28. Exactly agreeable to this are his words in the first chapter of this epistle, (verse 6, &c.) _God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. If we walk in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin._ And again, _If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness_. Now it is evident, the apostle here also speaks of a deliverance wrought _in this world_. For he saith not, _the blood of Christ will cleanse_ (at the hour of death, or in the day of judgment) but it _cleanseth_ (at the time present) _us_ (living Christians) _from all sin_. And it is equally evident, that if _any sin_ remain, we are not cleansed from _all sin_: if _any_ unrighteousness remain in the soul, it is not cleansed from all unrighteousness. Neither let any sinner against his own soul say, that this relates to justification only, or the cleaning us from the guilt of sin; _first_, Because this is confounding together what the apostle clearly distinguishes; who mentions first, _to forgive us our sins_, and then _to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Secondly_, Because this is asserting justification by works in the strongest sense possible: it is making all inward, as well as outward holiness, necessarily previous to justification. For if the cleansing here spoken of is no other than the cleansing us from the guilt of sin, then we are not cleaned from guilt; _i. e._ are not justified, unless on condition of _walking in the light, as he is in the light_. It remains then, that Christians are saved in this world from all sin, from all unrighteousness: that they are now in such a sense perfect, as not to commit sin, and to be freed from evil thoughts and evil tempers. 29. Thus hath the Lord fulfilled the things he spake by his holy prophets, which have been since the world began: by _Moses_ in particular, saying (_Deut._ xxx. 6.) _I will circumcise thine heart, and the heart of thy seed, to love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul; by_ David crying out, _Create in me a clean heart, and renew a right spirit within me_: and most remarkably by _Ezekiel_, in those words, _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. A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments and do them.――Ye shall be my people, and I will be your God. I will also save you from all your uncleannesses.――Thus saith the Lord your God, in the day that I shall have cleansed you from all your iniquities――the Heathen shall know that I the Lord build the ruined places,――I the Lord have spoken it,――and I will do it_, Ezek. xxxvi. 25, &c.