Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death.
— James 1:15
Flee fornication. Every sin that a man doeth is without the body; but he that committeth fornication sinneth against his own body.
— 1 Corinthians 6:18
Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonour their own bodies between themselves:
— Romans 1:24
The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the nations that forget God.
— Psalm 9:17
Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam’s transgression, who is the figure of him that was to come.
— Romans 5:14
What fruit had ye then in those things whereof ye are now ashamed? for the end of those things is death. But now being made free from sin, and become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life. For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
— Romans 6:21-23
There is nothing from without a man, that entering into him can defile him: but the things which come out of him, those are they that defile the man.
— Mark 7:15
And he said, That which cometh out of the man, that defileth the man. For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, Thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness: All these evil things come from within, and defile the man.
— Mark 7:20-23
The Defilement of Sin, by John Owen. The following contains Chapter Four of Book Four of his work, “On the Holy Spirit, Pneumatologia.”
Chapter IV.
The defilement of sin, what it consists in, with its purification.
Purification is the first proper notion of sanctification — The institution of baptism confirms the same apprehension — A spiritual defilement and pollution in sin — The nature of that defilement, or what it consists in — Depravations of nature and acts with respect to God’s holiness, how and why it is called “filth” and “pollution” — The twofold depravity and defilement of sin — Its aggravations — We cannot purge it by ourselves, nor could it be done by the law, nor by any ways that are invented by men for that end.
These things being premised, we proceed to the consideration of sanctification itself, in a further explication of the description given before.
The first thing we ascribe to the Spirit of God in sanctification, or what constitutes the first part of it, is the purifying and cleansing of our nature from the pollution of sin. Purification is the first proper notion of internal real sanctification. Although it does not precede the other acts and parts of this work in order of time, yet in order of nature it is the one that is first proposed and apprehended. To be unclean absolutely, and to be holy, are universally opposed to each other. Not to be purged from sin is the mark of an unholy person, just as to be cleansed is the mark of a holy one. And this purification, or effecting this work of cleansing, is ascribed to all the causes and means of sanctification; such as —
1. The Spirit, who is the principal efficient of the whole. Not that sanctification consists wholly in this, but firstly and necessarily it is required for this, Pro 30.12. Eze 36.25, “I will sprinkle clean water upon you, and you will be clean: from all your filthiness, and from all your idols, I will cleanse you.” I evinced before, that sprinkling clean water upon us is the communication of the Spirit to us for the end designed. It has also been declared why he is called “water,” or why he is compared to this. And the 27th verse shows expressly that it is the Spirit of God that is intended: “I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes.” Thus, what he is promised for in the first place, is cleansing us from the pollution of sin. In order of nature, this is placed before his enabling us to walk in God’s statutes, or to yield holy obedience to him.
To the same purpose, among many others, is the promise in Isa 4.4, “When the Lord has washed away the filth of the daughters of Zion, and has purged the blood of Jerusalem from its midst by the Spirit of judgment, and by the Spirit of burning.” It has also been declared on what basis the Spirit is compared to fire, and thus is called a “Spirit of burning” here. In brief, fire and water were the means by which all things were purified and cleansed typically in the law, Num 31.23. And the Holy Spirit being the principal efficient cause of all spiritual cleansing, he is compared to them both (things by which his work was signified), and called by their names. See Mal 3.2-3. And “judgment” is frequently taken for holiness. Therefore, “the Spirit of judgment,” and “the Spirit of burning,” is the Spirit of sanctification and purification. And here he is promised for the sanctification of the elect of God. How will he effect this work? He will do it, in the first place, by “washing away their filth and purging away their blood;” — that is, all their spiritual, sinful defilements.
