c 4.18 RUIN AND RECOVERY, &C. natures and lives. This also is very evident in the levitieal, me. fluids of cleansing the typical defilements of old : sometimes the blood of the sacrifice was to be put on persons defiled, to signi- fy the removal of guilt by the death of Christ the great sacri- fice : sometimes they were to he washed in clean water, to signify the removal of the inward moral disorder of sin by the sanctifying Spirit. 2. Another method of removing bodily defilements is by fire: so silver and gold passing through the tire lose their dross and impurity, and are refined and made pure: Now when the defilement of sin is represented as removed by fire, sometimes it signifies the removing the disorderly temper and qualities of mind, by the Spirit of God, or by afflictive providences ; see Mal. iii. 2. 11e is like a'refiner's fire: He shall purify the sozzi of Levi, and Lord them' as gold and silver, that they may offer to the . an offering in righteousness; Zech. xui. 9. And I will bring a. third part of them through the fire, and zefine them as silver is refined. This was typified by the Levi- tical purifications : The gold and other metals that were under legal or typical defilements; by having been abused to idolatry by heathens, must pass through the fire to be cleansed and fitted for the use of God's holy people, and his holy temple ; Num. xxxi. 23: whereas those materials which could not bear the fire were to bepurified by water for the same service. In the sixth chapter of the prophecy of Isaiah, where he gives an account of his complaint in the presence of the Lord, I am a man of un- clean lips : Woe is one, for I and undone, my eves have seen the king, the Lord of hosts ; a seraph took a live coal from the altar of burnt offering, and laid it upon his mouth, and said, lo this bath touched thy lips, and thane. iniquity is .taken away ; and thy sin purged. It is hard to say whether this chiefly refers to a pardon of the guilt of past sins of the tongue, or a purification of his lips and heart from sinful disorders. But it is 'certainly one or both these. In the last place, I might add another proof that the defile- ment of sin is not any thing different both from the guilt and dis- order of sin, if we consider, that when the guilt of sin is re- moved by pardon and justification, and the disorder or evil qua- lities of sin are removed perfectly by sanctification, what is there remaining thatcan be hurtful to man or offensive to God ? It is possible in the nature of things, that the guilt of sin and all ob- ligations to punishment may be taken away from a person by pardoning grace, and yet the impurity or sinful disorder of the soul may remain. It is possible also, that the sinfulness or the moral d.,urder and evil qualities of the soul may be removed by sanctifying grace, and yet the guilt of past sins may remain : But r. acre divine grace bath both pardoned and sanctified the
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy OTcyMjk=