covered by repeated meditation, or illustrated by subsequent events.

We deem these few words necessary to justify ourselves from the deserved reproach of those, who as they call it, are always spiritualizing the Scriptures, and building important doctrines on historical circumstances, till the word of God becomes contemptible to the wise, and unintelligible to the simple; and seems to have no real and determinate sense left. It is high time that this trifling and mischievous mode of teaching, should be discountenanced and laid aside.

Let us hasten to consider, with all the seriousness the subject requires, THAT PURIFICATION, WITH

OUT WHICH ALL OUR HOPE OF AN INTEREST IN

CHRIST IS VAIN. If I wash thee not, thou hast no part with me. Let us examine the conditionthe dreadfulness-and the certainty of this exclusion from Christ.

I. The condition-If I wash thee not.

It reminds us that sin is of a defiling quality. When God looked down from heaven upon the children of men, it is said, they were altogether become filthy. Hence we read of the filthiness of flesh and spirit. This evil has defiled all our powers and all our actions; all we possess, and all we enjoy; and while it pollutes us, it causes us also to pollute others. Men may palliate the evil of sin, but in the view of the Supreme Judge, it is unspeakably vile and hateful: "He is of purer eyes than to behold iniquity." And when the sinner is convinced of sin, he sees it in the same light. As a discovery of the guilt of sin awakens his fear, so a perception of the impurity of it excites his aversion and disgust. He sees, he feels that he is unclean, and deservedly excluded from commu

nion with all holy beings. He cries, "Behold I am vile. Wherefore I abhor myself, repenting in dust and ashes." He loathes himself for all his abominations; nor will he be perfectly reconciled to himself, while any of the hateful defilement is found within him.

Now this enables us to determine what our Saviour means by washing us. It is the sanctification of our nature. It is what the apostle calls "the washing of regeneration, and the renewing of the Holy Ghost." As water removes defilement and restores to purity, so the influences of divine grace deliver us from sin, and make us truly holy. Hence we find it promised in a fulness and variety of expression: "Then will I 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 cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments and do them." We do not indeed mean to intimate that real Christians are entirely freed from all sin here for then who could lay claim to the character? Unmixed purity is the privilege of heaven there alone shall we be " presented faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy." The greatest saints have now their infirmities and "* groan being burdened." But let us remember, that though this work is completed in eternity, it is begun in time: that the true Christian is the subject of a glorious change, not only as to his actions, but also as to his dispositions; that he is saved from the love of every sin, and

the dominion of every sin; that there is no sin unknown which he does not wish to discover; and no sin discovered which he does not resolve to destroy; and no sin which he resolves to destroy, but he strives, and labours to destroyplucking out, even a right eye, or cutting off. even a right hand; denying all ungodliness, and worldly lusts, and living soberly, righteously, and godly in the present world."

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Bnt how are we thus cleansed from our iniquities, and who has the honour of our deliverance? HE is the grand purifier: "His name is called Jesus; because he saves his people from their sins." If I wash thee not-the work is hisand whatever means are used, they derive both their being and their efficacy from him. There is no other fountain opened for sin and uncleanness, than his dying wounds supplied. His blood, says the apostle, cleanseth us from all sin. He loved us, says the church, and washed us from our sins in his own blood.

Let us not look to him for justification only, but remember that he is made of God unto us sanctification also: that he delivers us not only from the curse, but the pollution of sin; that he rescues us, not only from the burden of condemnation, but the bondage of corruption; and not only gives us the title to heaven, but produces in us the meetness for it-and is all in all. To induce you to seek after this state,

Consider, II. The dreadfulness sion-Thou hast no part with me. no real interest in me; and thou reasonable expectations from me.' thing very tremendous in this.

of the exclu

"Thou hast canst have no There is some

Hear how the apostle Paul speaks of a privi

lege from which you are excluded: "But what things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ. Yea, doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus, my Lord : for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ, and be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith; that I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death-if by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead." The apostle was a good judge, and you here see that he infinitely preferred union with Christ to everything else.-But you say, you are not likeminded. You do not thus value him: you prefer a thousand objects, to an interest in him—and therefore there seems nothing to you so very dreadful in this threatening.

But the question is-whether your judgment be a righteous one. A pearl is not the less precious because the swine tramples it under foot. A toy is not more valuable than a title to an estate, because an infant or an idiot may give it the preference.

And the question also is, whether you will always remain in the same opinion. Will the day of judgment, think you, operate no change in your sentiments? Will not the approach of death alter your convictions? What! when all those things which now engage and amuse you, fail— you want no better portion? If, while I am speaking, a messenger from the king of terrors should seize you, and you were carried to your

bed, and compelled to look backward upon your life, and forward to your doom-what could succour and relieve you?-Yea, if conscience were to fall upon you this moment, and the terrors of the Almighty trouble you; you would soon find the truth of Solomon's words: "The spirit of a man may sustain his infirmity; but a wounded spirit who can bear?-And then what advantage could you derive from all your worldly possessions! they would be all physicians of no value; miserable comforters. Your relief could only come from another quarter-but from that quarter you are forbidden to hope.

If our Lord and Saviour were an unimportant character, your exclusion from him would not be so fatal-but the fact is that everything you need is found in him, and to be derived only from him. Of what worth Christ is to us, is a question, says an old writer, which would nonplus all the saints on earth, and angels in heaven to answer. One thing we are certain of that no being in the universe can fill his place, and do for us what he is able to do. And therefore, if he will have nothing to do with us, our case is indeed miserable and hopeless. We are wanderers without a guide: we are dying patients without a physician, or a remedy: we are exposed to the deluge, and have no ark. It matters not to whom we belong; if we had part with a king, he could not help us in our most important concerns-the concerns of the soul and eternity. He cannot give us the true riches. He cannot deliver us from the wrath to come. He cannot bless us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places. And whatcan we do without these? Neither is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name