1. That the spiritual beauty and comeliness of the soul consists in its conformity imto God. Grace gives beauty. Hence it is said of the Lord Christ that he is " fairer," or more beautiful, " than the children of men," and that because " grace was poured into his lips,"
4S0 THE DEFILEMENT OF SIN, WHEREIN IT CONSISTS, [BOOK JV.
Ps. xlv. 2. And when the church is furnished or adorned with his graces, he affirms her to be " fair and comely," Cant. i. 5, vi. 4, vii. 6- Christ by washing of it takes away its ''' spots and wrinkles," ren- dering it beautiful, — that is, " holy and without blemish," Eph. v. 27. And this beauty originally consisted in the image of God in us, which contained the whole order, harmony, and symmetry of our natures, in all their faculties and actions, with respect unto God and our utmost end. That, therefore, which is contrary hereunto, as is all and every sin, hath a deformity in it, or brings spots, stains, and wrinkles on the soul. There is in sin all that is contrary to spiritual beauty and comeliness, to inward order and glory ; and this is the filth and pollution of it.
2. Holiness and conformity to God is the honour of our souls. It is that alone which makes them truly noble ; for all honour con- sists in an accession unto him who is the only spring and absolute possessor of all that is so, in whom alone is originally and perfectly all being and substance. Now, this we have alone by holiness, or that image of God wherein we are created. Whatever is contrary hereunto is base, vile, and unworthy. This is sin ; which is, there- fore, the only base thing in nature. Hence it is said of some great sinners that they had " debased themselves to hell," Isa. Ivii. 9. This belongs to the pollution of sin, — that it is base, vile, umvorthy, dis- honouring the soul, filling it with shame in itself and contempt from God ; and there are no persons, who are not absolutely hardened, but are in their own minds and consciences sensible of this baseness of sin, as they are also of the deformity that is in it. When men's eyes are opened to see their nakedness, how vile and base they have made themselves by sin, they will have a sense of this pollution not easily to be expressed. And from hence it is that sin hath the pro- perties and effects of uncleanness in the sight of God and in the con- science of the sinner : — God abhors, loathes it, accounts it an abo- minable thing, as that which is directly contrary to his holiness, which, as impressed on the law, is the rule of purity, integrity, spiri- tual beauty, and honour; and in the conscience of the sinner it is attended with shame, as a thing deformed, loathsome, vile, base, and dishonourable. See Jer. ii. 26.
In all in whom it is, I say, unless they are blind and obdurate, it fills them with shame. I speak not of such as are little or not at all spiritually sensible of sin or any of its properties, who fear not be- cause of its guilt, nor are disquieted by its power, nor acquainted with its foones or disposition to evil, and so not ashamed of its filth; much less of such as are given over to work all uncleanness with delight and greediness, wallowing in the pollution of it, like the sow in the mire, who not only do the things which God abhoiTcth, but also have
CHAP. IV.] WITH ITS PURIFICATION. 431
pleasure in them that do tliem; but those I intend who have the least real conviction of the nature and tendency of sin, who are all, in one degree or other, ashamed of it as a filthy thing. And a cast- ing off of outward shame, that is so from its object, or shame with respect unto the conscience and judgment of human kind, — as those do who "proclaim their sins as Sodom, and hide them not," — is the highest aggravation of sinning and contempt of God ; and the cast- ing out of inivard shame, with respect unto the divine omniscience, is the highest evidence of a reprobate mind. But in all others, who have more light and spiritual sense, it produceth shame and self- abhorrency, which hath always a respect unto the holiness of God ; as Job xhi. 5, 6. They see that in sin which is so vile, base, and filthy, and which renders them so, that, like unto men under a loath- some disease, they are not able to bear the sight of their own sores, Ps. xxxviii. 5. God detesteth, abhorreth, and turneth from sin as a loathsome thing, and man is filled with shame for it ; it is, therefore, filthy. Yea, no tongue can express the sense which a believing soul hath of the uncleanness of sin with respect unto the holiness of God. And this may suffice to give a little prospect into the nature of this defilement of sin, which the Scripture so abundantly insisteth on, and which all believers are so sensible of.
This pravity or spiritual disorder with respect unto the holiness of God, which is the shameful defilement of sin, is twofold: — 1. That which is habitual in all the faculties of our souls by nature, as they are the principle of our spiritual and moral operations. They are all shamefully and loathsomely depraved, out of order, and no way correspondent unto the holiness of God. Hence by nature we are wholly unclean ; — who can bring a clean thing out of that which is unclean? And this uncleanness is graphically expressed under the similitude of a wretched, polluted infant, Ezek. xvi. 3-5. 2. That which is actual in all the actings of our faculties as so defiled, and as far as they are so defiled; for, — (1.) Be any sin of what nature it will, there is a pollution attending it. Hence the apostle adviseth us to "cleanse ourselves from all pollutions of the flesh and spirit," 2 Cor. vii. 1. The sins that are internal and sjairitual, as pride, self-love, covetousness, unbelief, have a pollution attending them, as w^ell as those which are fleshly and sensual. (2.) So far as any thing of this pravity or disorder mixeth itself with the best of our duties, it renders both us and them unclean : Isa. Ixiv. 6, " We are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags,"