When day there shall be a fountain opened to the house of David, and to the inhabitants of Jerufalem, for fin and for uncleanness." the Holy Spirit enables the finner to believe the report, and to mix faith with it, then he has a warrant thus to pray" Purge me with hyffop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than fnow-Hide thy face from my fins, and blot out all mine iniquities-Create in me a clean heart, Ó 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 cleanfe you: A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you, and I will take away the the ftony 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 facrifices from the beginning preached this blessed doctrine: Their blood could fanctify by divine appointment to the purifying of the flesh: How much more shall the blood of Chrift, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without fpot to God, purify the conscience from dead works to serve the living God. Blessed, for ever blessed be his grace, who by this offering hath opened a fountain for fin and for uncleanness, in which the most polluted may wash and be clean: For Christ so loved the the church as to give himself for it, that he might fanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word; that he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle, or any fuch thing, but that it might be holy and without blemish: For his blood has infinite virtue to purify the foulest finner, 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 loft none of its virtue. To this very day, it purifies as perfectly as ever it did, and believers now in life, and in 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 extenfive is the efficacy of his precious blood: For it has reached to me, one of the vilest of finners: Ohere is boundless goodness, unfathomable love: This blood has washed clean my foul, the feat of defilement, that was as black as hell; purified my confcience, 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 fpirits of good men made perfect, to all eternity, and in a few minutes my foul shall be made perfect C as perfect also. O bleffed, 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 feal God's testimony concerning it. He hath fet forth Jesus Chrift to be a propitiation through faith in his blood. Trusting to it, the foulest fins are washed 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 bleffed man who haft obtained redemption by it! Thou art commanded to enter with boldness |