Sanctification

Transcribed from the 1878, (third) Hatchards edition by David Price, email ccx074@pglaf.org
BY THE REV. EDWARD HOARE, M.A. Vicar of Trinity , Tunbridge Wells ; and Hon. Canon of Canterbury .
Third Edition, Enlarged.
LONDON: HATCHARDS, PICCADILLY. 1878.
LONDON: Printed by John Strangeways, Castle St. Leicester Sq.
The following pages contain the substance of some Sermons preached in the course of my parochial ministry, on the subject of Sanctification, and are published at the request of several members of my congregation.
They contain nothing new, and, being parochial sermons, they are not in the form of a systematic treatise. But I hope they exhibit the doctrine of Sanctification as revealed in Scripture, as embodied in the teaching of the Church of England, and as preached by those who are generally termed the Evangelical Clergy.
They are not so much controversial as practical. My desire has not been to discuss new opinions, but to bring out old truths. I shall be truly thankful if this shall prove to have been done; and I commit them to God, with the earnest prayer that He may make them useful, by the power of the Holy Spirit, to those who long for the fulfilment of the prayer of their most blessed Saviour,—‘Sanctify them through Thy truth, Thy Word is truth.’
E. H.
Tunbridge Wells.
‘Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ; Grace unto you, and peace, be multiplied.’—1 Pet. i. 2.
It is one of the encouraging features of the present day that many of the Lord’s people are aiming at a higher standard of Christian holiness than they have ever yet known, and are looking to the great grace of their most blessed Saviour to raise them by His Spirit above the various hindrances which have hitherto impeded their progress. They desire that there should be no impediment in the service of their blessed Saviour. In their worship they would draw very near to Him, and in their life they would glorify His name. But yet, when they seek to do so, and when they fairly look at God’s character, God’s claims, God’s will, and God’s glory, they find reason to be humbled to the dust; and the more they realize His infinite mercy in Christ Jesus, the more they learn of the magnitude and multitude of their own shortcomings. Thus it sometimes comes to pass that in many true believers their greatest discouragements are intimately connected with their efforts after holiness, and many of their doubts and difficulties arise from their real desire for true sanctification. The more that they aim at the holiness of God, the more they feel their sin, and the more earnestly that they strive to rise, the more keenly do they feel the pain and humiliation of the ruin of their fallen nature. It is important therefore for those who desire holiness to look carefully into the teaching of Scripture on the great subject of Sanctification; to examine what is really promised, and to learn what the Word of God teaches us to expect. Does it, or does it not, make provision for such difficulties? And if it does, what is the provision? These are some of the questions which I desire now to consider, and I hope it may please God to fulfil to both writer and reader the prayer of the Apostle: ‘The very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.’