ll of his debtors, as having satisfied in our
cautioner, and considers us as righteous on that account before God. And
this likewise I speak for your use, that ye may loathe and abhor
yourselves, as much in yourselves, who are made clean by the blood of
Jesus Christ, as if ye were not washen. Nay, so much the more ye ought to
remember your own sins, which he doth not remember as debt any more; and
to be ashamed and confounded because they are pardoned. It is ordinary for
souls to look on themselves with an eye of more complacency in themselves,
when they apprehend that God looks favourably on them. I do not think that
any soul can duly consider the gracious aspect of God in Jesus Christ to
them, but they will the more loathe themselves. But I find it ordinary,
that slight and inconsiderate thoughts of pardon beget jolly conceits in
men's hearts of themselves. And this is even the sin of God's children;
something is abated of our self-abhorring, when we have peace and favour
spoken unto us. But I beseech all who believe there is no condemnation for
them, to consider there are all things worthy of it in them, yea, nothing
but what deserves it; and therefore let that aspect of God beget
self-loathing and self-detestation in you. The more you apprehend he is
pleased with you, be ye the more displeased with yourselves, because it is
not yourselves he is pleased with, but his own well-beloved Son. The day
of redemption is coming, when there shall be no condemnation, and nothing
condemnable either. In heaven you shall be so, but while ye are here, this
is the most important duty ye are called to,--to loathe yourselves, because
of all your abominations, and because he is pacified towards you, Ezek.
xvi. at the close; and chap. xxxvi. 31; and xx. 43, 44. There is a new and
strange mortification now pleaded for by many,(160) whose highest
advancement consisteth in not feeling, or knowing, or confessing sin, but
in being dead to the sense and conviction of the same. Alas! whither are
these reforming times gone? Is not this the spirit of Antichrist? I
confess it is a mortification of godliness, a crucifying of repentance and
holiness, a crucifying of the new man; but it is a quickening of the old
man in the lusts thereof, a living to sin. This is a part of that new (but
falsely so called) gospel that is preached by some; which, if an angel
would bring from heaven, we ought not to believe it. "Other foundation can
no man lay than that