"There are celestial bodies, and there are bodies terrestrial; but the
glory of the celestial is one, and the glory of the terrestrial is
another. So also is the resurrection of the dead: It is sown a natural
body, it is raised a spiritual body: there is a natural body, and there
is a spiritual body. Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood
cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit
incorruption." Here we rest our belief in this mystery, without desiring
to pry into it beyond what is revealed to us; remembering "that secret
things belong unto the Lord our God; but those things which are
revealed, belong unto us and to our children."
The Quakers make but little difference, and not such as many other
Christians do, between sanctification and justification. "Faith and
works, says Richard Claridge, are both concerned in our complete
justification."--"Whosoever is justified, he is also in measure
sanctified; and as far as he is sanctified, so far is he justified, and
no farther. But the justification I now speak of, is the making of us
just or righteous by the continual help, work, and operation of the Holy
Spirit."--"And as we wait for the continual help and assistance of his
Holy Spirit, and come to witness the effectual working of the same in
ourselves, so we shall experimentally find, that our justification is
proportionable to our sanctification; for as our sanctification goes
forward, which is always commensurate to our faithful obedience to the
manifestation, influence, and assistance, of the grace, light, and
spirit of Christ, so shall we also feel and perceive the progress of our
justification.
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