w1TTI ITS PURIFICATION. ap- prehension commanded to ,wash ourselves, to cleanse ourselves from sin, topurge ourselves from all our iniquities, and the like, frequently. But to suppose that. whatever God requireth of us, that we have power of ourselves to do, is to make the cross and grace of Jesus Christ of none effect. Our duty is constituted unaltera- bly by the law of God, whether we have power to perform it or no, seeingwe had so at our first obliga- tion by and unto the law, which God is-not obliged to bend unto a conformity to our warnings, nor to suit . untoour sinful weaknesses. Whatever therefore God . worketlt in us in a way of grace, he prescribeth unto us in a way of duty, and that because, although he doth it in us, yet he also doth it by us, so as that the same work is an act of his Spirit, and of our wills, as actuated thereby. Of ourselves therefore we are not able, by any endeavours of our own, nor ways of our own finding out, to cleanse ourselves from the defile- ment of sin. If 1 be wicked," saith Job, 'r why then labour I in vain? if I wash myself with snow-water, and make my hands never so clean; yet shalt thou plunge me in the ditch, and mine own clothes shall make me to be abhorred," chap. ix. 29, 30, Sl. There may be ways and means used whereby an ap- pearance of washing and cleansing may be made. But whenthings corne to be tried in the sight of God, all will be found filthy and unclean. In vain, saíth the prophet, shalt thou take to thyself soap and much nitre, thou shalt not bepurged. Jer. ii. 22. The most proba- ble means of cleansing, and the most effectual in our judgment, however multiplied, shall fail in this case. Some speak much of washing away their sins by the tears of repentance. But repentance, as prescribed in the scripture, is of another nature, and assigned unto ano- ther end. And for mens tears, in this matter, they are but soap and nitre, which, howsoever multiplied, will not produce the effect intended. And therefore doth God, in places of scripture innumerable, take this to himself, as the immediate effect of his Spirit and grace, namely, to cleanse us from our sins and our ini- quities. (4..) The institutions of the law, for this end to purge uncleanness, could not, of themselves, reach thereunto. They did indeed purify the unclean legally, and sanctified persons as to the purifying of the flesh, Heb. ix. 13. so that they should not, on their account, be separated from their privileges in the congregation - 27 255 anynotion of sin, whereby God would convey an of its nature, and an abhorrency thereof unto our minds and consciences, so frequently insisted on as is this of. its pollution. And, in order to our use of it unto the discovery of the nature of holiness, we may yet observe these three things: (t.) Where this uncleanness abideth unpurged, there neither is nor can be any true holiness at all, Eph. iv. 22, 23, 24. For it is universally opposed unto it, it is our unholiness. Where therefore it is absolute and purified in no mea- sure or degree, there is no work of sanctification, no holiness so much as begun. For, in the purging here- of, it makes its entrance upon the soul, and its effects therein is the. first beginning of holiness in us. I ac- knowledge, that it.is not in any at once absolutely and perfectly taken away in this world. For the work of purging it, is a continued act, commensurate unto the whole work of our sanctification. And therefore, they who are truly sanctified and holy, are yet deeplysensi- ble of the remainder.of it in themselves, do greatly be- wail it, and earnestly endeavour after the removal of it. But there is an initial, real, sincere, and (as to all the faculties of the soul) universal purging of it, which be- longs to the nature and essence of holiness begun, and carriedon, though not absolutely perfected in this life. And men who pretend unto a grace and holiness that should consist in moral virtue only, without a supposi- tion of and respectunto the purification of this pollution of sin, do but deceive their own souls and others, so far as any are forsaken of God to give credit unto them. The virtues of men, not purged from the uncleanness of their natures, are an abomination to the Lord, Titus i. 15, 16. (2.) Unless this uncleanness of sin bepurged and washed away, we can never come unto the enjoy- ment of God. Nothing that defileth shall in any wise enter into the new Jerusalem, Rev. xxi. 27. To sup- pose that an unpurified sinner can be brought unto the blessed enjoyment of God, is to overthrow both the law and the gospel, and to say that Christ died in vain. It is therefore of the same importance. -with the ever- lasting salvation of our souls, to have them purgedfrom sin. (3.) We are not able of ourselves, without the especial aid, assistance, and operation of the Spirit of God, in any measure or degree, to free ourselves from this pollution, neither that which is actual. It is true, it is frequently prescribed unto us as our duty. We 3S
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