458 THE FILTH OF SIN PURGED [BOOK IV.
rest in the cleansing virtue of the blood of Christ. God hath given this power and efficacy unto it by the covenant. In the promise of the gospel it is proposed and tendered unto us. Faith in that pro- mise is that alone which gives us an interest in it, makes us par- takers of it, and renders it actually effectual unto us ; whereby we are really cleansed from sin. 4. There are two things which concur unto the efficacy of faith to this purpose; — (1.) The ecccellency of the grace or duty itself. Despise their ignorance who tell you this is but a deceitful fixing of the imagination ; for they know not what they say. When men come to the real practice of this duty, they will find what it is to discard all other ways and pretences of cleansing; what it is sincerely and really to give unto God, against all difficulties and op- positions, the glory of his power, faithfulness, goodness, and grace; what it is to approve of the wisdom and love of God in finding out this way for us, and the infiniteness of his grace in providing it when we were lost and under the curse, and to be filled with a holy ad- miration of him on that account ; — all which belong unto the faith mentioned, neither is it nor can it be acted in a due manner without them. And when you understand these things, you will not think it so strange that God should appoint this way of believing only as the means to interest us in the purifying virtue of the blood of Christ. (2.) Hereby are we, as hath been shown, united unto Christ, from whom alone is our cleansing. He that declares another way must make another gospel.
6. Faith, in this case, will act itself in and by fervent 'prayer. When David had, by sin, brought himself into that condition where- in he stood in need of a new universal purification, how earnest is he in his supplications that God would again " purge and cleanse him ! " Ps. li. And when any soul is reall}'' coming over to the way of God for his washing in the blood of Christ, he will not be more earnest and fervent in any supplication than in this. And herein and hereby doth Christ communicate of the purging efficacy of his blood unto us.
And these things may, in some measure, suffice for the direction and guidance of those who are yet wholly under the pollution of corrupted nature, how they may proceed to get themselves cleansed according to the mind of God. Not that this order or method is prescribed unto any ; only, these are the heads of those things which, in one degree or other, are wrought in the souls of them whom Christ will and doth cleanse from their sins.
Secondly, Instruction, also, may be hence taken for them concerning whom our apostle says, " Such were some of you ; but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God," 1 Cor. vi. 9-11 ; — such as are freed from the general pollution of nature " by the washing of rege-
CHAP, v.] EY THE SPIRIT AND BLOOD OF CnP.IST. 45D
Deration and renewing of the Holy Ghost," Tit. iii. 5; — those, I mean, who have been made partakers of that cleansing, purifying work of the Holy Ghost which we have described. Several duties are incumbent on them with respect hereunto ; as, —
1. Continual self -abasement, in the remembrance of that woful defiled state and condition from whence they have been delivered. This consideration is one of them which principally doth influence the minds of believers unto humility, and hideth pride from them; for what should creatures of such a base and defiled extraction have to boast of in themselves? It is usual, I confess, for vile men of the most contemptible beginnings, when they are greatly exalted in the world, to outgo others in pride and elation of mind, as they are be- hind them in the advantages of birth and education. But this is esteemed a vile thing amongst men, though it is but one potsherd of the earth boasting itself against another. But when believers shall consider what was their vile and polluted estate with respect unto God, when first he had regard unto them, it will cause them to walk humbly in a deep sense of it, or I am sure it ought so to do. God calls his people to self-abasement, not only from what they are, but from what they were and whence they came. So he ordained that confession to be made by him that offered the first-fruits of his fields and possessions, " A Syrian ready to perish was my father ; " or, " A Syrian" (that is, Laban) "was ready to destroy my father, a poor, helpless man, that went from one country to another for bread. How is it of sovereign mercy that I am now in this state and condition of plenty and peace!" Deut. xxvi. 1-5. And, in particular, God wonder- fully binds upon them the sense of that defiled natural extraction whereof we speak, Ezek. xvi. 8-5. And when David, uj)on his great sin and his repentance, took in all humbling, self-abasing considera- tions, here he fixeth the head of them : Ps. li. 5, " Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me." His original natural defilement was that which, in the first place, influ- enced him unto self-abasement. So our apostle frequently calls the saints to a remembrance of their former condition before they were purged, Eph. ii. 11—13; 1 Cor. vi. 9-11 ; and therewith are the minds of all true believers greatly affected and greatly humbled. When they consider what was then' natural state and condition, — universally leprous and polluted, — with what remainders of it do still abide, it casts them on the earth, and causeth them to lay their mouths in the dust. Hence proceed their great and deep humiliations of them- selves, and confessions of their own vileness in their prayers and sup- plications. Considering the holiness of God, with whom they have to do, unto whom they do approach, they are no way able to expresi5 what low thoughts and apprehensions they have of themselves. Even