The Gospel Mystery of Sanctification

Walter Marshall (1628-1680) explains that sanctification, like justification, is a gracious gift of God and is not the result of human effort. Rather than sanctification being produced by our works, our works are the fruit of God's work of sanctification in us. "We must first receive the comforts of the gospel, that we may perform the duties of the law." Walter Marshall was a minister in the Church of England until the Great Ejection of 1662, when more than two thousand ministers were removed from their pulpits for their conscientious objection to the newly passed Act of Uniformity. Marshall continued as a nonconformist minister until his death. The Gospel Mystery of Sanctification was first published posthumously in 1692 and has been reprinted many times since.