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THE

WORKS OF THOMAS I ANTON, D.D.

VOL. XXI.

COUNCIL OF PUBLICATION.

W. LINDSAY ALEXANDER, D.D., Professor of Theology, Congregational Union, Edinburgh.

JAMES BEGG, D.D., Minister of Newington Free Church, Edinburgh.

THOMAS J. CRAWFORD, D.D., S.T.P., Professor of Divinity, University, Edinburgh.

D. T. K. DRUMMOND, M.A., Minister of St Thomas's Episcopal Churchr Edinburgh.

WILLIAM H. GOOLD, D.D., Professor of Biblical Literature and Church History, Reformed Presbyterian Church, Edinburgh.

ANDREW THOMSON, D.D., Minister of Broughton Place United Presby terian Church, Edinburgh.

«£bitor. REV. THOMAS SMITH, D.D., EDINBURGH,

THE COMPLETE WORKS

OF

THOMAS MANTON, D.D

VOLUME XXI.

CONTAINING

SERMONS ON SEVERAL TEXTS OF SCRIPTURE.

LONDON: JAMES NISBET & CO, 21 BERNEKS STREET.

1874.

CONTENTS.

SERMONS ON SEVERAL TEXTS OF SCRIPTURE — SERMONS UPON 1 JOHN iii. — continued —

Sermon VIII. " And ye know that he was manifested to take

away sin, and in him was no sin,"

IX. " And ye know that he was manifested," &c., 12

X. " Whosoever abideth in him sinneth not : whosoever sinneth hath not seen him, neither known him,"

XI. " Little children, let no man deceive you : he that doeth righteousness is righteous, even as he is righteous,"

XII. " He that committeth sin is of the devil j for the devil sinneth from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was mani fested, that he might destroy the works of the devil," ... 42

XIII. " For this purpose the Son of God was mani

fested, that he might destroy the works

of the devil," . , 49

XIV. " Whosoever is born of God cloth not commit

sin, for this seed remaineth in him ; and he cannot sin, because he is born of God," 59 XV. " Whosoever is born of God," &c., . 66

XVI. " In this the children of God are manifest, and the children of the devil : whosoever doeth not righteousness is not of God, neither he that loveth not his brother," . 75

XVII. " For this is the message that ye heard from the beginning, that ye should love one another," . . 8&

XVIII. " Not as Cain, who was of that wicked one, and slew his brother. And wherefore slew he him? Because his own works were evil, and his brother's righteous," . • 97

VI CONTEXTS.

SERMONS UPON 1 JOHN iii. — continued. PAOE

Sermon XIX. " Marvel not, my brethren, if the world

hate you," . . . .102

XX. " We know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren : he that loveth not his brother abideth in death," . . . .113

XXL " Whosoever hateth his brother is a mur derer ; and ye know that no murderer hath eternal life abiding in him," . 123 XXII. " Hereby perceive we the love of God, because he laid down his life for us : and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren," . . . 133

XXIII. " But whoso hath this world's goods, and

seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him? My little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue ; but in deed and in truth," . . 144

XXIV. " And hereby we know that we are of the

truth, and shall assure our hearts before him," . . . .154

XXV. " For if our heart condemn us, God is greater than our heart, and knoweth all things," . . . .165

XXVI. " And knoweth all things," . . 174

XXVII. " Beloved, if our heart condemn us not,

then have we confidence towards God," 184 XXVIII. "And whatsoever we ask, we receive of him, because we keep his command ments, and do those things that are pleasing in his sight," . . . 192

XXIX. " Because we keep his commandments, and do those things that are pleasing in his sight," . . . .201

XXX. " And this is his commandment, that we should believe in the name of his Son, and love one another as he gave us commandment," . . . 210

XXXI. " And he that keepeth his commandments (hvelleth in him, and he in him : and hereby know we that he abideth in us, by his Spirit which he hath given to us/' 219

CONTEXTS. vii

SERMONS UPON 1 JOHN iii. — continued. PA()E

Sermon XXXII. " And we know that he abideth in us, by

his Spirit which he hath given us," . 227 SERMONS UPON ACTS ii. 37, 38—

Sermon I. " Now when they heard this, were pricked in their hearts, and said unto Peter and the rest of the apostles, Men and bre thren, what shall we do 1 " . . 237 II. " Now when they heard this," &c., . . 247

III. " And they said unto Peter and the rest of

the apostles, Men and brethren, what

shall we do 1 " . . . . 254

IV. " Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and

be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gifts of the Holy Ghost," . . .262

V. " Repent, and be baptized in the name of

Jesus Christ," . . . .271

VI. " Be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins," . . . 279

VII. " And ye shall receive the gifts of the Holy

Ghost," . . . .288

SERMONS UPON 1 PETER i. 23 —

Sermon I. " Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever," ..... 299

II. " Being born again, not of corruptible seed,

but of incorruptible," . . . 308

III. " Being b'orn again, not of corruptible seed,

but of incorruptible," . . . 315

IV. " By the word of God, which liveth and

abideth for ever," . . . 326

SERMONS UPON PSALM xix. 13 —

Sermon I. " Keep back thy servant also from pre sumptuous sins ; let them not have dominion over me : then shall I be upright, and I shall be innocent from, the great transgressions," . . 337

II. " Keep back thy servant from presumptuous

sins," . . . . .346

III. " Keep back thy servant from presumptuous

sins," 356

CONTENTS.

.SERMONS UPON PSALM xix. 13 — continued.

Sermon IV. " Let them not have dominion over me," . 367

V. " Then shall I be upright," . . .378

VI. " And innocent from the great transgressions," . 390 SERMONS UPON PSALM cxxxi —

Sermon I. " Lord, my heart is not haughty, nor my eyes lofty ; neither do I exercise myself in great matters, nor in things too high for me," . 406 II. " Lord, my heart is not haughty," . . 414

III. " Neither do I exercise myself in great matters,

nor in things too high for me," . . 425

IV. " Surely I have behaved and quieted myself, as

a child that is weaned of his mother; my soul is even as a weaned child," . . 437

V. " Let Israel hope in the Lord from henceforth

and for ever," .... 449

'SERMONS UPON EZEKIEL XVlii. 23 —

Sermon I. " Have I any pleasure at all that the wicked

should die ? saith the Lord God ; and not

that he should return from his ways, and

live?" ..... 463

II. " Have I any pleasure at all that the wicked

should die ? " . . . .471

SERMON UPON JEREMIAH xlv. 5, . , . . , 480

SERMONS

SEVERAL TEXTS OF SCRIPTURE.

VOL. XXI.

SERMONS UPON 1 JOHN III.

(CONTINUED.)

SERMON VIII. •

And ye know that he was manifested to take away sin, and in him ivas no sin. — 1 JOHN iii. 5.

TaE apostle still pursueth his scope and purpose, which is to persuade Christians to take heed of sin, and living in sin. He argtieth —

1. From our adoption, and how much that inferreth a likeness to God whose children we are.

2. With respect to the law, or the orders of God's family, not to forfeit the offered privilege.

3. With respect to Christ, he urgeth two things— (1.) The holiness of his design ; (2.) The innocency of his person. Both which dissuade us from living in sin. That which Christ came to destroy, and that which maketh us so unlike Christ, should not be allowed by Christians : ' And ye know that he was manifested to take away sin.'

1. In the first argument redemption by Christ is propounded — [1.] As an evident truth. The sin and misery of the whole world

was such, that it groaned for a saviour. Sin was the mortal disease that we were all sick of ; then came the spiritual physician to take it away. The common necessity of mankind showed the misery, and the common light of Christianity showed the remedy.

[2.] It is propounded as his great end and scope why he was mani fested. Christ is manifested two ways — in the gospel and in the flesh. In the gospel : Titus ii. 11, ' The grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men ; ' 1 Peter i. 20, ' But was manifest in these last times for you.' Now the gospel showeth he came to take away sin : 1 Tim. i. 15, ' This is a true and faithful saying, that Jesus Christ came to take away sin.' But here manifested in the flesh : 1 Tim. iii. 16, ' Great is the mystery of godliness, God was manifested in the flesh ; ' and 1 John i. 2, ' The life was manifested, and we have seen it.' Christ, who heretofore lay hid in the bosom of God, now appeared, and was discovered to the world as his only-begotten Son.

2. In the second argument the innocency of Christ is propounded : ' In him was no sin.' This clause may be added —

[1.] To show the value of his sacrifice, having no sin of his own to

4 SERMONS UPON 1 JOHN III. [SliR. VIII.

expiate : ' For such a high priest became us, who is holy, harmless, undefiled, and separate from sinners ; ' who needeth not daily, as those high priests, to offer up sacrifice, first for their own sins, and then for the people's.

[2.] To show the greatness of his love : ' He made him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.'

[3.] To show that while we live in sin we can have no commerce and communion with him, his nature being so opposite to sin; for what communion is there between light and darkness, Christ and Belial ?

[4.] To set him forth for an example and pattern to us, which is chiefly to be regarded. To imitate Christ we must abstain from sin, be holy as he is holy, and pure as he is pure.

Doct. That those who are partakers of Christ should by no means allow themselves in a life or course of sin.

I shall prove it by the two arguments of the text : that we must not continue in sin, because Christ came to take away sin, and had no sin in himself. Christ is here propounded, first, as our ransom ; secondly, as our pattern. In each I shall open the expressions used, and then consider the force of the argument.

I. As a ransom, ' Ye know that he was manifested to take away sin.' There are three things must be opened — (1.) In what sense Christ is said to take away sin ; (2.) By what means he doth accomplish it ; (3.) How is this a binding argument.

First, In what sense Christ is said to take away sin. Sin is consi derable either as to the guilt of it, or the power, life, and reign of it.

1. The guilt is taken away when the obligation to punishment is dissolved, and we are freed from wrath to come ; which is one great benefit we have by our Lord Jesus : 1 Thes. i. 10, ' Which delivered us from the wrath to come.' This is done by a pardon, which relateth to sin : Eph. i. 7, ' In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sin.' And by justification, which relateth to the person : Horn. v. 1, 2, ' Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God, through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God/ By sanctification, when the power and reign of it is broken : 1 Cor. vi. 11, ' But ye are justified, but ye are sanctified, in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God.' So that as Christ came to take away the guilt of sin, so also the stain of it. He was manifested to subdue our love and delight in sin, and to turn our hearts towards God. We need a saviour to help us to repentance as well as to pardon. The loss of God's image was a part of our punish ment ; and the renovation of our natures is a sure, yea, a principal part of our deliverance by Christ. Now if you ask me, Which of these benefits goeth first ? I answer — He regenerateth us that he may pardon us ; for justified we are not till we believe, and pardoned we are not till we repent, which are acts of the new nature. And the scripture in many places setteth forth this order ; I shall only allege one now : Titus iii. 5-7, ' Not by works of righteousness, which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of

VER. 5.] SERMONS UPON i JOHN in. 5

regeneration, and the renewing of the Holy Ghost, which he hath shed on us abundantly, through Jesus Christ our Saviour ; that being justi fied by his grace, we should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life.'

Secondly, By what means he doth accomplish it. This must be considered both as to impetration and application. As to purchase and impetration, so it relateth to his own merit. As to application to us, and our reception of this double benefit, so it is done by convenient means.

1. As to the impetration, and meritorious purchase, that is done : Christ takes away sin by bearing it in his own person. The word in the text, and those which are commonly used in this matter, signify both to take away and carry away sin : John i. 29, ' Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away/ or beareth away, ' the sins of the world ; ' and Isa. liii. 6, ' The Lord laid on him the iniquities of us all.' I know there is some difficulty in explaining how sin was laid upon Christ, or what of sin it was that he took upon himself, that he might take it off from us. There are in sin four things — culpa, macula, realus, and poena. Not the fault, or criminal action, for that is committed by us, and can not be transferred upon another. Not the stain ; for Christ was holy and undefiled, and that implieth sin inherent. Not the guilt ; for that is such an obligation to punishment as doth arise from the merit of some criminal action done by the party himself. It is true there was an obligation on Christ to suffer, and make satisfaction to his Father's justice ; but this was by a voluntary susception, or an act of gracious condescension, not imposed upon him by constraint, without his consent, or against his will ; none of this was due to him upon his own account. Punishment is a debt which lieth upon us, and is imposed upon us against our will ; but Christ voluntarily submitted to bear the sins of many, Isa. liii. 12 ; and therefore he is said ' to be made sin for us,' 2 Cor. v. 21. Sin there signifieth a punishment of sin, and also a sacri fice for sin, a sin-offering. Sometimes it signifieth a punishment : ' My sin is greater than can be borne ; ' that is, the punishment of my sin, Gen. iv. 13 ; and ver. 7, 'Sin lieth at the door ; ' that is, punishment is at hand, or a sin-offering, or a sacrifice for sin. So the priests are said to eat the sins of the people, Hosea iv. 8 ; they took care of nothing but to glut themselves with the portion of the sacrifices. So Rom. viii. 3, ' By sin he condemned sin in the flesh ; ' and he is said to have ' borne our griefs and carried our sorrows ; ' that is, to bear the punish ment. And he is said 'to bear our sins in his own body upon the tree,' 1 Peter ii. 24, that is, to die and suffer for them. This is the way and means by which Christ taketh away sin ; and this is done so effectually once for all, that there needeth no repeating of it : Heb. x. 14, ' By one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sancti fied.' As to the merit, there is nothing wanting ; no other merit and sacrifice needeth to be offered to God.

2. As to the application, it is usually said that lie taketh awny the guilt of sin by his blood, and the filth of sin by his Spirit. But this is not so truly and accurately said ; for his blood cleanseth us both from the guilt and stain of sin : 1 John i. 7, ' And the blood of Christ cleanseth us from all sin ; and Rev. i. 5, ' Who hath loved us, and

6 SERMONS UPON 1 JOHN III. [SEE. VIII.

washed us in his blood ; ' which relateth to the double washing mentioned, 1 Cor. vi. 11. Both are the fruit of his death, by which lie merited both remission and sanctification for us ; and in the phrase of the text, ' he beareth it away.' This double benefit is made the fruit of both. Justification is a fruit of his bearing sin: Isa. liii. 11, ' By his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many, for he shall bear their iniquities.' To bear the sin is to bear the punishment, the curse or wrath due to it. Now Christ beareth it so that it is taken from us. So sanctification is a fruit also of his bearing our iniquities : 1 Peter i. 24, ' He bore our sins in his own body on the tree, that we being dead unto sin, may be alive unto righteousness.' Christ came to heal our souls, to kill this love unto sin and delight in it. Therefore sanctification is the fruit of his cross as well as justifica tion, and we must not so sever these benefits as that one should be given us by Christ, and the other by the Spirit. No ; both are given us by Christ, but differently applied ; first the pardon of sins by his word and new covenant, which is an act of oblivion, charter, or grant, whereby, upon certain terms, he rnaketh over this benefit to those who accept of it, ' even to as many as repent and believe in his name.' They are constituted just by the new covenant, which Christ will ratify and confirm by his own sentence at the day of judgment: Acts iii. 19, ' Kepent and be baptized, that your sins may be blotted out, when the days of refreshment shall come from the presence of the Lord.' When our pardon shall be pronounced by the judge's own mouth, then is the solemn condemning and justifying time. But for the present, by the gospel charter, sin is taken away as to the guilt as soon as we repent and believe : Acts x. 43, ' Through his name, who soever belie vet h in him shall receive remission of sins;' and Acts xix. 39, ' By him all that believe are justified from all things, from which they could not be justified by the law of Moses.' Secondly, sanctification is wrought in us by the Spirit of Christ more and more, taking away sin, and weakening the love of it in our hearts ; for the inner man is renewed day by day, and the cleansing and sanctifying work is perfected by degrees: 2 Cor. vii. 1, ' Having therefore these precious promises, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness both of flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God ; ' even until sin be wholly gone ; and this the Spirit effecteth by the duties and ordinances appointed to this very end. But the deadly blow is already given : Rom. vi. 6, ' Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin.'

Thirdly, Now I must come to the force of the argument. If Christ came to take away sin, then we should take care we do not live in sin.

1. This is expressly to contradict and frustrate the designed end of our Redeemer, and so to put him to shame, and to make his coming into the world in vain ; for you seek to cherish that which he came to destroy. He would dissolve, untie, and loose those cords, and you knit them the faster, and so make void his undertaking. That this was the great end and scope of Christ's coming into the world, or being manifested in the flesh, is evident everywhere in scripture : John i. 29, ' Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sins

YER. 5.] SERMONS UPON i JOHN nr. 7

of the world.' All the lambs which were offered to God in sacrifice were to take away sin ; and this is the Lamb of God, that is, the true and real substance of all these figures. Now whether the allusion is to the lamb of the daily sacrifice, or the passover lamb, it is all one ; the use for which he serveth is to expiate sin and abolish sin, and to bind men to God in a firmer tie of obedience. So Mat. i. 21, ' His name shall be called Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins.' Not to ease them of their troubles only, but chiefly to destroy sin, with the mischievous effects of it. Not to save them in their sins, but to save them from their sins : Titus ii. 14, ' He hath redeemed us from all iniquity.' Not only from the curse of the law, but from iniquity : Acts iii. 26, 'God hath raised up his Son Jesus, and sent him to bless you, in turning every one of you from your iniquities/ Not from the Koman yoke, but from sin, which was a worse thraldom and captivity : Rom. xi. 26, ' There shall come out of Zion the Deli verer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob.' Well, then, this being Christ's end, to sanctify us and free us from sin, we should not go about to disappoint him, for this is to set ourselves directly against him.

2. This is to slight the price of our redemption ; for since with so much cost this work of taking away sin is carried on, for you to be indifferent whether sin be taken away or no is to disvalue and put a slight on the wisdom of God, and the wonderful condescension of his love in Christ, as if so much ado were made about a matter of nothing. This argument is urged by the apostle : 1 Peter i. 18, 19, ' Foras much as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without spot and blemish.' To enhance the benefit, the greatness of the price is mentioned. Spiritual privileges, such as freedom from sin, should be more regarded by us, because they are so dearly bought. We many times neglect them for trifles, forfeit them for trifles, lose that for gold and silver which cannot be bought for gold and silver. They that slight anything bought by Christ's blood are accounted in scripture to slight the blood of Christ itself; as the apostate who revolteth from Christ for the honours, pleasures, and profits of the world is said to 'trample his blood under foot, and to account it a common thing ; ' as suppose of a malefactor, or any common sufferer. Our respect to Christ's blood is judged according to the respect we have to the benefits purchased thereby. As, to instance in these two great benefits, the favour of God and the image of God. He that despiseth the favour of God, and doth not make it his business to get it and keep it, but preferreth corruptible things before it, hath no esteem of Christ's merit, and the great cost God hath been at in sending his own Son to take away sin, and recover a lost world into his grace and favour. So whosoever doth not esteem the image of God, which standeth in righteousness and true holiness, doth not esteem the blood of Christ, but hath lessening thoughts of the mystery of his incarnation and passion, as if his blood were shed for trifles.

3. It is in effect to renounce all benefit by Christ ; for this way he saveth us, by taking away sin. The scripture everywhere insist^ upon

8 SEHMONS UPON 1 JOHN III. [SEE. VIII.

redemption from sin as the only way to redemption from the curse. Sin brought in the curse, therefore Christ would go to the bottom and fountain-head, and cure us of sin, that he might take off the curse, and cure us : he doth it not only by the remission of sin, but by sanctifying and healing our natures. You seek but a half cure if you seek pardon 'only. You neglect and despise the chiefest part of his work ; yea, you ( cannot have pardon unless you be sanctified; and so in effect you have no benefit by Christ at all. For this let me give you these reasons —

[1.] Sin is the great makebate between God and his creatures. The first breach was by sin, and still it continueth the distance : Isa. lix. 2, ' Your iniquities have separated between me and you.' Therefore, till that be taken out of the way, there can be no perfect reconciliation, no communion between God and the creatures ; though the sinner may be pardoned on God's terms, yet the purity of God is irreconcilable to sins ; and therefore, if you live in sin and continue in sin, there can be no commerce between God and you.

