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[sanctificationis] of holiness. The External Instrument is the word of God; the Internal one is faith yielded to the word preached: For the word does not sanctify, only as it is preached, unless the faith be added by which the hearts of men are purified.

VII. The Object of sanctification is man, a sinner, and yet a believer: A sinner, because, being contaminated through sin and addicted to a life of sin, he is [ineptus] unfit to serve the living God. A believer, because he is united to Christ through faith in him, on whom our holiness is founded; and he is planted together with Christ and joined to Him in a conformity with his death and resurrection: Hence he dies to sin, and is excited or raised up to a new life.

VIII. The Subject is, properly, the soul of man: And, First, the mind, which is illuminated, the dark clouds of ignorance being driven away: Next, [affectus] the inclination or the will, by which it is delivered from the dominion of indwelling sin, and [perfunditur] is filled with the Spirit of holiness. The body is not changed, either as to its essence or its inward qualities: But as it is a part of the man who is consecrated to God, and is an instrument united to the soul, having been removed by the sanctified soul which inhabits it from [usibus] the purposes of sin, it is admitted to and employed in the service of God; "that our whole spirit and soul and body may be preserved blameless unto the day of our Lord Jesus Christ."

IX. The Form lies in the purification from sin, and in a conformity with God in the body of Christ through his Spirit.

X. The End is, that a believing man, being consecrated to God as a Priest and King, should serve Him in newness of life, to the glory of his divine name, and to the salvation of man.

XI. As, under the Old Testament, the priests, when approaching to render worship to God, were accustomed to be sprinkled with blood; so likewise the blood of Jesus Christ, which is the blood of the New Testament, serves for this purpose, to sprinkle us, who are constituted by Him as Priests, to serve the living God. In this respect, the sprinkling of the blood of Christ, which principally serves for the expiation of sins, and which is the cause of justification, belongs also to sanctification: For [illic] in justification, this sprinkling serves to wash away sins that have been committed; but in sanctification, it serves to sanctify men who have obtained remission of their sins, that they may further be enabled to offer worship and sacrifices to God through Christ.

XII. This sanctification is not completed in a single moment; but sin, from whose dominion we have been delivered through

the cross and the death of Christ, is weakened more and more by daily [detrimenta] losses, and the inner man is day by day renewed more and more, while we carry about with us in our bodies the death of Christ, and the outward man [corrumpitur] is perishing.

COROLLARY.

We permit this question to be made the subject of discussion: Does the death of the body bring the perfection and completion of sanctification; and how is this effect produced?

DISPUTATION L.

ON THE CHURCH OF GOD AND OF CHRIST: OR ON THE CHURCH IN GENERAL AFTER THE FALL.

I. AS THROUGH faith, which is the first part of our duty towards God and Christ, we have obtained the blessings of justification and sanctification, from our union and communion with Christ; by which benefits we are, from children of wrath and the slaves of sin, not only constituted the children of God and the servants of righteousness, on which account it is fit that we should render obedience and worship to our Parent and our Lord; and as we have likewise obtained power and [fiduciam] confidence for the performance of such obedience and worship; it would follow that we should now treat on obedience and worship as on another part of our duty.

II. But as there are multitudes of those who have, through these benefits, been made the sons and the servants of God, and who have been united among themselves by the same faith and the Spirit of Christ, as members in one body, which is called the church, and of which the Scriptures make frequent mention; it appears to be the most proper course, to treat, FIRST, upon this Church, because as she derives her origin from this faith, she comprehends within her embraces all those to whom the performance of worship to God and Christ is to be prescribed.

III. And as it has pleased God to institute certain signs by which may be sealed or testified,-both the communion of believers with Christ and among themselves, and a participation of these benefits, --and, on the other hand, their service of gratitude towards God and Christ; we shall deem it proper, NEXT, to treat upon these signs or tokens, before we proceed to the worship itself which is due to God and Christ. FIRST, then, let us consider the church. IV. This word, in its general acceptation, denotes [cœtum] a

company or congregation of men who are called out; and not -only the act and the command of Him who calls them out, but likewise the obedient compliance of those who answer the call: So that the result or effect of that act is included in the word "church."

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V. But it is thus defined: A company of persons called out from a state [animalis] of natural life and of sin, by God and Christ through the Spirit of both, to a supernatural life to be spent according to God and Christ in the knowledge and worship of both; that, by a participation with both, they may be eternally blessed, to the glory of God through Christ, and of Christ in God.

VI. The Efficient Cause of this evocation, or calling out, is God the Father in his Son Jesus Christ, and Christ himself through the Spirit both of the Father, and of the Son as He is Mediator and the Head of the church, sanctifying and regenerating her to a new life. The Impulsive Cause is the gracious good-pleasure of God the Father in Christ, and the love of Christ towards those whom He has acquired for himself by his own

blood.

