To the same purpose, among many others, is that promise, Isa. iv. 4, " When the Lord shall have washed away the filth of the daughters of Zion, and shall have purged the blood of Jerusalem from the midst thereof by the Spirit of judgment, and by the Spirit of burning." Upon what gi-ound the Spirit is compared to fire, and thence here called a " Spirit of burning," hath been also declared. In brief, fire and water were the means whereby all things were purified and cleansed typically in the law. Num. xxxi. 23; and the Holy Spirit being tlie principal efficient cause of all spiritual cleansing is compared to them both (by which his work was signified), and called by their names. See Mal.'iii. 2, 3. And "judgment" is frequently taken for holiness. " The Spirit of judgment," therefore, and the " Spirit of burning," is the Spirit of sanctification and purification. And he is here promised for the sanctification of the elect of God. And hov/ shall he effect this work ? He shall do it, in the first place, by " washing away their filth and purging away their blood;" — that is, all their spiritual, sinful defilements.
2. The application of the death and blood of Christ unto our souls, for our sanctification, by the Holy Ghost, is said to be for our cleans-
42-i THE DEFILEMENT OF SIN, WHEREIN IT COI^,SISTS, [BOOK IV.
mg and purging: Eph. v. 25, 26, "Christ loved the church, and gave himself for it ; that he might sanctify and cleanse it with the wash- ing of water by the word." He " gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works,"' Tit. ii. 14. "The blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth us from all sin," 1 John i. 7. " He loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood," Rev. i. 5. " The blood of Christ purgeth our conscience from dead works to serve the living God," Heb. ix. 14. Eespect, I acknowledge, in some of these places, may be had imto the expiation of the guilt of sin by the blood of Christ as offered in sacrifice, for so " by himself he purged our sins," chap. i. 3 ; but as they all suppose a defilement in sin, so the most of them respect its cleansing by the application of the virtue of the blood of Christ vmto our souls and consciences in our sanctification. And, —
3. Moreover, where sanctification is enjoined us as our duty, it is prescribed under this notion of cleansing ourselves from sin: "Wash you, make you clean," Isa. i. 16. " O Jerusalem, wash thine heart from wickedness, that thou mayest be saved," Jer. iv. 14. " Hav- ing therefore these promises, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthi- ness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God," 2 Cor. vii. 1. " Every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself," 1 John iii. 3; Ps. cxix. 9; 2 Tim. ii. 21. And the like ex- pressions of this duty occur in other places.
4. Answerable unto these promises and precepts, and in con- firmation of them, we have the institution of the ordinance of hap- tism, the outward way and means of our initiation into the Lord Christ and the profession of the gospel, the great representation of the inward "washing of regeneration," Tit. iii. 5. Now this baptism, in the first place, expresseth the outward "putting away of the filth of the flesh," by external washing with material water, 1 Pet. iii. 21. And that which answers hereunto can be nothing but the inward purifying of our souls and consciences by the grace of the Spirit of God; that is, saith our apostle, the " putting off the body of the sins of the flesh," Col. ii. 11, which contains the whole defile- ment and corruption of sin: "and this also was typed out unto us by all the legal purifications of old. Wherefore, we shall do three things in the explication of this first branch of our sanctification : — •
1. Show that there is a spiritual pollution and defilement in sin;
2. Declare what it is, or wherein it doth consist; and, 3. Manifest how it is removed or washed away, and believers made holy thereby.
For the first, it needs not much to be insisted on. Our minds and their conceptions are in these things to be regulated by divine reve-
CHAP. IV.] WITH ITS PURIFICATION. 425
lation and expressions. And in the whole representation made unto us in the Scripture of the nature of sin, of our concernment therein, of the respect of God towards us on the account thereof, of the way and means whereby we may be delivered from it, there is nothing so much inculcated as its being filthy, abominable, full of defilement and pollution; which is set forth both in plain expressions and vari- ous similitudes. On the account hereof is it said to be " abhorred of God, the abominable thing which his soul hatetli, which he cannot behold, which he cannot but hate and detest;" and it is compared to "blood, wounds, sores, leprosy, scum, loathsome diseases." With re- spect hereunto is it so frequently declared that we must be " washed, purged, purified, cleansed," as in the testimonies before cited, before we can be accepted with him or be brought to the enjoyment of him. And the work of the Spirit of Christ in the application of his blood unto us for the taking away of sin is compared to the effects of '" fire, water, soap, nitre," every thing that hath a purifying, cleansing faculty in it. These things so frequently occur in the Scripture, and testi- monies concerning them are so multipUed, that it is altogether need- less to produce particular instances. This is evident and undeniable, that the Scripture, which regulates our conceptions about spiritual things, expressly declares all sin to be "un cleanness," and every sin- ner to be " defiled" thereby, and all unsanctified persons to be " wholly unclean ; " and how far these expressions are metaphorical, or wherein the metaphor doth consist, must be afterward declared.