Sin an Uncleanness

    SIN AN UNCLEANNESS

    "From all your Uncleannesses," &c., Eze 36:29.

    "In that day there shall be a fountain open to the house of David, and to the Inhabitants of Jerusalem, for Sin, and for uncleanness" Ecclesiastes 13:1.

    "To work all Uncleanness" &c., Eph 4:19.

    Sin is compared to an unclean thing, and man by reason of Sin is said to be defiled; who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? The Hebrew Tama, as Mr. Caryl observes, comes near the word contaminatum, which is used by the Latins for Uncleanness, and it speaks the greatest Uncleanness, pollution, sordidness, and filthiness imaginable, as of habit, gore of blood, the muddiness of water, or whatsoever is loathsome or unlovely, noisome or unseemly; such an uncleanness is Sin.

    Note, "Sin is an unclean thing:" they who see the face of Sin in the glass of the law, see it the most ugly and deformed object in the world: if virtue could be seen, she would attract all eyes to her, and ravish all hearts to behold her, "Virtue is an invisible beauty;" so if sin could be seen, all eyes would turn away from it, and all hearts loath it. "Sin is an invisible deformity." The Spirit of God doth as it were strive for comparisons, to set out the ugliness of Sin, it is compared to the blood and pollution of wretched new-born infants, to the corruption, and putrefaction of a rotten sepulchre, to the scum of a seething-pot, to loathsome, stinking, and putrifying sores, to the superfluity of naughtiness, to the leprosy, &c., Eze 16., Ro 3:13; Isa 1:5-6; Jas 1:27. All these comparisons show forth the ugliness of Sin, but alas! it is filthy beyond compare.

    PARALLELS.

    I. Some things are so unclean and filthy, that they defile every thing they touch; Sin is such an Uncleanness: who can touch it, meddle with it, and not be defiled by it? It is an infectious Uncleanness: as good is so much the better, by how much the more it is diffusive, so Sin is so much the worse, by how much it is the more infectious and diffusive. Sin is diffusive two ways; 1. By propagation from Adam to all his posterity. 2. By way of imitation.

    II. Some things are full of Uncleanness, they abound in filth and pollution; such a defilement and Uncleanness is sin, it is not in one part only, but in and upon tlie whole man, it goes quite through; there is not the least part free from head to heel. "They are all gone out of the way and become vile, vile all over." There is a double universality of this Uncleanness. 1. It defiles all men. 2. All of man, not one man in the world but is Unclean by Sin, and not one part in man but is unclean; view him in his understanding, will, judgment, memory, affection, conscience, eyes, hands, tongue, feet, all parts of the body, and. powers of the souls are unclean.

    III. Some Uncleanness is active, prevailing, and powerful, it increaseth and grows worse and worse, and denies, and pollutes more and more; such an Uncleanness is Sin, man is unclean as he comes into the world, but this Uncleanness grows and prevails more and more upon him, by actual sin he becomes worse and worse, and is more denied every day; it strives to captivate and bring the souls of all men under the defiling power and pollution of it, Ro 7:23.

    IV. Some Uncleanness is so loathsome, that it causes such things to stink as come near it; Sin makes the sinner stink, his person stink, his life stink, and his services and prayers, and all his best actions to stink in the nostrils of God. "The sacrifices of the wicked, are an abomination to the Lord," Pr 15:8.

    V. Some Uncleannesses are inward, hidden, obscure, appear not to the external eyes. Sin is not a spot in the garment, or visible pollution in the face, or rottenness in the flesh, though that is bad, and sometimes the effects of this Uncleanness, but it is rottenness in the heart; all a man's entrails are as it were corrupted. Man, as you heard, and every part of man is defiled, and yet externally this Uncleanness doth not appear, the sinner seems as beautiful and comely to the outward eyes as other men, this Uncleanness is internal. As saints internally are glorious and beautiful, so sinners internally are foul, filthy, and deformed, their heart, liver, and conscience, is defiled, Tit 1:15.

    DISPARITY.

    I. What pollution and filth is so fixed and abiding, that all the nitre and fuller's soap in the world cannot wash it off, nor the hottest fire purify, purge it out, or consume it? But such an Uncleanness and pollution is Sin, that all the water in the mighty ocean cannot wash it out; nay, could a man bathe himself in brinish tears of godly contrition,, it will not cleanse, or take away the filth of his transgression. "Though thou wash thee with nitre, and take unto thee much soap; yet thy iniquity is marked before me, saith the Lord," Jer 2:22. All the fire of hell cannot burn it out; hell fire shall never, as saith Mr. Caryl, consume this filth; those who are not purged in this life, shall never be purged in the next. The wicked shall ever be in punitive flames, but shall not find, as Papists dream, any purgative flames; the fire and brimstone of hell shall never fetch this Uncleanness out of the damned.

