O Jerusalem, wash thine heart from wickedness
These are the words of the prophet, or of God by the prophet,
showing the cause of all their ruin and destruction, the
wickedness of their hearts; and they are expressed in such form
and language, as to be accommodated to the case of any
unregenerate sinner: every man's heart is wicked, desperately
wicked, even wickedness itself; everything in it is wicked; the
thoughts, and the imagination of the thoughts of the heart, the
mind, the understanding, the will, the conscience, and the
affections; and everything that is wicked is in that: it is the
womb in which all sin is conceived; the shop and forge in which
it is wrought; it is the habitation of every unclean lust; the
seeds and principles of all sin are in it; it is the fountain
spring and source of all evil; of all evil thoughts, words, and
actions; all come out of it, and have their rise in it: and this
wickedness is of a defiling nature, and has left a pollution on
it; and what comes out of it defiles the man, that he stands in
need of washing; which cannot be done to purpose by ceremonial
ablutions and sacrifices, by moral acts of righteousness, by
humiliation and tears, nor by submission to Gospel ordinances;
nor indeed is this to be done by man at all, any other way than
by faith dealing with the blood of Christ, by which only the
heart is purified: for this is God's work, as appears from his
promises to cleanse his people from all sins; from their prayers
to him, to create in them clean hearts, to wash them thoroughly
from their iniquity, and cleanse them from their sin; from the
sanctifying grace of the Spirit, and the washing of regeneration
ascribed to him; and from the end and efficacy of the bloodshed
of Christ, to cleanse from sin, and purge the conscience from
dead works; and the design of such exhortations as these is to
convince men of the wickedness and pollution of their hearts, of
the necessity of being washed from it, and of their own inability
to do it of themselves; and to lead them to the fountain of
Christ's blood, to wash in for sin and for uncleanness:
that thou mayest be saved;
not only with a temporal salvation, which may be here primarily
meant; but with a spiritual and eternal one; for without
purification of the heart there is no salvation: this is the
meetness for the undefiled inheritance; without the washing of
regeneration, there is no seeing nor entering into the kingdom of
God; and unless we are washed by Christ, and in his blood, we can
have no part nor portion with him in the heavenly glory; none
shall ascend the holy hill, or dwell in the holy place, but such
who have clean hands, and a pure heart; without this there is no
seeing of God, nor having communion with him; this is the way in
which he saves men, ( Titus 3:5 ) : how
long shall thy vain thoughts lodge within thee?
or, "wilt thou suffer them to lodge within thee?" F26 if the
question is of right, the answer is, they ought not to lodge one
night, one hour, one moment; but if it is of fact, the answer is,
they will have a place in the heart as long as we are in this
tabernacle; but the words are spoken by way of complaint and
reproof: the thoughts of men's hearts are vain, are taken up
about vain and foolish things; and these not only pass to and
fro, but have a lodging in the heart; and particularly vain are
the thoughts of those who think themselves pure, and that their
hearts are good, and trust in them; or that they can wash
themselves from their wickedness; and that an outward reformation
of life and manners is sufficient; and who think they can be
saved without the washing of regeneration, and the blood of
Christ. The Targum is,
``cleanse thine heart from doing evil, O Jerusalem, that ye may be saved; how long shall they endure and be stable who do violence, which is in the midst of thee?''