far as -we arc not abased for them, and oppose tliem, and repress them as we should in our places and standings, whether we be ministers or magis- trates ? Thus far we are guilty all. Therefore the prophet might well say, ' We all are as an unclean thing,' &c.
(2.) Then again, there is r/reat stjmpathi/ in the hearts of good men. They are full of pity and compassion ; and therefore they join themselves with others, partly knowing that they are guilty in some degree with others, and partly because they are members of the same body politic and ecclesiastical. They live in the same church and commonwealth. Therefore all join their confession together. ' We all are as an unclean thing,' &c.
Use. Let us make this use of it, every one of us to he humbled. Do not every one of us bring sticks to the common fire ? Do we not add some- thing to the common judgment ? If there be two malefactors that have committed a trespass, one of them is taken and used in his kind ; he is executed. Will it not grieve the other ? He will think, was it not my case ? I was a wretched sinner as well as he. If there be divers traitors, and the king is merciful to one, and the other he executes, will it not grieve him that is spared, if he have any bowels of good nature, besides good- ness in other kinds? Will he not think, it was my own case? There was no difference between me and them, only the mercy of the king ? So the best of us may think, have I not a corrupt nature, and for the sins of the times, am not I soiled with them ? Others have been stricken ; might not the same arrow have stricken me ? Certainly this consideration, that we bring something to the public sins, it will make us humbled for the public, as the church here confesseth, ' We are all as an unclean thing,' &c.
To come to the particulars of the confession.
' We are all as an unclean thing.'
Here is a confession of their persons. Their persons were tainted. We are all a tainted seed and generation in nature. What the wickedest is wholl}', the best are in part. Therefore it is no error that we should say so and so of ourselves in our confessions ; as Saint Paul saith of himself, ' I am sold under sin,' Rom. vii. 14. One would wonder that he should confess so. Alas ! blessed man, he felt that in part that others in the state of nature are wholly. So we are all filthy. The best, as far as they are not renewed, are as other men are.
' Unclean.'
It is a comparison taken from the leprosy, or some other contagious disease. Those that were tainted of them were separated from the con- gregation seven days, or some set time. So it is with sin, especially the sins of this people. They had sinned grievously, and were severed from their land ; not seven days, but seventy years, the leprosy and filthiness of their sins and lives was such.
Indeed, sin, especially the sin of nature, it is a leprosy, contagious, pesti- lential ; and as a leprosy it spreads over all the parts and powers of body and soul. Take a man that is not changed ; he hath a leprous eye, full of adultery ; he hath a leprous, uncircumcised ear. Ask him how he judgeth of discourses and sermons. He relisheth nothing but that which is frothy and vain. Plain, substantial, solid discourses, either in hearing or read- ing, will not down with him. He hath a leprous judgment. His eyes, and ears, and tongue are defiled and corrupt. He is vile and abominable in his speeches. He is uncircumcised in all. All are unclean. All his powers are defiled by nature.
All the washings in the law did signify this, the corruption and defile-
190 THE church's complaint and confidence.
mcnt of our natures, which needs another washinc; which they typified, a washing by the blood and Spirit of Christ. ' Christ camo by water and blood,' 1 Johnv. G, both in justification and sauctification. ' There is a fountain opened for Judah and Jerusalem to wash in,' Zeeh. xiii. 1. All those washings shewed a defilement spiritually, that needed a spiritual washing. This sin is a leprous, contagious sin ; therefore by nature wg may all cry as the leper, ' Unclean, unclean.' The best of us may take up that complaint as far as we are not renewed. A leprous man defiled the things that he touched. So it is with sin, till it be forgiven ;' we defile everything. A proud man, especially when he is set out in his bravery, he thinks himself a jolly man, a brave creature. Alas ! he is a filthy creature ; not only in himself, but in everything he puts his hand unto. He taints and defiles everything, even civil actions. He sins in eating and drinking ; not that they in the substance of them are sins, but he stains everything ; for he forgets God in them ; he forgets himself exceedingly ; and he returns not thanks to God. So in moral, civil actions, much more in religious. He defiles himself in everything. He is defiled to all things, and all things are defiled to him. This is our state by nature, ' We are all as an unclean thing.'