were alike offered ; the one to endure all that was due to our bodies, the other, all that was due to our souls. And his was, not a typical offering, like those presented under the law, but a real and true propitiation for sin. Nor did his sacrifice avail for a typical and temporary remission of sins, but for the full and everlasting forgiveness of all sin1 Thus the ex- pression in my text, whilst it seems to convey nothing very particular to the mind, gives us, in reality, an insight into the deepest mysteries of our religion, and shews, that it was God who purchased the Church with his own blood m."]
Stupendous in this view, was the act to which he referred. But let us consider,
III. What his ends were in the performance of it —
Generally, it was for the sake of his people that he did this. But particularly, it was, " that they might be sanctified through the truth."
The sanctification of his people was a very prin- cipal end which he aimed at in all that he did and suffered for them —
[His people must be sanctified unto the Lord, even as he was. The different vessels of the sanctuary, no less than the offerings presented there, were altogether devoted to the Lord. In like manner must the disciples of Christ be sanctified. In this view they are called " a kind of first-fruits," which could on no account, and in no degree, be alienated from the Lord11. Nay more, we are called to " offer up our whole selves living sacrifices unto the Lord, as a reasonable and acceptable ser- vice0." And that we might be thus sanctified was the great end of all that our blessed Lord either did or suffered for us : " he gave himself for us to redeem us from all iniquity, and to purify unto himself a peculiar people zealous of good works1*." And the very same object he still keeps in view in all that he is at this moment doing for us in heaven q.]
This however must be accomplished through the instrumentality of his word —
[His Holy Spirit indeed is the agent, without whom not even the word itself would produce any good effect. But he is pleased to make use of his word as the means of quickening us to a heavenly life r, and of carrying on his work where it is beguns, and of completing it even to the end1. His word is
1 Heb. ix. 13, 14. m Acts xx. 28. n Jam. i. 18.
° Rom. xii. 1. p Tit. ii. 14. n Rom. xiv. 9.
r 1 Pet. i. 23. s 1 Pet. ii. 2. « 2Tim.iii. 16, 17.