2. The application of the death and blood of Christ to our souls, by the Holy Ghost, for our sanctification, is said to be for our cleansing and purging: Eph 5.25-26, “Christ loved the church, and gave himself for it; that he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word.” He “gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify for himself a peculiar people, zealous for good works,” Tit 2.14. “The blood of Jesus Christ cleanses us from all sin,” 1John 1.7. “He loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood,” Rev 1.5. “The blood of Christ purges our conscience from dead works to serve the living God,” Heb 9.14. I acknowledge that some of these passages may respect the expiation of the guilt of sin by the blood of Christ as offered in sacrifice; for “by himself he purged our sins,” Heb 1.3. But because they all assume a defilement in sin, most of them respect its cleansing by applying the virtue of Christ’s blood to our souls and consciences in our sanctification. And —
3. Moreover, where sanctification is enjoined as our duty, it is prescribed under this notion of cleansing ourselves from sin: “Wash, make yourselves clean,” Isa 1.16. “O Jerusalem, wash your heart from wickedness, that you may be saved,” Jer 4.14. “Having therefore these promises, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God,” 2Cor 7.1. “Every man who has this hope in him purifies himself,” 1John 3.3; Psa 119.9; 2Tim 2.21. Similar expressions of this duty occur in other places.
4. Corresponding to these promises and precepts, and confirming them, we have the institution of the ordinance of baptism, the outward way and means of our initiation into the Lord Christ, and the profession of the gospel; it is the great representation of the inward “washing of regeneration,” Tit 3.5. Now this baptism, in the first place, outwardly expresses “putting away the filth of the flesh,” by externally washing with material water, 1Pet 3.21. What corresponds to this can be nothing but the inward purifying of our souls and consciences by the grace of the Spirit of God; that is, says our apostle, “putting off the body of the sins of the flesh,” Col 2.11, which contains the whole defilement and corruption of sin. All the legal purifications of old were types of this for us. Therefore we will do three things in explicating this first branch of our sanctification:
1. Show that there is a spiritual pollution and defilement in sin;
2. Declare what it is, or what it consists of; and,
3. Manifest how it is removed or washed away, and believers made holy thereby.
The first does not need to be insisted on much. Our minds and their conceptions are to be regulated in these things by divine revelation and expressions. And in the whole representation made to us in the Scripture of the nature of sin, of our concern in this, of God’s regard towards us on account of this, of the way and means by which we may be delivered from it, there is nothing so much inculcated in us, as sin’s being filthy, abominable, and full of defilement and pollution; this is set forth both in plain expressions and various similitudes. On account of this, it is said to be “abhorred by God, the abominable thing which his soul hates, which he cannot behold, which he cannot but hate and detest;” and it is compared to “blood, wounds, sores, leprosy, scum, and loathsome diseases.” With respect to this, it is frequently declared that we must be “washed, purged, purified, cleansed,” as in the testimonies cited earlier, before we can be accepted by God or be brought to enjoy him. And the work of the Spirit of Christ in the application of his blood to us for taking away sin, is compared to the effects of “fire, water, soap, nitre,” 8 everything that has a purifying, cleansing faculty in it. These things so frequently occur in the Scripture, and testimonies concerning them are so many, that it is altogether needless to produce particular instances. This is evident and undeniable, that the Scripture — which regulates our conceptions about spiritual things — expressly declares that all sin is “uncleanness,” and every sinner is “defiled” by it, and all unsanctified persons are “wholly unclean.” How far these expressions are metaphorical, or what that metaphor consists of, must be declared afterward.
Besides, there is no notion of sin and holiness of which believers have a more tangible, spiritual experience; for even though they may not (or do not) comprehend the metaphysical notion or nature of this pollution and defilement of sin, they are aware of the effects it produces in their minds and consciences. They find in sin what is attended by shame and self-abhorrence, and it requires deep abasement of their soul. They discern in sin, or in themselves because of it, an unsuitableness to the holiness of God, and an unfitness for communion with him. There is nothing they more earnestly labor after in their prayers and supplications, than a cleansing from sin by the blood of Christ; nor are there any promises that are more precious to them than those which express their purification and purging from sin. For next to their interest in the atonement made by the sacrifice of Christ, these are the things that most give them boldness in their approaches to God. So our apostle fully expresses it in Heb 10.19-22:
“Having therefore boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which he has consecrated for us, through the veil, that is to say, his flesh; and having a high priest over the house of God; let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water.”
