The Gospel Mystery of Sanctification

THE Author of these Directions was well known to me, and was with me in my House a Month together, above twenty years past, and I esteem him a Person deserving the Character which this Preface giveth him.

T. Woodcock.

That we may acceptably perform the Duties of Holiness and Righteonsness required in the Law, our first Work is to learn the powerful and effectual Means whereby we may attain to so Great an End.

THIS Direction may serve instead of a Preface, to prepare the Understanding and Attention of the Reader for those that follow: And First, It acquainteth you with the Great End for which all those Means are designed, that are the principal Subject to be here treated of: the Scope of all is, To teach you how you may attain to that Practice and Manner of Life, which we call Holiness, Righteousness, or Godliness, Obedience, True Religion; and which God requireth of us in the Law, particularly in the Moral Law, [Exod. 20.] summed up in the Ten Commandments, and more briefly in those Two great Commandments, of Love to God and our Neighbour, Mat. 22.37, 39. and more largely explained throughout the Holy Scriptures. My work is to shew how the Duties of this Law may be done, when they are known: therefore, expect not that I should delay my intent to help you to the knowledge of them, by any large Exposition p. 2of them; which is a Work already performed in several Catechisms and Commentaries: yet, that you may not miss the Mark for want of discerning of it, take notice, in few words, that the Holiness which I would bring you to, is spiritual, Rom. 7.14. It consists not only in external Works of Piety and Charity, but in the Holy Thoughts, Imaginations, and Affections of the Soul, and chiefly in Love, from whence all other Good Works must flow, or else they are not acceptable to God: not only in refraining the execution of sinful Lusts, but in lusting and delighting to do the Will of God, and in a chearful Obedience to God, without repining, fretting, grudging at any Duty, as if it were a grievous Yoak and Burthen to you.

Take Notice further, That the Law, which is your Mark, is exceeding broad, Psal. 119.96. and yet not the more easie to be hit, because you must aim to hit it in every Duty of it, with a performance of equal breadth, or else you cannot hit it all, Isai. 2.10. The Lord is not at all loved with that Love that is due to him as Lord of all, if he be not loved with all our Heart, Spirit, and Might. We are to love every thing in him, his Justice, Holiness, Sovereign Authority, All-seeing Eye, and all his Decrees, Commands, Judgments, and all his Doings. We are to love him not only better than other things, but singly, as Only Good, the Fountain of all Goodness; and to reject all fleshly and worldly Enjoyments, even our own Lives, as if we hated them, when they stand in competition with our Enjoyment of him, or our Duty toward him. We must love him as to yield ourselves wholly up to his constant Service in all p. 3things, and to his disposal of us as our absolute Lord, whether it be for Prosperity or Adversity, Life or Death: and for his sake we are to love our Neighbour, even all Men, whether they be Friends or Foes to us, and so do to them in all things that concern their Honour, Life, Chastity, Worldly Wealth, Credit, and Content, whatever we would that Men should do to us in the like Condition, Mat. 7.12. This Spiritual Universal Obedience is the Great End, to the attainment whereof I am directing you. And that you may not reject mine Enterprize as impossible, observe that the most I promise, is no more than an acceptable performance of these Duties of the Law, such as our gracious merciful God will certainly delight in, and be pleas'd with, during our State of Imperfection in this World, and such as will end in Perfection of Holiness, and all Happiness in the World to come.

p. 3Before I proceed further, stay your thoughts a while, in the contemplation of the great Dignity and Excellency of these Duties of the Law, that you may aim at the performance of them as your End, with so high an esteem as may cast an amiable luster upon the ensuing discovery of the Means. The principal Duties of Love to God above all, and to each other for his sake, from whence all the other Duties flow, are so excellent, that I cannot imagine any more Noble Work for the Holy Angels in their glorious Sphere: They are the chief Works for which we were at first framed by the Image of God, engraven upon Man in the first Creation, and for which that beautiful Image is renewed upon us in our New Creation and Sanctification by Jesus Christ, and shall be perfected p. 4in our Glorification. They are Works which depend not meerly on the Sovereignty of the Will of God, to be commanded or forbidden, or left indifferent, or changed, or abolished at his pleasure, as other Works that belong either to the Judicial or Ceremonial Law, or to the means of Salvation prescribed by the Gospel; but they are in their own Nature holy, just, and good, Rom. 7.12. and meet for us to perform, because of our natural relation to our Creator and Fellow-Creatures; so that they have an inseparable dependance upon the Holiness of the Will of God, and an indispensable Establishment thereby. …