244 BELIEVERS THE ONLY OBJECT Or SANCTIFICATION, (3.) Faith is the instrumental cause of our sanctifica- tion, so that where it is not, no holiness can be wrought in us. Godpureth our hearts by faith, Acts xv. 9. and not otherwise. And where the heart is not purified there is no holiness. All the duties in the world will not denominate him holy, whose heart is not purified; nor will any such duties be holy themselves, seeing unto the unclean all things are unclean. All the obedience that isaccepted with God is the obedience of faith, Rom. i. 7. thence it springs, and therewith it is animated. So it is expressed, 1 Peter i. 21, 22. You who by Christ do believe in God, andhavepurifiedyoursouls in obeying the truth through theSpirit.. It is from faith in God through Jesus Christ, acting itself in obedience unto the gospel, that we purify or cleanse our souls, which is our sanctification, Col. ii. 12, 13, 14. chap. iii. 7, 8, 9, 10, 11. (4.) All grace is originally entrusted in and with Je- sus Christ. The image of God being lost in Adam, whatever was prepared or is used for the renovation of it in our natures and persons, wherein gospel- holiness loth consist, was to be treasured up in him as the se- cond Adam, by whom many are to be made alive, who died in the first. It pleased the Father, that in him all fulness should dwell, as the fulness of the Godhead in and for his own divine personal subsistence, so the ful- ness of all grace for supplies unto us; that of hisfulness tee might receive gracefor grace. He is made the head unto the whole new creation, not only of power and rule, but of life and influence. God bath given him for a covenant to the people, and communicatesnothing that belongs properly to the covenant of grace, as our sanctification and holiness do, unto any but in and through bim. Andwe receive nothingby him but byvir- tue of relation unto him, or especial interest in him, or union with him. Where there is an especial communi- cation, there must be an especial relation whereon it Goth depend, and whence it doth proceed. As the re- lation of the members unto the head is the cause and means why vital spirits are thence derived unto them. We most be in Christ as the branch is in the vine, or we can derive nothing from him. John xv. 4. As the branch cannot bear fruit ofitself, except it abide in the vine, no more can ye, exceptye abide in me. Whatever any way belongeth unto holiness is our fruit, and noth- ing else is fruit but what belongeth thereunto. Now, this our Saviour affirms that we can bring forth nothing of, unless we are in him, and dc abide in him. Now, our being in Christ, and, abiding in him, is by faith; without which we can derive nothing from him, and consequently never be partakers of holiness in the least degree. But-these things must be afterwards spoken unto . more at large. It is therefore undeniably evident, that believers only are sanctified and holy, all others are un- clean, nor is any thing they do holy, or so esteemed of God. Sect. 6. And the due consideration hereof disco- vers many pernicious mistakes that are about this mat- ter, both notional and practical: For, (1.) There are some who would carryholiness beyond the bounds of an especial relation unto Christ; or would carry that rela tion beyond the only bond of it, which is faith: For they would have it to be no more than moral honesty or virtue, and so cannot, with any modesty, deny it un- to those heathens, who endeavoured, after them, ac- cording to the light of nature. And what need then is there of Jesus Christ? I can and do commend moral vir- tues and honesty as much as any man ought to do, and am sure enough there is no grace where they are not; yet, to make any thing to be our holiness that is not de- rived from Jesus Christ, I know not what 1 do more e abhor. An imagination hereofdethrones Christ from his glory, and overthrows the whole gospel. But we have a sort of men, who plead that heathens may be eternally saved, so large and indulgent is their charity, and, in the mean time, endeavour by all means possible, to destroy, temporally, at least, all those Christians who stoop not to a compliance with all their imagina-, tions. 2.) Others there are who proceedmuch further, and yet do but deceive themselves in the issue. Notions they have of good and evil by the light of nature. As they come with men into the world, and grow,up with them as they come to the exercise of their reason, so they are not stifled without offering violence to the prin- ciples ofnature by the power of sin; its it comes to pass in many, Eph. iv. 19. 1 Tim. iv. 2. Rom. i. 31. chap. ii. 14, 15. Thesenotions therefore are in many im- proved in process of time by convictionsfrom the law; and great effects are produced hereby. For, where the soul is once effectually convinced of sin, righteousness, and judgment, it cannot but endeavour after a deliver- ance from the one, and an attainment of theother, that
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