and with all thy soul." (Deut. xxx. 6.) So in the Psalms, "He shall redeem Israel (the Israel of God) from all his sins." So in the Prophet: "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. And I will put my Spirit within you, and ye shall keep my judgments and do them. I will also save you from all your uncleannesses." (Ezek. xxxvi. 25, &c.) So likewise in the New Testament: "Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for he hath visited and redeemed his people, and hath raised up an horn of salvation for us,-to perform the oath which he sware to our father Abraham, That he would grant unto us, that we, being delivered out of the hands of our enemies, should serve him without fear, in holiness and righteousness before him, all the days of our life." (Luke i. 68, &c.)

3. You have therefore good reason to believe, he is not only able, but willing to do this; to cleanse you from all your filthiness of flesh and spirit; to "save you from all your uncleannesses." This is the thing which you now long for; this is the Faith which you now particularly need, namely, that the Great Physician, the Lover of my Soul, is willing to make me clean. But is he willing to do this to-morrow or to-day? Let him answer for himself. "To-day, if ye will hear" my "voice, harden not your hearts." If you put it off till to-morrow, you harden your hearts; you refuse to hear his voice. Believe therefore that he is willing to save you to-day. He is willing to save you now. "Behold, now is the accepted time." He now saith, "Be thou clean!" Only believe; and you also will immediately find, "All things are possible to him that believeth."

4. Continue to believe in Him that loved thee, and gave himself for thee; that bore all thy sins in his own body on the tree; and He saveth thee from all condemnation, by his blood continually applied. Thus it is that we continue in a justified state. And when we go on "from faith to faith," when we have faith to be cleansed from indwelling sin, to be saved from all our uncleannesses, we are likewise saved from all that guilt, that desert of punishment, which we felt before. So that then we may say, not only,

but, likewise, in the full assurance of faith,

"Every moment, Lord, I have
The merit of thy death 1"

For, by that faith in his Life, Death, and Intercession for us, renewed from moment to moment, we are every whit clean, and there is not only now no condemnation for us, but no such desert of punishment as was before, the Lord cleansing both our hearts and lives.

5. By the same faith we feel the power of Christ every moment resting upon us, whereby alone we are what we are; whereby we are enabled to continue in spiritual life, and without which, notwithstanding all our present holiness, we should be Devils the next moment. But as long as we retain our faith in him, we "draw water out of the wells of salvation." Leaning on our beloved, even Christ in us the hope of glory, who dwelleth in our hearts by faith, who likewise is ever interceding for us at the right hand of God, we receive help from him to think, and speak, and act what is acceptable in his sight. Thus does he "prevent" them that believe, in all their "doings, and further them with his continual help," so that all their designs, conversations, and actions are "begun, continued, and ended in him." Thus doth he "cleanse the thoughts of their hearts, by the inspiration of his Holy Spirit, that they may perfectly love him, and worthily magnify his holy name."

6. Thus it is, that in the children of God, Repentance and Faith exactly answer each other. By Repentance, we feel the sin remaining in our hearts, and cleaving to our words and actions by Faith we receive the power of God in Christ, purifying our hearts, and cleansing our hands. By Repentance we are still sensible that we deserve punishment for all our tempers, and words, and actions by Faith we are conscious, that our Advocate with the Father is continually pleading for us, and thereby continually turning aside all condemnation and punishment from us. By Repentance we have an abiding conviction, that there is no help in us: by Faith we receive not only mercy," but grace to help in" every "time of need." Repentance disclaims the very possibility of any other help : Faith accepts all the help we stand in necd of, from Him that hath all power in heaven and earth. Repentance says, "Without him I can do nothing:" Faith says, "I can do all things through Christ strengthening me." Through Him I can not

only overcome, but expel, all the enemies of my soul. Through Him I can "love the Lord my God with all my heart, mind, soul, and strength;" yea, and "walk in holiness and righteousness before Him all the days of my life."

