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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 Church r
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 self L judging 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, 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-
VER. 5.] SERMONS UPON i JOHN in. 19
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
28 SERMONS UPON 1 JOHN III. [&ER. X.
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
j r e 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, l ls 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/
VOL. xxr. c
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, ' 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
VER. 8.] SERMONS UPON i JOHN nr. 47
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, 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.
VOL. XXI. D
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.
VER. 8.] SERMONS UPON i JOHN in. 53
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
SERMONS UPON 1 JOHN III. 55
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, ' 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 ; here we
express our confidence of the fruits of his death, according to the word.
We thankfully commemorate his grace., by which Satan is and will be
more and more vanquished : we see him falling. We admire Christ's
condescension, that he will give us to eat of his own meat, and drink
of his own cup, 2 Sam. xii. 3. We look upon this table as spread for
us in the sight of our enemies : Ps. xxiii. 5, ' Thou preparest a table
for me in the presence of mine enemies ; ' maugre their malice. We
are well provided for in Christ, though they grieve to see the riches of
his bounty to us and care for us. A royal feast and banquet it is,
which our enemies may snarl at, but cannot impeach and hinder ; and
we take it as a pledge of our everlasting triumph, which we are shortly
entering upon.
VER. 9.] SERMONS UPON i JOHN in. 59
SERMON XIV.
Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin, for his seed remainelh
in him ; and he cannot sin, because he is born of God. — 1 JOHN
iii. 9.
THIS verse is a perfect antithesis, or standeth in direct opposition to
the former. There he reasoneth against a sinful life, because the com
mitting of sin argueth conformity to the devil, who is the great architect
of all wickedness, and sinners are of his confederacy and party. Now
he reasoneth, on the contrary part, that non-committing of sin argueth
conformity with God : ' He that committeth sin is of the devil, for the
devil sinneth from the beginning ; ' that was his argument there ; but
here he argueth from the principle of all grace and goodness, ' Whoso
ever is born of God doth not commit sin,' &c.
In the words there is an assertion, with its reasons annexed —
1. The assertion attributeth two things to the regenerate person —
(1.) That he doth not sin ; (2.) That he cannot sin.
2. The reasons are annexed to both — (1.) Because, his seed remaineth
in him ; (2.) Because he is born of God.
The words need a clear discussion, that they may not be abused by
erroneous persons on the one side, to establish the impeccability and
perfection of the saints ; on the other side, by persons of a weak and
tender conscience, who are apt to conclude against their own regenera
tion because of their daily failings ; nor by a third party, who, because
of these infirmities, and on the presumption of grace received, are apt
to intermit their care and diligence, as if the new nature would preserve
them, and bear them out against all possibility of declining from God
and the ways of holiness.
Therefore I shall — (1.) Acquaint you with, or lay down, some pre
liminary considerations ; (2.) Acquaint you with the different thoughts
of sundry interpreters ; (3.) Assert the true sense of the words ; (4.)
Vindicate them from abuses.
First, The preliminary propositions.
1. That there is not a man upon earth that sinneth not, believers
and persons regenerate as well as others : Eccles. vii. 20, ' There is not
a just man upon earth, that doetli good, and sinneth not ; ' and James
iii. 2, ' In many things we offend all/ Of us, even the holiest and
most regenerate commit many acts of sin.
2. That notwithstanding this, there is a difference between the carnal
and the regenerate : ver. 10, ' In this the children of God are manifest,
and the children of the devil.' Otherwise the godly and ungodly
would be confounded, and there would be no difference between the
wicked and the sincere. Certain there is a people that do not sin as
others, and, in a good and commodious sense, cannot sin : Deut. xxxii.
9, ' Their spot is not the spot of his children.'
Secondly, I shall show the different thoughts of men about this place.
Ambrose interpreteth it of the state of glory, where there is no more
sin ; but it agreeth not witli this place ; for the apostle speaketh of the
state of the regenerate in this life, and would lay down a sign by which
the children of God may be distinguished from the children of the
GO SERMONS UPON 1 JOHN III. [SfiR. XIV.
devil, ver. 10. It is true our perfect state in heaven is spoken of, ver.
2 ; but the apostle is off from that argument, and inferreth thence our
holiness : ver. 3, ' He that hath this hope in him purifieth himself as
Christ is pure.' Others, as Austin in his book of nature and grace,
chap, xiv., supposeth the apostle speaketh dejure, what should be of
right, and not de facto; notwhat % is, but what should be, viz., that he
that is born of God should not sin. But this will not suit with the
apostle's scope, which is to lay down a mark of difference, and the
unregenerate are under an obligation not to sin. Neither will it consist
with the reason here alleged, ' His seed remaiueth in him.' If the jus
were considered, this argument would do better, because sin is forbidden
by the law, from whence right and wrong is determined ; but the
apostle argueth from the remaining principle of grace, which is proper
to the regenerate. Some understand it, as Bernard, of God's non-impu
tation of sin ; he sinneth, but it is not reckoned for sin. But though
this would agree with the former part, ' committeth not sin,' yet it
would not with the latter, ' cannot sin ; ' for God may impute sin,
though he will not. And it establisheth evil doctrine ; for the evil
acts of the regenerate are sins in God's account, and damnable in them
selves, merito operis, and so should be reckoned by us. Others say
that it is very absurd, very unbecoming ; so ' cannot ' is taken for a moral
cannot, not a natural cannot, which noteth a monstrous incongruity,
not an utter impossibility : Gen. xxxix. 9, ' How can I do this great
wickedness, and sin against God ? ' So Acts i. 20, ' We cannot but
speak the things which we have heard and seen.' The heart, as thus
constituted, cannot be brought to it : 1 Cor. x. 21, 'We cannot drink
of the cup of the Lord and the cup of devils ; we cannot be partakers
of the Lord's table and the table of devils.' That it is very absurd
and unbecoming : Gen. xxix. 8, ' We cannot roll away the stone till all
the flocks be gathered together.' It is not the law and custom and
fashion among us.
Thirdly, To state the true sense of these words — (1.) I must open
the assertion ; (2.) Give the reasons; (3.) Show the cogency of them.
1. The assertion.
[1.] ' He doth not commit sin.' It is not to be understood, com
mitteth no act of sin at all, but he walketh not ordinarily and custom
arily in any course of known sin ; he doth not sin as wicked men or as
the unregenerate are wont to sin. So Job appealeth to God, chap. x.
7, ' Thou knowest that I am not wicked.' He durst not avouch it to
God that he was not a sinner, but that he was not a wicked sinner :
Ps. xviii. 21, ' I have kept the ways of the Lord, and have not wickedly
departed from my God,' saith David ; and we read of ungodly deeds un-
godlily committed, Jude 15. Where lieth the difference ? The habitual
inclination is to please God, yea, that is the drift, scope, and business
of their lives ; and therefore they do not cherish any evil habit and
disposition of soul, nor easily fall into acts of wilful sin.
(1.) Certainly he doth not fall into any course of inordinate living
in the world. There is a way of sinning which the scripture speaketh
of, when men walk after the flesh, or after their own lusts : Rom. viii.
1, ' Who walk not after the flesh ; ' 2 Peter iii. 3, ' Walking after their
own lusts ; ' and ' living after the flesh/ Rom. viii. 13.
VER. 9.] SERMONS UPON i JOHN in. Gl
(2). As to particular sinful acts there is a difference ; there are three
sorts of sins —
(l-s£) Some that are bare simple infirmities, which a man cannot
avoid, though he would; as the first motions and risings of corruption,
imperfections of duty, want of some degrees of love, reverence, and
delight in God when we are employed in his immediate service, vain
thoughts. These are sins ; though not to be avoided by the ordinary
aids of grace vouchsafed to God's people, yet they are forbidden in the
law of God. God's law is not imperfect, though our natures be so.
These came in by the fall. Adam in innocency knew no such things ;
therefore they are to be bewailed by us ; but these are pardoned on a
general repentance, as we address ourselves to God every day, and re
new the exercise of faith and repentance : John xiii. 10, ' He that is
washed needeth not save to wash his feet, but is clean every whit ; and
ye are clean, but not all.' They do not change our state, nor vacate
our right to the promises.
(2dly.) There are comparative sins of infirmity, which are infirmities
of a middle sort ; not bare weaknesses and frailties incident to our
imperfect state, but such as we might forbear if we kept a strict watch
over our own hearts, and improved the grace and strength offered and
received ; as vain, idle, passionate speeches, censurings, whisperings,
discontent, rash anger, and the like. Now a child of God, through
suddenness and unadvisedness, may break out into some lesser escapes
in this kind, but to allow ourselves in them would not stand with
sincerity. It is treason to coin a penny as well as a pound-piece ; there
fore these comparative infirmities should be prevented by our utmost
diligence, though they do not amount to gross enormities (such as
drunkenness, gluttony, adultery, hatred of the brethren, false-witness-
ings). Though a Christian cannot wholly subdue them, yet we must
not suffer these to be unresisted and unrepented of, and in some measure
we must overcome them. Anger will stir when we are provoked, but
by the ordinary assistance of God's grace we should keep it from run
ning out into furious words and actions, or cursing and swearing or
reviling. An envious thought may arise against our brother because
he is preferred before us ; but we should hate it, and labour to keep it
under, chide ourselves for it; do not let our envy break out into malig
nant detraction from their worth, blemishing their gifts and graces.
A child of God will feel the ticklings of pride, but he will not suffer
it to break out into boasting language. So for distrust and discontent ;
it is some conquest to dash Babylon's brats against the stones. We read
of Achan, Joshua vii. 21, ' That he saw among the spoils a goodly Baby
lonish garment, and two hundred shekels of silver, and a wedge of gold
of fifty shekels; then he coveted them, and then he took them.' A child of
God doth ordinarily stop at the first and second pass. There may be an
inordinate desire of what we see ; our senses may betray our souls ;
but though they covet, they do not steal ; they are not drawn to lying,
or deceit, or unjust dealing to get it. Some motions of revenge they may
have, but they do not break out into mischievous and vindictive acts.
So for sensuality ; there may be inordinate motions, and fleshly desires,
or urging inclinations ; but they are checked, and stopped from break
ing out into drunkenness, gluttony, uncleannesf, lasciviousness, in
62 SERMONS UPON 1 JOHN III. [SER. XIV.
speeches or actions, or making provision for the flesh to fulfil the
lusts thereof. In short, there may be sluggishness; we maybe affected
with the ease of the flesh, but we will not suffer it to withdraw us from
God, or grossly to neglect the duties of our general and particular
calling.
(3<$y.) There are great enormities, or gross and scandalous sins ; now
in this a Christian doth not ordinarily sin. In some rare case, by the
suddenness or violence of some great temptation, they may be over
taken or overborne, but they therein act quite contrary to their habitual
resolutions and ordinary practice; and when they commit them, they
do not lie dead in sin, though shrewdly bruised, diseased, and dis
tempered: these do not commit them with an habitual hatred and
contempt of God, though they proceed from a less love. They have
an habitual love and fear of God ; as Peter, that denied Christ out of
fear, yet telleth him, ' Lord, thou knowest I love thee,' John xxi. 18.
But this love is obstructed for the time, and by this violent shock
grace is so hindered that it cannot obtain its effect ; they do not con
sider what unkindness it is to commit such sins. So their faith, though
it faileth not, as it did in Peter, is obstructed, so that they cannot for the
present counterbalance the pleasures of sin with the danger of it ; or
if they do consider these things, it is but coldly and carelessly. In
short, they may fail in the degree of affection to God, but they do not
change God for sin ; there are dislikes and checks which arise from
the new nature, yet they are not strong enough for the present to defeat
the temptation, and though they be for a time foiled, yet they cannot
rest or persist in sin : Jer. viii. 4, ' Shall they fall, and not arise ? ' A
fountain muddied soon worketh itself clean again ; the needle in the
compass may be jogged and discomposed, but it turneth to the pole
again. There is a sudden recovery ; as a candle sucketh light as soon
as it is blown out more easily than a dead wick. Their hearts may
smite them, as David's did for numbering the people, 2 Sam. xxiv. 10.
They bewail their sins: Mat. xxvi. 75, 'Peter went out. and wept
bitterly.' They run to their advocate : 1 John ii. 1, ' If any man sin,
we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous/ Sue
out their pardon : 2 Sam. xxiv. 10, ' I have sinned greatly in that I have
done ; now I beseech thee take away the iniquity of thy servant.' They
relapse not, unless it be before the wound be well closed and healed.
Thus they do not sin.
[2.] They cannot sin. In a regenerate man there is an aversion of
heart and mind from it. He doth not simply abstain from sinning, but
he cannot commit sin ; he hath a strong, potent inclination and disposi
tion, which carrieth him another way ; his soul is averse from it. A child
of God is never in a right posture till he doth look upon sin not only
as contrary to his duty, but his nature ; it is an unnatural production,
as if a sheep, instead of a lamb, should bring forth a serpent : 'A thorn
cannot bring forth grapes, nor will a thistle produce figs.' And on the
contrary, hips and haws do not grow upon vines, but every tree bring-
eth forth fruit suitable to its own nature ; so one that hath a new
nature showeth itself by eschewing of sin and by pursuing the death
of sin. It is as natural to the new nature to hate sin, as to love God :
Ps. xcvii. 10, ' Ye that love the Lord hate evil.' There is in it an
VER. 9.] SERMONS UPON i JOHN in. 63
irreconcilable hatred and enmity n gainst sin. There is a twofold hatred —
odium abcminationis et odium inimicitice, the hatred of offence, whereby
we turn away from what Ave apprehend to be repugnant and prejudi
cial to us ; so is sin repugnant and contrary to the renewed will. It
is agreeable and suitable to the unregenerate as draff to the appetite
of a swine, and grass and hay to a bullock and horse ; but to a renewed
man, as meat that we loathe and have 'an antipathy against. Now there
is in all these that are born of God this kind of hatred and antipathy
against sin ; it is an offence to them. Then there is odium inimicitice,
a hatred of enmity and hostility, which is a seeking the destruction of
what we hate ; we pursue it to the death. Thus the regenerate hate
sin ; they mortify and subdue it, and have no satisfaction in themselves
till it be destroyed : non cessat in Icesione peccati, sed in exterminio :
Rom. vii. 24, ' wretched man that I am ! who shall deliver me from
the body of this death ? ' Now the heart of a renewed man being thus
constituted, they cannot sin as others do ; they are settled in such a love
to God and hatred of sin, they cannot be at the beck and command of
every lust, as they were before. Velleius Paterculus saith of Cato
Minor, that he had gotten such a just frame and constitution of soul,
that he could not but do justly. So the renewed are so set and framed,
there is such a new life and a holy nature planted in them by God,
that they cannot sin, that is, live and lie in sin, whatever out of infir
mity they may fall into.
2. For the reasons, they are two, ' Because they are born of God ; '
and ' The seed of God remaineth in them.'
[1.] The general reason, from their change of state.
(1.) What is it to be born of God ? It is to have a new life and
nature wrought in us. To be made by God is one thing, to be born
of God is another. All things are made by God, but all things are
not said to be born of him ; that is a term proper to the new creature.
In every perfect generation, that which is born receiveth from him
that begets it life and likeness. Likeness is not enough to constitute
a birth. An exquisite limner may draw an exact picture of himself,
yet the picture is not said to be begotten or born of him, for there is
no life. And life alone is not enough ; for putrid creatures, as frogs,
toads, worms, animated and quickened by the heat of the sun, are not
said td be born of it, because there is no likeness. When a man
begets a man in his own image and likeness, then he is said to be
born. To apply it to the case in hand : When we who were dead
in trespasses and sins are framed anew to the life and likeness of God,
we are said to be born of him. Life there is : Eph. ii. 1, ' And you
who were dead in trespasses and sins hath he quickened.' Likeness,
or a nature in some sort resembling God : 2 Peter i. 4, ' Whereby are
given unto us exceeding great and precious promises, that by these
you might be partakers of the divine nature ; ' Eph. iv. 24, ' And that
ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness,
and true holiness.' Now surely such a nature inclirieth us to obey
God and love him.
(2.) How this hindereth that we do not and cannot sin.
(1st.) Because this change wrought in us by the wonderful opern-
tion of God's Spirit puts a new bent and bias upon us : John iii. G,
64 SERMONS UPON 1 JOHN III. [SfiR. XIV.
' That which is born of flesh is flesh ; and that which is born of Spirit
is spirit.' We are changed from evil to good, from obeying the flesh
to obeying the Spirit, and inclined to live and walk after the Spirit.
Therefore, this being the scope of the new nature, to live in a strict
obedience to God, the reign of sin is broken, and the acts of it will be
much prevented. Surely the dominion is taken away by the grace of
regeneration, and the acts of it cannot be as frequent as before.
(2d.) He is interested in the care and protection of God. Who
soever is born of God is in covenant with him : Bom. vi. 14, ' For sin
shall not have dominion over you ; for you are not under the law, but
under grace ; ' and adopted into his family, under his fatherly care,
and God is concerned in his preservation : 1 Peter i. 5, ' Who are kept
by the power of God, through faith, unto salvation ; ' and John x. 28,
' And I give unto them eternal life, and they shall never perish, neither
shall any pluck them out of my hand.' Christ therefore will not
desert them so far as that they should be brought back again into the
power and bondage of the wicked one, or that they should so fall into
sin as to persist in it. Therefore consider a regenerate person in him
self, and he may sin himself out of the favour of God, and all the
hopes he hath by Christ ; but as he is in the hands of God, and under
his care, his heart is so governed and inclined by him, that he cannot
totally and finally fall from the grace and life of the Spirit, nor easily
fall into heinous acts of sin, though some infirmities remain still.
[2.] The second reason, ' Because the seed of God remaineth in
him.'
(1.) What is meant by this seed of God? Some say the word:
1 Peter i. 23, ' Born again, not of corruptible seed, but incorruptible ; '
Mat. xiii. 19, 'The good seed is the word of God.' Not improper^,
because the word sown in our hearts and rooted by faith is the great
let and check to sin: Ps. cxix. 9, 'Wherewith shall a young man
cleanse his way ? by taking heed thereto according to thy word ; ' and
ver. 11, ' Thy word have I hid in my heart, that I might not sin
against thee ; ' ver. 104, ' Through thy precepts I get understanding :
therefore I hate every false way ; ' 1 John ii. 24, ' Let that therefore
abide in you, which you have heard from the beginning : if that which
ye have heard from the beginning shall remain in you, you shall con
tinue in the Son and in the Father.' Others say this seed is the
Spirit : John iii. 5, 6, ' Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee,
Except a man be born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter into
the kingdom of God. That which is born of flesh, is flesh, and that
which is born of Spirit, is spirit.' Certainly the word of God, if it be
this seed, is to be considered not in the letter, but in the Spirit ; for
the word separated from the Spirit can do nothing to the regene
rating of a sinner. The Spirit is the principal efficient, the word is
the instrument. But I think by this seed of God is understood the
effect of both, the principle of grace infused, or that vital grace
which is communicated to us in regeneration, called living in the
Spirit, Gal. v. 25.
(2.) How doth it keep us from sinning, so that he who is born of
God doth not sin, and cannot sin ?
I answer — This seed of God may be considered either as to its
VER. 9.] SERMONS UPON i JOHN IIL 65
tendency and efficacy, or permanency and predominancy ; all which
infer the thing in hand.
(1st.) Its tendency. This impression left upon the heart doth
cause it to bend and tend towards God, that we may serve, please,
glorify, and enjoy him. As it came from God, so it doth incline us
to God ; for the tendency is according to the principle, therefore called
a living to God, Gal. ii. 19. It doth continually draw back from sin,
and urgeth and inclineth to holiness ; and therefore, when a man is
about to sin, he cannot carry it on so freely, because of the rebukes
and dislikes of the new nature, there being a fixed, settled frame and
bent of heart towards God ; therefore the heart by consequence must
needs be set against sin, which is irreconcilable with the motions and
tendency of the new nature.
(2c%.) Its efficacy. The seed of God is an actuous, vigorous thing.
The word seed imports it; for the spirit of the plant is in it. If it be
not a dead seed, we see how it will work through the hard and dry
clods to produce its plant and flower ; so is this vital principle opera
tive ; it will not easily suffer us to do an act contrary to it ; and it
being a divine seed called Spirit, it is a principle of great strength
and power. The apostle calleth it the lusting of the Spirit against
the flesh, Gal. v. 17. Now if grace have any energy and life in it, it
is directly contrary and incompatible with the committing of any sin.
There is a seed and principle in him, which enlighten and enliven,
and quicken him to serve and please God, and therefore he is held
back from sin.
(3c??y.) As to its permanency, a seed that remaineth ; which may be
understood both of its own defixion and radication in the heart of
man. It is not a light touch, but a thorough change, such an impres
sion of God as becometh a habit and holy nature in us, and is the
constant principle of holy, spiritual operations ; and also in regard of
God's continuance of it, for it is one of the gifts of which the Lord
repenteth not, Horn. xi. 29. It is so planted in the heart by God that
it is not lightly inclined, but thoroughly set to holiness ; the good
and honest heart, which, having received the word, keepeth it, Luke
viii. 15 ; a heart sound in God's statutes, Ps. cxix. 80. Now where
the heart is thoroughly changed, soundly set, they do generally live
according to the operation of this seed and principle of grace, and is
so governed and inclined by it, that he doth constantly do the will of
God, and war, and watch, and strive against sin.
(4thly.) This seed is considered according to its prevalency and pre
dominancy. To its prevalency, it hath the mastery in the soul ; for
though there be a double principle in a Christian, you must not forget
the back bias of corruption, which still remaineth with us, and is
importunate to be pleased ; but yet you must carry it so that you may
plainly show it is not superior in the soul, and keep watching and
striving, that as little of it may be discerned as may be, that your con
versations be not cast into a carnal mould, and fashioned according to
the former lusts of } r our ignorance, 1 Peter i. 14, that sin may be
mortified and beaten down more and more. The apostle supposeth
the best is most powerful, so that a Christian showeth himself spirit
rather than flesh. The apostle describeth him here according to the
VOL. XXI. B
66 SERMONS UPON 1 JOHN III. [SEE. XV.
operation of the better part. The old man in them is crucified, not
wholly dead indeed, but dying, and greatly weakened.
Fourthly, I shall vindicate the words from abuse.
Men think, if they be regenerate, the seed of grace will preserve
them without any care of their own. Herein they are mistaken, and
that for two reasons —
1. Because there is an active warring principle still left in us ; our
lusts are but in part subdued, and our love to them is so soon kindled,
that if we intermit our watching and striving, the gates of the senses
are always open to let in such objects as take part with the flesh ;
therefore we must be beating down sin : 1 Cor. ix. 26, 27, ' I therefore
so run, not as uncertainly ; so fight I, not as one that beateth the air :
but I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection.' What is
said of the new nature is not to make us idle.
2. Because grace doth not work necessarily, as fire burneth, but
voluntarily ; it must be excited and stirred up, both by the Spirit of
God, who giveth us to will and to do, Phil. ii. 13, and by ourselves :
2 Tim. i. 6, ' Wherefore I put thee in remembrance, that thou stir up
the gift of God which is in thee.' We must be still blowing up this
holy fire, and keep it burning, as the priests did the fire of the altar.
The bent of the new nature must be kept up with much watching,
striving, praying, and the use of all holy means, and the vigour of it
maintained.
SERMON XV.
Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin ; for his seed re-
maineth in him ; and he cannot sin, because he is bom of God. —
1 JOHN iii. 9.
USE 1. Is exhortation, to press you that you are bora of God, or pro
fess yourselves to be so, to avoid sin.
1. You should look upon sin not only as contrary to 3 r our duty, but
your nature ; for the argument here is not taken from the law of God,
but from the temper and disposition of a renewed man. The argu
ment from the law is strong and binding, for no child of God should
wittingly and willingly break his law. It is urged: 1 John iii. 4,
' Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the law ; for sin is a
transgression of the law.' Every deliberate wilful sin is an act of dis
loyalty and rebellion against God, like Absalom's treason against his
father. You should not sin because of the law ; but here the argument
is more pressing and close. ' You cannot sin,' if you be what you pro
fess to be, because God hath given you another nature. Now for you
not only to offer violence to the law, but to offer violence to your
nature, to go against the very constitution and frame of your own hearts,
as it is renewed by God, will aggravate the guilt of the action.
2. The argument is not taken from objective, but subjective grace.
VEE. 9.] SERMONS UPON i JOHN in. 67
The law forbiddeth sin, and grace offereth help and remedy against it.
What the law condemneth, grace teacheth us to avoid. Now grace is
twofold — objective in the gospel, subjective in the heart of a believer.
As, for instance, when some are said to turn the grace of God into
lasciviousness, Jude 4, is God's grace capable to be turned into lust or
sin ? It is objective, not subjective grace, which is there meant, the
doctrine of grace, not the internal grace of the Holy Spirit, which
resideth in the heart of a believer. Now objective grace yieldeth a
notable argument against sin : Titus ii. 11, 12, ' For the grace of God,
that bringeth salvation, hath appeared to all men, teaching us that,
denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly,
righteously, and godly in this present world.' How teacheth ? Not as
a man that would teach one that is ignorant ; but as a man would per
suade and quicken one that is backward. It is more by way of per
suasion than instruction, as the doctrine of grace containeth many power
ful arguments against sin ; and it is a shame that we do not improve
them to better purpose. But here the apostle reasoneth not from objec
tive, but subjective grace ; not from the doctrine propounded to us, but
the seed which remaineth in us. Now this doth not only persuade but
incline us to avoid sin, and yieldeth us help and strength against it.
3. This subjective grace is a vital principle, not a lighter disposition,
but a settled and fixed frame of heart towards God and heavenly things,
and therefore called life, and a new nature, and a divine nature. Now
if there be such a principle, such a genius, such a new nature put into
us, certainly upon the account thereof we cannot sin, as those do who
have not such a principle ; for principiata respondent suis principiis ;
the constant effects declare what is the principle, or principles are
known by their proper actions, as fire by burning, and the rational
soul by discourse and speech. So ' if we live in the Spirit, we must
walk in the Spirit,' Gal. v. 25, and if we have a new heart, we must
show it by newness of life, Rom. vi. 4. You cannot force men from
their principles ; you may put them out of the way a little, but they
return to it again. You see it plainly verified as to the principle of
corruption. Reason with men, persuade them, show them their
danger, you may rouse them up a little, yet, till God change their
hearts, they still return to their former courses : Jer. xiii. 23, ' Can
the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots ? then may ye
also do good that are accustomed to do evil.' When men are habi
tuated to evil, no means will work it out of them, or work them to any
good. Nature will return, though you seem never so much to check it,
and beat it back. Proportionably, if grace be as a new nature, you will
find it work after this sort. Therefore it is utterly inconsistent with
making sin our trade, custom, and delight. We have felt the tyranny
of sin, but when we are renewed and changed, we should also feel the
sacred power and influence of grace.
4. This vital principle containeth in it an everlasting enmity and
repugnancy to sin, as sin also doth to it : Gal. v. 17, ' The Spirit
lusteth against the flesh, and the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, for
these two are contrary ; ' so contrary as never to be reconciled, no more
than fire and water, light and darkness. Now a man that hath such
a contrary principle to sin in his own bosom cannot give way to it
68 SERMONS UPON 1 JOHN III. [SER. XV.
without great reluctancies and dislikes, and checks from the new
nature. I observe this for two reasons —
[1.] Partly to show that that doth somewhat abate the operations
of the opposite principle ; the flesh cannot carry it so freely, you cannot
do what you would in the satisfaction of your lusts, because of this
repugnancy and dislike, Gal. v. 17. Therefore, if you sin freely, you
have not the new nature in you, for where it is it will make resistance.
It is not wholly dead nor asleep ; if not strong enough wholly to defeat
the temptation, yet certainly to break the force of it, that it doth not
fall upon us with all its weight : Horn. vii. 15-17, ' For that which I
do I allow not ; for what I would, that do I not ; but what I hate,
that do I. If then I do that which I would not, I consent to the law
that it is good. Now then it is no more I that do it, but sin that
dwelleth in me.' There is a contrary principle indeed, which re-
taineth some life and vigour ; yet surely in the regenerate it is mucli
abated ; there is not such a reconcilableness to sin as there was before.
Grace serveth us for some use, giveth some strength, or else why is this
gracious gift bestowed upon us?
[2.] And partly to show that these checks and dislikes do aggravate
the sins which we commit. We make it an excuse ; I strive against
them, but do not overcome them, and so the striving is an aggravation
of the sin. Carnal men have their reluctancies, which aggravate their
sins ; as Pilate against the crucifying of Christ, but yielded to it at
length against his own conscience, for his interest's sake, to preserve
the good-will of the people and his credit in his government; he would
fain have washed his hands of it after he yielded to it. Balaam resisted
a while, but yielded at length to the ways of unrighteousness. The
conscience of most men will bear back and hold off for a time, because
it apprehendeth sin to be offensive to God and destructive to the soul,
but the pleasure and profit of sin prevaileth at length. Now if these
reluctancies of bare natural conscience may aggravate the rebellion, and
make it the greater crime for a man to venture upon that which is evil,
against the checks of his own conscience, so much more doth this reason
concern the people of God. He that will break through, not only when
there is a role or law in the way, but his natural disposition or the bent
of a gracious heart in the way, in the general, he doth not only the
sinful act, but overcometh that which hindereth the doing of it ; he
hath somewhat in his bosom to the contrary. Look, as it argued Christ's
love to lay down his life notwithstanding the innocent reluctancies of
his human nature, Mat. xxvi. 39, these words, ' Father, let this cup
pass,' did not argue his unwillingness, but willingness ; ' Nevertheless,
Father, not as I will, but as thou wilt ; ' we should not have understood
the greatness of his love nor the dreadfulness of his sufferings if the
human nature had not showed its just abhorrency against them; so it
argueth the great heinousness of sin to break through notwithstanding
these reluctancies, not only of enlightened conscience, but the renewed
heart. If unrenewed men's sins are aggravated by the dislikes of
conscience, which pleads God's right and our duty, so much more will
renewed men's sins be aggravated by the rebukes of the new nature,
which not only show our duty, or excite us to our duty, but give
us help and strength to perform it, and are so notable a check to sin.
. 9.] SERMONS UPON 1 JOHN III. 69
5. There is not only an express contrariety to sin, but a predomi
nancy above it. He that is born of God hath indeed two principles of
operations in him, but the one hath the mastery over the other, and is
superior in the soul, else he could not be said to be born of God : John
iii. 6, ' That which is born of the Spirit is spirit.' The best principle
is the most powerful ; so that a Christian showeth himself to be spirit
rather than flesh, and that Jesus hath a greater interest in him than
Adam. The apostle here describeth him according to the operations
of the better part; he doth not sin, he cannot sin; the old man in him
is crucified, not dead indeed, but dying and greatly weakened ; the
new man is superior, and governeth our hearts and actions. The heart
of a regenerate man is like a kingdom divided, but grace is in the throne,
and the flesh is the rebel, which much disturbeth and weakeneth its
sovereignty and empire, and by striving seeketh to draw the will to
itself, that it may be sovereign and chief; but in those who are born of
God, they cannot be, else there would be no distinction between nature
and grace ; for a man is denominated from what is predominant in him,
and hath chief power over his heart. If it be the flesh, he is carnal ;
if it be the Spirit, he is a new creature, or born of God. Many con
victions, and good meanings and wishes, may proceed from common
grace, and be found in those that shall never be saved, because they do
not prevail over the contrary motions and inclinations. But God's
children have not only a spirit contrary to the flesh and the world, but
prevailing over the flesh and the world : 1 Cor. ii. 12, ' Now we have
not received the spirit of the world, but the Spirit of God.' Men are
denominated from that which beareth rule in them. If sin reigneth,
or grace reigneth, that is his master to which a man yieldeth himself,
Rom. vi. 10, by which he is ordinarily led and governed, and which
disposeth of his time, and strength, and mind, and heart, and life, and
love ; so that though corruption remaineth in the faithful, yet it is a
rebel, and the government is in the hands of grace. All the acts of. sin
are disowned acts, and we may say with Paul, 'It is not I, but sin that
dwelleth in me.' They proceed from us against the bent and habit of
our wills, and settled course of life ; and therefore you see how it con-
cerneth us to carry it so that as little of the flesh may be discovered as
may be, that our conversations be not cast into a carnal mould, or
fashioned ' according to the former lusts of your ignorance,' 1 Peter
i. 14. That sin be more mortified, and not gratified. The flesh is
importunate to be pleased, but our pretences to God and regeneration
cannot be justified if we should please it, and turn head against the
better part.
6. This vital, contrary, predominant principle against sin is the fruit
of a new birth ; and if it be so, there appeareth a shoal of arguments
to draw us off from sin, and to press us to avoid sin. I will content
myself with two —
[1.] The way by which regeneration is brought about, which is- by a
deep sight and sense of sin, and the dreadful consequences of it. And
surely those that have been acquainted with the pangs of the new birtU
will not easily venture upon sin again, as the burnt child dreadeth the
fire, or those that have been bitten by playing with a snappish cur will
not easily expose their fingers to such danger. You remember what
70 SERMONS UPON 1 JOHN III. [SER. XV.
sin cost you formerly when you were first reconciled to God, what terror
of heart, what tremblings of soul, and how long it was ere you could
settle in a" holy peace and serenity of mind. Surely we should sin no
more, lest a worse thing come unto us. Will you drink again of those
bitter waters, and renew the cause of your anguish and sorrow, or taste
again of the cold cup of trembling, which filled you with such astonish
ment and fear ? A convinced sinner is filled with his own ways, Prov.
i. 31. He hath enough of sin when God sets it home upon his heart.
Then he seeth what an evil and bitter thing it is to make bold with
God, Jer. ii. 19, at what a dear rate he bought the pleasures and con
tentments of the flesh : and wilt thou again run this hazard ? The
Israelites were jealous of setting up a new altar : Josh. xxii. 17, 18,
'Is the iniquity of Peor too little for us, from which we are not
cleansed until this day (although there were a plague in the congrega
tion of the Lord), but we must turn away again from following the
Lord ? ' Alas ! we cannot forget the old scorchings of conscience, and
shall we venture once more ?
[2.] The effect of it, which is a settled constitution of heart, acted
and discovered either in a way of faith, or hope, and love, and so the
seed of God goeth under divers names : 1 Cor. xiii. 13, ' And now
abideth faith, hope, charity ; ' 1 Thes. i. 3, ' Remembering without
ceasing your work of faith, and labour of love, and patience of hope ; '
Jude 20, 21, ' But ye beloved, building up yourselves in } r our most holy
faith, keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our
Lord Jesus Christ.' Now all those graces which constitute and make
up the new creature give us powerful arguments and inducements
against sin. Therefore, if we are born of God, we are highly concerned
not to sin against him.
(1.) Faith maketh use of the whole Christian doctrine to purify the
heart, Acts xv. 9, or cleanse it from sin ; especially that of redemption
by Christ : 1 John iii. 5, 8, ' And he was manifested to take away sin.
For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy
the works of the devil.' And the eternal recompenses : when sin sets
the bait before you, faith sets heaven and hell before you; heaven to
sweeten the ways of God, and make them more easy to us, that we may
be constant in them : Rom. viii. 13, ' If ye live after the flesh, ye shall
die, but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye
shall live.' Hell to deter and frighten you from sin. When the flesh
showeth you the bait, faith showeth you the hook ; and so take all
together, the beginning and the end, you will have little stomach to sin.
When you consider how many are suffering for those sins which you
are now tempted to commit, dare you venture ? What ! upon the ever
lasting burnings, into which every one is cast, whosoever maketh a
lie, or giveth way to his lusts, and filthy excess ?
(2.) Love, which is the weight that inclineth and poiseth us to
God, and so by consequence to hate sin : Ps. xcvii. 10, ' Ye that love
the Lord hate evil.' Which is the great overruling principle which
levelleth our actions to his glory, and directeth them according to his
will : 2 Cor. v. 14, 15, ' For the love of Christ constraineth us, because
we thus judge, that if one died for all, then were all dead. And that
VER. 9.] SERMONS UPON i JOHN in. 71
he died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto
themselves, but unto him who died for them, and rose again.' Sin is
not only impertinent, but inconsistent with our great end.
(3.) Hope, which looketh and waiteth that we may see God, and
be like him : 1 John iii. 3, ' He that hath this hope in him purifieth
himself, as Christ is pure.' What! look for these things, and live
so contrary to them ? If this be the effect of the new birth, surely it
concerneth us to mortify and avoid sin.
7. This birth draweth to it God's assistance ; for whosoever is born
of God is taken into God's family and under God's protection : ' For
all things are of him, and through him, and to him ; ' as in a way of
nature, so in a way of grace, Horn. xi. 35. They have their preserva
tion from him from whom they received their being ; the new creature
is through him as well as from him ; and no dam can be so tender
of the young brood in the nest as God is of the new creature, which is
of his own production. He cherisheth that grace which he hath in
fused ; Phil. i. 6, ' Being confident of this, that he which hath begun a
good work in you will perform it until the day of Christ.' The same
power doth carry on the work of grace which did begin it in us. Paul
was confident of this very thing, of their perseverance in grace on this
account. Now herein lieth the stability of the saints, not in the
strength of their own resolutions ; for our steps are apt to slip after the
firmest engagements to God : Ps. Ixxiii. 2, ' But as for me, my feet were
almost gone, my steps had well-nigh slipped ; ' for fixedness of gracious
habits is not from themselves, for we are to ' strengthen the things that
remain, and are ready to die,' Kev. iii. 2 ; but from the power of God,
which by promise is engaged for their preservation against all opposition.
Now this doth secure God's children so far, that those who are born of
God cannot degenerate so as to fall into total impenitency ; and it does
also condemn our laziness if we do not make use of the grace offered
to keep ourselves from, sin, and do not make use of the means pro
vided, that we may be fortified against it. There is a waxing and
waning grace, and ebbings and Sowings in corruption ; but God's
covenant and paternal love admits of no abatement ; our antipathy to
sin may abate, but not Christ's compassion to the saints. He hath in
stituted, not only outward means to confirm us, but still supplieth
internal grace to nourish our faith, hope, and love, that they may be
lively and strong against sin.
8. If we sin wilfully, the seed of God that remaineth in us, though
it be not utterly extinct, yet it is sore battered and bruised, and there is
such havoc made in the soul, that it is hard to know whether we have
any grace in us, yea or no. We are as if we had none ; if there be
any, it is best seen first in our sudden recovery ; for the time we are
as if we had none. Therefore David speaketh as if the work were to
begin anew, and his recovery were a kind of second conversion : Ps. li.
10, 'Create in me a clean heart, God, and renew a right spirit within
me.' The grace of the Holy Spirit is so obstructed, and the flood-gate
of natural pollution so opened, that it is a kind of creation, or second
conversion, to restore the principle of grace to its vigour and power,
as if all were to begin again. Indeed it was not so, for he presently
added, ' Cast me not away from thy holy presence, and take not thy
72 SERMONS UPON 1 JOHN III. [SER. XV.
Spirit from me.' He had some interest in God still, somewhat of the
Spirit left which he did not lose ; though he had sadly fallen from his
wonted purity and sincerity, yet he owneth some presence of the Spirit
still, and desireth that God would not take it from him, as having never
more need of it than at this time. Secondly, If we cannot lie in sin,
but by our falls we do much more resolve and strengthen ourselves
against sin for the time to come, running to our advocate, and seriously
making our peace with God, 1 John ii. 1, and resolve to be more
watchful and cautious for the time to come : Ps. li. 6, 'In the inward
parts thou shalt make me to know wisdom ; ' and Ps. Ixxxv. 8, ' Let
them not return to folly ; ' that is, commit such foolish and incon
siderate acts again ; if it be thus with us, it argueth that the root re-
maineth, and hath life in it, though the branches be shrewdly rifled and
withered ; if they work themselves clean again, as a living spring that
purifies itself ; but where sin is made light of, and not truly repented
of when committed, there it is not so.
9. That this avoiding of sin is here brought as the most sensible,
visible note and character, to distinguish the children of God from the
children of the devil : ' He that sinneth is of the devil, for the devil
sinneth from the beginning : and he that is born of God sinneth not.
In this the children of God, and the children of the devil are manifest.'
To walk in a sinful course is plainly to entitle ourselves to the devil,
who is the eldest sinner, as being the first of the kind ; the most
constant sinner, for he sinneth from the beginning, never ceaseth, is
never weary of sin ; and the most industrious and painful sinner, for he
compasses the earth to and fro to draw men into a rebellion against
God ; and therefore he is the father of all those that live in a trade and
course of sin. But, on the contrary, he that sinneth not is born of God.
God is holy, and the great work of his Spirit is to renew us in holiness
and cleanse us from sin ; therefore by committing or avoiding sin we
may soon see, yea, the world may see, to whom we belong. And surely
it doth not become the children of God to border too near upon the
wicked. There should be a broad difference between them and the
children of the devil, or else they dishonour their Father, because they
come too near the carnal life ; therefore when the two seeds are thus
intermingled or blended together, it is a nice and difficult case to dis
tinguish them ; so that either it must be determined against you, that
you are not a child of God, or at least you perplex the case, and make
it doubtful ; you are too like the ungodly, and Satan hath too much
interest in you. Holiness is God's image ; doth it not grieve you that
you are so little like him ? By his graces he keepeth possession of you ;
if these have not their effect upon you, you dishonour him by professing
such a nearness to him, and can so little distinguish yourselves from
his enemies. Surely the more nearly you are related to Christ, the
more tender you should be of offending and dishonouring him. If
Christ hath done his part to difference you from all the rest of the
world, and you will not declare the difference, and make it manifest,
you harden the world, and they will think that to distinguish between
the seeds is factious singularity, not regular zeal ; they hold up their
ways with greater pretence, as justified by you, when you are covetous,
envious, wrathful, giving to tippling or vain company.
VER 9.] SERMONS UPON i JOHN in. 73
10. The evidence of this character, and as it concerneth the satis
faction of our consciences, is made to consist in two things — (1.) That
he that is born of God doth not sin ; (2.) Cannot sin ; and both expres
sions contain great arguments in them.
[1.] That he doth not sin. It is not to be understood that he doth
not sin at all, for the contrary is verified by sad and lamentable expe
rience ; nor yet it doth not limit and set out the bounds so exactly and
plainly as that it may be stated in the word. If the scripture had set
down how much sin is consistentwith grace, we should then have gone as
far as we could, and would not so strictly stand upon our guard as now
we are obliged to do after such a warning and intimation. That the
new creature doth not, cannot sin ; the very intent of these expressions
is to make us afraid universally of all sin ; for the infirmities of the
saints may be distinguished from the presumptions of the wicked,
otherwise we could have no certainty of our sincerity, and the scripture
would not distinguish between the spots of God's children and the
spots of the perverse, Deut. xxxii. 5. Surely as the priests of the law
had direction to distinguish between the leprosy that had malignity in
it, and made the people utterly unclean, and the leprosy that did not
fret the flesh, and made them only unclean for the present, so the
ministers of the gospel have direction to distinguish between weaknesses
and wilful failings. Yet there is great difficulty in the case ; partly
because some sins, which in their nature are infirmities, may prove
iniquities in the committer ; as suppose vain thoughts, idle words,
distractions in payer, if a man abandoneth himself to them, the case
is altered ; and partly because the same sin may be an infirmity in one
man which is not in another, who hath more knowledge and helps of
grace ; and partly because that may be an infirmity at one time which
is not at another, as it cometh backed with temptations, which make
such a sudden and forcible impression upon the will that there is no
time of deliberation, but its consent is precipitated, whereas at other
times the sin may be withstood and resisted ; and partly because that
which was an infirmity at first may afterwards commence into ini
quity, as when a man hath sinned away his spiritual strength, broken
the power of his will, lulled his conscience asleep by some foregoing sin ;
partly because it is hard to determine how long sensual passions may
keep the soul from sober consideration. Therefore our best way is to
keep up a constant care and solicitous desire to please God in all things,
at least to keep the soul from settling in a trade and course of vanity
and sin.
[2.] The other part of the note, c That he cannot sin ; ' that is, the
constitution of his soul, or the settled purpose and habitual bent of his
heart, is more against sin than for it ; and then it will follow that his
constant course or the scope and tenor of his life is accordingly; for where
sin is more hated than loved, and men are sincerely willing to avoid it,
they will be watchful against it, groan under the burden of it, seek to
prevent and weaken it by all holy means, as I shall show in the next
verse. But here a notable argument ariseth. If we should plead,
You can avoid sin, at least more sin than you do, if you were sincerely
willing, we should plead strongly, and leave you wholly under blame
for your transgressions. It is a certain truth that a man hath power
74 SERMONS UPON 1 JOHN III. [&EU. XV.
to do more good than he doth, and avoid more evil than he doth avoid.
But the Spirit of God puts the argument into other words, of a higher
import and signification, 'You cannot sin ; ' as if the business were
not whether you could avoid sin, but whether you can commit it, being
thus constituted, and having these advantages of grace which you have.
You complain, I cannot renounce this bewitching lust, whereas the
debate lieth here, how you can live in it, and lie under the power of it ;
which should rouse up Christians out of their laziness and cowardly
fears.
Use 2. Directions in this case.
1. The general mortification must go before the particular. The
general mortification is when the first thorough change is wrought in
us, and 'We put off the body of the sins of the flesh/ Col. ii. 11 ; for
then the heart is fixed against sin. But the particular mortification
is when some particular lust or sin is more struck at. Now the one
must go before the other, because else all that we do is but like stop
ping a hole in a ruinous fabric, that is ready to drop upon our heads,
or to make much ado about a cut finger when we have a mortal disease
upon us. Besides, particular mortification dependeth on the general,
as our avoiding sin doth on our being born of God : Col. iii. 9, ' Put
off all these, anger, wrath, blasphemy, filthy communication out of
your mouths, seeing ye have put off the old man with his deeds.' See
ing you have put off all corruption, allow yourselves in no one sin.
Alas ! to set against a particular sin before you set against the whole
body of sin, it is but to put a new patch upon a torn garment, and
so to make the rent the worse ; or to lop off a branch or two while the
root and trunk remaineth in full life and vigour, and so it sprouteth
the more for cutting. Therefore look first after the general work, that
you are born again ; when sin is stabbed at the heart, the particular
branches and limbs die by degrees.
2. Consider where the new nature is in most danger, there is vitium
sceculi, vitium gentis, and vitium personce.
[l k ] The fault of the age and nation, where sin being the more
common, it is the less odious. Sins are in reputation where usually
practised, and the inundation and torrent of examples carry men away
strangely: Gal. ii. 13, 'Barnabas was carried away with their dissimula
tion.' Though a good man could easily condemn the practice of the
rude multitude, and be as Noah, upright in a corrupt age and time,
Gen. vi. 9. But when those that we honour and esteem for godliness,
have adopted such an error or such a sin into their practice, the
error and sin is authorised, and we run into it one after another, as sheep
do out of the pasture by the gap or breach in the hedge made by others
that have gone before them. Oh, take heed of this ; be followers of
none no further than they are of Christ.
[2.] The fault of the person. We must labour most to mortify our
particular sin : Ps. xviii. 23, ' I was upright before thee, and kept my
self from mine iniquity.' Some that we may call ours, by temper, evil
custom, course of employment. Now these should be the more morti
fied for their own sake, and for the sake of others , for the master-lusts,
like great diseases, seldom go alone. Sometimes it is worldliness, or
an inordinate love of riches, which gaineth such interest in the hearts
VER. 10.] SERMONS UPON i JOHN in. 75
of many, that they set light by Christ and his precious benefits, and
thoughts of God and heaven grow unwelcome and unpleasing to them,
rather desire wealth than God's favour, do not lay up treasures in
heaven, but value an estate by the possession rather than the use.
Some men's distemper is a sensual disposition ; their hearts are carried
after all the alluring vanities of the world, and are basely surprised by
the baits of the flesh, cannot deny themselves, or govern their fancies
and appetites. Others' distemper is pride, when they mind high things,
know little of that poverty of spirit recommended in the gospel, and
is reconcilable with a mean condition ; they can hardly live with any
but those that will honour and please them. Now the darling sin may
be known by the frequency of its assaults, its power over other sins,
thoughts that haunt us in duty ; and every wise man knoweth where
his temptations lie most.
