So likewise their Sanctification is but for a moment, they come at last some of them to tread underfoot the Blood of the Covenant wherewith they were sanctified, Hebrews 10:29. For, Christ was but a conditional Redeemer unto them: they had only gifts of Tongues, and utterance, and wisdom, and discerning of Spirits, and a common Faith: which things are not that Sanctification which is a fruit of Saving Faith; but only such gifts as do sanctify them unto the work of the Ministry perhaps, or Magistracy, and fit them for household government, or the like: and so much positive work there is in them, as doth make them in some measure fit for the work, or service which they are called unto. For a little more explaining of this:
Question: Is it the same with that Sanctification which is in God’s children?
Answer: God forbid. All the men in the world are divided into two Ranks: Godly, or Ungodly; Righteous or Wicked: of Wicked men, two sorts; some are notoriously wicked, others are Hypocrites: of Hypocrites two sorts (and you shall find them in the Church of God) some are washed Swine, others are Goats.
1. The Swine are those of whom our Saviour Christ saith, that they return unto their wallowing in the mire: like unto these are such men, as at the hearing of some Sermon have been stomach-sick of their sins, and have rejected their wicked courses, but yet the Swine’s heart remaineth in them; and as a Swine, when he cometh where the puddle is, will readily lie down in it; so will these men wallow in the puddle of uncleanness, when their Conscience is not pricked for the present: but these are a grosser kind of Hypocrites.
2. There is another sort that go far beyond these, and those are Goats, so called, Matthew 25:32,33, and these are clean beasts, such as chew the cud, meditate upon Ordinances; and they divide the hoof; they live both in a general, and particular calling, and will not be idle: they are also fit for Sacrifice: what then is wanting? Truly they are not sheep all this while, they are but Goats; yet a Goat doth loath that which a Swine will readily break into: but where then do they fall short of the nature of Sheep? A difference there is, which standeth principally in these particulars.
1. The Goat is of a capricious Nature, and affecteth eminency; his gait also is stately, Proverbs 30:31. Agur reckoneth the He-Goat among the four things that are comely in going.
2. And they are full of Ambition; they cannot abide swamps, and holes, but will be climbing upon the tops of Mountains; there is not that plain, lowly, sheep-like frame, that attendeth unto the voice of the shepherd to be led up and down into fresh Pastures: they attend upon their own ends, and will outshoot God in his own bow, and therefore when they have done many things for Christ, he will say unto them, Depart from me ye workers of iniquity: more eminency they did affect, than they were guided unto; Thus it was with Jehu, who in his zeal for God, thought to promote himself; and herein he will not be persuaded of his sin, and therefore walking along in crooked ways, the Lord led him forth with evil doers; he cometh at length to cleave unto the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who made Israel to sin: notwithstanding you may receive a Goat into Church-fellowship for all his capricious Nature, and he will be a clean creature, and of much good use: the five foolish, (Matthew 25:2) were all of them Virgins, all of them abhorring Idolatry, and all go forth to meet the Bridegroom: and yet they are foolish, and never shall you make them wise, to be all for Christ, in him, and from him, only hearing and obeying his voice.
3. They are of a rankish nature all of them, specially the old Goats will have an unsavoury relish, far from the pleasant sweetness that is in a sheep; and herein Hypocrites are greatly different from the sheep of Christ; and many times also they do push with the shoulder the poor sheep of Christ, as the Prophet speaketh, Ezekiel 34:21, And they mar the Pastures with their feet, and will be at length mudling the fair waters of the Sanctuary also: And in their best sanctification they fall far short of a sheep-like frame of spirit, diligently to hear the voice of the shepherd; this will not be found in the sanctification of the best hypocrite under heaven; they may go far, and yet at length fall away: this is no Arminianism, but if you search the Scriptures diligently, you will find these things to be true. But such instances deceive the Arminians.
Difference 4: There is a fourth Difference between the Covenant of Works and of Grace; in respect of the Mediator, Galatians 3:19, The Law was given and ordained by Angels in the hand of a Mediator; Moses was a Mediator according to their Works; and this our Saviour telleth the Jews, John 5:45, You have one that accuseth you, even Moses in whom ye trust: and as for Jesus Christ, if he be given to be their Redeemer, it is but according to their Works, if they shall obey his voice: but if they shall sin against him, he will overthrow them body and soul into the nethermost Hell. But now in the Covenant of Grace, Jesus Christ hath obtained a more excellent Ministry, to be the Mediator of a better Covenant, stablished upon better Promises, Hebrews 8:6. Thus we see in this first use the difference between the Covenant of Works and the Covenant of Grace.
Use 2: I might (in the second place) from hence also gather an Argument against the whole Body of Arminianism; for they look at no gift of God, but merely upon the Faith, or Works of the creature foreseen: If you speak of Election, they tell you it is of Faith foreseen; if of Glory, it is upon condition of perseverance: but we see how contrary it is unto this truth of God; for he giveth himself first, before he giveth any thing else accompanying salvation: he gave us Christ in his eternal Counsel, before Election; and so doth he also in our Effectual calling; not Faith before Christ, to enable us to choose whether we will have him, or not have him: but he is God, and first giveth himself, and with himself, Faith, and so worketh our wills unto himself, not otherwise, leaving it to us to choose whether we will have him to be our God or no. Many things in Popery and Arminianism, come to be confuted from hence; for in truth they hold forth no more but a Covenant of Works: and if we will not grant Faith and good Works to be the cause of all the blessed gifts of God, they will take it marvellously unkindly; but they were as good deliver unto us another Gospel.
