Secondly, The act, ayia^ca, ' I sanctify.' Things are said in scrip- ture to be sanctified when they are set apart, and fitted and prepared for some holy use.
1. As it signifies to separate, or set apart from a common to a holy use, as the sacrifices under the law were separated and chosen out of the flock or herd, the best and the fairest, such as were without spot and blemish, and then designed for this holy use of being an offering to God, so was Christ separated for this use, to be the great sin-offering, or sacrifice of atonement for the whole congregation : 1 Peter i. 19, 20, ' Ye were redeemed with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot.' When was Christ so sanctified? He did sanctify himself when he accepted the conditions of the covenant of redemption, Isa. liii. 10-12 ; and visibly at his baptism he did pre- sent himself among sinners as our surety, and offer himself to the Father to pay our ransom, which God accepted, for he declared him- self well pleased with Christ, as standing in our room : Mat. iii. 17, ' Lo, a voice from heaven, saying, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.' Ordinary baptism is a dedication to God. So Christ's baptism was a dedication of himself to the recovering of the lost world to God. And then a little before his death in this prayer, ' I sanctify
VeR. 19.] SERMONS UPON JOHN XVII. 7
myself ;' afterwards in his agonies, ' Not my Avill, but thine be done ;' at his death he offered up himself, Heb. ix. 14, ' Who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God.'
2. It signifieth his qualification and fitness ; he did fit the human nature with all habitual and actual holiness. In this sense Christ did sanctify himself ; as God, he fitted himself for this work.
[1.] There was the innocency and purity of his human nature, with- out any stain of corruption, and therefore he is called ' that holy thing,' Luke i. 35. This holiness was necessary in regard of himself, other- wise his human nature could not be assumed into the unity of his person, for God can have no communion with sin, no more than light and darkness can agree together. It was necessary in regard of his office, that he might satisfy for our sins : Heb. vii. 26, ' Such an high priest became us, who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners.' The priest of the gospel must be sinless, because of the excellency of the sacrifice, that the priest may not be worse than the sacrifice. While things were carried in type and figure, and a beast was offered in sacrifice, a sinful man sufficed ; but now the satisfaction was really to be made for us, and sin done away, and we were to be made really holy, our priest was to be holy, harmess, undefiled. It is for our comfort that Christ was sanctified ; his original sanctity is a remedy against our original sin and impurity. When we are troubled with our natural deformity, it is comfortable to think that God looketh upon us in Christ, who was holy by nature ; it is a comfortable hope that the corruption of our nature is covered in God's eyes, and shall be diminished more and more.
[2.] His actual holiness in his conversation. The business of the mediator was to commend obedience, and he hath done it by his own example, and the way that he took to recover us to God : Rom. v. 19, ' As by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous ;' Phil. ii. 5, ' Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus/ Some dislike such a particular application ; we have need of all Christ's properties, and we should make use of all. Why doth the scripture set it down, but to show that he is fit to remove sin original and actual ? As a covetous man looks on a piece of gold, or we on a thing that we delight in, we turn it on every side. The first Adam was by God's institution a common person, in him sinning the world sinned ; the second Adam was a public fountain of holiness, who is an infinite person as well as a public person.
Thirdly, The object, 'I sanctify m?/se^;' not an angel to do this for us, but himself. Under the law the priests offered bulls and goats, while they themselves remained untouched, but Christ offered himself. As God he was priest, as man the sacrifice. As there was love in the priest, so there is worth in the sacrifice. Christ was both priest and sacrifice; it was himself that he offered as a recompense to angry justice. Otherwise we might say. Here is the person sanctifying, but where is the sacrifice ? As Isaac said to his father, Gen. xxii. 7, ' Behold the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for the burnt-offering?' It is good to see in what nature Christ was the priest, and in what nature the sacrifice. In his divine nature the priest, for ' he offered liimself