f The meaning then is this, I sanctify myself, i. e. for their sakes I die, that they by my death may be filled with the Spirit of holiness, and may become holy vessels of God, bjr the Spirit of <?od revealed. Marlorat, on this place.
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love with holiness, that at the price of his blood he will buy it for us. Hence the observation is ;
Doct. That Jesus Christ did dedicate, and wholly set himself apart to the work of a Mediator, for the elect's sake*
This point is a glass, wherein the eye of your faith may see Jesus Christ preparing himself to be offered up to God for us, fitting him- self to die. And to keep a clear method, I shall open these two tilings, in the doctrinal part; First, what his sanctifying himself implies : Secondly, How it respects us.
First, What is implied in this phrase, " I sanctify myself,* And there are seven things carried in it.
1. This phrase [" I sanctify myself"] implies the personal union of the two natures in Christ ; for what is that which he here calls himself, but the same that was consecrated to be a sacrifice, even his human nature ? This was the sacrifice. And this also was himself: So the apostle speaks, Heb. ix. 14. " He through the " eternal Spirit, offered up himself to God, without spot." So that our nature, by that assumption, is become himself. Greater honour cannot be done it, or greater ground of comfort proposed to us. But having spoken of that union in the former sermon, shall remit the reader thither.
2. This sanctifying, or consecrating himself to be a sacrifice for us, implies, the greatness and dreaqfulness of that breach which sin, made betwixt God and us. You see no less a sacrifice than Christ himself must be sanctified to make atonement. Judge of the greatness of the wound by the breadth of the plaister. " Sacrifice " and offering, and burnt-offering for sin, thou wouldest not ; but " a body hast thou prepared me," Heb. x. 5. All our repent- ance, could we shed as many tears for sin, as there have fallen drops of rain since the creation, could not have been our atone- ment : " But God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself" And had he not sanctified Christ to this end, he would have sanc- tified himself upon us, in judgment and fury for ever.
3. This his sanctifying himself, implies his free and voluntary un- dertaking of the work. It is not, / am sanctified, as if he had been merely passive in it, as the lambs that typed him out were, when pluckt from the fold ; but it is an active verb he useth here, * / sanctify myself; he would have none think that he died out of a necessity of compulsion, but out of choice: therefore he is said to " offer up himself to God, Heb. x. 14. And John ix. 18.
'Eyw aytafy) spavrov.
98 THE FOUNTAIN OF LIFE. SERtf. VII.
" I lay down my life of myself; no man taketh it from me." And although it is often said his Father sent him, and gave him ; yet his heart was as much set on that work, as if there had been nothing but glory, ease, and comfort in it ; he was under no con- straint, but that of his own love. Therefore, as when the scrip- ture would set forth the willingness of the Father to this work, it saith, God sent his Son, and God gave his Son: so when it would set forth Christ's willingness to it, it saith, he offered up himself gave himself, and, here in the text, sanctified himself. The sacri- fice that struggled, and came not without force to the altar, was reckoned ominous and unlucky by the Heathen: our Sacrifice dedicated himself; he died out of choice, and was a free-will offering.
4. His sanctifying himself implies his pure and perfect holiness ; that he had no spot or blemish in him. Those beasts that prefigured him, were to be without blemish, and none else were consecrated to that service. So, and more than so, it behoved Christ to be, Heb. vii. 26. " Such an High-Priest became us, who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners :" And what it became him to be, he was. Therefore in allusion to the lambs offered under the law, the apostle calls him a Lamb without blemish, or spot, 1 Pet. i. 19. Every other man hath a double spot on him, the heart-spot, and the life-spot; the spot of original, and the spots of actual sins. But Christ was without either, he had not the spot of original sin, for he was not by man ; he came in a peculiar way into the world, and so escaped that : nor yet of actual sins ; for, as his nature, so his life was spotless and pure, Isa. liii. 9. " He " did no iniquity." And though tempted to sin externally, yet he was never defiled in heart or practice ; he came as near as he could for our sakes, yet still without sin, Heb. iv. 15. If he sanc- tifies himself for a sacrifice, he must be as the law required, pure and spotless.
5. His sanctifying himself for our sakes, speaks the strength of his love, and largeness of his heart to poor sinners, thus to set himself wholly and entirely apart for us : so that what he did and suffered, must all of it have a respect and relation to us. He did not (when consecrated for us) live a moment, do an act, or speak a word, but it had some tendency to promote the great design of our salvation. He was only and wholly, and always doing your work, when con- secrated for your sakes. His incarnation respects you ; Isa. ix. 6. " For to us a child is born, to us a son is given." And he would never have been the son of man, but to make you the sons and daughters of God. God would not have come down in the like- ness of sinful flesh, in the habit of a man, but to raise up sinful man unto the likeness of God. Ail the miracles he wrought
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