[2.] Sin is the great disease of mankind, which disableth us for the service of our Creator. Therefore the Kedeemer came to take away sin, for he considered God's interest as well as ours : Heb. ix. 14, ' How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your consciences from dead works, to serve the living God ? ' Christ's end was to fit us for God's use, and therefore to sanctify and free us from sin, that we might be in a capacity to love and please God again. This is the great work of the physician of souls.

[3.] The taking away of sin is a greater benefit than impunity, or the taking away of punishment, as sin in some sense is worse than damnation. Those means which have a more immediate connection with the last end are more noble than those which are more remote. The last end in respect to us is the vision and fruition of God, or to see him and be like him. Now the taking away of sin hath a nearer con nection than pardon and impunity ; they both concur. The sentence of death must be taken off, which maketh us incapable ; but holiness is a part and an introduction into the blessed estate ; it doth disposi- tively prepare us for it. On God's part the pleasing and glorifying of God is the last end. Now he is more pleased with us as holy than as pardoned, for his complacency and delight is in the reflection of his image on us ; and he is more glorified in our passive reception of his grace, but objectively more glorified in us in our being sanctified and purified, and made like him. Now this is to be minded, partly because men seek to get rid of trouble and temporal affliction, but not of sin. Pharaoh could say, ' Take away this plague ; ' but the church saith, ' Take away all iniquity,' Hosea xiv. 2. Those who are sensible of the true evil do mainly desire the taking away of sin ; that is their chief care and solicitude how to get rid of it ; that is it they complain of in the first place as their chief burden. This is necessary to be showed, partly because some, if they mind spiritual things, they mind only pardon of sin and ease of conscience, not to be freed from the power of sin ; as if a man that had broken his leg should only desire to be eased of his smart, but not to have it set again. No ; the true penitent is troubled the stain as well as the guilt. Therefore the promise is suited :

VER. 5.] SERMONS UPON i JOHN in. 9

1 John i. 9, 'If we confess onr sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.' This is a thorough cure.

[4.] There is no taking away guilt and punishment till we be sancti fied, till sin itself be taken away. The one part of the cure maketh way for the other. First he doth regenerate that he may pardon. As we were first sinners and then obnoxious to punishment, so first holy and then pardoned, first brought into the kingdom of Christ and made subjects, then enjoy the privileges as subjects: Col. i. 13, 14, 'Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son, in whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins.' We are first turned to God : Acts xxvi. 20, 'That they should repent, and turn to God.' We cannot have the one without the other. So you stick at the order, though you know no cause ; so that you despise all benefit by Christ if you do not look after the taking away of sin.

[5.] It is a manifest contradiction to our faith to live in sin and to believe that Christ came to take away sin. I gather that from the words ' ye know.' Christians are supposed to know and believe the end of their redemption. If we know it, why do not we deal with him about it ? Speculative knowledge and practical are frequently con tradictory in the same man. We speak from our convictions, but we live from the innate dispositions and inclinations of our own hearts. Religion doth far more easily tip men's tongues, and run into their heads, than change their hearts. But though their knowledge and practice be contrary, yet thus far we have gained an argument, that their faith condemns their practice ; and however we make a shift to match them, the faith of Christians and the life of sin are in themselves incompatible. And they that know Christ came to take away sin, and yet live in sin, though they do not show the falsehood of their religion, yet they show their own insincerity in it ; though they speak honour ably of their Redeemer in words, yet in deeds they dislike him, and deny him, which is not to be charged upon the religion, but them selves, as an art is not disparaged because one that professeth it is a bungler.

[6.] The manner of Christ's taking away sin doth represent the heinousness of it, and is a sufficient warning to the world not to con tinue in it : ' For if these things were done to the green tree, what shall be done to the dry ? ' When we look upon sin through Satan's spectacles, and the cloud of our own passions and carnal affections, we make nothing of it ; but in the agonies of Christ, and the sorrows and sufferings of his cross, we see the odiousness of it, that it may become more hateful to us. No less remedy would serve the turn than the agonies, bloodshed, and accursed death of the Son of God, to procure the pardon and destruction of sin. By this sin-offering and ransom for souls we may see what sin is. I showed you before the odiousness of sin, as it is a transgression of the law ; that should render it odious to you ; but now I bring you to another argument. In Golgotha is the truest spectacle of sin, and how much God hateth it and loveth purity, that it may be seen in its proper colours. We make light of sin, but Christ found it not so light a matter to expiate

10 SERMONS UPON 1 JOHN III. [SER. VIII.

it. Do but consider his fears and tears and strong cries when he stood in the place of sinners before God's tribunal, when God ' laid upon him the iniquities of us all.'

[7.] The acceptableness of his sacrifice still further helpeth us against sin : ' He came to take away sin/ and was accepted in what he did. Why ? Christ's suffering death for the sin of man was the noblest piece of service, and the highest degree of obedience that ever could be performed to God by man or angels, there being in it so much love to God, pity to man, so much self-denial, so much humility and patience, and such a resignation of himself to God, who appointed him to be the Kedeemer of the world. That which was eminent and upmost in it was obedience : Eom. v. 19, ' For as by one man's dis obedience many were made sinners ; so by the obedience of one, shall many be made righteous ; ' Phil. ii. 7, 8, ' He made himself of no re putation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men ; and being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.' God doth not delight in the shedding of blood ; you must not draw an ill picture of God in your minds. That which God looked after, and accepted was the eminent obedience of Christ in our nature ; so his holy and righteous life, his painful and cursed death, make but one entire piece of obedience. The value of his merit was from the God head, but the formal reason of his merit was that Christ came to fulfil the will of God, ' by which will we are sanctified,' Heb. x. 9, 10. Now what a notable check is this to sin, and living impenitently in a course of disobedience unto God !

II. As Christ is propounded by way of pattern and example, ' In him was no sin.' I shall first speak a little of the innocency of Christ ; secondly, show how he is set forth as a pattern and example of holiness unto us.

1. The scripture sets forth the Lord Jesus as an eminently holy and innocent person, that he had no sin, and did no sin. He had no sin, being by his miraculous conception exempted from the contagion of original sin : Luke i. 35, ' The Holy Ghost shall overshadow thee, and that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God.' Thus was our Redeemer fitted to be completely lovely in the eyes of God, and to be a pattern of holiness to all his followers. Not only free from actual sin, but as having a perfect holy nature in him ; to show that we should not only prevent the outward act, but be free from the lust ; and not only lop the branches of sin, but destroy the root by a thorough change of heart. Evil practices in us do not flow from a present temptation, but an evil nature ; therefore we should get the divine nature. It is true it cannot be said of us that we have no sin, but yet the carnal nature should not be predominant in us ; we should have another spirit. Secondly, He did no sin : 2 Peter ii. 22, ' He did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth.' Christ did not in the least offend either God or man ; as guilty of no transgression, so of no defect in his obedience or conformity to the law of God. It is true he was accused of sin, but who could convince him of sin ? John viii. 46, 'Which of you convinceth me of sin ? ' Though his name was buried under many calumnies and reproaches, yet none of his malicious

. 5.] SERMONS UPON 1 JOHN III. 11

adversaries could ever make it good that he was guilty of one sin. It is true he was tempted to sin, and the most venomous of Satan's fiery darts were shot at him, as you may see, Mat. iv. ; but though he was tempted in all other points like us, yet sin is excepted, Heb. iv. 15. He was spotless and free from sin, there was nothing in him to befriend a temptation, John xiv. 30. This, Christians, is our glorious Lord and chief ; he had no sin, nor did no sin. When shall it be said so of us ? We wait the time, but it will be so at length ; ere Christ hath done with us it must be so.

2. That he is set forth as a pattern and example of holiness in our nature. Christ, that did open heaven by his merit, would also teach us the way thither, and teach us as a good teacher should, not only by his doctrine, but by his example. In moral things his example is to be imitated by us ; these reasons enforce it —

[1.] The scriptures do everywhere call for this imitation and suitable walking : Phil. ii. 5, ' Let the same mind be in you that was in Jesus ; ' Mat. xi. 29, ' Learn of me, for I am meek and lowly.' So 1 Peter ii. 21, ' He hath left us an example, that we should follow his steps ; ' 1 John ii. 6, ' He that saith he abideth in him, ought also himself to walk even as he walked.' I have brought these places to show how binding the example of Christ is.

[2.] That the Spirit is sent and given us to change us into his like ness : 2 Cor. iii. 18, ' But we all with open face, beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image, from glory to glory, even by the same Spirit of the Lord/ We can no more follow his example than obey his doctrine without the same spirit. Here one part helpeth another ; in living as he did, we come to be like him.

[3.] What advantage we have by this example. First, all example hath an alluring power and great force in moving; but this is an example of examples, not of equals or ordinary superiors, but of our glorious head and chief. Now this example should be more cogent. First, Because it is a perfect and unerring pattern. Christ's life is religion exempli fied, a visible commentary on God's will and word : 2 Cor. xi. 1, ' Be ye followers of me, as I am also of Christ.' Here you cannot err if you follow Christ's submission in his imitable examples and actions. Secondly, It is an engaging pattern. Submission to any duty should make it lovely unto us : ' The disciple is not above his lord, nor the ser vant above his master ; ' John xiii. 14, ' If I then, your Lord and master, have washed your feet, ye ought also to wash one another's feet.' Shall we decline to follow such a leader ? Thirdly, It is an effectual pattern. Christ's steps drop sweetness ; he hath left a blessing behind in all the way that he hath trodden before us, and sanctified it to us that we may follow it with comfort. Fourthly, It is a very encouraging pattern, for he sympathised with us in all our difficulties, having entendered his own heart by experience : Heb. ii. 18, ' For in that he himself hath suffered, being tempted, he is able to succour them that are tempted ; ' Heb. iv. 15, ' For we have not a high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities, but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin.' He knoweth the weaknesses and reluct ances of nature in our hardest duties, and will surely pity and pardon our infirmities, and cover them with his own perfect righteousness.

12 SERMONS UPON 1 JOHN III. [SER. IX".

[4.] Christ's example, and unsinning obedience to God, is a notable check to sin, and all the temptations, occasions, and inducements which lead to it. Nothing should be of such value with a Christian as to hire him to commit wilful sin. Christ obeyed at the dearest rates and terms, and repented not of his engagement: John xiii. 1, ' Having loved his own which were in the world, he loved them unto the end.' A Christian should have the same mind, and then it will be armour of proof against all temptations : 1 Peter iv. 1, ' Arm yourselves with the same mind, for he that hath suffered in the flesh hath ceased from sin.' In one place it is said, ' Let the same mind be in you ; ' in another, ' Arm yourselves with the same mind.' Temptations will have little force upon you when you resolve to obey God whatever it cost you. The frowns of the world, yea, life itself, will be as nothing. Secondly, Is it the pomp and pleasure and honour of the world wherewith the flesh is gratified ? Christ hath put a disgrace upon these things by his own choice. He was mean, poor, a man of sorrows ; and shall we look to be maintained in pomp and pleasure ? We cannot be poorer than Christ, and taste less of the world than he did. Thirdly, A love to our private interests hinders us from seeking the glory of God : Rom. xv. 3, Tor even Christ pleased not himself;' John xii. 27, 28, 'For this cause came I to this hour : Father, glorify thy name.' Every Christian should be thus affected ; let Christ dispose of him and his interests as it seemeth good to him.

SERMON IX.

And ye know that he was manifested to take away sin, and in him ivas no sin. — 1 JOHN iii. 5.

FROM these words I have observed this doctrine, that those who are partakers of Christ should^by no means allow themselves in a life or course of sin.

The uses now follow.

First, It bindeth our duty upon us.

Secondly, It assureth and sealeth our comfort when we are afflicted either with the guilt of sin or the power of sin.

First, It bindeth our duty upon us. They that do not break off a life of sin make Christ's coming in vain. But because men's interest will quicken them, therefore consider, Christ must take away sin, or else you must at last bear your own sin. But alas ! that is a burden too heavy for us to bear ; and miserable are they that have it lying upon their backs. It will not be light when we reckon with God. Sin to a waking conscience is one of the heaviest burdens that ever was felt: Ps. xxxviii. 4, 'Mine iniquities are gone over my head, they are a burden too heavy for me.' You will find the little finger of sin heavier than the loins of any other sorrow. What a weight and pres sure will it be to the soul ! If you do but taste of this cup, it filleth

VKR. 5.] SERMONS UPON i JOHN in. 13

you with trembling. If a spark of God's wrath light on the conscience, how terribly doth it scorch ? You may know it in part by what Christ suffered. His soul was heavy unto death. If his soul were heavy to death, if he felt such strange agonies, sweat drops of blood, lost the actual sensible comforts of his Godhead, when he bore the burden of sin, oh, what shall every one of us do if we were to bear our own. burden ? You may also know it by the complaints of the saints, when the finger of God hath but touched them : Ps. xl. 12, ' Mine iniquities take hold on me, therefore mine heart fainteth.' So Job complaineth, chap, vi. 4, ' For the arrows of the Almighty are within me ; the poison thereof drinketh up my spirit ; ' the arrows of the Almighty, though shot out of Satan's bow ; he permitted those venomous arrows to be shot at him. Yea, if ye will know what it is to bear sin, ask not only a tender con science, but a troubled conscience. What disquiets of soul do wicked men feel when God sets sin home upon the conscience, and they are awakened ! How uneasy have their hearts sat within them ! Cain crieth out, ' My sin is greater than can be borne,' Gen. iv. 13 ; ' And a wounded spirit who can bear ? ' Prov. xxviii. 13. What large offers do men make to get rid of their burden ! ' Thousands of rams, rivers of oil, their first-born for the sin of their souls,' Micah vi. 7, 8. Lastly, what it is to live and die in sin, the other world will show us. Christ useth no other expression to set forth the misery of the unbelieving Jews but this, that ' ye shall die in your sins/ John viii. 21, 24. The threatenings of the word show their case is miserable enough. They fall into the hands of the living God, Heb. x. 31 ; and the worm that feedeth on them shall never die, and the fire wherein they are scorched is never quenched, Mark ix. 44. Miserable, questionless, is the state of them who bear their own burden and transgression. Now is it not better we should yield up ourselves to Christ, that -he should take it away, and do the work of a Kedeemer ; and that we should not by our carelessness, negligence, and other sins, provoke the Lord to withhold his healing grace? Oh, let us be sensible of our burden. Will Christ ease a man of his burden which he feeleth not ? A senseless sleepy soul hath no work for him to do. He inviteth the weary and heavy-laden, Mat. xi. 28. Being sensible of our burden, let us implore his favour ; he is more willing to give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him than a father is to give a hungry child bread, Luke xi. 13. Let us wait for his approaches in the diligent use of the means. Our duty is to lie at the pool for cure till the waters be stirred, John v. His Spirit bloweth when and where he listeth, John iii. 8 ; let us attend and obey his sanctifying motions, for we make ourselves incapable of this help by grieving the Spirit, Eph. iv. 30. When we become so easy to the requests of sin and so deaf to his motions, he ceaseth to give us warning.

Again, let us consider his example. Will you be so unlike Christ ? ' In him was no sin,' and you are all overspread with sin. He learned obedience by the things he suffered, Heb. v. 8, 9. He came to be the leader to everlasting happiness of an obeying people ; his stamp and character should be upon all his followers. He is Christ, you are Christians ; and you should not be polluted members of his body. How will you look him in the face at the last day if you are so unlike

14 SIMONS UPON I JOHN III. [SfiR. IX.

him ? 1 John iv. 17, ' Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment ; because as he is so are we in the world ; ' if we be holy as he, spotless as he. Of polluted sinners he will say, Are these my people ? How will you then be ashamed ? But it will give us a bold confidence when we have written after his copy. We shall never be like him in glory unless we be first like him in holiness. Christ will own his image. Boldness is opposite to fear and shame ; we shall neither be afraid nor ashamed at the day of judgment, if we bear his image upon us.

Secondly, It assureth and sealeth our comfort when we are afflicted either with the guilt or power of sin. To this end I shall discuss this argument more at large, and show you —

1. How sin is taken away — (1.) By justification ; (2.) By sanctifi- cation.

2. What grounds we have to expect that Christ will do this for us.

3. What we must do that this effect may be accomplished in us. First, How sin is taken away ; but first we must determine what sin

is. It is usually said there are in sin four things — culpa, reatus, poena, macula, the blot or stain. The three first belong to sin as it respects the law ; the last, as it respects the rectitude of human nature in innocency. The three first do more concern justification, the last sanctification.

[1.] Sin may be considered with respect to the law ; for so the nature of it will best be found out ; for we are told in the verse before the text, that ' sin is a transgression of the law/ In the law there is the precept and the sanction. The precept showeth what obedience is due from us to God ; the sanction or threatening what punishment is due to us in a state of disobedience. Accordingly, in sin, with respect to the precept, there is culpa, the fault, or criminal action ; with respect to the sanction or threatening, there are two things considerable — sentence and execution. As the commination importeth a sentence and respecteth a sentence, so there is guilt : ' Because sentence is not speedily executed,' Eccles. viii. 11. The sentence is passed in the threatenings of the law, but execution is deferred. But with respect to execution it is called posna, punishment.

[2.] Sin may be considered with respect to that rectitude of our heart and mind which God gave us at first to enable and incline us to keep his law ; and so cometh in macula, the stain or blot, as it defaced God's image in our hearts : Bom iii. 23, ' We have all sinned, and are come short of the glory of God ; ' meaning thereby his glorious image, which was lost and forfeited by the fall of Adam ; and actually, because in the day of God's patience, as he continueth other forfeited mercies to us, so. some relics of his image in that knowledge and con science that is left. Therefore when we rebel against the light, and live in a course of heinous sin, we lose more and more of that goodness of human nature that is yet left, and bear the character of such as are given up to vile affections, Eom. i. 26 ; and Eph. iv. 19, 'And being past feeling, have given themselves over to lasciviousness, to work uncleanness with greediness.' God leaveth them to their own lusts without restraint, withholdeth the good Spirit that was wont to counsel and warn them. Macula, then, the blot or stain, is the inclination to

VER. 5.] SERMONS UPON i JOHN in. 15

sin again ; as a brand that hath been once in the fire, is more apt to take fire again. This is the fruit of sin, and we pray God to free us from it yet more and more, by giving us more of his Spirit. It is the heaviest judgment that can befall us, to be given over to our own heart's counsels, Ps. li. 11 ; and David prayeth, after heinous sin, that God would not take his Holy Spirit from him.

But let us now consider how sin is taken away : therein what is to be done by Christ, and what is to be done by us, that this effect may be accomplished in us.

And first, as to what is to be done by Christ, and there how sin is taken away, both as to justification and sanctification.

1. With respect to justification ; so that culpa, reatus, poena, the fault or criminal action, cannot be said to be taken away, but only it is passed by as it is the foundation of our guilt, as it is a natural action ; such a fact we did, or such a duty we omitted to do. As it is a faulty action, contrary to the law of God, Christ taketh it not away, for that were to disannul the law, or the obliging force and authority of it, as it is a rule of perpetual equity. The sins we have committed are sins still ; therefore Christ came not to make the law less holy, or a fault to be no fault.

