and according to our Lord's prayer, viz. “My sheep "hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow “me, and I give unto them eternal life, and they shall "never perish, neither shall any pluck them out of my "hand." Trusting to these immutable securities, the heirs of promise are commanded to draw strong consolation, even to rejoice in Jesus with a fulness of joy; in darkness as well as walking in light-in winter as well as in summer-in adversity as well as in prosperity-in death as well as in life, because he has all power in heaven and earth to make good to them every covenant engagement. And he will do it; for the ransomed of the Lord shall return, and shall come to Sion with songs, and everlasting joy upon their heads; they shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away for ever. O thou most blessed God and Saviour, thou art the Lord our righteousness and our strength. I believe that the whole Israel of God shall be justified ONLY by thee, and in thee ONLY shall they glory. O let thy Spirit abide with me to increase in me this faith, that by fresh supplies of his grace I may be kept from going about to establish my own righteousness, and may constantly submit myself to the righteousness of God. And by the same grace help me to bring forth the fruits of righteousness abundantly unto the glory and` praise of God, magnifying thine atonement in the peace of my conscience, exalting thy righteousness in the love of my heart, and in my walk and warfare glorifying thy fulness: So that out of it I may receive a sufficiency of grace, by which I am now enabled to bless thee for the hope of glory. To thee, almighty Jesus, for the work of righteousness, which is peace, and for the effect of righteousness, which is quietness and assurance for ever: To thee be everlasting praise. Amen, and Amen. CHAP. IV. The believer's triumph in Jesus under a sense of the defilement of sin. Ir is in virtue of this fellowship with Jesus that believers are freely forgiven all their iniquities. His atonement was the work of our great High Priest, who was made sin for us, although he knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. God is of purer eyes than to look upon the least iniquity: And there is a defilement in sin, which makes it exceeding filthy and abominable in his sight. He shewed his utter abhorrence of it by establishing in the Old Testament such an abundance of legal pollutions, as might exhibit to sense the defiling nature of sin, and might keep it ever before their eyes, and fresh upon their minds. And by making it necessary, that the worshippers should be purified from these pollutions, and by establishing the means of their purification, and by forbidding every other, he would lead them to exercise faith in the great purifier, whose office it was to purge their consciences, before they could offer unto the Lord an offering in righteousness. And it was a fixed law, That if any one legally unclean neglected or refused the appointed means of being cleansed, he was to bear his iniquity: For an unpardoned sinner can have no communion with a most holy God. Out Unto the pure all things are pure, but unto them that are defiled and unbelieving is nothing pure but even their mind and conscience is defiled. The mind is the fountain from whence all the streams flow. of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, &c. these are the things which defile the man. An erlightened conscience, is made sensible of this, and feels the necessity of being purified from all filthiness of flesh and spirit, in order to approach God, and to have bold ness and access with confidence to the throne of grace. His meditations at such times are like these. The more I know of myself, the more I am led to loath myself, and to repent in dust and ashes: for I am a sinner, filthy and abominable altogether. By nature as vile as sin can render a fallen creature, and daily polluting myself in heart and life with fresh impurities. I have no means of cleansing myself; No hope, that any thing in the creation can do it for me. Deep in my very constitution the stain remains. And I am forced to be crying out-Unclean, unclean. My case would be quite desperate, if God himself had not provided a remedy, the report of which has come to mine ears in the gospel. O it is blessed news. I welcome it to my heart: that God has opened a fountain, which cleanseth from all sin. He has recommended it to me, as having infinite virtue and everlasting efficacy to cleanse. And I have a command from heaven, vile and filthy as I am, to make use of it: for thus it is written" In that day there shall be a fountain opened "to the house of David, and to the inhabitants of Je"rusalem, for sin and for uncleanness." When the Holy Spirit enables the sinner to believe the report, and to mix faith with it, then he has a warrant thus to pray "Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash "me, and I shall be whiter than snow. -Hide thy face "from my sins, and blot out all mine iniquities"Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a "right spirit within me." And the Lord hears and answers the prayer in these words" I will sprinkle "clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean; from "all your filthiness and from all your idols will I cleanse you. A new heart also will I give you, and a new "spirit will I put within you, and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh; and I will give you a "heart of flesh: and I will put my spirit within you, " and I will cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye' "shall keep my judgments and do them: I will also save "you from all your uncleannesses." The sacrifices. 66 from the beginning preached this blessed doctrine: their blood could sanctify by thy divine appointment to the purifying of the flesh: how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, to purify the conscience from dead works to serve the living God. Blessed, for ever blessed be his grace, who by his offering hath opened a fountain for sin and for uncleanness, in which the most polluted may wash and be clean: for Christ so loved the church as to give himself for it, that he might sanctify and cleanse it with washing of water by the word; that he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that it might be holy and without blemish: for his blood has infinite virtue to purify the foulest sinner, even so to cleanse him, that he may be perfect for ever: and the great use of faith is to receive it, and to apply it, even as God himself has recommended it, and it has lost none of its virtue. To this very day, it purifies as perfectly as ever it did, and believers now in life, and the hour of death, feel its divine efficacy, as truly as the martyred Stephen did. I find a dying Christian thus proclaiming his faith and hope in it, when heart and flesh were failing him. "Am not I, my friends, a monument of God's rich free grace, of his boundless love and mercy in Christ? O most extensive is the efficacy of his precious blood: for it has reached to me, one of the vilest of sinners: O here is boundless goodness, unfathomable love: this blood has washed clean my soul, the seat of defilement, that was as black as hell; purified my conscience, that was darker than the grave, and made it brighter than the light; in a word, this blood will make me, who was vile, most vile, a child of hell, an heir of wrath, holy before God, and fit to live with God, and the Lamb, with angels, and the spirits of good men, made perfect, to all eternity, and in a few minutes my soul shall be made perfect also. O blessed, for ever blessed be God my Saviour: eternal praises be rendered unto thee." This is true faith, and high honour put upon the blood of Jesus, to seal God's testimony concerning it. He hath set forth Jesus Christ to be a propitiation through faith in his blood. Trusting to it, the foulest sins are washed as white as snow, and crimson sins as the purest wool. So the beloved says to his church-" Behold thou art fair, my "love: Behold thou art all fair, there is no spot in "thee: thou art all glorious within." No angel can be whiter or purer, or stand more accepted before God than he does who is washed in the blood of the Lamb. O blessed man who hast obtained redemption by it: thou art commanded to enter with boldness into the holiest by the blood of Jesus-the way is open; thou art called to draw near with a true heart, in full assurance of faith, having thy heart sprinkled from an evil conscience, and thy body washed with pure water, that thou mayest hold thy profession of faith without wavering, as that great multitude did, who washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb; they are now crying with a loud voice, "Salvation to our God, who sitteth upon the throne, and unto the "Lamb for ever." They triumph indeed and so mayest thou. Thou hast the same reason as they have. The same fountain, which washed their robes, cleanses thine. The same promises that it will, and thou shalt stand before God without spot of sin unto eternal salvation, as perfect as they. Jesus is thy Saviour, as truly as he is theirs: even to-day thy conscience purged from guilt, and thy heart purified by faith, thou mayest enter within the vail, and make sweet melody in thy heart unto the Lord thy God. Our elder brethren 66 : round his throne are employed in the same delightful work we do it here as well as we can: they in heaven, and we on earth. The same subject in the church below, as well as above, and the same employment. We try to sing the praises of the worthy slaughtered Lamb in as high a note as they do. And when we fail we try again, praying the Holy Spirit to enable us to keep in tune with them, that our songs may daily be |