORD. 3 That is, it doesn’t operate independently, under its own power.
virtue and power from him to us, by the Holy Ghost. If this is not actually and always continued, whatever is in us would die and wither of itself. See Eph 4.15-16; Col 3.3; John 4.14.1 It is in us like the fructifying sap is in a branch of the vine or olive. It is there really and formally, and it is the next cause of the fruit-bearing of the branch.
Yet it does not live and abide by itself, but only by a continual emanation and communication from the root; let that communication be intercepted, and the branch quickly withers. So it is with this principle in us with respect to its root, Christ Jesus.
(2.) Though this principle or habit of holiness is of the same kind or nature in all believers, in all who are sanctified, yet there are very distinct degrees of it in them. In some it is stronger, livelier, more vigorous and flourishing; in others it is weaker, feebler, and less active; this is in such great variety, and on so many occasions, that it cannot be spoken to here.
(3.) Even though this habit and principle is not acquired by any or many acts of duty or obedience, yet it is preserved, increased, strengthened, and improved by way of duty. God has appointed that we should live in the exercise of this habit. And in and by the multiplication of its acts and duties, it is kept alive and stirred up, without which it will be weakened and decay.
2. This being what I intend as to its substance, we must next show that there is such a spiritual habit or principle of spiritual life worked in believers, and in which their holiness consists. A few of many testimonies will suffice to quickly confirm it.
Its work is expressed in Deu 30.6, “The Lord your God will circumcise your heart, to love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, that you may live.” The end of holiness is that we may “live;” and the principal work of holiness is to “love the Lord our God with all our heart and soul.” This is the effect of God’s “circumcising our hearts,” without which it will not occur. Every act of love and fear, and consequently every duty of holiness whatsoever, is consequential to God’s circumcising of our hearts.
But it would seem that this work of God is “only a removal of hindrances,” and it does not express the conferring of the principle which we assert. I answer that, even though it would be easy to demonstrate that this work of circumcising our hearts cannot be effected without implanting in them the principle pleaded for, yet it will suffice at present to evince from this that this effectual work of God upon our hearts is antecedently necessary for all acts of holiness in us. To this end, God writes his law in our hearts: Jer 31.33, “I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts.” The habit or principle which we have described, is nothing but a transcript of the law of God implanted and abiding in our hearts, by which we comply with and respond to the whole will of God in this. This is holiness in the habit and principle of it. This is more fully expressed in Eze 36.26-27, “A new heart I will give you, and a new spirit I will put within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and you will keep my judgments, and do them.”
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Footnote:
1 Eph 4:15 but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head– Christ– 16 from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love. Col 3:3 For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. Joh 4:14 “but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life.”
The whole of all that actual obedience and all those duties of holiness which God requires of us, is contained in these expressions: “You will walk in my statutes, and keep my judgments to do them.” Antecedent to this, and as the principle and cause of this, God gives a “new heart” and a “new spirit.” This new heart is a heart with the law of God written in it, as mentioned before; and this new spirit is the habitual inclination of that heart to the life of God, or all duties of obedience. And in this, the whole of what we have asserted is confirmed — namely, that antecedent to all duties and acts of holiness whatsoever, and as the next cause of them, there is by the Holy Ghost a new spiritual principle or habit of grace communicated to us and abiding in us, from which we are made and designated holy.
It is yet more expressly revealed and declared in the New Testament, John 3.6. There is a work of the Spirit of God upon us in our regeneration: we are “born again of the Spirit.” And there is the product of this work of the Spirit of God in us, which is born in this new birth, and that is “spirit” also. It is something existing in us that is of a spiritual nature and spiritual efficacy. It is something abiding in us, acting in continual opposition against the flesh or sin (Gal 5.17), and toward all duties of obedience to God.1 And until this spirit is formed in us — that is, until our whole soul has been furnished with spiritual power and ability — we cannot perform any one act that is spiritually good, nor any one act of vital obedience. This spirit, or spiritual nature, which is born of the Spirit, and by which alone we are enabled to live to God, is that habit of grace or principle of holiness which we intend.
And so it is also called a new creature: “If any man is in Christ he is a new creature,” 2Cor 5.17. It is something that, by an almighty creating act of the power of God by his Spirit, has the nature of a living creature, produced in the souls of all who are in Christ Jesus. And just as it is called the “new creature,” so it is also called a “divine nature,” 2Pet 1.4 — and a nature is the principle of all operations. This is what we plead for: The Spirit of God creates a new nature in us, which is the principle and next cause of all acts of the life of God. Where this is not found, whatever else there may be, there is no evangelical holiness. This is that by which we are enabled to live to God, to fear him, to walk in his ways, and to yield obedience according to his mind and will. See Eph 4.23- 24; Col 3.10.2 The Scripture plentifully testifies to this; but I must add that, as to the proper nature or essence of it, no mind can apprehend it, no tongue can express it, and none can perfectly understand its glory. A few things may be added to illustrate it.