Let us come to the second thing, reatus, the guilt of sin. There is reatus culpce, the guilt of sin ; and reatus pcence, the guilt of punish ment. Reatus culpce, is the applying the law to the fact, and both to the person that hath committed it. Suppose that such a fact is a sin, because such a law forbiddeth it, and that I am guilty of such a transgression against the law of God ; sure it is that this is not taken away ; my faulty act is an offence, and I am an offender. We cannot be reputed never culpable, to have omitted any duty, or committed any sin ; for the new covenant is not set up to make us innocent, but pardonable upon certain terms ; and we come to God as to our offended governor, pleading not as innocent, but as sinners, desiring that, in the behalf of Christ, our sins may be forgiven to us. Then there is reatus pcence, which resulteth from the sanction of the law, binding us over to suffer such penalties as the law hath determined. Now this may be understood, quoad meritum, vel quoad euentum ; according to the merit of the action, what the action in itself deserveth, which is condemnation to punishment. This Christ hath not taken away, and never intended to take away ; for every sinful action is in se et merito operis damnabilis in itself, and by the desert of the work damnable ; it doth deserve dam nation ; but quoad eventum, as to the event and effect : ' There is no condemnation to them that are in Christ,' Rom. viii. 1. By the law of grace there is a discharge from the sentence of the law, and so from an obligation to punishment. This will be made clear and plain to you by considering what is required of us in suing out our pardon. We must confess the sin: 1 John i. 9, ' If we confess and forsake our sins, he is just and righteous to forgive us our sins.' We must confess the guilt and desert of sin by God's righteous law : 1 Cor. xi. 31, 'For if we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged.' There must be a self-accusing and self-judging. In self -accusing we confess reatum culpce; in selfLjudging we confess reatum pcence; without either of which there would not be that humiliation and

16 SERMONS UPON 1 JOHN III. [SfiB. IX.

brokenness of heart which the scripture calleth for, and is necessary for us in our entrance into the gospel covenant, and in our whole deal ing with God about pardon. Or else these acts must be performed very perfunctorily, and not in reality and truth, if there be not a ground in the nature of the thing ; for if the guilt of the fault were utterly dissolved, how can I heartily accuse myself of such and such sins before the Lord? or if the guilt of punishment were so far dissolved that my actions did not in their own nature, and by the righteous law of the Lord, deserve such condemnation and punishment, how could I broken-heartedly confess myself as deserving the greatest evil which his law hath threatened ? Well, then, pardon is not a vacating the action, or making a thing not done which is done, or a denial of the fault as if it were no fault, nor an annulling of the desert of punishment, but a remission of the punishment itself due to us by the law of nature. This is that, then, which the law of grace or new covenant doth ; every penitent believer is actually and really pardoned and discharged from the penalty, which the law of nature maketh his due debt: Mat. vi. 12, 'Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.' Our debt is the obligation actually to suffer the full punish ment of the law.

Now we will consider the third thing in sin, that is pcena, the punishment, and that is either temporal or eternal.

[1.] To begin with the last, eternal punishment. We are discharged from that as soon as we have an interest in Christ ; for then our state is altered, and God doth pardon all our past sins, and make us heirs of eternal life : Gal. iii. 13, ' Christ hath delivered us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us.' The curse of the law may be taken actively or passively. Actively, it is nothing else but the sentence of the law, or of God the judge, condemning the transgressors of the law, and pronouncing them accursed : ' For cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them,' Gal. iii. 10 ; which curse must not fall to the ground, but be taken off by some valuable compensation, that the honour of God's government may be secured, and that is done by Christ in being made a curse for us. Passively, it signifieth all those punishments which are, or have been, or shall be, or may be inflicted on the transgressors of the law ; but chiefly the final curse, which is called ' Wrath to come,' from which Christ hath delivered us, 2 Thes. i. 10 ; which consists in two things, pcena damni andposna sensus ; the loss of God's eternal and blessed presence, and of the vision and fruition of him in glory : Mat. xxv. 41, ' Depart from me, ye cursed.' They are banished from the presence of the Lord, and cast into utter torment. The pain, when we fall immediately into the hands of an angry offended God : Heb. x. 31, ' It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.' Now sin is remitted to all them that take sanctuary at the Lord's grace. We deserve it, but he hath actually discharged us from it by his new covenant ; such is his mercy and grace to us in Christ.

[2.] For the temporal punishment : while we have sin in us, and are making out our claim, and our sanctification is imperfect, God hath reserved a liberty for his corrective discipline, and to punish and chastise his children as it shall seem meet to his wisdom and justice :

VER. 5.] SERMONS UPON i JOHN in. 17

Ps. Ixxxix. 32, 33, ' Then will I visit their transgression with a rod, and their iniquities with stripes. Nevertheless my loving-kindness will I not utterly take from him, nor suffer my faithfulness to fail.' Now the temporal punishments are of two sorts —

(1.) Such afflictive evils as belong to his external government. It is hard to reckon up all of them to you, but the consummate evil is death, and the intermediate evils are of different kinds. It is said in one place, Deut. xxv. 20, 'All the curses which are written in this book shall light upon him ;' but in another, Deut. xxviii. 61, 'Every curse which is not written in this book will the Lord bring upon thee,' whether written or not written, committed to record in the word, ov dispensed in his providence. God hath reserved this liberty to him self, to correct his sinning children in what way he pleaseth. To reduce it in short ; all good is from God, and all evil is from sin ; and in pursuance of his eternal love, and to keep them from damnation, he will sometimes chastise them sorely : 1 Cor. xi. 32, ' For when we are judged we are chastened of the Lord, that we should not be condemned with the world ; ' and Jer. v. 25, ' Your iniquities have turned away these things, and your sins have withheld good things from you ; ' Micah i. 5, ' For the transgression of Jacob is all this, and for the sins of the house of Israel.' So Amos iii. 2, ' You only have I known of all the families of the earth : therefore I will punish you for all your iniquities.' A rod dipped in guilt may smart sorely upon the backs of God's people. God's displeasure is felt in their chastisements and judgments. Surely their author is God, their cause is sin, their end is repentance. We are in danger to despise the calamities which befall us and our families if we do not own this truth. It is true it turneth to good, but still it is a natural eviL If we were without sin, he would give us the good without the evil ; you greatly mistake if you think there is no displeasure of God in all this.

(2.) There are certain afflictions which belong to his internal govern ment, as when God manifesteth his displeasure to the party sinning by withdrawing his Spirit, the evil which David was so much afraid of: Ps. li. 10-12, 'Create in me a clean heart, 0 God, and renew a right spirit within me. Cast me not away from thy presence, and take not thy Holy Spirit from me. Kestore unto me the joy of thy salvation, and uphold me with thy free Spirit.' He desireth that God would not withdraw his grace, and the influence and comfort of his Holy Spirit, which he had so justly forfeited by his heinous sin. This is the sorest judgment on this side hell, to be deprived of inward com munion with God. It is not a total separation from his favour and presence, but yet it is a degree of it ; when God is strange to us, and suspendeth all the acts of his complacential love, leaving us dull and senseless, having no heart or life to anything that is spiritually good. And if we repent not, God may go further, and deliver us up to brutish lusts. The evils are greater or less, according to the rate of our sins or neglects of grace. These penal withdrawings of the Spirit should therefore be observed ; for God showeth much of his pleasure or displeasure by giving or withholding the Spirit His blessing and favour is showed this way : Prov. i. 23, ' Turn at my reproof, and I will pour out my Spirit to you.' But when God is refused, or neglected,

VOL. XXI. B

18 SERMONS UPON 1 JOHN III. [SER. IX.

or highly provoked, he then departs : Ps. Ixxxi. 11, 12, ' Israel would none of me ; so I gave them up to their own hearts' lusts.' This is more than all the calamities in the world.

2. In a way of sanctification. So Christ taketh away sin by giving us his Spirit, whereby the stains of our nature are cleansed. We are renewed in righteousness and holiness, according to his image : Eph. iv. 24, ' And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness ; ' 2 Cor. iii. 18, ' We beholding the glory of the Lord, are changed into his image and likeness.'

Now concerning this way of taking away sin, let me observe four things —

[1.] That the Spirit is given us as the fruit of Christ's merit and sacrifice : Titus iii. 5,6, 'Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regen eration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost, which he shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Saviour ; ' Gal. iii. 14, ' That the blessing of Abraham might come on the gentiles, through Jesus Christ, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.' He was the rock that was smitten by the rod of Moses : 1 Cor. x. 4, ' And they did all drink of the same spiritual drink ; for they drank of that spiritual rock that followed them, and that rock was Christ.' If Christ were the rock, the water that flowed from the rock was the Spirit : John iv. 14, ' Whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give, shall never thirst ; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water, springing up into everlasting life ; ' John vii. 38, 39, ' He that believe th on me, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. But this he spake of the Spirit, which they that believe on him should receive/ Well, then, upon tire account of Christ's merit and sacrifice, God doth by the Spirit create a clean heart within us, and a right spirit, that we may live in obedience to his holy will.

[2.] That the gift of the Spirit is a kind of executive pardon, or a receiving the atonement ; for this grace was forfeited by sin, as man brought death spiritual upon himself, as well as temporal and eternal, and we made the stain of sin to consist in the loss of the Spirit, or an inclination to sin again ; therefore by sanctification, or the gift of the Spirit, is our pardon executed upon us or applied to us. As the withdrawing or withholding the Spirit is a great part of our punish ment, so the gift of the Spirit is the great and first act of God's pardoning mercy, and a means to qualify us for the other parts of God's pardon ; for before men are converted, they are unpardoned : ' Turn you from all your transgressions, and iniquity shall riot be your ruin,' Ezek. xviii. 30 ; and Isa. Iv. 7, 'Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts ; and let him return to the Lord, and he will have mercy upon him, and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.' Therefore till there be a turning from the life of sin to God by faith in Christ, there is no actual justification nor forgiveness.

[3.] That when repentance towards God and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ is begun in us by the Spirit, there is promised a further degree of the Spirit to be given to us to dwell in us : Acts ii. 38, ' Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ, for the re-

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mission of sins ; and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost ; ' Prov. i. 23, ' Turn ye at my reproof : behold, I will pour out my Spirit unto you : ' Eph. i. 13, 'After that ye believed, ye were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise ; ' and that for a durable use, to be in us a Spirit of sanctification and adoption. First, To be a Spirit of sanctifi- cation : 2 Thes. ii. 13, 'God hath chosen you to salvation through sanctification and belief of the truth.' As he converted us to God, so he is a ' Spirit of regeneration ; ' but as he doth further sanctify and cleanse us, and fit us for God, and make us amiable in his sight, so he is called a ' Spirit of sanctification/ properly so taken. It is by the Spirit dwelling in us that we mortify and subdue sin,Kom. viii. 13. It is by the Spirit we exert and put forth all acts of holiness : Gal. v. 25, ' If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit ; ' and perform all duties to God in the Spirit. In short, the grace of the Spirit is given us to subdue the power of sin, and strengthen us against temptations, and that we may perfect holiness in the fear of God. Secondly, A Spirit of adoption : Gal. iv. 6, c Because ye are sons, he hath sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts.' The same Spirit that maketh us holy possesseth us with a filial love of God, and a dependence on him ; so that childlike love, with a pleasing obedience and dependence, are the great effects and tokens of his dwelling in us as a Spirit of adoption.

[4.] This Spirit doth by degrees fit us for our everlasting estate : 2 Cor. v. 5, ' He that formeth us for the self-same thing is God, who also hath given us the earnest of the Spirit ; ' and therefore he must not be obstructed in his work, while he is preparing the heirs of promise aforehand unto glory, lest we lose not only the comfort of our future hopes, but be set back in the spiritual life, and so grieve the Holy Spirit of promise, who is both our sanctifier and comforter. Thus we have seen what Christ doth to take away sin ; he freeth us from the ever lasting miseries of the damned in hell, and will surely free us from the miseries of this life, if we be obedient, and hearken to his counsel. But in the midst of weaknesses our title to impunity and life eternal remaineth unreversed, though it be often obscured by our sin and folly.

Secondly, What must we do that sin may be thus taken away ? For I observe, first, that those things which God worketh in us, and bestoweth upon us by his grace, he also requireth of us by his command : Ezek. xxxvi. 26, ' A new heart will I give you, and a new spirit I will put into you.' Yet Ezek. xviii. 31, 'Cast away from you all your transgressions whereby ye have transgressed, and make you a new heart, and a new spirit ; ' and in many other places. Sometimes he promiseth to turn us, sometimes he commandeth us to turn to him ; sometimes he biddeth us to put away sin, sometimes he promiseth to take it away from us ; in the one showing what is our duty, in the other where is our help ; the one inferreth regeneration, which is the work of the Spirit, the other, repentance, which is our duty. Again, the death of Christ must be considered either as it respecteth God or us. As it respecteth God, it is a price paid to provoked justice to purchase grace for us : Isa. liii. 5, ' He was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities, the chastisement of our peace was upon him, and with his stripes we are healed.' As it respects us, it layeth an obligation upon

20 SERMONS UPON 1 JOHN III. [&ER. IX.

us to do what is proper to us : 1 Peter i. 22, ' Seeing you have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit.'

What then are we to do ? — (1.) As to our entrance into Christianity ; (2.) As to our recovery out of our falls.

1. As to our entrance into the grace of the gospel, there is required repentance towards God, and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, Acts xx. 21.

[1.] Repentance towards God, which consists in a serious purpose and willingness to let sin go, and a fixed resolution to love, serve, and please God, bewailing and bemoaning ourselves to God with grief and shame : Jer. xxxi. 18, ' I have heard Ephraim bemoaning himself.'

[2.] Faith, or an acceptance of Christ as the only physician of our souls, who alone can cure and change our hearts ; therefore, depending upon the universal offer of his grace, we are resolved to use the means which he hath appointed, that this cure may be wrought in us, Rom. vii. 24, 25.

2. For our recovery out of particular falls, something is to be done with respect to those four things which are in sin.

[1.] As to the fault ; be sure the fault be not continued, which is when the criminal acts are repeated. Relapses are very dangerous. A bone often broken in the same place is with the more difficulty set again. God's children are in danger of this before the breach be well made up, or the orifice of the wound well closed ; as Lot doubleth his incest, and Sampson goeth again and again to Delilah, Judges xvi. 2, 4. But wicked men sin frequently, as that king who would venture fifty after fifty ; nothing will stop them in the way of their sins.

[2.] The guilt continueth till serious and solemn repentance, and suing out our pardon in the name of Christ : 1 John i. 9, ' If we con fess and forsake our sins, he is just and faithful to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.' Though a man should forbear the act, and never commit it more, yet unless retracted by seri ous remorse, and humbling ourselves before God, it avails not. This self-accusing is necessary, that we may know how much we are indebted to grace. Look into thy bill, what owest thou ? Luke vii. 47, ' She wept much, because she loved much; and she loved much, because much was forgiven her.' She had a greater measure of love to God and Christ. This self-judging is that which makes us the more earnest for pardon, Luke xviii. 13, and grief and shame in both, to strengthen us against relapses, that we may forsake the sins we confess : Prov. xxviii. 13, ' He that confesseth and forsaketh his sins, shall have mercy.' Slight acknowledgments do not mortify sin.

[3.] The blot or evil inclination to sin again. The evil influence of sin continueth till we mortify the root of it ; it is not enough to mortify the sin, but we must pull out the core of the distemper before all will be well. Jonah repented of forsaking his call ; yet, not mortifying the root, it brake forth again. He stood upon his credit, Jonah iv. 1, 2. Christ trieth Peter : John xxi. 15, ' Lovest thou me more than these ? ' He had boasted before, ' Though all men forsake thee, I will never forsake thee,' Mat. xxvi. 33. Though Peter had wept bitterly for the iiict, yet Christ would try if the cause were removed. Peter is grown

VER. 5.] SERMONS UPON i JOHN in. 21

more modest now than to make any comparisons. We must use means to get the sinning disposition checked.

[4.] As to pcena, we must deprecate the eternal punishment as de served by us, through the merit of our actions, still ' looking to Jesus, who hath delivered us from wrath to come.' But as to temporal evils which God may inflict upon us partly for the increase of our repent ance, when we smart under the fruits of sin ; for the evil of punish ment doth much help us to judge of the evil of sin: Jer. ii. 19, 'Thine own wickedness shall correct thee, and thy backsliding shall reprove thee : know, therefore, and see that it is an evil thing and bitter, that thou hast forsaken the Lord thy God, that his fear is not in thee.' Partly to make us a warning to others, that they do not displease God as we have done : 2 Sam. xii. 14, ' Howbeit, because by this deed thou hast given occasion to the enemies of God to blas pheme ; the child also that is born unto thee, shall surely die.' For these reasons, I say, God may punish us in our persons, or in our families and relations ; wherefore we should humbly deprecate the judg ment : Ps. vi. 12, ' Lord, correct me not in thine anger, nor chasten me in thy hot displeasure.' That we may stop the judgment, and get it mitigated ; or, if it come, we may patiently bear it with humble submission to the will of God : Micah vii. 9, ' I will bear the indigna tion of the Lord, because I have sinned against him.' Not mourning as without hope, yet humbling ourselves, and putting our mouths in the dust.

Secondly, Now what grounds have we that Christ will do this for us?

1. Christ's office and undertaking, which he cannot possibly neg lect ; for this end was he manifested, and sent by the Father, to take away sin: Acts v. 31, 'God hath exalted him to be a prince and a saviour, to give repentance and remission of sin.' Will he come in vain, and miss of his ends, or fail a serious soul that expecteth and waiteth for the benefit of his office ? The generality of the Christian world prize his memory but neglect his offices ; but now, those that depend on his name, and seek the fruits of his office, will he frustrate their expectations ?

2. Consider how able he is to make good his offices, the merit of his humiliation, and the power of his exaltation. First, The merit of his humiliation : 1 Peter i. 18, 19, 'Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversations received by tradition from your fathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and with out spot.' What a price hath he given for sanctifying and healing grace ! which should not only heighten our esteem of the privilege, but increase our confidence. So Isa. liii. 5, ' But he was wounded for our transgres sions, he was bruised for our iniquities, the chastisement of our peace was upon him, and with his stripes we are healed.' Such is the perfection and merit of his sacrifice, that we may depend upon it; he will not lose the fruit of his obedience and suffering. Secondly, The power of his exaltation : Acts iii. 26, ' God having raised up his Son Jesus, sent him to bless you, in turning away every one of you from his iniqui ties.' Christ having paid our ransom, is gone to heaven, and hath full

22 SERMONS UPON 1 JOHN III. [SfiR. X.

power to free us from sin, even all those that heartily consent to his terms.

3. He is willing to do this for you. Why else did he purchase it at BO dear a rate? Why doth he offer it so freely in the promises of the gospel, and in that covenant which was made, stated, and sworn unto ? Heb. vi. 17, 18. Why else has he been so kind to all that are now in glory ? There is none in heaven by the first covenant ; all that are there come thither as justified and sanctified by Jesus Christ, and in the way of his pardoning grace. Surely he will not be strange to them that bemoan themselves. Consider his merciful nature, his appearing in our flesh, that we might have this confidence : Heb. ii. 17, ' Where fore in all things it behoved him to be made like his brethren, that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for the sinsof the people.' Well, then, Christ is willing if we are willing ; there you will find it sticketh. He came to take away sin, but we will not give way to his Spirit ; we are neither sensible of our burden, nor earnest for a cure, at least a sound cure. We seek ease and comfort more than the removing of the distemper.

SERMON X.

Whosoever abideth in him sinneih not : whosoever sinneth hath not seen him, neither known him. — 1 JOHN iii. 6.

HERE is a double argument against an evil and sinful life, which is drawn from our union and communion with Christ by faith, or our knowledge of him. It is delivered in a copulate axiom, where there is a comparison of contraries. These two contrary parties are set forth in two propositions, the one asserting the property and disposition of the true believer, the other refuting the claim of the pretender. In the one an argument from union with Christ, the other from the know ledge of him.

1st Proposition, ' Whosoever abideth in him sinneth not ; ' where we have the subject and the predicate.

