The first thing of which the soul is sick, and by which the conscience receiveth wounding, is the guilt of sin and fear of the curse of God for it; for which are provided the wounds and precious blood of Christ, which flesh and blood, if the soul eat thereof by faith, give deliverance therefrom.  Upon this filth of sin appears most odious; for that it hath not only at present defiled the soul, but because it keeps it from doing those duties of love which by the love of Christ it is constrained to endeavor the perfecting of.  For filth appears filth, that is, irksome and odious to a contrary principle now implanted in the soul; which principle had its conveyance thither by faith in the sacrifice and death of Christ going before.  “The love of Christ constraineth us; because we thus judge, that if one died for all, then were all dead:  and that he died for all, that they who live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but to him that died for them and rose again.”

The man that has received Christ desires to be holy, because the nature of the faith that lays hold on Christ worketh by love, and longeth, yea, greatly longeth, that the soul may be brought not only into a universal conformity to his will, but into his very likeness; and because that state agreeth not with what we are now, but with what we shall be hereafter:  “Therefore in this we groan, being burdened” with that which is of a contrary nature, “earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our house which is from heaven;” which state is not that of Adam’a innocency, but that which is spiritual and heavenly, even that which is now in the Lord in heaven.

Blessed be God for Jesus Christ, and for that he took our nature and sin and curse and death upon him; and for that he did also by himself, by one offering, purge our sins.  We that have believed have found rest, even there where Christ and his Father have smelled a sweet savor of rest:  because we are presented to God even now complete in the righteousness of him, and stand discharged of guilt even by the faith of him; yea, as sins past, so sins to come, were taken up and satisfied for by that offering of the body of Jesus.  We who have had a due sense of sins, and of the nature of the justice of God, know that no remission of the guilt of any one can be, but by atonement made by blood.  Heb. 9:22.

We also know that where faith in Jesus Christ is wanting, there can be neither good principle, nor good endeavor; for faith is the first of all graces, and without it there is nothing but sin.  Rom. 14:23.

We know also that faith, as a grace in us, severed from the righteousness of Christ, is only a beholder of things, but not a justifier of persons; and that if it lay not hold of and applieth not that righteousness which is in Christ, it carries us no further than to the devils.