(1.) This is that by which we have union with Jesus Christ, the head of the church. Originally and efficiently the Holy Spirit dwelling in him and us, is the cause of this union; but formally this new principle of grace is the cause. It is that by which we become “members of his flesh and of his bones,” Eph 5.30. Eve was of Adam — she was one with him, because she had the same nature with him, and that derived from him, which the apostle alludes to. So too, we are of Christ, partakers of the same divine nature with him. Thus, the one who is “joined to the Lord is one spirit,” 1Cor 6.17; that is, he is of one and the same spiritual nature with him, Heb 2.11, 14. How excellent is this grace, which gives us our interest in and continuity unto the body of Christ, and
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Footnotes:
1 Phi 2:13 for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure.
2 Eph 4:23 and be renewed in the spirit of your mind, 24 and that you put on the new man which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness. Col 3:10 and have put on the new man who is renewed in knowledge according to the image of Him who created him;
to his person as our head! It is the same grace in its kind, which is in the holy nature of Christ, and it renders us one with him.
(2.) Our likeness and conformity to God consists in this; for it is the reparation of his image in us, Eph 4.23-24; Col 3.10. I hope that I apprehend something concerning this image of God in believers, and of their likeness to him — how great a privilege it is, what honor, safety, and security depend on it, what duties are required of us on account of it — but to perfectly conceive or express the nature and glory of it, we cannot attain to. Yet we should learn to adore the grace from which it proceeds and is bestowed on us, to admire the love of Christ and the efficacy of his mediation by which it is renewed in us — but the thing itself is ineffable.
(3.) It is our life, our spiritual life, by which we live to God. This life is the foundation and sum of all excellencies; without it, we are dead in trespasses and sins; and it has been declared how we are quickened by the Holy Ghost. But this is the internal principle of life, from which all vital acts in the life of God proceed. And just as we do not well know what the true form and essence of natural life is, and we only find it, discern it, and judge it by its effects, much less do we know the form and essence of spiritual life, which is far more excellent and glorious. This is that life which is “hidden with Christ in God,” Col 3.3; in these words, the apostle draws a veil over it, knowing that we are unable to steadfastly behold its glory and beauty.
But before I proceed to a further description of this principle of holiness in its effects, as laid down before, it may not be amiss practically to recall these general considerations of its nature. And our own concern in this truth, which is no empty notion, will be declared in this. —
First, We may learn from this not to satisfy ourselves, or not to rest, in any acts or duties of obedience, in any good works, however good and useful in themselves, or however multiplied by us, unless there is a vital principle of holiness in our hearts.
A few honest actions, a few useful duties, satisfy some persons that they are as holy as they should be, or as they need to be. And some men’s religion has consisted in multiplying outward duties, so that they might be meritorious for themselves and others. But God expressly rejects not only such duties, but the greatest multitude of them, and their most frequent reiteration, if the heart is not antecedently purified and sanctified, if it is not possessed with the principle of grace and holiness asserted in Isa 1.11-15.1 Such acts and duties may be the effects of other causes, and the fruits of other principles. Mere legal convictions will produce them, and put men on a course to do them. Fears, afflictions, terrors of conscience, dictates of reason, improved by education and confirmed by custom, will direct, and indeed compel, men to observe them. But all is lost — men only labor in the fire about them Hab 2.13 — if the soul is not prepared with this spiritual principle of habitual holiness, worked in it immediately by the Holy Ghost. Yet we must observe these two things here:
(1.) That in so far as these duties, whether of morality or religion, of piety or divine worship, are good in themselves, they ought to be approved, and men ought to be encouraged in them. There are various ways by which the best duties may be abused and misapplied, as when men rest in
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Footnote:
1 Isa 1:11 “To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices to Me?” Says the LORD. “I have had enough of burnt offerings of rams And the fat of fed cattle. I do not delight in the blood of bulls, Or of lambs or goats. 12 “When you come to appear before Me, Who has required this from your hand, To trample My courts? 13 Bring no more futile sacrifices; Incense is an abomination to Me. The New Moons, the Sabbaths, and the calling of assemblies– I cannot endure iniquity and the sacred meeting. 14 Your New Moons and your appointed feasts My soul hates; They are a trouble to Me, I am weary of bearing them. 15 When you spread out your hands, I will hide My eyes from you; Even though you make many prayers, I will not hear. Your hands are full of blood.
