with him in his work, and exercising his almighty power to render it effectual for our good. Is there no mystery in all this? Truly, "great is the mystery of godliness:" and the more we contemplate it, the more shall we be constrained to exclaim with the Apostle, " O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God ! How unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out ! "]
3. The precise manner in which that remedy be- comes effectual —
[What was it that rendered the ordinance effectual for the purifying of an unclean person ? Was there any necessary connexion between sprinkling the ashes of an heifer upon a person, and the cleansing him from sin ? None at all. It was the divine appointment, and that only, that gave efficacy to it. Indeed, so far was it from being able of itself to cleanse a per- son from sin, that the very observance of the ordinance ren- dered every person unclean that was engaged in it. The killing of the heifer, the sprinkling of its blood, the burning of it, and the gathering up of the ashes, rendered all the persons who were occupied in those duties, unclean until the evening ; and laid them under a necessity of washing both their body and their clothes, in order to then purification from the defilement they had contracted. All this shewed clearly enough that the ordinance in itself had no purifying power : it went further ; it intimated, that neither could evangelical obedience cleanse us from sin : we cannot exercise repentance or faith, but we con- tract guilt through the imperfection of our graces : " our tears," as a pious prelate expresses it, " need to be washed, and our repentances to be repented of." There is no virtue in them to cleanse us from sin: nay, there is no necessary connexion between the exercise of those graces in us, and the removal of guilt from our souls. If the devils were to repent, or to believe, we have no authority to say that they must therefore be restored to the state from which they fell : and, independent of the divine appointment, there is no more connexion between the death of Christ and our salvation, than between the same event and theirs. It is from the divine appointment only that the Gospel derives its power to save. It was from that source alone that the rod of Moses had power to divide the sea, or the brasen serpent to heal the wounded Israelites, or the waters of Jordan to cure Naaman of his leprosy: and consequently, if any of us obtain salvation, all ground of glorying in ourselves must be for ever excluded: our repentance, our faith, our obedience are necessary, as the sprinkling of the ashes ; but the ultimate effect, namely, the salvation of our souls, is alto- gether the free gift of God for Christ's sake.
Unless we view this matter aright, we shall never know how