this doth not appear. I fhall inftance only in SER M. two or three.

In Zechariah xiii. 1. After the Prophet, five verfes before, had been speaking of the Meffiah, when God would pour upon them the Spirit of grace and fupplications; and they shall look upon him whom they have pierced. It follows here, in that day there shall be a foun tain opened for fin and for uncleanness: Which prophecy we find fulfilled, John xix. 3, 4. where it is faid, that one of the foldiers pierced bis fide, and forthwith there came out blood and water. The mention of water here is very emphatical and remarkable, for, as Doctor Lightfoot obferves, 'tis not ordinary in nature that blood and water fhould come out of any wound fo as to be diftinctly difcernible. Therefore, fays he, it had fomething of myftery in it beyond nature, as is very probable from the folemn atteftation which immediately follows of the truth of it; be that faw it bare record, and his record is true.

;

So that here we have the blood of Christ typified by the water of a fountain which washed away fin; and the completion of it by an iffue of blood and water, the two things that were purgative of fin under the law from which we can form no other notion than this, namely, that as water and blood purged away legal uncleannefs, fo the blood and water which iffued from the wound in our Saviour's fide cleanses the confcience from the guilt of fin. But how it works this won

derful

I.

I.

SER M. derful effect is not revealed to us; nor indeed could it be fo, in this state of blindness that we are now in.

Again, another inftance I fhall give to this fame purpose is that of the brazen serpent set up by Mofes in the wilderness, which without queftion was a type of Chrift, as appears from John iii. 14. As Mofes lifted up the ferpent in the wilderness; even fo must the son of man be lifted up. And for the very fame end and purpose too; for as the Ifraelites were to look at the brazen ferpent and be cured of their stings; fo 'tis faid of Chrift, they shall look upon me whom they have pierced. And for the fame reafon, fince it is faid exprefsly, that by his Aripes we are healed.

But it may be faid, God cured them at the fight of it, and not the ferpent. 'Tis true; but had it not been defigned as an emblem of a real cure of our minds by the blood of Christ, God could have cured them without looking at it. Were it not plainly defigned to fhew that as the brazen ferpent cured the ftings of those fiery ferpents in the wilderness; so the wounds of the foul and confcience from that enemy of mankind were to be cured by him who was to be lifted up upon a tree.

And further, as the manner of their being cured by looking on that brazen ferpent was wholly unknown to them, fo is the manner of our fouls being cured and healed by the blood of Chrift quite out of the reach of all our faculties.

The

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The last instance I fhall give you of this na-S ER M. ture at present is this of the words of my text.. I. Here it is faid that the blood of Chrift purges the confcience from fin; it frees us from the guilt of fin actually committed; and this is faid by way of excellence beyond the power of legal fprinkling and washings which procured a legal bodily purity. Nay farther the argument is stronger yet, for as Crellius himself observes the confequence is this, whereas thofe legal washings and sprinklings had really no power of cleanfing, the blood of Chrift hath a real energy and power of cleansing the confcience. From whence it naturally follows, that what power they had was borrowed from this true fountain which was opened for fin and for uncleannefs.

Now because it was a very ready objection that blood and water were things material, and therefore could not work upon the foul and that it was obvious to doubt what fort of purging this should be; therefore the Apostle adds this expreffion of his being offered up through the eternal fpirit, whch I obferved at first was intended to fignify the divine nature of Chrift, that eternal fpirit of the Godhead whereof he was a partaker. So that there was an union of his divine and human nature, at the fame time that he became a facrifice fur us; the human nature only could suffer, but then it derived its virtue and power from its conjunction with the divinity; as the very fame thing is expreft, Pet. iii, 18. For Chrift VOL. I.

C

alfo

I.

SER M. alfo bath once fuffered for fins, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit, (i. e.) by that eternal spirit of God to which his manhood was united; he was raised by that almighty power he was partaker of. So that the fenfe is this, who through his own eternal fpirit offered up himself without spot.

By which he would fignify the great efficacy of the blood of Christ, that it was a divine fupernatural operation; and therefore hath a power of cleanfing, which the blood of no meer man could have; and also fhew us that the manner of his operation is wholly fpiritual, and confequently not to be conceiv ed by us in this life; 'tis what the eye cannot fee, nor the ear hear, nor can it enter into the beart of man to imagine it.

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Having thus fhewn you the true force of the Apoftle's arguing in this place, and explained this great fundamental point of our chriftian faith; fo as that you may know how it is that we are to believe that the blood of Chrift washes away the guilt of our fins and withal so as to lay open the fatal mistake of those men, who explain this point of doctrine in contradiction to us, and that unhappy fallacy that mifled them; I fhall at prefent only observe to you two things from these words.

z0i. That this washing away the guilt of our fins in the blood of Chrift is not an effect that is abfolutely and neceffarily confequent to the shedding of it. "Tis true, the merits

and

and virtue of it are infinite, as being the blood S ER M. of a man offered up through the eternal fpi- I. rit; the power and energy of it is divine, as being founded in the almighty power of God; and therefore 'tis in itfelf fufficient for cleanfing the fins of the whole world; and if it wrought by the fame neceffity, and after the fame manner that natural caufes do, it would furely have that effect. But this cleanfing is conditional, the blood of Chrift purges our confciences from dead works, to ferve the living God (i. e.) the blood of Chrift washes away the guilt of those fins you have been formerly guilty of, to this intent that you might not defile your felves again by any fuch guilt, but keep yourselves pure and holy for the future.

And therefore it is that the holy fcripture fpeaking of our own concurrence with the work of God in our regeneration, uses these fame expreffions, Cleanfe your felves from all filthiness of flesh and Spirit. And again, Wash you, make you clean, (i. e) (as it follows) by putting away the evil of your doings. So that washing and cleanfing, as it is applied to us and made our act, hath no refpect to what guilt we have already actually contracted, but to the preventing the falling into new fin.

Not but when we have done all we can, and have arriven to as great a degree of piety and holiness as we are capable of; yet even then God could not behold us but through the face of a mediator. The holiest perfon in the world is all over leprous, filthy and

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abominable