The work of the Holy Spirit - pagina 536

— ;

XV. Good Works. " For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that

we

Ephes.

Good works are the ripe fruit from the

should walk in them."

ii.

tree

lo.

which God has planted

in sanctificatio7i.

from that

workings proceed and Hence good works are not added to sanctification for mere effect, but belong to it. The discussion of sanctification is not complete without the discussion of Good In the saint there

is life

;

those workings are either good or

life

;

evil.

Works.

Whatever man may be, works always proceed from him and works are never neutral, but either conform or do not conform ;

since

to the divine law, it follows that

every man's works are either good

or evil, actual sins {peccata actualia) or good works.

own

In fact, every

Without it it is no life. Properly speaking, life in the saint does not proceed from sanctification, but sanctification lends it tone, color, and character. In a garden where the conditions are all equal, and there is the has

life

same

its

soil,

the

energizing.

same

fertilizer, etc., different fruit-trees are planted.

Evidently, the working that for

if

makes the

trees

grow

planted in the garret, they will not grow.

is from the soil But the cause that

produces peaches on one tree and grapes on another soil,

but in the trees.

Hence we must distinguish

the

is

not in the

working

itself

from the shade, the tone, the character, the peculiar property which that working assumes. The wind that produces sweetest music from the Eolian harp, by blowing through a broken window-pane produces doleful sounds. It is one operation but different effects. In the meadow next to the tender clover grows the poisonous wolf'smilk. Yet both lift their little heads from the same soil and drink in the same air, sunlight, and rain. Altho the vital energy is the

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