Sanctification

Of Archbishop Usher  it is related that a friend urged him to write his thoughts on sanctification , which he engaged to do ; but when the performance of his engagement was claimed , he replied to the effect : "I have not written , and yet I cannot charge myself with a breach of promise ; for I began to write , but when I came to treat of the new creature which God formeth by His Spirit in the regenerate soul , I found so little of it wrought in myself that I could speak of it only as parrots , or by rote , without the knowledge of what I might have expressed ; and therefore I durst not presume to proceed any further upon it ." His friend being amazed at such a confession from so eminently holy a person , he added " I must tell you what sanctification and the new creature are . It is no less than for a man to be brought to an entire resignation of his will to the will of God , and to live in the offering up of his soul continually in the flames of love , and as a whole burnt - offering to Christ ; and O! how many who profess Christianity are unacquainted  experimentally with this great work upon their souls ."

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