3. Remember the lesser acts of sin make way for greater, as the
lesser sticks set the great ones on fire. As in anger ; give way to the
distempers of it, and from folly it groweth to downright madness,
Eccles. x. 13. So for envy, if it break out into detraction, it will make us
malignant, and undermine those whom we envy, and mischievous
malice is the final product. So for pride and self-esteem, let it break
out into boasting, and it will breed contention, Prov. xiii. 10. Let the love
of the world make us immoderate in the pursuit of it, then God is neg
lected, charity omitted, and it will in time draw us to unjust gain. ' So
for sensuality ; pamper the flesh with all the delights it craveth, and
in time men will be scandalous in their apparel, meat, or drink. Let
lust break out into wantonness, and wantonness will produce downright
uncleanness ; lusts will beget acts, and these acts multiply into deeds
of a more foul and heinous nature. Therefore stop betimes ; when
you run down-hill there is little hope of staying yourselves.
4. Eenew the inclination of the new nature by the means appointed
thereunto, especially the Lord's supper, which is the food of the new
nature, wherein we remember Christ crucified, and we remember him,
that the end of his death may be accomplished, which is, that, ' we
may die unto sin, and live unto righteousness,' 1 Peter ii. 24. He
purchased the grace whereby this might be accomplished, and
wherein we renew our covenant with God, for the strengthening our
baptismal vow. Baptism is an avowed death to sin, and here we renew
it again.
SERMON 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. — 1 JOHN iii. 10.
IN these words you have the conclusion of the whole discourse, together
with a transition to another. The former discourse was about abstain-
76 SERMONS UPON 1 JOHN III. [SfiR. XVI.
ing from sin, the subsequent and following discourse about love of the
brethren. Both exceedingly become the children of God ; the one show-
eth their respect to their Father, the other to those in the same relation
with themselves.
In this verse observe —
1. The preface, which asserts that this is the true note and character
by which the two seeds are distinguished, ' In this the children of God
are manifest,' &c.
2. This note of difference is referred to two heads — purity and charity.
3. They are propounded negatively, ' Doeth not righteousness, neither
he that loveth not his brother/ But the affirmative is understood, that
whosoever doeth righteousness and loveth his brother is of God, namely,
he that liveth to God, and doth what God requireth and approveth.
Doct. 1. That there is, and should be, a broad and manifest difference
between the children of God and the children of the devil.
Doct. 2. That charity and purity are true notes of God's children.
The first doctrine may bear two senses — that this difference is mani
fest to others, or to themselves.
1. To others. I exclude not what the apostle mentioneth, Gal. v.
19, ' Now the works of the flesh are manifest.' Look, as the lewd lives
of some do plainly speak out their corrupt estate to the conscience of
any discerning man; as Ps. xxxvi. 1, 'The transgression of the wicked
saith within my heart, There is no fear of God before his eyes.' Either
they do not believe there is a God, or they do not really and in good
earnest care for him. Now if the wickedness of the wicked doth dis
cover itself to an attentive beholder, so, on the contrary, grace should
not be concealed, but break out into the conversation: 2 Thes. i. 11,
12, ' Wherefore also we pray always for you, that our God would count
you worthy of his calling, and fulfil all the good pleasure of his good
ness, and the work of faith with power : that the name of our Lord
Jesus Christ may be glorified in you, and you in him.' God is more
glorified, the world more edified, and we ourselves more comforted, the
more explicitly we show ourselves to be Christians. The wicked man
is known by his fruits: Mat. vii. 20, 'Wherefore by their fruits ye
shall know them.' And the good man by his fruits: Ps. i. 3, ' He shall
be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his
fruit in his season ; his leaf doth not wither, and whatsoever he doth
shall prosper*.' But on the one side, all graceless and unconverted men
do so plainly manifest themselves ; and on the other, too many good
Christians do not so easily interpret themselves in their actions, or
' declare plainly ' (in the apostle's phrase) ' that they seek a country,'
Heb. xi. 14, that is, heaven.
2. This being manifest is meant of being manifest to ourselves, in
the sense of our consciences ; for conscience is a nearer discerner of our
actions than the observation of other men can be. It is hard to think
that the soul should be a stranger to its own operations : 1 Cor. ii. 11,
' There is a spirit in man which knoweth the things of a man.' There
is a privy spy in our own bosoms, which is conscious to all that we do,
and can reflect upon it, and judge of it whether it be good or evil ; it
knoweth when we understand, or will, or purpose, and resolve, or do
VER. 10.] SERMONS UPON i JOHN in. 77
anything ; much more is it conscious, if not to single acts, yet to our
conversation and constant course, and that for a fourfold reason —
[1.] Because acts of grace are the most serious and important actions
of our lives. Many ordinary acts may escape us, they being not of such
moment, for want of advertency ; but surely he that acteth for eternity
will mind what he doeth. This is the great business that we attend
upon, and with the greatest solicitude and diligence : Phil. ii. 12, ' Work
out your salvation with fear and trembling.'
[2.] All acts of grace are put forth with difficulty, and with some
strife and wrestling ; for there is a continual opposition of the flesh :
Gal. v. 17, ' The flesh lusteth against the Spirit.' Now things difficult,
and carried on with much opposition, must needs leave a notice and
impression of themselves upon the soul.
[3.] There is a special delight that accompanieth acts of grace, be
cause of the excellency of the objects they are conversant about, and
the excellency of the power they are assisted withal, and the excellency
and nobleness of the faculties they are acted by, and the excellent ends
and uses they are designed unto. There is a pleasantness in the paths
of wisdom : Prov. iii. 17, ' Her ways are ways of pleasantness, and all
her paths are peace/ Now the experience of this pleasure, and grief,
and trouble for the contrary doth make the acts of grace more notorious
to the soul.
[4.] A serious, constant, uniform course of obedience will evidence
itself ; for though conscience be unobservant of particular actions, yet
the course and drift and tenor of our lives cannot be hidden from it.
A man in a journey doth not count his steps, but he doth observe his
way ; so here methinks a Christian should not be ignorant of his mark,
drift and scope, course, and constant business. Am I going to heaven
or to hell ? Phil. ii. 12. Am I pleasing God or men ? 2 Cor. i. 12 ;
2 Cor. v. 9, 'Whether present or absent, I desire to be accepted of the
Lord.' What is my labour, my ambition, my daily work and business ?
Two reasons.
(1.) Because they are governed and influenced by different powers,
God and the devil. The children of God are guided by his Holy
Spirit : Rom. viii. 14, 'As many as are the children of God are led by
the Spirit of God.' The children of the devil by the evil spirit : Eph.
ii. 2, ' They walk after the prince of the power of the air, that worketh
in the children of disobedience/ Now are God and the devil so agreed
as that the votaries and followers of each cannot be distinguished ?
The children of God are led by the Spirit of God ; that is, they obey
his sanctifying motions, either by way of restraint, or invitation and
excitement. Byway of restraint: Rom. iii. 13, 'If ye live after the
flesh, ye shall die ; but if ye, through the Spirit, do mortify the deeds
of the body, ye shall live/ Or invitation and excitement : Gal. v. 25,
' If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit/ On the con
trary, the unregenerate follow the motions and suggestions of the devil,
whom they resemble in their sin and wickedness. He doth by their
outward senses tempt them to sin, and the tempted sinner soon yield-
eth ; and he by pleasure, profit, and credit withdraweth them from
God, and hardeneth them ; and they are so addicted to sin and vanity,
that they cannot refrain it. Satan hath too great a power on the godly,
78 SERMONS UPON 1 JOHN III. [SfiR. XVI.
but he doth not so efficaciously work in them as on the carnal. There-
lore between these two sorts of people there should be a manifest and
broad difference.
(2.) They have a different principle, the seed of God and corrupt
nature : John iii. 6, ' That which is born of flesh is flesh, and that
which is born of Spirit is spirit.' Now both correspond with their
principles. It is true the principles are mixed in the regenerate, but
the better part is predominant ; and therefore the acts, for the most
part, suit with it, and so there is a broad difference between them and
those who are only influenced by the flesh.
3. They have a different rule ; the one walk according to the law of
God, wherein he hath declared his will, the other according to the course
of this world. According to the law of God : Gal. vi. 16, ' As many
as walk according to this rule, peace be upon them, and mercy, and
upon the whole Israel of God.' The other according to the course of
this world : Eph. ii. 2, ' Walking after the prince of the power of the
air, which worketh in the children of disobedience.' According to the
fashion and example of unrenewed men, or the general and corrupt
custom and example of those with whom we live ; and they conform
themselves to it more than to the will of God. Now the fashions of
the vain world and the strict law of the holy God are so different, that
he that walketh according to the one must needs distinguish himself
from the other ; there being a distinct rule, there must needs be a
different course; the one doeth righteousness, the other committeth
sin.
4. There is a different end and scope ; the one studieth to please
God, the other to please themselves. The one studieth to please God :
Col. i. 10, ' That ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing,
being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of
God ; ' 1 Thes. iv. 1, ' I exhort you by the Lord Jesus, that as ye have
received of us how ye ought to walk and to please God, so you would
abound more and more ; ' 2 Cor. v. 9, ' For we labour, that, whether
present or absent, we may be accepted of him.' The other to gratify
their carnal desires : Horn. xiii. 14, ' And make no provision for the
flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof.' The one seek their own things, Phil,
ii. 21. They spend their time in the flesh, ' to the lusts of men, not the
will of God/ 1 Peter iv. 2. Now there being such a different scope,
the practice must be different also.
5. There is a different event and issue ; all the world emptieth itself
into heaven or hell. Now heaven and hell are much unlike, and vastly
distant, and so are those that are travelling to either place : Phil. iii.
19, 20, ' For many walk, of whom I have told you, and now tell you
weeping, that they are enemies to the cross of Christ : whose end is
destruction, whose god is their belly, whose glory is in their shame,
who mind earthly things. But our conversation is in heaven, from
whence we look for a Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ.' If the end be
different, the way must be so also.
Use 1. Is to reprove them that profess themselves to be the people
of God, but do not distinguish themselves from the children of the
devil ; they are so like one another that there is no manifest difference
to be seen. A Christian never liveth up to the majesty of his profession
VEB. 10.] SERMONS UPON i JOHN in. 7D
tilt he be the world's wonder and the world's reproof : 1 Peter iv. 4,
' They think it strange that you run not with them into the same excess of
riot.' It is no strange matter to please the flesh, but it is strange to row
against the stream of flesh and blood. It is no wonder to see men
carnal, proud, covetous, sensual ; the wonder is to see men dead to all
these things, to be humble, meek, sober, modest. It is no wonder to
see men walk as men, but it is a wonder to see men walk as born of
God. It is no wonder to see men court the world, but to live in a
contempt of the world, and to see men ready to part with what they
see and love for a God and glory which they never saw, this is the
wonder. Yet such a mystery and wonder should a Christian be that
liveth up to his principles. Secondly, The world's reproof ; as Noah :
Heb. xi. 7, ' By preparing an ark to save himself and his household,
condemned the world ; ' that is, judged them for their laziness and
disrespect of God's warning and impenitency, for that they repented
not when God gave them time to repent. God hath told the world of
the danger of sin, and showed them the way of salvation. By our
diligence and seriousness in his ways, and in the use of the means
prescribed to save our souls, we must condemn the world for their sloth
and negligence ; otherwise, if we do not condemn the world, we justify
the world, as Israel justified Sodom, Ezek. xvi. 51 ; namely, that they
are not so culpable in slighting God and the offers of salvation by
Christ.
Use 2. Is information. It informeth us of two important truths ;
the one concerneth the ministry, the other all Christians.
1. If there be such a manifest difference between the children of God
and the children of the devil, then ministers must carefully make the
distinction, and convince the one sort and comfort the other : Jer. xv.
19, ' If thou shalt take forth the precious from the vile, thou shalt be
as my mouth ; ' that is, thou by thy teaching put a difference between
the godly and the wicked, by confirming and comforting the one, and
soundly convincing and reproving the other ; as if I myself had spoken
it. The contrary is charged on a corrupt ministry: Ezek. xiii. 22,
' With lies ye have made the heart of the righteous sad, whom I have
not made sad ; and strengthened the hands of the wicked, that he
should not return from his wicked ways, by promising him life.' This
is to turn the ordinances of Christ to the service of the devil, and to
gratify his children ; as usually those that are indulgent to the wicked
are severe against the godly, and traduce them with wrong imputations ;
as the naughty steward 'did eat and drink with the drunken, and smite his
fellow-servants,' Mat. xxiv. 49 ; uphold the wicked in their carnal life ;
but the serious are sure to meet with a buffet from them, and smart
for it.
2. The other concerneth all Christians, and that is, to show us the
lawfulness, yea, the necessity, of trying our estate, and taking comfort
in our estate, from marks and signs of grace, taken from our works or
conversations. Many think this is to lead them off from Christ to
themselves, but vainly ; for this is the method the Holy Ghost directeth
us unto.
[1.] What comfort can we take in the promises if we must not look
at those evidences in ourselves which may prove our interest in them ?
80 SERMONS UPON 1 JOHN III. [SER. XVI.
All privileges have their conditions annexed, and oar right is suspended
till the condition be performed, and our comfort till we know that it
belongs to us. For instance, God hath said, John i. 12, ' To whom
soever have received him, even to as many as believed in his name,
God hath given this power, that they should become the sons of God.'
Now how will you know that you have this power but by knowing that
you are a true believer ? and how will you know that but by marks
and signs of faith ? If you say, No man can know that he is a true
believer, you make the promise vain ; for what good will it do any man
that adoption is promised to believers, if we cannot know whether we
be believers, yea or no ? If it may be known, we must look after the
qualification, which must evidence it to be our privilege. Will you
apply the promise to all, or some, or none ? If to none, then it is in
vain ; if to all, then you deceive the most ; for though some be of God,
the whole world lieth in wickedness, and the most are the children of
the devil. If to some, what is the reason of the restraint ? How will
you know who they are, but by being believers, or doing righteousness,
and loving our brother ?
[2.] It informeth us that if conscience be a judge and witness within
us, in order to our joy and comfort, then we must judge by what we
are, or what we have done, or how we have lived ; for conscience can
take notice of no other things. Now it is certain that conscience hath
a great hand and stroke in our comfort, assurance, and peace- : Acts
xxiv. 16, ' And herein do I exercise myself, to have always a conscience
void of offence towards God and towards men ; ' 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 ; ' 1 John
iii. 20, 21, ' If our hearts condemn us, God is greater than our hearts,
and knoweth all things. If our hearts condemn us not, then have we
confidence towards God.' Much dependeth on its verdict and testimony.
[3.] We shall be judged according to these things by God, and there
fore we should judge ourselves by them; for we cannot judge by a
righter way than God will judge, whether our estate be good or bad.
Now this is the way of God's procedure : Kev. xx. 12, ' All of us shall
be judged according to our works/
[4.] If the Lord hath propounded this way as a likely course to
produce solid consolation, surely man should not murmur against it,
and gratify the cavils of the loose professor. But even so it is : Gal.
vi. 4, 'Let every man prove his own work, and then shall he have
rejoicing in himself alone, and not in another.' Many rejoice in this,
that others are worse than they ; but they should try their own work
and carriage by the rule, for otherwise they do but rejoice in the sins
of others. No ; prove so as you may approve your own work, that is,
your own state and actions.
Use 3. It is an awakening to God's people, who after long profession
are no more clear in their own qualification. You should so unques
tionably carry it for God, that others should know you ; at least you
should know your own selves : ' Examine yourselves, prove yourselves ;
know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye
be reprobates ? ' It is a shame to live so long, and not to know what
is in us. But you will say, If the case be so evident, why then do so
VER. 10.] SERMONS UPON i JOHN in. 81
many good people want assurance, and live in doubtfulness of their
sincerity ? I answer —
1. There need two witnesses: Horn. viii. 16, 'The Spirit itself bear-
eth witness with our spirit that we are the children of God ; ' Horn, ix.
1, 'I say the truth in Christ, and lie not, my conscience bearing me
witness in the Holy Ghost.' Why ? Because the heart of man is so
deceitful, Jer. xvii. 9, and the operations of it so various, dark, and
confused, that we dare not trust our private judgment : 1 Cor. iv. 4,
' For I know nothing by myself, yet am I not thereby justified.'
2. That so few know their spiritual condition is through their own
default, for otherwise the Spirit is ready to witness, if we are ready to
receive his testimony. There is a fourfold fault —
[1.] They do not exercise grace to the life in the mortifying of sin
or perfecting of holiness, and therefore the remainders of sin are active
and troublesome, and grace is weak and small, and doth little discover
itself in any costly and self-denying acts, and so are not accompanied
with that delight and sweetness by which they should be noted and
observed. Surely great things are more liable to sense and feeling than
little ; a staff is sooner found than a needle, and they that cross the in
clinations of corrupt nature can sooner discern a divine spirit and power
working in them than others that only cull out the safe, cheap, and
easy part of religion ; as valour is more seen in an open field than by
lurking in a garrison.
[2.] It may be they do not examine their state or heed soul-affairs,
that they may get their uprightness interpreted : 1 Cor. xi. 28, ' But
let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of the bread, and drink of
the cup ; ' 2 Cor. xiii. 4, ' Examine yourselves, prove yourselves ; know
ye not your own selves, that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye are repro
bates ? ' Now if men do not reflect upon themselves, no wonder they
be ignorant of their own estate.
[3.] Sometimes, out of a faulty modesty and humility, they deny
what is wrought in them and by them. A child of God should own
his graces as well as corruptions. Hezekiah said, 2 Kings xx. 3, ' O
Lord, remember now how I have walked before thee in truth, and with
a perfect heart, and done that which is good in thy sight.' We should not
so far look to what we should be as not to observe what we are and
have already been ; for the day of small things must not be despised,
Zech. iv. 10. The spouse owneth grace in the midst of infirmities :
Cant. v. 2, ' I sleep, but my heart waketh ; ' and he in the Gospel, Mark
ix. 24, ' Lord, I believe ; help thou my unbelief.' We are sensible of
a disease more than health. We come short of what we should have,
but is there nothing of God in our souls ? We should not only observe
our sins and infirmities, but also take notice of the good things that
are found in us. Christ taxeth this over-humility in Peter : John xiii.
8, ' Peter saith unto him, Thou shalt never wash my feet. Jesus an
swered, If I wash thee not, thou hast no part with me.'
[4.] The general cause is laziness : 2 Peter i. 10, ' Give all diligence
to make your calling and election sure ; ' Heb. vi. 11, ' And we desire
that every one of you do show the same diligence, to the full assurance
of hope unto the end ; ' 2 Peter iii. 14, ' Seeing that ye look for such
things, be diligent, that you may be found of him in peace.' So far as
VOL. XXI. F
82 SERMONS UPON 1 JOHN III. [SEE. XVI.
we neglect our duty, the sense of our interest may abate. Foolish pre
sumption costs a man nothing, but solid assurance cometh with dili
gence ; and the more grace is exercised in acts of communion with
God, the more it is known by us : Job xxii. 21, ' Acquaint thyself with
God, and be at peace.' In difficulties and afflictions : Heb. xii. 11,
' No chastening for the present seemeth joyous, but grievous ; but after
wards it yieldeth the peaceable fruits of righteousness.' In all the
duties of holiness : John xiv. 21, 23, ' He that hath my commandments,
and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me ; and he that loveth me shall
be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and manifest myself to him.
If a 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.' In duties
towards God : Heb. xi. 4, ' By faith Abel offered unto God a more ex
cellent sacrifice than Cain, by which he obtained witness that he was
righteous.' In duties towards men : 1 John iii. 19, ' And hereby we
know we are of the truth, and shall assure our hearts before him.'
Doct. 2. That purity and charity are true notes of God's children.
These are characters laid down here, as manifest evidences whereby
our estate may be determined.
First, Purity. See how it is described in the text, ' He that doeth
not righteousness is not of God.' Where observe —
1. That not only sins of commission, but omission, may render our
estate questionable. He had said before, ' He that committeth sin is
of the devil ; ' now he altereth his manner of speaking, ' He that doeth
not righteousness is not of God/ and so by consequence of the devil,
though he should not offend by doing harm or doing unrighteousness.
To do righteousness is to do that which righteousness calleth for and
requireth at our hands, when time and occasion is offered ; and he that
doth not so is not of God ; and therefore not only commission of sin,
but neglect of a Christian life, involveth us in this blemish of being
children of the devil : Mat. iii. 10, ' Every tree that bringeth not forth
good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire.' Not only the poisonous,
but the barren tree. And it is made the character of the wicked : Ps.
xxxvi. 3, ' He hath left off to be wise, and to do good.' To cast off or
neglect the ways of wisdom and holiness is an argument of wickedness,
though no other apparent evil should be charged upon us. The unprofit
able servant is cast into everlasting fire, Mat. xxv. 30; not he that embez
zled his talent, but folded it in a napkin. Many think, if they do nobody
any harm, God will accept them ; but what good do you do ? That child
is counted undutiful not only that doth not wrong and beat his father,
but he that doth not give him due reverence. Therefore it should
humble us that we do no more good, that we so much neglect God,
that we do no more edify our neighbour, or take care for the saving
of our souls. We think omissions no sins, or light sins, but God doth
not think so. Surely omissions are sins ; .there is in them the nature
of the first sin, as considered in Adam or us ; there was an aversion
from God, and a conversion to the creature. In us there is carentia
originalis justitice, first a want of that grace that should incline us to
God, and then followeth all the corruption and pollution of nature ;
the daughter is like the mother. In actual sin there is a cessation
of acts of love to God, then inordinate acts of self-love : Titus ii. 12,
VER. 10.] SERMONS UPON i JOHN in. 83
' Teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts.' Secondly,
From the nature of the law. A sin of omission is contrary to the pre
cept, as well as a sin of commission. To the prohibition : ' Cease to
do evil, learn to do well,' Isa. i. 16. There we must use the bridle,
here the spur. Thirdly, Our mercies are not only privative, but posi
tive ; deliverance from hell, and eternal life, John iii. 16. God is both
a sun and a shield, Ps. Ixxxiv. 11 ; Gen. xv. 1, ' I am thy shield, and
thy exceeding great reward.' As our mercies, so our obedience. Sin
ning is a direct way to hell, as doing righteousness is to heaven.
Fourthly, Christ came that we might live unto righteousness, as well
as die unto sin, 1 Peter ii. 24 ; to promote vivification as well as morti
fication ; that we might know the power of his resurrection as well as
be planted into the likeness of his death ; that the good principle might
be cherished and induced into act, as well as the bad principle curbed and
restrained. Fifthly, Because we cannot else improve our talents, but
God's best gifts would lie idle upon our hands if we did not exercise our
selves unto godliness. Every relation puts new duties upon us ; so doth
every new gift and talent. To be sure our relation to God calleth for
more duty at our hands than we are wont to perform ; and the general
wickedness that is charged upon mankind is, that they do not seek
after God, Ps. xiv. 2 ; and Ps. x. 3, 4, ' The wicked through the pride of
his heart will not seek after God ; God is not in all his thoughts.' But be
sides this, consider our relations to one another, as magistrates, subjects,
ministers, Christians, parents and children, masters and servants ; con
sider this, and you will find that the greatest part of the sins of the world
lieth in sins of omission. When we look into our bill, to see what we
owe to God, according to the advice of the unjust steward, instead of a
hundred, to put down fifty, we leave out all our omissions. We do not
worship an idol, but we forget the true God days without number, Jer.
ii. 32. We do not take away that which is another's, but do not give
our own ; they do not swear, but do they honour and glorify the name of
God in their conversations ?
2. But let us explain the nature of this doing righteousness. It is
to fear God, and walk in all his ways : Acts x. 35, ' He that feareth
God and worketh righteousness.' Or he is said to do righteousness
who, being justified and sanctified by the Spirit, doth give up himself
to God to do his will, and maketh it the business of his life to grow
more complete therein. Kenewing is in it : Eph. ii. 10, ' Ye are his
workmanship, created in Jesus Christ unto good works.' Dedication
is in it: Kom. vi. 13, 'But yield yourselves unto God, as those that
are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of
righteousness unto God.' The will of God is your rule : Kom. xii. 2,
' That ye may prove what is that good and acceptable will of God.'
After dedication, our work and business should be to ' live soberly,
righteously, and godly in this present world,' Titus ii. 12. This is
the righteousness which should so be carried on from an everlasting
principle by a divine rule to eternal ends. Well, then, they do but
arrogate a place and a name among God's people that do not live
holily.
Secondly, The next mark is charity ; this is not mentioned at ran
dom, nor merely to bring on another discourse, but with good advice.
84 SERMONS UPON 1 JOHN III. [SfiR. XVI.
1. The general note of God's children is holiness, and the particular
note is love of the brethren. It is a great branch of righteousness,
take it largely for holiness, or more strictly for our duty to our neighbour.
So alms is often called righteousness in scripture ; for doing good is
one special act of our duty, and so a branch of righteousness : Ps. cxii.
9, ' He hath given to the poor, and his righteousness endureth for
ever ; ' Isa. Iviii. 7, 8, ' If thou give thy bread to the hungry, then
shall thy righteousness go before thee.'
2. It explaineth the former note ; for righteousness and love to the
brethren are joined together, and so it showeth that he doth righteous
ness whose works are good, and come from a good spirit, from love to
God, which is the soul of all duties ; for he that loveth his brother for
God's sake loveth God: Gal. v. 14, 'All the law is fulfilled in this one
word, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.' How all the law ?
Namely, as second-table duties arise out of the first, and are done for
God's sake.
3. He is speaking of being born of God, and the seed of God. We
resemble God in nothing so much as love: 1 John iv. 8, 16, ' He that
loveth not knoweth not God, for God is love. God is love, and he
that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him.' And we
resemble the devil mostly by malice. It is the devil's work to do all
the hurt he can to the bodies and souls of men, ' for the devil is a
murderer from the beginning,' John viii. 44. Devouring malice is the
true image of Satan, the devilish nature in us. When Jesus Christ
came to discover the amiableness of the divine nature to us, it is said,
Acts x. 38, ' He went about doing good, and healing all that were
oppressed by the devil, for God was with him.' Christ did nothing by
way of malice and revenge ; he used not the power that he had to
make men blind or lame, or to kill any ; no, not his worst enemies,
when lie could easily have done it, and justly might have done it. No ;
he went up and down giving sight to the blind, and limbs to the lame,
health to the sick, and life to the dead. Therefore those that are God's
children, and are born of God, and have the seed of God abiding in
them, should be as zealous in doing good to all as Satan's servants are
in hurting.
4. Much of Christianity consists in love and doing good. Love is
made to be the fulfilling of the law, Eom. xiii. 8, the end of the gos
pel institution : 1 Tim. i. 15, ' Now the end of the commandment is
charity.' The great lesson which God teacheth us : ' Ye yourselves are
taught of God to love one another,' 1 Thes. iv. 9. The grand character
istic of Christ's disciples, by which they are notified to themselves and
others : John xiii. 35, ' By this shall all men know that ye are my
disciples, if ye have love one to another.' With what eyes do men read
the gospel that can overlook all these things, and live in malice, envy,
and hatred ?
5. The parties to be loved are called brethren, and elsewhere neigh
bours, Mat. xxii. 39. By common nature every neighbour is a brother ;
but saints have the pre-eminence in this love, but not the confinement :
1 Do good to all, especially to the household of faith,' Gal. vi. 8 ; 2 Peter
i. 7, ' And add to brotherly-kindness, love.' Enemies are not excepted :
Hat. v. 44, 45, ' Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good
VER. 10.] SERMONS UPON i JOHN in. 85
to them that hate you, and pray for them that despitefully use you, and
persecute you.' God must be loved in all his creatures ; his natural
image in all men, his spiritual image in his saints. Well, then, if you
would be accounted children of your Father which is in heaven, love to
all in their several capacities must be your very nature, and the doing
them all the good that you can must be the very business of your
lives.
Use. Look after these evidences, and see they be more and more found
in you.
1. Nothing quiets the mind but a persuasion that God loveth us as
his children, and that he will give us eternal life. Get this persuasion
once, that God is your Father and you are his children, and then all the
controversy between God and us is at an end. The reason is clear :
He that taketh God for a judge only can never be fully satisfied in his
condition, nor live in peace ; there is no safety but in God's family,
and no holy security but in being his children. The great business of
the Spirit of God is to clear this to us : Rom. viii. 15, 'But you have
received the Spirit of adoption, crying, Abba, Father.' So Gal. iv. 6,
' Because ye are sons, he hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your
hearts, crying, Abba, Father ; ' Eph i. 13, 14, ' Whom also after ye
believed, ye were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, which is the
earnest of our inheritance, until the redemption of the purchased posses
sion, unto the praise of his glory.' The great business of our Redeemer
was to purchase this blessing for us : Gal. iv. 5, ' To redeem them that
were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons ; ' John
viii. 36, ' If the Son make you free, then are you free indeed.' The
great privilege which we have by baptism as a sign : Gal. iii. 26, 27,
' For ye are all children of God, by faith in Jesus Christ. For as many
of you as have been baptized into Christ, have put on Christ.' By faith
as to the reality : John i. 12, ' To as many as received him, to them gave
he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his
name.' The church of the new testament, as to her outward estate, is
an estate of sonship and adoption ; and the truly godly have the real
effect of it ; they have the dignity, the privileges or the rights which
belong to the children of God.
2. Purity of life and charity, which are here asserted to be the two
sure signs of a child of God, are to be understood evangelically. If so,
then they that lead impious and uncharitable lives are no children of
God, however they flatter themselves in the goodness of their estate.
The exclusive mark is more easy than the inclusive, because of the many
failings of God's children, who have a deep reverence for God's holiness
and the exactness of his law, therefore they are not so clear. What
shall be said to them ? They must labour to make their qualification
more explicit, and remember it is to be interpreted evangelically, that
is, if they be sincere. The first covenant required unsinning obedience,
the second alloweth of uprightness and sincerity ; the old covenant
bringeth all things to the balance, the new to the touchstone. If the best
of us were put into the balance of the sanctuary, we should be found
wanting, and then who can be saved? Ps. Ixxxiv. 11, 'He is a sun
and a shield, and will give grace and glory, and no good thing will he
withhold from them that walk uprightly.' The upright are the Lord's
86 SERMONS UPON 1 JOHN III. [SfiR. XVII.
delight, Prov. xi. 20. These may take comfort in God, as God
delighteth in them, both in affliction and prosperity : Ps. cxii 9, ' To
the upright there ariseth light in darkness/ not only after, but in life :
2 Cor. i. 12, ' This is my rejoicing, the testimony of my consci
ence, that, in simplicity and godly sincerity, we have had our conversa
tion in the world.' In death : 2 Kings xx. 3, ' Remember, Lord,
that I have walked before thee with a perfect heart, and done that which
is good in thy sight.'
3. No sincerity is to be discerned but by our constant walk and course :
' He is a sun and a shield to them that walk uprightly ; ' and ' I have
walked before thee with a perfect heart.' Here the upright are
described by their conversations ; newness of life is the perpetual testi
mony of our adoption. A man may force himself for an act or two ;
Saul in a raptural fit may be among the prophets ; therefore we are
to judge by our scope and walk. A child of God may be under a
strange appearance in some simple acts ; so the wicked have their good
moods ; an aguish man hath his well days : Ps. cvi. 3, ' But blessed
are they that keep judgment, and do righteousness at all times.'
SERMON XVII.
For this is the message that ye heard from the beginning, that we
should love one another. — 1 JOHN iii. 11.
IN these words we have a reason of the last clause in the former verse,
why he that loveth not his brother is not of God. This is his argu
ment : He that keepeth not God's commandments is not of God ; he
that loveth not his brother keepeth not God's commandments. The
major is evident in itself, the minor is proved in the text, ' For this is
the message that ye have heard from the beginning/ &c.
In the words we have —
1. A duty, ' That we should love one another.'
2. The authority by which it is recommended to us, ' This is the
message that ye have heard from the beginning.' Where —
[1.] It is a message or command, ' This is the message.'
[2.] An ancient doctrine or command, * Which ye have heard from
the beginning.'
1. The duty recommended to us, which is mutual love, ' That we
should love one another ; ' that is, that we should love all men, but
chiefly that Christians should love Christians.
2. The authority by which this command is enforced.
[1.] It is the declaration and message, or the commandment. Every
thing we read in the word of God, or hear from the word of God, is
a special message sent from God : Acts xiii. 20, ' To you is the word
of this salvation sent ; ' not brought, but sent. I allude to that of
Judges iii. 20, ' I have a message from God to thee, and he arose off his
seat.' Every message from God bespeaketh its own respect and re
verence.
VER. 11.] SERMONS UPON i JOHN in. 87
[2.] ' From the beginning : ' The same phrase is used 1 John ii. 7, ' I
write no new commandment unto you, but the old commandment
which ye have heard from the beginning.' This is to be understood
either —
(1.) From the beginning of their conversion, since ye were called to
the knowledge of God. Love is one of the first lessons of Christianity ;
for, Gal. v. 6, ' Faith worketh by love ; ' and Eph. i. 15, ' After I heard
of your faith in the Lord Jesus, and love to all the saints ; ' expressing
thereby their Christianity. Ever since they became Christians they
were possessed with the necessity of this duty.
(2.) From the beginning of the gospel state, or ever since the faith of
Christ was published and preached in the world. This is the doctrine
so often and so earnestly inculcated by Christ when he was here upon
earth : John xiii. 34, 35, ' A new commandment I give unto you, that
ye love one another ; that as I have loved you, so ye love one another.
By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one
to another ; ' and John xv. 12, ' This is my commandment, that ye love
one another, as I have loved you.' And this is often inculcated by
our apostle, as one that lay in Christ's bosom, and had a true sense of
his Master's doctrine, and did partake largely of his spirit.
(3.) From the beginning of the Mosaical administration, even under
the law, this was a duty pressed : Lev. xix. 18, 'Thou shalt love thy
neighbour as thyself ; I am the Lord.' And the neighbour was not
only the Jewish neighbour, or one that lived within the pale and line
of the Jewish communion, as appeareth by the language of the com
mandment : Mat. xx. 16, 17, 'Thou shalt not bear false witness against
thy neighbour. Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's house ; ' which
prohibitions imply the gentile as well as the Jewish neighbour. All
men, considered as men in respect of nature and creation, are our
brethren ; so an Edomite is reckoned a brother, Deut. xxiii. 7. So in
respect of commerce and occasion of intercourse they are our neigh
bours ; to them must we perform all acts of love and mercy, as their
necessities do require.
(4.) From the beginning of the world, ever since Adam ; for it was
not only enforced by Christ's and Moses' law, but implanted and en
grafted on man's heart or the law of nature. It is a matter of
natural equity to love our neighbour, to do or not to do to others as we
would have done or not done to ourselves, Mat. vii. 12. The gentiles
were bound to this by the law of nature. Well, then, you see love to one
another was always in great esteem with God ; therefore every one that
is born of God should make great conscience of it. If the gentiles, by
the law of nature, were bound to love others as themselves, and the
Jews by the law of Moses, much more are Christians under an obli
gation by the express command of Christ to love one another.
Doct. One great duty which God hath recommended to our obedi
ence is to love one another.
Here I shall show you —
1. What is this love to one another.
2. How God hath recommended it to our obedience.
I. What is this love to one another ? There are two branches of it :
2 Peter i. 7, ' And to brotherly kindness, charity.'
88 SERMONS UPON 1 JOHN III. [SfiR. XVII.
First, There is contained in it brotherly kindness, a grace wrought
in us by the Holy Spirit, inclining us to love all those without excep
tion as brethren who are made partakers of like precious faith with us.
In which description note —
1. The author of this grace, and that is the Holy Spirit renewing
the heart : 1 Peter i. 22, ' Seeing ye have purified your hearts through
the Spirit, unto unfeigned love of the brethren ; see that ye love one
another with a pure heart fervently.' Naturally there is in us pride,
self-love, wrath, strife, which dispose us only to please ourselves and love
ourselves, without any regard to others ; and besides, till our souls be
purified and sanctified, we shall never love purity and holiness in
others, but the upright will be an abomination to us : Prov. xxix. 27,
' He that is upright in the way is an abomination to the wicked.' They
are unsuitable to them, and they are objects reviving guilt. Whatever
good nature men have yet in their natural condition, they are enemies
to the godly. Naturally we hate God because he is a holy God, and
we hate his law because it is a holy law, and we hate his children
because they are a holy people ; but when the soul is purified, its love
and inclinations and aversions are altered, both as to persons and things.
We love God for his holiness, Ps. ciii. 1 ; we love his law because it is
pure, Ps cxix. 140 ; and we love his people because they are holy :
Ps. xv. 4, ' In whose eyes a vile person is contemned, but he honoureth
them that fear the Lord.' The new creature loveth what God loveth,
and hateth what God hateth.
2. There is a propension or inclination in the new nature to this
love, with all the acts and fruits of it, though no outward respects
invite us thereunto : 1 Thes. iv. 9, ' Concerning brotherly love, ye need
not that any should write unto you, for ye are taught of God to love
one another.' Instruction and persuasion doth not put us upon it so
much as inclination, and the tendency of the new nature : 1 John iv. 7,
' Every one that loveth is born of God ; ' and 1 John v. 1, ' He that
loveth him that begat, loveth also those that are begotten by him.'
Those that have the new nature in any degree of strength and preval-
ency are inclined and disposed by it to love others, who are partakers
of the same nature ; so that it is a duty kindly and natural to the
regenerate, flowing from an inward propension and inclination, and
needeth not much outward excitement. All the saints have a new
heart of one and the same making and nature, and propound unto
themselves one and the same end and scope, and so their hearts are
suited to one another, and take pleasure in one another.
3. The acts and fruits of this love are these —
[1.] An esteem of them, and complacency in them, as having more
of God in them than other men. They are said to be partakers of the
divine nature, 2 Peter i. 4. We love God's natural image in all men ;
we love his spiritual image in the saints ; and therefore the bond is
stronger than the bond of common love : Ps. xvi. 3, ' My goodness
extendeth not to thee, but to the saints that are in the earth, and to
the excellent, in whom is all my delight ; ' Prov. xii. 26, ' The righteous
is more excellent than his neighbour,' therefore a greater object of love ;
as Austin said of himself and his friend Alypius, that their friendship
grew more entire when they both became acquainted with Christ, and
VER. 11.] SERMONS UPON i JOHN in. 89
were cemented together with the blood of Christ. Eodem sanguine
Christi glutinati.
[2.] By an affectionate desire of their good and spiritual happiness.
The philosopher telleth us to love any is to wish well to them, to desire
them all the good we can ; and we cannot desire a greater good to
others than spiritual good, than the best good ; not to wish them health
and strength of body, and greatness and worldly accommodations, but
grace, peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost, and light, life, and eternal
happiness : Col. i. 9, ' We cease not to pray for you, and to desire that
you may be filled with all wisdom and spiritual understanding ; ' Phil,
i. 8, ' God is my record, how greatly I long after you all, in the bowels
of Jesus Christ.' God knoweth the secret motions and inclinations of
our inward affections. Now, when we can appeal to God for the fervency,
sincerity, and spirituality of our love, and have in some measure as
hearty a good-will to them as Christ had to souls when he died for
them, then we have this Christ-like love which is called brotherly
kindness.
[3.] As occasion serveth, we must really promote their good to the
uttermost of our power ; for it is a cold love that will not be at any
pains and charges, or hazard any interests, for the sake of those whom
we love ; that conteuteth itself with wishes, yea, though they be formed
into prayers. No ; we must not say only, Be warmed, be clothed, but
really do them good, and seek their welfare as we would our own. In
short, we must sympathise with them in every condition : Bom. xii.
15, ' Kejoice with them that rejoice, and weep with them that weep ; '
1 Cor. xii. 20, we should have the same care one for another. Want
of feeling is a self-excommunication, a casting ourselves out of the
body. Nay, there must be not only sympathy and compassion, but
real succour : Gal. vi. 10, ' Do good to all, but especially to the house
hold of faith ; ' Rom. xii. 13, ' Distributing to the necessity of the saints,
given to hospitality ; ' Heb. vi. 10, ' God is not unrighteous, to forget
your work and labour of love, in that ye have ministered to the saints,
and do minister.' We must do them all possible service, as the
exigencies of their circumstances and occasions do require, assisting
them with our favour, countenance, labour, estates ; yea, and, as we
shall see afterwards, by hazarding and laying down life itself.
[4.] By conversing with them, and delighting in their fellowship, for
our mutual comfort and edification. Love is a uniting thing ; it
draweth to communion ; as the soul of Jonathan was knit to the soul
of David, 1 Sam. xviii. 15 ; and the apostle biddeth Christians to be
knit together in love, Col. ii. 2. Brotherly love is such an affection as
knits the hearts of the professors of the same faith to one another, as if
they had but one heart and one soul in common amongst them : Acts
iv. 32, ' And the multitude of them that believed were of one heart and
one soul.' And therefore it is called the bond of perfection, Col. iii.
14. The saints are bound together in a holy society, and preserved by
it ; and without it, as a besom unbound, they fall all to pieces.
[5.] In passing by failings and infirmities : 1 Peter iv. 8, ' And
above all things, have fervent charity among yourselves, for charity
shall cover a multitude of sins.' Love will prevent and pass by many
mutual wrongs, which otherwise would disturb the comfortable society
00 SERMONS UPON 1 JOHN III. [SER. XVII.
of the Lord's people ; therefore brotherly love is not come to its due
height, growth, and fervency when it is easily interrupted by every
offence. We cannot expect to converse with any in this life but some
failings and wrongs it is like will be often reiterated, both against God
and one another ; therefore, unless we have learned to pardon failings,
we have not learned the true art of loving one another ; we must
pardon the person for the wrong done to us, and we must intercede
with God for the pardon of the wrong done to him. Love must cover
these, not upbraiding the party with them, and concealing it from the
wicked as much as may be, lest religion be disgraced.
[6.] The impartiality of this love ; we must love those without
exception who are godly, whether rich or poor, prosperous or
afflicted.
(1.) Whether rich or poor; for we must not have the faith of our
Lord Jesus Christ in respect of persons, James ii. 1. No ; if it be
sincere, it must be love to all the saints, Eph. i. 15, to the meanest as
well as the greatest, otherwise we despise the church of God, 1 Cor.
xi. 20. Meanness doth not take away Christian relations. There are
many differences in worldly respects between one of God's children
and another, and in spiritual gifts some are weak and some are strong ;
yet we must love all, for all are brethren ; all are children of one Father,
all owned by Christ ; co-heirs not only with the richest and strongest
Christians, but with Christ himself; therefore we should love them
without respect of persons, yea, love them when no respect of our own
doth invite us thereunto ; for love is not to be measured by our profit,
but by a desire to profit others.
(2.) We should love them in adversity as well as in prosperity.
Some seem to love good people when the times favour them, and they
suffer no loss by owning them. No ; you must own them in their
troubles also and persecutions : Heb. x. 33, ' Partly whilst ye were made
a gazing-stock, both by reproaches and afflictions, and partly whilst ye
became companions of them who were so used.' Some suffered as the
parties persecuted, others as their companions, who were not at first in
the original process. So Moses left all the pleasures of the court, and
his friendships there, to join with God's despised people : Heb. xi. 25,
' Choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to
enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season.' Alas ! there are many painted
butterflies and summer-friends to the gospel, who are gone when the
sunshine of prosperity is gone. Brethren then do almost forget that
they are brethren, if not altogether, and stand aloof, and are loath to
own the afflicted.
(3.) We should love them all, whether we be obliged or disobliged ;
for in brotherly kindness we are not to mind our own things, but the
image of God and the glory of God, and the good and benefit of others :
Phil. ii. 4, ' Look not every one upon his own things, but every man
also upon the things of others.' Whether we are invited to this love
by benefits or courtesies done to us, or discouraged by neglects, we are
to consider our duty to people as they stand related to God, otherwise
we know one another after the flesh, when we value men by personal
respects to us rather than by what of God we find in them : ' If you
love them that love you, do not even the publicans the same ? ' Mat.
VER. 11.] SERMONS UPON i JOHN in. 91
v. 46. What singular thing do we ? We are monsters of ingratitude
if we should do otherwise.
(4.) The objects of this love are those that are partakers of like
precious faith with us. or, in one word, the brethren, or our fellow-
christians. Our brethren in a natural sense are all mankind, as it is
said, Acts xvii. 16, ' He hath made all nations of one blood.' There is
a communion of the same nature. But in a Christian sense, all the
faithful are brethren in Christ, because of the communion of the same
faith. Of these, some are only professors of the faith, who, in opposition
to infidels, are called brethren : 1 Cor. v. 11, 12, ' If any called a brother
be a fornicator, or a drunkard, or a railer, or covetous, or an idolater,
with such an one eat not.' Others are really regenerate, or give hopeful
evidences thereof ; these are born of the same seed, adopted by the
same Father, brought up in the same family, partakers of the same
Spirit, estated in the same inheritance, of the same brotherhood the
apostle maketh mention, 1 Peter ii. 17. Now though they should not
be such as we take them to be by their profession, yet our love is accept
able to God, because we love them upon this supposition, that they are
brethren.
(5.) The reduplication or qualification of this object. These brethren
must be loved as brethren with such a love, and upon that account, as
Christ distinguished between giving to a disciple and giving to him in
the name of a disciple, Mat. x. 42 ; as one that belongeth to Christ,
stamped with the image of God, and sealed with his Spirit. If it be
for some external respect, though the love be real in its kind, yet we
have our own ends in it ; as many may show respect to the people of
God to get advantage by them. Self-love is great in every one of us,
and therefore in sincerity to love the brethren is a very difficult thing ;
most have their ends in it, and make a market of their religion. Then
it is brotherly kindness when we love them out of a respect to their
holiness, or because of the image of God in them. A saint is to be
loved as a saint, and a disciple as a disciple, eo nomine, not because
learned, potent, opulent, but as a child of God ; if so, a quatenus ad
omne, then we will love all in whom we see anything of Christ. Love
will cover something that is unlovely in them, because partakers of the
same grace, and look for salvation by the same Christ. Surely we will
love them whether they be of our party or no ; but (sicut se habet sim-
pliciter ad simpliciter, ita magis ad magis) the more godly, the more
we will love them. Many love godliness in a low degree, while mingled
with imperfections, — the impurity is a part of the reason of the love, —
whilst a very strict man is hated. Well, then, this is brotherly love.
By this brief view of it we see it is very rare to be found amongst chris-
tians. Self-love and the love of the world have almost destroyed it ;
and where it is, it is not so fervent and effectual as it should be. In
most persons, though professed Christians, we either find no love, or if
any be, a very cold one, such as will run no hazards for and with those
whom we love.
I come now to speak of the other branch, charity, or love to all men,
for it must not confine itself to fellow-christians only, but be diffused
to all men, though they be not heirs of the same grace of life. In
short —
92 SERMONS UPON 1 JOHN III. [SER. XVII.
1. This love is either amor justitice, which consists in justice and
righteousness. We are not to wrong them or defraud them of
their due, but so deal with them as we would be dealt with ourselves ;
for this is one sort and kind of love : to love my neighbour as myself,
and do as I would be done by, are equivalent expressions : Rom. xiii.
7, 8, ' Bender to every one their due ; owe no man anything, but to love
one another.' Again, there is amor compassionis, we must not hide
ourselves from our own flesh, Isa. Iviii. 7 ; we must be affected with
their misery, both by reason of sin and affliction, relieve their wants,
seek their conversion, and promote it by ourselves and others by all
ways and means possible. This we owe to barbarians and wicked ones,
of what nation soever ; though we hate their ways, we must pity their
persons.
2. From this love enemies and persecutors are not excepted : Mat.
v. 44, ' Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them
that hate you, and pray for them that despitefully use you and perse
cute you.' For this is to be like God, who is kind to the unthankful
and the evil : Luke vL 35, ' But love your enemies, and do good, and
lend, hoping for nothing again ; and your reward shall be great, and
ye shall be the children of the highest ; for he is kind unto the un
thankful, and to the evil/
3. The fruits of this love are not only seen in bestowing temporal
benefits, but to the uttermost of our power (because they are capable of
eternal blessedness) making it our unfeigned desire and prayer to God,
that they may be saved : Rom. x. 1, ' Brethren, my heart's desire and
prayer to God for Israel is, that they may be saved.' And our earnest
endeavours should be to procure their spiritual good : James v. 19, 20,
' Brethren, if any one of you do err from the truth, and one convert
him, let him know that he which converteth a sinner from the error
of his way shall save a soul from death, and hide a multitude of sins.'
Secondly, The reasons.