1. The subject, 'Abideth in him;' that is, he who is united to Christ by a true and lively faith, and perseveres in this union, abideth in him. In effect, whosoever is a true Christian, for they are often expressed by this character : 1 John ii. 6, ' He that abideth in him ought himself also to walk even as he walked.' This is the great duty pressed upon us : 1 John ii. 27, 28, ' But the anointing which ye have received of him, abideth in you ; and ye need not that any man teach you : but as the same anointing teacheth you of all things, and is truth, and is no lie ; and even as he hath taught you, ye shall abide in him. And now, little children, abide in him, that when he shall appear, we may have confidence, and may not be ashamed before him at his coming ;' and John xv. 4-7, 'Abide in me, arid I in you : as the branch cannot bear fruit of itself) except it abide in the vine,

VER. 6.] SERMONS UPON i JOHN in. 23

no more can ye, except ye abide in me. I am the vine, and ye are the branches : he that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit ; for without me ye can do nothing. If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered ; and men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned. If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you.' The phrase implieth intimacy and constancy.

[1.] Intimacy, or the near and close conjunction between Christ and a believer by faith.

[2.] Constancy, or an adherence to him, and dependence upon him on our part ; for the union is not like to break on Christ's side ; it is we that are pressed to abide in him, and that first because some are in Christ only by visible profession, and Christ will not cast them off if they do not fall off. Secondly, Because the elect must consider the danger of apostasy : ' Let him that standeth take heed lest he fall.'

2. The predicate, ' Sinneth not ; ' that is, according to the sense of our apostle, liveth not in a course of known sin, for otherwise there is no man that sinneth not, 1 Kings viii. 46 ; and again, Eccles. vii. 20, ' There is not a just man upon earth, that doeth good, and sinneth not.' Therefore the meaning of the apostle is, that for the main he endeavoureth after purity and holiness, and alloweth himself in no sin.

2d Proposition. There the order is inverted ; for the predicate in the former proposition is the subject here : ' Whosoever sinneth,' that is, in the sense aforesaid, whosoever doth so give himself over to sin as not to endeavour purity and holiness, either deliberately and designedly doeth evil, or doth negligently oppose evil, leaveth the boat to the stream.

Then the predicate, ' Hath not seen him, nor known him ; ' that is, was never acquainted with Christ.

But yet, because the expressions are emphatical, I shall sift them a little more narrowly.

1. These expressions are used because all that are Christ's are bound to know him, and to be acquainted with him: John x. 11, 'I know my sheep, and am known of mine.' The knowledge is mutual ; as he knoweth us, and taketh care of us, so we know him, and take care of his precepts.

2. That where sight and knowledge are effectual, it is a mighty check to sin : 3 John 11, ' He that doeth good is of God ; but he that doeth evil hath not seen God.' Seeing and knowing are put for a lively faith : John xvii. 3, 'And this is life eternal, to know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent ; ' John vi. 40, ' He that seeth the Son and believeth on him hath eternal life.' So that the meaning is, he hath not a true and lively faith.

3. The expressions are fitly used to disprove the Gnostics, a sort of knowing people, who falsely did pretend a higher knowledge of Christ without newness of life ; yea, though they wallowed in all manner of filthiness ; therefore called Borborites ; and one of their dogmas or opinions was, that a jewel in the dirt is a jewel still. Therefore their knowledge or science, falsely so called, is often disproved in the writings of this apostle : 1 John ii. 4, ' He that saith, I know him, and

24 SERMONS UPON 1 JOHN III. [SEP,. X.

keepeth not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him.'

4. The case in hand or under debate was about seeing Christ and being like him ; but none shall see him hereafter but those that now in some sort see him and know him ; for faith is the introduction to the beatifical vision. If we do not see him now, and know him now, we shall neither see him nor know him hereafter ; but he that liveth an evil and sinful life hath not seen him, neither known him ; and there fore such cannot expect to see him as he is, and be like him.

5. There is plainly in the words a negative gradation, where the greatest is denied first, as is frequent in scripture ; as Ps. cxxi. 4, ' Behold, he that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep ; ' and Heb. xiii. 5, ' I will never leave thee nor forsake thee.' A man may leave the'company of another whom he doth not forsake. So here, he hath neither seen Christ nor known him. Sight implieth clearness and certainty ; and so the meaning is, that he is so far from seeing Christ, that he hath not known him. The points observable are two —

First, That whosoever is ingrafted into Christ by a true and lively faith, and hath union and communion with him, ought not nor cannot allow himself in any known sin.

Secondly, That no sight and knowledge of Christ is saving and effectual but what checketh sin and prevents living in a course of sin.

For the first point, that whosoever is ingrafted into Christ by a true and lively faith, and hath union and communion with him, ought not nor cannot allow himself in any known sin.

Here I shall examine — (1.) What is union and communion with Christ; (2.) This is to be considered as begun and as continued ; (3.) Why this union with Christ is inconsistent with a sinful life.

I. For the first, certainly there is a near and close union between Christ and Christians. To be in a thing is more than to be with it, by it, or about it, or to belong to it. Now we do not only belong to Christ, but are in him, John xvii. 26, and 2 Cor. v. 17, ' Whosoever is in Christ is a new creature.' What this union is, is a mystery, and hard to explain. When the apostle had told us that ' we are members of his body,' he addeth, Eph. v. 32, ' But this is a great mystery : but I speak concerning Christ and his church.' The near conjunction between Christ and his people is one of the secrets in religion not slightly to be passed over, nor yet very curiously to be pryed into. The conjunc tion is real, but the way of it is spiritual and heavenly. Many things in religion are known by their effects rather than their nature. The thing is plain, but the manner hidden ; and it is our business to seek after the blessed effects of it rather than accurately to study the nature of it. Yet it is profitable to see how it is brought about. Take it thus, confederation maketh way for union, union for fruition, and fruition for communion, and communion for familiarity between Christ and us or God and us by Christ.

1. Confederation is the foundation of all on our part ; for entering into covenant with God is the ground of our union with him, or by Christ with him ; for then God is our God, and we are his people, Jer. xxiv. 7. Abraham is called the friend of God with respect to the covenant, James ii. 23 ; and we have the right of sons by receiving Christ : John

VER. 6.] SERMONS UPON i JOHN in. 25

i. 12, ' To as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God ; ' or accepting him as their Lord and Saviour. When the self-condemning sinner doth consent to the terms of the gospel, and heartily accept Christ to be to him what God hath appointed him to be and do for poor sinners, he hath full allowance to call God Father, and is possessed of all the privileges which belong to his children.

2. Upon this followeth union with Christ, which, what it is, cometh now to be discussed. This certainly is not a mere relation to Christ. Union indeed giveth us a title to Christ and Christ a title to us : Cant. ii. 16, ' I am my beloved's, and he is mine.' But yet there is somewhat more than a relation ; for Christ is not only ours and we his, but he is in us and we in him. God is ours, and we are his, and God is in us, and we in God. It is represented not only by relative unions, but such as are real. Kelative, as marriage ; where man and wife by the marriage covenant are one flesh, Eph. v. 31, 32. But by the head and members, who make one body, not with respect to a political, but natural body : 1 Cor. xii. 12, ' For as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body ; so also is Christ.' By vine and branches, who make but one tree : John xv. 5, 'I am the vine, ye are the branches.' Again, it is compared to the food and substance that is nourished by it : John vi. 56, ' He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, dwelleth in me, and I in him.' As the meat is turned into the eater's substance, so they and Christ become one ; and on feeding on Christ by faith, there followeth a mutual inhabitation. We dwell in him by constant de pendence, and he abideth in us by constant influence and the quick ening virtue of his Spirit. Nay, once more, it is compared with the mystery of the Trinity, and the union that is between the divine persons: John xvii. 21-23, ' That they all may be one, as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee ; that they also may be one in us, that the world may believe that thou hast sent me. And the glory which thou gavest me, I have given them, that they may be one, as we are one : I in them, and thou in me ; that they may be perfect in one, and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them as thou hast loved me.' Which, though it cannot be understood to the full, yet at least it is more than a bare relation. The mystical union implieth somewhat more than a bare title. Yea, it is not only a notion of scrip ture, but a thing effected and wrought in us by the Spirit : ' By one Spirit we are baptized into one body/ 1 Cor. xii. 13. Now the Spirit's works are real. What he doth, doth not infer a bare title and relation only ; there is a presence of Christ in our hearts, and a vivifical influ ence caused by it.

3. Union maketh way for fruition and communion ; for we being in Christ, receive all manner of blessings through him and from him : 1 Cor. i. 30, ' But of him ye are in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption;' that is, we receive all manner of benefits by virtue of our union with him. Certainly this union is not a dry notion ; the comfort flowing thence is very real. More especially these benefits may be reduced to two — the favour of God, and the life of God. First, The favour of God ; being reconciled to him by Christ, all our sins are pardoned :

26 SEUMONS UPON 1 JOHN III. [SER. X.

Eph. i. 14, ' In whom we have redemption through his blood, the remission of sins.' So far that we are exempted from condemnation : Rom. viii. 1, ' There is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus.' And our persons are accepted : Eph. i. 6, ' He hath accepted us in the Beloved.' And we are put under the hopes of eternal life : Col. i. 27, ' Christ in you the hope of glory.' Oh, what a mercy is this, that we that could not think of God without horror, nor hear him named without trembling, nor pray to him with any comfort and con fidence, have now by Christ pardon and absolution, and free access with assurance of welcome and audience, whenever we stand in need of him ; and not only so, but may hopefully expect a child's portion in heaven, ' To be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light.' Secondly, The life of God, which is begun in regeneration, and continued by the influence of his Spirit dwelling and working in our hearts, till it be perfected in the life of glory : 1 John v. 12, ' He that hath the Son hath life.' Another kind of life than he had before ; a living in God and to God, which is the noblest kind of living and being under the sun : Gal. ii. 20, ' I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me ; and the life that I live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God ; ' and Christ is called our life, Col. iii. 4. Christ is the root and foun tain of it, the living head in whom all the members live, and from whom they receive strength and influence : John xiv. 19, ' Because I live, ye shall live also.' We live by virtue of his life.

4. Communion and fruition maketh way for familiarity, for real inter courses of love between Christ and the soul. He dwelleth and walketh with us, and we with him ; he directeth, counselleth, and quickeneth us, and we live in a holy subjection and obedience to the motions and inspirations of his grace : Ps. xxvii. 8, ' Thou saidst, Seek ye my face : my heart said, Thy face, Lord, will I seek.' He speaketh to believers by the excitations of his grace, and the infusion of spiritual comforts ; and they to him in holy thoughts, prayers, and addresses unto his majesty. There is a constant interchange of donatives and duties, graces and services, prayers and blessings. More especially this familiarity and converse is either in solemn ordinances and duties of religion, or in a constant course of holiness. First, In solemn duties of religion. Prayer is called an access to God, Eph. iii. 12 ; a spiritual acquaintance with him, Job xxii. 21. By constant commerce men settle into an acquaintance with one another. Secondly, In a constant course of holiness : 1 John i. 7, ' If we walk in the light as he is in the light, then have we fellowship one with another.' Conformity is the ground of communion. When we love what God loveth, and hate what he hateth, then he is with us, maintaining, directing, sup porting us in all our ways ; and we are with him, fearing, loving, pleasing, and serving him, and glorifying his name.

II. This union and communion is not only as it is begun, but con tinued. All union must have some bonds and ties by which it is effected ; so this mystical spiritual union. The primary bands are those which begin the union, the secondary bands are those which continue it. The primary bands are the Spirit and faith, the secondary are the constant inhabitation and influence of the same Spirit with faith and other graces.

VER. 6.] SERMONS UPON i JOHN in. 27

1. Primary. God maketh his first entry into us by his Spirit, for it is the Spirit which planteth us into the mystical body of Christ : 1 Cor. xii. 13, ' For by one Spirit we are all baptized into one body.' For by the quickening virtue of this Spirit is faith wrought in us, and then the soul ernbraceth and receiveth Christ, and the nuptial knot is tied. Christ, as the most worthy, and as having the quickening and life- making power, beginneth with and taketh hold of us, that we may take hold of him : Phil. iii. 12, ' That I may apprehend that for which I am apprehended of Christ.' The Spirit is the bond on Christ's part, and faith the principal bond on ours. And if you ask me what act it is ? I answer — A broken-hearted and thankful acceptance of Christ, as God offereth him to us ; that is the closing act on our part ; then Christ and we join hands, when we resolve to cleave to him, and receive him as our Lord and Saviour, John i. 12.

2. For the continuance of this union, or our abiding in him, the Spirit is still necessary: 1 John iv. 13, 'Hereby we know that God dwelleth in us, and we dwell in God, by the Spirit that he hath given us.' So is faith : Eph. iii. 17, ' That he may dwell in your hearts by faith.' Faith is the means whereby Christ dwelleth in us by the Spirit, and it is also the means of our dwelling in him, and our adherence to him, and dependence upon him. We do not use Christ at a pinch, or as a pen to write with, and lay it down when we have done, but as the branches use the vine, and the members the head which they live lay, and from which when they are separated, they dry and wither. The heart must be habituated to a constant dependence on Christ. Well, then, the communion between Christ and his members is mutual, they being in him by faith and a steady dependence, and he in them by his Spirit as the root of their spiritual being ; but then all other graces concur, and have their use and influence, as chiefly love, which causeth a delightful adhesion to him : Deut. x. 20, ' Thou shalt serve the Lord thy God, and to him shalt thou cleave.' We cleave to him by love, as we live in him by faith. As Jonathan's soul clave to David, or was knit to the soul of David, 1 Sam. xviii. 3, or Jacob's life was said to be bound up with the lad's life, because of his tender love to him, Gen. xliv. 30, so a believer's soul cleaveth to Christ ; love cannot endure a separation : Rom. viii. 35, ' What shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword ? ' When we will not suffer ourselves, either by the allurements or terrors of the world, or solicitations of the flesh, or temptations of the devil, to be withdrawn from the profession of his name, or zeal for his truth, or the observance of his precepts, then are we said to abide in him. Well, then, love is necessary, only there is a difference between faith and love. Faith is the primary bond, and love the secondary ; for the union is begun by faith, but continued by love. The first thing that tieth the nuptial knot is faith, or choosing and receiving Christ, and that which continueth it is con jugal loyalty and fidelity, or cleaving to Christ by love. Once more, the moral union of hearts is by love, the mystical by faith. Christ must dwell in us as the head and fountain of our life, but by love we embrace him as our friend whom we most dearly love and esteem. Lastly, by faith he dwelleth in us effectively, by his influence maintaining

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our life, and supplying us with all things necessary to godliness. By love he dwelleth in us objectively, by such a union as is between the object and the faculty. A star is in the eye that seeth it though it be ten thousands of miles distant ; and what you think of is in your minds, and what you desire is in your hearts. A scholar's mind is in his books when he is absent from them, and a wicked man's mind is in his sin when he is not practising it, Col. i. 21 ; and we usually say, the mind is not where it liveth, but where it loveth. When you fear God, your mind is with him ; when you love God, your heart is with him. This is an objective union, but by faith there is a union of concretion and coalition. Christ is the stock, we the graft ; we are said to be planted into him, Horn. vi. 5, he being to us the fountain and principle of a spiritual life, or the root of vivifical influence.

III. Why they ought not nor cannot allow themselves in known sins.

1. They ought not, because a great obligation lieth upon them above others. The apostle telleth us: 1 John ii. 6, 'He that saith he abideth in him, ought to walk as he walked.' Zanchy observeth it is not only utile, profitable to walk as he walked, but debitum, a necessary and express duty ; they ought to walk. Why is it their duty more than others ? First, Lest they displease Christ, and forfeit the sense of his love, who hath done so much for them as to reconcile them unto God, and hath taken them into his mystical body that he may give them his Holy Spirit. And after all this, shall we break his laws and grieve his Spirit ? This is to abide in Christ against Christ, with Judas to kiss him and betray him. He is best pleased when we obey his laws rather than fondly esteem his name and memory: 1 John v. 3, ' For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments ; ' John xiv. 21, 'He that hath my commandments and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me ; ' John xv. 10, ' If you keep my commandments jre shall abide in my love.' His is a love of bounty, ours a love of duty. This is the course that is best pleasing to him, and the ready way to continue the sense of his love to you. Secondly, Lest they dis honour Christ. What! when you are taken into the cabinet of Christ's mystical body, will you yet sin when you are one with God and Christ? 'Let them be one with us,' John xvii. 21. You sin in God; and though you are planted into the good vine, yet bring forth the clusters of Sodom and grapes of Gomorrah. What ! sin in Christ ? He was holy and you profane, he was humble and you proud, he was meek and you contentious, charitable and you malicious ; he did ever please God, and you do nothing but displease him. Christ came to make you saints, and you live like beasts for sensuality, yea, like devils for envy and hatred. Is this the fruit of your being in Christ and living in Christ ? You entitle him to your disorders, and pollute his name thereby.

2. They cannot; union with Christ is inconsistent with a life of sin. The apostle saith, ' he sinneth not,' making it not only the duty, but the property of those that abide in Christ. It must needs be so, because otherwise the communion is but pretended. And it is on our parts interrupted and broken off.

[1.] It is but pretended: 'He that saith he abideth in him, ought to

VKR. 6.] SERMONS UPON i JOHN in. 20

walk as he walked.' Otherwise you do but say it, it is not a reality. I prove it thus: Because where there is union and communion with Christ, there his Spirit is given to us, and they that have the Spirit of Christ will he like him ; the Spirit worketh uniformly in head and memhers. Therefore if the same Spirit and life be in us that was in Christ, there must needs be a suitableness. If the spirit of the living creature be in the wheels, the wheels must move as the living creature moveth. Surely if we have not the Spirit of Christ, we are not united to him, Horn. viii. 9. If we have, we shall be such in the world as he was, have the same mind that he had, and walk as he walked. It was an old cheat of the heathens to pretend to secrecy with their gods when they would promote any design they had in hand. Many talk much of communion with God and Christ, but where are the fruits? So that unless we will delude ourselves with a bare notion and empty pretence, we must endeavour to find that it is in sincerity.

[2.] It is on our part interrupted and broken off ; we do what in us lieth to provoke Christ to withdraw, for the condition of this com munion is holiness : 1 John i. 6, 7, ' If we say we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, then we have fellowship one with another ; ' John xiv. 23, ' If any man love me, he will keep my words, and my Father will love him ; and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him.' Conformity maketh way for communion, and likeness is the ground of love. Therefore, if we sin, if we walk contrary to God, we do not abide in him ; for there is a contradiction, that we should abide in him, and yet break off from him as we do by wilful sin.

Use 1. Information; to teach us how to check sin by the remembrance of union and communion with Christ : 1 Cor. vi. 15, ' Shall I take the members of Christ, and make them the members of a harlot? God forbid.' The apostle is reasoning against fornication, and one main argument is taken from our union with Christ. The bodies of the faithful are a part of his mystical body, and therefore must be used with reverence, and possessed in sanctification and hgnour ; not given to a harlot, but reserved for Christ. He proveth the argument on both parts, that he that is joined to a harlot maketh himself one with a harlot, and he that is joined to Christ becometh one with Christ. ' He that is joined to a harlot is one body ; ' i.e.. that conjunction is carnal and bodily : ' But he that is joined to the Lord is one spirit ;' i.e., this conjunction is holy and spiritual. And does not the argument hold good in other cases ? Thus in gluttony and intemperance, they join us to something that is different from Christ, and debase the body which Christ hath made the temple of his Spirit. Nay, though the sin be not so gross, the argument is good still. Do we dwell in Christ, and make Christ's mystical body a shelter and sanctuary for sinners, and this great mystery of union with Christ only/ a cover for a carnal heart and life ? Surely every one that is in Christ hath greater obligations than others, being taken into such a nearness to God ; and has greater helps, having received of his fulness, John i. 16. They have grace from him, as the branches have sap from the root.

