of mind than the contrary conduct. Next to not having erred at all, is to acknowledge and forsake error when known, as it is next to being innocent to confess, repent, and amend. Again, filthiness or impurity, as it regards the will, consists in that propensity to what is forbidden, and that aversion to what is our duty, which are so natural to man; this necessarily follows from the corruption of the understanding, just now described, dressing up vice in a form so attracting and lovely, and giving religion an appearance so forbidding and unlovely, as to make the former an object of desire, the other of disgust.—The will of necessity must make choice of good, real or apparent, for its object; but this faculty is so unhappily disposed by the perversion it has undergone, as to embrace unthinkingly the most fatal of evils, under the appearance of the greatest good; to grasp at the shadow and let go the substance. In the third place, impurity or filthiness of spirit consists of disordered and impure affections. The passions were implanted in the human breast for the wisest and noblest purposes, as prompters and assistants to virtue; but they too are by their perversion become the advocates of vice-from being the life and vigour of the soul, are become its diseases and plagues; one like a raging fever, another like a pining consumption, and a third

like a nauseous leprosy, by turns, tosses, wastes, and pollutes it. Besides, it is very observable, that there is in every heart some one reigning domineering passion, which may peculiarly be called its own; this the apostle to the Hebrews calls, "the sin that doth so easily beset us," which never fails to triumph over us. So long, therefore, as the soul is under subjection to any of these, it must be very unfit to become an inhabitant of those mansions into which nothing that is impure, or that defileth, can enter to enjoy the promise of being made " the child of God," of that Being who is " of purer eyes" than to look upon sinners without abhorrence

Second, by filthiness of the flesh, we are to understand the actual outbreakings of those corrupted affections, whereby the body as well as the mind is discomposed, troubled, and often destroyed; it is the real and open productions of anger, lust, and ambition, of malice, envy, and pride, and such like, which are the occasion of all that disorder we observe in the world; which are the destruction of kingdoms, societies, and individuals; which make men resemble damned spirits, and this earth resemble hell. It were endless to recount all the corruptions of heart and life, which every hour present themselves to our

notice, both in ourselves and others, owing to the want of that original rectitude of our nature, which the great author of it implanted in it at its first creation, which was lost by the fall, and for the recovery of which the Lord Jesus Christ came into the world, lived, suffered, and died. Having thus explained what we are to understand by the expression "filthiness of the flesh "and spirit," it will appear upon a very short survey, wherein consists the "holiness" here recommended;----in one word, it consists in being purified from all the disorder, pollution, and corruption just mentioned, in " putting off the old "man," according to the expression of the apostle," which is corrupt according to the lusts of “the flesh, and in putting on the new man which "after God is created in righteousness and true

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holiness;" in recovering that image of the Deity which was the glory and happiness of man at his first creation, in having the understanding cleared of error and prejudice, the will renewed and brought to a conformity to the divine will, the affections reduced within their proper bounds, and brought into obedience to the dictates of reason and conscience, and “ the body sprinkled "as with pure water;" the life and actions regulated according to that holy, and just, and good law of God, which is the standard of all perfec

tion. That such perfect purity is not to be attained in this world will be readily allowed; at the same time it is no less certain, that whoever expects to have any interest in the promises already explained, will be convinced of the necessity of being" renewed in the spirit of the mind," and in the tenour of the life.-Which leads me to the

Third head, namely, by way of improvement, to shew the influence which the hope of the promises should have upon our minds. "He that "hath this hope in him," saith the apostle John, writing upon the same subject," purifieth him"self even as he is pure:" has God promised to be our God, to dwell in us, and walk among us? has he promised to be our father, and to bestow upon us all the blessings and privileges of such a relation, and do we hope and wish for the accomplishment of those gracious promises? is it our chief desire and ambition to be called the sons of God, and to be " heirs of that kingdom "which is prepared for his children from the "foundation of the world?" into it, we are assured that nothing which is impure can enter, for "with❝out are dogs, and sorcerers, and whoremongers, "and murderers, and idolaters, and whosoever "loveth and maketh a lie :" if then, we have this

glorious hope, it will lead us to comply with the exhortation of the text, to "cleanse ourselves "from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit." By our fatal apostacy from God, the strength as well as the beauty of the soul was destroyed and lost, man became a weak, as well as a guilty, creature; his appetites and passions, which were designed to be under the direction of reason, usurped the mastery, and continue to counteract and controul its dictates, and to rectify the disorders thereby occasioned, is what we are here called to. It may be laid down as a self-evident proposition, that no person in a natural unrenewed state has any inclination for being a partaker of these promises, and of course no desire after that purity which alone qualifies for it: it is no less certain, that no person whatever, unassisted by the grace of God, is able to attain this purity, our very righteousness, our best works being "as "filthy rags" in the sight of God; as human nature is wholly corrupted, whatever flows from an impure source must of course be impure, for " a

corrupt tree cannot bring forth good fruit." It is they, and they only, who by grace are "re"newed in the spirit of their mind," who have "their fruit unto holiness," and to such only therefore can the apostle's exhortation be addressed.