(2.) The especial procuring cause of this holiness is the me- diation of Christ. We are not, va. this matter, concerned in any thing, let men call it what they please, virtue, or godliness, or holi- ness, that hath not an esj)ecial relation unto the Lord Christ and his mediation. Evangelical holiness is purchased for us by him, according to the tenor of the everlasting covenant, is promised unto us on his account, actually impetrated for us by his intercession, and communicated unto us by his Spirit. And hereby we do not only cast off all the moral virtues of the heathens from having the least concernment herein, but all the principles and duties of persons pro- fessing Christianity, who are not really and actually implanted into Christ, for he it is who "of God is made unto us sanctification," 1 Cor. i. SO ; and this he is on several accounts, the heads whereof may be called over: —
[1.] He is made unto us of God sanctification with respect unto his sacerdotal office, because we are purified, purged, washed, and cleansed from our sins by his blood, in the oblation of it, and the application of it unto our souls, as hath been at large declared, Eph. V. 25-27; Tit. ii. 14; 1 John i. 7; Heb. ix. 14 All that we have taught before concerning the purification of our minds and con- sciences by the blood of Christ is peculiar unto gospel holiness, and distinguisheth it essentially from all common grace or moral virtues. And they do but deceive themselves who rest in a multitude of duties, it may be animated much with zeal, and set off with a pro- fession of the most rigid mortification, whose hearts and consciences are not thus purged by the blood of Christ.
[2.] Because he prevails for the^ actual sanctification of our natures, in the communication of holiness unto us, by his interces- sion. His prayer, John xvii. 17, is the blessed spring of our holi- ness: "Sanctify them through thy truth; thy word is truth." There
CHAP. YI.] IN THE SANCTIFICATION OF BELIEVERS, 507
is not any thing of this grace wrought in us, bestowed on us, com- municated unto us, preserved in us, but what is so in answer unto and compliance with the intercession of Christ. From his prayer for us is hoHness begun in us: "Sanctify them^" saith he, "by thy truth." Thence it is Icept alive and preserved in us: " I have," saith he to Peter, "prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not." And through his intercession are we saved to the uttermost. Nothincf belongs to this holiness but what, in the actual communication of it, is a peculiar fruit of Christ's intercession; what is not so, what men may be made partakers of upon any more general account, belongs not thereunto. And if we really design holiness, or intend to be holy, it is our duty constantly to improve the intercession of Christ for the increase of it; and this we may do by esj)ecial applications to him for that purpose. So the apostles prayed him to "increase their faith," Luke xvii. 5 ; and we may do so for the increase of our holiness. But the nature of this applicatioii unto Christ for the in- crease of holiness, by virtue of his intercession, is duly to be consi- dered. We are not to pray unto him that he would intercede for us that we may be sanctified; for as he needs not our minding for the discharge of his office, so he intercedes not orally in heaven at all, and always doth so virtually, by his appearance in the presence of God, with the virtue of his oblation or sacrifice. But whereas the Lord Christ gives out no supplies of grace unto us but what he re- ceiveth from the Father for that end by virtue of his intercession, we apply ourselves unto him under that consideration, — namely, as he who, upon his intercession with God for us, hath all stores of grace to give us supplies from.
[3.] He is so, because the rule and measure of holiness unto us, the instrument of working it in us, is his word and doctrine, which he taught the church as the great prophet of it : "The law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ." The inbred dictates of the light and law of nature, in their greatest purity, are not the rule or measure of this holiness; much less are those rules and maxims which men deduce, partly right and partly wrong, from them of any such use. Nor is the written law itself so. It is the rule of original holiness, but not the adequate rule of that holiness whereunto we are restored by Christ. Neither are both these in con- junction,— the dictates of nature and the law written, — the instru- ments of working holiness in us. But it is the doctrine of the gospel which is the adequate rule and immediate instrument of it. My meaning is, that the word, the gospel, the doctrine of Christ, in the preceptive part of it, is so the rule of all our obedience and holiness as that all which it requireth belongeth thereunto, and nothing else but what it requireth doth so; and the formal reason of our holiness