life, which is conveyed to our souls in our new birth, into act and exercise on Christ and spiritual things, in quickening our graces, and in leading us to walk in the paths of holinefs, by which proof is given that we are alive to God through JESUS CHRIST OUR LORD. The Old Testament is the foundation of the New. There is nothing in the latter but what may be found in the former. The one serves to explain the other. Nothing can be more safe than to search the scriptures, that we may clearly see what they say and testify concerning Sanctification. The generality of real christians seem to be mistaken concerning it, as they most commonly fix their ideas of their own personal sanctification on what they see, feel, and are in themselves, more than on what they are in Christ. They overlook what the Spirit of Christ hath wrought in them in regeneration by looking at what they are, simply considered in themselves.

The word SANCTIFICATION both in the Old and New Testament, in its primitive meaning and simplicity, signifies separation. To sanctify is to consecrate, to separate, or set apart, from a common to a higher or sacred use. Hence persons, things, and places, when separated from others, and set apart for the service and worship of God, are said to

be sanctified. Thus, in the Old Testament, God is said to sanctify the seventh day, the first-born among the Israelites", and the mount on which the law was given. Also the tabernacle, the temple, the priests, the altar, and the sacrifices were sanctified thus, i. e. by a separation to the immediate worship and service of God. And the proofs concerning the meaning of the word sanctification, viz. that it signifies in the New Testament just what it does in the Old, i. e. to consecrate, to separate, or set apart, from a common to a sacred use, may be seen in the margin.

I will briefly endeavour to set forth the truth of this doctrine in its proper light from the shadows and figures of it under the Old Testament dispensation; which may conduce to form in our minds right and scriptural conceptions of it. Let us view and consider it in the following particulars. A separation from the profane community, in which men are naturally lying, is sanctification. Thus the Lord chose Israel, though they were according to his own declaration the fewest and most perverse of all people; so says Mo"For thou art an holy people unto

ses,

a Gen. ii. 3. b Exod. xiii. 2. c Exod. xix. d Matt. xxiii. 17, 19. John x. 36. xvii. 19. compared with 17. Heb. x. 29. xiii. 12, compared with 1 Cor. vii. 14.

"the Lord thy God: the Lord thy God "hath chosen thee to be a special peo

ple unto himself, above all people that "are upon the face of the earth. The "Lord did not set his love upon you, 6. nor choose you, you, because you were more "in number than any people, (for you were the fewest of all people) but be "cause the Lord loved you." In consequence of which separation, or setting apart, they are styled "A kingdom of "priests, an holy nation'." It should be observed that the word SANCTIFICATION is taken in the original language, which is the foundation of all the rest, from the shadows and figures of it under the Old Testament dispensation. Thus washing, purifying, and cleansing those, who were thus separated, from defilement and pollution, which they had naturally, or had contracted, and that by the blood of the sacrifices, which was performed by the application of it in some shape or other to the person who was to be sanctified, were a shadow and figure of gospel-sanctification. There was no remission of sin without shedding of blood, nor any purification from the guilt and filth of it without the application of that blood. Persons thus separated and cleansed were solemnly devoted and set e Deut. vii. 6, 7, 8. f Exodus xix. 6. Levit. i. 14.

apart to God for that particular station to which they were separated, and the service and businefs which belonged to it, as was the case with Aaron and his sons. Such persons thus separated were qualified for what they were separated for with proper gifts; and some of them anointed with oil, as a symbol and sign of the divine anointing. All these sha dows and figures are so easily to be applied to the true sanctification of the regenerate by the blood and spirit of our Lord Jesus Christ, that we see the one illustrated by the other.

Let us now see how sanctification is exprefsed in the New Testament by separation, ordination, and setting apart to the Lord. Christ, God-man, the Head, Mediator, and Saviour of his people, is said to be sanctified by his designation to his office. In his address to the Jews he speaks thus, "Say ye of him, "whom the Father hath sanctified, and "sent into the world, thou blasphemest: "because I said, I am the Son of God?" "The Jews," says Dr. Goodwin, "looked at and acknowledged all those great and eminent men, whom the scripture terms Gods, to be forerunning shadows and types of the MESSIAH. If there fore they be called Gods by commifsion and deputation, as having the

b Levit. viii.

! John x. 36.

word of God, which put that title and office upon them, your Mefsiah, says our Lord, must be God, not merely by commifsion, but by nature and efsence." The reason, for which I quote these words of Christ, is to shew that the word sanctification, in the New Testament, as well as in the Old, signifies separation. For Christ, God-man, could be sanctified no other way than by his being set apart to his Mediatorial work and office; he being efsentially, personally, and transcendently holy, The holy one of Israel, The holy one of God, and the very fountain and spring of holinefs to elect angels and saints. His title, given him by Daniel, is the most Holy; he being the true Holy of Holies. In his intercefsory prayer to his Father, speaking on the behalf of his people, he says, "For "their sakes I sanctify myself;" which can be understood no otherwise, than of his being separated and set apart for his office by Jehovah the Father, which our most divine Lord voluntarily devoted himself unto, and performed to the eternal honour of law and justice. The Son of God, Christ Jesus, is said to be sanctified, set apart, hallowed, and conseerated by his own blood; called "The "blood of the covenant'." And this in allusion to Aaron and his sons, who John xvii. 19. 1 Heb. x. 29.