III. 1. From what has been said, we may casily learn the mischievousness of that opinion, that we are Wholly Sanctified when we are Justified; that our hearts are then cleansed from all sin. It is true, we are then delivered, as was observed before, from the dominion of outward sin; and, at the same time, the power of inward sin is so broken, that we need no longer follow, or be led by it: but it is by no means true, that inward sin is then totally destroyed; that the root of pride, self-will, anger, love of the world, is then taken out of the heart; or that the carnal mind, and the heart bent to backsliding, are entirely extirpated. And to suppose the contrary, is not, as some may think, an innocent, harmless mistake. No: it does immense harm it entirely blocks up the way to any farther change for it is manifest, "They that are whole do not need a physician, but they that are sick." If, therefore, we think we are quite made whole already, there is no room to seek any farther healing. On this supposition it is absurd to expect a farther deliverance from sin, whether gradual or instantaneous.

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2. On the contrary, a deep conviction that we are not yet whole; that our hearts are not fully purified; that there is yet in us a "carnal mind," which is still in its nature "enmity against God;" that a whole body of sin remains in our heart, weakened indeed, but not destroyed; shows, beyond all possibility of doubt, the absolute necessity of a farther change. We allow, that at the very moment of justification, we are born again in that instant we experience that inward change, from "darkness into marvellous light;" from the image of the brute and the Devil, into the image of God; from the earthly, sensual, devilish mind, to the mind which was in Christ Jesus. But are we then entirely changed? Are we wholly transformed into the image of him that created us? Far from it: we still retain a depth of sin and it is the consciousness of this, which constrains us to groan for a full deliverance, to him that is mighty to save. Hence it is, that those believers who are not convinced of the deep corruption of their hearts, or but slightly, and as it were notionally convinced, have little concern about entire sanctification. They may possibly hold the opinion, that such

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a thing is to be, either at death, or some time, they know not when, before it. But they have no great uneasiness for the want of it, and no great hunger or thirst after it. They cannot, until they know themselves better, until they repent in the sense above described, until God unveils the inbred monster's face, and shows them the real state of their souls. Then only, when they feel the burden, will they groan for deliverance from it. Then, and not till then, will they cry out, in the agony of their soul,

"Break off the yoke of inbred sin,

And fully set my spirit free!
I cannot rest, till pure within;
Till I am wholly lost in thee!"

3. We may learn from hence, secondly, That a deep conviction of our Demerit, after we are accepted, (which, in one sense, may be termed guilt,) is absolutely necessary, in order to our seeing the true value of the atoning blood; in order to our feeling that we need this as much, after we are justified, as ever we did before. Without this conviction we cannot but account the blood of the covenant as a common thing, something of which we have not now any great need, seeing all our past sins are blotted out. Yea, but if both our hearts and lives are thus unclean, there is a kind of guilt which we are contracting every moment, and which, of consequence, would every moment expose us to fresh condemnation, but that

"He ever lives above,

For us to intercede,
His all-atoning loye,

His precious blood to plead."

It is this Repentance, and the Faith intimately connected with it, which are expressed in those strong lines,

"I sin in every breath I draw,

Nor do thy will, nor keep thy law
On earth, as angels do above:

But still the fountain open stands,
Washes my feet, my heart, my hands,
Till I am perfected in love.”

4. We may observe, thirdly, a deep conviction of our utter Helplessness, of our total inability to retain any thing we have received, much more to deliver ourselves from the world of iniquity remaining both in our hearts and lives, teaches us

truly to live upon Christ by faith, not only as our Priest, but as our King. Hereby we are brought to "magnify him," indeed; to "give him all the glory of his grace;" to make him a whole Christ, an entire Saviour; and truly to set the crown upon his head." These excellent words, as they have frequently been used, have little or no meaning; but they are fulfilled in a strong and deep sense, when we thus, as it were, go out of ourselves, in order to be swallowed up in him; when we sink into nothing, that He may be All in All. Then, his almighty Grace having abolished "every high thing which exalted itself against him," every temper, and thought, and word, and work," is brought to the obedience of Christ."

Londonderry, April 24, 1767,