RY THE SPIRIT AIM' unto humility, and hideth pride from them. For what should creatures of such a base and defiled extraction have to boast of in themselves? It is usual, I confess, for vile men of the most contemptible beginnings, when they are greatly exalted in the world, to outgo others in pride and elation of mind, as they are behind them in the advantages of birth and education. But this is es- teemed avile thing amongst men; and it is but one potsherd of the earth boasting itself against another. But when believers shall consider what was their vile and polluted estate with respect unto God, when first he had regard unto them, it will cause them to walk humbly in a deep sense of it, or, I am sure it ought so to do. God calls his people to self-abasement, not only from what they are, but from what they were, and whence they came. So he ordained that confession to be made by him that offered the first-fruits of his fields and possessions; a Syrian ready to perish leas myfather, or a Syrian, that is, Laban was ready to destroy my father, a poor helpless man that went from onecountry to another for bread. How is it of sovereign mercy that I am now in this state and condition of plenty and peace? Deut. xvi. 4, 5. And, in particular, Godwon- derfully binds upon them the sense of that defiled na- tural extraction whereof we speak, Ezek. xvi. 3, 4, 5. And when David, upon his great sin and repentance, took in all humbling self -abasing considerations, here he fixeth the head of them, Psal. li. 5. Behold I teas shapen in iniquity, and in sin did mymother conceive me. His original natural defilement was that which, in the first place, influenced him into self-abasement. So our apostle frequently calls the saints to a remembrance of their former condition before they were purged, Eph. ii. 11, 12, 13. 1 Cor. vi. 8, 9. and therewith are the minds of all true believersgreatly affected and greatly humbled. When they consider what was their natural state and condition, universally leprous and polluted, with what remainders of it do still abide, it casts them on the earth, and causeth them to lay their mouths in the dust. Hence proceed their great and deep humi- liations of themselves, and confessions of their own vileness in their prayers and supplications. Considering theholiness ofGod with whom they have to do, unto whom they do approach, they are no way able to ex- press whatlow thoughts and apprehensions they have sof themselves. Even God himself doth teach them to 3Y BLOOD OF CHRIST. 271 use figurative expressions, whereby to declare their own vileness by nature, which abound in the scripture. It is true, all declarations hereof in prayer, and confession of sin, are derided and scorned by some, who seem to understand nothing of these things, yea, to glory that they do not. Whatever is spoken to express, as they are able, the deep sense any have of their natural de- filement, with the remainder of it, their shame and self - abasement with respect unto the holiness of God, is reputed either as false and hypocritical, or that it containeth such things as for which men ought to be hanged; such prodigious impudence in proclaiming a senselessness of the holiness of God, and of the vile- ness of sin, have we lived to seeand hear of. But when we have to deal with God, who puts no trust in his servants, and chargeth his angels with folly, what shall we say? What lowliness ,a becomes them who dwell in " houses of clay, whose foundation is in the dust, and " who are crushed before the moth?" (2.) That initial deliverance which believers have from their original pollution of sin, is a matter and cause of everlasting thankfulness. When our Lord Je- sus Christ cleansed the ten lepers, he manifests how much it was their duty to return unto him with their thankful acknowledgment, though nine of them failed therein, Luke xvii. 17. And when of old any one was cleansed from a carnal defilement, there wasan offering enjoined him to testify his gratitude. And, indeed, the considerationhereof is that which in an eminent manner infiuenceth the minds of believers in all their grateful ascriptions of glory, honour, and praise to Je- sus Christ. " To him," say they, " who loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood, to him be " glory and dominion fot ever and ever," Rev. i. 5, 6. And there are three things which concur to this duty: (t.) A due valuation of the causes and means of our purification, namely, the sprinkling of the blood of Christ in the sanctification of the Spirit. As these alone have effected this great work, so they alone are able so to do. Had we not been washed in the blood of Christ, we must have lived and died in our pollu- tions, and have lainunder them to eternity. For the fire of hell will never purge the defilements of sin, much less will the fictitious fire of purgatorycleanse any from them. How ought we then to prize, value, andadmire both the virtueor efficacy of theblood of Christ, and
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