Use 2. Are we true members of Christ's mystical body ? ' Whoso-

30 SERMONS UPON 1 JOHN III. [SfiR. X.

ever abideth in him sinneth not.' Let us pause on this a little. Do not we sin daily ? But unavoidable failings do not forfeit or break off our union and communion with him. What then?

1. There are many sins which are utterly inconsistent with true godliness ; and if a child of God should fall into them in some rare, unusual case, he cannot know himself a child of God. Surely to live in them doth clearly decide the matter. As, for instance, consider these scriptures : 1 Cor. vi. 9, ' Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God ? be not deceived : neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God ; ' Gal. v. 19-21, ' Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these ; adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and suchlike: of these things I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God ; ' Eph. v. 6, ' Because of these things cometh the wrath of God upon the children of disobedience.' These acts are so contrary to grace, that no debate needeth be about them ; either they are not consistent with sincerity, or the knowledge of it.

2. They live not in any sin against knowledge and conscience ; for indulgently and deliberately to run into any sin cloudeth the knowledge of our sincerity, for that argueth the reign of sin, and that is dangerous, Rom. vi. 14 ; and therefore we need watchfulness, Eph. v. 15, and much prayer, Ps. cxix. 133.

3. When a child of God falleth through infirmity, he presently rallieth, and recovereth himself again : Jer. viii. 4, ' Shall they fall, and not arise ? ' Surely to lie in the dirt argueth obstinacy.

4. They do not make a trade or course of sinning and repenting ; for relapses against conscience are so grievous to a sincere heart, and repentance, if it be serious, doth so wound sin, that it cannot easily recover life and strength : Ps. li. 6, ' In the hidden part shalt thou make me to know wisdom.'

5. It neither concerneth the duty nor peace of the children of God to omit the due care of their hearts and lives when they come near a state of death, and thereby render their condition questionable, lest they seem to come short, Heb. iv. 1 ; and Heb. xii. 13, 'Make straight steps to your feet, lest that which is lame be turned out of the way.' Anything that would turn us out of the course of our obedience to God should be striven against and watched against till we prevail. It will be a doubt, if not a wound and maim, to our sincerity : therefore, if we be not known by avoiding sin, let us be known by striving against it, and prevailing in some measure.

Use 3. Is direction. If he that abideth in Christ sinneth not, then let us abide in Christ, seek after union and communion with him, be cause there is our security. First, If we abide with Christ, he will abide with us. There is no danger of breaking on his part, therefore we are so often called upon to abide in him, John xvii. Secondly, Apart from him we can do nothing, John xv. 5. Thirdly, In him

VER. 6.] SERMONS UPON i JOHN in. 31

you may bring forth fruit, John xv. 8. Fourthly, In abiding in him we have much joy and comfort: John xv. 10, 11, 'If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love, as I have kept my Father's commandments, and abode in his love. These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and your joy might be full/ The Lord's supper was appointed to represent and seal this union : 1 Cor. x. 16, it is called, ' The cup of blessing,' &c. There we come to eat his flesh and drink his blood, and to be joined to the Lord so as to become one spirit. Since Christ calleth the bread his body and the wine his blood, these outward things are signs to put you in remem brance, and seals to put you in possession of Christ, whose flesh you eat and blood you drink, that you may live by him ; not with your mouth, that were to think carnally of heavenly mysteries ; as Nicodemus, when told of being born again, thought that a man must enter the second time into his mother's womb ; or as the Capernaites said, John vi. 59, ' How can this man give us his flesh to eat ? ' No ; the eating and drinking must be answerable to the hungering and thirsting ; now that is not carnal, but spiritual. We must solemnly receive Christ into our heart, that he may dwell there. Oh, then, own Christ as your Lord, devote yourselves to him : 2 Chron. xxx. 8, ' Yield yourselves to the Lord.' Heartily, sincerely resolve to be Christ's, and he will be yours.

2c£ Point. That no sight and knowledge of Christ is saving and effectual but what checketh sin and hindereth the life of it.

There is a twofold knowledge — speculative and practical.

1. Knowledge speculative, which is nothing else but a naked map and model of divine truths. The Jew had his form of knowledge in the law, Rom. ii. 20. So the speculative Christian has a form of god liness, 2 Tim. iii. 5, a scheme and delineation of gospel truths. There are different degrees of this.

[1.] A memorative knowledge, such as children have when the field of memory is planted with the seed of Christian doctrine. Children are taught to speak of divine mysteries by rote, such as God, Christ, heaven, hell, sin, righteousness ; as the philosopher observed of young men, that they learned the mathematics with all their hearts and minds, but moral things they only said them over, rather rehearsed and said after another, than believed them. Children answer you the words of the catechism, but they heed not what they say, nor understand not whereof they affirm ; but it is good that children should learn divine things, and after be further instructed in the nature and cer tainty of them, Luke i. 5.

[2.] Another degree above this is opinionative knowledge, when they do not only charge their memories, but exercise a kind of conscience and judgment about these things, so as to be orthodox and right in opinion, and to bustle and contend about that way of religion wherein they have been educated, or that which suiteth best with their fancies and interests ; yet wisdom entereth not upon the heart, Prov. ii. 10. .This maketh men hot disputers, but cold practisers of godliness; they have a religion to talk of, but not to live by ; they may know much of religion in the notion, and it may be more accurately than the serious Christian. As a vintner's cellar may be better stored with wines than a nobleman's, but he hath them for sale and not for use, so these

32 SERMONS UPON 1 JOHN III. [SfiB. X.

may form their notions into better order than the serious godly man. These are useful in the church, as a dead post may support a living tree, or as negroes and slaves dig in the mines to bring up gold to others. But alas ! with all their learning they may be thrust into hell : ' They received not the love of the truth, whereby they might be saved.'

[3.] There is a higher degree of speculative knowledge beyond this, and that is, when men have some kind of touch upon their hearts, but it is too slender and insufficient to break their lusts or to stand out against temptations.

Use. Well, then, let us seek after this saving knowledge, to see and know Christ as we ought to know and see him, with a renewing, trans forming knowledge : Eph. iii. 10, ' And that ye put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge, after the image of him that created him.' It is but hearsay knowledge. Think every notion lost that doth not invite your minds to the saving knowledge of Christ, and secure your practice against error and temptations ; therefore beg the Spirit ; he teacheth us to know things so as to have them impressed upon our hearts : Eph. iv. 21, 22, ' If so be ye have heard him, and have been taught by him, as the truth is in Jesus : that ye put off, concerning the former conversation, the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts.'

SERMON XL

Little children, let no man deceive you : he that doelh righteousness is righteous, even as he -is righteous. — 1 JOHN iii. 7.

THE apostle had hitherto reasoned against the committing of sin ; he now persuadeth them to the contrary, the practice of holiness. As there is a positive part in religion as well as a privative, so a bare abstinence from sin is not enough, but we must also exercise ourselves unto godliness, or walk in newness of life : ' Little children, let no man deceive you,' &c.

In the whole verse observe these things —

1. A caution against error.

2. A description of a righteous man. First, He is described by his own practice ; secondly, By his conformity to Christ : ' Even as he is righteous.'

Let me open these branches.

1. The caution against error, ' Little children, let no man deceive you ; ' this is premised, because such mistakes are suited to the corrupt heart of man : we may be deceived ourselves, or suffer ourselves to be deceived by others.

[1.] That we may not deceive ourselves ; frequent warnings are given against this deceit: 1 Cor. vi. 9, 'Be not deceived; neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor

VER. 7.] SERMONS UPON i JOHN in. 33

drunkards, shall inherit the kingdom of God;' 1 Cor. xv. 33, 'Be not deceived ; evil communication corrupts good manners : awake to righteousness and sin not.' So Gal. vi. 7, ' Be not deceived, God is not mocked ; for what a man soweth, that shall he reap.' Once more, Eph. v. 6, ' Let no man deceive you with vain words ; for because of these things cometh the wrath of God upon the children of dis obedience.'

[2.J Not deceived by others. There were false teachers in the apostle's days, that said a man might be righteous and yet live in sin. Simon Magus taught that bare profession of faith, without a strict life, was enough to salvation, which poison was also sucked up by others, the Basilides and the Gnostics.

2. The description of a righteous man; he is described — (1.) By his ordinary practice ; (2.) By his conformity to Christ.

First, By his ordinary practice : ' He that doeth righteousness is righteous.' In which proposition there is —

1. The subject, ' He that doeth righteousness.' This needeth to be explained, because many boasted that they were righteous who yet did not live righteously.

Here I shall inquire — (1.) What is righteousness; (2.) What it is to do righteousness.

[1.] What is righteousness ? Righteousness is sometimes taken strictly for that grace which inclineth us to perform our duty to- man, with all the acts and duties thereunto belonging. So Eph. iv. 24, ' The new man is created after God in righteousness and true holi ness ; ' where righteousness referreth to- man, holiness to God : Luke i. 75, ' In holiness and righteousness before him all the days of our life ;' where there is the same reference. So 1 Tim. vi. 11, 'Follow after righteousness, godliness.' Which words comprise the duties of the first and second table. Sometimes more largely for all newness of life, or all those holy actions which are required of a Christian. So Mat. iii. 15, ' It behoveth me to fulfil all righteousness ; ' that is,, whatsoever is required by the law or commanded by God. In this large sense it is taken here.

[2.] What it is to do righteousness. It is to love righteousness, or to carry on a constant tenor of all holy and righteous actions ; for to do righteousness is opposed to committing sin ; therefore it supposeth us to lead a godly and righteous life, or that we exercise ourselves unto and be fruitful in all good works.

2. For the predicate, lls righteous.' Here we must inquire in what notion the term ' righteousness ' is used ; for a man may be said to be righteous in a twofold respect — either with respect to sanctifica- tion or justification. In the first sense it is taken morally for an upright disposition of heart and mind ; in the second sense, legally and judicially, for a state of acceptation, or the ground of a plea before the tribunal of God.

[1.] The righteousness of sanctification, ' He is righteous ; ' that is, a holy and upright man : 1 Peter iii. 12, ' The eyes of the Lord are towards the righteous ; ' 1 Peter iv. 18, ' If the righteous be scarcely saved ; ' 2 Peter ii. 7, 8, ' He delivered righteous Lot ; ' and again, ' that righteous man vexed his righteous soul/

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34 SERMONS UPON 1 JOHN III. [SER. XI.

[2.] Righteousness is taken for a forensical or court righteousness, as it belongeth to justification : Rom. v. 19, ' As by one man's dis obedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one many shall be made righteous;' that is, deemed as such, counted as such, rewarded as such. Now the question is, which of these senses is to be chosen here. For the first, the case is clear, that a holy and upright man is known by his holy and righteous ways and actions, or he showeth the truth of his regeneration by his godly life, 1 John ii. 29. In the close of the former chapter, which is the beginning of this whole discourse, the apostle said, ' If ye know that he is righteous ; every man that doeth righteousness is born of him.' But for the second sense, as the term 'righteous' respecteth justification, I cannot see why it should be excluded; for the sanctified are also justified; and what a respect and subordination there is of the moral righteous ness to the judicial, we shall see by and by. Certainly these are deemed by God, accepted by God, rewarded by God as righteous. Mark but these two scriptures, Luke i. 6, where it is said of Zachary and Elizabeth, that ' they were both righteous before God, walking in all the ordinances and commandments of the Lord blameless/ Mark, that they having their conversations without blame, they were right eous, and righteous before God. So Acts x. 35, ' He that feareth God and worketh righteousness is accepted with him/ There the right eousness is one ground of acceptation with God.

Secondly, By his conformity to Christ, ' As he was righteous/ He was righteous in his nature and practice, for he obeyed God perfectly, and ever did the things that pleased God : Heb. i. 9, ' Thou hast loved righteousness, and hated iniquity ; and therefore God, -even thy God, hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows/ Christ's doing righteousness is said to be righteous. Now when Christians do so, they resemble Christ, and are like him, though not equal with him ; so are the children of God, who are adopted into his family, which is the thing the context laboureth to prove.

Doct. That he, and he only, who doeth righteousness, is the Chris tian righteous man, and as such is accepted by God.

I shall prove it by the two former acceptations of righteousness.

I. In the way of sanctification, he, and he only, is the upright gospel Christian that doeth righteousness.

1. Because this is the great end wherefore God changeth his heart, and infuseth grace into him ; not barely that he may have it, but use it, and live by it ; it is a talent, the choicest talent wherewith the sons of men are intrusted : Gal. v. 25, ' If ye live in the Spirit, walk in the Spirit/ Surely where there is life there must be actions suit able ; and if there be a spiritual life, there must be a spiritual walking: this gift is not given in vain. When Christ speaketh of giving the Spirit, John iv. 14, he saith, that ' the water that I shall give him shall be a well of water springing up into everlasting life ; ' and John vii. 38, ' Out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water/ The Spirit is given in order to action. A Christian is not to keep his graces to himself, to fold up his talent in a napkin ; this water is a living spring, always springing up ; this conduit is so filled that it must burst or flow forth ; and the grace that is in his heart is always

VEU. 7.] SERMONS UPON i JOHN in. 35

to be in act and exercise. The apostle telleth us, Rom. vi. 4, that we are raised up with Christ by the mighty power of God, that we should walk in newness of life ; not to lie idle and still, but to walk, and to walk as becometh those who have a new and holy nature.

2. Grace is of such an operative and vigorous nature, that where it is really planted and rooted, it cannot be idle in the soul, but will be breaking out into action ; as sin is not a sluggish idle quality, but always working and warring : ' Sin wrought in me all manner of con cupiscence,' saith the apostle ; ' And I see a law in my members, warring against a law in my mind,' Eom. vii. 23. The habit of sin, though it be not peccatum actuale, yet it is actuosum. So grace puts forth suitable operations : 2 Peter i. 8, ' If these things be in you, and abound, they make you that ye shall not be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.' Where graces are in any good degree of life and strength, there a Christian cannot be lazy, but his conversation will be fruitful. Grace will not let a man alone ; he shall have no rest and quiet within himself unless he both busy and employ himself for God. Faith will show itself in an open and free profession of Christ, both in word and deed : 2 Cor. iv. 12, ' We having the same spirit of faith, believe, and therefore speak.' A spirit of faith cannot be suppressed, neither can the work of faith, 1 Thes. i. 3. Hope is a lively hope, 1 Peter i. 3 ; and love hath a constraining force and efficacy, 2 Cor. v. 14. Men cannot hide their love, no more than fire can be hidden. Graces suffer a kind of imperfection till they pro duce their consummate act : 1 John ii. 5, ' But whoso keepeth his word, in him verily is the love of God perfected.' Well, then, a Christian is not to be valued by dead and useless habits, but operative graces. Ih vain do men persuade themselves that they have righteousness buried and sown in their hearts, when unrighteousness wholly possesseth their hands, minds, eyes, and floweth forth into their actions.

3. We have no way to distinguish ourselves from hypocrites but by performing actions which become real converts. When John sus pected the scribes and pharisees, on their submitting to his baptism, he presseth them to evidence their sincerity by a suitable conversation : Mat. iii. 8, ' Bring forth fruits meet for repentance ; ' and the apostle persuadeth the gentiles to repent and turn to God, and do works meet for repentance, Acts xxvi. 20. Call them works, or call them fruits, they must be such acts as become the change wrought in us. The new heart is known by newness of conversation, and a change of heart by a change of life. Repentance is an inward thing, but the fruits appear outwardly in our actions ; the sap is not seen, but the apples appear. Our dedication is known by our use, our choice by our course, and our resolution by our practice. Acts discover the habits, and what we do constantly, frequently, easily, showeth the temper of the heart. It is true God chiefly requireth truth in the inward parts, without which all external holiness is but a mere show, and loathsome to him ; yet none should flatter themselves with that holiness which they imagine to have within, unless the fruits of it appear without, and they labour to manifest it in their daily carriage and course of life. If a candle in a lanthorn be lighted, it will not be confined there, but shine forth ; so if there be grace in the heart, it must show itself by all holy con-

36 SERMONS UPON 1 JOHN III. [SEE. XI.

versation and godliness. We judge of others by their external works, for the tree is known by its fruits, and we judge of ourselves by internal and external works together. If there be a principle of grace within, there will be a love of God, and a hatred of evil, and a delight in holi ness, and a deep sense of the world to come ; and all this be discovered in a holy and heavenly conversation without. Then this completeth the evidence, and breedeth in us the testimony of a good conscience : 2 Cor. i. 12, ' For our rejoicing is this, the testimony of our conscience, that, in simplicity and godly sincerity, we have had our conversation in the world; ' Heb. xiii. 18, ' For we trust we have a good conscience, in all things willing to live honestly.' If a man would make a judg ment of his own estate, he must take a view of his obedience and daily carriage towards God. If there be a course of close walking, and the main endeavour be to please him, we may take comfort in it, and it will make up an evidence in the court of conscience.

4. It is for the honour of God that those which live by him should live to him, and, when he hath formed a holy and righteous people for himself, they should glorify him by doing righteousness. We are as new creatures, to bring forth fruit unto God : John xv. 8, ' Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit ; ' Ps. xi. 7, ' For the righteous Lord loveth righteousness, his countenance doth behold the upright ; ' 2 Thes. i. 11, 12, ' Wherefore also we pray always for you, that our God would count you worthy of this calling, and fulfil all the good pleasure of his goodness, and the work of faith with power ; that the name of our Lord Jesus Christ may be glorified in you.' By internal grace we approve ourselves unto God, by external holiness we glorify him in the world. With respect to God's approbation we must be righteous ; with respect to God's honour we must do righteousness, that so we may bring him into request in the world. He is concerned much in our answerable or unanswerable walking.

II. He that doeth righteousness is righteous with the righteousness of justification. This seemeth the harder and more difficult task, but to a considering and unbiassed mind all is easy, and to him that will be determined in his opinions by the word of God or the gospel of our Lord. Therefore, for more distinctness' sake, I shall show you — (1.) What is the righteousness of justification ; (2.) What respect the holy life hath to it.

First, What is the righteousness of justification ? It may be inter preted either with respect to the precept or sanction of the law.

1. With respect to the precept of the law, and so the legal righteous ness is opposite to reatus culpce, to the fault ; and so, if it were possible, we may say that he that fulfilleth the law is righteous ; that is, he is not faulty ; but alas 1 we are all sinners. But, however, suppose it for method's sake, as the apostle doth ; so it is said, Rom. ii. 13, ' Not the hearers of the law are just before God, but the doers of the law shall be justified.' That is a truth if it is rightly understood ; but then the law may be fulfilled either in the sense of the covenant of works or in the sense of the covenant of grace.

[1.] In the sense of the covenant of works. A man that exactly fulfilleth the law in every point and tittle, without the least alteration and swerving, is righteous ; but this is impossible to the fallen crea-

VER. 7.] SERMONS UPON i JOHN in, 37

ture: ' Therefore by the deeds of the law shall no flesh be justified in his sight,' Rom. iii. 20; and Gal. iii. 21, 22, 'If there had been a law given which could have given life, verily righteousness had been by the law. But the scripture hath concluded all under sin, that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe.' But —

[2.] With respect to the law of grace. May not the precept be said to be obeyed, not perfectly, but sincerely ? And if so, what hindereth but he that doeth righteousness is righteous? that is, evangelically justified and accepted by God, as one that hath kept the law of grace. I know no incongruity in this ; yea, I see an absolute scriptural cer tainty in this doctrine, if the world would receive it, and determine their opinions by the simplicity of the gospel, rather than by the dic tates of any faction which the late janglings of too many in Christendom have produced. Indeed, I know no other way how to reconcile the two apostles Paul and James. Paul saith, ' We are justified by faith, without the works of the law;' and James, that ' we are justified by works, and not by faith only.' Justification hath respect to some accusation. Now, as there is a twofold law, there is a twofold accusa tion, and so by consequence a twofold justification — by the law of works and the law of grace. As we are accused as breakers of the law of works, that is, as sinners, obnoxious to the wrath of God, they plead Christ's satisfaction as our righteousness apprehended and applied by faith, not by works of our own ; but as we are accused as breakers of the law of grace, that is, as rejecters or neglecters at least of Christ and his renewing and reconciling grace, we are approved, accepted as righteous, by producing our faith and new obedience, for thereby we prove it to be a false charge ; and though we cannot plead as innocent, yet we may plead as sincere ; and so it is said, Mat. xii. 37, ' By thy words shalt thou be justified, and by thy words shalt thou be con demned ; ' and James ii. 12, ' So speak ye, and so do., as they that shall be judged by the law of liberty.' But I have interposed my judgment too soon, before I have further cleared up matters: all that i desire now is this, that this notion may be marked. Righteousness consists in keeping the law, for the law of grace maybe kept, and some plea must be made thence, or we are undone for ever.

