Owen - BX9315 O81

AND SUBJECT OF GOSPEL -HOLINESS. 247 privation of it upon as the mind. This, in particular, is said to be fleshly, to be enmity against God, to be filled with vanity, folly, and blindness, as we have at large before evinced. Nor is there any thing concern- ing which the 'work of sanctification and renovation is so expressly affirmed, as it is concerning the mind. It is declared by the renovation ofour minds, Rom. xii. 2. or being renewed lit the spirit ofour minds, Eph. iv. 23. that we put on thenew man that is renewed in know- ledge, Col. iii. 10. with other expressions of the like nature. It is therefore our entire nature that is the subject of evangelical holiness. For, to manifest in particulars: (1.) Hence it is called the new man, Eph. iv. 24. Put on the new man, which after God is created inright- eousness and trueholiness. As the principle of sin and corrupted nature in us is called the old man, for no o- ther reason, but that it possesseth all the active powers of the whole man, so that he neither doth nor can do .. any thing but what is influenced thereby; so this prin- ciple of holiness in us, the renovation of our natures, is called the new man, because it possesseth the whole person with respect unto its proper operations and ends. And it extends itself as large as the old man, or the depravation of our natures, which takes in the whole person, soul, and body, with all their faculties and powers. (2.) The heart, in the scripture, is taken for the whole soul, and all the faculties of it, as they are one common principle of all moral operations, as I have proved be- fore: whatever therefore is wrought in and upon the heart, under this consideration, is wrought upon the whole soul. Now, this is not only said to be affected with this work of sanctification, or to have holiness wrought in it, but the principal description that is given us of this work, consists in this, that therein, and there- by, a new heart is given unto us, or created in us, as it is expressed in the promise of the covenant. This thereforecan be nothing but the possessing of all the powers and faculties of our souls, with a new principle of holiness and obedience unto God. (3.) There is especial mention made of the effec- ting ofthis work on our souls and bodies, with their powers and faculties distinctly, This I have already proved in the declaration of the work of our regenera- tion or conversion to God, which is- only preserved, 3 Q cherished, improved, and carried on to its proper end in our sanctification. The nature also of that spirit sal lightwhich is communicated tinto our minds, of life unto our wills, of love unto our affections, bath been declared. Therefore doth it follow thence, una- voidably, that the whole person is the subject of this work, and that holiness bath its residence in the whole soul entirely. (4.) We need go no further for the proof hereof than unto that prayer of the apostle for the Thessalonians, which we insisted on at the beginning of this discourse, 1 'Tess. v. 23. The God ofpeace himself sancta you JA:eiAf :r, throughout: that is, in your whole natures or persons, in all that you are and do: that you may not in this or that part, but be every whit clean and holy throughout. And, to make this the more evident, that we may know' what it is, which he prays may be sancti- fied, and thereby preserved blameless to the coming of Christ, he distributes our whole natures into the two es- sential parts of soul and body. And, in the former, he considereth two things: (1.) The spirit. (2.) The soul peculiarly so called. And this distinction frequent- ly occurs in the scripture, wherein that, by the spirit, the mind or intellectual faculty is understood, and by the soul, the affections is generally acknowledged, and may evidently be proved. These therefore the apostle prays may besanctified* and preserved holy throughout and entirely, and that by the infusion of an habit of holiness into them, with its preservation and, improve- ment, whereof more afterwards. But this is not all. Our bodies are an essential part of our natures, and by their union with our souls are we constituted individual persons. Now, weare theprinciples of all our operations, as we are persons; every moral act we do, is the act of the whole person. The body, therefore, is concerned in the good and evil of it. It became a subject of the depravation ofour nature by concomitancy and partici- pation; and is considered as one entire principle with the soul of communicating original defilement frompa- rents unto children. Besides, it is now subject in that corruption of his constitution which it is fallen under as a punishment of sin, unto many disorderly motions that are incentivesand provocations unto sin. Hence sin is * Fieri non potest ut santificato Spirita non sit sanctum edam Coo- pus, quo sanctificatus utitur Spiritus. August. lib, de Bono Viduitat. 29

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