460 THE FILTH OF SIN PURGED [BOOK IV.
God himself doth teach them to use figurative expressions whereby to declare their own vileuess by nature; which abound in the Scrip- ture. It is true, all declarations hereof, in prayer and confession of sin, are derided and scorned by some, who seem to understand no- thing of these things, yea, to glory that they do not. Whatever is spoken to express, as they are able, the deep sense any have of their natural defilement, with the remainder of it, their shame and self- abasement with respect unto the holiness of God, is reputed either as false and hypocritical, or that it containeth such things as for which men ought to be hanged. Such prodigious impudence in pro- claiming a senselessness of the holiness of God and of the vileness of sin have we lived to see and hear of! But when we have to deal with God, who puts no trust in his servants, and chargeth his angels with folly, what shall we say? What lowliness becomes them "who dwell in houses of clay, whose foundation is in the dust, and who are crushed before the moth ! "
2. That initial deliverance which believers have from their origi- nal pollution of sin is a matter and cause of everlasting thankfulness. When our Lord Jesus Christ cleansed the ten lepers, he manifests how much it was their duty to return unto him with their thankful acknowledgment, though nine of them failed therein, Luke xvii. 17. And when of old any one was cleansed from a carnal defilement, there was an offering enjoined him, to testify his gratitude. And, indeed, the consideration hereof is that which in an eminent manner influenceth the minds of believers in all their grateful ascriptions of glory, honour, and praise to Jesus Christ. " Unto him,'' say they, " that loved us, and w^ashed us from our sins in his own blood, to him be glory and dominion for ever and ever," Rev. i. 5, 6. And there are three things which concur to this duty: — (1.) A due valua- tion of the causes and means of our purification, — namely, the sprink- ling of the blood of Christ in the sanctification of the Spirit. As these alone have effected this great work, so they alone were able so to do. Had we not been washed in the blood of Christ, we must have lived and died in our pollutions, and have lain under them to eter- nity; for the fire of hell will never purge the defilements of sin, much less will the fictitious fire of purgatory cleanse any from them. How ought we then to prize, value, and admire, both the virtue or efficacy of the blood of Christ, and the love from whence it was given for us and is applied unto us! And because this valuation and ad- miration are acts of faith, the very work itself, also, of cleansing our souls is carried on by them; for by the exercise of faith do we con- tinually derive virtue from Christ to this purpose, as the woman did by touching of his garment for the stopping of her issue of blood. (2.) Inward joy and satisfaction in our freedom from that shame
CHAP, v.] BY THE SPIRIT AND BLOOD OF CHRIST. 461
which deprived us of all boldness and confidence in God. This in- ternal joy belongs unto the duty of thankfulness; for therein is God glorified when we are graciously sensible of the effects of his love and kindness towards us. Every grace then glorifies God, and ex- presseth our thankfulness for his love, when a soul finds itself really affected with a sense of its being washed from all its loathsome de- filements in the blood of Christ, and, being thereby freed from dis- couraging, oppressing shame, to have fiHal boldness in the presence of God. (3.) Acknoiuledgment in a way of actual praise.
Again; we have declared not only that there is in our natural frame and spiritual constitution a discrepancy to the holiness of God, and consequently a universal defilement, but that there is, from its pravity and disorder, a 'pollution attending every actual sin, whether internal of the heart and mind only, or external in sin perpetrated, averse to holiness, and contrary to the carrying on of the work of sanctification in us. And sundry things believers, whose concern- ment alone this is, may learn from hence also; as, —
1. How they ought to watch against sin and all the motions of it, though never so secret. They all of them defile the conscience. And it is an evidence of a gracious soul, to be watchful against sin on this account. Convictions will make men wary where they are prevalent, by continual representations of the danger and punishment of sin ; and these are an allowable motive to believers themselves to abstain from it in all known instances. The consideration of the terror of the Lord, the use of the threatenings both of the law and gospel, declare this to be our duty. Neither let any say that this is servile fear; that denomination is taken from the frame of our minds, and not from the object feared. When men so fear as thereon to be discouraged, and to incline unto a relinquishment of God, duty, and hope, that fear is servile, whatever be the object of it. And that fear which keeps from sin, and excites the soul to cleave more firmly to God, be the object of it what it will, is no servile fear, but a holy fear or due reverence unto God and his word. But this is the most genuinely gracious fear of sin, when we dread the defilement of it, and that contrariety which is in it to the holiness of God. This is a natural fruit of faith and love. And this consideration should always greatly possess our minds; — and the truth is, if it do not so, there is no assured preservative against sin; for together with an apprehen- sion of that spiritual pollution wherewith sin is accompanied, thoughts of the holiness of God, of the care and concernment of the sanctifying Spirit, and of the blood of Christ, will continually abide in our minds, which are all efficaciously preservative against sin. I think that there is no more forcible argument unto watchfulness against all sin, unto believers, in the whole book of God, than that which is managed