438 THE FILTH OF SIN PURGED [bOOK IV.
implanted in the whole soul by the Holy Ghost, is pure and purify- ing, clean and holy.
2. The Holy Ghost doth purify and cleanse us by strengthening our souls by his grace unto all holy duties and against all actual sins. It is by actual sins that our natural and habitual pollution is increased. Hereby some make themselves base and vile as hell. But this also is prevented by the gracious actings of the Spirit. Having given us a principle of purity and holiness, he so acts it in duties of obedience and in opposition unto sin as that he preserves the soul free from defilements, or pure and holy, according to the tenor of the new covenant; that is, in such measure and to such a degree as universal sincerity doth require. But it may be yet said that indeed hereby he makes us pure, and prevents manj^- future de- filements, yet how is the soul freed from those it hath contracted before this work upon it, or those which it may and doth unavoid- ably afterward fall into ; for as there is no man that doeth good and sinneth not, so there is none who is not more or less defiled with sin whilst he is in the body here in this world? The apostle answereth this objection or inquiry, 1 John i. 7-9, " If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.'' But if sin be in us we are defiled, and how shall we be cleansed? " God is just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." But how may this be done, by what means may it be accomplished? " The blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin." 11. It is, therefore, the hlood of Christ, in the second place, which I is the meritorious procuring, and so the effective cause, that imme- '■ diately purgeth us from our sins, by an especial application of it unto our souls by the Holy Ghost. And there is not any truth belonging unto the mystery of the gospel which is more plainly and evidently asserted, as hath in part been made to apjoear before : " The blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth us from all sin," 1 John i. 7; " He hath washed us from our sins in his own blood," Rev. i. 5 ; " The blood of Christ purgeth our conscience from dead works, that we may serve the living God," Heb. ix. 14; " He gave himself for the church, that he might sanctify and cleanse it," Eph. v. 25, 26; to "purify to himself a peculiar people," Tit. ii. 14. Besides, whatever is spoken in the whole Sci"ipture concerning purifying the unclean, the leprous, the defiled, by sacrifices or other instruments of the Old Testament, it is all instructive in and directive unto the purifying nature of the blood of Christ, from whence alone these institutions had their effi- cacy; and the virtue of it is promised under that notion, Zech. xiii. 1. And this the faith and experience of all believers doth confirm ; for they are no imaginations of their own, but what, being built on the truth and promises of God, yield sensible spiritual relief and refresh-
CHAP, v.] BY THE SPIIUT AND BLOOD OF CHRIST. 439
ment unto their souls. This they believe, this they pray for, and find the fruits and effects of it in themselves. It may be some of them do not, it may be few of them do, comprehend distinctly the way whereby and the manner how the blood of Christ, so long since shed and offered, should cleanse them now from their sins; but the thing itself they do believe as it is revealed, and find the use of it in all wherein they have to do with God. And I must say (let profane and ignorant persons, whilst they please, deride what they under- stand not, nor are able to disprove) that the Holy Spirit of God, which leadeth believers into all truth, and enableth them to pray according to the mind and will of God, doth guide them, in and by the working and experience of faith, to pray for those things the depths of whose mysteries they cannot comprehend. And he who well studieth the things which he is taught of the Spirit to ask of God, will find a door opened into much spiritual wisdom and know- ledge; for (let the world rage on) in those prayers which believers are taught and enabled unto by the Holy Ghost helping of them as a Spirit of supplication, there are two things inexpressible : — First, The inward labouring and spiritual working of the sanctified heart and affections towards God ; wherein consist those " groanings that cannot be uttered," Eom. viii. 26. God alone sees, and knows, and understands the fervent workings of the new creature, when acted by the Holy Ghost in supplications; and so it is added in the next words, verse 27, " And he that searcheth the hearts knoweth" ri rb ppovri/Ma ToiJ Uvsv/Marog, " what is the meaning of the Spirit," what it favours and inclines unto. It is not any distinct or sejjarate act- ing of the Spirit by himself that is intended, but what and how he works in the hearts of believers as he is a Spirit of grace and suppli- cation; and this is known only unto him who is the Searcher of hearts, and as he is so. And he knoweth what is the bent, frame, inclination, and acting of the inward man in prayer, from the power of the Spirit ; which they themselves in whom they are wrought do not fathom or reach the depth of This he doth in the subject of prayer, the hearts and minds of believers ; the effects of his operation in them are inexpressible. Secondly, As to the object of prayer, or things prayed for, he doth in and by the word so represent and ex- hibit the truth, reality, subsistence, power, and efficacy of spiritual, mysterious things, unto the faith and affections of believers, that they have a real and experimental sense of, do mix faith Avith, and are affected by, those things now made nigh, now realized unto them, which, it may be, they are not able doctrinally and distinctly to ex- plain in their proper notions. And thus do we ofttimes see men low and weak in their notional apprehension of things, yet in their prayers led into communion with God in the highest and holiest