2. With respect to God's interest. Surely Christ aimed at tbe ser- vice of his redeemed ones, to make them perfect in every good work. Sin had made them unserviceable to God. Now Christ died to put us into a capacity of serving him again, by sanctifying and cleansing us from sin, which disabled us for our work : ' He hath redeemed us to God,' Eev. V. 9, that he might fit us for the Lord's use : Ps. iv. 3, ' But know that the Lord hath set apart him that is godly for himself ; ' Luke i. 74, 75, ' That he would grant unto us that we, being delivered out of the hands of our enemies, might serve him without fear, in holiness and righteousness before him, all the days of our life.'
3. Christ would separate his people from the rest of the world, and therefore would regenerate and sanctify them. A distinct community must have a distinct excellency. Other societies excel the church for strength, policy, worldly pomp ; but this is the proper excellency of the church: Ps. xciii. 5, 'Holiness becometh thy liouse for ever.' This becometh them, both for the special relation they have to God, and their expectations from him. Their relation to God inferreth their likeness ; for God himself is 'glorious in holiness,' Exod. xv. 11.
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And their expectations from him ; this they expect as their final glory, and therefore it must be begun here : ver. 27, ' Tliat he might present it to himself a glorious churcli, without spot or wrinkle, or any such thing ; but that it should be holy and without blemish.' The prepara- tions and beginnings answer to our final happiness.
4. Without holiness there can be no communion with Grod ; for all communion supposes agreement : Amos iii. 3, ' IIow can two walk together except they are agreed ? ' How can God be present, and familiarly conversant with us, or we be so with him, if we walk in ways displeasing to each other ? God doth all things in exact holiness, which we like not ; and we live in sin, which is provoking to God. But we may expect his presence and favour when we are agreed, willing and nilling, loving and hating the same things : 1 John i. 7, ' But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, then have we fellow- ship one with another.' God is a pure and holy being, and the fountain of all purity and holiness. The more like him we are, the nearer we are to him, and the more capable of enjoying him ; for, ' Truly God is good to Israel, even to such as are of a clean heart, Ps. Ixxiii. 1 ; and Ps. xviii. 26, 'With the pure thou wilt show thyself pure.' Therefore Christ, whose aim it was to bring us into the nearest communion with God, would sanctify and cleanse his people, and make them capable of familiarity and friendship with him.
5. Christ's design in his death was to express his love to us in the highest way of manifestation, or to go to the uttermost, not only in the manner, but in the effects. (1.) He hath expressed his love to us in the manner of our deliverance in the most wonderful and astonishing way that possibly can be imagined : Rom. v. 8, ' But God commendeth his love towards us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us ; ' 1 John iv. 10, ' Herein is love ; not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be a propitiation for our sins.' (2.) Not only in the manner, but in the fruits and effects of his death; not in temporal mercies, but spiritual and eternal, in saving us from hell rather than worldly misery and calamity. Among benefits this is the order : Natural perfections are better than adventitious. He that restoreth my health doth me a greater good than he that bestoweth upon me a fine garment. Moral perfections are better than natural. Life is more than riches, and wisdom is better than strength ; it is better to be wise than to be strong ; and saving grace is more than moral wisdom. And among spiritual and saving benefits holiness is chief ; as compare the two saving benefits, justification and sanctifica- tion. Justification, or pardon, freeth us a malo naturali, from a natural evil, which is punishment or painful evil; but sanctification a malo morali, from a moral evil, which is sin or a sinful evil. The one freeth from the wrath of God, the other qualifieth us, and maketli us capable of the love of God. They are both excellent privileges, but judge you which is the greatest. Surely moral evils are greater than natural ; sin is worse than hell. To offend God, or be displeasing to God, is the worst state the creature can fall into. Certainly that which is the object of God's complacency is the greatest benefit. God lovelh us as sanctified rather than as pardoned. Ho pitieth our misery, and pardoneth our sins for Christ's sake, but delighteth in us as having his