right spirit, and has purged me, and
will purge me, till I am clean, and washed me till I am whiter than
snow; I do not deny one of my old sins; I did them, I know that; I
confess them to thee now, oh accusing Devil; but I confessed them to
God, ay, and to man too, long ago, and by confessing them to Him I
was saved from them; for with the mouth confession is made unto
salvation. And what is more; I have not only confessed my own sins,
but I have confessed Christ's righteousness; and I confess it now.
I confess, I say, that Christ is perfectly righteous and good, the
Perfect Pattern of what I ought to be; and because He is perfectly
good, He does not wish to see me remain bad and sinful, that He may
taunt me and torment me with my sins, as thou the accusing Devil
dost: but He wishes to make me and every man good like Himself,
blest like Himself; and He can do it, and will do it, if we will but
give up our hearts to Him; and I have given up my heart to Him. All
I ask of Him is to be made good and kept good, set right and kept
right; and I can trust in Him utterly to do that; for He is faithful
and just to forgive me my sins, and cleanse me from all
unrighteousness. Therefore, accuse me not, Devil! for thou hast no
share in me: I belong to Christ, and not to thee. And set not my
old sins before my face; for God has set them behind His back,
because I have renounced them, and sworn an oath against them, and
Christ has nailed them to His cross, and now they are none of mine
and none of thine, but are cast long ago into the everlasting fire
of God, and burnt up and done with for ever; and I am a new man, and
God's man; and He has justified me, and will justify me, and make me
just and right; and neither thou, nor any man, has a right to impute
to me my past sins, for God does not impute them to me; and neither
thou, nor any man, has a right to condemn me, for God has justified
me. And if it please God to humble me more (for I know I want
humbling every day), and to show me more how much I owe to Him--if
it please Him, I say, to bring to light any of my past sins, I shall
take it patiently as a wholesome chastening of my Heavenly Father's;
and I trust to all God's people, and to angels, and the spirits of
just men made perfect, that they will look on my past sins as God
looks on them, mercifully and lovingly, as things past and dead,
forgiven and blotted out of God's book, by the precious blood of
Christ, and look on