2. Righteousness may be interpreted with respect to the sanction, which is twofold — the threatening and the promise.

[1,] With respect to the threatening, and so righteousness is opposite to the reatus pcence, the guilt or obligation to punishment; and so a man is said to be righteous when he is freed from the external punish ment threatened by God, and. due to him as a breaker of the law. To this end observe that place, Rom. i. 16-18, ' I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ ; for therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith. For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men.' Mark, there are two revelations which are opposed to each other; there is the law covenant, in which the wrath of God is revealed, and the gospel cove nant, in which the righteousness of God is revealed, or the way to escape that wrath. In the law, the wrath of God is revealed and denounced against those that have broken it ; and broken it we have in every table by our ungodliness and unrighteousness, yea, in every

38 SERMONS UPON 1 JOHN III. [SfiR. XL

point and tittle ; yet the law of grace or of faith hath appointed us a remedy in Christ how we may be righteous, and freed from this wrath and vengeance by him, by the righteousness of God, or of Christ revealed by faith. And more particularly in the commination and threatening two things are considerable — the sentence and execution.

(1.) As the commination importeth a sentence or respects a sentence, so we are justified or made righteous when we are not liable to con demnation : Horn. v. 18, ' As by the offence of one judgment came upon all to condemnation, so by the righteousness of one the free gift came upon all to the justification of life.' Now who are made partakers of this privilege ? Surely the penitent believer ; that is his first quali fication : John v. 24, ' He that believeth in Christ shall not come into condemnation.' And new obedience is also considered : Rom. viii. 1, 'There is no condemnation to them' who live a holy and godly life/ who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit/ So that it may be said, he that doeth righteousness is righteous, hath an interest in Christ, is not subject to condemnation.

(2.) As the commination respects execution, so to be justified or made righteous is not to be liable to punishment, or not to be punished ; so the apostle saith, Rom. v. 9, ' Being justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him.' The penalty is remitted and taken off. Thus is the godly upright man justified also, for in the last judgment it is said, Mat. xxv. 46, ' These shall go away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into life eternal.' And the righteous there are such as do righteousness, or are fruitful in good works ; these are not punished, but rewarded.

[2.] We come now to the other part of the sanction or the promise ; and so our judicial and legal righteousness, with respect to it, is nothing but our right to the reward, gift, or benefit, founded not in any merit • of our own, but only in the free gift of Christ ; partly in the merit of another, the free gift of God, and the merit of Jesus Christ. So they are said to be justified and made righteous who have a title to eternal life : Rom. v. 18, ' By the righteousness of one, the free gift came upon all to the justification of life;' Titus iii. 7, ' Being justified by his grace, we are made heirs according to the hope of eternal life.' Now who have a right but they that do righteousness, and therefore are righteous in the justifying sense ? Rev. xxii. 14, ' Blessed are they that do his •commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life.' The same right that believers have to their adoption, John i. 12. Well, then, the privilege of them that do righteousness is not inconsiderable, or a matter of small moment; our whole welfare and happiness dependeth on it, our freedom from the curse and title to glory. It is such a righteousness as exempts them from the present condemnation ; and at length, when others are doomed to everlasting destruction, they shall be accepted to eternal life.

Secondly, What respect hath holiness to this being righteous ?

1. All will grant it to be a predication of the adjunct concerning the subject, or a sign concerning the signation of the thing signed. It is if any man work righteousness, it is a sign and evidence that he is righteous, that he is one of those who are justified and accepted of God ; and so they think the justified man is described by his insepar-

VER. 7.] SERMONS UPON i JOHN in. 39

able property, the practice of holiness, or doing righteousness. I refuse not this, for this includeth all the justified, and excludeth all the workers of iniquity ; and this well followed will engage us more to the fear of God and working of righteousness than we usually mind and regard ; for would you know that you are exempted from condemnation, and appointed unto life by Christ ? You can never be clear in it till your faith be warranted by your holiness. It is said in one place, that ' God hath no pleasure in the workers of iniquity,' Ps. Iv. 5, and in another, Ps. xi. 7, ' The righteous Lord loveth the righteous.' These are those he appro veth, accepteth, delighteth in, and, finally, whom he Avill take home to himself.

2. But there is more than a sign ; it is a condition of our right and interest in Christ's righteousness, and the consequent benefits thereof. Our qualification is a part of our plea that we are sound believers. To understand this, let me tell you that the righteousness of the new covenant is either supreme and chief, and that is the righteousness of Christ, or secondary and subordinate, the righteousness of faith and obedience. As to the first, a right faith ; as to the second, a continued obedience is required.

[1.] The supreme principal righteousness, by virtue of which we are reconciled to God, is Christ's obedience unto death : Horn. v. 19, ' By the obedience of one many shall be made righteous.' This is our great righteousness, by which the wrath of God is appeased, his justice satisfied, by the merit of which all the blessings of the new covenant are secured to us.

[2.] The subordinate righteousness, or the condition by which we get an interest in and right to this supreme righteousness, is faith and new obedience ; but for a distinct use, as to our first entrance into the covenant of God, faith is required : Horn. iv. 3, ' Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him for righteousness.' As to our continu ance in this blessed privilege, new obedience is required ; for it is said, ' He that doeth righteousness is righteous.' Thereby his interest in Christ is confirmed and continued. Our first and supreme righteousness consisteth in the pardon of all our sins for Christ's sake : Kom. iii. 23, 'Justified freely by his grace, through the redemption that is in Christ;' and we are ' accepted in the Beloved,' Eph. i. 6, and by him have a right to impunity and glory, 1 Thes. 5. 9, 10. Our second and subor dinate righteousness is in having the true conditions of pardon and life. In the first sense, Christ's righteousness is the only ground of our acceptance with God. Faith, repentance, and new obedience is not the least part of it. But in the second, believing, repenting, obeying, is our righteousness in their several respective ways, namely, that the righteousness of Christ may be ours, and continue ours.

Use 1. Is the caution of the text, ' Let no man deceive you ; ' nor do you deceive yourselves in point of sin or righteousness.

First, Sin. As we are pronely bent to commit sin, so we are apt to seduce our hearts by many pretences to continue in sin. The usual deceits are these three : that sin is no sin ; that they shall escape well enough though they sin ; or that their sins are but petty slips or human infirmities.

1. Though they live vainly and loosely, yet they think they do not

40 SERMONS UPON 1 JOHN III. [SER. XL

sin. To convince these, we must bring them to consider their rule, their end, their pattern. Their rule is the law or word of God, What ! live in a state of vanity under this strict rule ? and have you no sins to repent of and reform ? Surely men are strangers to the law of God, otherwise they would have more knowledge of sin. David having admired first the beauty of the sun, the light of the visible world, then the purity and perfection of the law, which is the light of the intellectual world, concludeth all with this prayer or meditation, Ps. xix. 12, ' Who can understand his errors ? cleanse thou me from secret sins.' But slight and careless people, that the ell may be no longer than the cloth, make a short exposition of the law, that they may have a large opinion of their own righteousness, and so live a carnal life, without check or restraint. So to consider their great end, as a Christian should do nothing inconsistent with it, so not impertinent to it ; for so far we are out of the way. Consider your words and actions, what do they? Alas ! we fill up our lives with actions that are a mere diversion from our great end ; this will make them serious, for a man's end should be known all the way. Then for his pattern, ' He that doeth righteousness is righteous, as he is righteous.' Is this life you lead like the life of Christ? If we do not consider our pattern, no wonder we are vain and light. The efficacy cometh from beholding, 2 Cor. iii. 18, or ' looking unto Jesus,' Heb. xii. 2.

2. That they shall escape the judgment though they live in sin. Though it be as plain as the sunshine at noon-day, that they that live in gross sins are in a state of damnation, yet men are apt to delude their own souls, thinking they may be saved, notwithstanding their profane life, with a little general profession of Christ, and a formal in vocation of his name, though their lives tend to hell. Oh, no ! ' Let every one that narneth the name of Christ depart from iniquity,' 2 Tim. ii. 19. The causes of this presumption are non-attendance to or non- application of scripture threatenings : ' No man saith, What have I done?' Jer. viii. 6. Their abuse of God's patience, and transforming him into an idol of their own fancy : Ps. 1. 21, ' Thou thoughtest that I was altogether such a one as thyself.' No ; he is a holy and jealous God. Do not say he will not be so strict and severe. It is an abuse of God's mercy to say his patience suffereth all things, and his mercy will be no let to his judgment: Ps. Ixviii. 19-21, 'But our God is a God of salvation, yea, our God is a God of salva tion. But he will wound the head of his enemies, and the hairy scalp of all them that go on in their iniquities.' Christ came to save sinners from their sins, but not in their sins, Mat. i. 21. So they abuse the doctrine of justification. Oh, Christ is their justification. Ay ! but you must mind the subordinate righteousness by which the supreme righteousness is imputed to you ; and where Christ is made unto us righteousness, he is also made to you sanctification, 1 Cor. i. 30. They believe in him, but true faith is not consistent with an evil and sinful life, for it purifieth the heart, Acts xv. 9. These are some of the spiders' webs whereby they trust, those sorry fig-leaves wherewith they hope to cover themselves, that their nakedness do not appear, those sandy foundations which they build upon, the untempered mortar which they daub with.

VER. 7.] SERMONS UPON i JOHN in. 41

3. That their sins are but petty slips, and small sins, mere human in firmities ; that no man can be perfect ; that the purest saints have fallen into as great faults. But those are not infirmities which you indulge and allow, and study not to prevent and mortify, or retract not with grief and shame ; besides, infirmities continued in prove iniquities, which by their frequent lapses are rather strengthened than weakened in you.

Secondly, Let no man deceive you in point of righteousness, 'He that doeth righteousness is righteous.'

1. Not he that heareth and talketh of it only doth show himself righteous ; not strict opinions with licentious practices , not a bare approbation, not approving without doing : Luke xi. 27, 28, ' Yea, rather blessed are they that hear the word of God and do it.'

2. It is not only an intention of mind and purpose. No ; we must actually perform the will of God : ' He that doeth righteousness is righteous ; ' Acts xxvi. 20, ' That they should repent and turn to God, and bring forth fruits meet for repentance/ Repentance is a change of mind, but there must be works meet.

3. Not barely good desires. Many please themselves with this, that a desire of living holily sufficeth. No ; the soul of the sluggard desir- eth, and hath nothing. It is not he that desireth to be righteous, but doeth righteousness ; sluggish desires are easily controlled. Where is the effect, the pressing towards the mark ? Phil. iii. 14. If it were strongly, seriously desired, we would address ourselves to this work, and in some good measure prevail. The building went on when the people had a mind to the work, Neh. iv. 6.

4. It is not doing a good action now and then, but throughout our whole course ; we must fear God, and work righteousness : Ps. cvi. 3, ' Blessed are they that keep judgment, and he that doeth righteousness at all times ; ' and if he falleth, he returneth by a speedy repentance.

Use 2. Is to persuade us to look after this righteousness, which is the drift of the text. To this end consider —

1. We shall shortly appear before the tribunal of God, where every man's qualification shall be judged, whether he be righteous or un righteous. How soon it may come about we cannot tell ; this day sur- priseth the most part of the world, and taketh them unprovided. The word found is often used with respect to this day : 2 Cor. v. 3, ' If so be we shall not be found naked.' 2 Peter iii. 14, ' And found of him in peace ; ' Phil. iii. 9, ' And be found in him, not having mine own righteousness.'

2. For God's judgment; nothing but God's righteousness will serve the turn. The law which condemneth us is the law of God ; the wrath and punishment which we fear is the wrath of God ; the glory which we expect is the glory of God ; the presence into which we come is the presence of God ; and therefore the righteousness upon which our confidence standeth must be the righteousness of God . Rom. iii. 22, ' Even the righteousness of God, which is by faith in Jesus Christ, unto all and upon all that believe/ That which God hath appointed, and God will accept.

3. The righteousness of God is principally the death, merit, and satis faction of our Lord Jesus Christ ; for it is said, 2 Cor. v. 21, ' He was

42 SERMONS UPON 1 JOHN III. [&ER. XII.

made sin for us, who knew no sin, that we might be made the right eousness of God in him.'

4. None have the benefit of this righteousness of Christ but those that believe in him ; for the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith, Bom. i. 17. Now this faith is nothing else but a broken hearted and thankful acceptance of the Lord Jesus Christ as our Lord and Saviour.

5. None have this faith but those that depend upon him as a Saviour, and give up themselves with a hearty consent of subjection to be guided, ruled, and ordered by him as their Lord. For dependence: Eph. i. 13, ' In whom ye trusted, after ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation.' Subjection : Col. ii. 6, ' As ye have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him.'

6. None give up themselves to him as their Lord but those who make it their scope and work to please, glorify and enjoy him : 2 Cor. v. 9, ' Wherefore we labour, that, whether present or absent, we may be accepted of him.' None but those that purify themselves as he is pure, and are righteous as he is righteous.

SERMON XII.

He that committeth sin is of the devil ; for the devil sinnetli from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil. — 1 JOHN iii. 8.

HERE is a new argument against living in sin, backed and confirmed with two reasons. The argument is, that they who live in sin are of the devil ; it is confirmed with two reasons, the one taken from the disposition of Satan, the other from the design of Christ. The one proveth the thing asserted, the other showeth the detestableness of it. The thing is proved, that he that liveth in sin belongeth to the devil, ' For the devil sinneth from the beginning.' The other showeth how unbecoming it is for them that profess themselves Christians to have the gospel in their mouths and the devil in their hearts. In short, the one reason showeth our danger, the other our remedy and help ; our danger, ' The devil sinneth from the beginning.' It is his work to promote sin ; he doth not only sin himself, but instigateth others to sin. Our remedy for this purpose, ' The Son of God was manifested,' &c.

There is a double argument couched in it. You make yourselves an opposite party to Christ, and so build again what he came to destroy ; or at least you do not improve the help and remedy offered. Let me open these things more particularly.

1. The argument itself, ' He that committeth sin is of the devil.' The argument is, that they who live in sin are so far from being the children of God, that they are the children of the devil ; for so must that ' of the devil ' be interpreted ; for it is presently added in the 10th verse, ' In this the children of God are manifest, and the children of

VER. 8.] SERMONS UPON i JOHN in. 43

the devil ; ' and John viii. 44, ' Ye are of your father the devil.' Like ness inferreth relation ; as he that first inventeth, teacheth, or per- fecteth any art, is called the father of it or them that use it. So Gen. iv. 20, 21, ' Jabal was the father of them that dwell in tents, and Jubal the father of such as handle the harp and the organ.' So Satan was the inventor of sin, and the beginner of sin and rebellion against God, and therefore the father of sinners.

2. It is confirmed with reasons.

[1.] That sin entitleth us to Satan, and showeth our cognation and kindred to him, and confederacy with him : ' For the devil sinneth from the beginning.' The devil is the eldest and greatest sinner, who presently sinned upon the creation, and ever since is the grand architect of wickedness, the author and promoter of sin among men. ' He sinneth' noteth a continued act; he never ceaseth to sin. He was created good, but kept not his first estate, fell betimes ; and having given himself over to sinning, abideth and proceedeth therein: John viii. 44, 'He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth ; ' Jude 6, ' The angels kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation.'

[2.] That to belong to the devil misbecometh Christians, and should be a detestable thing among Christians : ' For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil.' Where observe —

(1.) The way the Son of God took to obviate this mischief, ' For this cause the Son of God was manifested.'

(2.) His end and design therein, ' That he might destroy the works of the devil.'

(1.) The way the Son of God took ; he was manifested in our flesh : 1 Tim. iii. 16, ' And without controversy, great is the mystery of god liness : God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached to the gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory ; ' which compriseth all the acts of his mediation performed in our nature. God had foretold in the first gospel that ever was preached that 'the seed of the woman should break the serpent's head,' Gen. iii. 15 ; that in our nature, which was so soon foiled by Satan, one should come who would conquer and vanquish him, and introduce a love and care of holiness. The manifestation of the Son of God in the work of redemption doth apparently cross and counterwork Satan's design, which was first to dishonour God by a false representa tion, as if he were envious of man's happiness. Now in the mystery of our redemption God is wonderfully magnified, and represented as amiable to man : ' For herein God commendeth his love to us,' Rom. v. 8 ; that the Son of man appeared for our relief, and died for our sins ; partly to advance the nature of man, which in innocency stood so near God. Now that the human nature, so depressed and abased by the malicious suggestions of the devil, should be elevated and advanced, and set so far above the angelical nature, and admitted to dwell with God in a personal union above all principalities and powers, Eph. i. 20, 21, surely this should be such an everlasting obligation upon us to adhere to God and renounce Satan, that his counsels and sugges tions should no more have place with us. This is the way he took.

44 SERMONS UPON 1 JOHN III. [SfiR. XII.

(2.) The end and design, for this purpose, ' That he might destroy the works of the devil/ Where we have an act and an object.

(1st.) The act, to destroy. The word signifieth also to dissolve and loosen. To dissolve ; many things are destroyed when they are not dissolved ; as suppose a building, when the parts are taken asunder or severed one from another. So he came to dissolve that frame of wicked ness and rebellion against God which Satan had introduced into the world. So it is said, ' Christ came to finish transgression, and to make an end of sin,' Dan. ix. 24 ; and in time will do it. Or else to loosen or untie ; to loosen a chain or untie a knot ; and so it implieth that sins are so many chains, and cords, and snares, wherein we are bound and entangled : Lam. i. 14, ' The yoke of my transgression is bound by his hand ; they are wreathed and come up upon my neck ; ' and the wicked are said to be held with the cords of their own sins, Prov. v. 22. Christ came to loosen this yoke, to untie these cords.

(2d.) The object, ' The works of the devil ; ' whereby is meant sins which are called his lusts. The devil is the author of sin, the pro moter of sin, and hath a great power over us by reason of sin. Sin is his work ; he doth not only sin himself, but instigates others to sin ; and this Christ came to destroy by the merit of his purchase and the virtue of his Spirit. The points which I shall handle are two —

Doct. 1. That while men live in a sinful course, they are children of Satan, and not of God.

Doct. 2. The design of Christ's coming into the world was to destroy sin, which Satan had brought into the world.