1. Why we should love all men. The reasons that may induce us
are —
[1.] Equality, the actual equality of all men by nature, who were all
made by the same God, and all made of one blood. Diversity of rank
doth not take away identity of nature : Mai. ii. 10, ' Have we not all
one Father ? hath not one God created us ? why do we deal treacher
ously every man against his brother? ' So Job xxxi. 13-15, 'If I did
despise the cause of my man-servant, or of my maid-servant, when they
contended with me : what then shall I do when God riseth up ? and
when he visiteth, what shall I answer him ? Did not he that made
me in the womb, make him ? and did not one fashion us in the womb ? '
So Neh. v. 5, ' Our flesh is as the flesh of our brethren, and their chil
dren as our children.' Why is more due to you than them ? And the
possible equality of all men, as to their condition and state of life : Heb.
xiii. 3, ' Remember them that are in bonds, as bound with them, and
them which suffer adversity, as being yourselves in the body.' Before
we go out of the body there may be strange changes in the world, and
God may make us as low as others.
[2.] We are to imitate God, as children do their father, Mat. v. 45.
Now God loveth all his creatures, and hateth none ; the more we imi-
VER. 11.] SERMONS UPON i JOHN in. 93
tate God, the more we know we are children of our Father which is in
heaven.
[3.] God hath so cast the world, that sometimes we need the help ot
others, as they need ours, that, by mutual necessities and a combination
of interests, the world may be upheld. As in the body natural, no
member can say to any, I have no need of thee ; so also hath God dis
posed it in the great frame of mankind, that we may have a mutual
care of one another, 1 Cor. xii. 25. As he requireth from every man a
respect to the world of mankind, so he hath turned all the respects of
the world of mankind upon one man. We would be glad to be loved
of all the men in the world, if we could bring it to pass ; and surely
we may the better expect it if we have this love to all the world.
2. Why we are to love strangers : Heb. xiii. 2, ' Be not forgetful to
entertain strangers, for hereby some have entertained angels unawares.'
By ' strangers ' he meaneth those that are far from home, in another
place and country, where they have few friends, and are not well known,
especially when exiled for the gospel. We find this in Abraham's and
Lot's instances, who were kind to the angels, and had their recompense.
Abraham's barren wife had a promise of bearing a son to him. Lot
had benefit also, being saved from the flames that destroyed Sodom.
Surely such a work of mercy shall not go unrewarded.
3. Why enemies ? Partly because there is more reason to love them
than hate them, because there are some relics of God's image in them ;
and God hath forgiven us greater wrongs : Eph. iv. 32, ' And be ye
kind one to another, tender-hearted, forgiving one another, as God for
Christ's sake hath forgiven you.' We commit a sin against God, or
else, upon the apprehension of the injury done us by man, we are
deeper in danger than our enemy ; we daily trespass against God more
than they can trespass against us. God fbrgiveth talents, we cannot
forgive pence ; God forgiveth a hundred thousand, we cannot one hun
dred, Mat. xviii. We look that God should forgive us, and we will
not forgive others. In short, though it be more comfortable to love a
friend, it is more honourable to love an enemy : Prov. xix. 11, ' It is the
glory of a man to pass by a transgression.'
II. How God hath recommended it to our obedience.
1. It is a precept and a commanded duty, and not bare counsel and
advice only. There is a great deal of difference between allowing and
commanding; where a thing is allowed, licet, it may be done; but
where a thing is commanded, oportet, it must be done, a necessity is
laid upon us ; and therefore none must look upon love as an indifferent
thing, which we may practise or forbear at our own pleasure. No ; it
is a debt or duty by virtue of Christ's express command, a duty to
Christ, a debt that we owe to God more than to our neighbour ; we
owe love to them as our fellow-creatures, but chiefly upon the injunction
of our Creator,
2. It is a special command which Christ hath adopted into his new
law. Christ calleth it his new commandment: John xiii. 34, 'A new
commandment I give unto you, that ye love one another.' How new,
since it was as old as the moral law or the law of nature ? Because it
was so solemnly renewed by him, and commended to their care. Laws,
when new, are more regarded and obeyed. Christ would ratify it afresh,
94 SERMONS UPON 1 JOHN III. [SfiR. XVII.
that the law of love might never be out of date, but be looked upon as
a statute in force and newly enacted, and fresh in the remembrance of
his people. Or a new commandment, because pressed upon a new
ground and pattern : before it was ' Thou shalt love thy neighbour as
thyself ; ' now it is, ' As I have loved you.' The great love of Christ
discovered in the gospel must leave a suitable impression on us. He
came from heaven not only to represent the holy and amiable nature
of God, but to propound us a pattern of love and chanty. Once more,
the scripture is impatient of being denied when it calleth for love to
the brethren ; therefore it applieth itself to our dispositions either way.
Some prize old things, others new ; therefore it telleth us, 1 John ii. 7,
8, ' I write no new commandment to you, but an old commandment,
which ye had from the beginning.' Again, ' A new commandment write
I unto you ; ' 2 John 5, ' Not as though I wrote a new commandment
unto thee, but that which ye had from the beginning, that ye love one
another.' It is old and not old, new and not new ; thus it plieth us on
all hands, that we may look upon ourselves as deeply concerned.
Some novelty is suspected, therefore he telleth them of an old command
ment ; it is the same which was commanded in the law, yet solemnly
reinforced in the gospel. There are some commands which are new
and not old, such are the sacraments of the new testament ; some are
old and not new, as the ceremonies of the law now antiquated; some both
old and new, as the precepts of the moral law, and in particular this
command of love, which, though it were enjoined before, yet it is revived
by Christ, and renewed and recommended by him to his disciples as a
chief and singular duty.
3. It is his dying charge : John xv. 12, ' This is my commandment,
that ye love one another.' He appropriateth it, and challengeth it as
his commandment, which, though given by God before, yet he would
make his own by an express charge : If my authority be of any force
with you, do not entertain it with a careless indifferency, as a thing
which you may neglect without any great inconvenience. The season
is to be observed when those things were spoken by Christ, when he
was departing from his disciples, and preparing them for his departure.
Speeches of dying men are received with much reverence, especially the
charge of dying friends. The brethren of Joseph, fearing he should
remember old injuries, came to him with this plea, Gen. 1. 16, 'Thy
father did command us before he died, saying/ Let us fulfil the will
of the dead. Our Lord commanded us when he died, saying, ' Love
one another.' Christ foresaw how his disciples would quarrel in their
Master's absence, how his work would thereby be interrupted, and
their own peace ; how his religion would be exposed to reproach and
obloquy by the contention of his followers ; therefore he left this
charge, ' See that ye love one another.'
4. It is a comprehensive command ; for to love one another implieth
all those things which concern our duty to our neighbour • John xv.
17, ' These things I command you, that ye love one another.' These
things, and yet but one thing pressed, and that is to love each other.
But love containeth many duties in the bosom of it : Gal. v. 14, ' All
the law is fulfilled in one word, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as
thyself.' How is that to be understood ? There are other precepts
VER. 11.] SERMONS UPON i JOHN in. 95
besides this ; there are respects of love due to God, and there is justice
due to our neighbour, as well as love. But love God, and we love our
neighbour for God's sake; and the acts of justice which we perform to
them are the fruits and products of love, and must flow from love ;
yea, the acts of charity, how pompous and plausible soever they be,
yet if love be not at the bottom, they are not right : 1 Cor. xiii. 1-3,
' Though I speak with the tongue of men and angels, and have not
charity, I am become as a sounding brass, and a tinkling cymbal.
And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understood all mysteries
and all knowledge ; and though I have all faith, so that I could
remove mountains, and have no charity, I am nothing. And though
I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to
be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing.' So that all
the law is fulfilled in this one word. Therefore love is called the ful
filling of the law, Horn. xiii. 8.
5. It is a duty that fitteth us to partake of the blessing which God
hath commanded for his people when united : Ps. cxxxiii. 1-3, 'Behold
how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity.
It is like the precious ointment upon Aaron's head, that ran down upon
the beard, that went down to the skirt of his garment ; as the dew of
Hermon, and the dew that descendeth upon the mountains of Zion ;
for there the Lord commanded the blessing, even life for evermore.'
This holy concord is a blessing both pleasant and profitable. God
delighteth to pour out his graces on such a society : Mat xviii. 19, ' I
say unto you, If two of you shall agree on earth touching anything they
shall ask, it shall be done for them of my Father which is in heaven.'
God will not hear one sort of his children against another ; it is like
'the precious ointment upon the head, that ran down upon the beard,
even Aaron's beard, that went down to the skirt of his garment.'
There the pleasantness is described by the fragrancy of the holy oint
ment wherewith Aaron and his sons were anointed ; it is often called
the oil of gladness, because it cheered the spirits of the chief priests,
and all that were present in the temple. The profit of it, ver. 3, 'As
the dew of Hermon, and as the dew that descended upon the moun
tains of Zion ; for there the Lord commanded the blessing, even life
for evermore.' It is as the dew which moistens the earth, which was
a great blessing in those hot countries, and caused the fields to laugh
with fatness ; he mentioned Mount Hermon and Mount Zion.
Hermon was a fat and fruitful place ; it is usually put among the fair
and pleasant pastures. There is the blessing ; they have most com
munion with God who have most communion with one another, and
all this is in order to eternal life.
6. This is a duty that doth most discover the temper of our religion,
which is wholly made up of love. It is a God of love that we serve, and
they have no acquaintance with him that love not their brethren :
1 John iv. 7, 8, ' Let us love one another, for love is of God ; and
every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God. He that
loveth not, knoweth not God ; for God is love.' Again, 1 John iv. 16,
' God is love, and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, arid God
in him.' Redemption by Christ, which is the great mystery of the
Christian religion, the most conspicuous end was the demonstration of
96 SERMONS UPON 1 JOHN III. [&ER. XVII.
God's love: John iii. 16, 'God so loved the world, that he gave his
only-begotten Son.' So 1 John iii. 16, ' Hereby perceive we the love
of God, that he laid down his life for us.' What is this mystery of re
demption but a wonder of love ? It was love stepped in, and recovered
us out of that destruction and ruin wherein we had involved ourselves.
What was the Son of God but love incarnate, love coming down from
heaven to earth, to die for a sinful world ? Now why was all this
made known unto us ? Only to talk of, or comfort ourselves withal ?
No ; that we might imitate it, that the true stamp and impression of
our religion may be upon our hearts : Eph. v. 2, ' Walk in love, as
Christ also hath loved us ; ' 1 John iv. 11, ' If God so loved us, we
ought also to love one another.' He that seeth the true face of redemp
tion, and understandeth the gospel and the grace of Christ, will easily
be induced to see the reasonableness of such a duty. And what is the
work of the Holy Ghost but to shed abroad this love in our hearts ?
Rom. v. 5 ; the intent of the ordinances, but to represent this love and
seal up this love ? So that we do express the true genius of our
religion by love.
Use. The use is to show us the excellency, and amiableness, and
beautifulness of the Christian religion in both these regards, as it
requireth brotherly kindness and charity. Brotherly kindness or com
munion of saints : some things are pleasant and not profitable, as vain
delights ; some things are profitable and not pleasant, as afflictions and
the sorrows of repentance ; some things neither profitable nor pleasant,
as hatred, variance, strife ; some things pleasant and profitable, as the
concord of God's people. Man is a sociable creature, and religion doth
mightily befriend human societies ; for besides that brotherly kindness,
that it requireth to be exercised among Christians themselves, it re
quireth also love to all men, not only forbidding injustice to the names
and persons of others, but uncharitableness, and those oppressions and
injuries wherewith the world aboundeth. These things would be
banished if men would be but true to this religion, and love their
neighbour as themselves. It commands universal love and kindness
among men, a readiness to forgive our greatest enemies. How easily
would men be induced to pardon wrongs ! how patiently would they
bear a modest dissent, where in this state of frailty all men cannot
force their judgments to be of another mould and size ! How far would
men be from doing hurt to one another, hurt no man, speak evil of no
man ! Yea, how beneficial and helpful would men be to o^e another,
seeking others' good as their own, affected with one another's welfare as
their own, and rejoicing in it ! Oh, that the world would consider how
much of Christianity consists in love and doing good ! Without that
there is nothing so fierce, so bad, so cruel, which you may not be
drawn to think, say, or do against your brother. The world is pre
judiced against religion as an ill-natured thing, but there is no ground
for such a prejudice, when we consider the Christian religion requireth
nothing but what is most fit for God to command, and most reasonable
for man to obey.
VER. 12.] SEKMONS UPON i JOHN in. 97
SERMON XVIII.
Not as Cain, ivJw loas of that wicked one, and slew his brother. And
wherefore slew he him f Because his oion ivories were evil, and
his brother's righteous. — 1 JOHN iii. 12.
THE apostle having urged the precept of brotherly love, now speaketh
of the contrary, which is hatred to the power of godliness, and of this
by way of instance and example. This instance is fitly chosen —
1. As being a most eminent example, or an early discovery of the
malignity of corrupt nature. Therefore Tertullian calleth Cain the
patriarch of unbelievers. Enmity to religion began betimes, and the
world keepeth its old wont, then, and now, and ever. Those that will
live godly in Christ Jesus must expect troubles, 2 Tim. iii. 12.
2. As best to represent the tragical effects of envy and hatred.
When once brotherly love faileth, there is nothing so bad and cruel
which you may not be drawn to do against your brethren ; for corrupt
nature is cruelly bent against all that stand in the way of our esteem
and desires. When once a brother is represented as an enemy, if it
be in the power of our hands, what will we think unlawful to be acted
against him ? If malice be curbed and restrained, we seek to draw
those in with us who have power to serve our private quarrels and
revenges ; and hatred given way to will not be slaked without blood
and ruin.
3. It showeth that devouring malice is the true devilish nature:
'Not as Cain, who was of that wicked one.' It was one of CEcolampa-
dius' observations in a sermon to the children of Basil, that the
ordinary pictures of God and Satan were in good books for the instruc
tion of children either in the nature of God or Satan. The truest re
presentation that can be made of God to children should be to teach
them what truth is, what mercy is, what love is, what goodness is, for
this is God ; and the best picture that can be taken of Satan would
be the true characters of malice, falsehood, envy, and hatred. God is
love, God is mercy, God is goodness ; but falsehood, envy, and hatred,
and cruelty are natural to the old serpent : ' Not as Cain, who was of
that wicked one, and slew his brother.'
In the words observe — (1.) Cain's fact ; (2.) The reason of it.
1. His fact, ' He slew his brother.'
2. The reason. In this latter, one reason is expressed, viz., contra
riety of practice ; acerbissima sunt odia ex diversitate morum. The
other implied envy at God's favour to him, for envy soon runneth into
malice.
First reason. Abel is seldom spoken of in scripture, but he is hon
oured with the title of righteous : Mat. xxiii. 33, ' From the blood of
righteous Abel.' So Heb. xi. 4, ' By which he obtained witness that
he was righteous.'
Second reason. Envy at God's favour : Gen. iv. 4, ' God had re
spect to Abel and his offering.' It must be known by some visible
token, for thereupon Cain's countenance fell, and in his wrath and envy
he slew his brother. Some say, as Claudius Marius, that the smoke of
VOL. XXI. G
98 SERMONS UPON 1 JOHN III. [SfiR. XVIII.
Cain's sacrifice went downward to the earth, and Abel's upward to
heaven ; others say other things, but without any clear warrant. Pro
bably the sign was fire coming down from heaven, and consuming Abel's
sacrifice to ashes. The apostle tellethus, ' God testified of his gifts/ Heb.
xi. 4. Theodosius saith, Surely this was the sign of God's favourable
acceptation afterwards : Ps. xx. 3, ' The Lord accept thy burnt-offer
ings ; ' in the margin it is, ' turn to ashes.' So Lev. ix. 24, ' At Aaron's
sacrifice there came a fire out from the Lord, and consumed the burnt-
offering, and the fat' So in Elijah's contest with Baal's priests : 1
Kings xviii. 38, ' Then the fire of the Lord fell, and consumed the
burnt-sacrifice, and the wood, and the stones, and the dust, and licked
up the water that was in the trench.' So in Gideon's sacrifice : Judges
vi. 21, ' And there rose up a fire out of the rock, and consumed the flesh.'
So Manoah's sacrifice : Judges xiii. 20, ' The flame went up towards
heaven, and the angel ascended in the flame.' So 1 Chron. xxi. 26,
' The Lord answered David by fire from heaven on the burnt-offering.'
Doct, That there is snch a sin as antipathy against the power of
godliness, or a hatred of others because of their strictness in the service
of God, and diligence in heavenly things.
1. I shall give you instances of this in the word of God.
2. Some discoveries of this malignity.
3. The reasons of it.
I. Instances of it from scripture. The world's hatred is disguised
under other pretences. Now what doth the word of God say ? The
word of God doth tell us doctrinally that it is so, and giveth instances
and examples of it.
1. Doctrinally that it is so : let us take notice of that place which
describeth the first rise of it : Gen. iii. 15, ' I will put enmity between
thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed.' There is a
natural enmity between the two seeds, as there is between a wolf and
a lamb.
2. By way of instance and example, to see how this spirit of enmity
hath been working, and how the men of God have had bitter experi
ence of it. Thus Abel was slain by Cain ; Isaac was scoffed at by
Ishmael ; and Jacob was driven out of his father's house by his brother
Esau.
II. Discoveries that this hatred that is commenced against the people
of God ariseth from an antipathy to godliness, though wicked men will
not own it to be such. But to remove cavils, let us see how it ap-
peareth that this hatred is the effect of their abhorrence of that which
is good and holy.
1. This is some discovery of it, because the servants of God have
been hated most, and troubled by the worst of men.
2. Because the best men, who have the least allay of corruption, and
are most eminent for strict and exemplary conversations, are most hated
and maligned.
3. Because when religion is accompanied with other things, that a
man would think should assuage malice and allay the heat and rage of
men against them, yet it escapeth not. Thus godly meek men, that
are guilty of nothing but worshipping God in sincerity, and desiring to
go to heaven with all their hearts, are most persecuted in this world.
VER. 12.] SERMONS UPON i JOHN nr. 99
4. It appeareth by their inventing of lies and ridiculous crimes to
palliate their hatred ; as against the primitive Christians, their wor
shipping an ass's head, their drinking the blood of a child in their
meetings.
5. Because if a man be strict, mortified, sober of life and behaviour,
the world is apt to judge him one of such a hated party ; as if any
named the name of God with reverence, they suspected them for here
tics if they said, ' If the Lord will.'
6. The consciences of wicked men are a thousand witnesses.
7. It appeareth by the joy that wicked men take when they have
anything offered to justify their opposition, as the scandal of any that
profess the ways of God.
III. Having given the instances of the world's hatred, I come to the
reasons.
1. The difference and estrangement in course of life is a provoking
thing ; therefore men that live in any sinful course are loath that any
should part company with them. .
2. This is not all ; it is not only a difference, but a difference about
religion ; and usually hatreds that arise from difference in religion are
very deadly.
3. It is not only difference about religion, but between the true
religion and the false.
But why is there such a spite and enmity at the sincere and serious
profession of the true religion ? I answer —
[1.] The devil's instigation is one cause ; he hath great rage against
the saints
[2.] On man's part there seemeth to be a double reason — pride and
envy.
(1.) Pride, which is impatient of reproof.
(2.) Envy at God's favour bestowed on them. 1
Use 1. Is to press us to avoid this sin and snare of death, especially
in these times of dissension. Whatever party and sort of Christians
you stick unto, be not drawn to hatred against the power of godliness.
We are told that in the latter times men shall be despisers of those
who are good, 2 Tim. iii. 3, not-lovers, or haters, as the word signifieth.
It is a more common sin than we are aware of. Indeed this spirit of
enmity and malignity walketh under a disguise, seeketh other pretences
wherewith to mask itself. But the children of God should beware of
it, lest the sheep act the wolves' part, and cry up a confederacy with
the wicked world in their spite against others of God's children. Now
that we may avoid this snare, I will represent — (1.) The commonness
of the sin ; (2.) The heinousness of it ; (3.) Some remedies against it.
First, The commonness of the sin.
It appeareth by this, that the scripture everywhere divides all the
world into two ranks — the godly and the ungodly, the converted and
unconverted, the unsanctified and sanctified, the carnal and spiritual,
the earthly-minded and the heavenly-minded, the children of God and
the children of the devil ; and Christ will at last divide all the world
into sheep and goats. Thus standeth the case, not only between the
1 See this subject largely handled in the author's sermons on the 17th of John, in
Volume X. of this edition. — ED.
100 SERMONS UPON 1 JOHN III. [SfiR. XVIII.
church and the world, but within the church, between the serious and
profane, the real and nominal Christians ; though they have the same
bible, creed, and baptism, yet they hate one another, malign one another.
It must needs be so, for otherwise these things are said in vain, for the
scriptures are not written to infidels. Therefore it concerneth us to
look to ourselves, our own soundness and sincerity with Christ. If we
engage in the differences and espouse quarrels before we are gained to
Christ, take heed the quarrel be not rather against the life and practice
of religion than a pure zeal for the truth ; and that we do not reproach
those for heretics and schismatics that are more diligent and serious
in God's service than ourselves ; for the zeal of the carnal is always to
be suspected. First plant the fear of God, and then men will best own
the cause of God. Certainly it is usual for the formal to hate the
serious, and the Christian in the letter to despise him who is so in the
spirit. An outward, superficial, apocryphal, bastard holiness filleth us
with this hatred. Cain had his sacrifice as well as Abel, but Abel
goeth thoroughly to work, and was accepted, which Cain doth not, and
therefore hateth and killeth him : Isa. Ixvi. 5, ' Your brethren that
hate you, and cast you out for my name's sake, said, Let God be glori
fied.' Men that are brethren, that profess the same religion, yet being
loose and false in it, may hate others that are strict and true ; as it is
•said in the Revelations, they pushed with the horns of the lamb.
Therefore it concerneth us to consider —
1. What is our state, what is the ground of our quarrel, what are
the ends and motives in all contests that we have with others.
2. If the cause of the quarrel be never so good and just, yet it may
be carried on with too great heat and animosity against godly brethren ;
bitter zeal argueth some breach made upon brotherly love : James iii.
14, ' If ye have bitter envying and strife in your hearts, glory not, and
lie not against the truth.' Those that have this bitter contention, or
feverish kind of zeal, have seldom a true zeal for God, but a partiality
to their own interests, if not a hatred against their brethren. It is a
spirit of carnal envy against the credit and reputation of others, a
kitchen, not a celestial fire ; and though it be not downright mis
chievous hatred, yet it is a great unkindness, as Job was too deeply
censured by his godly friends.
3. There may be a secret rising of heart and envy against the purity
and strictness of others, even by some of those who are right for the
main themselves. It should promote holy emulation and imitation ;
so the apostle saith, ' Your zeal hath provoked many,' 1 Cor. ix. 2, and
Heb. x. 24, ' Let us provoke one another to love and good works.'
But many times it draweth envy, and then natural malignity beginneth
to work. You had need to suppress it betimes, for lusts stirred will
grow more tumultuous. One eminently godly man may reprove the
conscience of another by his life ; they cannot look upon it without
some shame and check : it should stir in us only a holy emulation, not
a carnal envy.
4. In opposing those that are godly, you had need be tender, that
you go upon sure grounds, and that your opposition proceedeth not to
mischievous violence : Mat. xviii. 6, ' He that offendelh one of these
little ones which believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone
VEE. 12.] SERMONS UPON i JOHN in. 101
were hanged about his neck, and that lie were drowned in the depth of
the sea.' As was said concerning Paul, ' Take heed what you do, for
this man is a Roman.' Men that know the danger will not easily kick
against the pricks, at least do not join with the opposite: 'Eat and
drink with the drunken, and beat your fellow-servants,' Mat. xxiv. 49 ;
and cry up a confederacy with wicked men to promote your private
differences with more advantage ; there may be much of the hatred of
godliness in it. The devil will be a defender of the truth and church
with a bloody and killing zeal, so the soundest and holiest members
be destroyed ; those go in the way of Cain, Jude 11, if slaughters and
massacres will do, and so think they serve God by murdering his
servants, John xvi. 2.
5. If you be glad when you find any blemish to eclipse the lustre
and glory of their innocency, this argueth a secret hatred to them as
godly : ' Charity rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth,'
1 Cor. xiii. 6 ; and Phil. iii. 18, ' For many walk, of whom I have told
you often, and now tell you even weeping, they are enemies to the cross
of Christ.' They were not real Christians, but enemies to the cross of
• Christ. You are glad at the miscarriages of some, and those few are
cast upon all.
Secondly, The heinousness and greatness of the sin.
1. A malicious opposing of those that are good, and do belong to
God, under that consideration, bordereth near to the great transgression,
which is a malicious desertion or opposition of the truth after sufficient
conviction ; it is not it, but it cometh near to it in the height of it.
2. Religion is a commendation of kindness on the one side, so it is
an aggravation of malice on the other : Mat. x. 40, ' Whosoever shall
give to drink to one of these little ones, a cup of cold water only, in
the name of a disciple, he shall not lose his reward.' Therefore to
hate men for their godliness is a provoking sin.
3. It is a mark of a child of the devil, the express image of Satan.
Thereby our Saviour convinced the Jews to be of their father the devil,
because they hated him that came from God, John viii. 40. You
express Satan's image to the life when this is the ground of hatred.
4. When you have no other quarrel against them but their goodness,
that which should be the cause of the greatest love is the cause of the
greatest hatred ; and so God himself is despised when his image is
despised and the devil's had in reverence and honour.
5. This sin is the greater because of the many blessings we enjoy by
them ; they are the honour and blessing of a country. Elijah, that
was counted the troubler of Israel, yet is by the prophet called the
chariots and horsemen of Israel, 2 Kings ii. 12, that is, the defence of
the country. When such are gone, it is the worse for any people :
Gen. xix. 22, ' I cannot do anything till thou art gone thither ; ' Acts
xxvii. 24, ' And I have given thee the lives of all that sail with thee in
the ship.'
Thirdly, The means to avoid it.
1. Keep up the love of all men. He is not godlv that loveth not all
men with the love common to Christianity, and Yuose that fear God
with a special love ; the one is the preservative from dashing against
the other. Free the mind from malice, and you will free it from
'
102 SERMONS UPON 1 JOHN III. [SfiR. XIX.
hatred to the power of godliness, for malice blindeth men that they
cannot see the good in those they hate. You are at the greatest dis
tance from this sin when you take heed of the hatred of any man.
We should love all with the love of good-will, though our delight
should be in the excellent ones of the earth. Live in enmity and
malice with none, though you take just offence at their sins. Lot's
righteous soul was vexed from day to day, 2 Peter ii. 8, yet he lived
peaceably in Sodom. They are an abomination for caution to ourselves,
but not with a mischievous hatred.
2. Take heed of an uncharitable impropriating of Christ ; this is the
readiest way to confine your love, and hate all the world besides ; but
love the gifts and graces of God in any party and sort of men, for
God's interest lieth not in one party; do not therefore impale the
common salvation, 'theirs and ours,' 1 Cor. i. 2. If God hath received
him, though weak, we should own him. The devil hath a great hand
over those that enclose all religion within the lines of their communion,
either because their party is the best, or greatest, or uppermost, or
chief in the house, city, or kingdom ; they are all the church. Alas !
often it is so, but God will not reckon his children by the opinion of
an angry brother.
3. Do not think evil of any without constraining evidence, for ' charity
thinketh no evil/ 1 Cor. xiii. 5, 6. Charity doth not force and wrest
things by a strained interpretation. For our caution, if they be as bad
as malice can imagine, and you certainly know any fault by them,
take warning to avoid it ; and consider what need there is of watch
fulness, when they that set their faces heavenward do so fall and
stumble in their way thither ; and see what need you and others have
to be better. This is to improve the failings of others, not to censure
them.
4. Cherish those that invite you to love, as messengers from the God
of love: ' For this is the message we have from the beginning.' But
those censurers, backbiters, and slanderers, that make the worst of other
men's actions, look upon as Satan's messengers inviting you to hate
your brother, as if they said, I pray hate such a one; for he that
speaketh evil of another without a just cause and call doth but entice
you to hatred and mischief, at least to abate your love ; for to per
suade you another is bad is to persuade you to hate him.
SERMON XIX.
Marvel not, my brethren, if the icorld hate you. — 1 JOHN iii. 13.
IN these words you have an application of the instance of Cain — (1.)
For the support of, present believers ; (2.) As a new motive to brotherly
love.
1. For the support of present believers. The world is of the same
spirit that Cain was ; he envied his brother and slew him, to presignify
VER. 13.] SERMONS UPON i JOHN in. 103
to the world what the corrupt nature of man would prove, and how
opposite the carnal and wicked would be to the sanctified ; what the
holy seed, who are accepted of God, must look for in the world, and
patiently endure for the hope of an everlasting blessedness with God.
The world was of the same spirit that Cain was ; and if we be up
right, the same causes of hatred do continue still.
2. As a new motive to brotherly love. The children of God should
love one another the more fervently, because they are all exposed to
the hatred of the world. The same connection you may observe, John
xv. 17, 18> ' These things I command you, that you love one another.
If the world hate you, you know it hated me before it hated you.' The
world's hatred to believers is a strong argument to persuade them to
love one another. You are sure to meet with hatred from them, and
therefore you must be more careful to maintain mutual love between
one another. Usually when love decayeth, God doth enkindle and
blow it up by the storms of persecution. Eusebius said that before the
tenth persecution the church was rent and torn by intestine broils,
pastors against pastors, and people against people. Ease and pride
beget wantonness, and that maketh way for contention. We warp
like green timber in the sunshine, and rend from one another ; the dog
is let loose that the sheep may run together. Nazianzen was wont to
call the enemies of the church the common reconcilers : it is well when
it proveth so. To this end is this spoken.
Doct. That there is no cause of perplexing wonder at the world's
hatred.
For distinctness we will put it in two propositions.
1. That the world hateth God's children,
2. That when we feel the effects of it, we should not marvel at this
hatred.
For the first point, we 'shall handle four things, and show you —
(1.) What the world is ; (2.) What God's children are ; (3.) The
hatred of the one to the other ; (4.) The reasons of it.
First, What the world is. By the world is meant all carnal and
unregenerate men, they may be delivered to us under a fourfold
character : It is a foolish world, a sensual world, a lazy world, and a
furious world.
1. A foolish world : Titus iii. 3, 'We were sometimes foolish, dis
obedient, deceived.' They are all blinded with the delusions of the
flesh, and very hard to be convinced of their mistakes and errors :
2 Peter i. 9, ' He that lacketh grace is blind, and cannot see afar off.'
They are ignorant, and wander in darkness, and yet will not be
convinced of their ignorance. Herein spiritual blindness differeth
from bodily. If a man be blind as to the eyes of his body, he would
be glad of a meet guide : Acts xv. 4, Elymas, when struck blind,
would have somebody to lead him by the hand. But it is not so with
them that are spiritually blind ; they count it a torment if any would
direct them and guide them into the right way ; they are angry with
those that would stop them in the way to hell : Prov. xiv. 1, ' A
fool rageth, and is confident.' They are never more ragingly confident
than when most deceived and most blind. Therefore in the world
felly carrieth it, and wise men are discouraged, and tempted often to
104 SERMONS UPON 1 JOHN III. [SER. XIX.
leave the foolish world to itself, as likely to do no good upon them, but
only to bring hatred upon themselves.
2. It is a sensual world, where the beast rideth the man, and reason
and conscience are enslaved to sense and appetite : Titus iii. 3, ' Serving
divers lusts and pleasures.' Wantonness and pride, and sports and
vanity, and living in excess in meat, drink, and apparel, is the business
of their lives, and their whole time is spent in making ' provision for
the flesh to fulfil the lusts thereof,' Rom. xiii. 14. If you tell them
of a soul to save and lose, you are an enemy to their designed course
of life, and they think you infringe their liberty, and have a plot upon
them, to make them mopish and melancholy. To invite this sensual
world by counsel or example to a holy, self-denying life, is as if you
were about to snatch away the prey from a ravening wolf, or the
carrion from a hungry dog, and they are ready to turn again and rend
you ; and therefore a godly man maketh himself to such either a scorn
or a prey ; you cross their lusts, and check their very natures and
inclinations ; they think strange you are not affected as they are, and
whilst you invite them to godliness, you do but tempt their reproach :
1 Peter iv. 4, 5, ' They think it strange that you run not with them
into the same excess of riot, speaking evil of you : who shall give an
account to him who is ready to judge the quick and the dead.'
3. It is a lazy world, that will not be put out of their pace in
religion, which is so slow and easy that it will not displease the flesh.
Man in his degeneracy yet retaineth a conscience, and therefore though
he serveth his lusts, yet must have some religion to please his conscience
and palliate his lusts, but as little as may be serveth the turn. Con
science is like the stomach, which must be filled ; therefore if it be not
able to digest solid nourishment, it sucketh nothing but wind, and
filleth itself with wind. The conscience must have a religion, but a
dull, cold, and dead-hearted form serveth the turn ; the life and power
which the faithful subjects of God seek after, and recommend to the
world, is too searching, and not for their turn. Mat. ix. 17, Christ
compareth these duties to new wine, full of spirit and life ; and
Pharisaical fastings and hypocritical devotions to taplash, alluding
to their skin-bottles. There is a spirit in holy serious duties, which
old bottles cannot bear without breaking ; and therefore if you cross
and put them out of their dead way, they cannot bear it.
4. It is a malignant or a furious world : Titus iii. 3, ' Living in
malice and envy, Tiateful and hating one another;' who have an
implacable hatred to godliness ; because of their malice they will hate,
and because of their multitude and power they often can trouble us :
' The whole world lieth in wickedness,' 1 John v. 19. Some are more
venomous, and have an inbred radicated envy to all that goodness
which themselves want ; but all dislike goodness and serious thoughts.
Some are more gross in the outbreaking of their malice and sensuality,
but all have a spice of this malignity, because of the perfect difference
and contrary course of life between them and the people of God. In
short, they mind earthly things, while the other mind heavenly, Phil.
iii. 19, and so are enemies to Christ, and his interest and people :
' They are of the world, and speak of the world, and the world heareth
them/ 1 John iv. 5. They serve the god of this world, 2 Cor. iv. 4 ;
VER. 13.] SERMONS UPON i JOHN in. 105
and surely he hath rage enough against the sanctified ; and they have
their portion in this world, Ps. xvii. 14, all that which they prize and
value. These are one of the parties which are here described, the
world.
Secondly, What God's children are and should be ? A wise, holy,
and self-denying company, whose work and scope it is to please, and
glorify, and enjoy God.
1. They are such as place all their hopes and happiness in a life to
come ; there is their treasure, Mat. vi. 20, and there are their hearts
and affections, Col. iii. 1, 2. They dare not choose perishing things
for their portion, but look mainly to things unseen and eternal, 2 Cor.
iv. 18.
2. They make it their business to get thither : Phil. ii. 12, ' Work
out your salvation with fear and trembling ;' and Phil. iii. 20, ' But our
conversation is in heaven, from whence we look for a Saviour.' Their
life and love, time and strength, minds and hearts, are wholly taken
up about these things.
3. They use this world only in order to the next : Heb. xi. 13, ' And
were persuaded of them,' viz., the promises, 'and embraced them,
confessing they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth.' And con
temn all the wealth and glory of the world in comparison of God and
their own salvation, and meddle sparingly with the delights of the
flesh, lest their hearts be perverted or diverted from better things : 1
Peter ii. 11, 'As strangers and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts,
which war against the soul.'
4. They are willing to take others along with them to heaven, partly
out of pity, as having been once of the world themselves, as opposite to
God and godliness and godly people, and unmindful of heavenly things,
as others are, till the Lord Jesus delivered them out of that cursed
estate: Gal. i. 4, 'Who gave himself for our sins, that he might
deliver us from this present evil world.' Therefore moved with the
more pity and compassion towards others, who are left in these chains of
darkness and sensuality : Titus iii. 2, 3, ' Showing meekness to all men ;
for we ourselves were sometimes disobedient, deceived, serving divers
lusts.' And partly because grace is diffusive, and will seek to propa
gate itself, as fire turneth all about it into fire : 1 John i. 3, ' That
which we have seen and heard declare we unto you, that ye also may
have fellowship with us ; and truly our fellowship is with the Father,
and with his Son Jesus.' Mules and creatures of a bastard production
do not propagate after their kind. A good man would be saving all
he can ; he that believeth heaven and hell cannot think with patience
of the perishing of souls for which Christ died, but endeavours to save
them. Now these are the children of God, or such as these they should
be ; and it will be hard for a holy man to pass through his whole life
without his portion of the world's hatred. Certainly few that are
truly wise, good, and heavenly can escape it. Two things in this kind
of conversation are distasted —
[1.] It is convincing, and has the force of a reproof on those that
will not submit to this way of living: Heb. xi. 7, 'Noah condemned
the world.' When you convince and condemn the foolish, furious
world, it will show itself an opposite world.
106 SERMONS UPON 1 JOHN III. [SfiR. XIX.
' [2.] It is provoking : 2 Cor. ix. 2, ' Your zeal had provoked very
many.' The holy, heavenly, charitable life hath an excellency in it ;
it provoketh to imitation, or it provoketh to envy, or heart-rising
indignation and opposition ; and therefore because the good have no
mind to imitate the bad, the bad will emulate or hate the good.
They convince the carnal, provoke the lazy ; therefore they hate them,
and do not imitate and follow them ; but where God blesseth the
example of heavenly, mortified, and self-denying Christians, to the
conversion of others, it hath a provoking efficacy in it. Holy conversa
tion worketh as the word worketh ; some are pricked at the heart,
some are cut at heart : Acts ii. 37, with Acts vii. 54, they that were
pricked at heart were converted and healed ; they that were cut at
heart gnashed upon Stephen with their teeth.
Thirdly, The implacable hatred of the carnal to the sanctified
showeth itself many ways, but they may be referred to these two—
violence and calumny or reproach. So our Saviour hath sorted them :
Mat. v. 10, 11, ' Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteous
ness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are ye when
men shall revile you, and persecute you, and say all manner of evil
against you falsely, for my name's sake.' There is a twofold effect of
hatred — persecution and slander ; the greater or lesser sort of persecu
tion, when they pursue their persons with violence, casting them out
of the church, yea, out of the world : John xvi. 2, ' They shall put you
out of the synagogues ; yea, the time cometh, that he that killeth you
thinketh that he doeth God good service.' But sometimes men's
hands are restrained from blood, but their hearts boil with malice ;
therefore they seek to make religion odious, and cast out the names of
the people of God as evil, by scorning and reviling them, and taking
all occasions to slander them and misrepresent them, and that either
with princes, by insinuating to them that they who are seriously godly
are enemies to their interests, and such an odious sort of men as are
unfit to live in their dominions. As Haman said of the Jews, ' There
is a certain people whose laws are divers from all people, neither
keep they the king's laws, and therefore it is not for the king's profit
to suffer them to live.' Alas ! were we conscious to all the insinuations
which are whispered and buzzed into the ears of the kings and princes of
the earth, we should wonder more at God's providence and our protection.
Sometimes they take all occasions to slander them to the populacy ;
as those envious Jews, Acts xvii. 6, ' These have turned the world up
side down, and are come hither also.' It may be they may be trouble
some to a corrupt world, as a physician is with his medicines to a
body filled with ill humours. If they trouble the world, it is for their
health, for their peace, for the saving of their souls. Again, they
revile and scorn them upon ordinary private occasions ; as David was
the song of the abjects and hypocritical mockers in feasts, Ps. xxxv.
15, 16. They expose them to the contempt of base people, and their
names are torn and rent in pieces in every jovial and festival meeting ;
and when they are warming themselves with wine and good cheer, one
dish brought to the table is John Baptist's head in a charger, some
godly, Christian, and grave minister ; and usually scoffs and jests at godli
ness are the most relishing sauces of all their banquets. The dinner
VER. 13.] SERMONS UPON i JOHN in. 107
never goeth well off unless they scoff and rail at some that fear
God.
Fourthly, The reasons ; and they are —
1. Ignorance ; which is twofold — simple and plain ignorance, or the
ignorance of prejudicate malice.
[1.] Simple and plain ignorance : 1 John iii. 1, 2, ' The world krioweth
us not, because it knew him not.' They know not our birth and
breeding, our hopes and expectations, and are not acquainted with the
nature and worth of spiritual things, and so it is but the scorn of a fool
that valtieth a carnal life above a spiritual.
[2.] Prejudicate malice. When men will not search into the prin
ciples, practices, and reasons of the godly life, they are willingly ignor
ant ; they will not hear any arguments and reasons, because they have
a mind to condemn and hate ; and so will not understand the thing
they judge of: Jude 10, 'Speak evil of the things they know not.'
Justin Martyr's complaint was, that the Christians were condemned un
heard, without any just inquiry into their principles and practices. A
nearer view would undeceive them, as Peter Martyr's similitude, re
lated by Celius Secundus Curio in the life of Galiacius, expresseth it,
that if they were not blinded by malice, they might see a beauty in the
ways of God, and the reasons and motives by which his children are
governed. One John Francis Caserta, a nobleman, was earnest with
his cousin to hear Peter Martyr preach. One day with much entreaty
he was drawn to hear him, not so much with a desire to learn and pro
fit, as out of curiosity. Peter Martyr was then opening the first epistle
to the Corinthians, and showing how much the judgment of the natu
ral understanding is mistaken in things spiritual. Among other' things,
he used this similitude : If a man riding in an open country should
afar off see men and women dancing together, and should not hear
their music according to which they dance and tread out their mea
sures, he would think them to be a company of fairies and madmen, ap
pearing in such various motions and antic postures ; but if he came
nearer, and heard the musical notes, according to which they exactly
dance, he would find that to be art which before he thought madness.
The same happeneth to them who at first see a change of life, com
pany, fashions in their former conversations ; he thinketh they are
brain-sick and foolish ; but when he cometh more intimately to weigh the
thing, and what an exact harmony there is between such a life and con
versation and the motions of God's Holy Spirit and the directions of
his word, he findeth that to be the highest reason which before he
judged madness and folly. This similitude struck this gallant to the
heart.
2. Envy, because of the different course of life, and the privileges at
tending it, comfort, blessing, success. So Pilate knew that the priests
delivered Jesus for envy, Mat. xxvii. 18. Avarice sold him, but envy
delivered him. What envy it was is expressed in another evangelist :
' You see how we prevail nothing ; if we let him alone, all the world
will go after him,' John xi. 47, 48. They saw God's presence and
power was with him, and that stirred up their envy. Their worldly
interest was their great idol, and they looked upon the success
of Christ's kingdom as contrary to it. So Acts xvii. 5, 'The
108 SERMONS UPON 1 JOHN III. [SER. XIX.
malignant Jews, moved with envy/ stirred up all that trouble against
Paul.
3. Christ is the head of one party, and Satan of the other. Christ
hath introduced truth and holiness, and the devil is the principle and
architect of all wickedness and cruelty and hatred ; therefore since he
worketh in the children of disobedience, and they are taken captive by
him at his will and pleasure, is not the hand of Satan in all this ?
Object. But how can it stand with the goodness and righteousness
of God's providence that such a numerous and potent party as the
multitude of ungodly should live in enmity with his people, and that
his faithful servants should be continually exercised with their hatred
and molestation, and sometimes to the utter loss and ruin of all their
worldly interests ? I answer —
[1.] It is for the glory of his providence that he ruleth in the midst
of his enemies, Ps. ex. 2, and upholdeth his church not only against
opposition, but by opposition. His church is really the bush that is
burned but not consumed ; he can keep them from the evil of the
world, though he doth not take them out of the world, John xvii. 15.
[2.] That self-denying obedience is most acceptable to God. A
religion that costs nothing is worth nothing. Though we be deep suf
ferers in this world, and our demand in arrear unpaid till another world,
yet it is fit we should be tried : James i. 12, ' Blessed is the man that
endureth temptation, for when he is tried he shall receive a crown
of life/ It suiteth with God's conduct now, when he is trying, not
rewarding the children of men.
[3.] He that soundly believeth the promises of God will not stick
much at suffering by the hatred of the world ; he doth but lose a
feather to win a crown : Mat. v. 11, 'Eejoice and be exceeding glad,
for great is your reward in heaven.'
[4.] This kind of government is necessary to prevent that scurf and
dross which is apt to overgrow the church arid particular believers, the
scurf of hypocrites creeping into the visible societies of the faithful.
When profession is cheap, many will take it up though their hearts be
not with God, Mat. xiii. 21 ; and the scurf and dross of vanity and cor
ruption growing into the lives of the saints, as filth on standing waters.
Tribulation is God's fan and physic : Mat. iii. 11, ' Whose fan is in his
hand, and he will thoroughly purge his floor ; ' Isa. xxix. 9, ' By this
shall the iniquity of Jacob be purged out.'
Doct. 2. We have no reason to wonder at it, if it prove our lot to
meet with the world's hatred.
This is dissuaded in two places, and there is a different word used
in both, as here in the text, and 1 Peter iv. 12, ' Think it not strange
concerning the fiery trial.' We wonder at what is great and grievous,
terrible and strange, at what is rare, new, and unusual, not thought of
before.
First, I will inquire how we are apt to wonder, or to count it grie
vous and strange — (1.) Out of security ; (2.) Impatience of the cross.
1. Out of our security. The children of God are loath to forecast
trials, and therefore, if we have any rest from troubles, we think it will
be perpetual : Ps. xxx. 6, ' I said in my prosperity, I shall never be
moved.' As if this breathing-time and short truce were a sure peace,
VER. 13.] SERMONS UPON i JOHN in. 100
that will never be interrupted. If we can put a carnal pillow under
our heads, we lie down and sleep, and dream of much worldly ease, as
if all bitterness were past, and so are very apt and subject to security,
usually when trials are nearest. Christ finds his disciples asleep just as
the high priest's officers were coming to attack him, Mat. xxvi. 40,
and Jonah was asleep in the ship when about to be thrown into the
sea, Jonah i. 5.
2. Impatiency of the cross. We consult with present sense ; ease is
pleasing to flesh and blood. We say rest is good, and are loath to have
our ears grated with the remembrance of the cross, though Christ
biddeth us take it up daily, Luke ix. 36, in the preparation of our
minds, and reconciling and making it familiar to our thoughts before it
cometh ; therefore we remove those things out of our thoughts, and so
marvel and are amazed when they come upon us.
Secondly, Why is marvelling forbidden ? what great harm is there in
that ? (1.) That we may not be surprised ; (2.) Perplexed or offended
when the trial befalleth us.
1. We must not marvel or be amazed, as men are when they meet
with some new and strange thing, but be affected as with a matter we
looked for before, and accordingly have prepared for it. Sorrows fore
seen leave not so sad and forcible an impression upon the spirit : Job
iii. 15, ' The evil which I feared is come upon me.' When we expect
evils, they hurt the less ; but when it cometh unlocked for, it is the
more burdensome. That child saith his lesson best that hath often
conned it over.
2. Perplexed or offended ; for this marvelling is forbidden in order
to offence ; when we see nothing befalleth us but what we have heard
of beforehand, and were warned of long beforehand, we are not so apt
to stagger at the cross, and shrink under it : John xvi. 1, ' These
things I have spoken to you, that you should not be offended.' We
pretend to believe the scriptures when we read them, yet complain
when they are fulfilled. Never any one afflicted as I am, scorned and
hated as I am ; and all because we promised to ourselves a more quiet
estate than the world's hatred or the tenor of God's dispensations will
permit.
Thirdly, What reasons there are to take off our marvel.
1. Our troubles, by which the world's hatred is manifested, are
decreed by God ; the fulfilling of God's eternal counsel and decrees
should be no marvel to us : Horn. viii. 29, ' He hath predestinated us
to be conformed to the image of his Son ; ' first in affliction, then in
glory : 1 Thes. iii. 3, ' That no man should be moved by these afflictions,
for yourselves know that we are appointed thereunto/ There is nothing
strange in it, but what God hath determined to come upon us.
