Use 2. Information. It informeth us that we are all polluted by nature, for Ave need to be purified ere we are Christ's people. Nay, it sticketh to us ; we change our skin, our outward conversation, but no other laver will wash our hearts but Christ's blood. If we had eyes to see our natural filth, we should loathe ourselves more than we do. We are all infected with self-love and fleshly natures: Titus iii. 3, ' For Ave ourselves also were sometimes foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving divers lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful, and hating one another.' But we are partial to ourselves, Ave have no spiritual eyesight. Sin is of a defiling natiu-e. You abhor diiiy nasty creatures ; all of us are polluted with sin. God that is a Spirit hath other affections ; he doth not abhor a creature because of his sores, but because of his sins. We judge by the senses: Ps. xiv. 3, 'They are all gone aside, they are altogether become filthy, there is none that doeth good, no not one.' So we are in the eyes of God, who is a pure Spirit. Sin maketh us odious and loathsome to him ; but we that have bodies abominate things that are sensibly unclean.
Use 3. Let it stir us up to purify ourselves yet more and more.
1. See yourselves in the glass of the word. They that have most light do most complain of the filthiness and impurity of their hearts ; not because there is more defilement, but more light. Sluttish corners are not seen in the dark. Carnal men are loath to see their own faces, they will not come to the light. We love a flattering glass, but a searching ministry is hated. You have not looked in the glass enough till it hath stirred up shame, sorrow, and self-abhorrence. Raging against conviction argueth the heart is bad. When men cannot endure to see themselves, but think all is clean and well, it is a sign of a secure careless spirit. If we keep ourselves from foul sins, we do not think of our odious natures.
2. Desire cleansing ; as Peter, John xiii. 9, ' Simon Peter saith unto him, Lord, not my feet only, but also my hands and my head ; ' or David, Ps. li. 2, 'Wash me throughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin.' Sin is a deep stain, hardly got out ; let it keep us humble. God carrieth on his work by degrees.
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3. Use God's means: Zech. xiii. 1, 'In that clay there shall be a fountain opened to the house of David and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem for sin and for uncleanness;' Rev. vii. 14, ' These are they which came out of great tribulation, which have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.' The church knoweth no other laver, and the effect of it you receive in the ordinances.
4. Keep yourselves clean by a constant watchfulness : James i. 27, *Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, to visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep yourselves unspotted from the world.' The world is a dirty place ; you will soil your garments ; therefore you must avoid all appearance of evil. Hate the garment spotted with the flesh. We cannot keep at too great a distance from sin; a bold use of our liberty showeth the heart han- keretli after sin, as a raven hovereth within the scent of the carrion.
Dod. 2. Those that are purified are reckoned to be God's treasure and peculiar people.
The word in the original which we translate j^9ec2<Ziar people, is 'ka6<i 7repLovaio<i, the Vulgate renders it joopidus acceptabilis, an ac- ceptable people, but not emjihatical enough. Ilepiovata signifies wealth, plenty, treasure, that wliich we have above our necessary sub- stance ; yea, not only treasure, but the principal part of it, that which is locked up in the cabinet, and takes u]) but a little room, as jewels. The expression is taken out of the Septuagint, and alludes to those places in the Old Testament where God calls his people his jewels or special treasure : Exod. xix. 5, ' Ye shall be a peculiar treasure to me above all people ; ' which is rendered by the Septuagint, \ao<; irepiovaio'; airh iravTUiv eOvcov. And you have another expression, 1 Peter ii. 9, ' Ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a peculiar (or purchased) people:' Xao^- ek 7repi7roir]aiv, pop- ulus acquisitionis, or possessionis ; a people of possession, such as God counts his heritage, his jewels : Mai. iii. 17, ' They shall be mine, saith the Lord of hosts, in that day when I make up my jewels.' The word imports any choice and precious thing ; that God loves those that are purified as a covetous man loves his treasure or a proud man his jewels and honours.
Give me leave to illustrate it by a few scriptures, where the world and the saints are compared. The world are said to be ' not a people,' 1 Peter ii, 10. How so ? Not for want of prowess, or policy, or pomp, oi: worldly splendour, or civil arts or crafts ; many times in these things they excel the church ; but they are said to be 'not a people,' that is, in God's account and esteem they are but a confused heap of nations spilt upon the earth by a general and looser providence. In Isa. Iv. 5, there is another emphatical expression ; ' Behold, thou shalt call nations that thou knowest not, and nations that know not thee shall run unto thee, because of the Lord thy God.' It is spoken to Christ ; it is a strange expression. Is there any terra incor/mta, any land that is unknown to him ? The meaning is, which thou hast no more taken notice of, nor taken care of, than a man doth of those wliom he never knew ; a people of no esteem and respect with God, as if he had taken no notice that there were any such in the world. So Acts xvii. 30, * The times of this ignorance God winked at.' In the original it is