25'6 'mu DEFILEMENT OF SI frequently taken for holiness. The Spirit ofjudgment, therefore, and the Spirit of burning, is the Spirit of sanctification and purification. And he is here promis- ed for the sanctification of the elect of God. And how shall he effect this work? He shall do it, in the first place, by washing away their filth, and purging away their blood; that is, all their spiritual sinful defilements. (2.) The application of the death and blood of Christ unto our souls for our sanctification by the Holy Ghost, is said to be for our cleansing andpurging, Eph. v. 26, 27. " Christ loved the church, and gave himselffor it, " that he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing " of-water by the word;" he gave himself that he might redeem us from all iniquity, " and purify unto himself " a peculiar people zealous of good works," Titus ii. 14. " For the blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth us from all "our sins," I John i. 7. " For he loved us, and wash- " ed us from our sins in his own blood," Rev. L 5. " The blood of Jesus Christ purgeth our consciences " from dead works to serve the living God," Heb. ix. 14. Respect, I acknowledge, in some of these places, may be had unto the expiation of the guilt of sin by the blood of Christ as offered in-sacrifice; for so in himself he purged our sins, Heb. i. 3. But, as they all sup- pose a defilement in sin, so the most of them respect its cleansing by the application of the virtue of the blood of Christ unto our souls and consciences in our sanctification. And, (3.) Moreover, where sanctification is enjoined us as our duty, it is prescribed under this notion of cleansing ourselves from sin. " Wash you, make you " clean," Isa- i. 16. "O Jerusalem, wash thine heart " from wickedness, that thou mayest be saved." Jer. iv. 14. " Having therefore these promises, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and the spirit, " perfecting holiness in the fear of God," 2 Cor. vii. 1. tt Every man that bath this hope in him purifieth him- " self," 1 John iii. 3. Psal. cxix. 9. 2 Tim. ii. 20. and the like expressions of this duty occur in other places. Sect. 2. (4.) Answerable unto these promises and precepts, and in the confirmation of them, we have the institution of the ordinance of baptism, the outward way and means of our initiation into the Lord Christ, and the profession of the gospel, the great representa- tion of the inward washing of regeneration, Titus iii. 5. Now, this baptism, in the first place, expresseth N, NIIEEEI,/ IT CONSISTS, the outward putting away the filth of the flesh, by ex- ternal washing with material water, I Peter iii. 21. And that which answers hereunto can be in nothingbut the inward purifying of our souls and consciences by thegrace of the Spirit of God; that is, saith our apostle, the putting off thebody of the sins of the flesh, Col. ii. 11. which contains the whole defilement and corruption of sin. And this also was typified out unto us by all the legal purifications of old. Wherefore we shall do three things in the explication of this first branch of our sanctification: (1.) Shew, that there is a spiritual pollution and defilement in sin. (2.) Declare what it is, or wherein it cloth consist. And, (s.) Manifest how it is removed or washed away, and believers made holy thereby. Sect. 3. For the first, it needs not much to be in- sisted on. Our minds, and their conceptions, are in these things to be regulated by divine revelations and expressions. And in the whole representation matte unto us in the scripture, of the nature of sin, of our concernment therein, of the respect of God towards us on the account thereof; of the way and means whereby we may be delivered from it; there is nothing so much inculcated, as its being filthy, abominable, full of de- filement and pollution, which is set forth both in the plain expressions and various similitudes. On the ac- count hereof is it said to be abhorred of God, the abo- minable thing which his soul hateth, which he cannot be- hold, which he cannot but hate and detest, and is com- pared to blood, wounds, sores, leprosy, scum, loath- some diseases. With respect hereunto, is it so fre- quently declared that we most be washed, purged, purified, cleansed, as in the testimonies before cited, before we can be accepted with him, or be brought to the enjoymentof him, and the work of the Spirit of Christ, in the application of his blood unto us for the taking away of sin, is compared to the effects of fire, water, soap, nitre, every thing that bath a purifying cleansing faculty in it. These things sofrequently occur in the scripture, and testimonies concerning them are so multiplied, that it is altogether needless to produce particular instances. This is evident and undeniable, that the scripture, which regulafes our conceptions a- bout spiritual things, expressly declares all sin to be uncleanness, and every sinner to be defiled thereby, and all unsanctified persons to be wholly unclean; and
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