them as if they were meritorious, or as if they were the matter of their justification before God. For this is known to be an effectual means to divert the souls of sinners from faith in Christ for life and salvation, Rom 9.31-32, 10.3-4.1 And there are reasons and causes that render them unacceptable before God with respect to the persons by whom they are performed — such as when they are not done in faith, for which Cain’s sacrifice was rejected; and when the heart is not previously sanctified and prepared with a spiritual principle of obedience. Yet on neither of these grounds or pretenses can we, or should we, condemn or undervalue the duties themselves, which are good in their own nature; nor should we take men away from performing them. Indeed, it would be greatly desired if we were to see more of the fruits of moral virtues and duties of religious piety among unsanctified persons than we do. The world is not in a condition to spare the good acts of bad men. But we may do this, and as we are called, we should do this: When men are engaged in a course of duties and good works, on principles that will not abide and endure the trial, or for ends that will spoil and corrupt all that they do, we may tell them (as our Savior told the young man who gave that great account of his diligence in all legal duties), “One thing is still lacking for you;” — “You lack faith, or you lack Christ, or you lack a spiritual principle of evangelical holiness; without this, all that you do will be lost and come to no account at the last day.”
The due assertion of grace never was, nor ever can be, an obstruction to any duty of obedience. However, when some dedicate themselves to those works or actings under the name of “duties” and “obedience to God,” which (although they make a plausible show and appearance in the world) are evil in themselves, or which God does not require of men, we may speak against them, deny them, and take men away from them.
So persecution has been looked on as a “good work.” Men supposed they did God good service when they slayed the disciples of Christ;2 and men gave their goods to “pious uses,” as they were called (indeed, impious abuses), to have others pray for their souls and expiate their sins when they had left this world. These and countless other similar, pretended duties may be judged, condemned, and exploded,3 without the least fear of deterring men from obedience.
(2.) That wherever there is this principle of holiness in the heart of those who are adult, there will be the fruits and effects of it in the life, in all duties of righteousness, godliness, and holiness; for the main work and end of this principle is to enable us to comply with that “grace of God which teaches us to deny all ungodliness and worldly lusts, and to live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world,” Tit 2.11-12. What we press for is the great direction of our Savior, “Make the tree good, and the fruit will be good also.” There can be no more vile and sordid hypocrisy than for anyone to pretend to an inward, habitual sanctification, while their lives are barren in the fruits of righteousness and duties of obedience. Wherever this root is found, it will assuredly bear fruit.
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Footnotes:
1 Rom 9:31 but Israel, pursuing the law of righteousness, has not attained to the law of righteousness. 32 Why? Because they did not seek it by faith, but as it were, by the works of the law. For they stumbled at that stumbling stone. Rom 10:3 For they being ignorant of God’s righteousness, and seeking to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted to the righteousness of God. 4 For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.
2 Joh 16:2 “They will put you out of the synagogues; yes, the time is coming that whoever kills you will think that he offers God service.
3 Decried.
Secondly, It will appear from this why men propose and steer such various courses with respect to holiness. All men who profess themselves to be Christians are agreed, in words at least, that holiness is absolutely necessary for those who would be saved by Jesus Christ. To deny it is the same as openly renouncing the gospel. But when they should come to practice it, some take one false way, some another, and some actually despise and reject it. Now, all this arises from ignorance of the true nature of evangelical holiness on the one hand, and love of sin on the other. There is nothing in which we are spiritually and eternally concerned that is more frequently asserted than the true nature of sanctification and holiness. But the thing itself, as it has been declared, is deep and mysterious; it is not to be understood without the aid of spiritual light in our minds. Hence some would equate moral virtue with holiness; this (they suppose) they can understand by their own reason, and practice in their own strength; and I heartily wish that we could see more of the fruits of it from them.
Real moral virtue will hardly be abused into an opposition to grace; but the pretense of it is so easily, and so commonly abused. Some, on the other hand, place all holiness in superstitious devotions, in the strict observance of religious duties which men, and not God, have appointed. And there is no end of their multiplication of them, nor any measure of the strictness of some in observing them. The reason why men give themselves to such soul-deceiving imaginations is their ignorance and hatred of that only true, real principle of evangelical holiness which we have discussed. For what the world does not know in these things, it always hates. They cannot discern it clearly, or in its own light and evidence; for it must be spiritually discerned. This the natural man cannot do; and in that false light of corrupted reason in which they discern and judge it, they esteem it foolishness or fancy, 1Cor 2.14. There is not a more foolish and fanatical thing in the world, for many, than this internal, habitual holiness which we are considering; hence they are led to despise and hate it. But here the love of sin secretly takes place, and influences their minds. This universal change of the soul in all its principles of operation, into the image and likeness of God, tending to extirpate all sins and vicious habits, is what men fear and abhor. This makes them take up morality and superstitious devotion — anything that will pacify a natural conscience, and please themselves or others with a reputation of religion. It is therefore highly incumbent on all who would not willfully deceive their own souls to their eternal ruin, to inquire diligently into the true nature of evangelical holiness; and above all, to take care that they do not miss the foundation of it, in the true root and principle of it, in which a mistake would be pernicious.
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