The foundation of all our confidence in our access to God, the right and title that we have to approach him, is laid in the blood of Christ, the sacrifice he offered, the atonement he made, and the remission of sins which he obtained by it. He declares its effect in verse 19, “Having boldness by the blood of Jesus.” Our way of access is by pleading an interest in his death and suffering, by which an admission and acceptance is consecrated for us: Verse 20, “By a new and living way, which he has consecrated.” And our encouragement to make use of this foundation, and to engage in this way, is taken from Christ’s discharge of the office he has as high priest on our behalf: ‘”Having a high priest over the house of God, let us draw near.”
But besides all this, when we actually address God, so that we may make use of the boldness given to us in the full assurance of faith, it is moreover required that “our hearts be sprinkled, and our bodies washed;” — that is, that our whole persons be purified from the defilement of sin by the sanctification of the Spirit. This is the experience of believers. Not only can we oppose this to and plead it against the stupidity of those persons who deride these things, but we may conclude from it that those who are sincerely unacquainted with it, are wholly without an interest in that evangelical holiness which we inquire about.
Therefore we do not need to labor any further to confirm what so many testimonies of Scripture say about it, and what we have undoubtedly experienced ourselves.
SECONDLY, The nature of this defilement of sin must be inquired into.
1. Some account it to guilt. This is because the inseparable effects of guilt are shame and fear, by which sin immediately evidenced itself in our first parents. And because shame in particular is from this filth of sin, guilt may be esteemed an adjunct of it. Hence sin was said to be “purged by sacrifices” when its guilt was expiated; and Christ is said to “purge our sins by himself,” — that is, when he offered himself a sacrifice for us, Heb 1.3. Therefore it is granted that so far as the filth of sin was taken away, not by actual purification, but by legal expiation, sin with its guilt is what was intended. But the Scripture, as we showed, intends more by this: it intends such an internal, inherent defilement that is taken away by real, actual sanctification, and not otherwise.
2. There are some special sins which have a particular pollution and defilement attending them; and on this account, they are usually called “uncleanness” in a specific manner. The basis for this is in the apostle’s statement in 1Cor 6.18: “Flee fornication. Every sin that a man does is outside the body; but the one who commits fornication sins against his own body.”
All sins of that nature have a particular defilement and filth accompanying them. And holiness is sometimes mentioned in opposition to this special pollution, 1Thes 4.3. Yet this is not what we are inquiring about, even though it is included in it as one special kind of defilement. What we are now considering always inseparably attends every sin as sin, as an adjunct or effect of it. It is the uncleanness of all sin, and not just the sin of uncleanness, which we intend. To discover its proper nature, we may observe that —
(1.) The pollution of sin is that property by which it is directly opposed to the holiness of God, and to which God says his holiness is contrary. Hence he is said to be “of purer eyes than to behold evil, or to look on iniquity,” Hab 1.13. It is a thing that is vile and loathsome to the eyes of his holiness, Psa 5.4-6. So concerning it, God uses that emotional dehortation, “Oh, do not do this abominable thing that I hate,” Jer 44.4. And it is with respect to his own holiness that he sets forth the names of all those things which are vile, filthy, loathsome, and offensive — everything that is abominable. It is abominable to him, because he is infinitely pure and holy in his own nature. That consideration which ingenerates shame and self-abhorrence on account of sin’s defilement, is taken specifically from the holiness of God. Hence people are so often said to “blush,” to be “ashamed,” to be “filled with humiliation,” to be “vile,” to be “abased in their own sight,” under the sense and apprehension of the filth of their sin.
