saith, "Their sins and iniquities will I remember no more."* All the atoning efficacy indicated by the typical sacrifices of the Day of Atonement, together with all the cleansing efficacy indicated by the ashes of the red heifer and every other like type, is concentrated in the blood of Jesus once offered, and therefore every believer, seeing that he stands abidingly under the full value of that blood, is once and for ever atoned for, and, once and for ever, sprinkled—“ sprinkled,” being a typical word, implying that God recognises us as standing under the applied efficacy of the blood of Jesus. As there can be no repetition of atoning offering, so there can be no repetition of sprinkling to one once sprinkled. The being "unsprinkled" implies the being under an imputation of guilt rendering amenable to wrath, and this no believer ever is. Accordingly, our great High Priest who intercedes for us in Heaven, and thereby recognises and upholds the governmental holiness of God, never makes confession or pleads for us as if we were unatoned for and unsprinkled, but always pleads for us on the ground of our having been once and for ever both atoned for and sprinkled. Believers may indeed through defective instruction, or through unbelief and sin, be ignorant or oblivious of that which the blood of Jesus hath effected for them; and when recovered from a backsliding or careless condition may seem to themselves to be sprinkled afresh; but it is not really so: they are only recovered to the recognition of a condition that pertained to them fixedly, from the first moment they believed.

Whilst, therefore, all that is implied by the words "washed," "cleansed," &c., is included in the condition of "the sanctified," it would nevertheless be a mistake to suppose that "sanctified" implies nothing more than the being "washed" or "purified." Both in the Old and New Testaments different words are used to express these several notions, and not unfrequently, the being "sanctified" or "hallowed" is emphatically marked as a condition that goes beyond that of being simply "washed" or "purified." Thus in the consecration of the Priests in Exodus xxix. they were early washed (see verse 4.) but it was not until they were arrayed in their priestly garments and sprinkled with blood, that they were said to be

The words that I have omitted are not a part of the argument, but are merely quoted to identify the passage. The fact of believers being "perfected in perpetuity" as respects the purgation of their guilt, is proved by the words, "Their sins and iniquities I will remember no more."

B

"sanctified" or "hallowed." (see verse 21.) The healed leper too after he had passed through certain ceremonies was said to be "cleansed" or "purified," but he was not thereby like tle priests "sanctified." And when we read of "the Temple sanctifying the gold," and "the altar sanctifying the gift," it is evident that sanctified thus used, expresses no mere negative condition, but implies the positive ascription to the thing hallowed of a holiness corresponding to the holiness of that by which and unto which it was hallowed. More, therefore, is expressed by "sanctified" or "hallowed" than is implied either by separation, purification, or dedication. The notions expressed by these three words are not to be excluded; but we have to add to them another thought, viz., that the sanctified or hallowed are regarded as hallowed with a sanctification corresponding to the holiness of that whereby or whereunto they are hallowed; just as the priests and their garments were considered to be holy according to the holiness of that wherewith they were sprinkled. The same blood that appeases the wrath and covers the stain of our guilt, leaves in the place of that which it cancels, its own excellency, so that we are at the same moment regarded as not only spotless (auwμo) and uncharged, (aveуkληтоi) but as "hallowed."*

This passage in Col. i. 21, is closely parallel to that which we have been considering in Heb. x. The being presented "holy, spotless, and uncharged" is made the result of the one sacrifice alone. "And you who were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath He (the Father) reconciled by the body of His (Christ's) flesh through death to present you holy, and spotless, and uncharged in His sight.”άγιους, αμώμους, και ανεγκλητους. "Holy," therefore, here expresses the result of being sanctified by the blood as taught in Heb. x. And, observe, it is not regarded as synonymous with apwpos, spotless, that word (also a Temple word) conveying the negative thought of the stain of our guilt being purged away: whereas ayos conveys the positive thought of being also hallowed unto God.

Some have endeavoured to lower the meaning of "sanctify" (ayraw) into the sense of mere separation, but both in Hebrew and in Greek we have other words (viz.,, and apopigw) to express separation, and these words would have been used if nothing more than separation had been intended. Dedication and the attainment of a condition in which we are regarded as holy according to the holiness of that whereby, and whereunto, we are hallowed, are the thoughts involved in sanctified when that expression is applied to us. In Leviticus xx. 25, 27, we find the three connected, yet distinct thoughts of "separated," "clean," and "sanctified to Jehovah," contrasted.

The Fathers had sometimes an unwise habit of playing on words. Thus,

It is true indeed that in speaking of sanctification by the blood of Jesus we may sometimes take the retrospective view, and direct the mind back to that from which we have been sanctified; and in that case, "purification" is a word that may sufficiently represent the thought. At other times we may seek to direct attention rather to the condition unto which we are sanctified, and in that case we shall soon see the importance of not limiting sanctification simply to the purgation of our guilt. No one who beheld the priest of old encompassed and covered over by a cloud of incense, would doubt that the qualities and characteristics of that incense were regarded as ascribed to him. If the incense was holy, and it was "most holy," the priest was regarded as being hallowed according to its holiness. How then can it be otherwise with those who are sanctified by the once offered sacrifice of Immanuel. As being cleansed and as being holy (aɣioi Col. i.) they have a title to draw nigh even into the Holiest of all. Christ hath become to them "both righteousness and sanctification as well as redemption."*

To this subject, however, I hope on another occasion to return. At present I will only repeat that the sanctification of which we are now speaking being the result of the one finished sacrifice on Calvary, must be as perfect and as abiding as the justification that flows from the same finished sacrifice. In virtue of the one, we are accounted righteous in the Courts of God's judgment: in virtue of the other, we are looked on as hallowed for the Courts of His worship.

