Εικόνες σελίδας
PDF
Ηλεκτρ. έκδοση

upon the several guests; of washing those garments of salvation, and making them white, or pure, in the blood of the Lamb; with many other things of the like signi fication scattered through the holy word. The full signification of all these various figures and symbols, is comprehended in that one declaration of Christ; for their sakes 1 sanctify myself, that they also might be sanctified through the TRUTH. The crown of the anointing oil of the ALEHIM was upon him, the true Nazarene, † separated from sin and undefiled by sinners, that he might be able to make a perfect atonement; and, by making it for his people, to separate them also from evil and its effects, and to sanctify them by his Holy Spirit, who is the truth and the author of it.

From these premises it manifestly appears, that all this sanctification, or separation, of the redeemed arises from the will and purpose of God; and, as his will and purpose are, like Himself, from everlasting to everlasting; it follows, that sanctification is neither more nor less than the eternal election and design of God brought into act in the appointed season, called the fulness or measure of time, which act must therefore be surely and entirely accomplished, above all molestation or hindrance.

Agreeably to this, it is written of these saints and strangers in the world, that they are elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through sanctification of the Spirit unto obedience, and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ; that they are chosen out of the world, by

John xvii. 19. Gen, xlix. 26,

+Compare Lev. Exi. 12, viii. 9. 12. 11 Pet. i. 2.

M

Christ

Christ and ordained or made to stand; that they are THEREFORE hated by the world, and are no longer of the world; that they are the objects of Christ's love and prayer in absolute distinction from the world, who said I pray for THEM; I pray not for the world; and that, finally, they are gathered, without the failure of one, to everlasting life.

The Greek name for saint is less full than the Hebrew, and chiefly implies a general separation or abstraction of soul from the world. It may be and has been properly rendered, not earthly, or, wat of the earth. The title, though negative, is of great signification; as may be easily seen from what it is opposed to. Thus Abel offered in faith, looking to Christ for redemption and heaven: but Cain brought of the fruit of the ground, as a tiller (or Father servant, y) of the ground, a mere man of the world, and expected most probably a wonderful gratification in all earthly things from his formal and carnal homage to his Maker. Esau, the carnal worker (as his name signifies) was also a man of the field, a mere worldling who sought his support and delight from the earth, and valued a mess of pottage more than his spiritual privilege, and from hence had his name Edom, one, like the soil, and of the soil from whence he was taken, born hairy like the goats, whom he resembled in that name and nature, expecting all his support from his own skill and labour, and from the influences and productions of the material world. Jacob on the contrary, was on w’*, not a plain, but a perfect man, one made so in Christ, (as in Ps. xxxvii. 37.) dwelling in tents; i. e. either a pilgrim or stranger upon earth (as Heb. xi. 9.) or a worshiper of

God

God in the tabernacles, or places of worship, then used by the faithful. These men of the earth, or world, as the scriptures frequently style them, are all Nimrods or Edomites, mighty hunters and rebels against the faces or per sons of Jehovah, or violent persecutors and enemies of his people. He that is born after the flesh, and is of the flesh, ever did and ever will, to the end of time, persecute him that is born after the Spirit.* Hence,when the nation of the Jews, though primarily selected as to outward condition and privilege typifying the inward, be came generally carnal and worldly; they are reproved by