(2.) The holiness of God is the infinite, absolute perfection and rectitude of his nature as the eternal original cause and pattern of truth, uprightness, and rectitude in all. And just as God exerts this holiness naturally and necessarily in all he does, so he exerts it particularly in his law. The law is therefore good, holy, and perfect, because it represents the holiness of God which is impressed on it. God might not have made any creature, nor given any law — they are free acts of his will; but having done so, it was absolutely necessary from his own nature that this law of his should be holy. And therefore, whatever is contrary to or different from the law of God, is contrary to and different from the holiness of God himself. Hence it follows —
(3.) This defilement and pollution of sin is that depravity, disorder, and shameful crookedness that is in it, with respect to the holiness of God as expressed in his law. Sin is either original or actual. Original sin is the habitual nonconformity of our natures to the holiness of God, expressed in the law of creation. Actual sin is our nonconformity to God and his holiness expressed in the particular commands of the law.
The nature of all sin, therefore, consists in its enmity, its nonconformity, to the rule. Now, this rule, which is the law, may be considered in two ways which give a twofold respect, or an inseparable consequence or adjunct, to every sin:
[1.] As it expresses the authority of God in its precepts and sanction. Hence guilt inseparably follows every sin, which is the respect it induces on the sinner as to the law, on account of the authority of the Lawgiver. The act of sin passes away, but this guilt abides on the person; and it must do so until the law is satisfied, and the sinner is absolved upon that. This naturally produces fear, which is the first expression of a sense of guilt. So Adam expressed it upon his own sin: “I heard your voice, and I was afraid,” Gen 3.10.
[2.] The law may be considered as it expresses the holiness of God and his truth; and from the nature of God, it was necessary to express it. Hence in sin there is a specific nonconformity to the holiness of God. This is the “macula,” the “spot,” “stain,” and “filth” of sin; these are inseparable from sin while God is holy, unless it is purged and done away with, as we will show. And this is inseparably attended with shame; which is the expression of a sense of this filth of sin. So Adam, upon his sin, had his eyes opened to see his nakedness, and he was filled with shame.
This is the order of these things: God, who is the object of our obedience and sin, is considered as the supreme lawgiver. He has impressed his authority and his holiness on his law. Sin, with respect to his authority, is attended with guilt; and this, in the conscience of the sinner, produces fear; and as it respects the holiness of God, it is attended with filth or uncleanness; and this produces shame. The ultimate effects of it are, on the first account, “poena sensus;” on the other, “poena damni.” Therefore, this is the spot, the stain, the pollution of sin, which is purged in our sanctification; it is the perverse disorder and shameful crookedness that is in sin with respect to the holiness of God.
And there is a real filthiness in this, but it is spiritual; this is compared with and opposed to things that are materially and carnally filthy. “It is not what goes into a man,” food of any sort, “that defiles him,” says our Savior, “but what comes out of the heart,” — that is, spiritually, with respect to God, His law, and holiness. And just as men are taught the guilt of sin by their own fear, which is the inseparable adjunct of it, so they are taught the filth of sin by their own shame, which unavoidably attends it. One end of the law and of the gospel is to instruct us in this; for in the renovation of the law, which was added to the promise “because of transgressions,” Gal 3.19, and in the institutions that are annexed to it, God designed to instruct us further in them both, with the ways by which we may be freed from them.
In the doctrine of the law, with its sanction and curse, and in the institution of sacrifices to make atonement for sin, God declared the nature of guilt, and its remedy. By the same law, and by the institution of various ordinances for purification and cleansing, and also by determining various ceremonial defilements, God makes known the nature of this filth, and its remedy. To what end were so many meats and drinks, so many diseases and natural distempers, so many external fortuitous accidents, such as touching the dead and the like, made religiously unclean by the law? It was to no other end than to teach us the nature of the spiritual defilement of sin. And the ordinances of purification were instituted to the same end: to demonstrate the relief and remedy for it. As they were outward and carnal, these ordinances purged those uncleannesses which were outward and carnal also, as made so by the law. But internal and spiritual things were taught and prefigured by this. Indeed, they were worked and effected by virtue of their typical relation to Christ, as the apostle teaches:
Heb 9.13-14, “If the blood of bulls and of goats, and the ashes of a heifer, sprinkling the unclean, sanctifies for the purifying of the flesh, how much more shall the blood of Christ purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?”