    II. What Uncleanness, and abominable filth and pollution is ensnaring? Men and women are shy of, and ready at all turns to fly from, and avoid any external, horrible Uncleanness: but Sin is a bewitching and ensnaring Uncleanness. All the bodily beauty in the world did never entice so many, as the deformity and foul face of Sin hath. Beauty and comeliness are the attractives, the loadstone of love; Christ was not loved by many, because he did not appear beautiful, he vailed his glorious beauty: lust is loved, though it be altogether unbeautiful. Christ is the Mirror of beauty; though some see no comeliness in him, he is "fairer than the children of men:" but there is no form or comeliness in Sin, nothing indeed why it should be desired; yet how is it admired, and esteemed by all sorts of men! They dote upon it, and run mad with love to it; it is so bewitching, as the choicest beauty in the world.

    III. What filth, Uncleanness, or pollution, is of such a murdering, killing, and destroying nature, as Sin! It is true, some horrid pollution is of corrupting, poisonous, and destroying quality, but not like Sin: this venom, this Uncleanness, is worse than any, more mortal than any; it kills both body and soul too; it destroys eternally. 0, there is no finding out the cursed nature of it; there is nothing can save from the killing power of it, nor cleanse from its pollution, but Christ's blood.

    INFERENCES.

    I. 0, what a woeful condition is man in by nature, how Unclean in God's sight! Well might Eliphaz say, "How abominable and filthy is man, who drinketh inquity like water!" Job 15:16. The word STO notes that which is most abhorring to the nature of man; that which is not only so nauseous that the stomach cannot digest it, but so base, that the mind is burdened to think upon it; yea, the words import that which is rejected by all the senses, that which, the eye cannot endure to look upon, that which the ear cannot endure to hear of, that which is a stink in the nostrils, and which the hand will not touch; such a thing is man in God's sight, by reason of Sin. Filthy, n!a, the word is derived from a root that signifies, corrupt, rotten, putrified, the scum of a pot, the rust of metals, the clung or excrement of man and beasts. There are no words, saith Caryl, filthy enough to express the filthiness of man. The word is found, saith he, but three times in scripture; in this construction, and in all of them, it is applied to show the abominable wickedness of man: the first is this, Job 15:16; Ps 14:3, and Ps 53:3, as if this were a word picked out on purpose, as a glass, to show man his face and natural complection in, &c.

    II. O what is man, that God should be mindful of him! What beauty is there in him, that the Almighty should set his heart upon him! Job 7:17.

    III. What little reason have wicked men to be proud? And how sadly are they mistaken, who think to adorn themselves with sin? How do sinners pride themselves in their filthy garments, and cloak of unrighteousness? He is no gallant now-a-days, unless he can swear, and curse, and cry, "Damn-him;" and, "Sink-him." Lord, what an age is this! They show their Sin, as Sodom, and hide it not; they glory in their shame.

    IV. Let us learn from hence to be fully sensible of our birth-pollution, I mean original sin, that which we brought into the world with us: "Can he be clean that is born of a woman? Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? Not one," Job 25:5; 14:4. Can the stream be clean, when the fountain is so unclean? All that are born by natural generation, are unclean. Adam's particular act or breach of the law of God was ours, we being in him; he stood as the common root of all his posterity; it is also by the Almighty imputed to us: the natural pravity or corruption which issueth from thence, passeth from generation to generation.

    V. We may infer from hence, that every man and woman hath need of washing; say not therefore with Peter, "Thou shalt never wash my feet," when every partis defiled, &c.

    VI. Go polluted soul, go to the fountain, "It is the blood of Christ, that cleanseth us from all Sin," 1Jo 1:7.

    VII. Bless God, there is a Fountain to wash in, a Fountain opened for Sin and Uncleanness. See Fountain.

    VIII. You that are clean, praise the Almighty: ye were filthy as others: "Such were some of you," &c. Saints may be said to be clean four manner of ways: (1.) Clean meritoriously, by the blood of the Lord Jesus. (2.) Efficaciously, by the Spirit uniting them to Christ, and sanctifying their hearts. (3.) Clean instrumentally, by the Word: "Now are you clean, through the Word which I have spoken unto you." (4,) Clean impulsively, and attractively by faith: "Purifying their hearts by faith."