ESSAY 11I. 447 bidden and defiled garments, or besmeared with mire and nasti- ness, is afraid to come into the presence of his prince, a wise and just Governor, as well as ashamed to appear before him as a person of high dignity. Now one of these is the effect of the guilt of sin ; the other of its disorder. A sinner fears the jus- tice and majesty of God, because of his guilt, and the injury he has done to the divine law ; he knows he is liable to death, he sees his own defilement and God's justice, and is afraid and trembles. A sinner,in his sinful disorder of soul, is also asham- ed in the presence of a holy God, seeing every thing in the divine nature so contrary to his own heart and his own actions, being defiled, that is, disordered by sin. Thus the guilt of sin produces fear, and the disorder of sin produces shame. A parallel might be drawn in this instance also between the levitical defilementsof the fleshand the more spiritual evils of sin. The mere suggestion of this thought is sufficient for those who are acquainted with the Mossiest ceremonies, and the representa- tions of God, as dwelling in the holyof holies, in the glories of his justiceand holiness. 3. The defilement of sin sometimes is represented as de- basing the nature of the soul, and rendering it vile. Ps. xlix.. 20. A man without understanding, that is, without thefear or love of God, or true holiness, is mean and vile, as the beasts that perish : This arises from the inward pravity or real evil that is in it. Vitious disorders either in heart or life, debase the character of a creature; but under this idea the guilt of sin, or relative evil of it, is not contain- ed, but only the disorder, or the real evil: But still it is plain that this representation always means theone or the other. H. Another way to prove that the defilement of sin Is no third thing distinct from the guilt and the disorder of it, may be this: The methods or means of removing the defilement of sin are 'such as are suited to remove either the guilt or the disor- der of it. 1. Washing is the most general means to remove bodily defilements ; and this is a metaphor which the scripture abounds in, sometimes to express the removal of guilt by atonement and pardon, and sometimes the removal of the disorder of sin in our souls by sanctification. When we are said tobe washed by the blood of Christ from our sins ; Rev. i. 5. there the de- filement implied must signify guilt: But when we are said to be washed and cleansed from a sinful nature, by having the Spirit of God poured upon us, br by being sprinkled with clean water ; Isa. xliv. 3. Ezek, xxxvi. 25. which is done in baptism, and regeneration ; or when we are bid to wash us and to make us clean ; Isa. i. 16. in these places the defile- ment which is implied must signify the sinful disorders of our.
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