And hence the whole work of sanctification is expressed by “opening a fountain for sin and for uncleanness;” that is, purging them away, Zec 13.1. So it is in the gospel, where the blood of Christ is said to “purge” our sins with respect to guilt, and to “wash” our souls with respect to filth. Indeed, so inseparable is this filth from sin, and shame from filth, that wherever there abides a sense of sin, there is a sense of this filth and shame. Even the heathen, who had only the workings of their minds and consciences for their guide, were never able to quit themselves from a sense of this pollution of sin; and from this proceeded all those ways of lustration, purgation, and cleansing, by washings, sacrifices, and mysterious ceremonial observances which they had invented.
It only remains, therefore, that we inquire a little into the reasons and causes why this depravity of sin, and this discrepancy from the holiness of God, is such a defilement of our natures, and so inseparably attended with shame. For without considering this, we can never understand the true nature of sanctification and holiness. And also, as to those who pretend that all grace consists in the practice of moral virtues, it will then become further apparent how openly they betray their prodigious ignorance of these things. And to this purpose we may observe —
1. That the spiritual beauty and attractiveness of the soul consists in its conformity to God. Grace gives beauty. Hence it is said of the Lord Christ that he is “fairer,” or more beautiful, “than the children of men,” and that is because “grace was poured into his lips,” Psa 45.2.
When the church is furnished or adorned with his graces, he affirms she is “fair and attractive,” Song 1.5, 6.4, 7.6. By washing the church, Christ takes away the “spots and wrinkles,” rendering it beautiful — that is, “holy and without blemish,” Eph 5.27. This beauty originally consisted in the image of God in us. It contained the whole order, harmony, and symmetry of our natures, in all their faculties and actions, with respect to God and our utmost end. Therefore, whatever is contrary to this — as all and every sin is contrary to it — it has a deformity in it; or it brings spots, stains, and wrinkles upon the soul. Sin contains all that is contrary to spiritual beauty and attractiveness, and contrary to inward order and glory; this is the filth and pollution of it.
2. Holiness and conformity to God is the honor of our souls. This alone makes them truly noble; for all honor consists in accession to the one who is the only spring and absolute possessor of all that is honorable, in whom alone is the origin and perfection of all being and substance. Now, we have this by holiness alone, or by that image of God in which we are created. Whatever is contrary to this is base, vile, and unworthy. This is sin; and therefore, this is the only base thing in nature. Hence it is said of some great sinners that they had “debased themselves to hell,” Isa 57.9. This belongs to the pollution of sin — that it is base, vile, unworthy; it dishonors the soul, filling it with shame in itself, and contempt from God. And any persons who are not absolutely hardened, are in their own minds and consciences, as aware of this baseness of sin as they are of the deformity that is in it. When men’s eyes are opened to see their nakedness — how vile and base they have made themselves by sin — they will have a sense of this pollution that is not easily expressed. It is from this that sin has the properties and effects of uncleanness in the sight of God, and in the conscience of the sinner: God abhors it, loathes it, and considers it an abominable thing — as that which is directly contrary to his holiness. As impressed on the law, this is the rule of purity, integrity, spiritual beauty, and honor; and in the sinner’s conscience, it is attended with shame, as something deformed, loathsome, vile, base, and dishonorable. See Jer 2.26.
In all in whom sin occurs, I say, unless they are blind and obdurate, it fills them with shame. I do not speak of those who are little or not at all spiritually aware of sin or any of its properties — they do not fear because of its guilt, nor are they disquieted by its power, nor are they acquainted with its fomes or its disposition to evil — and so they are not ashamed of its filth. Much less do I speak of those who are given over to work all kinds of uncleanness with delight and greediness, wallowing in its pollution like the sow in the mire — those who not only do the things which God abhors, but also take pleasure in those who do them.