2. We should not marvel at that which we are frequently forewarned
of: these things are foretold in scripture: 'You shall be hated of all
men for my name's sake,' Mark xiii. 13 ; John xv. 19, ' Because I have
chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you ; ' John
xvi. 33, ' In the world you shall have tribulation, but be of good cheer,
I have overcome the world ; ' Acts xiv. 22, ' That we through much
tribulation should enter into the kingdom of heaven ; ' 2 Tim. iii. 12,
' All that will live godly in Christ Jesus must suffer persecution/
110 SERMONS UPON 1 JOHN III. [SfiR. XIX.
3. Because it was fulfilled in our head : John xv. 18, ' The world
hated me before it hated you.' If the world hated Christ, no wonder
if it hate us ; if Jesus Christ, who never committed sin, who came into
the world with a design of love, to do mankind the greatest good, was
hated so far as to be put to a shameful death. Jesus Christ was the
greatest enemy to sin that ever was born ; he hath endured the contra
diction of sinners before us. Therefore if we are heirs to his sufferings,
and that enmity which began with him, and it light upon us for his
sake, should we marvel and strain at it? Nothing should seem grie
vous to a believer which he hath once tasted. If Christ drank of the
bitter cup himself, he will have the more sympathy towards us when
we pledge him in it. In short, it is a valuable preferment, the fellow
ship of his sufferings, and conformity to his death.
4. That which ever from the beginning of the world hath been the
lot of good and holy men should not be marvelled at : Mat. v. 12, ' So
persecuted they the prophets which were before you.' The best have
undergone these troubles, and surely we are not better than our fathers,
1 Kings xix. 4.
5. That which is necessary to mortify the old man, and break the
force of our pride and carnal affections, to try our patience, to reclaim
us from our wanderings, to awaken in us a more earnest pursuit of
things to come, to keep us from surfeiting of ease and prosperity, and
to cut off the fuel and provisions of our lusts, should not be marvelled
at ; but this discipline is necessary for all those things : 1 Peter i. 6,
' If need be ye are in heaviness for a season, through manifold tempta
tions.' The scriptures abundantly show this everywhere. Therefore
let us not marvel if we meet with trouble and opposition from men for
Christ's sake ; it hath ever been so, and will be so, and shall we be
surprised and perplexed at it ? If men use to be startled or surprised,
it is at something that is strange. The wonder is rather of the other
side, if there be any remission of this enmity, considering the disposition
of the world.
Use 1. Is to persuade us to venture upon the profession of Chris
tianity with this resolution, to bear patiently the frowns and hatred of
the world. Christ telleth us the worst at first, Mat. xvi. 24, and is
therein contrary to Satan, who showeth us the bait but hideth the hook ;
but Christ telleth us that, when God seeth fit, we must be willing to
encounter temptations and the displeasures of the world ; whether
they come or no, we must arm ourselves with a mind to endure them.
God never intended Isaac should be sacrificed, yet he will have
Abraham lay the knife to his throat. To think of going to heaven,
and yet dream of a life of ease and peace, free from all manner of
troubles and afflictions for conscience' sake, it is all one as if a soldier
going to the war should promise himself continual peace with the
enemy, or a mariner going a long voyage should imagine a perpetual
calm. Therefore you must reckon upon the scorns of the world, the
distaste of carnal friends, the oppositions of the froward part of man
kind, and be ' shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace/ Eph. vi.
15. Have a resolved mind to go through thick and thin, and to follow
Christ in all conditions.
Use 2. Fortify your minds against the world's hatred by such con-
VER. 13.] SERMONS UPON i JOHN in. Ill
siderations as may best support you. Though you be hated of the
world, it is enough that you are beloved of God and accepted by God ;
that is a Christian's greatest ambition, 2 Cor. v. 9, greatest joy, Ps. iv.
6, 7. When God smileth, it is no matter who frowneth.
2. God will take your case in hand, and then whatever you lose by
the hatred and wrath of man shall be compensated to you and made
up to you by the love of God : 2 Thes. i. 6, 7, ' Seeing it is a righteous
thing with God to recompense tribulation to them that trouble you ;
and to you that are troubled, rest with us, when the Lord Jesus shall
be revealed from heaven, with his mighty angels.'
3. That faith and love to God tried is better, and will yield more
comfort, than bare faith and love without trial : 1 Peter i. 7, ' Knowing
that the trial of your faith is much more precious than gold that
perisheth, that your faith may be found to praise, glory, and honour,
at Christ's appearing.' It is the self-denying obedience that yieldeth
most comfort ; when graces are proved so as to be approved, then they
have the clearest evidence in our conscience.
4. The way to live happily is to obey the will of God rather than to
obey the lusts of men ; for by pleasing of God, though you seem to
endanger your interests, you do best establish them : Prov. xvi. 7,
' When a man's ways please the Lord, he maketh even his enemies to
be at peace with him.'
Use 3. If this hatred be restrained, be the more thankful to God
and men.
1. To God. Certainly a good day should be well improved ; Acts
ix. 31, when the church had rest, they walked in the fear of God and
comforts of the Holy Ghost. When we are not called to passive
obedience and sufferings, our active obedience should be the more
cheerfully performed. The primitive Christians suffered more willingly
for Christ than we speak for him ; they dreaded the fire less than we
do a frown or scorn. Surely when we are exempted from outward
troubles and sufferings, our peace and comfort will cost us more in
getting; and therefore we should be more in service, and zeal, and
diligence. If we cannot deny the ease of the flesh for the labours of
the gospel, how shall we deny the interests of the flesh for the sufferings
of the gospel, and lay all at Christ's feet ?
2. To men. Let us make all thankful returns to the magistrates
we live under, by prayers for them, and exemplary obedience. The
apostle telleth us that the magistrate is ' the minister of God to thee
for good,' Rom. xiii. 4. God by them reacheth out this good to thee,
of peace and quiet in the profession and practice of godliness ; there
fore all manner of prayer is due for them : 1 Tim. ii. 1, 2, ' I exhort,
therefore, that, first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and
giving of thanks be made for all men ; for kings, and for all that are
in authority ; that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all
godliness and honesty.' Were it not for the ordinance of magis
tracy, what a shambles and slaughter-house would the world be !
Now when God inclineth their hearts to give peace and rest to his
people, the favour is to be acknowledged by such ways as become
Christianity, by hearty prayers to God for them, and eminent obed
ience to them.
112 SERMONS UPON 1 JOHN III. [SER. XIX.
Use 4. Is information. Some practical corollaries I will thence
deduce.
1. What little need we have to be troubled, if we meet with the
hatred of the world in doing our duty. Surely it is better to suffer
injuries than to do them, better be an Abel than a Cain ; there is glory
and comfort in sufferings, but shame in sin. It is a discouragement
to us ministers that a man cannot promote any public good, but he is
like to be a sacrifice to public hatred, but he must displease men ; nay,
not only the carnal part of the world, but even the weaker sort of the
people of God, who, because of remaining darkness, many times put
good for evil, and evil for good: 'If I yet pleased men, were I the
servant of Christ ? ' Gal. i. 10. Displease them you must to their
profit, though it be to your own hurt.
2. What need the children of God have to walk circumspectly. We
live in the midst of those that hate us, and malice and hatred is quick-
sighted, and will soon spy out our failings: Ps. xxvii. 11, ' Lead me in
a plain path, because of mine enemies;' in the margin it is, ' those
which observe me.' Enemies are observers : Jer. xx. 10, ' They watch
for my halting ; ' if they could find him tripping in anything, to defame
him. Among friends we are more careless, but before enemies we look
to every step. If you falter in your duty a little, their mouths will be
opened against you : Neh. v. 9, ' Ought we not to walk in the fear of
our God, because of the reproach of the heathen our enemies ? ' Col.
iv. 5, ' Walk in wisdom towards them that are without/
3. If it be no wonder that the world hateth the brethren, and you
were sometimes of this world, you must show forth the reality of the
change which God hath wrought in you by love. The characteristic
of the world is hatred, but the people of God, love ; this is the very
constitution of their souls, and this love is first to the saints, and then
to all men : John xiii. 35, ' By this shall all men know that ye are my
disciples, if ye love one another.' In regeneration there is not only an
impression of the purity and holiness of the divine nature, but the
goodness and amiableness of it in real inclinations of doing good, and
seeking the welfare of others to our power.
4. If the world hate God's children, see that this hatred be not
deserved by any fault of yours, as pride, indiscreet zeal, unnecessary
intermeddling, or any injurious dealing : 1 Peter iv. 15, 16, ' Let none
of you suffer as a murderer, or a thief, or an evil-doer, or a busybody
in other men's matters. But if any suffer as a Christian, let him not
be ashamed ; but glorify God in this behalf.' See that it be for truth
and holiness. It is a sad thing to be a martyr to passion, pride, vain
glory, self-interest, private conceits and opinions ; this hardeneth the
world, and will be cause of shame to yourselves. The world will justify
themselves, and say it is not for their religion, but their pride and
peevish singularity ; and besides, you will lose that true comfort which
otherwise you might have in your sufferings for Christ.
VER. 14.] SERMONS UPON i JOHN in. 113
SERMON 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. —
1 JOHN iii. 14.
FOR the connection of this verse with the former, this may be given as
a reason why we should not be troubled with the world's hatred, because,
as that opposite world to Christ and his kingdom are known by their
hatred, and, however divided in interests, yet are united by their enmity
to God's people, so are we known and distinguished by our love. Our
love to those whom they hate may expose us to great sufferings, and
therefore they judge us miserable; but if by our love, though it be to
the loss of life itself for owning them, and the cause for which they
suffer, we may come to clear up our right to eternal happiness, we have
no reason to be discouraged. In short, if the world will be known by
their hatred to the brethren, let us resolve to be known by our love to
them, whatever indignities and scorns we suffer for their sakes : ' We
know we have passed from death to life/ &c.
In the text there is a comparison of opposites — (1.) The happiness
of those that love the brethren ; (2.) The misery of those that love
them not.
1. In the former clause there is — (1.) The privilege ; (2.) The quali
fication ; (3.) The conclusion thence inferred.
[1.] The privilege is a translation ' from death to life ; ' that is, from
a state of spiritual and eternal death into a state of grace, peace, and
happiness ; for it is explained, ver. 15, so as to have eternal life abiding
in us. By our unfeigned love to the brethren we know that we are re
generate Christians, and have all the privileges which belong to such ;
for we have passed from the death of sin to a life of grace, from wrath
and condemnation to a life of glory. The terminus a quo, from which
we turn, is death ; the terminus ad quern, to which we turn, is life.
The motion between both, ' we have passed,' or we are already in a
state of life.
[2.] The qualification, sign, and token of it, ' love to the brethren ; '
it is not mentioned as the cause of the thing, but as the mark whereby
we know it.
[3.] The certainty of the connection or conclusion drawn from
thence, ' we know.' He doth not say we think, or hope well, but we
know ; it is not a conjectural, but a certain knowledge.
2. The misery of those that have not this qualification. Where —
[1.] The expression of their defect is to be noted, ' He that loveth
not ; ' not he that hateth, though he be not apparently one of the
opposite world : ' Marvel not if the world hateth you ; ' but ' He that
loveth not.' It is not enough if a man be not found among the per
secuting world, and keeps himself from hatred and malice, if he doth
not own the people of God when persecuted by others, when scorned
and persecuted by others.
[2.] His danger, ' He abideth in death ; ' that is, remaineth in a car
nal state, and so obnoxious to eternal death and damnation ; he is not
VOL. XXL n
114 SERMONS UPON 1 JOHN III, [SfiR. XX.
regenerate, and shall die in his sins. As it is said in the case of
believing, so it is true in the case of loving : John viii. 24, ' He that
believeth not that I am he, shall die in his sins.' To go to the grave
before we get rid of sin, to die impenitent and unreconciled to God, is
the greatest misery that can befall us.
Doct. That a sure note of our passing from death to life is our love
to the brethren.
I shall — (1.) Open what it is to pass from death to life ; (2.) What
love of the brethren is here understood ; (3.) Consider it as a sure note
and evidence.
First, What it is to pass from death to life. This I shall show in
several propositions.
1. Man before the fall did enjoy a spiritual life and communion with
God, being his creature, and fitted for commerce with him ; but upon
his defection lost it. The common notion that we have of death is a
privation of life : we once had life by virtue of our conjunction with
God, but we lost it by our defection from him. The natural life con
sists in a conjunction of the soul with the body, and the natural death
is a separation of the soul from the body ; the spiritual life consists in
the union of the soul with God, and the spiritual death is a separation
and estrangement from him : Eph. iv. 18, ' Alienated from the life of
God.' So that man by nature is wholly destitute of the life of God.
We did once partake of the life of God, but have now lost it. It was
threatened, Gen. ii. 17, ' In the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt
surely die ; ' and executed, Kom. v. 12, ' Whereas by one man sin en
tered into the world, and death by sin, so that death passed upon all
men, for that all have sinned.' Spiritual death is one thing there
included.
2. In this state of separation from God, man is impotent to every
good work, and liable to eternal death and condemnation.
[1.] Impotent to every good and saving work : Eph. ii. 1, ' We were
sometimes dead in trepasses and sins.' We are all deprived of original
righteousness, or any principle of grace which might incline us to God.
The life of God consisted in his image impressed on man or bestowed
on man, that by Adam's fall was lost to us all from our very concep
tion and birth : Eccles. vii. 29, ' God made man upright, but they have
sought out many inventions.' It must needs be so, for redemption,
reconciliation, and salvation do all imply it. Kedemption implieth a
man in thraldom ; and reconciliation an enemy, a man fallen and lapsed
into the displeasure of God ; and salvation the saving of that which is
lost: so that we were all sinners by nature, or else we needed no
redeemer, nor reconciler, nor saviour. If our salvation be now by a
redeemer, it implieth a recovery and restoration ; and sinful, miserable
mankind is the object of it. Infants from their very conception and
birth cannot be excused nor exempted, for all that are saved by a
redeemer were once lost, and need a recovery ; we all need to be
reconciled and sanctified. The necessity of a redeemer proveth the
guilt, and of a sanctifier the corruption of mankind. Actual sin will
easily be granted, but the earliness and commonness of evil inclinations
do as sensibly prove original sin, even before actual sin had time to
breed evil habits in us. It is true, that the longer men live in their
VER. 14.] SERMONS UPON i JOHN in. 115
unregenerate state, the more they are estranged from God, and contract
a further impotency by their ignorance and hardness of heart ; but at
first, ' That which is born of flesh is flesh,' John iii. 6 ; and their
operations can rise no higher than a fleshly inclination moveth them,
and therefore carnal men are dead while they live : Luke xv. 24, ' This
my son was dead, but is alive ; was lost, but is found.'
[2.] Man is obnoxious to eternal death and condemnation by reason
of sin, and if he continue so, will certainly for ever perish : Eph. ii. 3,
' And were by nature children of wrath, even as others ; ' and John iii.
36, 'Whosoever believeth not, the wrath of God abideth on him;'
and therefore he can expect nothing but everlasting death and destruc
tion. This is the condition of man by nature. Now every man would
desire to be freed from death, and to be made a partaker of eternal life.
3. The Lord Jesus, out of his wonderful mercy, came to restore life
to mankind thus dead and lost ; he died that we might live, therefore
called the prince or giver of life, Acts iii. 15, because this was the great
benefit which he procured for us. And this life which we have by
Christ answereth to the death which we incurred by Adam. Instead
of death spiritual, he hath procured for us the life of grace, and also the
life of glory, to take off death eternal merited by sin, that the sentence
of death might be reversed by justification, and the penitent and believ
ing sinner put into a living condition by sanctification, and finally
admitted to glory. All this is purchased by Christ : 1 John iv. 9, ' God
sent his Son into the world, that we might live through him ; ' live spiri
tually, live eternally. All this is inferred in the covenant of Christ, to
those that will submit to his healing dispensations : John v. 24, ' Verily,
verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him
that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemna
tion, but hath passed from death to life.' All this is applied by Christ
to those that really submit to his covenant ; but in a different manner
they all pass from death to life. First, Partly as their hearts are
changed, which is sometimes called a quickening of the dead, a new
begetting, a new creating. Sometimes it is called a quickening, a
making men that were dead alive : Eph. ii. 5, 'Yet now hath he quickened
us together with Christ.' Therefore when they are converted or regen
erated, they are said to be alive from the dead, Kom. vi. 13. It is also
called a new begetting, or a new birth, without which none can enter
into heaven : John iii. 5, ' Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man
be born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of
God.' Making us new creatures : Eph. iv. 24, ' And that ye put on the
new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness;'
2 Cor. v. 17, ' He that is in Christ is a new creature : old things are
passed away, and all things are become new.' From all which itfolloweth,
that conversion is a bringing us into a new state of life. Life is a
power to move itself in its own place. This new power and new life
is therefore a 'great privilege. Secondly, Partly as their states are
changed, and so sometimes the privative part is expressed, ' shall not
come into condemnation,' John v. 24, and Eom. viii. 1. The sentence
of eternal death is taken off. But that is not all, but they have a cove
nant right unto eternal life : Rom. v. 18, ' The free gift came upon all
men, to the justification of life.' But this is done in a different manner,
116 SERMONS UPON 1 JOHN III. [SER. XX.
the one by his Spirit, the other by his new covenant gift. The one by
his Spirit : 2 Peter i. 3, ' By his divine power hath given us all things
necessary to life and godliness.' Therefore Christ is said to be our life,
Gal. ii. 20. The other by his free donation, or grant, or deed of gift.
In the covenant he granteth us to be heirs of eternal life, pardoning
our sins, and removing out of the way what may hinder the enjoyment
of it. Sanctification is wrought in us ; justification is God's act
towards the sanctified : 1 Cor. vi. 11, ' But ye are justified in the name
of our Lord Jesus Christ, and sanctified by the Spirit of our God.'
Justified in the name of Christ according to his terms, and what way
Christ is made known in the new covenant.
4. From the whole, it may be well said of those who are interested,
that they are passed from death to life ; for the life of grace is begun
in them, as they have new principles and powers infused, or gracious
qualities planted in the soul : Ezek. xxxvi. 26, 27, ' A new heart also
•will I give you, and a new spirit I will put within you ; and I will
take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and give you a heart of
flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in
my statutes ; and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them.' And
these continually acted and excited by the influence of the Holy Spirit,
who watcheth over the new creature. And as they have a right to glory :
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 regenera
tion, and the renewing of the Holy Ghost; which he hath shed on us
abundantly through Jesus Christ our Saviour, that, being justified by
his grace, we should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life.'
And as they are accompanied with peace of conscience, and joy unspeak
able and glorious, surely these are in a happy condition ; and we should
give all diligence to see that it be our condition, that they who were dead
in trespasses and sins, born heirs of God's curse, should have a new life
communicated to them, and heavenly qualities planted in them, where
by the soul in some measure is made like God and Christ ; and whereas
before they were without any true and well-grounded hope of a better
life, whatever foolish and groundless presumptions they might enter
tain, they should now have this threefold happiness. First, They should
be dispositively fitted for eternal life : 2 Cor. v. 5, ' For lie that hath
wrought us to this self-same thing is God;' and Horn. ix. 23, 'Pre
pared unto glory ; ' Col. i. 12, ' Hath made us meet to be partakers of
the inheritance of the saints in light.' Secondly, Have an unquestion
able and indefeasible right, by the grant and promise of God : John v.
24, ' He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath
everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation, but is passed
from death unto life.' Thirdly, Have the earnest, first-fruits, or begun
possession of eternal glory : 2 Cor. i. 22, ' Who hath sealed us, and
given us the earnest of the Spirit.' Partly in the graces and partly in
the comforts of the Holy Spirit. The graces in the new birth : Titus
iii. 5, ' According to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regen
eration, and the renewing of the Holy Ghost.' The immortal seed, 1
Peter i. 23. Saving knowledge, John xvii. 3. There is an eternal
principle in them, which carrieth them to eternal ends. The life is begun
which shall be perfected in heaven, and is still working towards its final
VER. 14.] SERMONS UPON i JOHN in. 117
perfection. As to comforts, in peace of conscience, and joy in the Holv
Ghost, by which we have a foretaste : Kom. xv. 13, ' The God of hope fill
you with all joy and peace in believing ; ' 1 Peter i. 8, ' In whom be
lieving, we rejoice with joy unspeakable and glorious.' Surely of all
privileges this is the principal and the choicest, which can be given us on
this side heaven, and should be most rejoiced in and endeavoured after.
Secondly, What love of the brethren is here to be understood ; fotr
I have observed that many will retreat to this evidence, as if this
single and alone would witness their gracious estate, when they are
grossly defective in other things. In my dealings with the consciences
of men, I have observed several of the fallacies and cheats which men
have put upon themselves; sometimes in the object of this love,
' brethren.' If they have a love to their own sect and party, though
they hate all the world besides, and are unconscionable in their deal
ings, and loose and uncircumspect in their walkings, yet still they have
satisfied their consciences with this, that they love the brethren ; and
this must bolster them up, and support their confidence, notwithstand
ing all their other enormities. Sometimes I have observed it to be in
the affection itself ; they call that love to the brethren which is not. We
may do many things which materially are acts of love to the brethren,
but flow from false principles, as good nature, vainglory, gallantry.
Some are of a soft and quiet temper, not difficult to any, but of a fair,
loving carriage and behaviour ; and shall their natural easiness be
taken for this high and special grace of love to the brethren ? Some will
seem to do great and worthy things, but it is out of greatness of spirit
and vainglory, without true charity and love to the brethren, without
that love which the apostle mentions, 1 Cor. xiii. 3, ' If I give all my
goods to the poor, and give my body to be burned, and have not
charity, it profits me nothing.' This love is something more than
giving, something more than venturing our interests ; for charity, or
Christian love, containeth in it a sincere respect to God's glory, and a
hearty desire of promoting the kingdom of Christ, and a holy com
placency in those who are our companions in the kingdom and
patience of Jesus Christ, and shall be our everlasting companions in
heavenly glory, together with a public good-will and compassion to the
souls of men. Some I have found will go lower, and maintain their
comfort at a meaner rate ; they are not those that hate the brethren,
and procure their molestation and trouble, but it may be frequent their
meetings, applaud their persons, can now and then plead for them, and
censure and speak against those that hate them : and here is their
evidence ; how defective soever they are in other parts of Christianity,
they think they love the brethren. But not to insist further, I am
verily persuaded that if this one evidence were well thought of and
understood, it were of as hard interpretation as any of the rest. There
fore let us see what this love of the brethren is, that will be such a sure
note unto us.
1. It must be a real love, not pretended only, or showed in bare
words; for so it is explained, ver. 18, 'My little children, let us not love
in word, or in tongue, but in deed and in truth.' Verbal compliments
may make up a love and friendship in the world, but Christian love is
a knitting of souls, or a communication of interests, as our mutual
118 SERMONS UPON 1 JOHN III. [SER. XX.
necessities do require : Rom. xii. 10, ' Be kindly affectioned one to
another, in brotherly love.' If there be not a hearty real Christian
affection, what will words do? Alas! will you build your eternal
state on such a weak foundation, or all your comfort and hope on so
slight an evidence ? A cold complimental love is soon worn off.
2. It must be a self-denying love, for it is hated brethren who are
here spoken of as the objects : ' Marvel not if the world hate you ; '
and then, ' We know we have passed from death unto life, because we
love the brethren.' If we can love them then when the world hateth
them ; yea, if we can love them so as to lay down our lives for them
when the glory of God and the public good calleth for it : ver. 16,
' Hereby perceive we the love of God, because he hath laid down his
life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.' In
what cases I shall show you afterwards. Now such a regular and
fervent love will make an evidence. It is self-denying graces that have
a voice in the conscience ; when we so love the brethren that we are at
some cost about them, taking pains to instruct the ignorant, comforting
the afflicted, exhorting the obstinate, confirming the weak, relieving
the necessitous, owning the persecuted, this showeth God's love hath
made some impression upon us. The acts about which we shall be
questioned at the day of judgment are self-denying acts. Have you
visited, have you clothed, do you own the servants of God when the
times frown upon them ? Lip-labour and tongue-service is a cheap
thing, and a religion that costs nothing is worth nothing. When we
apparently deny ourselves, and value God's interest and his people's
interest above our own, then our sincerity is most manifest. A cheap
course of serving God or loving the brethren will bring you none or little
comfort ; and therefore, when you tell me you love the brethren, and
do nothing for them, you may as well tell me that you have satisfied
your creditors by shaking your purse, as if the noise of money would
pay your debts.
3. A sincere love flowing from communion of nature, and because of
the new nature, and because of the image of God in them whom ye
love. Love is a fruit of the new nature, and none can sincerely love
his brother with a supernatural sincerity but he that is renewed by the
Spirit : 1 Peter i. 22, ' Seeing ye have purified your hearts in obeying
the truth through the Spirit, unto unfeigned love of the brethren ;
see that ye love one another with a pure heart fervently.' To love one
because he is holy, and because he is sanctified, because he hath the
same spirit, that is to love one another with a pure heart. We may
love godly men for other respects than godliness, but we must love
them as having a nature suited to this love.
4. It must not be understood as separated from other qualifications
which prepare us for everlasting life ; we cannot make out our sincerity
by one evidence alone, no, not faith itself : James ii. 14, ' Can faith
save him?' that being alone, ver. 17. Still it will stick in our
consciences : James ii. 10, ' He that keepeth the whole law, and yet
offends in one point, is guilty of all.' It is a law maxim if interpreted
of absolute perfection or unsinning obedience, but it is a gospel maxim
if understood of allowed failings. Therefore, when you read such
scriptures as ' Hereby we know that we are passed from death to life,
because we love the brethren/ and ' He that calleth upon the name
VER. 14.] SERMONS UPON UOHN in. 119
of the Lord shall be saved/ they must be understood positis omnibus
ad hoc requisitis, if other things hold good. Certainly for this place you
shall see 1 John v. 2, ' By this we know that we love the children of
God, when we love God, and keep his commandments.' He proveth
the love of God by the love of the brethren, and the love of the brethren
by the love of God. There is a mighty conjunction between these
two things, loving the brethren and loving God ; and therefore,
if we would know if we love our brother sincerely, yea or no, we can
not better judge of it than by examining and knowing whether we love
God; and truly our love to God is not a fellow-like familiarity, but
a dutiful subjection : ' If we love God we will keep his commandments.'
So that, in the trial of our estate, we must take in all that is necessary
for the decision of the case. I observe this, because, next to the grace
of the gospel, men are apt to abuse this evidence. Some look to none
at all, others pitch all upon this one. But you see plainly it must be
interpreted so as that you love God first, and then the brethren for
God's sake ; and the intent of these evidences is to show we must not
in any point be lacking.
Thirdly, Let me consider it as laid down as a sure note and evidence
of our passing from death to life; and there we shall consider — (1.)
Why so much is ascribed to love of the brethren; (2.) What sort of
evidence this is.
1. Why is so much ascribed to the love of the brethren, that the
decision of our spiritual estate is often put upon this issue, whether we
love the brethren, yea or no ?
Ans. For several reasons.
[1.] Because it is the immediate effect of the new nature : 1 John
iv. 7, ' Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God ; and every
one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God ; ' and 1 John v. 1,
' Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ, is born of God ; and
every one that loveth him that begat, loveth him also that is begotten
of him.' Love to God and his people is the proper effect of the
spiritual life ; that same new nature which indineth us to love God
inclineth us to love the brethren.
[2.] This suiteth most with the great love which God discovereth
in the gospel. The gospel is wholly employed in setting forth the
love of God ; we see his power more eminently in the creation of the
world : Rom. i. 20, ' For the invisible things of him from the creation
of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are
made.' His wisdom in the law : Deut. iv. 6, 'Keep them, for this is
your wisdom and understanding in the sight of the nations.' And
his love in the gospel : Eom. v. 8, ' Herein God commended his love.'
He doth indeed discover all in all, but eminently one in each. Now
the new creature, being of a gospel production, hath the print and
stamp thereof left upon it, for the thing sealed must be according to
the seal : love is his very nature.
[3.] Because God would not leave the trial of our condition upon
an imaginary case, and remote from daily experience. We pretend
to love God, and to have a zeal for God, and would venture all our
interests for God, because in the bountiful part God hath no need of
us, and we are not likely to be put upon the expressing of love to him
120 SERMONS UPON 1 JOHN III. [SER. XX.
in that kind. In the dutiful part of obedience we are daily put upon
a trial. Now in the bountiful part God hath made our brethren his
proxies, and devolveth that love and gratitude due to himself upon
his servants. Hence is that reasoning, 1 John iv. 20, ' He that loveth
not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he
hath not seen ? ' Men's pretences of love to God are more in imagina
tion than in real proof and performance ; here we have occasion often
given us to express and testify our love by real effects ; we see our
brethren daily, we know their necessities, have opportunities of sensible
demonstrations of our love. Now these kind acts of love to our
brethren, as they do most verify and justify our love, so they are most
apparent and visible to our own feeling and experience.
[4.] Because naturally a man delights in that company which is
most like himself, otherwise he is more straitened and restrained,
cannot so freely let out his soul ; therefore if the constitution of a
man's heart be altered, he will show it in his complacency and dis-
placency. As in things so in persons ; there is a kind of grief and
trouble at the non-conversion of the wicked : Ps. xv. 4, ' In whose
eyes a vile person is contemned, but he honoureth those that fear the
Lord.' He hath a dislike of wickedness, let it be in whomsoever it
will, but payeth a hearty honour, affection, and respect to every good
and godly man ; his joy and delight is to the saints, and to the
excellent of the earth, Ps. xvi. 3. ' Lot's righteous soul was vexed by
seeing and hearing the unlawful deeds of the Sodomites/ 2 Peter ii. 8.
A good man is never so well as in the company of those that fear God ;
and so ill at ease as when conversing with the wicked ; therefore it is
a sensible evidence.
[5.] In obedience to God, as this is his great and new command
ment : 1 John iii. 23, ' Love one another, as he gave us commandment.'
God's love is a love of bounty, ours a love of duty.
[6.] Christ delights to draw his people into a society, therefore he
requireth love, and maketh love the great evidence : Col. iii. 14, ' And
above all things put on charity, which is the bond of perfection ; ' an
affection whereby we desire communion one with another, and com
munication of good one to another : Acts ii. 42, ' And they continued
steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine and fellowship ; ' and ver. 45, ' They
parted with their possessions to every man as he had need.' There
fore this is the evidence of Christ's disciples.
[7.] Christ's heart is much set upon the good of this society, which
is preserved by love, but destroyed by hatred and division. Our Lord
Christ foresaw what grievous wolves would enter into the flock, to
scatter them, and to destroy them, and how much they would be
weakened by their own divisions ; therefore he would not only make
it his command, but his mark ; it is his charge, it is the means ap
pointed to receive the blessing, Ps. cxxxiii. 3, and it is the sign, as if
Christ would not take them for friends, but enemies, that divide his
people, that do not by all means and ways seek to unite them, and
cause them to love one another.
[8.] It is a great part of our recovery to be delivered from the
private, envious, selfish spirit by which we mind our own things and
seek our own things : James iv. 5, ' The spirit that dw.elleth in us
VER. 14.] SERMONS UPON i JOHN nr. 121
lusteth to envy ; ' Titus iii. 3, ' We were hateful and hating one
another.' Now since it is so, surely we have passed from death to life,
because we love the brethren.
2. What sort of evidence this is. It is both inclusive and exclusive.
There are some marks which are exclusive but not inclusive ; that is,
if we have them not, we are not the children of God ; but if we have
them, we cannot say we are. As, for instance, 'He that is of God heareth
God's words ; ye therefore hear them not, because ye are not of God.'
It excludeth the profane; yet all that barely hear the word cannot thence
conclude that they are of God, for many hear and practise not.
Therefore James saith, chap. i. 22, ' Be doers of the word, and
not hearers only, deceiving your own souls.' Again some are
inclusive, but not exclusive ; as that, Rom. ix. 1, 3, ' I say the truth
in Christ, I lie not, my conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy
Ghost, that I could wish that myself were accursed from Christ
for my brethren and kinsmen according to the flesh.' Or any degree
of heroical grace ; you are included within the number of God's children
if you find these things in you, but not excluded if you find them not.
These are marks to be aimed at, but not to try by ; otherwise that
would be matter of doubting which is only matter of humiliation.
But some are both inclusive and exclusive ; witness the text. The
first proposition showeth it is inclusive, ' We know we have passed from
death unto life.' A Christian's estate may be known, not by a conjec
tural, but a certain knowledge, not we guess, but know ; and the way
of knowing it is by the evidences of grace, or finding something in us
which accompanieth salvation. Our sanctification is more evident to
us than justification, as being felt ; and among the fruits and effects
of sanctification, love to the brethren is one sensible evidence from
whence we may conclude safely and certainly, ' That we have passed
from death unto life.' But, on the other side, it is exclusive also :
' If any man love not his brother, he abideth in death ; ' is yet in a
state of sin and misery ; for this is such a property of the new nature
that it cannot be severed from it.
Use. Keep this evidence clear, then, that you may take comfort in
your condition. It is for our greater comfort, not only to be safe, but
to know that we are safe. Some have salvation belonging to them, but
they know it not ; as Jacob said of Bethel, ' God was in this place, and
I knew it not,' Gen. xxviii. 16 ; so God is in them, life is in them,
and they know it not Would it not be comfortable to you if you
could certainly know that indeed you have passed from death to life ?
I know not what your minds are busied about ; but this should be
your great care, to get out of the cursed condition you were in by
nature, and to know you are gotten out, and shall not come into con
demnation. Here is one evidence will most help to clear it to you : If
you love the brethren, you have passed from death to life ; if you love
not, you abide in death. Therefore let not this mark be obscure to
you, lest your spiritual condition be dark and obscure to you ; and
therefore you must excel in brotherly love, and exercise it in a self-
denying way. (1.) Love the brethren notwithstanding their infirmities ;
(2.) Love the brethren notwithstanding personal injuries ; (3.) Love
the brethren notwithstanding particular differences of judgment between
122 SERMONS UPON 1 JOHN III. [SER. XX.
us and them ; (4.) Love them notwithstanding the disgraces and troubles
that befall them.
1. Love the brethren notwithstanding their infirmities ; the best
of God's servants have their blots and failings, but love must cover
them : 1 Peter iv. 8, ' Above all, have fervent charity among yourselves ;
for charity covereth a multitude of sins/ You must not expect such
a society of God's people to converse with, in whom you shall not dis
cern any failings, either against God or one another ; therefore unless
you pass by a multitude of those, it is in vain to think of loving the
brethren. Our love to the brethren must answer to God's love to us :
' We must forgive one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath
forgiven us,' Eph. iv. 32 ; ' Now the free gift is of many offences unto
justification,' Bom. v. 16. Therefore if we cast off a brother for some
few infirmities, it is a sign that the love of God, manifested in the
gospel, hath not made a due impression upon us. Shall God pardon
so many sins to us and all his people, and shall we be so severe upon,
every espied failing as to question their spiritual estate, and cast them
out of our hearts ?
2. Love them notwithstanding some personal injuries done to our
selves. When God forgiveth us talents, shall not we forgive pence to
our brother ? Mat. xviii. 24, ' And when he had begun to reckon, one
was brought unto him which owed him ten thousand talents ; ' ver.
28, ' But the same servant went out, and found one of his fellow-servants
which owed him an hundred pence, and he laid hands on him, and
took him by the throat, saying, Pay me what thou owest.' A talent
was a hundred and eighty-seven pounds, and sevenpence halfpenny the
Roman penny ; ten thousand pounds for a hundred. They cannot
deal so disingenuously with us as we do with God. If God will forgive
us a thousand injuries, shall not we forgive one ? We are poor dust and
ashes ; shall we stand upon our anger, as if it might be justified against
our brother, rather than God's anger against us ?
3. Love them notwithstanding particular differences of judgment
between us and them ; though they are not of our society, if they will
not carry themselves brotherly, we should love them as brethren as long
as they have anything of Christ in them. The perverse and harsh deal
ings of others do not dissolve our obligation to them, as to superiors,
parents, and masters ; we are to be obedient, not only to the gentle,
but to the froward. So to equals, though they disclaim all fellowship
with us, yet we should carry it towards them as Christians ; a difference
of opinion should not breed an alienation of mind. The apostle's rule
is, Phil. iii. 16, 17, ' Nevertheless, whereto we have attained, let us
walk by the same rule, let us mind the same thing ; ' Rom. xiv. 5-7,
' One man esteemeth oneday above another ; another man esteemeth every
day alike : let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind. He that re-
gardeth a day, regardeth it unto the Lord ; and he that regardeth not the
day, to the Lord he doth not regard it : he that eateth, eateth unto the
Lord, for he giveth God thanks ; and he that eateth not, to the Lord he
eateth not, and giveth God thanks. For none of us liveth to himself, and
no man dieth to himself.' We should never differ from any without con
straining evidence.
4. Love them notwithstanding: the disgraces and troubles that befall
VER. 15.] SERMONS UPON i JOHN in. 123
them ; the primitive Christians owned one another going to the fires,
though thereby they incurred present danger to themselves, and were
made companions of them that were so used, Heb. x. 33.
SERMON XXI.
Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer ; and ye know that no
murderer hath eternal life abiding in him. — ] JOHN iii. 15.
THE apostle had said, ' He that loveth not his brother abideth in death.'
Now he goeth on to another degree, ' He that hateth his. brother is a
murderer.' It is less not to love than to hate ; he that loveth not
wishetli neither good nor evil to his brother ; he that hateth intendeth
mischief. Selfishness and want of love will in time produce great
mischiefs, as it tendeth to ambition and covetousness, and thence to
cruelty against all that stand in the way of their desires ; but hatred
doth soon commence mischief. Therefore surely if he that loveth not
his brother ' abideth in death-' then he that hateth his brother ' hath
not eternal life abiding in him ; ' the subject more, the predicate less.
Again, this clause is added lest any should say, I do not slay my brother,
as Cain did, yet he may be a murderer before God ; he hath killed his
brother in his heart, though not with his hand ; he desireth his death,
or doth not take it very grievously if he die : ' Whosoever hateth his
brother,' &c.
In the words there are three things — (1.) A sin, ' Hating our
brother ;' (2.) The heinousness of that sin, ' Is a murderer ; ' (3.) The
perniciousness and danger of it, ' Hath not eternal life abiding in
him/
Doct. 1. That hatred of our brother is in God s account murder.
I shall show you —
1. What is hatred of our brother.
2. How it is murder, and so how he that hateth his brother is a
murderer.
I. What is the hatred of our brother ? This needeth to be stated.
That we may find out the sin so branded, let us except what is to be
excepted.
1. There is an absolute hatred and a comparative. The absolute
hatred is when I wish evil to another ; the comparative hatred is when
I neglect or show less love to another for some greater good. So
Jacob is said to hate Leah, Gen. xxix. 30, 31. Hatred there imports
a lesser degree of iove. So in the law of the hated wife : Dent. xxi.
15, 16, ' If a man hath two wives, one beloved, and another hated.' It
is not meant of one that was not loved at all, but of one that was not
loved so much as the other. So in the case in hand : Luke xiv. 26,
' If any man hate not father and mother, brothers and sisters, he can
not be my disciple ;' that is, doth not prefer Christ before them. Surely
this hatred of our brother is not here meant, for this is piety, and not
121 SERMONS UPON 1 JOHN III. [SER. XXI.
cruelty. The best objects are worthy of our best love, and our respect
to the inferior relations must not be a snare to us.
2. There is a hatred of the sins and evil courses wherein our brother
walketh,and notof his person; aswe must not love the sin forthe person's
sake, so we must not hate the person for the sin's sake. We may cross his
sin, but we must wish well to the person. It is hatred to the person
to let him alone in his sin : Lev. xix. 17, ' Thou shalt not hate thy
brother in thy heart ; thou shalt in any wise rebuke him, and not suffer
sin upon him/ We cannot but hate what we see evil in him ; this is
not a mischievous, but a holy and perfect hatred. When we reprove
the person, seek to oppose and disappoint him in his way of living in
sin, this may be the greatest love we can express to him ; and when
ever his conscience is awakened, he will thank us for it.
3. There is odium abominationis and odium inimicitice, the hatred
of abomination and the hatred of enmity ; the one is opposite to the
love of good-will, the other to the love of complacency : Prov. xxix. 27,
' The righteous is an abomination to the wicked, and the wicked is an
abomination to the righteous.' The righteous man hateth not the
wicked with the hatred of enmity, so as to seek his destruction, but
with the hatred of abomination or offence, so as not to delight in him
while wicked. In opposition to the love of complacency, we may hate
our sinful neighbour, as we must hate and abhor ourselves much more ;
but, in opposition to the love of benevolence, we must neither hate our
enemy, nor our neighbour, nor ourselves ; so we are to love ourselves
without desiring mischief to them. So David : Ps. xxi. 5, ' I hate the
congregation of evil-doers, and will not sit with the wicked/ Surely
we cannot delight in them as suitable to us, nor frequent their company,
unless it be in order to their cure. God, that distinguished the seeds,
Gen. iii. 15, never intended to make men of contrary dispositions to
holiness to be our bosom friends and the objects of our delight.
Therefore this hatred is not intended neither. Only we must take
heed lest our abomination of them for their evil practices do not
degenerate into a destructive enmity to them. We have a nature con
trary to theirs, but we must not have a heart set to do them evil.
Object. But what will you say of Paul's wish, Gal. v. 12, ' I would
they were even cut off that trouble you ? ' I answer —
[1.] He speaketh of prime seducers, and wisheth they were cut off from
the church by the sentence of excommunication; and incorrigible and
obstinate offenders are cut off from the body and society of the faithful
' for the destruction of the flesh, that their spirit may be saved in the
day of the Lord,' 1 Cor. v. 5, 6, and the church be not infected by the
contagion of their sin. So the words signify in the ancient use of it.
[2.] That malicious and obstinate perverters of the faithful come
under another consideration, of which I shall now speak. We must
distinguish of those who are enemies, not only to us, but to God him
self, and that not out of ignorance, but malice, implacable enemies ;
we may desire their destruction, but with great caution, and using
much lenity and forbearance ere we make use of this liberty : so David :
Ps. cxxxix. 21, 22, ' Do not I hate them that hate thee ? and am I not
grieved with them that rise up against thee ? I hate them with a per
fect hatred, and count them mine enemies/ This is but zeal in God's
YER. 15.] SERMONS UPON i JOHN in. 125
cause, to pray for their destruction in any undertaking against God.
But then we must be sure we are not inspired with a false zeal, and
that this fire be enkindled from a coal taken from the altar, not from
any private hearth and kitchen ; and that it be against the irrecon
cilable enemies of Christ's interest in the world, and that it be not
animated with private revenge. Surely all this must be excepted out
of this heavy charge.
II. Let us state the sin here mentioned. (1.) Consider the object,
' Our brother ; ' (2.) The affection or passion forbidden, ' Hatred.'
First, For the object, 'Our brother,' which may be taken —
1. In a general sense, for any of mankind, for by right of nature
they are our brethren. They are called our own flesh, Isa. Iviii. 7, and
we all come of one blood and stock : Acts xvii. 26, ' He hath made of
one blood all nations of men to dwell on the face of the earth.' And
we are all made by one God : Mai. ii. 10, ' Hath not one God created us ?
and have we not all one Father ? ' Now we are not to hate any in our
hearts, but by all ways and means to seek their good and welfare. We
must love in them that which is of God, though we hate in them that
which is of the devil.
2. In a special and limited sense, our brother is our fellow-citizen,
whether in reality or profession only. With respect to them, love is
called brotherly kindness, in opposition to that common love which is
due to all men, 2 Peter i. 7 ; and the nearer the bonds are, the greater
is the sin if we hate them ; as when united with us in the same common
profession of purer Christianity, or give greater hopes of their sincerity
therein, or of the same profession, society, and local communion, as to
the worship of God, or related to us in bonds of nature as well as
religion, as Esau hated Jacob, Gen. xxvii. 41. The rule is, 1 Peter ii.
17, ' Honour all men, love the brotherhood.' There is some respect
due to all men, much more should Christian society recommend them
to our affection. All men partake of some excellency from God, and
carry some resemblance of his image, and the best know more to loathe
in themselves than they can do in the worst ; yet there is a respect due
to the persons 'of other Christians above that which we give to men
as men.
Once more, the persons hated come under a fourfold considera
tion —
[1.] If you consider them as those that have done us an ill turn ;
thus we read, 2 Sam. xiii. 22, that ' Absalom hated Amnon, because
he had forced his sister Tamar;' and therefore plotted to kill him.
Now this doth not excuse us, because we are not to avenge ourselves,
and become evil to others because they have been so to us ; this were
to imitate them in their wickedness, and it is contrary to that lenity
and meekness which should be in Christians, who are to love those that
hate them, Mat. v. 44 ; and if love did prevail, much mischief would
be prevented : Prov. x. 12, 'Hatred stirreth up strifes, but love cover-
eth all sins.' Where hatred is allowed, every offence will be grievous ;
there is nothing but an interchange of mutual injuries, till one or the
other be ruined or destroyed. But if men would mind the duties of
Christian love, lenity, and forbearance ; many and great offences would
be either excused or pardoned. This is not pusillanimity, but true
126 SERMONS UPON 1 JOHN III. [SER, XXI.
greatness of spirit, the real glory of a man ; and indeed it can be no
disgrace to obey God.
[2.] When we hate one that loveth us, and hath been kind to us.
To hate an enemy is unchristian, but to hate a friend is inhuman ; and
yet such monsters doth corrupt nature afford, who reward evil for good,
and hate others without a cause, yea, when much cause to the contrary :
Ps. xxxv. 12, ' They rewarded me evil for good, to the spoiling of my
soul.' Usually those who are over-obliged make this unkind return,
inj uries for benefits, and seek the life of those who, under God, have
been the means of supporting and preserving theirs. Now this is a
grievous unnatural evil, and their malice admitteth no terms of truce,
much less of hearty reconcilement : Ps. cxx. 6, 7, ' My soul hath too
long dwelt with him that hateth peace. I am for peace ; but when I
speak, they are for war.' Still prosecute their revengeful courses, and
will not be appeased by any tenders of reconciliation.
[3.] When men are haters of those that are good, and love the evil,
hate the holy and the harmless, and esteem only the profane and disso
lute : 2 Tim. iii. 3, ' Despisers of those that are good ; ' and Ps. xxxviii.
20, ' They are mine adversaries, because I follow the thing that good
is ; ' Mat. xxiv. 9, ' Ye shall be hated of all nations for my name's sake.'
They have no quarrel against them but their doing that which is good.
Alas ! what have the righteous done ? for which good work do they lay
such a load on them ? But the better any man is, the less they can
abide him ; and this is a heinous evil, to hate a Christian the more, the
more of Christianity there is in him. It is enmity to the image of God
shining forth in his people, and they cannot endure this serious good
conversation of theirs, because it is an upbraiding of their own slight-
ness and licentiousness.
[4.] When we hate them not only that are good, but with all pity
and compassion seek to do us good : Gal. iv. 16, 'Am I become your
enemy because I tell you the truth ? ' John vii. 7, ' The world hateth
me, because I testify of it that the works thereof are evil ; ' 1 Kings
xxii. 8, ' I hate him, because he doth not prophesy good concerning
me, but evil.' Yet he told him still the mind of God, and that for his
profit. Now this is the hatred that usually befalls not private Christians
only, but those that are employed in a more eminent ministry and
service ; often instruments of public good are made objects of public
hatred, and have no other recompense from an unthankful world but
scorn and violence.
Secondly, The passion forbidden is hatred, ' Whosoever hateth his
brother.'
1. Not to love him is a great crime ; that is the notion in the former
verse ; and indeed it is hard to keep without hatred, if we do not love.
The softest sort of carnal men do not love God's children ; but the
venomous part of the world hate them, and seek their destruction. Not
to will good to them is damnable in itself, much more when we will
evil to them : 2 Tim. iii. 3, ' Despisers of those that are good,' not
lovers ; these are in a fair way to hate when their lusts are crossed.
2. There is another degree, and that is, rash and unadvised anger :
' Whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause,' Mat. v. 22 ;
and that is within the prohibition, ' Thou shalt not kill,' as more anon.
VER. 15.] SERMONS UPON i JOHN in. 127
Now if anger be murder, hatred is worse than anger, for this is anger
inordinate or inveterate. They were wont to distinguish of a threefold
anger : sharp anger, soon raised and soon calmed ; a more bitter anger,
hardly, and not without some respite, appeased ; and anger not allayed
without some requital and retaliation of wrongs ; this is a great step
towards hatred.
3. There is another affection and disposition of heart which is very
natural to us, and yet is beneath malice and hatred, and that is envy,
often joined with murder: Horn. i. 29, 'Full of envy, murders;' Gal.
v. 29, ' Envyings, murders/ This is discontented ness at another man's
good and prosperous estate, or the gifts wherein they equal or excel us,
and showeth itself in rejoicing at their evils. There is a selfish desire
in man to have all good things enclosed unto ourselves : James iv. 5,
' The spirit that dwelleth in us lusteth to envy.' We would shine alone,
seek to jostle others out of the way ; this is bad, and hath a near
affinity with murder, and therefore should be mortified by every good
Christian.