The first point, that while men live in sin, or in a sinful course, they are children of Satan, and not of God. For this first point t!ake these considerations —

1. That God and the devil are so opposite, that a man cannot be the child of God and of the devil too. Since the first breach made with God, by Adam's defection and apostasy, there are two parties and two seeds — the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent, Gen. iii. 15. God and Satan divide the world. There is no neutral and middle estate ; a man must be one of these, but he cannot be both at the same time. Those that continue in the apostasy from God are of Satan's party ; and till their estate be altered and changed, they ought so to be reckoned. The great work of Christ, by the powerful means of grace he hath instituted and blessed, is ' to turn men from Satan to God,' Acts xxvi. 18 ; to take them out of one kingdom to another, ' from the kingdom of Satan to the kingdom of God;' Col. i. 13, 'Who hath rescued us out of the power of darkness, and put us into the kingdom of his dear Son.' We must quit the one before we can be received into the other; we cannot be of both at the same time. Now by nature the whole world of mankind lieth in wickedness, and the devils are said to be rulers of the darkness of this world, Eph. vi. 12 ; that is, those that live in the darkness of sin, ignorance, and superstition, the devil exerciseth a tyranny over them, and so they continue till their estate and hearts be changed.

2. Our being children to either is not to be determined by profes sion only, but practice ; for many who are by profession among God's people may yet be limbs of Satan and children of the devil ; as Christ

VER. 8.] SERMONS UPON i JOHN in. 45

telleth the Jews, who were the only visible people God had for that time in the world, John viii. 44, ' Ye are of your father the devil, and his lusts will ye do ; ' and again, speaking of the tares that grew among the wheat, Mat. xv. 38, ' The field is the world ; the good seed are the children of the kingdom, but the tares are the children of the wicked one.' Mark, the field is the world, that is, the state of the church in this world ; the good seed signifies the good Christians, but the tares the wicked that are remaining intermingled among them, and are only left to be distinguished by the reapers, who are the angels, at the last day ; so that all that live in a state of sin, and are unrenewed by the Holy Ghost, and not converted to God, are the children of the devil, though they grow among the corn. Now what a detestable thing is. it that any of us should be Christ's in profession and the devil's in practice and conversation ? For us to have any commerce with the devil, and belong to the devil, after we are visibly brought into the kingdom of God, should be abhorred by all good Christians. We detest witches that come into an express and explicit covenant with Satan ; but we are in an implicit covenant with him, of his league and confederacy, if we cherish his lusts, follow his counsels and sugges tions. Others renounce their baptism, but you forget your baptism, which implieth a solemn vow against the devil, the world, and the flesh. And therefore carnal Christians are said to ' forget that they were purged from their old sins,' 2 Peter i. 9 ; that is, washed in God's laver, wherein they were dedicated to God, and renounced the devil and his works and lusts.

3. They that do evil, or live in a course of evil doing, are Satan's children for two reasons —

[1.] Because they resemble and imitate him ; for he is our father whom we imitate. Now they imitate Satan in his rebellion against God. A man is said to be of the devil, non natura sed imitatione. His substance is not by traduction from Satan, but he is said to be of the devil by his corruption. By nature he is of God, but by sin he is of Satan ; not as a man, but as a wicked man, he imitateth the devil, and beareth his image, and is like Satan in malignity. So Elymas the sorcerer : Acts xiii. 10, ' 0 thou child of the devil, thou full of all craft and subtilty, thou enemy of all righteousness ! wilt thou not cease to pervert the ways of the Lord ? ' Some are apparently so as he was, while they resemble him in a cruel destructive nature, and a special enmity to Christ, and his interest, and truth, and kingdom in the world, and seek to maintain the interest of sin and wickedness. This is one special sort of sin which is proper to Satan ; but all that cherish sin in themselves and others are Satan's children, though they do not go to the height of enmity against Christ ; because they take after the devil as children do after their parents. Look, as we are denominated children of God by imitation and resemblance of him, Eph. v. 1, ' Be ye followers of God as dear children,' so pari ratione, by like reason, the devil's children, if we follow him in our obstinate rebellion against God.

[2.] Because all unregenerate men are governed by him, so that there is subjection as well as imitation ; they are acted and guided by his suggestions ; he hath a great hand and power over them ; and

4G SERMONS UPON 1 JOHN III. [SfiR. XII.

therefore carnal men are said to walk after the prince of the power of the air, who worketh in the children of disobedience. He governeth and influenceth them, not every one in the same way, yet somewhat in a like manner. As the Holy Spirit governeth the faithful, their hearts are his shop and workhouse, so the hearts of the wicked are the devil's workhouse, where he frameth instruments of rebellion against God. The devil, who hath lost his seat, hath built himself a throne in the hearts of wicked men, and lords it over them as his slaves. He blindeth them, and they suffer themselves to be blinded : 2 Cor. iv. 4, ' Whose eyes the god of this world hath blinded.' He enticeth them, and they consent, and therefore they are said to be taken captive by him at his will and pleasure, 2 Tim. ii. 26. Surely then Satan hath great power over the unconverted, for, making use of the corruption which is in them by nature, he leadeth them up and down by his motions and suggestions, and they obey him without resistance ; and if the Lord be not merciful to them, they live, and lie, and die in their sins, arid are cast forth with the devil and his angels into everlasting torments, Mat. xxv. 41, that they may abide with him for ever.

Use 1. Exhortation to those that yet wallow in their sins. Oh, come out of this woful estate, if you would be accounted children of God, and not of the devil ! But this exhortation is like to be lost, because none will own their misery, and acknowledge that they do as yet remain in Satan's snares. Therefore let us convince men a little, and persuade them at the same time. I shall convince them by these questions, intermingled with the exhortation.

Quest. 1. Do not you please yourselves too much in an unholy course of life, and a sinful state ? The sinful state is the state opposite to Christ; the devil's work is to cherish sin, and Christ's work is to destroy sin. Now judge under whose influence and government do you live ? Under Satan's or Christ's ? Are you cherishing or destroying sin ? If you live under Christ's blessed government, you will use all his healing methods for the cure of your distempered souls, till you find a manifest abatement of corruption, or inclination to present things ; for Satan is the god of this world, and you are never satisfied till the heavenly mind prevail in you. But if you be under Satan's govern ment, you are wholly bent to the world and the things of the world, and are entangled in one of those usual snares of sensuality, worldli- ness, or pride : 1 John ii. 16, ' For all that is in the world is the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye, and the pride of life, which is not of the Father, but is of the world.'

1. Sensuality. The carnal mind and life is flat enmity to God, and showeth that we are influenced by the evil spirit, as the heavenly mind and life is the property of those that are guided by the Spirit of God ; therefore all those that live in ' gluttony, and excess of wine, revellings, banquetings,' 1 Peter iv. 3, and spend their time in vanity, wantonness, and filthiness, and needless sports, are guided by the unclean spirit, not the Holy Spirit ; they are ' sensual, not having the Spirit.' By these vanities the mind is debased and polluted, and made unfit for God and the work of holiness : 2 Tim. ii. 22, ' Flee youthful lusts ; follow after righteousness.' The devil is busy with young men, pressing them to inordinate sense-pleasing; then he knoweth that

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holiness will 'be of little account with them : a gross carnal spirit gratifieth the devil's turn. Tertullian telleth us a story, how that the devil had possessed a Christian, and being asked why, he pleads that he found him at a play, took him upon his own ground, and so pos sessed him.

2. Worldliness, or love of riches : 1 Tim. vi. 9, ' They that will be rich fall into temptation and the snare of the devil.' The devil would draw us downward, as God upward. God propoundeth the rich hopes of the other world to deaden us to the riches and glory of this world ; but Satan is the god of this world ; here is his empire, and here are his baits and allurements. Now a drossy, unsanctified, miserable soul, that loveth the world, savoureth the world, wholly iriclineth itself to the world, is held fast by Satan in the snare.

3. Pride. This is Satan's proper image : 1 Tim. vi. 3, ' Lest, being lifted up with pride, he fall into the condemnation of the devil.' This pride lifts up the mind against God and above men ; when men delight and place their happiness in greatness and worldly glory, have an envy to those above them, disdain those below them, contend with equals out of a lofty conceit of themselves, affect honour and reputa tion, rather than carry themselves humbly.

Quest. 2. How do you carry yourselves as to the change of masters ? That we were all once under the power of Satan is evident by what is said before. But how did we get out of it, or how do we stand affected towards our recovery ?

1. As to the offers of grace ; if the god of this world do so blind our minds or harden our hearts that we despise the offered remedy : 2 Cor. iv. 4, ' Lest the light should shine unto them.' Impenitency and contempt of the grace of the gospel is Satan's great chain ; he is loath to let a soul go ; and therefore, Mat. xiii. 19, ' The wicked one cometh and catcheth away that which was sown in his heart.' When they begin to be serious, he possesseth them with prejudices and false conceits against religion, and inveigleth and enticeth them by the pleasing baits of worldly glory and the delights of the flesh, and puts all anxious thoughts out of their minds about their everlasting con dition, and discourageth them by the proposal of troubles, dislikes, and disgraces ; and when he is foiled by one weapon, he betaketh himself to another, that he may hold the poor captive soul in fetters and bonds, and they may never think of leaving their sins, but these thoughts may die away in their hearts ; and thus every soul that is recovered to Christ is fetched out of the very paw and mouth of the lion. The heart of a sinner is his garrison and castle, which is so blinded with prejudice and passion, and carnal interests and worldly allurements, that till Christ come and besiege it, partly with terrors and fears, and partly with the offers of mercy and ready help, yea, the powerful efficacy of his grace, the poor sinner will not yield. Now how is the strong man outed? Luke xi. 21. Have you been sensible of your captivity, and have you yielded to the means of your recovery ? Are you willing the cords of sin and vanity shall be loosened ? and do you give up yourselves to be ruled by your Kedeemer, and take upon you his blessed yoke ? Mat. xi. 29.

2. As to more close and pressing convictions, which is a nearer

48 SERMONS UPON 1 JOHN III. [SfiR. XII.

approach than the former. When Christ presseth hard upon men's hearts, and would have entrance, many find a plain conflict within themselves. Christ haleth the soul one way, and the devil another, so that a man is as it were torn to pieces. They would repent and reform, but then they are off again ; the enemy of souls will not let them go ; pleasures, profits, pleasant company, and carnal acquaint ance, are all brought out to persuade him that he should sit down and be quiet in his sins. But Christ calleth again, Why wilt thou die, sinner ? Now it is good to observe our carriage in these convictions. While you keep thus, you are ' double-minded, and unstable in all your ways,' James i. 8. Oh, let not Christ be kept out of his right any longer ; shall Satan be more powerful in drawing your hearts to vain delights than Christ is in working them to God and heaven? Can he maintain you, and make good your quarrel against the Almighty, and bear you out in rebellion against God ? He is already fallen under his displeasure : will you believe a murderer and a liar from the beginning, rather than all the threatenings and promises of Christ ? What is Satan's end but to destroy and devour, 1 Peter v. 8, and Christ's but to save ? Luke xix. 10, ' For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost.' Are eternal life and death such trifles that they should move you no more ? You are now but as the lamb caught by the wolf and lion ; you are not yet killed by him. How much are you beholden to God for restraining the mali cious so far ; especially for the offer of help by Christ, and will you refuse it ? I will add but this one motive, and that is the deference x which Satan hath over the unconverted in common and the obdurate. All natural men that are under the reign of sin are under the power of the devil. But those that are judicially hardened, he hath a peculiar power over them ; for these God hath forsaken, and delivered them up into Satan's hands; these are given over to believe a lie, 2 Thes. ii. 9-12. Who are they but the contemners of the gospel, and wilful refusers of his grace ?

Quest. 3. Do we behave ourselves as those that had a sense of their covenant vow and engagement when they entered into the service of Christ and have put on the armour of light ? Are we in a continual war and fight with Satan ? Certainly where there is a conscience of our baptismal vow, there sin cannot quietly reign. Now they that make conscience of their baptismal vow are such as do watch, and pray, and strive that they enter not into temptation : Mat. xxvi. 41, ' Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation : the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak/ The godly are in a great part flesh, although renewed, and so easily ensnared. When the devil came to tempt Christ, he had nothing to work upon : John xiv. 30, ' The prince of this world cometh, and hath nothing in me.' But the best of God's children have too much of corruption in them, therefore they must watch, and pray, and strive, and use all Christ's means for their safety. You must not basely yield to temptations, nor lazily sit down, or foolishly imagine the field is won, or the fight is ended, as long as you are in the body. How far soever you have gone, how much soever you have done and suffered, yet there remaineth more danger ; the devil is yet alive, and hath a spite at you, and would sift you as

1 Qu. ' difference of the power ' ? — ED.

VER. 8.] SERMONS UPON i JOHN in. 49

wheat, Luke xxii. 33. He knoweth that creatures are mutable, and those that miscarry not in one condition yet may in another : 'Ephraim is a cake not turned,' Hosea vii. 8, and he himself is subtle and full of wiles and methods. Now shall we carelessly wink, or put our foot in the snare ? Christ warneth us frequently to take heed. There is no sleeping in the midst of so great danger. There is a remnant of his seed within you, which will betray you to him if you be not wary. Many that have begun in the spirit have ended in the flesh. Per severance only must put on the crown. Therefore beware of the wounds of wilful sins ; these give Satan a great advantage against us : Ps. xix. 13, 'Keep back thy servant from presumptuous sins.' By committing any deliberate act of known sin, you are in that so far an. imitator of Satan. Well, then, since the renewed are yet but in the way, and not at the end of the journey, they are not wholly exempted from the power and malice of the tempter : ' Therefore be sober and watchful, for your adversary the devil, like a roaring lion, goeth about, seeking whom he may devour,' 1 Peter v. 8. He speaketh to the converted. Though Satan prevaileth not over a renewed man so far as to rule in him, yet he leaveth not to assault him, if it were but to vex him. The capital enemy of man's salvation watcheth all advan tages against them ; though the door of a believer's heart be shut, yet lie is searching and trying if he can spy but the narrowest passage, or the least opportunity whereby he may again re-enter his old posses sion, or exercise his former tyranny, or recover his interest in the heart ; therefore we are warned, Eph. iv. 27, ' not to give place to the devil.' We do so by our pride, passion, vanity, or worldliness ; but by hearkening to him we do but give up our throat to the murderer, who would fain draw us to some acts of gross sin, whereby to dishonour God : 2 Sam. xii. 14, ' Howbeit, because by this deed thou hast given occasion to the enemies of God to blaspheme.' And destroy our peace : Ps. xxxii. 3, 4, ' When I kept silence, my bones waxed old, through my roaring all the day long ; for day and night thy hand was heavy upon me : my moisture is turned into the drought of summer.' And fearful havoc is made in the soul : Ps. li. 10-12, ' Create in me a clean heart, 0 God, and renew a right spirit within me. Cast me not away from thy presence, and take not thy Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of thy salvation, and uphold me with thy free Spirit.'

SERMON XIII.

For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil. — 1 JOHN iii. 8.

I HAVE often spoken of what Christ doth for the appeasing of God ; I shall now speak of what he doth for the vanquishing of Satan.

In the words consider — (1.) The way the Son of God took to do us good ; (2.) His end and design therein.

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50 SERMONS UPON ] JOHN III. [SER. XIII.

1. The way the Son of God took to do us good, ' He was mani fested;' thereby is meant his coming in the flesh, 1 Tim. iii. 16, together with all the acts of his mediation performed in our nature. God had foretold that the seed of the woman should bruise the serpent's head, Gen. iii. 15 ; in our nature would Christ foil and con quer Satan.

2. The end and the design ; for this cause, ' That he might destroy the works of the devil.' Wherein observe —

[1.] An act; to destroy. The word signifieth also to dissolve or untie, to loosen a chain or untie a knot, and so implieth that sins are so many chains, cords, and snares, wherein we are bound. We are en snared and entangled in a course of sin till Christ untied the knot : Hosea iv. 17, ' Ephraim is joined to idols/ So joined that he cannot be divided from them ; concorporate with his idols. And we are bound over to punishment : Lain. i. 14, ' The yoke of transgressions is bound by his hands, they are wreathed and come upon my neck ; ' and the wicked are said to be holden with the cords of his sins, Prov. v. 22.

[2.] The object, ' The works of the devil,' whereby is meant sin. The former part of the verse cleareth that, ' He that committeth sin is of the devil ; ' and sins are called his lusts, John viii. 44. The devil is the author of sin, and suggests sin, and hath a power over us by reason of sin. Sin is his work; he doth not only sin himself, but in stigate others to sin.

Doct. The design of Christ's coming into the world was to unravel the devil's work, or to destroy the kingdom of sin and Satan.

I observe here —

1. Two opposite powers and agents — the devil and the Son of God. The devil sought the misery and destruction of mankind, but Christ sought our salvation. Satan is the great disturber of the creation, and Christ is the repairer of it. This malicious cruel spirit ruined mankind at first, and therefore he is called a liar and a murderer from the beginning, John viii. 44 ; and Christ, as early promised and prefigured, is said to be ' the Lamb slain from the founda tion of the world,' Rev. xiii. 8. We were at first ruined by hearkening to his counsels and suggestions, as we are now saved by faith in Christ. By his lies he deceived our first parents, and induced them to sin, and so we are made liable to death ; and so by Christ's truth we are led into the way of salvation. All persons were corrupted and out of frame by the fall of man, through the suggestion of Satan, and are set in joint again by Jesus Christ. The devil is still ' a roaring lion, going about seeking whom he may devour,' 1 Peter v. 8 ; and Christ is the lion of the tribe of Judah, in whom is our safety and preservation, Rev. v. 5. The devil is wholly employed to oppose the work of man's salvation and to bring us into sin and misery, and Christ is employed to preserve the elect, and keep them in his own hand. The devil is an accuser of the brethren, Rev. xii. 10, and Christ is an advocate: 1 John ii. 1, ' We have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.' In short, we must set the one against the other, the captain of our salvation against the author of our destruction.

2. Let us consider the advantage that we have by the one above the

YER. 8.] SERMONS UPON i JOHN nr. 51

other, and you will find that Christ is much more able to save than Satan to destroy.

[1.] The devil is a creature, but Christ the sovereign Lord, who hath power over him and all creatures. The devil's tempting is by leave. He was fain to beg leave to tempt Job, chap. i. 12 ; to winnow Peter, Luke xxii. 31, 'Satan hath desired to winnow and sift you as wheat.' Nay, he could not enter into the herd of swine without a new patent or pass from Christ, Mat. viii. 31. This cruel spirit is held in the chains of an irresistible providence. When we are in Satan's hands, it is a great satisfaction to remember that Satan is in God's hands.

[2.] The devil is a rebel and a usurper for the most part, but Christ is our appointed remedy : John iii. 16, ' He gave his only-begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on him should not perish, but have ever- las.ting life ; ' Bom. iii. 25, ' Whom God hath set forth to be a pro pitiation, through faith in his blood.'

[3.] The devil hath no power upon the heart, cannot work any change upon the will, or create new principles and habits which before were not, as God doth, Jer. xxxi. 33. God can put his law into our inward parts, and write it on our hearts. He can only propound alluring baits and objects to the outward senses or inward fancy, but God worketh immediately upon the heart ; therefore by the power of Christ the godly may overcome the wicked one. The Lord puts an enmity in our hearts against Satan and his ways and counsels : Gen. iii. 15, ' And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and be tween thy seed and her seed.' It is put by way of efficacy on the one side, and allowed on the other by Way of permissive intention. God maketh use of our will and affections in this opposition. Enmity is the voluntary and strong motion of the mind of man against that which he hateth.

[4.] The devil only maketh use of the root of sin which is in us by nature, and prevaileth by his assiduous diligence, multiplying tempta tions without intermission. But yet we have more for us than against us, if we consider that Christ hath power enough to deal with Satan ; he is overmatched and overmastered by Christ, the stronger than he, Luke xi. 22. Merit enough to counterbalance the evil of nature. There is much more in the grace of the Eedeemer : Kom. v. 17, ' For if by one man's offence death reigned by one, much more they which receive abundance of grace, and of the gift of righteousness, shall reign in life by one, Christ Jesus.' Then for his assiduity, Christ hath love enough to attend and mind the affairs of his people. It is true Satan is always blowing the bellows, inflaming our corruptions, suggesting wicked temptations ; but doth not Christ still make intercession for us ? Is not his Spirit as watchful in our hearts to maintain his interest there? So that if we believe that Christ hath power enough, merit enough, love enough, surely the case is clear ; the Son of God will have the better in all in whom he is pleased to work.

