Chapter V
All these acts of repentance are mingled with faith in Christ, and have a ten
dency to excite and increase it. That the sense of this sin hath, more than
any other, an influence to move us to Christ, since hereby ice are convinced
of our weakness, and mutability, as creatures, as well as of our guilt as sinners, that so we may seek a remedy in Christ for both.
All these fore-mentioned acts, especially the latter, of spiritual mourning and
contrition, are mixed in the heart of a soul truly penitent, with strains and veins of faith upon free grace, and Christ, for pardon and justification from
this guilt, as well as any. Nor indeed is that saving repentance for any sin
?>o l AX UNREGENERATE MAN* 3 GUILTINESS BEFORE GOD, [BOOK IX.
that flows not from, or at least is not accompanied with, the hopes of, and
seeking of pardon and forgiveness for that sin a man repents of. We see
therefore how this exercise of spirit is here intermingled in this psalm with
these confessions, Wash me, purge me with hyssop, which had Christ s blood in it, according to the Levitical type, to sprinkle the conscience withal.
Hyssop was used as the instrument of sprinkling both water and blood on them that were any way unclean, whereof we read, Exod. xxiv. 7, 8, with
the blood of calves ; and Lev. xiv. 6, 8, with the blood of birds, in case of the leper ; and Num. xix. 6, 18, with the ashes of an heifer. The mystery of all which the apostle hath led us into, Heb. ix. 19,
* Moses took the blood
of calves and goats, with water, and scarlet wool, and hyssop, and sprinkled
all the people ; and, ver. 13, 14, he interprets it thus : If the blood of
bulls and of goats, and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean, sancti-
fieth 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, purge your conscience from dead works? &c., thereby signifying our justification. Now, the sprinkling of the blood and water, by hyssop, &c., dipped therein,
in case of the leper, Lev. xiv., was more specially intended of cleansing us from our original sin, both by Christ s blood in the way of justification, and
by water, in the way of sanctification ; for that sin needeth both, sanctifica-
tion to cleanse us from the filth or blot inherent, and justification from the
guilt. And the leprosy more properly pointed unto that birthsin, since that noisome disease often was conveyed by birth, and always noted out that in
herent corruption, which as a sin and a leprosy is in us, contracted first by Adam s fact, and by birth derived as a native disease. Now, David therefore
confessing himself unclean in respect of his birth-sin, and having Christ s blood
in his eye, as well as those other sins, pertinently therefore cries out, Wash me
thoroughly, ver. 2 (for that sprinkling on the leper was done seven times, Lev. xiv. 7, a number of perfection), and purge me with hyssop, &c.,
* and I shall be whiter than snow ; for the leper was cleansed by the sprinkling of blood, from scarlet wool dipped in it, as well as hyssop, Lev. xiv. 6, 7, whereby the crimson guilt of this and other sins was done
ver. 7,
away ; and, as the prophet speaks, Though they were as scarlet, they shall
be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.
So, then, together with confession and repentance, we must remember to
mingle acts of faith, as David did. And truly those forementioned acts,
specially of contrition, &c., for the guilt of this act, do both prepare for further
acts of faith, and are to be accompanied therewith.
First, Such a brokenness prepares for going out unto Christ, perhaps in some respect more than any other sin. For,
1st, It letting us to see our mutability and nothingness as creatures, &c.,
(as was noted), this disposeth the soul both to value, and go out of itself
unto Christ.
1. As an head of union, by whom we are fixed and made stable as crea
tures, and shall one day in heaven become immutable through our relation
to him as to an head. And,
2. To have recourse unto Christ as a redeemer, to cleanse us from the
guilt and power of sin, both which do so distinctly make up the faith we
ought to act on Christ in regard of this our original sin.
