By THE SPIRIT AND BLOOD OF CHRIST. 26S not a cleansing. And if we die in this condition un- washed, uncleansed, unpurified, it is utterly impossible that ever we should beadmitted into the blessed presence of the holy God, Rev. xxi. 27. Let no man deceive you then with vain words. It is notthe doing of a few good works, it is not an outward profession of religion, that will give you an access with boldness and joy unto God. Shame will cover you when it will be too late. Unless you are washed by the Spirit of God, andin the blood of Christ, from the pollutions of your natures, you shall not inherit the kingdom of God, 1 Cor. vi. 9, 10, 11. yea, you will be an horrid spectacleunto saints and angels, yea, to yourselves, untoone another, when the shameofyour nakedness shall be made to appear, Isa. lxvi. 24. If therefore you would not perish, and, that eternally, if you would not perish as base defiled creatures, an abissrring untoallflesh, then, when your pride, andyour wealth, and your beauty, and your or- naments, and your duties, will stand you in no stead. Look out betimes after that only way of purifying and cleansing your souls which God bath ordained. But if you love your defilements, if you are proud of your pollutions, if you satisfy yourselves with your outward ornaments, whether moral, of gifts, duties, profession, conversation, or natural, of body, wealth, apparel, gold, and silver, there is no remedy, you must perish for ever, and that under the consideration of the basest and vilest part of the creation. Sect. 11.Seeing this is the condition of all by na- ture, if any one now shall inquire and ask what they shall do, what course they shall take, that theymay be cleansed according to the will of God? In answer here- unto, I shall endeavour to the direct defiled sinners, by sundry steps and degrees, in the way unto the cleansing fountain. There is a fountain set open for sirs and un- cleanness, Zech. xiii. 1. But it falleth out with many, as the wise man speaketh, The labour ofthefoolish twit- Meth every one ofthem, because he knoweth not how to go to the city, Eccles. x. 15. Men weary themselves, and pine away under their pollutions, because they can- not find the way; they know not how to goto the clean- sing fountain. I shall therefore direct them, from first to last, according to the best skill I have. 1. Labour after an acquaintance with it, to know it in its nature and effects. Although the scripture so abounds in the assertion end declaration of it, as we only in the practice of moral virtue. And I do not know but what bath been delivered may be looked on as fanatical and enthusiastical. Yet is there no other reason why it should be so, but only because it is taken from the scripture. Neither doth that so much insist on any considerationof sin and sanctification, as this of the pollution of the one, and the purifying of it by the other. And to whom the wisdom and wordsof the Holy Ghost are displeasing, we cannot in these things give any satisfaction. And yet I could easily demon- strate, that they were well known to the ancient writers of the church, and, for the substance of them, were discerned and discussedby the school-men in their man- ner. But where men hate the practice of holiness, it is to no purpose to teach the nature of it. Sect. 10. But we may not pass over these things without some reflections upon ourselves, and some con- sideration of our concernment in them. And, first, Hence we may take a view of our own state and condi- tion by nature. It is useful for us all to be looking back into it; and it is necessary for them who are un- der it to be fully acquainted with it. Therein are we wholly defiled, polluted, and everywayunclean. There is a spiritual leprosy spread all our natures, which renders us loathsome to God, and puts us in a state of separation from him. They who were legally unclean were separated from the congregation, and therein all the pledges of God's gracious presence, Numb. v. 2. It is so virtually with all them who are spirituallydefiled, under that pollution which is natural and universal; they are abhorred of God, and separated from him, which was signified thereby. And the reason why so many laws, with so great severity and exactness, were given about the cleansing of a leprous person, and the judgment to be made thereon, was only to declare the certainty of thejudgment of God, that no unclean per- son should approach unto him. Thus is it with all by nature, and whatever they do of themselves to be quit of it, it doth but hide, and not cleanse it. Adam cur- ed neither his nakedness, nor the shame of it, by his fig-leaves. Some have no other covering of their natu- ral filth but outward ornaments of the flesh, which in- crease it, and indeed rather proclaim it than hide it. The greatest filth in the world is covered with thegreat- est bravery, See Isa. iii. 16. 17. Whatever we do of ourselves, in answer unto our conviction, is a covering,
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