3. That all mankind by nature lieth in wickedness, and sin and Satan worketh in them at his pleasure, and therefore Satan is called the prince and god of this world : Eph. vi. 12, ' Kulers of the darkness of this world.' He is the prince and ruler of those that live in sin, darkness, ignorance of God, and superstition, and exerciseth a tyranny

52 SERMONS UPON 1 JOHN III. [SER XIII.

over them. So lie is called the god of this world, 2 Cor. iv. 4, because of his great prevalency here : ' The prince of the power of the air, that worketh in the children of disobedience,' Eph. ii. 2. All men in their nnrenewed estate are very slaves to Satan, to his motions and sugges tions, whom they resemble in their sin and wickedness, he taking them captive at his will and pleasure, 2 Tim. ii. 26. They are at war with God, from the covenant of whose friendship they are fallen, but at peace with Satan.

4. Satan hath a twofold power over the fallen creature — legal and usurped.

[I.] He hath a power over them by a kind of legal right, a power flowing from the sentence of condemnation pronounced by the law against sinners ; therefore it is said he had the power of death : Heb. ii. 14, ' That he might destroy him who had the power of death, that is, the devil.' The devil by his temptations having drawn men to sin, and so made them liable to death, they fall into his hands and come into his power, so that he hath a dominion over them, reigneth in them, blindeth them, perverteth them, stingeth them to death, and so by sin more and more they are made obnoxious to the curse and vengeance of God's broken law. As the jailor and executioner hath the power of the gallows, so hath the devil the power of death. The devil hath no right, as a lord, to judge and condemn us, but as an executioner of God's curse ; so God may put the poor captive sinner into his hand, which is one reason why we should the more earnestly beg the pardon of sins, and be thankful for the mercy of a Kedeemer. Now this power being by the appointment of God, it must some way or other be evacuated and disannulled : Isa. xlix. 24, 'Shall the prey be taken from the mighty, and the lawful captive delivered ? ' Sinners are Satan's lawful prize, but Christ came and turned the devil out of office : ' By death he hath destroyed him that had the power of death.' He made Satan's office idle and useless ; when God was reconciled, his power was at an end. Therefore upon his blotting out the handwriting of ordinances, which was against us, we presently hear of the disan nulling of Satan's power, Col. i. 14, 15. When the judge and the law are satisfied, the jailor and executioner hath no more to do.

[2.] He hath a power by tyrannical usurpation, in regard of which he is called the prince of this world : John xii. 31, 'Now is the prince of this world condemned.' God made him an executioner, and we made him a prince and a god, obeying his sinful motions and counsels, and being led by him up and down, and driven on furiously in a way of sin. So Christ, as true king and head, both of men and angels, putteth down Satan as a usurper, and breaketh the yoke of his oppression, rescueth the elect by strong hand : Col. i. 13, ' Who hath delivered us from the power of Satan, and translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son.' Satan had housed and possessed souls as his lawful goods : Luke xi. 21, ' When a strong man armed keepeth his palace, his goods are in peace ; ' Mat. xii. 29, ' How can one enter into a strong man's house, and spoil his goods, except he first bind the strong man, and then he will spoil his house ? ' Not part with the possession of one •soul till he be mastered ; therefore the usurper and disturber of man kind is destroyed.

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5. Tliere is a twofold work of the devil — one without us, and the other within us.

[1.] The work of the devil without us is a false religion, or those idolatrous and superstitious rites by which the world hath been deceived, and by which Satan's kingdom hath been upheld. Now Satan's king dom is cast down by the doctrine of the gospel, accompanied by Christ's powerful Spirit : Luke x. 18, ' I beheld Satan fall from heaven like lightning.' When the gospel was first preached, the devil was de throned, and fell from his great unlimited power in the world ; as lightning flasheth and vanisheth, and cometh to nothing, and never re collects itself again : John xii. 31, ' Now shall the prince of this world be cast out.' The apostles went abroad to bait the devil, and hunt him out of his territories, and they did it with great effect. And there fore it is made one argument by which the Spirit doth convince us of the truth of the gospel: John xvi. 11, 'He shall convince the world of judgment, because the prince of this world is judged.' The casting out of Satan from the bodies of those who were possessed by him, the silencing his oracles, the suppressing his superstitions, and destroy ing the kingdom of wickedness and darkness, was an apparent evidence of the truth of the gospel, as was striking blind Ely mas, a famous sor cerer, Acts xiii. So the punishment of his servants and votaries, dis solving the force of his enchantments : ' They that used curious arts burnt their books/ Acts xix. 15. The devil's kingdom went to wreck in all the parts of it ; the old religion everywhere was overturned, no more the same rites, the same temples, the same gods that they and their predecessors had so long worshipped ; and God, as worship ped in Christ, cometh up in the room. Though the world were captivated, under Satan, rooted in former superstitions, yet Christ pre vailed, and got ground by the rod of his strength, even the word of his kingdom. Before that, Satan everywhere had his temples wherein he was worshipped, his oracles resorted to with great reverence, till the Hebrew child silenced him. He ate of the fat of their sacrifices, and drank the wine of their drink-offerings, yea, often the blood of their sons and daughters, whom they sacrificed to him. Yet all his strongholds were now demolished, the idols broken whom they and their fathers had worshipped and prayed unto in their distresses and adversities, and blessed in their prosperities. Now all of a sudden are these tem ples thrown down, these images broken, these altars polluted and set at nought, and the people turned from these vanities unto the living God ; and still he is undeceiving the world ; he came to dissolve the works of the devil, and in every age something is done in that kind. The unwary and corrupt world doth put Christ upon acting mainly the demolishing and destructive part hitherto. When gentile worship was put down, then antichristianity got up in a mystery, and fortifieth. itself by the numerous combined interests of the carnal : ' But the wea pons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty, through God, to pull down strongholds/ 2 Cor. x. 4. But in time, by the power of the word and the course of God's providence, and the patience of his servants and the efficacy of his Spirit, this whole mystery of iniquity will be finished and come to nothing.

[2.] There is the work of the devil within us ; this is destroyed also.,

54 SERMONS UPON 1 JOHN III. [SEU. XIII.

But here again we must distinguish between the purchase and the ap plication.

(1.) The purchase was made when Christ died ; for, Heb. ii. 14, ' By death he destroyed him that had the power of death ; ' and Col. ii. 15, ' He spoiled principalities and powers, and triumphed over them on his cross.' Christ's death is Satan's overthrow ; then was the deadly blow given to his power and kingdom. When the Jews and Roman soldiers were spoiling him and parting his garments, then was he spoiling princi palities and powers ; in that very hour, which was the power of dark ness, was Christ making a show of Satan openly, and leading captivity captive. When they were insulting over the Son of God, then was he triumphing over all the devils in hell, and overcame them by suffering himself visibly to be overcome by them. Well, then, here is the ground of our faith, the death of Christ, which we remember in the sacrament ; this was the price given for our ransom, and the means of disannulling all the power which Satan had in us before.

(2.) The application is begun in our conversion, and afterwards carried on by degrees. All those who are converted and receive the gospel are said to be turned from Satan to God, Acts xxvi. 18. Then are they, from the children of the devil, made the children of God, and adopted into his family, and delivered from the dominion of sin into the glorious liberties that belong to God's children. And therefore those to whom God giveth repentance are said, 2 Tim. ii. 26, to be recovered out of the snare of the devil, by whom they were taken captive formerly at his will and pleasure. Before they were his slaves and drudges, drove on furiously, were at the beck of every lust ; but then they recover themselves, as made free by Christ.

6. There is in sin, which is the work of the devil, three things — (1.) The guilt of it ; (2.) The power of it ; (3.) The being of it. All these Christ came to dissolve, but by several means and at several times.

[1.] The guilt of it ; that is done away by justification. Guilt is an obligation to punishment. Now this is one effect of Satan's malice, to involve us in the same ruin and condemnation into which he hath plunged himself ; he is held in chains of darkness, 2 Peter ii. 4 ; by which is meant, not only the powerful restraints of providence, but the horror of his own despairing fears. If the restraints of providence had only been intended, it had been enough to have said they are held in chains ; but these are chains of darkness, and therefore it implieth not only God's irresistible power restraining them, but bis terrible justice tormenting them ; so that, go where they will, they cany their own hell about with them, in the constant feeling of the wrath of the Almighty, and the dreadful expectation of more wrath. This is the case of the devils ; and do not they seek to bring us into the same condition ? Yes, certainly they do; what mean else Satan's 'fiery darts?' Eph. vi. 16, by which is meant, not only raging lusts, but tormenting fears. And certainly, as the devil hath the power of death, so he keepeth men under the fear of it and the consequents of it all their days, Heb. ii. 14, 15. He bringeth his slaves and poor deluded souls into sin, that he may bring them into terror, and oppress them by their own guilty fear^. He maketh use of conscience to stir them up, but he joineth with them

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horrors of conscience, and increaseth their violence. The devil is first a tempter, that he may be afterwards an accuser and a tormentor. He is called our ' adversary/ 1 Peter v. 8. The word signifieth an adversary or enemy at law. He pleadeth law and equity of his side, and by law would carry the cause against all that come of Adam, for they are all law-breakers ; and if Christ had not freed us from the curse of the law, what would you answer ? Again, when he is termed an accuser, Rev. xii., it doth not signify a whisperer or slanderer out of malice, but a pleader as an attorney or accuser by law. There is none upon earth but yieldeth matter enough to fill up his accusations ; he needeth not come with slanders. Now wicked men, who are his slaves, are either stupified or terrified by him, or both. If they be stupified, they are more terrified afterwards ; at best they are always at the beck and mercy of a cruel master, who can soon revive their hidden fears ; and if they be not under actual horrors, they dare not be serious, nor call themselves to an account, nor entertain any sober thoughts of death, and judgment, and wrath to come. Yea, Satan hath a great hand in the troubles of conscience which befall God's children ; they have many a sad hour of darkness when God lets loose the tempter upon them, and many heavy damps of spirit doth the accuser bring upon them now. Well, then, this is a part of the works of the devil, those fears of death and damnation which dog sin at the heels. These Christ came to dissolve, and by death to deliver us from the fear of death : ' He was made sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him/ 2 Cor. v. 21. A believer may triumph over his accuser, and draw water out of the wells of salvation with joy : Rom. viii. 33, 34, ' Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect ? it is God that justifieth ; who is he that condemneth ? it is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, and maketh interces sion for us/ By his death he hath satisfied God's justice, and at hia resurrection he had his discharge. By his intercession he pleadeth it in court. Who shall condemn ? Our advocate is more powerful in court than our accuser ; he doth not only sue out our pardon by entreaty, but by merit : Dan. ix. 24, ' He shall make an end of sins, and make reconciliation for iniquity, and bring in an everlasting righteousness/ This is to destroy the works of the devil indeed. He shall stay the im putation of sin, working the reconciliation of sinful man to God, estab lishing an unchangeable rule of our justification by the Lord our right eousness. Surely all accusation is fruitless when we have such an advocate as he is. We are sinners ; but if he will spread the skirt of his righteousness over us, ' and appear before God for us ' Heb. ix. 24, why should we fear ?

[2.] The dominion and power of sin. The devil keepeth peaceable possession in the soul as long as sin reigneth : Eph. ii. 2, ' He worketh in the children of disobedience/ Their hearts are his shop and work house, where he formeth weapons and instruments of rebellion against God, The devil, who hath lost his seat in heaven, hath built himself a throne in the heart of every wicked man, and lords it over them as over his slaves ; and if they had eyes to see, this is a heavier bondage than if they were laden with irons, and cast into the deepest dungeon that ever was digged. Convinced men are sensible of it, but they know

56 SERMONS UPON 1 JOHN III. [SEK. XIII.

not how to help themselves. Converted men are in part freed ; the dominion of sin is broken in them, though its life be prolonged for a season. But because it is a nice case how to distinguish between the remaining of sin and the reigning of it, and the life from the dominion, and every degree of this hated enemy is a burden, therefore they pray earnestly, Ps. cxix. 133, ' Order my steps in thy word, and let no ini quity have dominion over me.' Watch and strive : Rom. vi. 12, ' Let not sin reign therefore in your mortal bodies, that ye should obey the lusts thereof.' Comfort themselves with their justification, in the im perfection of their sanctification : Rom. vi. 14, ' For sin shall not have dominion over us ; for ye are not under the law, but under grace.' But the great encouragement of all is Christ's undertaking ; ' He came to destroy the works of the devil.' And surely his end will not be frus trated : Rom. vi. 11, ' Likewise reckon ye yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God.' Therefore you may see it a-dying, and Christ destroyeth the power of sin by degrees, putting an enmity in your hearts against it : Gen. iii. 15, ' I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed.' Sin dieth as our love dieth to it ; they grow every day more free from it, as heretofore from righteousness. The devil seeks to increase sin, but Christ to destroy it. Wjien he hath once rescued the prey out of Satan's hands, he will maintain his interest against all the powers of darkness : Eph. vi. 10, 11, ' Be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might ; for we fight not against flesh and blood.' The war is not only against visible enemies, nor against internal passions and lusts, but against spiritual wickednesses. Yet the divine grace is sufficient; we have God's Spirit against the evil spirit : 1 John iv. 4, ' Greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world.'

[3.] The being of sin shall at length be destroyed; for the final victory is sure and near, for Christ will perfect the conquest which he hath begun : Rom. xvi. 20, ' The God of peace shall tread Satan under our feet shortly.' At death sin is totally disannulled, and then sin shall gasp its last, and the physician of souls will then perfect the cure. The Papists say, as Bellarmine, that either we must be perfect before death, or in purgatory after death. I answer — As we are sinners in the first moment of our birth, so after death no more sinners ; no, not in the last moment of expiration. Christ taketh time to finish his work. No sinner doth enter into the state of bliss. Death doth remove us from this sinful flesh, and admits the soul into the sight of God, which is in that instant perfected ; as remove the veil, and light break- eth in all of a sudden.

Object. 1. How doth Christ destroy the works of the devil, since the kingdom of sin and Satan yet remaineth in so great a part of the world ?

Object. 2. How doth Christ destroy the works of the devil, since many of Christ's own people are sorely assaulted, shaken, and many times foiled by the devil ?

(1.) For the general case. In time Christ doth destroy them, all the opposite reigns or kingdoms, the kingdom of sin, Satan, and death. Christians have no enemy to their happiness but such as shall be con quered by Christ ; sooner or later he will overcome them all. Yet, for

YER. 8.] SERMONS UPON i JOHN TIL 57

the present, this destruction is not so universal but that sin and Satan, do still continue. There is not a total destruction of these things, but an absolute subjection to the mediatorial kingdom; they are so far destroyed as they cannot hinder the salvation of the elect ; they are destroyed so far that they shall not hinder the demonstration of his mercy to them ; but as they are subservient to the demonstration of his justice, error is so far continued. In reprobate and damned souls, the spot of sin remaineth in its perfect dye, the dominion of sin con- tinueth in its absolute power. Guilt is an obligation to eternal pain ; but all this in a subjection to his throne. Some continue slaves to Satan, and evermore remain so, and we are not altogether gotten free from Satan's power. God hath a ministry for the devil in the world. Absolute subjection to Christ is at the day of judgment ; the infernal spirits shall then bow the knee to Christ, as things in heaven and on earth, and things under the earth : Phil. ii. 10, compared with Rom. xiv. 10, 11, and Isa. xlv. 23, ' Unto me every knee shall bow, and every tongue shall swear.' The saints shall then judge angels, 2 Cor. vi. 2. God hath a ministry for Satan to punish careless souls, to hinder the word, inject ill thoughts, lay snares, raise persecution, sow tares, accuse and trouble the faithful, vex their bodies as he did Job ; so Paul had a messenger of Satan, some racking pain in his body, the stone or gout, or the like.

(2.) As to the second case, I answer — To try and exercise the godty, Job i. 12. The godly are sometimes foiled, and yield to his tempta tions, yet not taken captive by him at his will and pleasure. He may prevail in some cases on them, as he did on David : 1 Chron. xxi. 1, ' And Satan stood up against Israel, and provoked David to number the people.' All watchfulness should be used : 1 Cor. vii. 5, ' That Satan tempt you not for your incontinency ; ' 2 Cor. xi. 2, 3, ' For I am jealous over you with a godly jealousy ; for I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you a chaste virgin to Christ. But

1 fear lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his sub- tilty.' They may be drawn, in some rare case, to some particular sin :

2 Sam. xi. 4, ' And David sent messengers, and took her, and came in unto her, and lay with her;' whereby God may be dishonoured : 2 Sam. xii. 14, ' By this deed thou hast given occasion to the enemies of God to blaspheme;' or to mar their own peace: Ps. xxxii. 3, 4, ' When I kept silence, my bones waxed old, through my roaring all the day long ; for day and night thy hand was heavy upon me : my moisture is turned into the drought of summer.' He may assault them for their exercise, yet riot touch them with a deadly wound : 1 John v. 18, ' He that is begotten of God keepeth himself, and the wicked one toucheth him not;' so as to overcome and destroy their salvation: 1 Cor. x. 13, 'Who will not sufFeji* you to be tempted above that you are able, but will with the temptation make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.' This opposition is an evidence when we feel it, or groan under it, otherwise they would be at peace : Luke xi. 21, ' When the strong man keeps the house, his goods are in peace ; ' as when wind and tide go together, there is calm. When they feel it : Rom. vii. 9, 'When the commandment came, sin revived, and I died ; ' and groan under it : ver. 24, '0 wretched man that I am ! who shall deliver me

58 SEIIMONS UPON 1 JOHN III. [SEE. XIII.

from the body of this death ? ' Rev. xii. 12, ' For the devil is come down unto you, having great wrath, because he knows he hath but a short time.' Dying beasts bite shrewdly.

Use 1. Let us not cherish sin. It doth not become Christians to cherish what Christ came to disannul, to build again what he came to destroy, to tie those cords and knots the faster which he came to unloose. As much as in you lieth, you seek to dissolve the work of Christ, and put your Redeemer to shame.

2. Our condemnation is just and clear if we do not cast out sin, having so much help. Will you by your voluntary consent give Satan an advantage ?

3. It is our comfort to feel the effects of Christ's dominion, in sub duing the work of Satan within us, when the Lord Jesus taketh the throne in our hearts, and doth deliver us from the slavery of corrup tion : John viii. 32, ' And the truth shall make you free.'

Use 2. If you find anything of the works of the devil in you, run to Christ, though your souls are entangled.

1. Make your moan to him : Rom. vii. 24, ' 0 wretched man that I am ! who shall deliver me from the body of this death ? ' Wherefore is Christ a Saviour but for sinners ; wherefore a Redeemer but for captives ? Will Christ be a Saviour, and save none ; a Redeemer, and redeem none ?

2. Let us depend upon the fulness of his merit. The reason why the converted find so little effect of Christ's purchase is because they make so little use of their interest in him. Let us conquer during the conflict by faith. We have burdensome corruptions that exercise us, grieve the Spirit, wrong Christ, but they shall be overcome at last. We have heard, and read, and prayed, yet still they remain ; but Christ's undertaking cannot be frustrated: our pride and passion shall not always last.

3. Let us give up ourselves to be ruled by him, willing to be the Lord's servants : Mat. xi. 29, ' Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me, for I am meek and lowly in heart ; and you shall find rest to your souls.'

.4. Let the beginning of the work assure you of the perfection of it ; he that hath begun to pardon our sins will at length pronounce our full absolution.

5. Let us apply all this to the sacrament ; here we renew our vow, not to cherish sin, lest we cross our Redeemer's undertaking