Rather, I intend those who have the least real conviction of the nature and tendency of sin, who are all (in one degree or other) ashamed of it as a filthy thing. Shrugging off outward shame produced by its object, or shame with respect to the conscience and judgment of human kind — as those do who “proclaim their sins like Sodom, and do not hide them,” Isa 3.9 — is the highest aggravation of sinning and contempt of God. And ignoring inward shame, with respect to the divine omniscience, is the highest evidence of a reprobate mind.
But in all others, who have more light and spiritual sense, sin produces shame and self-abhorrence, which is always with respect to the holiness of God, as in Job 42.5-6. They see that being in sin — which is so vile, base, and filthy, and renders them so — is like men under a loathsome disease: they are not able to bear the sight of their own sores, Psa 38.5. God detests, abhors, and turns from sin as a loathsome thing, and man is filled with shame for it — it is therefore filthy. Indeed, no tongue can express the sense which a believing soul has of the uncleanness of sin with respect to the holiness of God. And this may suffice to give a brief look into the nature of this defilement of sin, which the Scripture so abundantly insists on, and which all believers are so aware of.
This depravity or spiritual disorder with respect to the holiness of God, which is the shameful defilement of sin, is twofold:
1. That which is habitual in all the faculties of our souls by nature, as they are the principle of our spiritual and moral operations. These faculties are all shamefully and loathsomely depraved, out of order, and in no way correspondent to the holiness of God. Hence, by nature we are wholly unclean; — who can bring a clean thing out of that which is unclean? And this uncleanness is graphically expressed under the similitude of a wretched, polluted infant, Eze 16.3-5.
2. That which is actual in all the actings of our faculties as so defiled, and as far as they are so defiled; for —
(1.) Of whatever nature a sin may be, pollution attends it. Hence the apostle advises us to “cleanse ourselves from all pollutions of the flesh and spirit,” 2Cor 7.1. The sins that are internal and spiritual — such as pride, self-love, covetousness, unbelief — have pollution attending them; and so do those which are fleshly and sensual.
(2.) So far as anything of this depravity or disorder mixes itself with the best of our duties, it renders both us and them unclean: Isa 64.6, “We are all like an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are like filthy rags.”
As this uncleanness is habitual respecting our natural defilement, it is equal in and to everyone born into the world — by nature, we are all alike polluted, and that is to the utmost of what our nature is capable.
But this is not so with respect to actual sins; for uncleanness has various degrees and aggravations in these, even as many as sin itself:
1. The greater the sin is from its nature or circumstances, the greater the defilement which attends it. Hence there is no other sin expressed by the terms filthiness and abhorrence as idolatry is, which is the greatest of sins. See Eze 16.36-37. Or,
2. There is an aggravation of uncleanness when the whole person is defiled, as it is in the case of fornication, instanced before.
3. It is heightened by a continuance in sin, by which an addition is made to its pollution every day; and this is called “wallowing in the mire,” 2Pet 2.22.
In this whole discourse, I have barely touched on this consideration of sin which the Scripture so frequently mentions and inculcates. For just as all the first institutions of divine worship recorded in Scripture had some respect to this, so is the last rejection of obstinate sinners mentioned in it: “He that is filthy,” or unclean, “let him be filthy still,” Rev 22.11. Nor is there any notion of sin that is so frequently insisted on, by which God would convey an apprehension of its nature, and an abhorrence to our minds and consciences, as this one, of sin’s pollution. And in order to use it to discover the nature of holiness, we may yet observe these five things:
1. Where this uncleanness abides unpurged, there neither is nor can there be any true holiness at all, Eph 4.22-24; for it is universally opposed to it — it is our un-holiness. Therefore, where it is absolute, and it is not purified in any measure or degree, there is no work of sanctification, no holiness that has so much as begun. For in purging this uncleanness, it makes its entrance upon the soul — the effect of this purging is the first beginning of holiness in us. I acknowledge that it is not at once, absolutely and perfectly taken away in anyone in this world; for the work of purging it is a continued act, commensurate to the whole work of our sanctification. Therefore, those who are truly sanctified and holy, are still deeply aware of the remainder of it in themselves; they greatly bewail it and earnestly endeavor after its removal. But there has begun, and there is carried on, an initial, real, sincere, and (as to all the faculties of the soul) universal purging of it, which belongs to the nature and essence of holiness, even though it is not absolutely perfected in this life. Men who pretend to a grace and holiness that consists in moral virtue only, without supposing and regarding the purification of this pollution of sin, only deceive their own souls and others (so far as any are forsaken by God), by giving credit to these virtues. The virtues of men who are not purged from the uncleanness of their natures, are an abomination to the Lord, Tit 1.15.
