Yhe Pro",nife if Sant/i.fication. 157 are the mejfengers of the churches; and the ~lory of Chrifl. And thus our uniting with Chri!l: through the · Spirit, by faith, iffues in our becoming one fpirit, that is of the fame fpiritual holy n!tture with hiJT! ; as really as E1Je was one fldh with At/am, being formed ofhim of his flefh 1 ancl of his bones, Gen. ii. 23. ro which the Apofile alludes in the maxter of the m.yfiical union between Chrift and believers, Eph. v. 30. ' For we are . men];bers of his body, of his fldh, ai.1d_of his bones.' This is the Script"ure·account of the matter; ac· (:ording to which the fanClification of a finner hath a · fpecial relation to Jefus Chrifi, and his Spirit; de- : , pends withal on our relative •Hate in. the. Divine fa– vour ; and fo it is no lefs a myfiery than our juil:ifiGa– tion. A.s the depravation of human nature hath al– ways been fo manifefi, that it could not efcape obfer– vation in the world ; fo, in ·all ages, rrien have beel'l aimi1:1g to difcover and compafs .the cure thereof, in a right ufe they apprehencled they could make oft heir ra• tional fotculties. The i!fue whereof 'hath always been, at bcH, but an outward fh,ew and femblanc,:e offanCl:i-' fication, goipg under the name ofmOrf!l virtue, . naV• . ing no..fpedal relation to jefus Chrifl: and liis iiJdwel– ling Spirit; but, fuch as it is, made the foundation of ·men's relative fiate in the favour of God. And fince the world by their wifdom ~new not God; it is not at -all firangc, the produce of their wifdom, in the mat– ter of fanCl:ification, _or affimulation tp .his image, lies _fo wide o£ the true' fanB:ification,_ acceptable to him, difcovexed in his word. Truly 'tis there only we can learn the myfiery ofthe fanCl:ification ofa finner. And there 'tis revealed, · that that great work is wrought by the Spirit, on the fouls of men in"a fiate of union with Jefus Chrifi, and after believing, Eph. i. I 3· In . whom alfo after that ye believed, ye w~re fealed with that holy Spirit of promife.' .It neceffadly depends on cur union with Chr'ifi, in that we are fatlftified in -Chrifi jel~s, as the.mbers of his body, 1 Cor~ i. 2. · ' ' Created
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