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<p>The Holy Spirit undertakes to <strong>sanctify</strong> the objects<br />
          of the Father's eternal choice, and of the Son's<br />
          redeeming death. <br />
          <strong><br />
            Sanctification is as needful, as indispensable <br />
            for the Church's salvation, as redemption!<br />
            </strong><br />
          For O! how low was the Church sunk in the Adam fall! The <br />
          image of God, in which she was created—how defaced and <br />
          as if blotted out! <strong>Death</strong> spreading itself with fatal effect <br />
          over her every mental and bodily faculty! <strong>Sin</strong>, like a hideous <br />
          leprosy, infecting her to the very heart's core! A thousand <br />
          <strong>base lusts </strong>plunging her deeper and deeper into a sea of <br />
          guilt and crime! <strong>Enmity against God</strong> boiling up in waves <br />
          of ceaseless rebellion! <strong>Satan</strong> tyrannizing over her with <br />
          cruel sway, sometimes drawing and sometimes driving, <br />
          but by one or the other dragging her without hope or <br />
          help towards the brink of the bottomless pit!<br />
          <br />
          Hear that bold blasphemer!<br />
          <br />
          See that drunken, raving prostitute!<br />
          <br />
          Look at that murderer with his blood-red hand <br />
          stealing off from his mangled victim!<br />
          <br />
          Or, if you shrink from such sounds and such sights, picture <br />
          to your imagination the vilest wretch who ever disgraced <br />
          human nature—and you see in that portrait the features of <br />
          the Church as implicated in the Adam fall—and sunk into <br />
          original and actual transgression!<br />
          <br />
          What a work, then, was undertaken by that most gracious <br />
          and condescending Spirit, who solemnly pledged Himself, <br />
          in the eternal covenant, <strong>to sanctify such wretches</strong>, and <br />
          to fit and frame them to be partakers of holiness, and <br />
          live forever in God's spotless presence!<br />
          <br />
          It were easier for the wolf to dwell with the lamb, and <br />
          the leopard to lie down with the sheep—than for ungodly <br />
          sinners, unwashed, unregenerated, unsanctified, to dwell <br />
          forever before the throne of God and of the Lamb!<br />
          <br />
          <strong>But O, the wonders of wisdom, grace, and love!</strong><p>Sinners, the vilest sinners, the worst of wretches, the <br />
          basest of mortals—can and will enter through the gates <br />
          into the holy city!<br />
          <br />
          Paul, having enumerated some of the vilest crimes which <br />
          stain human nature and sink it below the beasts that perish, <br />
          says, &quot;And <strong>that is what some of you were!</strong> But you were <br />
          <strong>washed</strong>, you were <strong>sanctified</strong>, you were <strong>justified </strong>in  the <br />
          name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.&quot; <br />
          1 Corinthians 6:11<br />
          <br />
          To be washed and sanctified is as needful, as indispensable <br />
          as to be justified.<br />
          <br />
          
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