2. And this also is to be understood in a peculiar sense, different from that, wherein we believed in order to justification. Believe the _glad tidings of great salvation_, which God hath prepared for all people. Believe that he who is _the brightness of his Father’s glory, the express image of his person, is able to save unto the uttermost all that come unto God through him_. He is able to save you from all the sin that still remains in your heart. He is able to save you from all the sin that cleaves to all your words and actions. He is able to save you from sins of omission, and to supply whatever is wanting in you. It is true, _this is impossible with man; but with God_-Man _all things are possible_. For what can be too hard for him, who hath _all power in heaven and in earth_? Indeed his bare power to do this, is not a sufficient foundation for our faith, that he _will_ do it, that he will thus exert his power, unless he hath promised it. But this he has done: he has promised it over and over, in the strongest terms. He has given us these _exceeding great and precious promises_, both in the Old and the New Testament. So we read in the law, in the most ancient part of the oracles of God, _The Lord thy God will circumcise thy heart, and the heart of thy seed, to love the Lord thy God, with all thy heart and with all thy soul_, Deut. xxx. 6. So in the Psalms, _He shall redeem Israel_ (the Israel of God) _from all his sins_, so in the Prophet: _Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you and ye shall be clean: from all your filthiness and from all your idols will I cleanse you――And I will put my Spirit within you and ye shall keep my judgments and do them. I will also save you from all your uncleannesses_, Ezek. xxxvi. 25, &c. So likewise in the New Testament. _Blessed be the Lord God of Israel for he hath visited and redeemed his people. And hath raised up an horn of salvation for us――to perform the oath which he swore to our father Abraham, that he would grant unto us, that we being delivered out of the hands of our enemies, should serve him without fear, in holiness and righteousness before him, all the days of our life_, Luke i. 68, &c.
3. You have therefore good reason to believe, he is not only able, but _willing_ to do this, to _cleanse you from all your filthiness of flesh and spirit_, to _save you from all your uncleannesses_. This is the thing which you now long for: this is the faith which you now particularly need, namely, that the great Physician, the lover of my soul, is willing to _make me clean_. But is he willing to do this to-morrow or to-day? Let him answer for himself. _To day, if ye will hear my voice, harden not your hearts._ If you put it off till to-morrow, you _harden your hearts_: you refuse to _hear his voice_. Believe therefore that he is willing to save you _to-day_. He is willing to save you _now_. _Behold, now is the accepted time._ He now saith, _Be thou clean_! Only believe; and you also will immediately find, _all things are possible to him that believeth_.
4. Continue to believe in him _that loved_ thee, _and gave himself for_ thee, that _bore all_ thy _sins in his own body on the tree_, and he saveth thee from all condemnation, by his blood continually applied. Thus it is that we continue in a justified state. And when we go on _from faith to faith_, when we have faith to be cleansed from indwelling sin, to be saved from all our uncleannesses, we are likewise saved from all that _guilt_, that _desert_ of punishment, which we felt before. So that then we may say not only
Every moment, Lord, I _want_ The merit of thy death:
But likewise, in the full assurance of faith,
Every moment, Lord, I _have_ The merit of thy death!
For by that faith in his life, death and intercession for us, renewed from moment to moment, we are every whit clean, and there is not only now no condemnation for us, but no such desert of punishment as was before, the Lord cleansing both our hearts and lives.
5. By the same faith, we feel the power of Christ every moment resting upon us, whereby alone we are what we are, whereby we are enabled to continue in spiritual life, and without which, notwithstanding all our present holiness, we should be devils the next moment. But as long as we retain our faith in him, we _draw water out of the wells of salvation_. Leaning on our Beloved, even Christ in us the hope of glory, who dwelleth in our hearts by faith, who likewise is ever interceding for us at the right hand of God, we receive help from him to think, and speak, and act what is acceptable in his sight. Thus does he prevent them that believe in all their doings, and further them with his continual help, so that all their designs, conversations and actions, are “begun, continued and ended in him.” Thus doth he “cleanse the thoughts of their hearts, by the inspiration of his holy Spirit, that they may perfectly love him, and worthily magnify his holy name.”