4. The passion here spoken of is hatred, which is a desire of hurt or
evil to others, such a desire as wisheth evil to them, especially their
destruction and ruin, that the object should not be : Ps. xxxv. 12,
' They rewarded me evil for good, to the spoiling of my soul.' Nothing
less will content them that hate us; as 'Esau, that ' hated Jacob, and
said, I will slay him when the days of mourning for my father are
come,' Gen. xxvii. 41, so that hatred or auger kept too long will be
concocted and soured into revenge.
Thirdly, How is it murder ?
1. From the strictness of God's law. Man's law can only take notice
of the overt act, but God's law of the thoughts, imaginations, pur
poses, and intents of the heart. It is said, Horn. vii. 14, ' The law is
spiritual ; ' and Ps. xix. 7, ' The law of God is perfect, converting the soul.'
It reacheth to the acts of the inward man, and forbids every evil motion
of the heart. God is able to judge of their hearts ; and every degree
of this sin is forbidden and condemned by his law : 1 Sam. xvi. 7,
' Man looketh upon the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on
the heart.' And therefore it is not the hurting of our neighbour, but
the hating of our neighbour, which his law condemneth. It doth not
only concern the hands, and the outward actions, but the will and the
thoughts.
2. From the intention of the party. The purpose or desire of doing
a thing is counted in the law as done, either good or bad. As to good,
Abraham's offering Isaac: Heb. xi. 11, 'By faith Abraham offered up
Isaac.' He did it only in purpose and vow. Bad : Mat. v. 28, ' He
that looketh upon a woman to lust after her, hath committed adultery
with her in his heart.' So here, the intention of the heart to harm
others, though the hands be tied and kept from execution, yet as much
as in him lieth he hath murdered his neighbour. If he abstain from
killing, he will rejoice that the death of that man happeneth some other
way. Well, then, the hating is, by interpretation, the killing of them,
because such is the intention of the heart, did not some outward re
straint curb it, if their destruction be a pleasing thought to us.
3. God judgeth not only by the intention of the party, but the intent
128 SERMONS UPON 1 JOHN III. [SfiB. XXI.
of the sin. There is finis operis, and finis operantis, the intendmenfc
of the sinner, and the intent of the sin, what it may bring us unto if it
be allowed. It may be a man that hateth his brother doth not intend
for the present his utter destruction ; but if he shall cherish this evil
disposition of soul, where shall he stop ? Now, that God judgeth by
the intent of the sin, as well as the actual intention of the sinner, I shall
make evident unto you by these instances. By Baruch's reproof : Jer.
xlv. 5, ' Seekest thou great things for thyself ? Seek them not/ Baruch's
sin was tergiversation, he had appeared confidently at first in delivering
the roll to the king, which was written by God's command ; but when
the king burnt it, and gave order to apprehend Jeremiah and Baruch,but
God hid them, afterwards God bids them write another roll, and Baruch
begins to be discouraged, it was too hot service for him to meddle with ;
upon which God telleth him, ' Seekest thou great things for thyself ? '
When God was about to pluck up all things, alas ! what did the good
man seek for himself, but only that he might have his life for a prey ?
Baruch only sought his safety and the preservation of his life, which
was in danger by reason of his zeal and activity for God; and God calleth
this a seeking great things for himself. The meaning is, that disposition
of heart which prompted him to seek ease and security for himself in
troublesome times would prompt him also to seek great things in the
world ; for it argued a spirit wedded to its own worldly felicity, and
that preferred the favour of kings before the favour of God. Every man
thus affected seeketh his own things ; at first he aimeth only at things
which are within his grasp and reach, but then still he enlargeth him
self, and would have more, and when that is obtained, he would have
more, and fain be built a storey higher in the honour and greatness of
the world. Thus doth God interpret the disposition of his heart, in
seeking to save his life, by not displeasing the king. Another instance
is Elisha's reproof to Gehazi : 2 Kings v. 26, ' Is it a time to receive
money, and to receive garments, and oliveyards and vineyards, and
sheep, and oxen, and men-servants, and maid-servants ? ' Why this
rebuke ? what is the sense of it ? He asked no such matter of Naaman,
he asked but a talent of silver and two changes of raiment, 2 Kings v.
23. But the same covetousness and self-seeking would carry him
further. The prophet dealeth upon the full end of the sin. He was
weary of being the prophet's man, and must set up for himself; he
must then enlarge himself into a family, and purchase heritages, and
be a great man in Israel. The beginnings of sin are modest, and the
issues not known or thought of by the sinner himself. Now apply this
to the matter in hand ; a man that beginneth to have an aversion of
heart to another, he doth not love him ; in time he cometh to hate him,
and there thinketh to rest ; but offences grow, and then he seeketh his
destruction. Now God considereth the tendency of the sin, whatever
be the actual intention of the sinner.
4. I need but one consideration more to make the demonstration full,
and what is that ? It is that the usual effects of hatred are blood and
mischief ; thence come the factions, and quarrels, and persecutions, and
contentions in the world. Once entertain hatred, and there is nothing
so bad, and mischievous, and cruel, which you may not be drawn to
think, and say, and do against your brethren. To think : jealousy is
VER. 15.] SERMONS UPON i JOHN in. 129
the fruit of hatred, everything is suspected where the party is not loved,
yea, odious crimes are supposed and imagined of them, and they think
they do God good service if they kill them, John xvi. 2. They do
only destroy you as so many vermin, which are the trouble of the
country. So for saying : Luke vi. 22, ' Blessed are ye when men shall
hate you, and shall reproach yon, and cast out your name as evil, for
my name's sake.' Do, by persecution : John v. 19, 20, ' Because I have
chosen you out of the world, the world shall hate you, and persecute you,
as they persecuted me.' And treachery : Mat. xxiv. 10, ' And many
shall be offended in me, and betray one another, and hate one
another.' These are the mischievous effects of hatred. Well, then,
may it be accounted murder, and he that hateth is a manslayer or
murderer.
Use 1. Is information —
1. It showeth us the reason why divines refer all sins and virtues
to the commandments, wherein the grossest sin of the kind is forbidden
in the name of all the rest. You think we strain when we make
anger to be murder or the like ; but we have countenance from scrip
ture, and we have the example of our Lord Jesus. I will only instance
in a pertinent case : Mat. v. 20, 21, ' Ye have heard it hath been said
of them of old, Thou shalt not kill ; and whosoever shall kill shall be
in danger of the judgment ; but I say unto you, That whosoever is
angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judg
ment ; and whosoever shall say to his brother, Raca, shall be in danger
of the council ; but whosoever shall say, Thou fool, shall be in danger
of hell fire.' A place somewhat difficult, but I shall make no long busi
ness to explain it. Christ doth not enlarge the commandment of God
given by Moses, but interpret it, and vindicate from the glosses of the
pharisees ; for they were their masters in the schools who lived before
Christ. They thought the law was not broken but by actual man
slaughter or murder ; for Christ doth not reason against the letter
of the law, ' Thou shalt not kill/ but against their gloss, ' Whosoever
shall kill/ And the following words express three degrees of sin and
three degrees of punishment, alluding to their ways of punishing. The
three degrees of sin are rash anger, anger vented by contumelious
speeches : ' Raca/ a vain man ; ' Thou fool/ a wicked man. Their
punishments were either of the three-and-twenty men who judged of
manslaughters, or of the Sanhedrim, who judged of more heinous
crimes; or of burning alive, which was their highest punishment ; and
in the expression he alludeth to the valley of Hinnom, where children
were scorched to death. Now the wrathful man is subject to punish
ment in another world, as the manslayer is here by the judgment, which
is beheading with the sword. Anger breaking out into opprobrious
speeches by the Sanhedrim, where ordinary punishment was by stoning ;
4 Thou fool/ more violent railings and revilings, with burning as of
the children in the valley Hinnom. So that all these things, which
tend to murder, are murder in the sight of God, and must expect his
punishment. A great caution to us, in these contentious times, to take
heed how we involve ourselves in the wrath of God.
2. That it is good to refer sin to the most odious of its kind, and
to interpret the law of God in its most comprehensive sense. Carnal
VOL. XXI. I
130 SERMONS UPON 1 JOHN III. [SfiR. XXL
men are but slight interpreters of God's law; that the ell may
be no longer than the cloth, they make a short exposition of the
law, that they may cherish a large opinion of their own righteousness ;
but in the word of God we are directed otherwise. Covetousness is
idolatry, as it diverts our trust in God, Col. iii. 5. Sensuality is set
ting up another god, as it diverteth our love from him : Phil. iii. 19,
' Whose god is their belly.' Neglect of communion with God is
atheism, Ps. x. 3 ; and worldliness is adultery, James iv. 4 ; and here
hatred of the brethren is murder. And there is a double profit by it
— it servetli for an evangelical use and a moral use.
[1.] It servetli for an evangelical use, to quicken us to seek after
justification by way of faith and repentance ; for though we have not
been guilty of gross immoralities, we are not murderers, adulterers, yet
we cannot trust in our own righteousness. We are in danger of the
judgment or the council for rash anger, hatred, malice, revenge, seek
ing or wishing mischief to others. There is no relief to be looked for
in God's strict justice from the smallness of our sins ; our hope standeth
only in the fulness of Christ's ransom, and the largeness of his grace
in the new covenant, which alloweth room for repentance. Thus the
severe exaction of the law doth drive us to Christ.
[2.] The second use is moral, to make us hate sin. Oh, how care
fully should we abstain from all indulgence to the beginnings of it !
In mortifying sin, let us not weigh things in man's balance, but in
God's, and not consider what is hateful to the world, but how things
will appear before God's tribunal. There are sins majoris in/amice
and majoris reatus. Some sins procure their own shame in the world,
but others argue a greater aversion of heart, and enmity to God and
his people. Many of sin's martyrs, that are publicly executed for the
warning of others, are less hateful to God than others whom he
hangeth up in chains of darkness as the instances of the slavery of sin,
being wholly addicted to pleasures, profits, and honours.
3. It teacheth us that sin originally cometh from the heart and inner
man ; for hatred is murder, that is, the seed of it ; and what would it
produce were it not for the restraints of providence ? Mat. xviii. 19.
How watchful should we be over our hearts ! Prov. iv. 23, ' Keep thy
heart with all diligence, for out of it are the issues of life ; ' and over
the first risings of sin there, that we may not give place to the devil,
Eph. iv. 27. Judas had never betrayed his Lord if he had crushed
covetousness in the egg ; many had never dipped their hands in blood,
if they had smothered their envy and hatred as soon as it began to arise
in them. It is wiser to keep from the first degrees, for by yielding to
them we run into further degrees of sin. How humble should we be !
Oh, what monsters lurk in the heart of man ! Jer. xvii. 4, ' Wash thy
heart from wickedness.' We would not think so if the word or
experience did not discover it. What a foul stomach have they that
vomit up nothing but knives, and daggers, and instruments of destruc
tion !
Use 2. Is to press us to beware of this sin, the hatred of our
brother.
1. It is such a sin as is brought for one instance of the corruption and
degeneration of human nature, Titus iii. 3. We are all hateful to God,
VER. 15.] SERMONS UPON i JOHN in. 131
and yet we hate one another, that one man is as a wolf to another,
seeking to devour or undermine one another.
2. It is not such a sin as shall have its pardon of course, with our
ordinary failings and frailties. No ; it is represented as one of the
heinous transgressions of the law, 'murder ; ' such sins as are quite con
trary to the evangelical state: they have 'not eternal life abiding in.
them ; ' that is, life spiritual, which is eternal life begun : Gal. v. 21,
' They which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God ; '
and 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 disobedi
ence/ Those that impenitently live in them shall be eternally damned ;
where they are harboured, they leave an incapacity upon us of entering
into the kingdom of God till solemnly and expressly repented of.
3. It is a sin that is contrary to the evangelical temper, as well as
to the evangelical state ; it is contrary to that meekness, patience, and
forgiving one another, peaceableness, love, which is so frequently and
expressly required of Christians ; for Christianity is an art of loving God
and his people : 1 Cor. xvi. 14, ' Let all your things be done with
charity;' 1 Peter iv. 8, 'Above all things, have fervent charity among
yourselves.' Love is the chief duty we owe both to God and our
neighbour. Next to our love to our Lord Jesus Christ, love to his
people ought to be studied above other things ; therefore certainly
they should keep free of malice and hatred one of another.
4. When you live in hatred one to another, you cannot offer any
acceptable sacrifice to God. When Christ had discoursed concerning
rash anger and opprobrious speeches to our brother, he saith, Mat. v.
23, 24, 'If thou bring thy gift to the altar, and there rememberest that
thy brother hath aught against thee, leave there thy gift before the
altar, and go thy way, and first be reconciled to thy brother, and then
come and offer thy gift ; ' and in his prayer, Mat. vi. 12, ' Forgive us
our debts, as we forgive our debtors.' Otherwise we cannot pray to
the God of love with any confidence : 1 Tim. ii. 8, ' I will that men
pray everywhere, lifting up holy hands, without wrath and doubting.'
It spoileth our access to God, 1 Peter iii. 7.
5. Till you get rid of this distemper a man is strangely blinded and
perverted in the course of his walking, all Christian practice obstructed :
1 John ii. 11, ' But he that hateth his brother is in darkness, and
walketh in darkness, and knoweth not whither he goeth, because that
darkness hath blinded his eyes ; ' that is, he is more easily involved
in sin and error, and mistaketh his way, or hath not a heart to walk in
it. He wanted his true measures, love to God and his people, both
which make him wise in spiritual things.
Second point. Now I come to the perniciousness and danger of
this sin, ' No murderer hath eternal life abiding in him.' I shall clear
it by these considerations —
1. That it is a blessed thing to have eternal life abiding in us before
we enter into the possession of it. This will appear sufficiently by
explaining the terms, what it is to have eternal life, and then what it
is to have it abiding in us.
[1.] What is it to have eternal life ? It is to have a right to it by
a new covenant grant : 1 John v. 12, ' He that hath the Son hath life,
132 SERMONS UPON 1 JOHN III. [SfiR. XXI.
and he that hath not the Son hath not life.' He hath a stated right,
and well secured, as firm as God's covenant can make it ; a right
pleadable before the tribunal of God : 1 John v. 24, ' He that believeth
on the Son hath eternal life, and shall not come into condemnation.'
[2.] To have it, is firmly to believe it, and hope and look for it :
Heb, xi. 1, ' Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the
evidence of things not seen.' Faith giveth to its object presence and
evidence. As it is substance, so it is equal to present subsistence ;
as it is an evidence, so it is equal to visibility ; it is present to our view
and sight in point of truth, to our affections in point of worth.
[3.] To have it abiding in us is to have it begun in the spiritual life.
The spiritual life is an introduction to this life of glory. There is an
eternal principle in our hearts ; therefore grace is called an immortal
or incorruptible seed, 1 Peter i. 23. There is an eternal principle put
into them, to carry them to eternal ends. The life is begun, and is
still working towards its final perfection. Nothing is perfected in
heaven but what is begun here upon earth. It is an earnest to show
how sure, 2 Cor. i. 22, the first-fruits, to show how good, Rom. viii. 23.
The comforts of the Spirit are some foretastes of the sweetness which
is in heaven. It is also a disposition ; it doth qualify and prepare us
for glory: Col. i. 12, ' Who hath made us meet to be partakers of the
inheritance of the saints in light ; ' and Rom. ix. 23, ' Prepared unto
glory.' As their natures are more and more renewed and purified, and
more dispositively fitted.
2. This is the privilege of the true believer, and none else ; for it is
expressly said, John iii. 36, ' He that believeth on the Son hath ever
lasting life ; and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life, but
the wrath of God abideth on him.'
3. None is a true believer but he that loveth God above all, and his
people for God's sake ; for true faith worketh by love, Gal. v. 6, and
the great commands of the gospel are faith in Christ, and love to one
another: 1 John iii. 23, 'And this is his commandment, that we
should believe on the name of his Son Jesus Christ, and love one
another, as he gave commandment.'
4. Therefore those that live in the allowed hatred of their brethren
are cut off from all those privileges ; they have not a right to God's
covenant, for they are not sound believers ; they have no true faith and
hope concerning the world to come, for then they would prepare more for
it; for our certain and desirous expectation of the promised glory is seen
in our seriousness, diligence, and watchfulness against sin. They have
not the beginnings of heaven in their souls, because they have not the
divine nature, which is love ; yea, they cherish that which destroy eth
1he power and forfeits the comforts of the spiritual life, hatred, which
is the satanical nature, and utterly contrary and inconsistent with the
divine and heavenly life.
VER. 16.] SERMONS UPON i JOHN in, 133
SERMON 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. —
1 JOHN iii. 16.
THE apostle having instanced in the lowest act of love, not hating our
brother, and destroying the life of another, as Cain did; now he
cometh to instance in the highest act of love, laying down our own
lives for the brethren. Lest by the former discourse he should seem
to beat down the price of love too low in the world, he seeketh here to
advance it again. A Christian should be so far from destroying the
life of another, that he should venture his own, ' Hereby perceive we
the love of God,' &c.
In the words observe two things — (1.) An instance of God's love ;
(2.) The inference of duty drawn from thence.
First, The instance of God's love, ' Hereby perceive we the love of
God, because he laid down his life for us.'
1. The phrase of laying down of life imports his death was not
forced, but he yielded to it by a voluntary submission ; so it is explained,
John x. 17, 18, ' I lay down my life, that I may take it again. No
man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself : I have power to
lay it down, and have power to take it again.'
2. For us ; not only for our good, but in our place and room :
John x. 15, ' I lay down my life for my sheep.'
3. Hereby perceive we the love of God. Here is love testified by
some notable effect and fruit. Love lieth hidden in the breast of those
that love, but it is visibly known and seen by the effects. We perceive
it was a true, real, effectual love ; not a well-wishing only, or a kind
affection arising in the heart, and there resting, but a love breaking
out into action, and evidencing itself by some act becoming such a,
love.
Doct. That Christ laying down his life for us was a pregnant proof
and great demonstration of his love to us.
To evidence this I shall prove these things —
First, That love was the bosom-cause, spring, and rise of all that
Christ did for us, and that which did set on work the whole business of
our recovery to God. This is often noted in the scripture, whether
you consider the act of God or Christ: John iii. 16, ' God so loved the
world that he gave his only-begotten Son.' So Christ: Gal. ii. 20, 'Who
loved me/and gave himself for me;' Eph. v. 25, 'He loved the church,
and gave himself for it ; ' Rev. i. 5, ' He hath loved us, and washed us
in his blood from our sins.' Love is the inward moving cause, and
our misery is the outward occasion which moved him to do so. The
nature of love is velle amati bonum, to desire the good of the party
loved. That this was the first rise is evident, because we can give
reasons of other things, but we can give no reason of his love. Why
did he employ so much wisdom and goodness and power, and make such
a deal of do to save a company of poor forlorn creatures ? He loved us.
But why did he love us ? Because he loved us. It was not necessity
134 SERMONS UPON 1 JOHN III. [SfiR. XXII.
of nature, as fire burneth because it can do no otherwise. It was the
error of a great philosopher to say, that the first cause did work out of
mere necessity, and that what he doth he must needs do. No ; God
is a free agent ; he might have left us remediless, and in everlasting
misery ; but out of his self-inclination, and according to his own heart,
he hath done us good, though he might have chosen whether he would
or no. It was opus liberi consilii, but God would restore us, and that
in the best way.
Secondly, It was God's end to carry on the way of our salvation in
such a manner as might commend his love to sinners : Bom. v. 8,
' But God commended his love towards us, in that, while we were yet
sinners, Christ died for us.' There was power discovered in the
creation, when God made us like himself out of the dust of the
ground ; but love in our redemption, when he made himself like us.
He revealeth his glorious majesty in the highest heavens ; in hell his
fearful justice ; his wise and powerful providence throughout the whole
world ; his gracious love and mercy to his church and people. All
things in God are infinite, but the effects of his love are more wonder
ful than any of his attributes ; there he hath gone to the uttermost.
He hath no better thing to give us than himself, his Christ and his
Spirit. He never showed so much of his wisdom but he can show
more ; but how can he show more of his love to us than he hath
shown ? He hath not another Christ to die for us, nor a better-
saviour to bestow upon us, nor a better salvation to offer to us.
Thirdly, That the course which God took doth fully suit with his
end, which was a full and clear demonstration of his love, as will
appear by these circumstances —
1. The person who was to work out our deliverance was the eternal
Son of God. We need no other proof than this very text we have in
hand, 'Hereby perceive we the love of God, because he laid down his
life for us.' He that is God did this for us; Jesus Christ, ' who is
God over all,' Rom. ix. 5. Now that God, who is the absolute Lord
of all things, and can do with us what he pleaseth ; God, that oweth
nothing to any man, that was so much offended with man ; God, that
stood in no need of us, as having infinite happiness and contentment
within himself, that he should show so much love as to come and die
for us, ' Hereby perceive we the love of God.' When we consider
what Christ is, we shall most admire what he hath done for us. For
creatures to be kind to one another is not so great a matter, for every
one hath need of another. The world is upheld by a combination of
interests, as the stones in an arch ; the head cannot say to the foot, I
have no need of thee ; the prince standeth in need of the peasant, as
well as the peasant of the prince. But God standeth in no need of us :
' He is not worshipped with men's hands, as if he needed anything,'
Acts xvii. 25. We need his blessing, but he doth not need our service
to support his being and dignity or increase his happiness. When
Christ was in the state of humiliation, he was subject to wants as we
are ; as when they loosed the foal whereon he was to ride up to Jeru
salem, they were to answer, Mat. xxi. 3, ' The Lord hath need of him.'
But it was otherwise with Christ as God, which we now speak of. As
God, he needed not the being of man or angel ; or else why did he not
VER 16.] SERMONS UPON i JOHN in. 135
make the world and things therein sooner, that he might be sooner
happy ? Again, as man, he was to be in subjection : ' For being
made of a woman, he was made under the law/ Gal. iv. 4 ; and
as mediator he had a commandment : John x. 18, ' This cornmand-
mant I received of my Father/ But as the second person in the
trinity, he is one God with the Father, as undivided in nature and
essence ; so of the same liberty, authority, and power : Phil. ii. 6, ' He
thought it no robbery to be equal with God.' The angels were cast
out of heaven for robbery, for usurping divine honour ; but Christ was
not thrust down for robbery and usurpation, but came down out of
love and voluntary condescension to die for us. Sometimes Christ's
death is made an act of obedience, sometimes an act of love : Rom. v.
] 9, 'By the obedience of one many shall be made righteous.' So Phil,
ii. 8, ' He became obedient to death, even the death of the cross/
With respect to his Father's command, it was an high act of obedience,
the like of which cannot be done by man or angel, carried on with such
humility, patience, self-denial, resignation of himself to God, charity
and pity toward us. But considering the dignity of his person, all was
purely an act of love ; and the more love because,coming in our nature,
he put himself under a necessity of obedience, and doing what con
duced to our salvation ; so he loved me and gave himself for me.
2. Our necessity and condition, when he came to show this love to
us. We were the cursed offspring of sinful Adam, in a lost and
lapsed estate, and so altogether hopeless, unless some means were used
for our recovery. Kindness to them that are ready to perish doth
most affect us. Surely we should love Christ as men fetched up from
the gates of hell, for we had lost the image of God, Rom. iii. 23 ;
sold ourselves to Satan, Isa. Iii. 3 ; sentenced to death and eternal
condemnation by God's righteous law, John iii. 18 ; ready for execu
tion, Eph. ii. 3, John iii. 36 ; nothing but the slender thread of a frail
life between us and it. Then did Christ step in by a wonderful act of
love to rescue and recover us, not staying till we relented and cried
for mercy. We were neither sensible of our misery nor mindful of
our remedy, but lay dead in trespasses and sins, Eph. ii. 1. Thus
when we had cast away the mercies of our creation, and were wallow
ing in our blood and filthiness, Ezek. xvi., then the Son of God came
to die for us, Rom. v. 7, 8. Surely it was love, mere love, when we
stood guilty before the tribunal of God's justice, that he should take the
chastisement of our peace upon him : Isa. liii. 5, ' And with his stripes
we are healed/
3. The astonishing way in which our deliverance was brought
about ; by the incarnation, shame, agonies, blood, and death of the
Son of God ; this was the highest act of self-denial on Christ's part,
considering him only as to the nature he had assumed : John xv. 13,
' Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for
his friend/ If his people need his death, he will give proof to them
by his death of his love to them, and will act to the highest laws of
friendship ; we learn more of God's love by this instance than any
thing else.
4. The notions by which the death of Christ is set forth to us.
There are two solemn ones — a ransom and a sacrifice.
136 SERMONS UPON 1 JOHN III. [SEE. XXII.
[1.] A ransom : Mat. xx. 28, ' And to give his life as a ransom for
many ; ' 1 Tim. ii. 6, ' Who gave himself a ransom for all/ This was
an ancient notion : Job xxxiii. 24, ' Deliver him from going down into
the pit, for I have found a ransom ; ' that is, a price and recompense
given in our stead. A ransom is a price given to one that hath power
of life and death, to save the life of one capitally guilty, or by law
bound to suffer death, or some other evil and punishment, This was
our case. God was the supreme judge, before whose tribunal man
standeth guilty, and liable to death ; but Christ interposed that we
might be spared, and the Father is content with his death as a suffi
cient ransom.
[2.] The other notion is that of a mediatorial sacrifice : Isa. liii. 10,
' When he shall make his soul an offering for sin ; ' Eph. v. 2, ' As
Christ also hath loved us, and hath given himself for us, an offering
and a sacrifice to God, for a sweet-smelling savour/ He undertook
the expiation of our sins and the propitiating of God. God's provoked
justice would not end the controversy it had against us till it was
appeased by a proper sacrifice of propitiation. Now herein was love :
1 John iv. 10, ' Not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent
his Son to be a propitiation for our sins/ The sins and guilty fears of
mankind show the need of such a remedy. We are naturally sensible
that the punishment of death is deserved and due to us by the law of
God : Rom. i. 32, ' Who knowing the judgment of God, that they which
commit such things are worthy of death/ And also the necessity of
a sin-offering. This Christ hath made, ' that our consciences, being
purged from dead works, might serve the living God,' Heb. ix. 14.
Fourthly, The consequent benefits.
1, Relative privileges, pardon, justification and adoption. Pardon :
Eph. i. 7, ' In whom we have redemption through his blood, the for
giveness of sins/ To have sin pardoned, which is the great make-
bate, which is the worm that eateth out the heart of all our comforts,
the venom that embittereth all our crosses ; surely this is the great
effect of God's love to us. Justification : Rom. v. 1, ' There is no
condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus/ To be at present upon
good terms with God, freed from fears of hell and the wrath of God,
which is so deservedly terrible to all serious persons : Rom. v. 9,
' Being justified by his blood, we shall, be saved from wrath through
him/ Oh, how should we love the Lord Jesus, who hath procured
such privileges for us. So for adoption, to be taken into God's
family : Gal. iv. 5, ' When the fulness of time was come, God sent
forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them
that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons/
Assured of welcome and audience in all our needs, as children are
when they come to their father, to wait for present provision, and
hereafter for a child's portion.
2. Positive inherent graces, to have our natures sanctified, healed,
and freed from the stains of sin ; all which is done by virtue of the
death of Christ : Eph. v. 26, ' He gave himself for it, that he might
sanctify and cleanse it;' Titus ii. 14, 'Who gave himself for us, that
he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify to himself a peculiar
• people, zealous of good works ; ' and so fitted for the service of God :
VER. 16.] SERMONS UPON i JOHN nr. 137
Kev. i. 5, 6, 'Who hath loved us, and washed us in his blood, and
made us kings and priests unto God.' Surely to have a nature divine
and heavenly, to be made like God, serviceable to God, is a mercy not
easily valued according to its worth. Nay, further, to be fortified
against the enemies of our salvation. The devil: Col. ii. 15, 'And
having spoiled principalities arid powers, he hath made a show of
them openly, triumphing over them.' The world : Gal. i. 4, ' He
gave himself that he might redeem us from this present evil world.'
The flesh : Gal. v. 24, ' They that are Christ's have crucified the
flesh, with the affections and lusts thereof;' Rom. vi. 6, 'Knowing
that our old man is crucified Avith him, that the body of sin may be
destroyed ; ' 1 Peter ii. 24, ' Who his own self bare our sins in his
own body upon the tree, that we, being dead unto sin, might live unto
righteousness.' They are distempered and diseased souls that are not
affected with these kind of mercies, and value worldly greatness before
them ; as swine take pleasure in the mire, and ravenous beasts feed
on dung and carrion. Surely these greater mercies, which tend to the
perfecting and ennobling our natures, should endear Christ to us.
3. Eternal blessedness and glory ; this is also the fruit of his laying
down his life for us; for it is said, 1 Thes. v. 10, ' He died for us,that
whether we sleep or wake, we should live together with him ; ' and
again, Heb. ix. 15, ' He is the mediator of the new testament, that
by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressors that were
under the first testament, they which are called might receive the
promise of eternal inheritance.' That is the consummate benefit, when
we shall be brought nigh to the throne of God, and shall be companions
of the holy angels, and for ever behold our glorified Eedeemer, and
our nature united to the Godhead ; and for our persons, we shall have
the nearest intuition and fruition of God that we are capable of, and
live in the fullest love to him and delight in him, and the soul shall
for ever dwell in a glorified body, which shall not be a prison, but a
temple to it ; and be no more troubled with infirmities, necessities,
and diseases, but for ever be at rest with the Lord, and glorify his
name to all eternity. Thus we see what love God hath showed us in
Christ, or Christ hath showed to us in dying for us.
Fifthly, That love doth shine forth more in our redemption by
Christ than in any other way whereby God hath discovered himself to
the creature. That we have a good God is otherwise manifested, and
there is nothing comes from him but shows forth something of his
goodness : Ps. cxix. 68, ' Thou art good, and doest good ; teach me
thy statutes.' He discovered love in our creation, when he gave us a
reasonable nature, and made us a little lower than the angels ; but he
showeth more love in our restoration, when he giveth us a divine nature,
and advanceth our nature in the person of Christ far above principali
ties and powers. He might have made us toads and serpents ; he
might have left us devils. He showeth love to us in his preservation
and daily providence, that he maintaineth us at his own expense, though
we do him so little service, yea, do so often offend him ; but he shows
more in pardoning our sins, and adopting us into his family, and giving
us eternal life. A word made us, and his providential word keepeth
us : ' For he upholdeth all things by the word of his power,' and ' Man
138 SERMONS UPON 1 JOHN III. [&ER. XXII.
liveth not by bread alone ;' but we could not be redeemed without the
death of the Son of God : 1 John iv. 10, ' Herein is love, not that wo
loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be a propitiation
for our sins.' Therefore here is the true glass wherein to see God.
Surely we had never known so much of the love of God had it not
been for this great instance: 1 John iv. 9, 'In this was the love of
God manifested towards us, because he sent his onty-begotten Son into
the world, that we might live through him/ What was Jesus Christ
but love incarnate, love born of a virgin, love hanging on a cross, love
laid in the grave, love made sin, love made a curse for us ? It was
love that accomplished all the wonders of our redemption.
Use 1. This glorious demonstration of God's love should fill us with
admiring thoughts and praise. We owe all to love. Christ : John
iii. 16, 'God so loved the world, that he gave his only-begotten Son.'
The covenant: Jer. xxxii. 40, 41, 'And I will make an everlasting
covenant with them, and will not turn away from them, to do them
good : yea, I will rejoice over them to do them good, and I will plant
them in this land assuredly with my whole heart, and with my whole
soul/ The blessings of the covenant ; conversion : Eph. ii. 4, 5, ' But
God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he hath loved
us, even when we were dead in sins and trespasses, he quickened us/
Pardon: Hosea xiv. 4, 'I will heal their backslidings, and will love
them freely/ Hopes of glory : 2 Thes. ii. 16, ' He hath loved us, and
given us everlasting consolation, and good hope through grace/ Our
final glorification: 1 John iii. 1, 'Behold what manner of love is this!'
Pardon, grace, glory, all cometh of love. Nothing should be more
frequent in our hearts and mouths than the love of God. It is the
study of the saints to admire this : Eph. iii. 18, ' That we may com
prehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth,
und height, and to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge/
To get more large and lively thoughts of it. This will most be when
we have some interest in these things : 1 John iii. 1, ' Behold what
manner of love is this, that we should be called the sons of God! ' And
you find the fruits of it in your own souls: Bom. v. 5, 'But hope
maketh not ashamed, because the love of God is shed abroad in our
hearts/ Feel the virtue of his death in heart and conscience, then
glory in.it: Gal. vi. 14, 'God forbid that I should glory, save in the
cross of our Lord Jesus Christ ; ' 1 John v. 10, ' He that believeth on
the Son hath the witness in himself/ When it appeaseth your guilty
fears, and freeth you from the tyranny of worldly lusts, the saving
effects of this love, a deep and intimate feeling giveth us the true sense
of those things, more than a pertinent and exact discourse.
2. This glorious demonstration of God's love to us should beget love
in us to God again : 1 John iv. 19, ' We love him because he hath
loved us first/ Shall Jesus Christ love me, and make a plaster of his
blood for my poor wounded soul, and shall I not love him again?
The cold wall will reverberate and beat back again the heat of the
sun : 2 Cor. v. 14, 15, ' For the love of Christ constraineth us, because
we thus judge, if one died for all, then are all dead ; and that he died
for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves,
but unto him which died for them, and rose again/ Our hearts should
VER. 16.] SERMONS UPON i JOHN in. 139
be drawn in to him, and love and thankfulness should be the life of all
obedience ; for all Christian religion in effect is but love. Love is the
spring and rise of all that Christ did for us ; so it should be the rise
and spring of all that we do for Christ, that we may act and suffer for
him as willingly and readily as he did for us. We can hardly take
comfort in any dispensation of God unless there be love in it ; neither
will God accept any duty of ours unless there be love in it. Oh, let
love beget love !
3. Let us be content with this manifestation of the love of God ; we
have the fruits of his death, though God straiten us in outward things.
We cannot say God doth or doth not love us, though he giveth or
withholdeth a worldly portion : Eccles. ix. 1, ' None can know love or
hatred by these things.' Sometimes God's enemies have a large supply,
when his people are kept short and bare : Ps. xvii. 14, ' From men
which are thy hand, Lord, from men of the world, which have their
portion in this life, and whose bellies thoti fillest with thy hid treasure:
they are full of children, and leave the rest of their substance to their
babes.' But if he giveth us the saving effects of Christ's death, it is
a certain demonstration of his love, though he doth not gratify us
with worldly increase. Let us look after the distinguishing effects of
his love, and the favour he beareth to his people.
Secondly, I come to the duty hence inferred, ' We ought to lay down
our lives for the brethren.'
Doct. Christians ought to be ready to lay down their lives for the
brethren.
This is the use we are directed to make of God's laying down his life
for us, not only that we may love him again, and be reconciled to him,
but to teach us how to love one another.
Note three things from hence —
First, That our love of the brethren is inferred out of Christ's love
to us. Christ's love to us hath a double respect to it — (1.) It hath
the force of a cause ; (2.) The use of a pattern and example.
1. The force of a cause. Out of gratitude to Christ we should love
those that are Christ's, those that are his people, and bear his name and
image ; because he hath loved us, we should love one another : 1 John
iv. 11, ' If God so loved us, we should love one another,' for this
reason.
2. It hath the use of a pattern and example ; we must not only love
others because he hath loved us, but we must love others as he hath
loved us : John xv. 12, ' This is my commandment, that ye love one
another, as I have loved you ; ' and John xiii. 34, ' This is my new
commandment which I give unto you, that ye love one another ; as I
have loved you, that ye also love one another.' This is the pattern
propounded to our imitation.
Secondly, That in our love to the brethren, as we must imitate Christ
in other things, so in laying down our lives for their good. Our love
should be free as his was, sincere as his was, fruitful as his, constant
as his love, superlative as his: Eph. v. 2, 'Walk in love as Christ
also hath loved us.' But chiefly in his dying, to reduce men to God.
Christ was willing to endure all extremity to expiate our sins and
bring about our salvation. Christ's love fainted not: John xiii. 1,
140 SERMONS UPON 1 JOHN III. [SfiR. XXII
' Christ having loved his own which were in the world, he loved them
to the end.' Therefore we should venture our lives in such a noble
design to bring men to the Christian faith. Christ's precious blood was
more valuable than all the world, therefore we should not stick at any
thing.
Thirdly, It is not left arbitrary and free to us to do or not to do, but
we must or ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. So it is in
the text, ' We ought also.' Christ must be obeyed whatever our inclin
ations be. It is such a necessary duty, that we are nothing without it :
1 Cor. xiii. 1-3, ' Though I speak with the tongue of men and angels,
and have not charity, I am become as a sounding brass or a tinkling
cymbal. And though I have the gifts of prophecy, and understand all
mysteries, and all knowledge ; and though I had all faith, and I could
remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing. And though
I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to
be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing.' We have
not the true spirit of Christianity till this be accomplished in us.
But in what cases is a man to die for another ?
I answer — This case of conscience must be decided by distinguishing
— (1.) The persons ; (2.) The cause ; (3.) The manner ; (4.) The
call.
First, As to the persons for whom we must lay down our lives.
1. They may be considered as aliens or infidels, or as fellow-christians.
Principally the latter are intended, for they are more properly our
brethren, and this duty belongeth to brotherly love, as it is distinguished
from charity. But yet the others are not wholly to be excluded, because we
die or venture our lives for infidels that they may become brethren ; as
Christ died for us when we were enemies that we might be made friends.
And therefore, though base and brutish, and opposite to us for the
present, yet there should be an earnest desire of their spiritual good ;
and it is most like the example of Christ to run all hazards for the
conversion of the world, as well as the confirmation of the faithful :
Phil. ii. 17, ' Yea, and if I be offered upon the sacrifice and service of
your faith, I joy and rejoice with you all.' His blood poured out as a
drink-offering, with allusion to the sacrifices of the law.
2. They may be considered as a single person or as a multitude.
Now for a community, there is no question but I should venture my
single life to save them. It is a constant rule that all private things
must give way to public, for God's glory is more promoted and con
cerned in a public good than in a private ; therefore a public good is
better and more considerable in itself than any man's particular
temporal happiness. God's glory must be preferred before the creature's
profit. Heathens have chosen to die for the public good, or for their
country's, though it may be suspected fame had a great influence on
it. Thus Curtius went into a gulf to save his country. Yea, the
creatures act against their particular nature to preserve the universe.
Lawrence ran the hazard of a gridiron rather than betray the faithful.
But now the question is, whether is one single person bound to die for
another ? Yes, if more eminently useful, as you shall see by and by ;
and that is not hard, because he is as much bound to die for me as I
for him ; the strong to confirm the faith of the weak, and the weak to
YER. 16.] SERMONS UPON i JOHN in. 141
preserve the strong, that they may do more good. So where a great
obligation is ; as to our natural parents : we have received our lives
from them. A private Christian suffering for Christ should be owned,
since a man cannot without it perform necessary duties in owning
Christ's members : Mat. xxv. 43, ' I was in prison, and ye visited me
not ; ' 2 Tim. iv. 16, ' All men forsook me ; I pray God it be not laid
to their charge.' Though it may involve them in great trouble to own
God's servants and supply their necessities, as in Queen Mary's days.
3. Others may be considered as to their capacities of promoting the
glory of God, as the magistrate, or the father of the country : 2 Sam.
xviii. 3, ' Thou art better than ten thousand of us ; ' 2 Sam. xxi. 16,
17, ' quench not the light of Israel,' when David was in danger ; or
eminent ministers, such as may save many souls. P<ml telleth us,
Rom. xvi. 4, ' Who have for my life laid down their own necks, unto
whom not only I give thanks, but also all the churches of the gentiles;'
Phil. ii. 30, 'For the work of Christ he was nigh unto death, not
regarding life, to supply your lack of service towards me/ Persons
public must be preferred before private ; and among private those that
excel and may be more useful, whose lives may more conduce to the
glory of God. We must love a better and a more serviceable man,
who hath more of God's Spirit in him, above ourselves, and an equal
person equal with ourselves. Well, then, a subject is bound to preserve
the life of the magistrate, as the hand will lift up itself to save the
head. Nay, in some cases, though it be a private friend ; for though
my life and his be of an equal value, yet my duty to him and his life
overswayeth, especially if the case be but hazardous, as to rescue him
from an assassin.
Secondly, The cause for which we exercise this great charity to
others ; it is for their good. Now good is either temporal or eternal ;
for their eternal good chiefly we are to do this. Paul, if he might pro
mote the glory of God, 'could wish himself accursed from Christ for
his brethren and kinsmen according to the flesh,' Rom. ix. 3 ; if to
free others from eternal death ; so did Christ die for us. Suppose
temporal good, to free them from temporal evil, to clear the community ;
or for useful persons, or persons for whom I stand bound.
1. Certainly we ought to help one another's spiritual good by the
loss of our temporal, and venture life, liberty, and estate for the propa
gation of the gospel. An instance we have in Paul's glorious excess of
charity. Moses : Exod. xxxii. ' Blot me out of thy book, if thou wilt
forgive their sins.' But the Lord Jesus Christ above all : 2 Cor. viii.
!), ' For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was
rich, yet for our sakes he became poor, that we through his poverty
might be rich.' A public spiritual good is more valuable than
any temporal good, a necessary act of our love to God.
2. Temporal good, to save the life of public, useful, eminent persons,
if their lives be more serviceable than ours.
Thirdly, The manner of exposing life to apparent hazard or to cer
tain death ; partly because in some cases we may venture our lives,
though not actually lay them down, as we may expose ourselves to
uncertain danger to hinder others' certain danger, as when a man is
assaulted by thieves and ruffians, to prevent murder. I must contribute
142 SERMONS UPON 1 JOHN III. [SfiR. XXII.
my help to the wronged party, though I endanger my own life : Esther
iv. 16, ' If I perish, I perish.' There are two grounds of that resolu
tion — a public good preferred before a private. The case was only
hazardous, though likely ; for she would go with a courageous mind.
And partly because he that ventureth puts his life in his hand, is
accepted with God, though he doth not actually lay down his life ; for
it is so interpreted, because he runneth a course of danger.
Fourthly, The call. We must not precipitate and cast ourselves
needlessly on such trials. God willeth no man to be foolishly and rashly
prodigal of his own life and health, yet when clearly called, none of
this must be stood upon. In two cases we seem to be called. First,
When we cannot without sin escape such a trial. It overtaketh us in
our station wherein God hath set us, otherwise we must preserve our
lives for the glory of God and the good of others. Secondly, When
God findeth us out in our sin, and others are like to suffer for our sake.
2 Sam. xxiv. 12, when David had displeased God in numbering the
people, God, by the prophet Gad, offereth him three things : ' Choose
one of them, that I may do it unto thee ; ' and Jonah i. 12, ' And he
said, Take me up and cast me into the sea, for I know that for my sake
this great tempest is upon you.'
Object. It is true, I must love my neighbour as myself ; but by this
it seemeth I must love him above myself.
Ans. 1. I love myself when I only hazard temporal life to obtain
eternal. It is not a hard law for them to keep that have an eternal
life assured to them for the loss of a temporal one : John xi. 25, ' He
that believeth on me shall live though he die.'
Ans. 2. Natural love is to be subservient to our spiritual love.
Natural love, which is put into a man for self-preservation, no question
will be stronger to itself than another ; and indeed we are to prefer,
and first preserve and provide for, ourselves ; our neighbour is only re
garded as a second self. But this is to be directed and mastered by our
spiritual love. As reason taught the heathens to prefer their countries
before their life, so grace teacheth Christians to prefer God's honour,
Christ's kingdom, gospel church, neighbour's spiritual good, before our
own life and liberty ; and we ought to lay down our lives for others,
when the glory of God, edification of the church, and spiritual necessity
of others requireth it. Our lives must not be dearer to us than Christ's
was to him.
Use 1. If we are to lay down our lives for the brethren, then we
should sincerely perform all lesser offices of love to them. See the next
verse, ' But whoso hath this world's goods, and seeth his brother hath
need.' If you cannot part with superfluities, can you part with life for
their sake ? 2 Sam. xxiv. 17. If you will not hazard a frown or a
check for them, how can you suffer death for them ? If not put your
selves to the trouble of a visit, how will you travel all the world, and
put yourselves to all manner of hazards to convert souls ?
2. How much self-lovers and self-seekers are to be condemned. If
I must not only love my neighbour as myself, but love him as Christ
loved me, surely they have a temper most unsuitable to Christianity
that only mind their own things, and please their own wills and
desires, without seeking the welfare of others. Whether they be in a
VER. 16.] SERMONS UPON i JOHN nr. 143
public or private capacity, they care not how it goes with the church
and people of God, so their particular interests may flourish. This is
against nature and grace. By nature man is a sociable creature, that
cannot live by himself, therefore should not live to himself; and grace
hath cast us into the mystical body, there is a great aggregated self,
and that is the society to which we do belong ; and that is the reason
why we are so often said to be members of one another, Rom. xii. 5.
It is but self still, the same mystical body ; and we should care one
for another as for ourselves, especially the public state of Christ's church.
If it be ill with them and the church too, church-sorrow swalloweth up
their private grief: 1 Sam. iv. 22, ' The glory is departed, for the ark
of God is taken.' She doth not bewail the death of her husband, the
death of a father and brother, so much as the ark's being taken, and
the glory departed from Israel. If it go well with them and the church
too, it doubleth the contentment : Ps. cxxviii. 5, ' Thou shalt see thy
children's children, and peace upon Israel.' But if things go cross and ill
with the church when it goeth well with them, the state of the church is
a wound to their hearts : Ps. cxxxvii. 5, 6, ' They prefer Zion above
their chief joy.' If it go well with the church when ill with them, it
is a comfort ; as Paul in prison rejoiced in the progress of the gospel,
Phil. i. 15-18.
3. That Christian love is a more necessary and excellent grace than
usually we take it to be. First, More necessary, for Christ died to set
a pattern to our love ; as to teach us to love God, so with what fervour
and affection to love one another. Of all duties and graces that re
spect our neighbour, this is most necessary ; it is indeed all the sum of
the law : Eom. xiii. 8, ' He that loveth another hath fulfilled the law.'
The fountain of all : 1 Cor. xvi. 24, ' My love be with you all in Christ
Jesus.' Without it, though we have the greatest gifts, do the mostpomp-
ous acts, it is nothing, 1 Cor. xiii. 1—3. Yea, it is the great means of
making believers useful to one another. Secondly, The excellency ; here
is the highest pattern, viz., Christ. We cannot come up to his heightand
measure, yet some resemblance there must be between his love to souls
and our love to the brethren. Thirdly, The highest act of his self-denial
is instanced in his laying down his life, which Christ telleth us is the
greatest act of friendship among men, scarce ever found, John xv. 13.
Now we take love for a slight thing as practised among us ; but as it
is taught in scripture, the law of charity is very strict, that we should
forget our own highest interests for the profit of others ; and few chris-
tians there are that have the due impressions of Christ's death upon
them.
4. How much all that profess Christianity should be above the fears
of death, and in readiness to lay down their lives when God in his pro
vidence calleth them to it. Love to God calleth for it, Luke xiv. 26.
Yea, love to man calleth for it : Acts xxi. 13, ' I am ready not to be
bound only, but also to die at Jerusalem.' This is no hard law, if we
consider our obligation from the death of Christ, and our encourage
ment from the hope of eternal reward. Heathens died for their country
out of natural gallantry and greatness of mind ; they knew they could
not have lived long, therefore chose this way. But Christianity only
teaches the true grounds of contemning life and all temporal interests.
144 SERMONS UPON 1 JOHN III. [SfiR. XXIII.
SERMON XXIII.
But whoso hath this world's good, and seeth his brother have need, and
shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him, how divelleth the
love of God in him?. My little children, let us not love in word,
neither in tongue ; but in deed and in truth. — 1 JOHN iii. 17, 18.
IN the former verse he hath urged the example of Christ, which is
both a reason and a pattern of our love to our brethren, ' We must
love others because he loved us, and we must love others as he loved
us.' The pattern is urged not only for the duty itself, but the degree
of it. We must imitate Christ in that eminent act of self-denial, his
laying down his life for us. Surely that love is best which is most
like Christ's. Now Christ spared not his life, nor anything to do us
good ; so should our love express itself in the highest instances of love.
