Sixthly, Will you hear our Saviour Christ himself expressing this more evidently, restraining the object, declaring his whole design and purpose, and affimiiug the end of his death? John xvii. 19, " For their sakes I sanctify myself, that they also might be sanctified through the truth." " For their sakes." Whose, I pray? " The men whom thou hast given me out of the world," verse 6. Not the whole world, whom he prayed not for, verse 9. " I sanctify myself." Whereunto? " To the work I am now going about, even to be an oblation." And to what end? "Ii/a xui avToi Zaiv TiyiaafMsvot h dXr,Oua' — " That they also may be truly sanctified." That ha there, " that they," signifies the intent and purpose of Christ, — it designs out the end he aimed at, — which our hope is (and that is the hope of the gos- pel), that he hatli accomplished (" for the Deliverer that cometh out of Sion turnetli away ungodliness from Jacob," Rom. xi. 2(5); — and that herein there was a concurrence of the will of his Father, yea, that this Lis purpose was to fulfil the will of his Father, which he came to do. Seventhly, And that this also was his counsel is apparent. Gal. i. 4 ; fur our Lord Jesus " gave himself for our sins, that ho nn'ght deliver us from this present evil world, according to the will of God and our
THE PROPER END OF THE DEATH OF CHRIST ASSERTED. 211
Fatliei';" wliich will and purpose of his the apostle farther declares, chap. iv. 4-6, " God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons ;" and, because sons, our deliverance from the law, and thereby our freedom from the guilt of sin. Our adoption to sons, receiving the Spirit, and drawing nigh unto God, are all of them in the purpose of the Father giving his only Son for us.
Eighthly, I shall add but one place more, of the very many more that might be cited to this purpose, and that is 2 Cor. v. 21, " He hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him." The purpose of God in making his Son to be sin is, that those for wliom he was made sin might become righteousness; that was the end of God's sending Christ to be so, and Christ's willingness to become so. Now, if the Lord did not purpose what is not fulfilled, yea, what he knew should never be fulfilled, and what he would not work at all that it might be fulfilled (either of which are most atheistical expressions), then he made Christ sin for no more than do in the effect become actually righteousness in him: so tliat the counsel and Avill of God, with the purpose and intention of Christ, by his oblation and blood-shedding, was to fulfil that will and counsel, is from these places made ap- parent.
From all which we draw this argument: — That which the Father and the Son intended to accomplish in and towards all those for whom Christ died, by his death that is most certainly effected (if any shall deny this proposition, I will at any time, by the Lord's assistance, take up the assertion of it;) but the Father and his Son mtended by the death of Christ to redeem, purge, sanctify, purify, deliver from death, Satan, the curse of the law, to quit of all sin, to make righteousness in Christ, to bring nigh unto God, all those for whom he died, as was above proved : therefore, Christ died for all and only those in and towards whom all these things recounted are effected ; — which, whether they are all and every one, I leave to all and every one to judge that hath any knowledge in these things.
II. The second rank contains those places wliich lay down the actual accomplishment and effect of this oblation, or what it doth really produce and effect in and towards them for whom it is an ob- lation. Such are Heb. ix. 12, 14, " By his own blood he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemjition for us. .... The blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your consciences from dead works to serve the living God." Two things are here ascribed to the blood of Christ; — one referring to God, " It oljtains eternal redemption;" the otlier respecting us, "It purgeth our consciences from dead works:" so that justification with God, by procuring for us an eternal redemp-
212 THE DEATH OF DEATH. [iJOOK 11.
tion from the guilt of our sius and liis wrath due unto them, with sanctification in ourselves (or, as it is called, Heb. i. 3, a " purging our sins"), is the immediate product of that blood by which he en- tered into the holy place, of that oblation which, through the eter- nal Spirit, he presented unto God. Yea, this meritorious purging of our sins is peculiarly ascribed to his offering, as performed before his ascension: Heb. i. 3, "When he had by himself purged our sins, he sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high;" and again, most expressly, chap. ix. 26, " He hath appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself:" which expiation, or putting away of sin by the way of sacrifice, must needs be the actual sanctification of them for whom he was a sacrifice, even as " the blood of bulls and goats, and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean, sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh," verse 13. Certain it is, that Avhoso- ever was either polluted or guilty, for whom there was an expiation and sacrifice allowed in those carnal ordinances, " which had a sha- dow of good things to come," had truly ; — first, A legal cleansing and sanctifying, to the purifying of the flesh; and, secondly. Free- dom from the punishment which was due to the breach of the law, as it was the rule of conversation to God's people : so much his sacri- fice carnally accomplished for him that was admitted thereunto. Now, these things being but " shadows of good things to come," cer- tainly the sacrifice of Christ did effect spiritually, for all them for whom it was a sacrifice, whatever the other could typify out ; that is, spiritual cleansing by sanctification, and freedom from the guilt of sin : which the places produced do evidently prove. Now, whether this be accomplished in all and for them all, let all that are able judge. _ ^^