VII. The Executive Cause of this gracious good-pleasure of God in Christ, which may also in this respect, according to [dispensationem] its distribution, be called "the Administrative Cause," is the Spirit of God and of Christ by the word of both; by which He requires outwardly a life according to God and Christ, with the addition of the promise of a reward and the threatening of a punishment; and He inwardly illuminates the mind to a knowledge of this life, [afficit] imparts to us the feelings of love and desire for this life, and bestows on the whole man strength and power to live such a life.

VIII. The Matter about which it is occupied], or the Object of the vocation, are [animales] natural and sinful men, who indeed according to nature are capable of receiving instruction from the Spirit through the word; but who are, according to the life of the present world and the state of sin, darkened in their minds and alienated from the life of God. This state requires that the beginning of preaching be made from preaching the law as it [arguit] reproves sin and convinces of sin, and thus that progress be made to the preaching of the Gospel of grace.

IX. The Form of the church resides in the mutual relation of God and Christ who calls, and of the church who obeys that call; according to which, God in Christ, by the Spirit of both, [influit] infuses into her supernatural life, [sensum] feeling or sensation, and motion; and she, on the other hand, being quickened and

under the influence of feeling and motion, begins to live and to walk according to godliness, and in expectation of the blessings promised.

X. The End of this evocation, which also contains the chief good of the church, is blessedness perfected and consummated through a union with God in Christ. From this results the glory of God, who unites the church to himself and beatifies her; which glory is declared in the very act of union and beatification: Also the glory of the same blessed God, when the church [canitur] in her triumphant songs ascribes to Him praise, honour and glory for ever and ever.

XI. From the act of this evocation and from the form of the church arising out of it, it appears that a distinction must be made among the men or congregation, as they are men,-and as they are called out and obey the call: And they must be so distinguished, that the company to whom the name of “the church" [aliquando] at any time belonged, may so decline from that obedience as to lose the name of "the church," God " removing their candlestick out of its place," and sending a bill of divorce to his disobedient and adulterous wife. Hence it is evident, that the glorying of the Papists is vain on this point,-that the Church of Rome cannot err and fall away.

DISPUTATION LI.

ON THE CHURCH OF THE OLD TESTAMENT, or UNDER THE

PROMISE.

I. As Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever, -as He is [imus] the chief or deepest corner-stone, upon which the superstructure of the church is raised, being built up both by Prophets and Apostles,-and as He is the Head of all those who will be partakers of salvation;-the whole church therefore may in this sense be called "Christian," though under this appellation peculiarly comes the church as she began to be collected together after the actual ascent of Christ into heaven.

II. But though the church be one with respect to its foundation, and of those things which concern the substance itself; yet, because it has pleased God [administrare] to govern it according to different methods, in reference to this the church may in the most suitable manner be distinguished into the church which existed in the times of the Old Testament before Christ, and into that which flourished in the times of the New Testament and after [exhibitum] Christ appeared on earth.

III. "The church prior to the advent of Christ under the dispensation of the Old Testament," is that which was called out, (by the word of promise concerning the seed of the woman and the seed of Abraham, and concerning the Messiah who was subsequently to come,) from the state of sin and misery, to a participation of the righteousness of faith and salvation, and to the faith placed in that promise; and by the word of the law, to render worship to God in confidence of obtaining mercy in this Blessed Seed and the promised Messiah, [convenienter] in a manner suitable to the infantile age of the church herself.

IV. The word of promise was propounded, in the beginning, in a very general manner and with much obscurity, but in succeeding ages more specially and with greater distinctness; and still more so, as the times of the advent of the Messiah in the flesh drew nearer.

V. The law which [serviit] contributed to this calling, was both the moral and the ceremonial; (for, in this place, the forensic does not come under consideration;) and both of them as delivered [viva voce] orally, and as comprised and proposed in writing by Moses; in which last respect, the law is principally treated upon in the Scriptures of the Old and the New Testament.

VI. The moral law serves this office in a two-fold manner: FIRST. By demonstrating the necessity of the gracious promise, which it does by convincing [men] of sins against the law, and of the weakness [of man] to perform the law. To this purpose it has been rigidly and strictly propounded; and it is considered as so proposed, according to these passages, "The man that doeth them shall live in them;" and, " Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the Law to do them."-SECONDLY. By, ewieixws, moderately, or with clemency, requiring the observance of it from those who were parties to the covenant of promise.

VII. Though the observance of the ceremonial law be not, of itself and on account of itself, pleasing to God; yet the observance of it was prescribed for two purposes: (1.) That it might convince of the guilt of sins and of the curse, and might thus declare the necessity of the gracious promise. (2.) And that [contineret] it might sustain believers by the hope of the promise, which hope was confirmed by the typical presignification of future things. In the former of these two respects, the ceremonial law was [signaculum] the seal of sins; but in the latter, it was the seal of grace and remission.

VIII. The church of those times must therefore be considered,

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