Well, then, if we are bound to the greater, we are much more bound
to the lesser ; if to lay down our lives for those that are in danger,
much more to give our goods to them. Surely those are not to be
accounted lovers of the brethren that will not part with a little of their
substance on these occasions, and are guilty of gross hypocrisy if they
should pretend either to the love of God or our neighbour, ' But whoso
hath this world's good, and seeth his brother have need,' &c.
In the words there is —
1. An argument implied, a majori ad minus ; and there is expressly
contained in it — (1.) A supposition of a duty neglected; (2.) A censure
or charge of a heinous crime imputed to such ; the ' love of God doth
not dwell ' in them.
2. An exhortation to sincerity.
First, In the argument we have three things —
[1.] The ability of the party to exercise charity, ' Whoso hath this
world's good.'
[2.] The necessity of the party upon whom it is exercised, 'And
seeth his brother have need.'
[3.] The neglect itself, ' Shutteth up his bowels of compassion from
him.'
(1.) The ability of the party, 'Whoso hath this world's good ;' the
meaning is, wherewith to support this worldly life ; as the woman is
said to cast in all her living, Mark xii. 44; and in other places bios is put
for the support of life. Those that have but from hand to mouth are
bound to distribute to them that need, Eph. iv. 28 ; but much more
the rich, that have not only to sustain and support this life, but to
spare for others. What we have we are to give ; out of a little, a little ;
out of more, more : Luke xii. 33, ' Sell what you have.' So Luke xi.
41, Give alms of such things as you have, and all things shall be clean
to you.' So Luke viii. 3, ' They ministered to him of their substance.'
So much of this world's goods as every man hath, so far his bounty
must extend.
(2.) The next thing supposed is others' necessity. By our own estate
God giveth us matter to exercise charity; by others' necessity he
giveth us occasion : his providence f urnisheth us, and straiteueth them ;
VER. 17, 18.] SERMONS UPON i JOHN in. 145
if they need bread to sustain life, or raiment to clothe the body ; and
those that need be brethren, the Lord calleth upon us for some
supply.
(3.) The act omitted, ' Shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him.'
Here the next inward cause is mentioned, and that is, 'bowels of compas
sion from him ; ' but the effect also is intended. If he doth not assist him
in his needs, his heart must be first opened ; there must be a willing and
ready mind, and then his hand opened ; there must be a liberal and
bountiful relief. ' Bowels,' no duty in this kind is accepted with God but
what is joined with bowels of compassion and sympathy. What we
translate, Luke i. 78, ' Through the tender mercy of our God,' is in the
margin, 'Bowels of mercy.' So 2 Cor. vii. 15, 'His inward affection
is more abundant towards you.' It is bowels. So Col. iii. 12, ' Put
on bowels of mercy.' It noteth an inward sense and sympathy with
the misery of others; such an intense motion of the heart, that
the very bowels are moved by it ; so that it is, if he shut up his
bowels, if he show himself hard-hearted and merciless, is not moved
with any pity of another's wants. The meaning is fully expressed by
Moses, Deut. xv. 7, ' Thou shalt not harden thy heart, nor shut thy
hand from thy poor brother.'
2dly. The censure and charge pronounced on us, ' Whosoever they
be ; ' where mark —
(1.) The form of proposal ; it is by way of question or appeal to
common reason. Can any man be so absurd as to imagine that this man
can have the love of God in him?
(2.) The heinousness of the crime or matter charged, ' The love of
God dwelleth not in him ; ' that is, is not rooted in his heart, and so he
must go for a hypocrite ; though not grossly dissembling Christianity,
yet guilty of partial obedience. Mark, it is not said, How dwelleth the
love of the brethren in him ? but 'How dwelleth the love of God in him ? '
Though they pretend to love God, yet indeed they neither love the
brethren nor God.
Secondly, The exhortation to sincerity, ' My little children, let us not
love in word, neither in tongue, but in deed and in truth/ In this
exhortation there is —
1. The compellation, ' My little children,' pressing love ; he showeth
love and tenderness towards them.
2. The matter of the exhortation, to sincerity of love, expressed —
First, Negatively, ' Not in word and in tongue.' To show love in
word and tongue is not simply forbidden, but respectively \ not simply,
for good words are useful in two cases —
[1.] To comfort the miserable, they have their use.
[2.] To maintain their innocency. Some cannot afford their brother
a good word, either of him or to him. Others, their hands are withered,
have not a heart to help him. But comparatively or respectively the
meaning is, when it is in word and tongue only ; and real and actual
doing good is neglected or excluded when we rest in good words.
Secondly, Positively, ' But in deed and in truth ; ' that is, so as the
uprightness of our hearts may be manifested by real deeds, or doing
good, when the needs of others require it. To love in ' deed and in
truth,' is to love sincerely : 1 Peter i. 22. ' Seeing ye have purified
VOL. xxi. K
146 SERMONS UPON 1 JOHN III. [SER. XXIII.
your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit, unto unfeigned love
of the brethren.' Which must be understood of ends and effects.
1. Ends, spoken of Mat. vi. 1,2,' Take heed that you do not your
alms before men, to be seen of them ; otherwise ye have no reward of
your Father which is in heaven. Therefore, when thou doest thine alms,
do not sound a trumpet before thee, as the hypocrites do in the
synagogues and in the streets, to be seen of men.' All they did was
hypocrisy, ' to be seen of men.'
2. Effects, when words are dissembled : Prov. xxiii. 7, ' Eat and
drink, saith he, but his heart is not with thee.' When not seconded
and verified with suitable acts, ' Be warmed and clothed ; ' as here many
foolishly and causelessly boasted they loved the brethren, but they would
do nothing for them. They boasted of love with their mouths, but
would not show it by the effects.
Doct. That want of bowels of compassion, or denying relief to the
needy and indigent, is the note of a man that loveth not God.
I shall make good the point by these considerations —
1. That it is the will of God that there should be a difference among
men, that some should be rich, others poor, some high, some low : Deut.
xv. 11, ' For the poor shall never cease out of the land : Therefore I
command thee, saying, Thou shalt open thine hand wide unto thy brother,
to the poor and needy in the land.' Though God is able abundantly
to supply all men's wants, yet he hath by his providence so appointed
and ordered men's outward condition in the world, that all should not
be rich and wealthy, but some poor and of mean estate ; as here in the
text, one brother is supposed to have this world's goods, and the other
to have want and need. So also Mark xiv. 7, ' Ye have the poor with
you always, and whensoever ye will ye may do good to them.' God's
wisdom doth appear most in the different degrees and estates of men.
As it is with respect to the world, for the beauty and service of the
universe, that there should be in the world hills and valleys, so in the
world of mankind there are superiors and inferiors, masters and servants,
rich and poor, nobles and craftsmen. First, It is for the good of human
society, the more firmly to tie men together. The poor need support,
succour, and relief from the rich, and the rich need the labours and
industry of the poor. Different degrees fit men for different callings,
for service and command ; some things would be wanting to the good
of mankind, if all were poor or all rich. Therefore God's way is not
parity and levelling, but diversity of ranks and degrees. Secondly,
Besides the necessities of man, God doth it with respect to his own
government, in order to the world to come ; for the trial of men's obedi
ence is better made thereby.
[1.] The trial of the rick
(1.) Their thankfulness to God. God might have laid them low as
well as others. If they abuse their high estate to pride and oppression,
they tax the wisdom of the great governor of the world, and are un
thankful to him : Prov. xxii. 2, ' The rich and the poor meet together,
the Lord is the maker of them both ; ' that is, God is the moderator
and disposer of each man's estate. One by God is largely furnished
with temporal good things, whether they come to him by right of in
heritance, or free gift, or honest labour, it is all from God ; the other
VER. 17, 18.] SERMONS UPON i JOHN in. 147
is kept bare, and under pressing necessities, either by the calamities of
the times, or defect of means, or miscarriage of instruments, or by some
sudden blast and disappointment of God's providence. Now these meet
together in the same world, in the same kingdom, and the same town
or city, and they have often business to do one with another, and have
need one of another. If the rich carry it imperiously to the poor, or
the poor enviously to the rich, they pervert God's government, do not
observe the duties which God expecteth from them in their several
conditions of life. Well, then, it is but in poor perishing riches that
we differ one from another, and we must all stand before our judge to
give an account how we have behaved ourselves in either state : Prov.
xvii. 5, ' Whoso mocketh the poor reproacheth his maker.' He that
despiseth the poor carrieth himself haughtily, contemptuously, he
forgetteth who maketh him to differ, and who it is that casteth the
world into this order, lifting you up and keeping down others; he
might have laid you low as well as others, you might have been born
of mean parents as well as rich.
(2.) To try their sympathy and humanity. Poverty and other
miseries will not be wanting among the children of men, that the rich
may have occasion to exercise their charity, and love, and compassion
to their poor brethren ; as the great veins are filled with blood to
supply the lesser. And indeed human nature hath nothing better nor
greater than a heart and power to help the miserable : Acts xx. 35,
as our Lord said, ' It is a more blessed thing to give than to receive.'
Where did our Lord say so ? Christ in all his sayings hath often com
mended giving, but never receiving. But it is blessed because it
comes nearer to the nature of God, who giveth to all, but receiveth
of none ; it cometh nearer to the goodness of God to have a heart to
give, and the happiness of God to have a power to give. Now thus
will God try the duty of the rich and opulent.
[2.] For the poor, they are upon their trial too, for the trial of their
patience, humility, self-denial, dependence upon God. In the meanest
station we may do service to Christ. In a concert of voices it is no
matter what part a man sings, provided he sings well, treble, mean,
or bass. God appointeth to every man his condition ; if he carry it
Avell, he is accepted with God. Grace puts both upon the same level :
James i. 9, 10, ' Let the brother of low degree rejoice in that he is exalted ;
but the rich in that he is made low.' The poor man is not to be sad and
dejected if God hath put him into a low condition ; but to be well
pleased with it, as it giveth him advantages of submission to and trust
in God more explicit ; and living by faith, which in a more plentiful
condition is obscure and hard to be found. Thus God hath called him
to a glorious estate of grace, though mean and low in the world ; and
he who hath riches and honour, and all commodities in this life, is to
rejoice that he hath a humble heart, doth not lift up himself above others,
being mindful of the changeableness of the tilings of this world; so that
grace cureth the inordinacies of either condition : ' Poor in spirit,' Mat.
v. 3 ; reconcilable to a low estate.
2. That when others' necessities are presented to us, it is a call from
God to exercise our love and charity towards them. If he seeth h.is
brother hath need. Affirmativa non licjant ad semper; positive duties
1-18 SERMONS UPON 1 JOHN III. [SER. XXIII
have their proper season, and in their season they bind : ' As we have
opportunity, let us do good to all men,' Gal. vi. 10. Now one season is
when God layeth the object before us, and their case is brought to us
by sight or hearing : Isa. Iviii. 7, ' When thou seest the naked that thou
cover him, and that thou hide not thyself from thine own flesh.' We
are to search out the hungry and needy ; but more especially when
God presenteth them to us, we must not turn away the face, as refusing
to see or own or to take notice of him : Job xxxi. 19, ' If I have seen
any perish for want of clothing, or any poor without covering ; ' ready
to starve for want of meat, or perish for want of clothing. When God
layeth them in our view, or bringeth the notice of them to our hearing,
surely then their necessity calleth for our charity, and it is hardness of
heart and mercilessness not to be affected with it. The contrary is
represented in the rich man, when the poor man lay at his gate, Luke
xvi. 20 ; though he fared deliciously every day, yet the crumbs of the
table were not given him. Therefore consider we live in a time of
wants, and distresses are multiplied, war, fire, decay of trade ; many
feel the sad effects of it. If you be not ready to relieve and help them
to your power, how will you answer it to God in the day of your ac
counts ? It is made a heavy charge, Job xxii. 7, ' Thou hast not given
water to the weary to drink, thou hast withholden bread from the
hungry.' Eliphaz falsely accused Job of unmercifulness and sinful
parsimony ; but when God doth justly accuse of these things, what shall
we answer ? God doth try us by daily objects of charity and compas
sion. If we do not help them, we omit a duty in its season ; when we
meet with convenient objects, this grace must be exercised.
3. This ought the more to move us, if the necessitous be our Chris
tian brethren, for it is in the text, ' seeth his brother hath need.' We
ought to do good to all sorts who are real objects of our charity. The
necessitous in general should be more welcome to us than the rich who
may requite us ; for then we make a market of our kindness and
courtesy, if kind only to the opulent and the wealthy. No ; our
sweetest influences should fall on the lower grounds. The fashion of
the world is to be obsequious to a degree of servitude, to the mighty,
the noble, the rich ; as all waters run into the sea, where there is enough
already. We must do good to all that need, but chiefly to the brethren
our fellow-christians : Kom. xii. 13, ' Distributing to the necessities of
the saints/ There are pauperes diaboli, the devil's poor, those that
have wasted their estates by luxury and prodigality ; and pauperes
mundi, the world's poor, those that are reduced to poverty by the acci
dents of the present life ; and pauperes Christi, such as fear God, who
are in a straitened condition. The rule is, Gal. vi. 10, ' Do good to all,
especially to the household of faith.' To all the wicked, our enemies
not excepted, in their necessities. But then the members of God's
family and household are in an especial manner obliged to love one
another, and to be beneficial to one another under their necessities and
straits, into which God doth often suffer those of his family to fall for
their good, if they profess the same faith with us, and do evidence the
reality of the same faith by a holy life and conversation ; for this is a
closer relation than to be fellow-citizens of the world, fellow-servants,
or brethren in the family.
VER. 17, 18.] SERMONS UPON i JOHN in. 149
4. That we should show bowels of compassion and tenderness to
wards others in their distress, for in the text it is, ' If he shut up his
bowels of compassion from him.' There must be an inward affection
and disposition accompanying and going along with the outward act
of beneficence, and whatsoever is done must be done cordially and com
passionately, that the heart may ever accompany the gift : Ps. xxxvii.
21, ' The righteous showeth mercy and giveth.' To be spectators of
the miseries of others, and not to be affected with them, argueth a
marble heart and iron sinews : Isa. Iviii. 10, ' If thou draw out thy
heart to the hungry.' It must be done freely, liberally, and compas
sionately: Eph. iv. 32, 'Be kind to one another, tender-hearted.'
Tender-heartedness, that is, commiseration, must go along with our
kindness, as really pitying their misery as if it were our own.
5. Though charity begin in the heart, it must not cease there. God
requireth the heart, but not for the heart, that it may terminate there.
But with respect to these acts of mercy wherewith God is delighted,
three things are required — (1.) Love and pity on their wants ; that
must be in the hear.t ; (2.) Kind expressions on the tongue ; (3.) Then
bountiful acts for their relief. So that there are these three things,
the motion of the heart, the expression by the words, and effectual
performance. Without the last all else is but counterfeit. The root
of charity is a proneness or good-will to help others, but that lietli
underground and out of sight. Unless it appear in visible fruits, we
cannot tell whether we have it, yea or no. Suppose it appear in good
words, they are but as leaves, and we count that a barren tree that
bringeth forth nothing but leaves. Not in word and tongue only,
but the fruit abounding to our account is the work itself. Therefore
though God expecteth bowels, yet bowels must put us upon some
further act, but that act is not words. God will not be paid with words
instead of things ; but God expecteth that we should freely impart
what we have and can do for our neighbours' good, as well as wish
well and speak well to them. Love must show itself forth, and that
not in speech only but in deed ; otherwise we only seek to cover a false
heart.
6. To withhold and deny this relief argueth a defect and want, not
only of love to our neighbour, but to God, ' How dwelleth the love of
God in him ? '
[1.] Because the love of God and his children are inseparable, they
are necessary branches of the same law : Mat. xxii. 38, 39, ' This is
the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it,
Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself ; ' 1 John v. 1, ' Whosoever
believeth that Jesus is the Christ, is born of God ; and every one that
loveth him that begat, loveth him also that is begotten of him.'
Therefore we cannot love God if we do not love our brother. The
same law that requireth the one requireth the other ; the same grace
that inclineth to the one inclineth to the other ; the same reason that
enforceth the one enforces the other. God for his own sake, and his
children for God's sake, because somewhat of the divine nature and
excellency of God is in them ; they are 'the excellent of the earth,'
Ps. xvi. 3. A deep sense of God's love to us begets love in us to God
again ; therefore we love God, and everything that belongeth to God.
150 SERMONS UPON 1 JOHN III. [SER. XXIII.
[2.] It must needs be so, for love to God doth formally contain or
naturally produce this love to our brethren.
(1.) It doth formally contain it ; for our love to God is not a fond
affection or fellow-like familiarity, but is seen in our profession of real
respect ; which is manifested in imitation, obedience and esteem.
(ls£) Imitation ; for love doth imply such a value and esteem of
God, that we count it our happiness to be like him, and the truest
respect and affection which we can have to him is to write after his
copy, and to study to resemble our Father. Surely they cannot be
said to love God who do not imitate him, are not merciful as their
heavenly Father is merciful, Luke vi. 36. Now God openeth his hand,
and satisfieth the wants and desires of the needy and indigent. Do
we love God, and count this a perfection in God ? Surely then the
impression of it should be on our hearts. I would not have you pass
over this lightly, that the truest love of God lieth in imitation of him.
If the great demonstration of God's love to us be to make us like him
self, surely then the more like him the more we love him, 1 John iii.
2 ; for our love answereth his love to us, as the impression doth the
stamp or seal. Or if the greatest aim of the creature and the highest
expression of our love to God be conformity to him now, so it is when
love is most perfect ; it doth most delight itself in likeness to God :
Ps. xvii. 15, ' As for me, I will behold thy face in righteousness : I
shall be satisfied when I awake with thy likeness.'
(2d.) Obedience to him, for his love is a love of bounty, ours is a
love of duty : 1 John v. 3, ' This is love, that we keep his command
ments ; ' John xiv. 21, ' He that hath my commandments and keepeth
them, he it is that loveth me.' Surely he doth not. lovs God that
doth not obey him, and acteth so contrary to his commands, which
call everywhere for charity and mercy to the bodies and souls of
men, which is so pleasing to God: Heb. xiii. 16, 'But to do good,
and to communicate, forget not, for with such sacrifices God is well
pleased.'
(3d.) Love is seen in an esteem or transcendental respect of God, a
respect to God above all other things. Now he that shutteth up his
bowels from his brother in necessity doth not love God above all, for
there is something he valueth above him, and is loath to part with for
his sake, and that is this world's goods : 1 John ii. 19, 'Love not the
world, neither the things that are in the world ; if any man love the
world, the love of the Father is not in him.' Now it is gross love of
.the world not to part with this world's goods when God calleth for
them. Whosoever loves God valueth God's favour above all other
things, and counts himself happy enough in the enjoyment of God,
whatever he loseth for it or parts with for it : Ps. iv. 6, 7, ' Who will
show us any good ? Lord, lift up the light of thy countenance. Thou
hast put gladness into my heart, more than in the time when their corn
and wine increased ; ' Ps. Ixxiii. 25, ' Whom have I in heaven but
thee ? and there is none upon earth that I desire besides thee.' He
that will not, at God's instance and command, part with these things,
the poor inconsiderable trifles of this world, he preferreth the world
before the enjoyment of God and the favour of God.
(2.) It doth naturally produce it, partly by looking to what is past,
VER. 17, 18.] SERMONS UPON i JOHN in. 151
and partly to what is to come. The one is gratitude, the other is
trust.
(ls£) Thankfulness for what is past ; he hath done so much for us,
that we should be willing to part with anything for his sake. There
fore when the apostle would have them prove the sincerity of their love,
2 Cor. viii. 9, he argueth, ' Ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus
Christ, that when he was rich, for your sakes he became poor, that
through his poverty you may be rich.' If we have a grateful sense of
his wonderful mercy, we will be ready to make some return of affection
to God. But you will say, How is charity to the poor any return of
love to God ? Am. What you do at his instance and command, you
do to God and for God's sake. Now God commandeth this, and he
hath devolved our respects to him on the poor and indigent. God
taketh it as done to himself if done to them : Mat. xxv. 40, 45, ' Verily
I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of
these my brethren, you have done it unto me/ And the apostle teach-
etli us that we show love to his name when we minister to the saints,
Heb. vi. 10. He taketh it as an expression of kindness and thankfulness
to himself, which is given to his servants.
(2d) Trust. Love looketh to what is to come. Surely he that
loveth God trusts him, for the graces are connected. Now none trust
God that count their estates safer in their own hands than God's, that
will venture nothing on his promises : Prov. xix. 17, ' He that hath
pity on the poor lendeth to the Lord, and that which he hath given
will he pay him back again.' God will be our paymaster : Eccles. xi.
1, ' Cast thy bread upon the waters, and after many days thou shalt
receive it ; ' Ps. xxxvii. 26, ' He is merciful and lendeth, and his seed
is blessed.' God will return it to us or ours, in this life or the next.
We have a friendly confidence and good opinion of God ; we dare
take his word, being persuaded that he is able and willing to requite
us ; but they that shut up their bowels show they have little value for
God's word, and do suspect his goodness and truth, which is not con
sistent with love. You will adventure nothing in his hands, and then
can you say you love him ?
Use 1. Information.
1. That if we would get readiness of mind to help and relieve others
in their necessities, we should increase our love to God ; for the shutting
up of our bowels is made not so much a defect or want of love to our
neighbour, as want of love to God. If you did love God more, you
would love the poorest of God's children, and the meanest of your
brethren for his sake ; and love will easily persuade you to do them
good. If there were less of the love of the world, and more of the
love of God, then it were no great matter to part with this world's
goods for another's benefit and relief. We have lessening thoughts of
God, and too high thoughts of the world, when we shut up our bowels
from the necessities of our poor brethren.
2. That we should not reckon our love to God by deceitful evidences,
not by bare outward profession of the true religion : James i. 27, ' Pure
religion and undefiled before God and the Father, is to visit the father
less and widow in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from
the world/ All other religion hath an evil that is in it, a spot of the
152 SERMONS UPON 1 JOHN III. [SfiR. XXIII
world on it ; but Christ's religion is purity and charity, not by gifts
and utterance : 2 Cor. viii. 7, ' Therefore as ye abound in everything, in
faith, and utterance, and knowledge, and in all diligence, and in your love
to us, see that ye abound in this grace also.' Again, you must not only
mind acts of piety, but charity : Mat. ix. 13, ' Go learn what that mean-
eth, I will have mercy and not sacrifice.' To sacrifice is to serve God,
but to show mercy is to be like God. Now conformity to God is more
than any particular act of external obedience to him ; as mercy is pre
ferred before sacrifice, so before the external observation of the sab
bath. Yea, mercy not only to the souls, but bodies of men ; yea, not
to men only, but to beasts, as to help a beast out of the pit : Mat. xii. 11,
12, ' What man shall there be among you that shall have one sheep,
and if it fall into a pit on the sabbath-day, will he not lay hold on it, and
lift it out ? How much then is a man better than a sheep ? wherefore
it is lawful to do well on the sabbath-day.' It is more than gospel ex
ternals of worship, as hearing the word and prayer, comparing external
acts with external acts : Luke xiii. 26, ' We have eaten and drank in
thy presence, and have been taught in our streets ; but he shall say
unto you, I know you not.' More excellent than gifts of the gospel ;
the gifts of tongues and healing were glorious things : 1 Cor. xii.
28-31, ' After that miracles, then gifts of healing, helps, governments,
diversities of tongues. Are all prophets ? are all workers? have all the
gifts of healing? do all speak with tongues ? do all interpret? But
covet earnestly the best gifts ; but I show you a more excellent way.'
I cannot say it is above the graces of the gospel, faith, and hope,
and love to God, yet these are but pretended without it : 1 John iv. 20,
4 If any man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar ; for
he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God
whom he hath not seen ? ' 1 Tim. v. 8, ' If any man provide not for
his own, especially those of his own house, he hath denied the faith.'
3. It showeth us the compassionate nature of God, since he so strictly
enforceth compassion in others. We know God's nature by his laws
as well as his works. Now when he that placed so much weight on
this, that he will not own any love in them to himself without it, surely
our God will not shut up his bowels in our destitute and low condition.
It is one of his names, 2 Cor. vii. 6, ' God that comforteth those that are
cast down.'
Use 2. Is to exhort us —
1. To show compassion to those in necessity.
2. To show it not in word or tongue only, but in real kindness.
1. To persuade you to mercifulness and charity. A cheap profession
of the name of Christ will do you no good ; that which costs nothing is
worth nothing. To quicken you —
[1.] Without it you cannot show your thankfulness to God. Alms
is your thank-offering : Heb. xiii. 16, ' But to do good and to communi
cate, forget not, for with such sacrifices God is well pleased.' God
showeth his love to us in the great sin-offering, we to God in this thank-
offering.
[2.] Consider the many promises made to it : Mat. v. 7, ' Blessed
are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy.' Compassion to others
giveth us hope and confidence of the Lord's mercy to us, which is a
VER. 17, 18.] SERMONS UPON i JOHN in. 153
great encouragement; for we stand in need of the daily mercy of
God : Prov. xxi. 18, ' Whoso stoppeth his ear at the cry of the poor, he
also shall cry himself, and shall not be heard ; ' if not by men, not by
God.
[3.] Consider what mercy Christ hath showed to you. Christ's
kindness should enkindle the bowels of compassion in us ; he showed
compassion to you at the dearest rates, and loved us unto death ; and
will you not be at some expense in your love to the brethren ?
[4.] How comfortable it is for the present: Prov. xi. 17, ' The mer
ciful man doeth good to his own soul ; he also refresheth the souls of
others.' See the verse next the text, ' And hereby we know that we
are of the truth, and shall assure our hearts before him.' This will
yield you a great deal of comfort, as any other fruit of faith or act of
piety.
[5.] This will make your reckoning more comfortable hereafter :
Luke xi. 41, ' Give alms of such things as you have, and behold all
things shall be clean ; ' Mat. xxv. 35-40, ' For I was an hungry, and
ye gave me meat : I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink : I was a
stranger, and ye took me in : naked, and ye clothed me : I was sick, and
ye visited me : I was in prison, and ye came unto me. Then shall the
righteous answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungry, and
fed thee ? or thirsty, and gave thee drink ? when saw we thee a stranger,
and took thee in ? or naked, and clothed thee ? or when saw we thee
sick, or in prison, and came unto thee ? And the king shall answer
and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, inasmuch as ye did it to one
of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.' These
will be the inquiries at the day of judgment ; acts of self-denying
obedience must justify and evidence our qualification when it cometh
to be judged.
2. To press you to real kindness. To quicken you consider —
[1.] God's love towards Christians is a hearty real love ; he not only
loved us, but gave us the proof in the fruits and effects of it : Rom. v.
8, ' Herein God commended his love, in that, when we were sinners,
Christ died for us.'
[2.] At the last day we shall be judged, not for our words only, but
by our works : Rev. xx. 12, ' And I saw the dead, small and great, stand
before God ; and the books were opened, and another book was opened,
which is the book of life ; and the dead were judged out of those things
which were written in the books, according to their works.' These
will be the questions at the last day, Have you visited ? have you fed ?
have you clothed?
[3.] Lip-love will neither do thee good, nor thy brother good. Not
thee good ; in no other grace and duty are words taken for performance,
so not in this. Not in the general : many say they have a love to the
brethren, but when it cometh to the trial wherein it is evidenced, there
is no such thing. There is a great deal of tongue-kindness abroad ;
men seem to be all made up of love ; they boast they love the brethren,
but never demonstrate it by any real effect ; like the carbuncle,
which at a distance seemeth to be all afire, but come to touch it, and
it is key-cold. In this particular expression of love, mouth-mercy, or
giving good words to him that needeth, The Lord help you, without
1/51 SERMONS UPON 1 JOHN III. [SER. XXIV.
actual relief, is nothing worth ; so doth not thy brother any good : James
ii. 15, 16, ' If a brother or a sister be naked, and destitute of daily food,
and one of you say unto them, Depart in peace, be ye warmed, and be
you filled ; notwithstanding ye give them not those things which are
needful to the body, what doth it profit ? '
[4.] To dissemble in anything maketh our sincerity in the main ques
tionable ; the man that contents himself with words in charity will con
tent himself with a cold dead assent in point of faith, and a cold pro
fession instead of thorough obedience ; with the talk of virtue and
godliness when he hath it not. A fruitless love and a cold assent that
produce no obedience are near akin, and both are little worth. Many
would not dissemble with God, but do they love men, not in word or
tongue only, but in deed and in truth ?
SERMON XXIV.
And hereby we knoiv that we are of the truth, and shall assure our
hearts before him. — 1 JOHN iii. 19.
THE words contain a motive to quicken us to love the brethren, not in
word or tongue only, but in deed and in truth. The motive is taken
from the fruit and benefit, which is — (1.) Propounded ; (2.) Amplified.
First, Propounded, ' Hereby we know that we are of the truth.' To
be of the truth hath a double notion in scripture.
1. To profess the true religion : John xviii. 37, 'Every one that is
of the truth heareth my voice ; ' that is, owneth the true religion ; he
rightly understands and believes the truth of the gospel.
2. To be sincere and true in that religion, and to live accordingly.
There are some Christians that are only so in show and semblance, or
count themselves Christians, but are not ; but these are truly born of
God, and such as they profess themselves to be, ' disciples indeed/
John viii. 31 ; sincere, and not hypocrites.
Secondly, Amplified, 'And shall assure our hearts before him.'
Where —
1. The effect and fruit of knowing that we are of the truth ; we
'shall assure our hearts.'
2. The strength of this confidence, ' Before him.'
1. For the effect itself, ' persuade our hearts ; ' so the margin and
other translations. By confidence in God we shall quiet and still our
consciences ; so that the notion here is, we shall have our hearts secure
and confident. A soul conscious of sin raiseth doubts and fears, that
when our qualification is evident, we are perfect as to the conscience,
Heb. ix. 9. The word is so taken elsewhere : Mat. xxviii. 14, ' We
will persuade him, and secure you ; ' that is, pacify the governor, and
keep you from punishment. So here it signifieth to render our hearts
peaceable and quiet.
2. The strength of this confidence, ' Before him.' We are said to
be before him three ways —
VER. 19.] SERMONS UPON i JOHN in. 155
[1.] In our ordinary conversation: Gen. xvii. 1, 'Walk before me,
and be thou upright.' In this sense it signifieth our walking before
him in a holy peace and security, by being good and doing good ; for
this is the evidence whereby we assure ourselves that we are the true
children of God : Mat. v. 45, ' That ye may be children of your Father
which is in heaven."
[2.] When we come before him in prayer and other holy duties :
ver. 21, 22, 'We have confidence towards God, and whatsoever we ask
in his name shall be given us/ Which signifieth a confidence in our
prayer to him.
[3.] We come before him at the day of judgment ; when we stand
before his tribunal, our hope will not leave us ashamed. We are not
afraid of being convinced of any h} r pocrisy, or not observing or break
ing the conditions of the new covenant : 1 John ii. 28, ' That we may
have confidence, and not be ashamed before him ; ' 1 John iv. 17,
' That we may have boldness in the day of judgment.' So that hereby
appeareth the strength of that confidence which we have by the
exercise of a holy charity, or love to God and his people ; and though
the thoughts of the just and holy God stirreth up all our fears, yet we
may walk comfortably with him, and draw nigh to him in holy duties
with more cheerfulness, and finally appear before him with boldness
in the day of our accounts.
Doct. That graces really and soundly exercised breed in us assurance
of our good condition before God.
The point will be made good by these considerations.
1. That none are in a good condition but those who are adopted
and taken into God's family, and made heirs of eternal life and happi
ness. Our minds cannot be quieted by anything but a persuasion
that God loveth us as his children ; this is the whole business of the
context : ver. 1, 2, and 9, 10, ' Behold what manner of love the Father
hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God !
Beloved, now are we the sons of God ; and it doth not yet appear what
we shall be : but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like
him, for we shall see him as he is. Whosoever is born of God sinneth
not, for his seed remaineth in him ; and he cannot sin, because he is
born of God. 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 hateth his brother.' Get that persuasion, and all the
controversy between God and us is at an end. And the reason is clear ;
he that taketh God for a judge can never be soundly satisfied and live
in peace ; but he that taketh God for a Father needeth not fear to
come into his presence. There is no safety but in God's family, and
no security there but by being God's children. The great business of
the Spirit with our consciences is to clear up this to us : Rom. viii. 15,
26, ' For we have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear, but
we have received the spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father.
Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities ; for we know not
what we should pray for as we ought ; but the Spirit itself rnaketh
intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered ; ' Gal. iv.
6, ' And because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son
into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father ; ' Eph. i. 13, 14, ' In whom ye
156 SERMONS UPON 1 JOHN III. [SfiR. XXIV.
also trusted, after ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your sal
vation : in whom also, after that ye believed, ye were sealed with the
Holy Spirit of promise, which is the earnest of our inheritance, until
the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of his
glory.' The great business of our Redeemer was to purchase this
privilege for us : Gal. iv. 5, ' To redeem them that were under the
law, that we might receive the adoption of sons ; ' John viii. 36, ' If
the Son therefore shall make you free, then are you free indeed.' The
great privilege we have by baptism as a sign, by faith as giving us
the reality : Gal. iii. 26, 27, ' For ye are the children of God by faith,
in Jesus Christ. For as many of you as have been baptized into
Christ have put on Christ.' The church of the new testament, as to
her outward estate, is an estate of sonship or adoption, and the truly
godly have the real effect of it ; they have the dignity, privilege and
right which does belong to the children of God : John i. 12, ' To as
many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of
God.'
2. We must cherish no confidence of our adoption but what will
hold good before God ; for it is said, we must assure our hearts before
him. The law which we have broken, and which condemneth us, is
the law of God ; the wrath and punishment which we fear and have
deserved is the wrath of God ; that which is the true proper matter
of our joy, peace, and comfort is the favour of God ; and the family into
which we are admitted is the family of God, and the presence into
which we come is the presence of God, and the glory which we expect
is the glory of God ; the punishment which we must undergo, and
must determine our final estate, is the judgment of God. He is the
supreme judge, at whose sentence we must stand or fall; therefore to
him we must approve ourselves, and before him must be able to defend
our claim, and maintain our confidence. It is easy to make good our
plea before men, but not so before God. Take all the senses before
explicated. We are before him in our ordinary conversation. Sincere
though imperfect sanctification is a righteousness that will hold out
before God, and will be graciously accepted by him : Luke i. 74, 75,
' That we might serve him without fear, in holiness and righteousness
before him all the days of our life.' A Christian should cheerfully
serve God in a faithful discharge of all duties towards God and towards
men, as remembering that he is always in his sight, as the witness,
judge, and observer of all his actions ; therefore we must still ' labour
that, whether present or absent, we approve ourselves to him, and be
accepted of him,' 2 Cor. v. 9. This will be matter of comfort to us :
2 Cor. i. 12, ' But our rejoicing is this, the testimony of our conscience,
that, in simplicity and godly sincerity, we have had our conversations
in the world.' And partly in your prayers. Our legal fears are re
vived by the presence of God. Cain had his guilty fears ; so shall we
unless we be sincere ; so the righteous are as bold as a lion : 1 John
iii. 21, ' If our hearts condemn us not, then have we confidence towards
God.' When our hearts do not condemn us of any insincere walking,
then we have confidence ; otherwise we are shy of the presence of God,
as David when he had sinned hung off from the throne of grace :
Ps. xxxii. 3, 'When I kept silence, my bones waxed old.' And Adam
VER. 19.] SERMONS UPON i JOHN in. 157
when he had sinned ran to the bushes. They that walk crookedly
crack and break their own confidence, and cannot look God in the face
with any comfort ; whereas others can come to him as children to
their father. And partly as it importeth our appearance before him
in the day of our accounts. The sincere have a confidence that will
hold out then, as appeareth by their constant and steady cheerfulness,
when they most mind his judgment : ' The sinners in Zion are afraid,
Tearfulness hath surprised the hypocrite/ Isa. xxxiii. 14. Pinching
weather maketh the unsound feel their aches and bruises, so a time of
eminent judgments is grievous to them ; but. it is otherwise with the
upright, who are emboldened by a good conscience, and a sense of
their own integrity : Ps. cxii. 4, ' Unto the upright there ariseth light
in darkness.' Not only after, but in darkness ; they have great comfort
in their greatest perplexities ; yea, when God summoneth them into
his immediate presence : 2 Kings xx. 3, ' Lord, thou knowest that I
have walked before thee with a true and perfect heart.' Hezekiah was
then arrested with the sentence of death. A Christian can look death
in the face with cheerfulness, and comfortably review his past life,
when hypocrites vomit up their own shame. Yet the sincere, though
conscious to themselves of many infirmities, have made it their busi
ness to honour and please God.
3. Before God no confidence will hold good but what is founded in
the double righteousness of justification and sanctification ; they are
inseparable, and go together in the dispensation of the new covenant :
1 Cor. vi. 11, ' And such were some of you; but ye are washed, but ye
are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and
by the Spirit of our God ; ' 1 Cor. i. 30, ' But of him are ye in Christ
Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom and righteousness and sanc
tification and redemption.' Both are necessary, and have an influence
upon our comfort and peace, and confidence towards God. The necessity
of them appeareth with respect to both covenants. The first covenant,
the confidence which we would cherish is checked and choked by this
objection, Thou art a sinner, and God will not respect sinners. We
answer it from the righteousness of justification ; Christ died to reconcile
sinners to God. Or thus, Thou art not a sincere disciple of Christ ;
to this we oppose the testimony of our conscience, ' The Holy Ghost
bearing witness therewith concerning our sincerity.' The first is the
primary righteousness, and necessary for the appeasing of God's wrath ;
the other is secondary and subordinate, for the clearing up of our right
and claim. The righteousness of Christ or of justification procureth
the blessings of the new covenant for us ; the other assureth
them to us. The first is the ground of our favourable acceptance
with God, the second is the secondary condition and evidence of
it. The ground and foundation of our favourable acceptance with
God is Christ's merit, mediation, and righteousness, apprehended
by faith ; but the evidence is our sincere walking, otherwise no
certainty. In short, there having been a breach between us and God,
our atonement must be made. So 'God was in Christ reconciling
the world to himself/ 2 Cor. v. 19. There was the foundation laid
for our acceptance with God; as in ver. 21, 'He was made sin for
us who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of
158 SERMONS UPON 1 JOHN III. [SfiR. XXIV.
God in him.' Now it is not enough that the atonement be made,
but the atonement must be received ; that breedeth solid peace, Rom.
v. 11 ; and it is conveyed and applied by the Spirit on God's part, by
faith on ours, Rom. v. 1 ; then the atonement is received. There need
also sure signs to persuade the conscience of the reality of the applica
tion, and to make our right more full and certain, and that we are in
favour with God, which cannot be otherwise than by the sincerity of
our love to God and men, Gal. v. 6. Clear that once, and you may
persuade and assure your hearts before him. To conclude, both the
righteousness of justification and sane tification is a righteousness before
him. Of justification there is no doubt but it is a righteousness before
him, there is no appearing before God without it: Phil. iii. 9, 'And be
found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law,
but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which
is of God by faith ; ' Ps. cxliii. 2, ' Enter not into judgment with thy
servant, for in thy sight shall no man living be justified.' It is true
also in its use and office, of the righteousness of sanctification. If it
be sincere, though imperfect, it is a righteousness that will hold out
before God, and will be graciously accepted by him : Luke i. 6, ' They
were both righteous before God, walking in all the commandments
blameless/ Though our guilty fears are mainly allayed by the applica
tion of the blood of Jesus Christ, as the ground and meritorious cause
of our acceptance with God, and the only plea that we have against
the charge produced from the first covenant, yet the righteousness of
sanctification is at least an evidence, and confirmeth our justification
by faith, and strengtheneth our plea according to the second covenant.
4. The righteousness of sanctification, which will stand before God,
consisteth in our sincerity : ' If we be of the truth, we may assure our
hearts before him ; ' so it is in the text, ' We are of the truth, and
assure our hearts before him.' What is it to be of the truth ? The
truth is the gospel, called ' the word of truth,' Eph. i. 13, John xvii.
17. He is of the truth that understandeth and believeth this doctrine,
called knowing the truth and acknowledging the truth, often spoken
of in the scripture, 2 John 1,2, 2 Tim. ii. 25 ; and feeleth the force
and efficacy of it in his own heart : James i. 18, ' Of his own will begat
he us, of the word of truth;' John viii. 32, 'And ye shall know the
truth, and the truth shall make you free.' And then expresseth the
fruits of it in the course of his life, called ' walking in the truth,' 2 John
4, and 3 John 3, 4, ' I rejoiced greatly when the brethren came and
testified of the truth which is in thee, even as thou walkest in the
truth. I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in
the truth;' namely, as they follow the right way, and are true disciples
of Christ. Well, then, sincerity of obedience is our grand evidence
and qualification. The first covenant required innocency or unsinning
obedience, the second uprightness or sincere obedience : Gen. xvii. 1,
' Walk before me, and be thou perfect ; ' Ps. xxxii. 1, 2, ' Blessed is
he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed is
the man unto whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity, and in whose
spirit there is no guile.' The covenant which granteth and alloweth
pardon of sins alloweth also sincerity as our qualification. The old
covenant bringeth all things to the balance, the new to the touchstone;
VER. 19.] SERMONS UPON i JOHN in. 159
there our graces were weighed, here tried. Now if the best of us were
put into the balance of the sanctuary, we should be found wanting as
to matter or manner and principle or aim, and then who could be saved?
But now all the blessings of God's family are entitled to the upright :
Ps. Ixxxiv. 11, ' God is a sun and a shield, and grace and glory will
he give ; and no good thing will he withhold from them that walk
uprightly.' This scripture containeth an epitome or abridgment of the
covenant of grace ; the good things there are expressed metaphorically
and literally. Metaphorically he is a sun and a shield ; blessings
privative and positive ; a sun, the fountain of all good ; a shield to keep
off all evil or danger ; provision and protection. The one term is more
verified in this life, the other in the world to come. Literally all spiri
tual good things come under the name of grace, eternal good things
under the name of glory ; no temporal good thing will he withhold :
Ps. xxxiv. 9, ' There is no want to them that fear him.' But here who
are the qualified parties ? The sincere, who are the Lord's delight ;
the sincere in faith, the sincere in love, the sincere in obedience ; those
who are what they seem to be, and profess to be ; these are the capable
subjects of grace and glory, to whom God will be a sun and a shield,
and to whom God will deny no good thing.
5. It is no easy matter to make out our sincerity, or to establish a
solid peace and comfort in the soul. This I gather from the word
' assure,' or 'shall persuade.' There needeth much arguing and debat
ing the matter in the court of conscience, and we need sure signs to
persuade us ; the conscience of sin is not easily laid aside. Shyness and
stupidness may quiet us for a while, but a solid and durable joy needeth
a good evidence and warrant. When we have no sense of sin and
danger on our hearts, it is easy to leap into a false peace, but an awak
ened and sensible sinner is not so easily nor so soon established ; for
the upright are prone to self-accusings, for their rule is exact, and
grace and love would fain do more for God ; and grace in the best is
but weak and small, and the remainders of sin so great, active, and
troublesome, and the operations of man's soul so various, confused, and
dark, and they see so many mistakes, and the children of the devil so
often entitle themselves to God, John viii. 44. And frequent afflictions
do also very often awaken in them a sense of sin, and all the reasonings
of their minds will not still and quiet their consciences, so that the Lord
is forced to come in by powerful and authoritative acts of grace, and in an
imperial and Godlike manner to silence those doubts, and secure and
settle a sense of his love upon our hearts : Ps. xlii. 7, 8, ' Deep calleth
unto deep at the noise of thy water-spouts ; all thy waves and thy
billows are gone over me. Yet the Lord will command his loving-
kindness in the day-time, and in the night his song shall be with me,
and my prayer unto the God of my life.' Ordinarily we have a good
measure of grace before we can discern the truth of it. A working
faith, a laborious and fervent love, and a lively hope cannot lie idle.
6. Though it be difficult to make out our sincerity, yet graces really,
constantly, and self-clenyingly exercised, will or may evidence it to us,
or that the heart is sound in God's statutes, Ps. cxix. 80. Surely
where grace is deeply rooted, and hath a predominant influence over
our actions, so as it can countermand contrary desires and inclinations,
160 SERMONS UPON 1 JOHN III. [SfiR. XXIV.
there the heart is sound and upright with God. Now where this is found,
which the context speaketh of, it makes us to assure our hearts before
him.
[1.] A real exercise of grace. Compare this with the verse before
the text, ' Let us not love in word, neither in tongue, but in deed and
in truth.' A man may talk well from his convictions, nay, from a
mere disciplinary knowledge ; but to do well needs a living principle
of grace. The scripture still setteth forth graces by their lively opera
tion, for a dead and sleepy habit is worth nothing ; it speaketh of the
working faith as carrying away the prize of justification, Gal. v. 6. As
honouring Christ : 2 Thes. i. 11, 12, ' Wherefore we pray also for you,
that 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 the Lord Jesus may be glorified.' The laborious love is
that which God will regard and reward : Heb. vi. 10, ' God is not un
righteous, to forget your work of faith and labour of love.' So the lively
hope is the fruit of regeneration : 1 Peter i. 3, ' Blessed be the God and
Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which, according to his abundant
mercy, hath begotten us to a lively hope, by the resurrection of Jesus
Christ from the dead.' That which sets us a-doing : Acts. xxiv. 16,
' And herein do I exercise myself, to have always a conscience void of
offence towards God and towards men;' and Acts xxvi. 7, 8, ' Unto
which promise our twelve tribes, instantly serving God day and night,
hope to come.' Grace otherwise cannot appear in the view of con
science : causes are known by their effects ; apples appear when the sap
is not seen. It is the operative and active graces that will discover
themselves. A man may think well or speak well, but that grace which
governeth the conversation showeth itself to have a deep rooting in
the heart.
[2.] It must be constantly exercised. A man may force himself
into an act or two ; Saul in a fit may be among the prophets. A man
is judged of by his course and walk. A child of God may be under
a strange appearance for one act or two ; you can no more judge of
them by those acts than you can of a bunch of grapes by two or three
rotten ones, or of the glory of a street by the sink or kennels. So, on
the other side, men may take on religion at set times, as men in an
ague have their well days ; the fit of lust and sin is not always upon them.
A man is judged perpetuafactorum serie, but God's works are best seen
together, Gen. i. 31. Surely that breedeth peace of conscience and assur
ance of salvation : Ps. cvi. 3, ' Blessed are they that keep judgment,
and he that doeth righteousness at all times.' When a man's conver
sation is all of a piece, his course is to please God at all times, not by
fits and starts, and in good moods only. This is the mark of the con
text, ' Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin ; but his seed
remaineth in him ; and he cannot sin, because he is born of God.' An
act of sin is as monstrous in him as for a hen to produce the egg of a
crow. In an unsound heart there are very uneven and transient
motions ; their lives speak contradictions. Saul at one time puts all
the witches to death, at another time he himself hath recourse to one,
namely, the witch of Endor. Jehu was zealous against Ahab's idolatry,
against Baal, but not against Jereboam's idolatry, the calves in Dan
and Bethel.
VEK. 19.] SERMONS UPON i JOHN in. 161
[3.] Self-denyingly acted. Good words are not dear, 'Be warmed,
be clothed.' The apostle speaketh of laying down our life for the
brethren, of opening our hands and bowels for refreshing the hungry
and clothing the naked. So proportionably when we take pains to
instruct the ignorant, exhort the obstinate, confirm the weak, comfort
the afflicted. Love of the brethren is the mark in hand, and produced
here as the fruit of a sincere faith ; for this showeth a hearty receiving
of God's love, when it hath made some impression upon us, when we
love the brethren sincerely and heartily, and can deny ourselves for
God. Do you think that religion lieth only in hearing a few sermons,
in a few drowsy prayers, in singing psalms, or reading a chapter, or
some cursory devotions ? These are the means, but where is the fruit ?
No; it lieth in self-denying obedience. These are the acts about
which we shall be questioned at the day of judgment, Mat. xxv. Have
you visited ? have you clothed ? do you own the servants of God when
the times frown upon them ? do you relieve them and comfort them
in their distresses? 'Hereby we know we are of the truth.' Lip-
labour and tongue-service is a cheap thing ; and that religion is worth
nothing which costs nothing : 2 Sam. xxiv. 24, ' And the king said
unto Araunah, Nay, but I will surely buy it of thee at a price ; neither
will I offer burnt-offerings unto the Lord my God of that which doth
cost me nothing.' When we deny ourselves, and apparently value
God's interest above our own, then our sincerity is most evidenced.
