IT 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 exceedingly filthy and abominable in his sight. He showed 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 load them to exercise faith in the great purifier, whose office it was to purge their eon-sciences, before they could offer unto the Lord an off, ring 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.
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. Out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, &c: these are the things which defile the man. An enlightened conscience is made sensible of this, and feels the necessity of being purified from all filthiness of flesh mad spirit, in order to approach God, and to have boldness 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 loathe 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 anything 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 ease 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 Jerusalem 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 from the beginning preached this blessed doctrine; their blood could sanctify by divine appoint-merit 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, blessed be his grace, who by this 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 the 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 lie 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 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 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. tie 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 ho 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 veil, and make sweet melody in thy heart unto the Lord thy God. Our elder brethren 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 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 more spiritual and heavenly. A poet of our own, feeling something of this harmony, would have us to celebrate the triumphs of the Lamb of God in these words:–
The song of heaven is upon this same subjects. The Holy Ghost has taught us the very words of their divine hymn, and what is the harmony of all the redeemed round the throne, with one heart and one voice blessing God and the Lamb. O that he may tune our hearts to join the chorus! and fit us now to sing in as high a strain as we can, and every day to aim higher, till we come to the completion of the heavenly vision, thus described by the apostle:–
"After this I beheld, and lo! a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues, stood before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in their bands;.., these are they which came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb; therefore are they before the throne of God, and serve him day and night in his temple: and he that sitteth upon the throne shall dwell among them. They shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more, neither shall the sun light on them, nor any heat; for the Lamb, who is in the midst of the throne; shall feed them, and shall lead them unto living fountains of waters, and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes, And they sung with a loud voice, saying, Salvation to our God, who sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb for ever….Unto him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood, and hath made us kings and priests unto God and his Father, to him be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen."