You will say, perhaps, that though you are sinners, and live in daily
commission of sin, and are not sanctified, as I have been speaking, yet
you have faith in Christ, who has borne the curse for you, and in him you
are complete by faith, his righteousness being imputed to you.
But, my friends, let me entreat you not to deceive yourselves, in so
important a point, as is that of your immortal souls. If you have true
faith in Christ, your faith will make you clean; it will sanctify you:
for the saints' faith was their victory of old: by this they overcame sin
within, and sinful man without. And if thou art in Christ, thou walkest
not after the flesh, but after the Spirit, whose fruits are manifest.
Yea, thou art a new creature: new made, new fashioned, after God's will
and mould. Old things are done away, and, behold, all things are become
new: new love, desires, will, affections, and practices. It is not any
longer thou that livest; (thou disobedient, carnal, worldly one;) but it
is Christ that liveth in thee; and to live is Christ, and to die is thy
eternal gain: because thou art assured, that thy corruptible shall put on
incorruption, and thy mortal, immortality, and that thou hast a glorious
house, eternal in the heavens, that will never wax old or pass away.
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