And every one of us is to consider what interest God calleth him to
deny upon the hopes of glory, and whatever it costeth us to be faithful
to God. A cheap course of serving God bringeth you none or little
comfort. And certainly a man cannot be thorough in religion, but
he will be put upon many occasions of denying his ease, profit, honour,
and acting contrary to his natural inclination or worldly interests.
Those that only regard the safe, cheap, and easy part, do not set up
Christ's religion, but their own: Mat. xvi. 24, 'Then said Jesus unto his
disciples, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and
take up his cross and follow me.' Without this it is but a Christianity
of our own making.
1. That graces thus really, constantly, and self-denyingly exercised
leave their notice and impression upon the conscience. The context
speaketh of the value of the testimony of conscience. Certainly a man
should or may know the acts of grace which he putteth forth. It is
hard to think that a soul should be a stranger to its own operations: 1
Cor. ii. 11, 'There is a spirit in man that knoweth the things of a man;'
a privy spy in our bosoms, which is conscious to all that we do, and
can reflect upon it, and judge whether it be good or evil ; it knoweth
what we understand, or will, or purpose, or resolve, or do, much more
when we do thus uniformly and self-denyingly act for God ; and that
upon a fourfold reason —
[1.] Because the acts of grace are the more serious and important
actions of our lives. Many acts may escape us for want of advertency,
they not being of such moment ; but when a man is to settle his eter
nal interest upon a sure bottom and foundation, and to establish his soul
in the comfort and hope of the gospel, he would go advisedly to work,
and considerupon what grounds and in what manner this work is carried
VOL. XXT. L
162 SERMONS UPON 1 JOHN III. [SER. XXIV.
on. He is serious in his faith : 2 Tim. i. 12, 'For I know whom I
have believed, and am persuaded that he is ahle to keep that which I
have committed to him against that day.' Diligence in his attendance
upon this business : Phil. ii. 12, ' Work out your salvation with fear
and trembling.' A man that acteth for eternity should mind what he
dotb.
[2.] All acts of grace are put forth with difficulty, and with some
strife and wrestling. In the work of faith a humble sinner hath much
ado to bring his soul to a resolution, and to venture all in Christ's hand,
and to settle itself in the belief of God's power, and mercy, and word,
and promises made to us in Christ ; to live upon the hopes of an un
known and unseen world. For if it were an easy thing, such a power
were not needful, as is spoken of, Eph. i. 19, ' And what is the exceeding
greatness of his power.' We should not find such a necessity of com
plaining of unbelief, Mark ix. 24, of calling upon God to increase our
faith. It would not so often fail as it doth upon every temptation, Luke
xxii. 32. And what is said of faith is true proportionably of all other
graces. Self-love and carnal prepossessions hinder the love of God.
Like a choice flower among weeds, so is love to the brethren, 'Master,
spare thyself.' Now things difficult, and planted with much opposition,
must needs leave a notice and an impression of themselves upon the
soul.
[3.] There is a special delight that accompanieth acts of grace,
because of the excellency of the objects they are conversant about ;
and the excellency of the power they are assisted withal ; and the
excellency and nobleness of the faculties they are acted by. Can a
man be seriously dealing with God about pardon of sin, and eternal
life, and not find sweetness in his work ? Heb. vi. 4, 5, ' Who were
once enlightened, and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and were par
takers of the Holy Ghost, and have tasted of the good word of God,
and the powers of the world to come.' Take a view of the promised
hope, and not be affected with it ? Heb. iii. 6 ' Whose house we are,
if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of our hope firm to
the end/ There is a peace and joy in believing, Kom. xv. 13, excited
in us by some impression of the comforting Spirit. Three words are
used to express that delightful sense which the soul hath in the exer
cise or review of good actions — comfort, peace, joy. Comfort, the
nature of which is, that it doth not altogether remove the evil, but so
alleviates it and assuages it that we are able to bear it. The trouble
that ariseth from the sense of sin and the fear of God's justice is not
altogether removed and taken away; yet so mitigated and allayed, that
we are enabled to wait upon God: 2 Cor. i. 4, 'Who comforteth us in
all our tribulations, that we may be able to comfort them which are
in any trouble, by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted
of God ; ' and to go about our duties with some alacrity. Peace
implieth comfort, but withal a more full degree of it ; for peace doth
so calm and settle the consciences of God's children, that they are
assaulted either with none, or very little fears. We call that peace in
a nation when they are not troubled with foreign war, or intestine
tumults, or confusions, for some long space of time : Phil. iv. 7, ' The
peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts
VER. 19.] SERMONS UPON i JOHN nr. 163
and minds, through Jesus Christ.' The next notion is joy : as peace
exceeds consolation, so doth joy exceed peace, and begets a more not
able sense of itself in the soul. In peace all things are quiet, but joy
addeth a notable pleasure and delight of mind. In peace the soul is
in such a condition as the body when nothing paineth it ; but in joy
the senses are recreated by something pleasing to them : so the soul is
feasted with spiritual suavities : 1 Peter i. 8, ' Whom having not seen
ye love, in whom, though now ye see him not, yet believing, ye rejoice
with joy unspeakable and full of glory.' Now all these make the work
of grace more notorious to the soul.
[4.] This serious, constant, uniform, self-denying course of obedience
will evidence itself; for though conscience be unobservant of particular
actions, yet the course, drift, and tenor of our lives cannot be hidden
from it : he that in a journey doth not count his steps, yet observeth
his way ; when a man mindeth the business of going to heaven, Phil,
iii. 20; of approving himself to God: 2 Cor. i. 12, 'This is our
rejoicing, the testimony of our conscience ; ' 2 Cor. v. 9 ' Wherefore we
labour, that, whether present or absent, we may be accepted of him.'
Object. Why then do so many good people want assurance ?
Ans 1. There need two witnesses, because the heart of man is so
deceitful, and the operations thereof are so various, dark, and confused :
Jer. xvii. 9, ' The heart of man is deceitful above all things, and des
perately wicked, and who can know it ? ' There needeth a double testi
mony, as in the mouth of two or three witnesses everything is estab
lished. NOW K these two witnesses are our consciences and God's Holy
Spirit : Horn. viii. 16, ' The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirits
that we are the children of God ; ' Kom. ix. 1, ' I say the truth in
Christ, I lie not, my conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy
Ghost.' The testimony of the Spirit with our own heart, soul, and con
science, they both concur to establish the same conclusion in the same
act of witnessing ; for it is jointly ascribed to the Spirit of God and
the spirit of man. The Spirit of God doth not bear any such witness
apart from the spirit of man ; or when this doth not witness also, it
doth fortify and strengthen the witness of a man's own spirit. The
heart, soul, and conscience of a man doth testify to him that he desireth
and endeavoureth every day to serve, please, honour, and glorify God.
Hereby the Spirit assureth him that he is a child of God. Conscience
will not give this witness, unless we do indeed labour to be complete
in all the will of God. And the Spirit witnesseth with conscience, to
give vigour and certainty to this testimony, ' My conscience also bearing
me witness in the Holy Ghost.' As when the waters of a land-flood
mingle themselves with a river, they make one and the same stream,
but then it is more rapid and violent ; so this conjunction of testi
monies maketh in effect one testimony, but such as more powerfully
beareth down our fears, and doubts, and jealousies. A Christian is
thoroughly settled as to his gracious estate, and his confidence is made
more firm and strong.
2. So few know their spiritual condition through their own default ;
for otherwise the Spirit is ready to witness, if we be ready to receive
his testimony. What is the fault of Christians ? A fourfold fault —
[1.] Either they do not exercise grace to the life, in the mortifying
1G4 SERMONS UPON 1 JOHN III. [Sim. XXIV.
of sin, or the perfecting of holiness ; and therefore the remainders of
sin are active and troublesome, and grace is weak and small, and doth
little discover itself in any costly and self-denying acts, that they want
the sweetness whereby they should be noted and observed. Surely
great things are more liable to sense and feeling than little : a staff is
sooner found than a needle. And they that row against the stream of
flesh and blood, and cross the inclinations of nature, can sooner discern
a divine spirit and a power working in them than others, who have
not so perfect a conquest over the carnal nature ; as the valour of a
soldier that boldly encountereth his enemy in the face of dangers and
oppositions, than one that fighteth not indeed, but lieth hid in the
throng.
[2.] Or they do not examine their state, and heed their soul affairs
as they ought. ' Know thyself ' is a lesson worthy to be often practised.
The scripture biddeth us examine ourselves, 1 Cor. xi. 28, and 2 Cor.
xiii. 5, ' Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith.' But few
return upon their hearts, and look inward. The soul hath its experi
ence, or a thing that may be called sense, as well as the body, but most
regard it not. There is light, peace, joy, or trouble and doubtfulness,
which we might easily find out if men would reflect upon themselves.
[3.] Or if they examine their state, they do it in a wrong way ; as
sometimes they make those to be marks to try by, which are only marks
to aim at; and so by consequence that is often made matter of doubt
ing, which should only be matter of humiliation ; or else they look so
much to what they should be, as not to observe what they have already,
or may forget what is behind to quicken their diligence, Phil. iii. 13.
But we must not forget, in judging our condition, to own the grace we
have, for we must not ' despise the day of small things,' Zech. iv. 10.
The spouse owneth grace in the midst of infirmities : Cant. v. 2, ' I
sleep, but my heart waketh.' We come short of what we should have,
but have we anything of God in our souls ? We observe our diseases
more than our healths; so doth a gracious heart his sins and infirmities,
but not the good things found in him.
[4.] In the general, laziness is the cause : 2 Peter i. 10, ' Give all
diligence to make } T our calling and election sure ; ' Heb. vi. 11, ' And
we desire that every one of you do show the same diligence to the full
assurance of hope to the end ; ' 2 Peter iii. 14, ' Be diligent, that you
may be found of him in peace, without spot, and blameless.' The com
forts of the Spirit never drop into the lazy soul. When you have it,
so far as you neglect your duty, so far the sense may abate. God in
wisdom withdraweth his comforts to awaken and quicken his children
to their duty.
Use 1. To inform us, that the grounds of a well-tempered assurance
are clear and positive: 'Hereby we know that we are of the truth, and
shall assure our hearts before him.' Foolish presumption costs nothing :
like mushrooms, it groweth up in a night, or as Jonah's gourd; we did
not labour for it ; it cometh upon them they know not how or why.
The less such men exercise themselves to godliness, the more confident;
but exercise would discover their unsoundness ; a peace that groweth
upon us we know not how, and is better kept by negligence than dili
gence, is not right : ' Hereby we know, and this is my rejoicing, the
VER. 20.] SERMONS UPON i JOHN in. 165
testimony of my conscience.' Premature persuasions are very rife ;
how comest thou by it so soon, my sou ?
2. That to languish after comforts, and neglect duty, is a foolish
course ; many bestow their time in foolish complaints, better be hard
at work ; complaining will not bring it to you so soon as active
diligence. Oh, that we were sure of heaven and happiness ! Oh, that
we knew what shall become of us to all eternity ! Lazy wishes will do
no good, up and be doing ; it will not come by a cold velleity, a slight
prayer, a customary sigh, or a faint and lazy pursuit, but by an inde-
iatigable diligence, and unwearied watchfulness.
3. It inforrneth us that not only trying of grace, but exercising of
grace, is necessary to our comfort and peace. Many are taken up in
trying and inquiring whether they have saving grace or no, whilst they
neglect the exercise of grace in a self-denying way. I would not dis
courage self-reflection. Oh, that we could gain the world more to this !
but this I must say, that doing good to the household of faith, and to
all as we find occasion, is a more evident and explicit way ; and that
in general it is a more excellent spirit to consider what we must be, to
lie under the conscience of that, than to consider what we are and
what we have been. Working will discover it sooner than bare trying,
duty rather than comfort.
4. That the popish doctrine is false, that asserts that it is impossible
to have the certainty of salvation : ' Hereby we know we are of the
truth, and shall assure our hearts before him.'
Use 2. To exhort us, if we would live in a holy security and peace,
let us not only be good, but do good ; let us not only love God, but his
people, not only ' in word and tongue, but in deed and in truth,' &c.
SERMON XXV.
For if our hearts condemn us, God is greater than our hearts, and
knoweth all things. — 1 JOHN iii. 20.
THE apostle had spoken in the former verse of assuring our hearts
before him ; now we cannot assure our hearts before God, against all
fears of his wrath, or persuade ourselves that we are his children, if we
be conscious to ourselves of any insincerity, or unworthy dealing in
point of love to God or men ; much dependeth upon the testimony and
verdict of conscience, either as to our condemnation or absolution and
acquitmerit. He beginneth with the condemning conscience in the
text, and then showeth the privilege of an absolving conscience, ver.
21. The voice of conscience is the voice of God ; if our hearts con
demn or acquit, so will God for the most part. We are now upon the
condemning act of conscience ; if our hearts condemn us, God will
much more. By the heart is meant conscience ; as 1 Sam. xxiv. 5,
' David's heart smote him,' that is, his conscience ; so Job when he
would not quit his claim of being an upright man, chap xxvii. 6, saith,
166 SERMONS UPON 1 JOHN III. [SEE. XXV.
' My heart shall not reproach me as long as I live.' The heart hath a
reproaching, a condemning power, and judgeth against a man when he
is not right with God. In short, heart-smitings and heart-reproach-
ings are nothing else but checks of conscience. ' If our hearts condemn
us,' &c.
In the words take notice of a comparison between the judgment
of God and the judgment of conscience; they agree and disagree in
many things.
1. They agree in that both are privy to all our actions : there is a
secret spy within us, that observeth all that we speak, or think, or do :
' The spirit of a man within him knoweth the things of a man,' 1 Cor.
ii. 11. So doth God know all things : Heb. iv. 12, ' For the word of
God is quick and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword,
piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the
joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of
the heart.' And where the matter requireth it, they both condemn ;
conscience condemneth the sinner, or the partial obedience of hypocrites ;
so doth God, he ratifieth the sentence.
2. They disagree or differ in two things — (1.) Greatness; (2.)
Knowledge.
[1.] Greatness. ' God is greater than our hearts/ The same expres
sion is used, Job xxxiii. 12, ' God is greater than man ; ' it is a reason
of submission to God's providence. God judgeth more exactly of things
than we do ; his authority is greater. God is the supreme judge, con
science is but his deputy. God's sentence is decisive, whence there is
no appeal : 1 Cor. iv. 4, ' For I know nothing by myself, yet I am not
hereby justified ; but he that judgeth me is the Lord.' The cause
must be reviewed and judged in a higher court. Greater in point of
purity and holiness; we have but a drop of indignation against
sin, God an ocean. His displacency against sin is greater : Hab. i. 13,
' He is of purer eyes than to behold iniquity ; ' Isa. iii. 8, ' Their doings
are against the Lord, to provoke the eyes of his glory.' Greater in
point of power ; conscience leaveth an impression suitable to the evi
dence it giveth : Prov. xviii. 13, ' The spirit of a man will sustain his
infirmity, but a wounded spirit who can bear ? ' But it is a dreadful
thing to be condemned of God, who hath such power to execute his
sentence : Heb. x. 31, ' It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of
the living God.'
[2.] In point of knowledge. Conscience in many things is blind,
partial, inattentive, insensible, but none of these things can be imagined
in God, he knoweth all things. Therefore since the business is to be
transacted before him, and not before man, we had need look to it, that
we may assure our hearts before him.
(1.) He seeth more clearly ; he not only knoweth all things that we
can know of ourselves, but knoweth more things against us than our
hearts know, and so God cannot be deceived : Ps. xix. 12, ' Who can
understand his errors ? Lord cleanse thou me from secret sins.' No
man knoweth a man so well as his conscience, but the conscience doth
not so well know him as God knoweth him ; his knowledge is infinite,
and pierceth to our very thoughts and the secret motions of the heart.
(2.) He heareth more exactly. There is a partiality in our knowledge,
YER. 20.] SERMONS UPON i JOHN in. 167
we overlook the evil, being blinded by self-love, but the Lord weigheth
the spirits, Prov. xvi. 2, puts them into the balance of the sanctuary,
and considereth all the circumstances.
(3.) He judgeth more impartially ; we mistake sins for graces, and
so bring in a false verdict: Luke xvi. 15, 'Ye are they which justify
yourselves before men ; but God knoweth your hearts ; for that which
is highly esteemed amongst men is an abomination in the sight of God.'
We are deceived with a false show ; we take a brier for a rose, yea, many
times a toad for a lark ; but God cannot be thus deceived, but judgeth
according to the nature of things.
Doct. That a man's unsound estate is much discovered to himself,
or determined by the judgment of his own conscience.
If our heart condemn us ; that is, our conscience ; and every man by
his own heart and conscience is generally acquitted or condemned.
Here I shall demonstrate to you —
1. That there is such a faculty as conscience, whose office it is to
judge of our estate,
2. The value of this judgment, that it ought to be well weighed,
when our hearts condemn us of insincere dealings in point of duty
towards God or man.
I. The nature and office of conscience; certainly there is such a
faculty as conscience. Science is one thing, and conscience is another :
science is a knowledge of other things, conscience is the knowledge of
ourselves. Conscience is the knowledge of a man's state and ways ; to
know what we are to do, and what we have done, that is conscience.
It is the judgment of a man concerning himself with respect to reward
and punishment. God, that is our Lord, is also our proper judge ;
but it pleaseth him to erect a tribunal within a man in his own bosom,
and to make him his own judge : conscience is a judge, yet but a
deputy-judge accountable to God. This much conduceth — (1.) To
the glory of God ; (2.) To the safety of man.
1. To the glory of God, and that in two regards, as an evidence
of his being, and a vindication of the righteousness of his judicial
proceedings.
[1.] As an evidence of his being, for his law is the ground of all
conscience, and it is before his tribunal that it doth accuse and acquit
us, and his sentence that we wait for or dread, and stand in fear of.
Why should we scruple this or that, if there be not a God, by whose
will good and evil are distinguished ? To whom doth it accuse us
but to God ? Why is conscience sometimes afraid, sometimes com
forted, if there were no God to mind things here below ? We find
conscience appalleth the stoutest sinners, after the commitment of
some offences, though they be secret, and beyond the cognisance and
vengeance of man : Ps. liii. 5 ' They feared where no fear was ; ' that
is, no outward cause of fear, where none sought to hurt them ; accus
ing themselves where none else could accuse them ; as Joseph's
brethren, Gen. xlii. 21 ; or where none had power to reach them ; as
many worldly potentates feel the stings of conscience as well as others.
Felix trembled who was the judge, when Paul the prisoner preached
to him, Acts xxiv. 25. What is the reason of this, but that they know
there is a supreme judge and avenger?
168 SERMONS UPON 1 JOHN III. [SER. XXV.
[2.] To vindicate the righteousness of his judicial proceedings.
Self-accusers and self-condemners have no reason to quarrel with God,
and impeach his justice. Man hath principles and sentiments graven
upon his heart, which justify all God's dealings Avith him : Luke xix.
22, ' Out of thine own mouth will I judge thee, thou wicked and
slothful servant;' Ps. li. 4, 'That thou rnayest be justified when
thou speakest, and clear when thou judgest.' Surely self-condemners,
Titus iii. 11, are without excuse, Kom. i. 20, and have no reason to
murmur at God's proceedings with them. Hence there are frequent
appeals to conscience in scripture : Isa, v. 3, 4, ' Judge between me
and my vineyard, what could have been done more to my vineyard
which I have not done?' So that by conscience man is better
induced to give a testimony to God concerning his judicial proceed
ings, and the righteousness of all his dealings with men.
2. The safety and benefit of man, that he may have an oracle in his
own bosom to direct him to his duty, and to warn him of his danger.
In scripture we shall find two offices of conscience, to direct and
censure, to judge by order of law and right; dejure, what we ought
to do, and de facto, what you have done, or what you are : and if it
fail in the one part, it is a blind and erring conscience ; and if it fail
in the other, it is a dead and sleepy conscience. You shall see con
science is spoken of in scripture both ways. As instructing us in our
duty : Ps. xvi. 7, ' My reins instruct me in the night season ; ' that is,
showed him his duty, and how he was concerned in the law of God, or
the rule which he had given to his creatures. And as it showeth us
what to do, so it reflecteth upon what we have done : if evil, it smiteth
us for it, as David's heart smote him for numbering the people,
2 Sam. xxiv. 10. If good, it cheereth us with it : 2 Cor. i. 12, ' For
our rejoicing is this, the testimony of our conscience/ It smiteth us as it
exciteth fear of punishment ; it cheereth us as it stirreth up hope of
reward : and hereby we do very much understand how [God standeth
affected towards us. In short, conscience, as to the censuring part,
judge th either of act or state ; particular acts whether good or evil ; so
it doth accuse or excuse by turns, Kom. ii. 15. As to our state, if it be
good : Heb. xiii. 18, ' We trust we have a good conscience, willing in
all things to live honestly.' The drift and course was for God, and
the performance of their duty to him. Bad or evil : Kom. i. 32, ' They
that do such things, count themselves worthy of death ; ' that is, not
only as deserving it, but as liable to it. Now it is for our benefit,
that we should have such a faculty to direct, and mind us of our duty,
which we are too apt to forget. So also to censure our acts, that we
may be humbled for them if they be evil, or continue them if they be
good. Our estate, that we may enjoy the comfort of it, before we
enjoy the full reward of it, if it be good ; or may remedy it, and break
off our sinful course if it be evil, while we are capable of a remedy.
II. The value of this judgment, and how much it should be re
garded by us.
1. In respect of ourselves, because it is so intimate to us. Conscience
is God's spy in our bosoms, and man's overseer ; it being so well ac
quainted with us, it can give a better judgment of us than anything
else can. The judgment of the world, either by way of applause or
VER. 20.] SERMONS UPON i JOHN nr. 169
censure, is not so much to be regarded by us. The apostle calleth it
the spirit of a man within him, 1 Cor. ii. 11. Though our life be
never so fair that no man can condemn us, and our words and deeds
do not betray us, yet if our hearts condemn us of secret hypocrisy, and
want of love to God, God will much more, who knoweth more of us
than we do of ourselves. Besides, this judge cannot be suspected of
rigour, partiality, and ill-will ; for what is dearer to ourselves than
ourselves ? and therefore, if our own hearts condemn us, what shall be
said for us ?
2. Its relation to God ; it is God's deputy-judge, and in the place of
God to us ; called 'the candle of the Lord,' Prov. xx. 27. And there
fore if it convince us, and accuse us, and condemn us, especially when
we profess and pretend to sincerity ; have we not cause to suspect
ourselves ? for it is God's vicegerent, and sitteth in the throne of God ;
and we may know much of his mind by the voice and report of con
science. Next to the judgment and sentence of God, a man should
reverence the judgment and sentence of his own heart. Doth conscience
acquit or condemn ? so usually doth God : conscience doth all with
respect to God, and in the name of God. The inferior court is not
to be slighted, the sentence there is given out in God's name, and by
virtue of God's authority. To slight the officer or subordinate magi
strate in the duty of his place is to slight the supreme power : Judges
iii. 20, 'And Ehud said unto him, I have a message from God unto
thee ; and he arose off his seat.'
3. The rule it goeth by, which is the revealed will of God, either by
the light of nature or the light of scripture ; his will revealed in his
law, or in the gospel : according to the dispensation men are under, so
have they a conscience, this makes us a light to ourselves : Prov. vi.
22, ' When thou goest it shall lead thee, when thou sleepest it shall
keep thee, when thou wakest it shall talk with thee ; ' that is, the law
of God will direct thee upon all occasions. Conscience worketh by
virtue of that light which God hath put into us. Now to slight con
science, is to rebel against the light of nature, Rom, ii. 14, 15, arid the
light of scripture, Heb. viii. 10. Conscience will tell you what you are
loath to hear, yet hear it ; it will be heard once, better hear it now,
while you may correct your errors ; it doth but repeat over the law of
God to you.
But now some objections may arise.
Object. 1. May we not be deceived in our judgment concerning
ourselves ?
Ans. 1. Not ordinarily ; in condemnation man is over-prone to love
himself, and therefore unless compelled by the manifest force and
evidence of the truth, he would not condemn himself, especially when
affecting the show and reputation of sincerity. Surely, if there were
ground for it, he would not let go his integrity (it is true, some
melancholy mournful souls may write bitter things against themselves,
and mistake in spiritual things), as Prov. xvi. 2, ' All the ways of a man
are right in his own eyes ; ' Rev. iii. 17, 18, ' Because thou sayest, I am
rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing ; and knowest
not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and
naked : I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou
170 SERMONS UPON 1 JOHN III. [SfiR. XXV.
mayest be rich, and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and
that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear ; and anoint thine eyes
with eye-salve, that thou mayest see.' There is a false presumption of
our good estate. Now then, when our hearts reproach us, and con
demn us for want of love to and neglect of God, and unmindfulness of
heavenly things, it concerneth us to weigh the matter. We can
better trust it condemning than acquitting : 1 Cor. iv. 4, ' If I know
nothing by myself, I am not thereby justified, but every one's judg
ment is of the Lord.'
2. The apostle speaketh of what is rightly done, and according to
rule. Look, as in acquitting we must distinguish between a dead
sleepy conscience, and a tender waking conscience, so in condemning,
between the judgment when under a heat, and passion, and distemper,
and the judgment of conscience in our calm and sedate moods. Surely
if it then condemn us, or give us no good assurance before God, we
have need to look to ourselves. A stupid conscience, and on the other
side a stormy conscience, are not capable of passing a right judgment.
3. It is all one as to our peace, if our hearts judge us wrongfully,
either as to acts or state. Acts : Horn. xiv. 22, 23,'' Happy is he that
condemneth not himself in the thing which he alloweth. And he that
doubteth is damned if he eat, because he eateth not of faith ; and what
soever is not of faith is sin.' A man may do an action lawful, and yet
his heart may accuse or condemn him in it, as if it were unlawful. It
is a damning sin to act against conscience though it err. So as to
state ; he cannot think God acquitteth him whose heart condemneth
him, for he cannot believe against his conscience. There is indeed a
self-condemning as to merit, which entitleth to mercy ; but a self-
condemning as to our actual state must needs breed trouble and grief
of heart, though it be upon false grounds.
Object. 2. But what relief is there for one whose heart condemneth
him ? Must he sit down, and despair, and die ? I answer —
1. In some cases there is an appeal from court to court. In
what court doth conscience condemn you? In the court of the law?
You ought to subscribe to the condemnation as just, and to own the
desert of sin ; and if God should bring it upon you, he is righteous :
Neh. iii. 33, * Thou art just in all that is brought upon us ; for thou
hast done right, but we have done wickedly.' But there is a liberty
of appeal from court to court. You may take sanctuary at the Lord's
grace, and humbly claim the benefit of the new covenant : Ps. cxxx. 3,
4, ' If thou, Lord, shouldst mark iniquities, Lord, who shall stand ?
But there is forgiveness with thee, that thou mayest be feared.' De
precate the first court, and beg the favour of the second.
2. In other cases there is an appeal from judge to judge. Suppose
conscience condemn you in the gospel court, that you are not sound
believers, the case must not be lightly passed over, but you must exa
mine whether there be a sincere bent of heart in you, yea or no, appeal
to the higher judge ; as when others question your sincerity : ' My wit
ness is in heaven,' saith Job, chap. xvi. 19. So when your own hearts
question it, doth conscience write bitter things against you ? See if the
judgment of conscience be the judgment of God. It is a judge, but
not a supreme judge ; it may err in acquitting, as when from a judge it
VER. 20.] SERMONS UPON i JOHN in. 171
becometh an advocate, excusing the partialities of our obedience ; so
in condemning, when from a judge it becometh an accuser, and exag-
gerateth incident failings beyond measure. Go to the higher judge,
whose act is authoritative and powerful : Job xxxii. 23, ' If there be
a messenger with him, an interpreter, one among a thousand, to show
unto man his uprightness/ Who can interpret your righteousness to
you but his Spirit, when you cannot see it yourselves, and may some
times speak peace in the sentence of the word, when not in the feeling
of conscience, and the lively impressions of his comforting Spirit ?
3. Suppose the worst ; there is a passing from state to state : John
v. 24, 'He shall not come into condemnation, but is passed from death
to life.' You are in a state of condemnation now, but get out of it as
fast as you can : Mat. iii. 7, ' Flee from wrath to come ; ' and carry
yourselves accordingly, till your condition be altered ; the door of
grace is always open: Heb. vi. 18, 'Who have fled for refuge to lay
hold upon the hope set before us/
4. If the heart do neither condemn nor acquit, make your qualifi
cation more explicit, and take the same course a condemned man
would do, sue out your pardon more earnestly : Rom. viii. 33, ' Who
shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect ? It is God that justi-
fieth.' Many times an old litigious title may cost as much in clearing
as the purchase of a new; therefore mind the way of fleeing from wrath
to come, and be more serious in it.
Use 1. Is information. To show the bad condition of wicked men,
who have within themselves an accusing conscience, and above them
selves a condemning judge ; so that a man that doeth evil can never
have a sound peace and quiet within himself, nor have any quietness.
Their disease is the benumbing lethargy of a stupid conscience, they
do not always feel the stings of conscience, but are always subject to it.
Death reviveth them, it may surprise them in an instant. All their
pleasures are but ' stolen waters, and bread eaten in secret,' Prov. ix.
17, poor delights taken by stealth when they get conscience asleep, as
servants that feast themselves in a corner when they can get out of
their master's sight. They are not open and avowed delights. Why ?
Because their hearts condemn them, and God is ready to ratify and
execute the sentence ; everything puts them in a fright : Job xv. 21,
' A dreadful sound is in his ears ; in prosperity the destroyer shall come
upon him.' Surely wicked and impenitent men have no sound peace ;
they dare not look inward or upward with any comfort.
2. How far they are from the temper of religion that live even a
moment without all conscience or against conscience. A good man
looketh to his heart, whether it condemneth or acquitteth ;- but some
live without all conscience, do all things rashly and inconsiderately,
never considering whether they be pleasing or displeasing to God, whether
they tend to the honour or dishonour of G od ; live at haphazard ; if they
do good, it is by accident ; perform the duties of Christianity so far as
the interest of the flesh will give them leave, yea, so far as the flesh
itself will command them to do well, or forbid sin, that it may not
disgrace them in the world, or bring some inconveniency upon them.
These consult not with conscience in their actions, but are guided by
their lusts and sudden passions : others live against conscience, omitting
172 SERMONS UPON 1 JOHN III. [Sfill. 'XXV.
duties when conscience loudly calleth for it : James iv. 17, ' Therefore
to him that knoweth to do good, and doetli it not, to him it is sin.'
They will find it with a witness one day ; committing evil against the
apparent checks of conscience, these kick against the pricks; these do not
only break the law of God, but offer violence to their own consciences,
and in effect resist the Holy Ghost, who exciteth them to good, Acts vii.
51, and so are under a great crime.
Use 2. Carry it so that conscience may not condemn you ; the
sentence may be, and usually is, ratified by God. To enforce it, con
sider these thiogs —
1. Conscience is the best friend and the worst enemy ; partly for its
comfort ; it is ' a continual feast/ Prov. xv. 15 ; ' our rejoicing/ 2 Cor.
i. 12. No bird sings so sweetly as the bird in the bosom. Partly for
its nearness ; it is always with us in health and sickness, in life and
death. Husbands and wives, who are most together, yet, because they
live by a distinct life, they are often apart, and at length death cometh
and looseth the band and knot ; but a good conscience is a sweet com
panion, that always remaineth with us. So it is the worst enemy, partly
for its nearness, for a man to be at odds with himself, to fall out with
his own heart. It is a domestic tribunal which we cannot suppress or
get rid of. Let any be your enemy rather than your own conscience.
Job could bear the reproaches of others, but his own ' heart should not
reproach him all his days/ Job xxvii. 6. Partly because of the
grievousness of the wound : Prov. xviii. 14, ' The spirit of a man will
sustain his infirmity ; but a wounded spirit who can bear ? ' It is no
less than the fear of the wrath of the eternal God. Judas found no
relief from his new friends when his conscience wakened upon him,
Mat. xxvii. 3-5. In short, a man cannot run away from his con
science, no more than he can run away from himself. Therefore what
folly is it to please others and offend his own conscience, or to please
his lusts and wrong his conscience, and for the satisfaction of a vain
appetite to incur such horror and trouble ! The satisfying of a lust
is a poor vanishing pleasure, but the keeping a good conscience
breedeth a solid joy, whtoh will stick by thee to the last. When thou
comest to die, it will be a support to thee : Isa. xxxviii. 3, ' Lord,
thou knowest that I have walked before thee with a perfect heart/
When thou must leave riches, and honours, and pleasures, which
are the baits of thy lust, this will stick by thee : 1 John ii. 17, 'The
world passeth away, but he that doeth the will of God abideth for
ever/
2. It is either the beginning of heaven or hell ; a good conscience is
the beginning of heaven, and peace and joy in believing is a foretaste
of that fulness of joy and pleasure which you shall have when you
come into God's immediate presence. The glorified spirits carry a good
conscience with them to heaven : ' Their works follow them/ Kev. xiv.
13 ; and an awakened conscience is a hell upon earth. The damned
carry these stings and convictions into hell along with them : Mark ix.
44, 'Where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched/ Oh,
think of this, the joys of the Spirit are the antepast of glory, called often
an ' earnest : ' 2 Cor. i. 22, ' Who hath sealed us, and given us the
earnest of the Spirit.' Horrors of conscience are the suburbs of hell.
VER. 20.] SERMONS UPON i JOHN in. 173
Therefore be sure to keep all quiet within, and do not give conscience
occasion to condemn you.
3. It is easily offended, but not easily appeased. As the eye is
offended with the least dust and mote, which soon gets in, but is hardly
to be gotten out again, so you may violate conscience, but to appease it
costs a great deal of trouble ; therefore there needs much tenderness
and watchfulness, that you make it your daily work, Acts xxiv. 16, 'To
have always aconscience void of offence both towards God and towards
men.' By the commission of deliberate and wilful sins you may raise
a tempest that will not be soon laid again. David felt broken bones
after his foul fall, Ps. li. Joseph's brethren could not put it out of
their minds but that he would avenge the old quarrel, Gen. 1. When
the mists of passion are over, guilt maketh your heart sit uneasy
within you. Therefore do not go like an ox to the slaughter.
4. If conscience speaketh not, it writeth ; for it is not only a witness,
but a register, and a book of record : Jer. xvii. 1, ' The sin of Judah is
written with a pen of iron, and the point of a diamond.' We know
not what conscience writeth, being occupied and taken up with carnal
vanities, but we shall know hereafter when the books are open, Kev.
xx. 12. Conscience keepeth a diary, and sets down everything. This
book, though it be in the sinner's keeping, cannot be razed and blotted
out. Well, then, a sleepy conscience will not always sleep ; if we
suffer it not to awaken here, it will awaken in hell ; for the present it
sleepeth in many, in regard of motion, check, or smiting, but not in
regard of notice and observation.
5. If conscience speak not to you, we must speak to it. Call your
selves to an account for the expense of your time and employment.
The course of your life is a sure evidence of your everlasting estate :
Ps. Ixxvii. 6, ' I communed with my heart, and made a diligent search.'
How do matters stand between God and you ? take some time to
parley with yourselves. Quotidie apud me causam dico, could a
heathen say — I still implead myself before myself ; and if a heathen
did so, should not Christians much more ?
6. If the stings of an evil conscience are not always felt, yet they are
soon revived and forced upon us by serious thoughts of death and judg
ment to come. This fire that smothereth in our bosoms is soon blown
up into a flame. By the word sometimes: Acts xxiv. 25, 'Felix
trembled.' Belshazzar's edge was taken off in the midst of his carous-
ings, Dan. v. 5, 6. By some great troubles ; in a tempest, that which
is at bottom cometh at top : Isa. lix. 12, ' For our transgressions are
multiplied before thee, and our sins testify against us ; for our trans
gressions are with us ; and as for our iniquities, we know them/ Or by
death : 1 Cor. xv. 56, ' The sting of death is sin.' In the confines of
eternity men are wiser, and near things do most affect us, and the baits
of the flesh have lost their allurement. Things overlooked before are
then seriously considered, and the deluded sinner forced to see what lie
would not take notice of before.
7. Sound peace will never be had by smothering checks of conscience,
but making a holy use of them. To smother them breedeth hardness
of heart, but to improve them is the way to a holy peace. What is
the way to improve them ? I shall instance in two ways —
174 SERMONS UPON 1 JOHN III. [SER. XX VI.
[1.] When the particular conscience condemneth, we must look to it
that the general conscience may acquit us. The particular conscience
referreth to acts, the general to conversation. As to particular acts, he
whose heart doth not condemn him of sin. But how is it as to the
drift and course of our lives ? 2 Cor. i. 12, ' But our rejoicing is this,
the testimony of our conscience, that, in simplicity and godly sincerity,
not with fleshly wisdom, but by the grace of God, we have had our con
versations in the world.'
[2.] When the legal conscience condemneth us, we must seek our
peace in the evangelical conscience. Now the evangelical conscience
reflecteth on what Christ hath done for us, and wrought in us. Christ
hath shed his blood for sinners : 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 ? ' and Heb. xii. 24, ' And to Jesus, the mediator of
the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling, which speaketh
better things than the blood of Abel.' But that is not all, there is
something also wrought in us, and is ' the answer of a good conscience
towards God/ 1 Peter iii. 21.
SERMON XXVI.
And Jcnoiveth all things. — 1 JOHN iii. 20.
DOCT. That God exactly and perfectly knoweth all things that are in
the world, and is more especially privy to the hearts and ways of men.
Of this the context speaketh. God hath a greater and more certain
knowledge of what we do than our own consciences.
Let me inquire here into — (1.) The properties of God's knowledge ;
(2.) The reasons ; (3.) How this doctrine is entertained by men ; (4.)
What use we should make of it ourselves.
First, What God's knowledge is. Exactly to state it is above the
reach of man ; this knowledge is too wonderful for us, Ps. cxxxix. 6,
far above our capacity to understand the nature of it. But for our
profit, somewhat of it is revealed to us in the scripture ; therefore I
shall give you the properties of it.
1. For the object to which it is extended, it is universal ; the text
saith ' all things ' are known by him. But especially it relateth to
man, all things in man.
Let us a little consider the modifications of this object.
[1.] Things good and evil : Prov. xv. 3, 'The eyes of the Lord are
in every place, beholding the evil and the good.' For good things there
is no doubt, for he is the author of them ; for evil things, God is not
the author of them, but the jndge and punisher, and therefore knoweth
them also. Take another distinction of the object ; things great and
small. It was the corrupt theology of the gentiles, Dii magnet curant,
parva negligunt. One of the wisest heathens compareth him to the
VER. 20.] SERMONS UPON i JOHN in. 175
Persian monarchs, who minded the great affairs of the provinces, but
left other things to the satraps or vicegerents. But we are taught
better divinity in the scriptures, that small things are put under the
providence of God as well as great ; that a sparrow (though two of them
are sold for a farthing) falleth not to the ground without our heavenly
Father, Mat. x. 30. It was no dishonour to God to make them, nor is it
so to preserve them and look after them. Again, God knoweth not only
things necessary, but contingent ; things necessary, or such as depend
upon the stated courses of nature, as the succession of winter and summer,
day and night, the revolutions of the heavens ; he hath appointed to them
a law and a decree beyond which they cannot pass, Ps. cxlviii. 7. But
also things contingent, as depend upon the will of man, or the casual
fortuitous motion of the creature. Christ could foretell they should
meet a man in the city, and bids them to follow him, and keep the
passover in his house, Luke xxii. 10. And he told Nathanael what
he said, and where, John i. 48. And often told the Jews and his
disciples what they thought : Mat. ix. 4, ' Jesus, knowing their thoughts,
said, Why think ye evil in your hearts?' He knew what Paul did in
such a city, such a street, such a house, at such a time, Acts ix. 11.
In short, nothing more casual than a lot : Prov. xvi. 33, ' The lot is cast
into the lap, but the whole disposing of it is of the Lord ;' he knows
how the lot will fall. Once more, he knows things past, present, and
to come. Past ; no oblivion can fall upon God ; a thousand years are to
him as one day, Ps. xc. 4. We forget many of our actions, but God
forgets them not. All things present are known to him, for he sus-
taineth and guideth them in their motions, and they subsist no longer
than he pleaseth : 2 Chron. xvi. 9, ' The eyes of the Lord run to and
fro throughout the earth.' The sun is an emblem and representation
of his knowledge : Ps. xix. 6, ' There is nothing hid from the heat
thereof.' If the sun were an eye, it would see all things it shineth
upon ; only the sun cannot pierce through dark and thick bodies. But
God is over all, and through all, and in all, the great eye of the world.
Man's knowledge is limited and confined to a few things, that fall
within the cognisance of the time and place wherein he liveth ; but
God seeth and knoweth all things. Things to come, which are wholly
out of the reach of man's discovery : Jer. i. 5, ' Before thou wert
framed in the womb, I knew thee." God's foresight is more clear than
our sight, and the substance of things does not give us a better know
ledge of them than God's prescience doth to him : Isa. xli. 23, ' Show the
things to come hereafter, that we may know that ye are gods.' He
challengeth all the world to be able to foretell future contingencies.
Once more, God knoweth all things that shall be, and might have
been. All things that shall be : Acts xv. 18, ' All his works are
known to God from the beginning of the world.' Past, present,
and to come, make no difference in the understanding of God ;
for from the mount of eternity he hath a prospect of all things,
as if they were now in being. That place is brought to prove that
God did not begin then to take to himself a people from among the
gentiles, but had from all eternity determined to do so. God, that
doth all things in time, knew all these things before all time, otherwise
his knowledge were neither eternal nor infinite. Things are because
176 SERMONS UPON 1 JOHN III. [SER. XXVI.
lie willeth them, and lie willeth them from all eternity. God also
knoweth all things that might have been. He knew that Abimelech
would have defiled himself and Sarah, if he had not withheld him,
Gen. xx. 6 ; that the men of Keilah would have betrayed David into
the hands of Saul, if he had stayed among them, 1 Sam. xxiii. 12.
There is many a man kept bare and low, God knoweth what he would
do if he had power in his hands. Many die young ; God knoweth, if
they had lived forty or fifty years, it would have been worse for them,
they might have dishonoured God more, grieved their relations more,
or been exposed to temptations, which he saw not fit to let loose upon
them. Thus for the universality of God's knowledge, he knoweth all
all things.
[2.] The particularity of God's knowledge. His knowledge is not
only universal, but particular; he knoweth every individual thing and
person. Our persons are known to him by head and poll : 2 Tim. ii.
18, 'The Lord knoweth those that are his ;' and ' the good shepherd
calleth his own sheep by name,' John x. 3. There is not a single
man liveth in the world, but God taketh notice of him ; he doth cer
tainly know that there is such a creature as thou art, such a man or
woman in the world. His decree passed on thee ; he knew thee in the
mass and lump of mankind, and took notice of thee by name when his
creating power passed on thee ; for he knoweth all that he hath made ;
and he is to judge thee, and will set thy life in order before thee, Ps. 1.
21. And therefore certainly knoweth thee, or else he were not an
omniscient judge. There could be no process against thee if the Lord
•were ignorant of thy person ; and his actual providence about thee
implieth it. Thou canst not uphold thyself one moment without him,
and therefore he is as verily with thee as thou art with thyself.
Suppose that God had never a creature to look to in all the world but
thee, wouldst thou not believe then that he doth know thee and
regard thee ? Why not now ? Is there any weakness in God ? is his
mind distracted with variety of objects, that he would not regard thy
person, heart, word, and ways ? is he not sufficient for thee, and as
really present with thee as if he had no other creature else ?
(2.) As our persons, so our ways : Ps. i. 6, ' The Lord knoweth the
way of the righteous, but the way of the ungodly shall perish.' Doth
not God distinguish between his obedient and rebellious subjects, and
know who they are, and how many are of the one sort and the other ?
To deny this were to strike at the root of all piety and obedience. If
he hath not a particular inspection of human affairs, and did not know
the good and evil, what need we take care whether we be good or
evil ?
(3.) As of our way and scope in general, so of every step; he knoweth
all the particularities of our lives: Job xxxi. 4, 'Doth not he see all
my ways, and count all my steps ? ' By our way is meant our general
conversation, and by our steps our particular actions. God seeth us in
all postures, when we laugh, and when we weep, when we are proud,
and when we are angry, toying and praying, when in company or alone,
\vlten buying or selling, and when worshipping and hearing: Ps.
cxxxix. 2, ' Thou knowest my up-rising and down-lying ; ' how ye go
to bed at night, and rise in the morning. And he knoweth not only
VER. 20.] SERMONS UPON i JOHN in. 177
thy actions, but thy heart. It is a mighty awe upon us that he know-
eth our words and actions : Ps. cxxxix. 4, ' Lo, there is not a word in
my mouth, but thou, Lord, knowest it altogether.' God knoweth
it, whether it be savoury and gracious or vain and idle. But this is
not all ; he knoweth our hearts and our very thoughts : Prov. xv. 11,
' Hell and destruction are before the Lord ; how much more the hearts
of the children of men ? ' He setteth forth the knowledge of God by
those things which are most unknown to us, the state of the dead and
the hearts of men. He knoweth all those that are in the state of the
dead, though unknown or forgotten by the most of men ; what is
become of the bodies and souls of men ; the damned spirits in hell, he
keepeth an exact account of all the prisoners ; the bodies in the grave,
he knoweth what is become of their dust, and how to restore to every
one his own flesh and his own body ; and what are the thoughts and
hearts of men now alive. The thoughts of the heart are most hidden
from man till they be revealed by word^or action. Who can know
our thoughts ? what more swift and sudden, what more various and
more hidden than a thought ? and this he knoweth not by guess and
interpretation, by running up our actions into their proper thought and
principle wherein they are founded, but by immediate inspection, and
knoweth them before they are manifested by the event, or any overt act
of word or deed ; what consultations and deliberations we are about
before we conclude anything ; with what hopes, and aims, and con
sciences we are carried on; in whose name we act, and with what
principles and ends : which is of double use to us, partly to breed a
holy fear, and partly a hope in us. An awe, how should we compose
our minds and passions, and the very thoughts of our hearts ! God
seeth all, how should we use our words and order our behaviour ! We
do all in his sight, and speak all in his hearing : he finds out 1 the
thought, word, and deed that is not done in his presence or conceived
in his presence, and then allow yourselves to be vain and frivolous if
you can. And partly to breed a hope in us. God knoweth what is
hatched in hell, or Home, or elsewhere against us ; and therefore let
us do our duty, and rest in the wisdom of God for protection.
3. God's knowledge is most exact and accurate ; it is good to see
how it is expressed to us in scripture : Heb. iv. 13, ' All things are
naked and open before him;' cut down by the chine-bone. When
a beast is dissected and opened, every part is seen, the soundness or
unsoundness of it presently appears. Heathen soothsayers were wont
to look to the inwards of the beasts, and to observe the colour, shape,
and all the defects or perfections of the sacrifice : the prophet alludeth
to it when he saith, Ezek xxi. 21, 'He looked into the liver.' Thus
are all things said to be laid open before God. Sometimes by search
ing: 1 Chron. xxix. 11, 'He searcheth the heart, and trieth the
imaginations of the sons of men.' Sometimes it is search as with
candles, Zeph. i. 12, as one for what is hid or lost. Luke xv. 8, when
the woman had lost her groat, ' She lighteth the candle, sweepeth the
house, seeketh diligently till she findeth it.' We think our sins will
never be heard of more, but he findeth them out, and they find us out :
Num. xxxii. 23, 'Your iniquities shall find you out.' Sometimes by
keeping reckoning: Job xxxi. 4, 'Doth not he count all my steps?'
