were for you, to confirm your faith. When he raised up Laza- rus, John xi. 42. " Because of the people which stand by, I said " it, that they might believe that thou hadst sent me." While he lived on earth, he lived as one wholly set apart for us : and when he died, he died for us, Gal. iii. 13. " he was made a curse *' for us."" When he hanged on that cursed tree, he hanged there in our room, and did but fill our place- When he was buried, he was buried for us : for the end of it was, to perfume our graves, against we come to lie down in them. And when he rose again, it was, as the apostle saith, " for our justification,'* Rom. iv. 25. When he ascended into glory, he protested it was about our business, that lie went to prepare places for us : and if it had not been so, he would have told us, John xiv. 2. And now he is there, it is for us that he there lives ; for he " ever lives to 11 make intercession for us," Heb. vii. 25. And when he shall return again to judge the world, he will come for us too. " He " comes (whenever it be) to be glorified in his saints, and ad- mired in them that believe," 2 Thess. i. 10. He comes to gather his saints home to himself, that where he is, there they all may be in soul and body with him for ever. Thus you see how, as his consecration for us doth speak him set apart for our use ; so he did wholly bestow himself, time, life, death, and all upon us ; living and dying for no other end, but to accomplish this great work of ssalvation for us.
6. His sanctifying himself for us plainly speaks the vicegerency of his death, that it was in our room or stead. When the priest con- secrated the sacrifice, it was set apart for the people. So it is said of the scape-goat ; " And Aaron shall lay both his hands upon " the head of the live goat, and confess over him all the iniquities " of the children of Israel, and all their transgressions in all their " sins, putting them upon the head of the goat, and shall send " him away by the hand of a fit man into the wilderness," Levit. xvi. 21. Thus Isa. liii. 6, 7. He stood in our room, to bear our burden. And as Aaron laid the iniquities of the people upon the goat, so were ours laid on Christ ; it was said to him in that day, On thee be their pride, their unbelief, their hardness of heart, their vain thoughts, their earthly-mindedness, §c. Thou art consecrated for them, to be the sacrifice in their room. His death was in our stead, as well as for our good. And so much his sanc- tifying himself [for us] imports.
7. His sanctifying himself, imports the eoctraor dinar iness of his person : for it speaks him to be both Priest, Sacrifice, and Altar, all in one : a thing unheard of in the world before. So that this name might well be called Wonderful. I sanctify myself: I sanctify, ac- cording to both natures; myself, i. e. my human nature, which was
100 THE FOUNTAIN OF LIFE. SERM. VII.
the sacrifice upon the altar of my divine nature ; for it is the altar that sanctifies the gift. As the three offices never met in one person before, so these three things never met in one priest before. The priests indeed consecrated the bodies of beasts for sacrifices, but never offered up their own souls and bodies as a whole burnt-of- fering, as Christ did. And thus you have the import of this phrase, / sanctify myself for their sokes.
Secondly, I shall shew you briefly the habitude and respect that all this hath to us ; for unto us the scriptures every where refer it. So in 1 Cor. v. 7. " Christ our passover is sacrificed for us." Eph, v. 2. " He loved the church, and gave himself for it." See Tit. ii. 14. This will be made out, by a threefold consideration of Christ's death. And,
1. Let it be considered, that he was not offered up to God for his own sins ; for he was most holy. Isa. liii. 9. No iniquity was found in him. Indeed, the priests under the law offered for them- selves, as well as the people ; but Christ did not so, Heb. vii. 27. " He needed not daily, as those High-priests, to offer up sacrifice, u first for his own sins, and then for the people's." And indeed had he been a sinner, what value or efficacy could have been in his sacrifice ? He could not have been the sacrifice, but would have needed one. Now, if Christ were most holy, and yet put to death, and cruel sufferings, either his death or sufferings must be an act of injustice and cruelty, or it must respect others, whose per- sons and cause he sustained in that suffering capacity. He could never have suffered or died by the Father's hand, had he not been a sinner by imputation. And in that respect, as Luther speaks, he was the greatest of sinners ; or, as the prophet Isaiah speaks, all our sins were made to meet upon him ; not that he was intrinsi- cally, but was made so, so, by imputation, as is clear from 2 Cor. v. 21. " He was made sin for us, who knew no sin." So that hence it is evident, that Christ's death, or sacrifice, is wholly a respective or relative thing.
2. It is not to be forgotten here, that the scriptures frequently call the death of Christ a price, 1 Cor. vi. 20. and a ransom, Mat. xx. 28. or counterprice *. To whom then doth it relate, but to them that were, and are in bondage and captivity ? If it was to redeem any, it must be captives : but Christ himself was never in captivity ; he was always in his Father's bosom, as you have heard ; but we were in cruel bondage and thraldom, under the tyranny of sin and Satan : and it is we only that have the benefit of this ransom.
3. Either the death of Christ must relate to believers, or else he
* A'jtpov, avrfkiflgov, i, e. pretium, pretium ex adverso respondens.
SERM. VII. THE FOUNTAIN OF LIFE. 101
must die in vain. As for the angels, those that stood in their in^ tegrity needed no sacrifice, and those that fell, are totally excluded from any benefit by it: he is not a Mediator for them. And among men that have need of it, unbelievers have no share in it, they reject it ; such have no part in it. If then he neither died for himself, as I proved before, nor for angels, nor unbelievers ; either his blood must be shed with respect to believers, or, which is most absurd, and never to be imagined, shed as water upon the ground, and totally cast away ; so that you see by all this, it was for our sakes, as the text speaks, that he sanctified himself. And now we may say, Lord, the condemnation was thine, that the justi- fication might be mine ; the agony thine, that the victory might be mine ; the pain was thine, and the ease mine ; the stripes thine, and the healing balm issuing from them mine ; the vinegar and gall were thine, that the honey and sweet might be mine ; the curse was thine, that the blessing might be mine ; the crown of thorns was thine, that the crown of glory might be mine ; the death was thine, the life purchased by it mine ; thou paidst the price that I might enjoy the inheritance.
We come next to the inferences of truth deducible from this point, which follow.