[Blessed be God ! your state is not hopeless, though you may have fallen into sin. For at Corinth there were some who had been guilty of the very transgressions here referred to, and yet had obtained mercy through Christ: " Such were some of you," says St. Paul ; " 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 Godf." So, then, may ye be washed, and justified, and sanctified, if you turn unto God through Christ. The blood of Christ shall be sufficient for you, as it was for them; and the Spirit of Christ shall operate as effectually in you as in them. " Only acknowledge your trans- gressions," and " flee for refuge to the hope that is set before you ;" so shall you find mercy of the Lord, and " your iniquity shall not be your ruing."]
f 1 Cor. vi. 9 — 11. s Ezek. xviii. 30.
Eph. v. 8. Ye were sometimes darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord : walk as children of light.
MANY imagine, that when they have believed in Christ, the work in them is complete : and, if they were then to die, it is true that they would be com- plete ; because it is said of all believers, " Ye are complete in Christ, who is the Head of all principality and power." But no man in this world is so com- plete, but that he still needs to be urged forward, by warnings and exhortations, and promises and exam- ples. This is clearly manifest from all the apostolic writings, in which the saints are cautioned against every species of sin, and stimulated to every species of duty. The latter half of this epistle is altogether addressed to believers, in this precise point of view, exhorting them to " walk worthy the vocation where- with they are called a." The truth is, that saints are yet only as " brands plucked out of the burning :" they still bear the marks of the fire strong upon them, and are still in danger of being consumed by the in- fluence of fiery temptations, if God in his mercy do
a Eph. iv. 1.