2. Unless this uncleanness of sin is purged and washed away, we can never come to enjoy God: “Nothing that defiles will by any means enter into the new Jerusalem,” Rev 21.27. To suppose that an unpurified sinner can be brought to the blessed enjoyment of God, is to overthrow both the law and the gospel, and to say that Christ died in vain. It is therefore of the same importance as the everlasting salvation of our souls, to have them purged from sin.
3. Without the special aid, assistance, and operation of the Spirit of God, we are not able to free ourselves from this pollution in any measure or degree, whether it is natural and habitual, or actual. It is true that it is frequently prescribed to us as our duty. We are frequently commanded to “wash ourselves,” to “cleanse ourselves from sin,” to “purge ourselves” from all our iniquities, and the like. But to suppose that we have power, of ourselves, to do whatever God requires of us, is to make the cross and grace of Jesus Christ of no effect. Our duty is our duty, constituted unalterably by the law of God, whether we have the power to perform it or not. We had that power at our first obligation by and to the law, and God is not obliged to bend the law to conform it to our warpings, nor to suit our sinful weaknesses. Therefore, whatever God works in us in a way of grace, he also prescribes to us as our duty. And that is because, even though he does it in us, yet he also does it by us, so that the same work is an act of his Spirit and of our wills, as moved by him. Of ourselves, therefore, we are not able by any endeavors of our own, nor by any ways of our own finding out, to cleanse ourselves from the defilement of sin.
“If I am wicked,” says Job, “why then do I labor in vain? If I wash myself with snow water, and make my hands ever so clean, you will still plunge me into the pit, and my own clothes will abhor me,” Job 9.29-31.
There may be ways and means used by which an appearance of washing and cleansing may be made; but when things come to be tested in the sight of God, all will be found filthy and unclean. It is in vain, says the prophet, to take soap and lye to yourself: you will not be purged, Jer 2.22. The most probable means of cleansing, and the most effectual one in our own judgment, however multiplied, will fail in this case. Some speak a lot about “washing away their sins by the tears of repentance;” but repentance as prescribed in the Scripture is of another nature, and it is assigned to another end. For men’s tears in this matter, are but “soap and lye.” However multiplied, they will not produce the intended effect. And therefore, in countless places in Scripture, God reserves this to himself as the immediate effect of his Spirit and grace — namely, to “cleanse us from our sins and our iniquities.” Eze 36.33
4. The institutions of the law for this end, to purge uncleanness, could not attain it of themselves. They did indeed purify the unclean legally; and they sanctified persons as to the “purifying of the flesh,” Heb 9.13. This was done so that they would not be separated from their privileges in the congregation and the worship of God on that account; but of themselves they could go no further. They only typified and signified that by which sin was really cleansed, Heb 10.1-4. But the real stain is too deep to be taken away by any outward ordinances or institutions; and therefore God, rejecting them all, as it were, promises to open another fountain to that purpose, Zec 13.1. Thus,
5. There is a great emptiness and vanity in all those aids and reliefs which the papal church has invented in this case. They are aware of the spot and stain that accompanies sin, of its pollution and defilement, which none can avoid whose consciences are not utterly hardened and blinded. But they are ignorant of the true and only means and remedy for it. And therefore, in the work of justification, being ignorant of the righteousness of God, and going about to establish their own righteousness, they do not submit themselves to the righteousness of God, as the apostle spoke of their predecessors.Rom 10.3 So too in the work of sanctification, being ignorant of the ways of the working of the Spirit of grace, and the efficacy of the blood of Christ, they go about setting up their own imaginations, and do not submit themselves to comply with the grace of God.
