[From _The Knowledge of God Subjectively Considered_ (New York,
1859)]
The completeness of the Plan of Salvation seems to be absolute. The
adaptedness of all its parts to each other, and to their own special
end--and the adaptedness of the whole and of every part, to the great
end of all, the eradication of sin and misery; exhibits a subject, the
greatest, the most intricate, and the most remote of all in a manner so
precise and clear; that the sacred Scriptures, even if they had no grace
and no mercy to offer to us personally, might justly challenge the very
highest place as the most stupendous monument of sublime and successful
thought. What then ought we to think of them, when all this glorious
intelligence is merely tributary to our salvation? The end of this
infinite completeness, only to pour into our polluted and thoughtless
hearts, inexhaustible supplies of grace--that we may be extricated from
a condition utterly hopeless without that grace ... and be brought to a
condition unspeakably blessed to us and glorious to God? Yet this is the
overwhelming conclusion to which every just consideration of them
forces us to come; the conclusion to which the imperfect disclosure
which has now been attempted, of a single point in this divine system,
wholly compels us. In this deep conviction, therefore, and as the
conclusion of all that has now been advanced, I venture to define, that
Sanctification is a benefit of the Covenant of Redemption--being a work
of grace, on the part of the triune God, wherein the elect who have been
Effectually Called, Regenerated, Justified, and Adopted, are, through
the virtue of the death and resurrection of Christ, by the indwelling of
the Word and Spirit, through the use of the divine ordinances, and by
the power of God with them, enabled more and more to die unto sin, to be
renewed in the spirit of their mind, and to live unto righteousness, in
an increasing conformity to the image of God, to his great Glory, and
their growth in holiness.