2. The Meaning of Sanctification - Enter His Rest
2. The Meaning of Sanctification - Enter His Rest
2. The Meaning of Sanctification - Enter His Rest
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THE MEANING OF SANCTIFICATION<br />
By Charles Ewing Brown<br />
Associate Pr<strong>of</strong>essor <strong>of</strong> <strong>The</strong>ology<br />
Anderson College and <strong>The</strong>ological Seminary<br />
THE WARNER PRESS<br />
Anderson Indiana Copyright 1945<br />
By Gospel Trumpet Company<br />
Fourth Printing 1954<br />
Printed in United States <strong>of</strong> America<br />
Miserable thou art, wheresoever thou be, or whithersoever thou turnest, unless thou turn thyself unto<br />
God. Why art thou troubled when things succeed not as thou wouldest or desirest? For who is he that<br />
hath all things according to his mind? Neither I nor thou, nor any man upon earth.<br />
<strong>The</strong>re is none in this world, even though he be king or bishop, without some tribulation or perplexity.<br />
Who is then in the best case [or condition]? even he who is able to suffer something for God.<br />
Thomas a’Kempis, in <strong>The</strong> Imitation <strong>of</strong> Christ (Fifteenth Century) —<br />
For as you excel all men in intelligence, you know that those whose life is directed towards God as its<br />
rule, so that each one among us may be blameless and irreproachable before Him, will not entertain<br />
even the thought <strong>of</strong> the slightest sin. For if we believed that we should live only the present life, then<br />
we might be suspected <strong>of</strong> sinning, through being enslaved to flesh and blood, or overmastered by gain<br />
or carnal desire.<br />
Athenagoras, in A Plea for the Christians (Second Century) —<br />
As for those who are persuaded that nothing will escape the scrutiny <strong>of</strong> God, but that even the body<br />
which has ministered to the irrational impulses <strong>of</strong> the soul, and to its desires, will be punished along<br />
with it, it is not likely that they will commit even the smallest sin.<br />
Athenagoras, in A Plea for the Christians (Second Century) —<br />
And when the people transgressed the law which had been given to them by God, God being good<br />
and pitiful, unwilling to destroy them, in addition to <strong>His</strong> giving them the law, afterwards sent forth<br />
also prophets to them from among their brethren, to teach and remind them <strong>of</strong> the contents <strong>of</strong> the law,<br />
and to turn them to repentance, that they might sin no more.<br />
<strong>The</strong>ophilus to Autolycus (Second Century) —<br />
Still, alas! <strong>The</strong> old Man doth live in me, he is not wholly crucified, is not perfectly dead.<br />
Still doth he mightily strive against the Spirit, and stirreth up inward wars, and suffereth not the<br />
kingdom <strong>of</strong> my soul to be in peace.<br />
For the love <strong>of</strong> God thou oughtest cheerfully to undergo all things, that is to say, all labor, grief,<br />
temptation, vexation, anxiety, necessity, infirmity, injury, detraction, repro<strong>of</strong>, humiliation, shame,<br />
correction, and contempt [<strong>of</strong> every kind and degree].<br />
Thomas a’Kempis, in <strong>The</strong> Imitation <strong>of</strong> Christ (Fifteenth Century) —<br />
<strong>The</strong>re is need <strong>of</strong> thy grace [O Lord], and <strong>of</strong> great degrees there<strong>of</strong>, that nature may be overcome,<br />
which is ever prone to evil from her youth.<br />
For through Adam the first man, nature being fallen and corrupted by sin the penalty <strong>of</strong> this stain<br />
hath descended upon all mankind, in such sort, that “nature” itself, which by thee was created good<br />
and upright, is now taken for the sin and infirmity <strong>of</strong> corrupted nature; because the inclination<br />
there<strong>of</strong> left unto itself draweth to evil and to inferior things.<br />
Thomas a’Kempis, in <strong>The</strong> Imitation <strong>of</strong> Christ (Fifteenth Century) —<br />
Ah! fool, why dost thou think to live long, when thou canst not promise to thyself one day? How many<br />
have been deceived and suddenly snatched away! How <strong>of</strong>ten dost thou hear these reports: Such a