Gal. iv. 29. This forcibly implies the necessity of regene ration. We cannot know the things of God, or approach in reak worship to God, by our carnal nature, which is weak because it is wicked, and spiritu ally dead because contrary to and incapable of the actions of spiritual life. Hence the reason of the figure or ceremony, delivered to Moses in Exod. iii. 5. put off thy shoes from of thy feet, for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground. This acknowledgement of a man's own baseness or unworthiness, this pulling off the shoes, this keeping or observing of the foot, (as it is called in Eccles. v. 1.) is, in the mental sense, the putting off, concerning the former conversation, the old man, which is corrupt ccording to the deceitful lusts, and the being humbled in the consideration of it, whenever we would present ourselves before the Lord, who cannot look upon iniquity without abhorrence. Hence, in the parable of the prodigal son, who was naked, hungry, and unshod; vile as vileness, and wretched as wretchedness, itself; representing therein the undone state of man by nature; we may perceive, that a wonderful change was made in his condition by the gratuitous acceptance of his father. 1. He was endowed with the best robe, the robe of righteousness. 2. He had a ring put on his hand; the seal and pledge of the Holy Spirit, and of his being taken into the covenant. 3. He had a covering for his feet; intimating, the removal of his vileness, and the new obedience of his life and conduct. Luke xv. 22.

[blocks in formation]

a variety of heathen, polluted, or significant names, descriptive of their true state in the sight of God. Thus they are called rulers of Sodom and people of Gomorah;* Babylon because of confusion; Moab, because of their pride; Dimon, because of their bloody guilt in persecuting God's witnesses; Damascus, because they should be left childless, i. e. lose their birth-right as the Lord's rejected;t Ephraim, in the same place and many others,+ from their desire of only carnal plenty and fertility; an empty and waste land,§ or vineyard;|| Ariel, once the lion of God, but then plunged in sorrow and weakness because of sin;¶ Edom, because of their earthly mind, which coveted the things of the world rather than the things of God.**

From all this we may perceive, that no name, family, or nation; no outward church, or profession of religion; can either make or keep a man a saint; but that it is a spiritual and essential distinction, freely conferred by God on whom he chooses, and powerfully accomplished by him

Isa. i. 10.

+ Compare Isa. xvii. 1, 2. with Gen. xv. 2. Amos iii. 12. and Rom. ix. 6, 7, 8.

Isa. xxviii. 1. 14.

§ Isa. xxiv. 1, &c.

Ps. lxxxviii. 9. Jer.xxxi. 9.

|| Isa. v. 5.

¶ Isa, xxix. 1. &c. ** Isa. lxiii. 1. See also the prophecies of Ezekiel, Amos and Obadiah, where, covertly, and pri marily, under the heathen names, the punishment and dereliction of the Jews are awefully foretold. This changing of names, in prophecy both of good and evil, is very frequent in the scriptures: thus Abram, and Sarah, and Jacob, received names of promise; and Esau, and Pashur (Jer. xx.) and the Israelites at large (Hos. i. 6. Psalm xxii. 12, Amos iv. 1.) titles of denunciation or abasement

[ocr errors]

in the objects of his choice, whom therefore he sanctifies to himself through Christ, and redeems from the earth, that they may be partakers of his glory. The distinction is as essential as that between sheep and goats; of whom, the one are holy because redeemed by him who bare their sins for them, and the other unholy, because (according to the representation in the law) they are sin-bearers, that is bearers of their own sins, in the sight of God, in their own proper persons, and therefore perishing from his presence.

These sanctified or separated ones prove their calling by its effects. They do not appeal to the hidden volume of God's decrees, but to the open book of their faithful lives. They boast not of good works, but do them; and, in doing them, own from whom they derived the power, not only of the act, but of the very thought and occasion which preceded it. They are not servants of the earth, though for a while they live upon it; but servants of God, on whose love and bounty, which never fail them, they depend for all things. Nor do they feed, like men of the world, upon dust, the serpent's food and curse, nor upon the husks or vile trash of sin and evil which those husks denote; but upon the food of the GREAT ONES, the bread of covenanted grace and peace, the flesh and blood, the righteousness and propitiation, of their great Redeemer. It is their subsistence, their very life, love and desire, to be holy and devoted to him in their persons, and to be abundantly fruitful in every good word and work, through him, in their conversations. This was signified under the law by the prohibition of eating what is therein called uncircumcised fruit, or feeding on certain devoted things M 3

in

« ΠροηγούμενηΣυνέχεια »