Thus, in the first place, they would (at least most of them would) have the whole uncleanness of our natures be washed away by baptism, “virtute operis operati.”
The ordinance being administered, without any more to do, nor any previous qualifications of the person, whether internal or external, the filth of original sin is washed away. Yet this is not what happened with Simon Magus. Despite being baptized by Philip the evangelist, and that was upon his visible profession and confession, he continued “in the gall of bitterness and bond of iniquity.” Act 8.23 He was therefore certainly not cleansed from his sins. But there is a cleansing in profession and sign, and there is a cleansing in the reality of sanctification. The former accompanies baptism when it is rightly administered. With respect to this, men are said to be “purged from their old sins,” — that is, they made a profession, and they had a fair representation of it in being made partakers of its outward sign — 2Pet 1.9; and they are also said to have escaped the “pollutions of the world” and the “lusts of the flesh,” 2Pet 2.18, 20. But all this may happen, and yet sin is not really purged; for what is required for this is not only the “outward washing of regeneration” in the pledge of it, but the “internal renovation of the Holy Ghost,” Tit 3.5.
Having thus shed themselves of the filth of original sin, as easily as a man may put off his clothes when they are foul, they have found many ways by which the ensuing defilements that attend actual sins may be purged or done away. There is the sprinkling of holy water, confession to a priest, penances, fasting, and some other abstinences that are presumed to be of wonderful virtue to this end and purpose. I acknowledge that one, the art of confession, is really the greatest invention to accommodate the inclinations of all flesh that this world was ever acquainted with. For nothing is so suited to all the carnal interests of the priests, whatever they may be, nor does anything so secure veneration for them in the midst of their looseness and worthless conduct. Nor is anything so suited for the people, who for the most part have other business to deal with than to trouble themselves for very long about their sins; or who find it uneasy to become acquainted in their minds with their guilt and its consequences. Confession is such an expedited course of absolute exoneration, freeing them for other sins or business by depositing them wholly and safely with a priest, that nothing equal to it could ever have been invented. For the real way of dealing with God by Jesus Christ in these things — with endeavors to participate in the sanctifying, cleansing work of the Holy Ghost — is long, and very irksome to flesh and blood, besides being intricate and foolish to natural darkness and unbelief.
Yet it so happens that, after all these inventions, they can come to no perfect rest or satisfaction in their own minds. They can only find by experience, and to their disturbance, that their sores sometimes break out through all these sorry coverings: their defilements still fill them with shame, and the guilt of sin still fills them with fear. Hence they resort to their sheet-anchor in this storm — in the relief which they have provided in another world when, however mistaken, they cannot complain of their disappointments. This is their purgatory, to which they must trust at last to cancel all their odd scores, and purge away that filth of sin which they have been unwilling to part with in this world. But this whole business of purgatory is a groundless fable — an invention set up in competition with and in opposition to the sanctification of the Spirit and the cleansing virtue of the blood of Christ — to provide unspeakably more profit and secular advantage to those who have its management committed to them. It is as great an encouragement to unholiness and continuance in sin for those who believe it, and who at the same time love the pleasures of sin (as do most of their church), as ever was or can be discovered or made use of.
For, to come with a plain, downright dissuasion from holiness, and an encouragement to sin, is a design that would absolutely defeat itself. Nor is it capable of making an impression on those who retain the notion of a difference between good and evil. But this side-wind pretends to relieve men from the filth of sin, while it keeps them from the only ways and means by which sin may be cleansed. It leads them unawares into a quiet pursuit of their lusts, under an expectation of relief when all is past and done. Therefore, setting aside such vain imaginations, we may inquire into the true causes and ways of our purification from the uncleanness of sin described, in which the first part of our sanctification and the foundation of our holiness consists.
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