Theodoret, without apparently any intention of seriously asserting any etymological connexion between words so utterly different as dyios and dyeios, says, speaking of the angels-τῳ τοι και άγιους αυτους ονομάζομεν ὡς γηΐνον ουδεν εχοντας, αλλα των περιγειων παθημάτων απηλλαγμένους. In later times, however, this absurd derivation of ayos has been strongly insisted on. A wrong reading in Jude i. has sometimes furnished another ground of false argument respecting the meaning of ayaw. The right reading there is, "those beloved" (not sanctified) "in God the Father," (Tois Ev Dεy waтρi nyaжημevois.)

Such is the strict translation of 1 Cor. i. 31. "But of Him are ye in Christ Jesus, who became unto us wisdom from God, both righteousness and sanctification as well as redemption."

Sanctification through the Spirit.

In the preceding pages we have seen how distinctly the Scripture speaks of a finished and abiding "sanctification" attaching to believers through the blood of the Cross, whereby they stand before God purged from every stain, and accounted holy according to the holiness of that blood whose value rests upon them. Believers if "justified," that is "pronounced righteous" in relation to the judicial Courts of God, are also, in virtue of the same sacrifice, hallowed for the Courts of God's service; so that they may draw near, without fear even into the Holiest of all. But our blessings do not terminate here. He who by His grace opens our heart to receive the message of salvation and so brings us to the blood of sprinkling, does at the same moment impart to us the power of new and heavenly life. Jesus is not only the Lamb "wounded for our transgressions, and bruised for our iniquities;" in Him also, as the Son, one with the Father, and with the Holy Ghost, communicative power of life is. The manna sustained life, but Jesus as the true, the living bread, not only sustains, but communicates life. He is the life-giving one-the one that causeth to live—ὁ ζωην διδους—ὁ ζωοποιων (John vi. & 1 Cor. xv.) To Him as being this, the Spirit by means of the gospel message leads. "Of His own will begat He us by means of the word of truth." In ministering Christ, therefore, we minister life. The secret power of the Almighty Spirit using the foolishness of preaching, or the written word of the Gospel, as the means, brings to Jesus, and they who look to Jesus live. They become children of God, "born not of blood, nor of the will of man, but of God."

Thus to all who are justified by the blood of Jesus, new and holy spiritual capacities are communicated by the creation in them of that which the Scripture calls "the new man "-" the new man created according to God in righteousness and true holiness." Apart from this, there could be no acquaintance with God, no communion with

Him, no walking in His ways. "The flesh," said the Lord Jesus, "profiteth nothing." "We," says the Apostle, "explain spiritual things to spiritual persons:"* and that "in words taught by the Holy Ghost." The truths being spiritual need spiritual words to convey them, and spiritual persons to receive them, for "the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God." Hence the Scripture frequently speaks of the new understanding that is given us. "The Son of God hath come and given us an understanding, &c." And again, "we have the mind of Christ "-this being a result of the "creation of the new man" within us, for it said to be "created according to God" and according to the likeness of Him who created it. "The new man" is, therefore, the germ of our new spiritual being, by and by to be unfolded in all the perfectness of Christ in glory. And thus it is that the second branch of the New Covenant is fulfilled; "I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts," for every principle of the Divine holiness is in "the new man" thus created within us. It is created "according to God."

"The new man" is not, as some have said, an expression used to denote the effect of an operation of grace upon our old nature, whereby its evil is expelled, or else changed into good: for no such expulsion of evil, no such change, ever takes place in our "old man." Our old man is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts, and so it remains even till the end, ever struggling and lusting against the Spirit. Nor is "the new man" to be confounded with the Spirit. The Spirit is God, but the new man is a creature the result of the creative operation of the Spirit. Moreover, the Spirit comes as the Paraclete to dwell in those in whom the new man is. "The new

man," therefore, must be very distinct from Him by whom it is created, and by whom it is sustained and strengthened.

The creation, therefore, of "the new man" within us, and the coming of the Holy Spirit as the Paraclete to dwell in us, are acts which cause another character of sanctification to attach to us referred to in such texts as 2 Thess. ii., 13, & 1 Peter i. 2. That this indwelling of the Spirit is, in the order of God subsequent to and a consequence

Which things we likewise speak, not in words taught of human wisdom but in words taught of the Holy Ghost, explaining spiritual things to spiritual persons -πνευματικοις πνευματικά συγκρινοντες. For συγκρινω in the sense of “ex plain" or "interpret." See the Septuagint of Dan. v. 13 and 17. Gen. xl. 8, 22; xli. 15.