Doct That remission of sins which is promised in the new covenant to the sanctified is procured by the blood of Jesus Christ.
I. The privilege or benefit is to be cleansed from sin. The phrase importeth both justification and sanctification. Where cleansing from sin is spoken of as a duty required of us, it always importeth sanctifica- tion : Isa. i. 16, ' Wash you, make you clean, put away the evil of your doings before mine eyes, cease to do evil.' But where it is spoken of as a mercy received from God, there it implieth sometimes both benefits ; for both go together : as Eph. v. 26, ' He gave himself for it, that he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word.' It implieth there our whole translation from the state of sin and death to an estate of grace and life : both justification, or doing away the guilt of sin, and sanctification, or the renovation of our natures Sometimes it implieth one benefit only or principally, which sense must be determined by the context. As, for instance, when both benefits are mentioned together, and one of them in other terms : as 1 John i. 9, ' To forgive us our sins, and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.' There cleansing intendeth sanctification, which, with pardon, is made a distinct branch of our recovery.
When this cleansing is ascribed to the blood of Christ, it principally
SERMON UPON 1 JOHN I. 7. 51
noteth justification ; when to the Spirit, sanctification. So they are distrihuted, 1 Cor. vi. 11, 'But ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God.' As to give instances : Ezelc. xxxvi. 25, ' I will sprinkle clean water upon you, and you shall be clean.' That water signifieth the sanctifying Spirit ; and his cleansing work is sanctification. So Titus iii. 5, ' But according to his mercy, he saved us by the washing of regeneration, and the renewing of the Holy Ghost.' But when it is ascribed to the blood of Christ, it principally signifieth justification, as in the text : and Eev. i. 5, ' And washed us from our sins in his own blood;' and in many other places. Well, then, when the blood of Cluist is said to be beneficial to cleanse us, it is meant of his taking off the guilt of sin, and our obligation to wrath. Sin is the whole cause of God's displeasure against us, and that which maketh us otlious in his sight, as a filthy thing is to us. Therefore when we are freed from sin by the death of Christ, we are said to be cleansed. Guilt is not a quality, but a relation, or an obligation to punishment, which the law of God hath made the sinner's due, which relation and obligation ceaseth when that is done which our supreme Lord and Judge requir- eth. For man is bound to God no further than God will liave him bound. And when the obligation is dissolved, the punishment is no more in force.
To understand this distinctly, we may, with respect to justification, consider three things in sin^ — (1.) The fault; (2.) The guilt; and (3.) The punishment.
1. The fault is a criminal action. This is not taken away, either as a natural action or a faulty action, contrary to the law of God ; for that is impossible. Not as a natural action ; for such a fault we com- mitted, eitlier by omitting good, or doing evil. Factum infectum fieri nequit ; that which is done cannot be undone. Nor as it is a faulty action contrary to the law of God. This Christ taketh not away neither; for that were to disannul the obliging force or authority of the law. The sins we committed are sins still. Christ came not to make the law less holy, or the fault to be no fault. What shall we say then to this first thing in sin ? The fault is not taken away ; but it is passed by as it is the foundation of our guilt. The scripture sets it forth by the meta- phor of removing it out of God's sight : Ps. ciii. 12, ' As far as the east is from the west, so far hath lie removed our transgressions from us ; ' that we may not be objects displeasing to him. And it is expressed, ' Thou hast cast all my sins behind thy back,' Isa. xxxviii. 17 ; as men cast behind their backs such things as they list not to look on, or remember. In humiliation we set them before our face ; but in pardon- ing, God casts them behind his back. So in a like expression he is said ' to pass by the transgression of the covenant of his heritage,' Micali vii. 18. Pardon is a passing over, a seeing and not seeing the faults of his people. God quits the plea, doth not call to an account for them. It may further be represented by taking off the filthy garment where- with the high priest was clothed when he stood before the Lord : Zech. iii. 4, ' Take away the filthy garments from him, and unto him he said, Behold, I have caused thine iniquity to pass from thee, and I will clothe thee with change of raiment.' Whilst we are clothed with filthy