Leviticus 14

REFLECTIONS UPON CHAP. XIV.—No human endeavours, but God alone, can cure my spiritual plagues. By his grace, through the application of the blood and Spirit of Jesus, the God-man—of Jesus, the once slain, but now alive and ascended Saviour—I must be cleansed from my reigning corruptions.—Thus shall I have access into God’s camp, his church below; and, as a bird escaped, fly away towards heaven, rejoicing in my deliverance. But not till, through the Spirit, I repeatedly wash myself and my performances in the fountain of his blood; till I search out and mortify my corruptions, the deeds of my body, and receive the full efficacy of Jesus’ righteousness, and the influences of his blessed Spirit, for the sanctification of my whole powers and members; shall I be admitted to my real habitation, or enter into unreserved and immediate fellowship with divine persons, holy angels, and glorified saints. But blessed be the Lord, that my all-comprehending offering, Christ Jesus, suits me, whether I be poor or rich, and renders my person and all my services constantly acceptable before God.—In this plague of the house, let me observe how sin worketh the dissolution not only of human bodies, but of families, nations, and churches; and that no human projects, but Jesus and his Spirit preached and applied, can prevent their destruction; and that, where there is a continued obstinacy in sinning, notwithstanding mercies and judgments, inevitable ruin must necessarily ensue. REFLECTIONS UPON CHASE XV.—In these things, as in a figure, I behold been shamed and infectious are the scandalous outbreakings of original and involved corruption, and particularly those which are any way connected with faulty laws. Neither the comers nor the comers can have fellowship with God or his people but in a believing improvement of Jesus’ blood and Spirit, and in bitter and unfeigned repentance of their sin. Let my body, therefore, 16 as well as my soul, be kept pure for the Lord. Let me, with the most earnest care, avoid the company of apostate, erroneous, nechaste, frothy, and wicked, persons; and have no fellowship in thought, word, or deed, with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them. Without this circumspection and care, I shall certainly contract guilt, stains, infamy, and hurt, which will not be purged away, but follow me, till I die.H H. —