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 at the actual quality of the life, and not at mere professions of faith, when the life of holiness is absent. Hence the Lord, when he comes in his capacity of Judge, to explore man's real state as to love, charity, and faith, is said to be "like refiner's fire, and like fuller's soap." The Lord is the only purifier, and with respect to his operation in clearing the will from all the dross and corruption of self-love and uncleanness, he is the refiner's fire; for fire is the emblem of his divine love: but in reference to the thorough cleansing of the mind from all those spots and stains of falsehood, which render the life externally unclean, he is the fuller's soap. This spiritual washing must be real and not pretended; for no outward semblance of purity, which at the same time conceals the pollution within, can escape the eye of the Omniscient One. He views the state as it really is, not as it appears to be: "For though thou wash thee with nitre, and