2dly, It serves (by the parallel of the two Adams) to help souls more
clearly to understand the right way of our justification, and how it is distinct
from being sanctified, namely, by the righteousness of another, Jesus Christ
the second Adam, imputed to us, over and above our having sanctification
inherently wrought in us by him. This we shall come more distinctly to
CHAP. V.] IN RESPECT OF SIN AND PUNISHMENT. 353
understand, when the soul hath been once made thoroughly sensible that the
sin of the first Adam comes upon it for condemnation, over and besides
inherent corruption of nature therewith contracted. The one serves to give
light to the other, although in the conveyance they infinitely differ, the one
being received by faith and regeneration from Christ, the other comes upon men traduced by natural propagation. I have known some souls, who
having been, in the work of humiliation upon them, first powerfully con
vinced of both these sinfulnesses from Adam, and particularly of the just
imputation of Adam s fact by God to them, who yet in seeking how to be saved (as they in Acts ii.), did not at first so clearly understand the way of
faith on Christ s righteousness as distinct from sanctification (on which
sanctification they had too much rested, as if that were to be their justifica tion in the sight of God), have, after they came to listen to the doctrine of
justification by Christ s righteousness imputed by God, and through faith
alone laid hold on and received, and had it more fully opened to them, they have been wonderfully helped to apprehend and take this in from their fore
gone conviction of the imputed guilt of Adam s sin, yea, and have had their
hearts the more encouraged to go out of themselves to God and Christ for
this righteousness of justification, by the parallel which that afforded to this
other, as in Rom. v. 19 the apostle hath set them together, As by one man s disobedience, many were made sinners ; so by the obedience of one, shall many be made righteous. For if the things themselves compared do
illustrate each other, as by the apostle s so having done appears, then also
in the apprehension and understanding of any soul that considers them ;
for, uti res sunt in esse, ita in cognosci. For a soul to think, I will go to
that God, who, as by a just act he hath accounted me and us all sinners in Adam, in whom all have sinned ; so he may and will, out of free grace through Christ his righteousness, justify the ungodly, and make us the
righteousness of God in him ; and why not me ? And other sins which a man in his own person hath committed, though they may and do let a man see a more need of Christ, and so press forward
his soul to go unto him, and may serve to the schoolmaster s part to whip us to Christ, in respect of sight of need ; yet they no way conduce to instruct us in the way of faith, or going to Christ for justification in that manner, as the conviction of this of Adam s sin doth, as hath now been specified ; nay, the voice of those sins in the conscience cries aloud to the contrary, The
soul that sins shall die, and bear its own sin itself. Thus much as to what our sense and sorrow for original sin makes way for and helps forward faith
in Christ for justification.
Secondly, As to free grace, or the mercy of God justifying of us freely through Christ s blood, which is also the object of faith, we ought, upon the conviction of and humiliation for this sin, to lay ourselves at the footstool of God s throne of grace, seeking pardon to take away the guilt of it, as David doth in this Psalm li. verses 1, 2, together with his other sins. Men are apt to think with themselves that God in justice, accounting Adam s sin unto them, should, as it were, oblige him (being a God so merciful) to pardon it; and to that purpose some in their writings have not spared to express them
selves. But if it be a sin, and our sin, we must be beholden to grace to
forgive it ; and God in justice might condemn us for it, though we had no other sin. And this is an essential and inseparable property or character of
grace, to be free, and so to justify freely; as Rom. iii. 24, Being justified
freely by his grace, through the redemption that is in Jesus Christ. And therefore in the apostle s following discourse, alout our guilt of this very VOL. X. Z
354 AN UNEEGENERATE MAN S GUILTINESS BEFOEE GOD, [BOOK IX.
act of sin, in chapter v. he subjoins, verse 1, that it is by an abundance of
grace, and of the gift of grace, whereby this sin, together with the many other of our own, came to be pardoned, and we justified ; and therefore the same grace that must exert itself to pardon other sins, must be freely ex tended and put forth by God for the forgiveness of this also.
But of this part I shall have occasion again to speak in the conclusion of
this part of this discourse.