274 THE FILTH OF SIN PURGED Many things most be returned unto this objection all " he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of a water by the word, that he may present it unto him- " self a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle, " or any such thing, but that it should be holy and u without blemish," Eph. v. 26, 27. This he aims at, and this he will, in his own way, and in his own time, perfectly accomplish. But it is not done at once; it is a progressive work, that path many degrees. God did never sanctify any soul at once, unless by death. The body must die by reason of sin. Every believer is truly and really sanctified atonce, but none is perfectly sanc- tified at once. It is not therefore necessary unto union that we should be completely sanctified, though it is that we should be truly sanctified. Complete sanctifi- cation is a necessary effect of union in its proper time and season. See John xv. 1, 2, 8, 4, 5. (4.) Where the work of sanctification and spiritual cleansing is really begun in any, there the whole person is, and is thence denominated holy. As therefore Christ, the head, is holy, so are all the members holy, according to their measure. For, although theremay be defilements adhering unto their actions, yet their persons are sanctified. So that no unholy person hath any communion with Christ, no member of his body is unholy, that is, absolutely so, in such a state as thence to be denominated unholy. (5.) Our union with Christ is immediately in and by the new creature in us, by the divine nature which is from the Spirit of holiness, and is pure and holy. Here- unto, and hereby, doth the Lord Christ communicate himself unto our souls and consciences; and hereby have we all opr intercourse-withhim. Otheradherences that have any defilement in them, and consequently are op- posite unto this union, he daily worketh out by virtue hereof, Rom. viii. 10. The whole body of Christ there- fore, and all that belongs unto it, is holy, though those who are membersof thisbody are in themselves oft-times polluted, but not in any thing which belongs to their union. The apostle describeth the twofold nature, or principle that is in believers, thenew nature by grace, and the old-of sin, as a double person, Rom. vii. 19, 20. And it is the former, the renewed, (and not the latter, which he calls I also, but corrects, as it were, that expression, calling it sin which dwelleth in him), that is the subject of the union with Christ, the other being to be destroyed. concurring to take away the seeming difficulty that is in it: As, (I.) It must be granted, that where men are wholly under the power of their original defilement, they nei= ther have nor can have either union or communion with Christ. With respect unto such persons, the rules be- fore mentioned are universally true and certain: there is no more communion between them and Jesus Christ, than is betweenlight and darkness, asthe apostle speaks nexpressly, 1 John i. 6. Whatever profession they may make of his name, whatever expectations they may un- duly raise from him in their own minds, he will say -unto them at the' last day, Depart from me, I never knewyou. No person therefore whatever, who hath not been made partaker of the washing of regeneration, and the renovation of the Holy Ghost, can possibly have any union with Christ. I donot speak this, as though our purifying were in order of time or nature antece- dent unto our union with Christ; for indeed it is an ef- fect thereof. But it is such an effect as immediately and inseparably accompanieth it so that where the one is not, there is not the other. The act whereby he u- nites us unto himself, is the same with that whereby he eleanseth our natures. (2.) Whatever our defilementsare or may be, he is not defiled by them. They adhere only unto a capable subject, which Christ is not. He was capable to have the guilt of our sins imputed to him, but not the filth 'of one sin adhering to him. A member of a body may have a putrified sore. The head may be troubled at it, and grieved with it, yet is not defiled by it. Where- fore, where there is a radical original cleansing by the Spirit of regeneration and holiness, whereby any one is meet for union and communion with Christ, however he may be affected with our partial pollutions, he is not defiled by them; he is able cvwoxSuau, compati, condo- [ere, he suffers with us in his compassion; but he is not liablervppau,s$aa to be defiled with us, or for us. The visible mystical body of Christ may be defiled by cor- rupt members, Heb. xii. 15. but the mystical body can -. not be so, much less the head. (g.) The design of Christ, when he takes believers . into unionwith himself, is to purge and cleanse them absolutely and perfectly: and therefore the present re- mainders of some defilements are not absolutely incon- sistent with that union. " Hegave himselffor it, that
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