VOL. xxi. l Q«- ' Fiud out >? - ED M
178 SERMONS UPON 1 JOHN III. [SER. XXVI.
God hath a hook where all is put to account : Mai. iii. 18, ' A hook of
remembrance was written before him ; and Ps. xvi. 3, ' Thou tellest
all my wanderings ; put thou my tears in thy bottle, are they not in thy
book ? ' Words, thoughts, actions, all upon record. What neglects
of grace, omission of duties, violating principles of conscience, God
counteth them all: Jer. xiv. 16, 'Thou numberest my steps, and
watchest over my sin.' Sometimes by weighing and pondering : Prov.
xvi. 2, 'But the Lord weigheth the spirits;' Prov. xv. 21, 'All my
ways are before him, and he pondereth my goings.' Whether full
weight or too light, he knoweth the number, the proportion, the
weight of every one of thy sins ; the person who, the place where, the
time when committed ; what means, warnings, methods of grace, helps
to the contrary, these are brought into the reckoning. Thus by many
metaphors does the scripture set out the exact and certain knowledge
that God hath of persons, and circumstances, and all their actions ;
nothing can escape God, anjl he cannot be deceived, because he goeth
on sound evidence.
4. It is an infinite, perfect, distinct manner of knowing things : Ps.
cxlvii. 5, ' His understanding is infinite : Of his understanding there is
no search ;' Isa. xl. 28 ; it is beyond the reach of man's shallow capacity
to conceive of it. I add this, because it is hard for us to understand how
God should at once know all things that are done by so many several men,
in so many several parts of the world, and hearken to all their prayers.
Lucian scoffed at the heathen gods, as if they were forced to run hither
and thither, to hear the prayers made in the eastern and western parts
of the world, and the disorders that fell out in Greece while the gods
were banqueting in Ethiopia. An infinite understanding can see all
things at once, for he understandeth all things in a way different from
man ; not successively, and by discourse one after another. A man
cannot read a book in a moment, but must go from line to line, and
page to page ; but God knoweth all things in an instant, and that
by one act of understanding, as if a man could read a book through by
once looking on it. His knowledge is not confounded with multiplicity
of objects ; as God had a prospect of the whole creation at once, Gen.
i. 31, ' He saw all that he had made.' It is all one to him to know all
things, and know but one thing. When two or three speak together,
we are not able to take in their sense and meaning, our senses and
understandings are finite. Now when many speak to God at the same
time, it is but as if one spake ; an infinite eye seeth all, and an infinite
ear heareth all, and that clearly and distinctly, without confusion.
II. The reasons which the scripture giveth for the belief of this
knowledge.
1. The immensity and greatness of God ; God is in all, and above
all, and beyond all, nowhere included, and nowhere excluded. And so
his omnipresence doth establish the belief of his omniscience : Jer. xxiii.
23, 24, ' Am I a God at hand, and not afar off ? Do not I fill heaven
and earth ? can any hide himself in secret places, that I should not see
him ? ' God is everywhere, not only with respect to his powerful and
efficacious providence, but with respect to his essential presence. God
is there wherever you are. Now if he be with us, surely he knoweth
us. He is present with all the world, and therefore he doth regard and
VER. 20.] SERMONS UPON i JOHN nr. 179
observe all the world : you may take liberty to sin when God is gone
or absent from you, and you can get behind his back ; but that can
never be, and therefore we must do all things as in his presence.
2. From creation. God hath made our hearts, given us the power
to affect, think, purpose, and do, and therefore knoweth what is in us :
Ps. xciv. 9, 10, ' He that planted the ear, shall- not he hear? he that
formed the eye, shall not he see ? ' God knoweth how the creature
will act, for he gave it power to act. Surely he that made man know
eth what is in man ; his knowledge is answerable to his power. He
that made the heart of man observeth what they do, what counsels
they have in hand. This argument is again used, Ps. cxxxix. 13,
' Thou hast possessed my reins; for thou hast covered me in my mother's
womb.' He that made our heart, knoweth our words, works, thoughts,
and all. Once more : Ps. xxxiii. 13-15, ' The Lord looketh from
heaven ; he beholdeth all the sons of men. From the place of his
habitation he looketh upon all the inhabitants of the earth. He
fashioneth their hearts alike, he considereth all their works.' He that
formed their souls as well as their bodies is able to judge particularly
the operations of their hearts. Every wise agent knoweth what he doeth,
and to what end he maketh anything, and how it may be used or
employed. The same argument is urged by the prophet Isaiah, chap,
xxix. 16, ' Shall the thing formed say of him that formed it, He hath
no understanding ? ' This is brought to confute them that say, Who
seeth us, who knoweth us ? or thought they could hide their counsels,
so as God should not see them. Alas ! all lieth open to God's eye, as
the fashion of the pot of clay doth to the potter : God cannot be igno
rant of anything that is in his own work. You cannot imagine he
knoweth not what you think and do ; when he made you, if he had so
much wisdom to give you the power, he knoweth the act.
3. From God's government. There is a twofold government of God,
and both infer the truth in hand —
[1.] Powerful, and by his effectual providence, as he governeth all
creatures.
[2.] Moral, by his laws, as he governeth the reasonable creature.
[1.] The government of his effectual providence, which is necessary
to all our actions : ' For in him we live, and move, and have our being.'
Acts xvii. 28. All things move as he moveth them in their natural
agency. The creature can do nothing without him, and actually doth
nothing but by him : his wisdom guideth, his will intendeth and com-
inandeth, his power moveth and disposeth all. He is more intimately
present with us than we are with ourselves, governing and sustaining
all things : ' His hand leadeth us, and his right hand doth still uphold
us,' Ps. cxxxix. 10. We cannot do anything, go anywhere, without his
gracious supportation. Now doth God support a creature whom he
knoweth not, and in any action which he understandeth not ? Christ
knew that virtue passed from him when the multitude thronged him,
Luke viii. 45, 46. In the great throng of creatures God knoweth who
is sustained by him, and to whom the influence of his providence
reacheth. Now then, since he is as verily with thee in every place as
thou art there thyself, is he present with thee, and regardless of thee,
of thy thoughts and words and ways ? It cannot be.
180 SERMONS UPON 1 JOHN III. [SER. XXVI.
[2.] His moral government. All persons and causes of men are to
be judged by bim, and therefore are most eminently and fully discovered
to him. Surely he that is to be judged of God must be clearly known
to him, both as to his actions and thoughts ; how else can he judge
righteously either now or hereafter ? Job xxxiv. 21, 23, ' His eyes are
upon the ways of marl, and he seeth all his goings. Therefore he will
not lay upon man more than is right, that he should enter into judg
ment with God ; ' that is, will not excessively and unjustly afflict man :
Ps. xciv. 10, ' He that chastiseth the heathen, shall not he correct ? he
that teacheth man knowledge, shall not he know ? '
III. How this truth is entertained by men.
1. Some atheistically deny it: Job xxii. 13, 14, 'And thou sayest,
How doth God know ? can he judge through the thick cloud ? Thick
clouds are a covering to him, that he seeth not, and he walketh in the
circuit of heaven.' Atheists have carnal and gross thoughts of God,
as if he were confined within the heavens, and had no sense and care
of what was done below, or had other business to mind than to look
after the sons of men : Ps. Ixxiii. 11, ' How doth God know ? and is
there knowledge in the Most High ? ' Many that dare not simply deny
a deity, yet deny a providence : they measure God by themselves, their
own shallow conceptions ; whereas God is infinitely exalted above
what we can comprehend.
2. Some question it, if they do not deny it : Isa. xxix. 15, ' Woe
unto them that seek deep to hide their counsel from the Lord, and
their works are in the dark, and they say, Who seeth us ? and who
knoweth us ? ' Ezek. viii. 12, ' They say, Who seeth us ? the Lord hath
forsaken the earth.'
3. Some forget it : he is not far from us, but we are often far from
him ; they acknowledge this truth in the general, but they forget it in
particular, in the course of their conversations : Ps. xxxvi. 4, ' The
transgression of the wicked saith within my heart, that there is no fear
of God before their eyes.' What could he do worse, if no God to take
notice of him ? Profaneness is practical atheism ; they do not deny,
but forget; or they deny not in words, but in works. We should
often revive this thought, God knoweth, and taketh notice of what we
do : Ps. cxix. 168, ' I have kept thy precepts and thy testimonies ;
for all my ways are before thee. '
4. Some slight it through impudence and obduration in sin : Zeph.
i. 12, ' The Lord will do neither good nor evil.' They acknowledge
there is a God, and that he is omniscient, holy, and just, yet dare sin
against him : Ps. x. 17, ' He hath said in his heart, The Lord will not
require it.'
5. Most carry themselves as too unmindful of it, as appeareth by
these evidences.
[1.] In the general ; men would be other manner of persons, in all
holy conversation and godliness, if they did always set God before them.
The all-seeing eye of a holy God would make them more circumspect and
watchful. But because men live without God in the world, therefore
are their conversations so full of vanity and sin : Gen. xvii. 1, ' I am
God Almighty, walk before me, and be thou perfect.'
[2.] More particularly ; men would make more conscience of their
VER. 20.] SERMONS UPON i JOHN in.. 181
thoughts, if they did remember that God knoweth their thoughts
afar off, Ps. cxxxix. 2. Would they indulge themselves in such a
liberty of lustful, covetous, envious, malicious, and unbelieving thoughts,
and feed their minds with these things, if they did well consider that
God knoweth all things ?
[3.J The disproportion of our respects to God's eye and man's : they
can fancy a matter in the dark, and not be troubled about it. We are
usually more awed with the presence of a man than with the presence
of God. You will do that which God knoweth, which you would not
do when man knoweth it. He knoweth your fraud, your uncleanness,
your licentiousness : Jer. ii. 26, ' The thief is ashamed when he is found/
Job xxiv. 17, ' If a man know them, they are in the terrors of the sha
dow of death.' If a man know anything amiss by them, they are full
of anguish and shame. Why should not conscience be awakened more
by thoughts of God's knowledge ? It would trouble us to have a win
dow into our hearts ; is not all open and naked to God's eye ? In short,
how watchful are we not to incur the penalty of man's law ! but of
fences against God are lightly passed over.
[4.] The best have not such a sound and serious belief of this truth,
nor do not improve it as they ought to do, as appears partly because
we are more troubled with this or that branch of corruption which
breaks out to our disgrace, than about the body of death, or indwelling
sin, which is the cause of all ; the root should be more grievous to us
than the branches. Partly by this ; in company, what lofty expres
sions and flowing eloquence will men enlarge themselves in prayer !
but how slight and overly in closet duties, if not too commonly neglect
ful of them ! What is this but in effect to say that our Father doth
not see in secret ? Partly, also, what will you say if we are troubled
more with brokenness of expression than unbrokenness of heart ? the
one layeth us open to sharne and disgrace with men, the other is more
offensive and displeasing to God.
IV. What use shall we make of it ?
1. Terror to the wicked. God seeth them here and hereafter, and
will call them to an account ; there is no escaping his sight here, nor
shifting his tribunal hereafter. Adam, by running to the bushes, did
not hide himself from the Lord, neither did he hide the Lord from
himself. God seeth, and God seeth as a judge : Jer. xxxii. 19, ' Thine
eyes are open upon all the ways of the sons of men, to give every one
according to his ways, and according to his doings.' God is not a bare
spectator of what is done in the world, but a judge, an avenger of
what is evil: and his solemn judgment at the last day will most dis
cover his omnisciency, ' When the hidden things of darkness are made
manifest, and the counsels of the heart are brought to light,' 1 Cor.
iv. 5. In that, as you cannot evade his knowledge, you cannot escape
his power.
2. Comfort to the godly.
[1.] God knoweth their persons : Exod. xxxiii. 12, ' I know thee by
name : ' he taketh special notice of them. All things are under a
providence, but they are under a special providence ; a father cannot
forget how many children he hath, though in a large and numerous
family he cannot presently reckon up all his servants.
182 SERMONS UPON 1 JOHN III. [SER. XXVI.
[2.] God knoweth their conditions, wants, and necessities: Mat. vi.
32, ' Your heavenly Father knoweth that you need these things ; ' Exod.
iii. 7, ' I have seen the afflictions of my people, and known their sorrows.'
God is so well acquainted with our wants, that he cannot forget us nor
neglect us.
[3.] Our prayers are heard, not lost in the darkness of secrecy : Mat.
vi. 6, 'Thy Father which seeth in secret, shall reward thee openly.' He
that knoweth thy heart, will give thee the desire of thy heart.
[4.] Thy duties are rewarded, and rightly understood. First, Certainly
rewarded : 2 Chron. xvi. 9, ' For the eyes of the Lord run to and fro
throughout the earth, to show himself strong in the behalf of them
whose hearts are perfect with him ; ' Heb. vi. 10, ' God is not unright
eous to forget your labour of love.' Secondly, Kightly understood.
Men may be ignorant of what we do, but God is not ; as Potiphar
was ignorant of Joseph's faithfulness ; he put him in prison for his
integrity, Gen. xxxiv. 19, 20; the butler forgot him, Gen. xl. 43.
Some will not own it, but God knoweth : 1 Cor. iv. 3, ' But with me it
is a very small thing that I should be judged of you, or of man's judg
ment.'
Use. Is to awaken all to a greater mindfulness of this truth.
First, Let it be believed, and the faith of it more settled in your
hearts. Besides creation and providence, and God's immensity or omni
presence and government, the arguments mentioned before, there are
evidences of it —
1. In the human nature of Christ ; he discovered himself God
while he was in the flesh, and this perfection of his Godhead did shine
forth through the human nature, that he knew men's hearts, and their
inward thoughts. He turneth out the very inside of their minds in
the story of his life often : John ii. 25, ' He knew what was in man.'
2. By the light of the prophetical spirit : 2 Kings v. 26, ' Went not
mine heart with thee, when the man turned again from his chariot to
meet thee ? ' As if he had said, I saw him light out of his chariot, and
what he gave thee, and where thou laidst it. God had bestowed
upon him an extraordinary spirit, whereby he could discern things done
in his absence. So another prophet, Ahijah, when Jeroboam's wife
thought to have put a cheat upon him, his eyes being dim by reason
of age: 1 Kings xiv. 6, ' Come in, thou wife of Jeroboam, why feign-
est thou thyself to be another ? '
3. The gift of discerning spirits bestowed on the apostles, 1 Cor.
xii. 10, whether church-gifts, or sincerity of men's hearts, in order to
discipline : Acts v. 9, ' How is it that ye have agreed together to
tempt the Spirit of the Lord ? ' that is, the prophetical spirit.
4. Another instance is God's finding us out in our secret sins by his
word, searching the heart : Heb. iv. 12, ' The word of God is quick
and powerful, and sharper than a two-edged sword, piercing even to
the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow,
and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart ; ' 1 Cor.
xiv. 25, ' And thus are the secrets of his heart made manifest.' By
his Spirit enforcing the sense of our secret sins upon us : Job xiii. 26,
' Thou writest bitter things against me, and makest me to possess the
iniquities of my youth.' Old sins, long since forgotten, come into fresh
VER. 20.] SERMONS UPON i JOHN in. 183
remembrance, and we know not how to get rid of the horrors of them.
By his providence: Num. xxxii. 23, ' Behold, ye have sinned against
the Lord ; and be sure your sin will find you out ; ' Gen. xlii. 21, ' We
are verily guilty concerning our brother, in that we saw the anguish
of his soul when he besought us, and we would not hear him : there
fore is this distress corne upon us.' The man was rough and untract-
able to them, as they had been to their brother : afflictions open the
eyes, they are God's rack.
Secondly, Kemember it often in your whole conversation ; you are
always before God, therefore serve him 'in holiness and righteousness
all the days of thy life/ Luke i. 75 ; Prov. xv. 21, ' The ways of a
man are before the Lord, and he pondereth all his goings.' He weigheth
every circumstance of thy life. If this were better thought of, there
would be less disorder in the world. Heathens gave this advice, that
in the presence of a Cato, or severe reprover, there needs no fiction or
supposition in the case ; and a greater than Cato is here. God is
really present everywhere, but we do not think of it. He seeth, and
' is of purer eyes than to behold iniquity.' We should inure ourselves
to these thoughts.
Thirdly, We must actually revive this thought in solemn duties,
when we come to act the part of angels, and to behold the face of our
heavenly Father. In every duty God knoweth the frame of our hearts
and affections; and wilt thou be cold and careless in the sight of God?
There God immediately is the party with whom we have to do, in
hearing and praying : Heb. iv. 13, ' Neither is there any creature that
is not manifest in his sight ; but all things are open and naked unto
the eyes of him with whom we have to do;' Acts x. 33, 'Now therefore
we are all here present before God, to hear all things that are com
manded thee of God.' He knoweth what thoughts and affections are
stirring in your hearts ; God is everywhere with us, but we are not
always and everywhere with God.
Fourthly, In a time of temptation. When sin assaults with the
advantage of secrecy, and other inviting circumstances to commit it,
Gen. xxxix. 9, say, ' How shall I do this wickedness, and sin against
God?' We must check it by this consideration, God seeth, God
knoweth : Esther vii. 8, ' Will he force the queen before me in the
house ? ' Shall we break God's laws before his face ?
Fifthly, To make you faithful in your stations. God invests us with
them, that we may improve them for his glory. Magistrates : 2 Chron.
xix. 1, 'The Lord is with you in the judgment;' Ps. xcii. 1, ' God
standeth in the congregation of the mighty.' Diodorus Siculus telleth
us of some heathens who had some empty chairs of state advanced
above their tribunals as for their gods, to show they were present, and
had an inspection over all acts of judicature : Ezek. v. 8, ' If thou
seest the oppression of the poor, and violent perverting of judgment
and justice in a province, marvel not at the matter ; for he that is
higher than the highest regardeth, and there be higher than they.'
Ministers : 2 Cor. ii. 17, ' But as of God, in the sight of God speak
we in Christ ; ' 1 Thes. ii. 4, ' Even so we speak, not as pleasing men,
but God,' who trieth our hearts. Masters of families are to walk in
their houses with a perfect heart : Ps. ci. 2, ' I will behave myself
184 SER5IONS UPON 1 JOHN III. [SfiR. XXVII.
wisely in a perfect way ; I will walk within my house with a perfect
heart.' Though shut up in their families from the observation of others,
yet God seeth them ; therefore hehave yourselves wisely and prudently
there. Servants : Col. iii. 22, 23, ' Servants, obey in all things your
masters according to the flesh ; not with eye-service, as men-pleasers,
but in singleness of heart, fearing God ; and whatever ye do, do it
heartily, as to the Lord, and not unto men.'
SERMON XXVII.
Beloved, if our heart condemn us not, then have we confidence
toivards God. — 1 JOHN iii. 21.
HERE is the effect of a good conscience. In the words we have — (1.)
A condition supposed, ' If our hearts condemn us not ; ' (2.) A privi
lege asserted, ' Then have we confidence towards God.'
First, The condition supposed. There are three functions and offices
of conscience : there is, first, a knowledge, remembrance, or keeping
up of principles, according to which our state and actions must be
interpreted ; secondly, a sense of our actions, or what is done, or left
undone, in conformity or contrariety to those principles; thirdly, a
judging or applying to ourselves those rules which concern our fact or
state. As to the first act and office, conscience hath the force of a
law and rule, informing us of good or evil. With respect to the second
act, it is a witness, testifying what we have been or done. With respect
to the last act, it is a judge, to condemn or acquit as the matter shall
require. As, for instance, in that copulate axiom which you have,
Bom. viii. 13, 'If ye live after the flesh, ye shall die ; but if ye through
the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live.' Take the
first part ; he that 'liveth after the flesh shall die,' meaning the second
death ; there conscience interposeth as a law or rule. But I ' live after
the flesh ; ' there conscience interposeth as a witness : therefore I shall
die the second death ; there it condemneth as a judge. Take the second
clause, and you will have an instance of conscience not condemning or
acquitting : ' They that by the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body
shall live ; ' but I mortify the deeds of the body, therefore I shall live.
Now if conscience goeth upon a right principle, and beareth true evi
dence, the sentence and judgment remaineth firm, or in full force, be it
by way of condemnation or absolution. As in the first reasoning, the
conclusion must needs breed sorrow, trouble, and dejection of heart,
which must not be put off till God put it away ; that is, till we break
off our fleshly course of living, and obtain our pardon and peace by
Jesus Christ. In the second reasoning the sentence of absolution is u
ground of comfort, and giveth boldness in our approaches to God.
Once more, conscience may condemn us two ways — in part or in
whole ; according to the strictness of the first covenant, requiring
unsinning obedience ; on the equitable terms of the second, accepting
VER. 21.] SERMONS UPON i JOHN in. 185
our sincere obedience. Our hearts may accuse us of imperfection, but
not of insincerity and hypocrisy, or partial dealing with God. lu this
latter sense is the text taken.
Secondly, The privilege, ' Then have we confidence towards God.'
1. What is this confidence ?
[1.] It is sometimes put for boldness, or not fearing any danger or
evil from one : 1 John ii. 28, ' That when he shall appear we may have
boldness, and not be ashamed at his coming.' And so the sense will
be, You need not fear any danger from him ; for God will not be
wanting to them that walk sincerely before him. So it is said the
' righteous are bold as a lion,' Prov. xxviii. 1. So Phil. i. 20, ' Accord
ing to my earnest expectation and my hope, that in nothing I shall be
ashamed, but that, with all boldness, as always, so now, Christ shall be
magnified in my body, whether it be by life or death.' That he should
boldly avow the truth, as fearless of any danger ; living and dying, he
should glorify Christ. A Christian feareth nothing that is established
upon sound terms : Ps. xxiii. 4, ' Though I walk through the valley
of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil.' They are not discouraged
and disquieted, as others, with the apprehensions of danger ; as not
from men, so not from God, to whom they look chiefly. Fear and
dread of God's displeasure followeth the consciousness of sin, but
expectation and hope of reward and good countenance from God is the
natural result of righteousness and holiness. This is the first notion
of the word ' confidence/ and not to be excluded here.
[2.] It signifieth liberty in prayer, a telling God all our mind, and
so it signifieth praying freely to God, and asking of him whatever we
stand in need of ; a freedom to speak our hearts and open our minds
to God in all necessities : Eph. iii. 12, ' In whom we have boldness,
and access with confidence, through the faith of him ; ' and Heb. iv.
16, 'Let us come boldly to the throne of grace.' We may present our
selves and our requests before him with confidence. Only let me note,
that this confidence noteth liberty of heart rather than liberty of speech ;
not a flowing of words so much as a holy confidence of audience and
acceptance whenever we draw nigh unto him.
2. In what sense we may be said to have it. It may be understood
de facto or dejure. It is not meant of the first only, for two reasons —
(1.) Because otherwise it were not an argument of the value of the
testimony of conscience if we have confidence towards God, and he doth
not allow it or approve it ; for though he doth not say, If our hearts
condemn us not, God will not condemn us, as in the former verse, ' God
is greater than our hearts, and knoweth all things ; ' yet it must be
understood, or else the apostle's reasoning were impertinent. (2.)
Because de facto all that are sincere have not this confidence ; they
have a right to it, though they enjoy it not ; for there needeth another
witness : Eom. viii. 16, ' The Spirit itself beareth witness with our
spirit that we are the children of God.'
Doct. That a good conscience is one means to open an effectual door
to us for free and full communion with God.
I shall prove two things to you —
1. That it is a great privilege to have free and full communion with
God in his worship.
18() SERMONS UPON 1 JOHN III. [SfiR. XXVII.
2. That a good conscience hath a great influence on this.
I. For the first, that free and full communion with God in his wor
ship, expressed here by boldness, or 'confidence towards God/ is a
great privilege. This will appear if you consider —
1. Man's forfeiture by sin ; God's image, favour, and fellowship lost
all at once. All sweet commerce between us and God was cut off,
as is evident by the story of the fall, where you will find man first a
fugitive, and then an exile. First he ran away from God, and then
God banished him out of his presence, Gen. iii. 8. When God came
walking in the garden in the cool of the day, Adam and his wife hid
themselves, as being afraid of the presence of the Lord ; they shuffled
out of the way, and ran among the trees of the garden ; and afterwards
we read again, ver. 23, 24, that God sent him forth, and drove him out
of his presence, and set a guard of cherubims, and a flaming sword
turning every way upon paradise, which was a figure of his wrath.
As it was thus with Adam, so it was with all his posterity ; sin is the
wall of partition between us and God: Isa. lix. 2, 'Your iniquities
have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his
face from you, that he will not hear/
2. The estrangement of the heart that grows upon this forfeiture,
as appeareth by that legal bondage and those guilty fears which are
natural to us. Sinners fear God, and fly from him : ' I was afraid,
and hid myself/ saith Adam, Gen. iii. 10; and all his posterity have
the same disposition : Isa. xxxiii. 14, ' Who among us can dwell with
devouring burnings ? ' Yea, it appeareth by the bashfulness and in-
confidence that befalleth the children of God by reason of sin. The
fears of a guilty child make him shun his father's presence, as David
kept silence when he had sinned, Ps. xxxii. 3. Strangeness and dis
tance groweth between God and us while sin lieth on the conscience.
3. The majesty of God, and the state which he kept during the old
testament dispensation. In the whole frame of that worship, God
would show them how unworthy sinners were to approach and draw
nigh to him and his holy things. When they were married to him
in the covenant on Mount Sinai, there was a rail between him and the
people, and they were not to go up into the holy mount, or touch the
border of it, under penalty of being put to death, Exod. xix. 12, 13.
In their passage to Canaan, the common Israelite was not to come
near the ark lest he died, Num. i. 53, but the Levites were to inter
pose between God and them. The Levites also were not to be too bold ;
some of them were chosen out to touch the staves of the altar, and
perform other ministries, but not to see the holy things when covered,
lest they died, Num. xix. 20. Sinful man must not come too near the
great God. The priests were to minister at the altar of burnt-offerings,
but not without solemn washings, Exod. xxx. 20. The high priest
(Lev. xvi. 2, ' And the Lord said unto Moses, Speak unto Aaron thy
brother, that he come not at all times into the holy place within the
veil before the mercy-seat, which is upon the ark, that he die not ') was
not to be too familiar with God; and if any of these orders were broken,
judgments were executed, and they were struck dead in the place.
The people were sensible of these restraints : Num. xvii. 17, 18, ' And
the children of Israel said unto Moses, Behold, we die, we perish, we
VER. 21.] SERMONS UPON i JOHN in. 187
all perish. Whosoever cometh anything near unto the tabernacle of
the Lord shall die : shall we be consumed with dying ? ' Some were
killed with the sword, the earth swallowed up others, some died with
pestilence, and all for making too bold with God in his holy things.
4. The many failings which the best are conscious of. When we
consider the exact inspection of God, and the many infirmities of the
best Christians, it is a wonder they can have any confidence towards
God, when our own conscience condemneth us of many things ; but
the Lord layeth not them to our charge where the heart is sincere for
the main ; and he could observe many more things against us than our
consciences do, yet such is his mercy and fatherly love, that he will
pardon and reverse all these failings, and will delight in our converse
with him : Prov.- xv. 8, ' The prayer of the upright is his delight.'
God looketh more to their good than their ill ; though he knoweth
more by them than all the world, or they themselves do, yet if our
hearts do not reprove us of partial dealings, we may plead, 2 Kings
xx. 3, ' I beseech thee, Lord, remember now how I have walked
before thee in truth and with a perfect heart, and have done that which
is good in thy sight.'
5. The thing itself is very valuable. This confidence towards God,
what is there in it ?
[1.] A readiness to converse with God and come into his presence ;
whereas otherwise the heart is shy of him, and hangeth off from him ;
as Israel, when they had sinned in the matter of the calf, they durst not
come near the sanctuary, but worshipped every man afar off at his
tent-door, Exod. xxxiii. 8, as looking what success Moses' mediation
would have with the Lord about reconciling him to his people, when
he was angry and ready to depart. Now when we can cheerfully come
into God's presence, and converse with him, we have boldness to enter
into the holiest, Heb. x. 9 ; we have leave to come, and a heart to
come : to have both is a very great privilege. Liberty of access, with
assurance of welcome and audience, surely is a great favour and privi
lege ; the soul cannot keep away from God.
[2.] A free familiarity. When we come, we unbosom ourselves to
him as a man would unto his friend, and tell God all our mind, acquaint
him with all our griefs, sorrows, fears, hopes, desires, temptations, con
flicts ; tell him plainly how it is with our souls. This is that free
spirit David begs for, and had lost some degree of it by his sin, Ps. li.
12, and is set forth by Ps. cxix. 26, ' I declared my ways, and thou
heardest me.' We keep back nothing from him : Ps. Ixii. 8, ' Trust
in him at all times, pour out your hearts before him.' We lay down
our burden at his feet; we deal openly and plainly with him.
[3.] A childlike trust, that he will pity and help us, that our persons
and duties are accepted with him ; for much of the disposition of
children lieth in owning him as a Father. The spirit of adoption was
given us to this end and purpose : Rom. viii. 15, ' But we have received
the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father ; ' and Gal. iv.
16, ' He hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, whereby
we cry, Abba, Father/ Oh, what a mercy is this, to come to him, not
as our judge, but as our Father, not with a spirit of fear, but love !
It is not a tribunal of justice we stand before, but a throne of grace.
188 SERMONS UPON 1 JOHN III. [SER. XXVII.
Surely to have a merciful reconciled Father to go to, and make our
moan for relief in all our distresses and wants, is a very comfortable
privilege, that we cannot sufficiently value. Whosoever scorneth and
slights him, a Christian knoweth where he may be welcome : ' My
friends scorn me, but mine eye poureth out tears to God,' Job xvi. 20.
Though slighted elsewhere, he will not be refused there. Surely God
will deal kindly with his children ; his fatherly love will not suffer him
neglect them, or any of their concernments.
[4.] The rich treasure that we have an interest in and free access
unto. God's all-sufficiency is our storehouse ; he hath grace enough
to pardon our sins, to pity and relieve our miseries, to heal our natures,
supply our necessities, to help us in our straits, and finally to save us
with an everlasting salvation. This confidence implieth a dependence
on God's all-sufficiency, Gen. xvii. 1. Cast all your care upon him,
1 Peter v. 7. Earthly parents, their affections and power are limited.
Now to come to such a God every day, and to know that as often as
we come we are welcome to him, in and through Christ, our persons
and prayers are pleasing to him, and that he will give us all the
things we ask of him according to his will, what a mercy is this !
II. What influence hath a good conscience upon it ?
1. The door of access to God is opened by Christ. It was first
opened by the merit of his passion, and is still kept open by his inter
cession ; therefore it is said, Heb. iv. 15, 16, ' For we have not a high
priest who cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities, but
was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin. Let us there
fore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy,
and find grace to help in a time of need ; ' Heb. x. 19, ' Having therefore,
brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus.'
Our peace and atonement was made with God by Christ's passion,
represented and pleaded by his intercession.
2. It supposeth our justification by faith, for otherwise we are not
entered into the evangelical state: Rom v. 1, 2, 'Being justified by
faith, we have peace with God, through our Lord Jesus Christ ; by
whom also we have access by faith.' Till we are accepted in the
Beloved, we have a charge lying against us : Acts xiii. 38, 39, ' Be it
known unto you therefore, men and brethren, that through this man is
preached unto you the forgiveness of sins; and by him all that
believe are justified from all things, from which ye could not be
justified by the law of Moses.' This is a ground of rejoicing : Rom.
viii. 33, 34, ' Who then shall lay anything to the charge of God's
elect ? '
3. Our justification is evident to us when conscience witnesseth on
good grounds that we do not allow ourselves in the omission of any
known duty, nor in the commission of any known sin : Heb. x. 22, ' Let
us draw near with a true heart, in full assurance of faith, having our
hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with
pure water.' When we are justified and sanctified, and our con
sciences, which were unquiet by reason of sin, are purged and purified,
then we may cheerfully come to God for all things. Particularly —
(1.) To remove terror ; (2.) To establish boldness and confidence.
VER. 21.] SERMONS UPON UOHN in. 189
[1.] To remove terror. There are two things obstruct our soul's
access to God — our own guiltiness and God's terror.
(1.) Our own guiltiness, that straitens the heart, and stoppeth the
mouth, and breedeth bondage in us. All the world naturally is
become guilty before God, Rom. iii. 19 ; but they who are renewed
and pardoned, they come out of this guilty and wretched estate, and
by little and little are settled and established as to their consciences,
as their pardon and sanctification is made more evident to them by a
holy conversation : Rom. vi. 14, ' For sin shall have no dominion over
you.' Where sin reigneth not, they come to understand their estate by
grace, and so vanquish their legal fears. Where worldly and fleshly
lusts bear sway, a man is under the law, not under grace. The law is
alive or dead according to the state a man is in, either of sin or holi
ness. He that liveth in a state of sin still carrieth his sting and wound
about him, and is always under doubts and fears, or hath the matter
and ground of them. Certainly they have not the true courage and
boldness of the saints. Not only their flesh and spirit is at war in
their hearts, but law and grace. As the Spirit prevaileth against the
flesh, so doth grace prevail against our law-fears : ' For they that are
led by the Spirit, are not under the law,' Gal. v. 18 ; that is, not under
its condemning power. So Bom. viii. 14, ' Ye have not received the
spirit of bondage again to fear, but the Spirit of adoption, whereby we
cry, Abba, Father.' If we live in obedience to the motions of the
sanctifying Spirit, he doth as a Spirit of adoption overcome our legal
fears.
(2.) God's terror. God is our friend and Father in Christ ; not a
terrible judge, but a reconciled Father; and his throne is not a judg
ment-seat, but a mercy-seat. He is terrible to those that lie in their
sins; they look upon him as a malefactor doth upon his judge, a rigid
lawgiver or severe avenger ; as a condemning God, not as a pardoning
God. But not so to those that are adopted and taken into his family ;
he maketh the renewed and sanctified his children, and is pleased to
own them as a Father : ' That we should be holy, and without blame
before him in love ; having predestinated us to the adoption of children,'
Eph. i. 4-6. Surely when God is our Father, the chief cause of all our
fear and trouble is gone. We have no cause to fear the flames of hell,
or sting of death, and the terror of the judgment, any further than to
make ready for the day of judgment. Surely then we can not only
draw nigh to God, and behold his face with comfort and confidence
now, and rejoice in his presence with us in the ordinances, but also
look and long for his appearance, when he shall come in his glory :
2 Tim. iv. 8, ' Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteous
ness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day ;
and not to me only, but unto all them that love his appearing ; ' Rev.
xxii. 20, ' He who testifieth these things saith, Surely I come quickly,
Amen. Even so come Lord Jesus.'
[2.] To establish boldness and confidence; for —
(1.) There is an everlasting merit to depend upon, and that is the
blood of Christ, quieting the conscience : Heb. ix. 14, ' How much
more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered
himself without spot to God, purge our consciences from dead works
190 SERMONS UPON 1 JOHN Ilf. [SER. XXVII.
to serve the living God ? ' Heb. xii. 24, ' And to Jesus, the mediator
of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling, that speaketh
better things than the blood of Abel.' We are admitted for Christ's
sake, and have only his righteousness to plead against the first cove
nant.
(2.) Here is a blessed covenant, wherein God hath showed his will
ingness to accept us, and hath given us his warrant for the discharge
of the sincere and upright : Rom. viii. 1, 'There is now no condemnation
to them that are in Christ, who walk not after the flesh, but after the
Spirit.' Therefore, if our consciences do not charge us with a doubling
with God, what should disquiet our minds ?
(3.) There is a sure claim, and that is sincerity, when our hearts
condemn us not, nor reproach us for any voluntary wilful neglect of or
disobedience to the laws of Christ, or living in any wilful and allowed
sin ; yea, rather acquit us, assure us of such sincerity to God and Christ,
that we can appeal to his all-seeing eye : John xxi. 17, ' And he said
unto him, Lord, thou knowest all things, thou knowest that I love thee.'
Now surely all this will breed boldness, and be matter of joy and con
fidence to us : 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.'
Object. Will not this strengthen the security of the wicked, to leave
all upon the judgment of conscience? Jer. xvii. 9, 'The heart is
deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked ; who can know it ? '
Many men's consciences do not condemn them ; they absolve themselves
with great confidence, which is not to be imputed to the strength of
their faith, but the hardness of their hearts.
Ans. 1. Wicked men are never perfect as appertaining to the consci
ence ; they have not a true sound peace ; it is but a truce, as appeareth
because it is so soon disturbed by the seriousness of their own thoughts,
their troubles, the agonies of death. A dead stupid conscience they have,
but not the rejoicing of faith and liberty towards God. It is not the
lively sense of God's love ; their hearts reproach them, though they
regard it not.
Ans. 2. It doth suppose that conscience doth its office rightly, and that
all things concur which are necessary to a good conscience. As —
[1.] Some competent knowledge of the gospel, the privileges and
duties thereof. Carnal men are bold through ignorance. Now,
' without knowledge the heart is not good,' Prov. xix. 2 ; as in out
ward courts, through ignorance of law or false evidence, wrong sentence
may be given. Therefore the apostle supposeth them to be persons
whose hearts and consciences are in some measure enlightened in the
things of God, and are still inquiring what is his holy, good, and ac
ceptable will.
[2.] One that hath heartily consented to the new covenant so under
stood : 1 Peter iii. 21, ' Baptism doth also now save us, not the putting
away of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience
towards God.' When they answer to the Lord's offers and demands
in the gospel, thankfully accepting the offered benefits, faithfully re
solving, by the strength of the Lord's grace, to perform the required
duties, this is the covenant made with God in baptism.
VER. 21.] SERMONS UPON i JOHN in. 191
[3.] Those that set their hearts to fulfil their covenant-vow : ver. 22,
' Whatsoever we ask we receive of him, because we keep his command
ments, and do the things which are pleasing in his sight.' Now those, if
their hearts do not condemn them of doubling, and dealing insincerely
with God, they have liberty and confidence : Gal. vi. 16, ' As many as
walk according to this rule, peace and mercy be upon them, as upon
the whole Israel of God.' On the contrary : Ps. Ixvi. 18, ' If I regard
iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me.' In short, then, those
that allow no sin, complain of it, fight against it, and study to please
God in all things, and abound therein more and more ; those are
declared to be sincere that seek to be without offence, Phil. i. 10. If
men walk crookedly, they break their confidence, and cannot look God
in the face with any comfort.
[4.] That the case be well studied and weighed before conscience
pronounceth and passeth the doom, for the heart is very deceitful :
1 Cor. xi. 29, ' Let a man examine himself ; ' 2 Cor. xiii. 5, ' Examine
yourselves whether ye be in the faith ; prove yourselves ; ' when a
man well knowing his duty doth often search and examine himself,
his conformity and inconformity thereunto, to see if any of these be
wanting. Blind men cannot judge of colours. If no hearty consent
to the covenant of grace, founded in the blood of Christ, he hath not
taken the course to pacify conscience. If it be not his hearty and daily
endeavour to please God, it is impudence, not confidence ; if there be
slightness before the matter be debated, and doth undergo a full trial
and hearing, it is rashness and presumption, hypocrisy and senseless
overweening.
Use 1. That liberty in prayer is so great a mercy, that we should
not easily sin it away, and make our sincerity questionable ; the
heavenly trade is then interrupted, and comfortable commerce between
God and us broken off. Before we come into God's glorious presence,
he first traineth us up by inviting us into his gracious presence, and
the throne of grace is the porch of heaven. God taketh this course,
not only to settle our affections, that we may begin that acquaintance
here which there shall be perfected and consummated, but to try our
confidence. If we cannot come to God in prayer, how shall we come
to God in heaven, and in a dying hour cheerfully set sail for eternity,
and launch into the other world ? Now whilst we are insincere, serious
prayer is irksome ; we can have no delight in God's company, or com
fortable thoughts of him ; while we indulge any secret sin, every duty
is a penance to us. Therefore do not lose your liberty and openness
of heart to God, but preserve the friendship settled in the covenant of
grace inviolable and entire.
2. That God's presence, which is the comfort of the faithful, is the
burden of the carnal and the guilty. The presence of God is terrible
to sinners ; they think they are never better than when farthest off
from God and most forget God. The devil and the wicked sympa
thise : Mat. viii. 29, ' What have we to do with thee, Jesus, thou Son
of God ? art thou come hither to torment us before the time ? ' Job
xxi. 14, ' They say unto God, Depart from us, we desire not the know
ledge of thy ways.' God's presence and company is a burden to them.
Now into what a miserable condition hath sin brought men ! It hath
192 SERMONS UPON 1 JOHN III. [SfiR. XXVIII.
changed their joy and content into the greatest terror. Wicked men
can neither fly from God's presence, nor yet well endure it.
Use 2. To press Christians to keep a good conscience. If you would
maintain your liberty and confidence towards God, carry yourselves so
that conscience may not condemn you. There are so many blessed
fruits accompany it, that we should value it the more. If you have it
not, you want liberty in prayer, here mentioned ; no hope of glory, no
sweetness in the word, no readiness in duty, nor strength to resist sin,
nor comfort in distresses and afflictions. But if you have it, you can
not conceive the joy that accompanies it : Kev. ii. 17, ' To him that
overcometh will I give to eat of the hidden manna ; and will give him
a white stone, and in the stone a name written, which no man
knows but he that receives it.' It makes the thoughts of God sweeter,
for he is your Father ; his mercy, for it is your portion. His justice is
not your terror, but support. His wrath you have escaped ; as the
Israelites looked back on the Red Sea, and saw their enemies drowned
and they escaped. His world of creatures are for your use and service ;
heaven is your Father's palace ; Christ is your Redeemer and Saviour :
the word is your charter ; ordinances and prayer the porch of heaven ;
the Lord's supper the table God keepeth for his children.
SERMON XXVIII.
And whatsoever we ask, we receive of him, because we keep Ms com
mandments, and do those things that are pleasing in his sight. —
1 JOHN iii. 22.
IN the context the apostle is speaking of the benefit of a good con
science. It is double —
1. Confidence towards God.
2. Acceptance with God ; or, if you will, access to God, and success
in prayer. Of confidence to make the prayer we spake in the former
verse ; acceptance of it, when it is once made, of this in the text, ' And
whatsoever we ask, we receive of him/ &c.
In the words there are two things —
1. The privilege of a good conscience, 'Whatsoever we ask, we
receive of him.'
2. The character and property of a good conscience, ' Because we
keep his commandments, and do the things that are pleasing in his
sight.'
1. For the privilege ; and here note —
[1.] The universality and extent of it, ' Whatsoever we ask.'
[2.J The certainty, ' We receive ; ' not, we shall receive ; we are as
certain to receive it as if we had it already.
2. The character, evidence, and property of a good conscience,
' Because we keep his commandments, and do those things which are
pleasing in his sight.' This is fit to be added, because he had only
YER. 22.] SERMONS UPON i JOHN in. 193
described conscience by its act of absolving or not condemning. Now
lie slioweth this must be understood of conscience rightly proceeding.
It is usually and truly observed that there is a fourfold conscience —
[1.] Quiet and not good: Luke xi. 21, 'When the strong man
keepeth the house, all that he possesseth is in peace.' There must
needs be a calm when wind and tide goeth together.
[2.] Good and not quiet ; as when David thought he was utterly cut
off, and cast out of God's sight : Ps. xxii. 31, ' I said in my heart, I
am cut off from before thine eyes ; nevertheless thou heardest the voice
of my supplications.'
[3.] Such as is neither good nor quiet ; such was Judas' conscience :
Mat. xxvii. 3, 4, ' Judas repented, saying, I have sinned in betraying
innocent blood.'
[4.] A conscience both good and quiet. It is good, for ' we keep his
commandments, and do the things which are pleasing in his sight.'
As it is good, so it is also quiet ; for in the former verse he saith, ' It
condemneth not.' This good and quiet conscience is set forth by two
expressions, one relating to the matter, the other to the aim of our
obedience.
(1.) The matter, ' Because we keep his commandments;' meaning
both moral and evangelical ; faith in Christ, and love to God and man,
as he explaineth himself, ver. 23 ; and this done evangelically, by the
Spirit of Christ and love of God : 1 John ii. 5, ' Whoso keepeth his
word, in him is the love of God perfected/
(2.) For the aim, ' And do those things which are pleasing in his
sight.' Those things only please God which he hath commanded ; as
you please a man when you do what is according to his will. Now
this is the aim of the sincere heart, to please God in all things ; and if
we set ourselves to do so, God will not be a stranger to us : John viii.
29, ' He that sent me is with me ; for I do always the things that
please him.'
There is nothing of difficulty remaineth, but only the connection
between the two clauses, which seemeth to be causal, ' Because we keep
his commandments, and do the things which are pleasing in his sight.'
Ans. It is a condition, not of merit, but order. By obeying him
we are qualified to have our prayers heard by him ; but yet not for our
merit, but his merciful promise to hear us : Dan. ix. 18, ' Not for our
righteousness, Lord, but for thy great mercies.'
Doct. Such as make conscience of obedience may obtain of God
whatsoever, in reason and righteousness, they ask of him.
I shall handle the point in this method.
1. I shall show you in what large terms God hath invited and en
couraged us to prayer.
2. I shall state the case, how we may ask so as to be sure to speed.
3. I shall speak of God's answer, and the success of our prayers.
I. In what large terms God hath invited and encouraged prayer.
Here in the text, ' Whatsoever we ask of him we receive.'
1. In some places there are indefinite promises of audience ; as Ps.
1. 15, ' Call upon me, and I will hear thee.' So Job xxii. 27, ' Thou
shalt make thy prayer unto God, and he shall hear thee;' Ps. xxxvii.
14, ' Delight thyself in the Lord, and he shall grant thee the desire of
VOL. xx r. N
104 SERMONS UPON 1 JOHN TIL [SER. XXVIII.
thy heart ; ' and Isa. xlv. 19, ' I said not unto the house of Israel, Seek
ye me in vain ;' Mat. vii. 7, 8, ' Ask, and it shall be given you ; seek,
and ye shall find ; knock, and it shall be opened unto you : for every
one that asketh receiveth ; and he that seeketh findeth ; and to him that
knocketh it shall be opened.' Now though these places do not tell us how
much God will grant, or how far he will hear the prayers of his people,
yet they show us that it is not labour in vain to seek God ; and we have
all the encouragements in the world to come and acquaint him with all
our desires, griefs, fears, wants, and requests ; for what cannot God do ?
and what will not prayer do with a good God, who is able to do what
he pleaseth, and hath promised to do what we desire ?
2. There are promises that have universal particles annexed ; as
John xiv. 13, 14, 'Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name,
that I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask
anything in my name, I will do it.' So John xv. 7, ' If ye abide in me,
and my words abide in you, you shall ask what you will, and it shall be
done unto you/ So John xv. 16, ' Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father
in my name, he shall give it you.' The same is repeated, John xvi.
23, ' Verily, verily I say unto you, whatsoever ye shall ask the Father
in my name, he will give it you.' And many more such expressions
there are in the word of God. Not that men have a lawless liberty
allowed them, to give vent to all their desires, how unjust and unrea
sonable soever they be, and that God's power shall lackey upon their
vain fancies and appetites. No ; these large and universal offers admit of
limitations propounded in scripture, which must be regarded, that we
may not make promises to ourselves, and set God a task by our self-con-
ceitedness and vain fancies, and think him engaged beyond what he is
pleased to bind himself unto. And the use of these universal particles
is to encourage us against the straits and diffidence of our own hearts :
though we ask things so great for their worth, difficult to compass, and
which we are so unworthy to receive, yet none of these things should
discourage us, and straiten our expectations, that when we come to God,
if our requests be just and equal, he will grant them for Christ's sake.
II. To state the case ; how must we ask, that we may be sure to
speed ?
1. The first thing to be observed is the qualification of the person ; for
unless you put yourselves into a receiving posture, according to the
terms of the promise, you cannot expect to speed. Now none are in
a receiving posture but such as are in grace and favour with God, such
as are justified and sanctified, and live in obedience to him : Prov. xv.
8, ' The sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination to the Lord ; but the
prayer of the upright is his delight ; ' John ix. 31, ' God heareth not
sinners ; but if any be a worshipper of God, and doeth his will, him he
heareth ; ' James v. 16, ' The fervent effectual prayer of a righteous
man availeth much ; ' Ps. Ixvi. 18, ' If I regard iniquity in my heart,
God will not hear me.' These and many other places show that if we
would have our prayers heard and accepted with God, we must be
righteous, not live in the open practice of any known sin, nor secretly
foster it in our hearts. And therefore though prayer should be rnaed
with the greatest earnestness and confidence, yet if the consciences of
men reprove them of any looseness and lightness of spirit, that they
VER 22.] SERMONS UPON i JOHN nr. 195
have served God by halves, and are off and on with him in their prac
tice, if they be not heard in the evil day, they cannot challenge God for
breach of promise, but themselves of neglect of duty ; for if they will
not hear God, why should God hear them ? This reason is given, Prov.
xx. 9, ' He that turueth away his ear from hearing the law, even his
prayer is an abomination.' Not only his vile practices, but his prayers.
Therefore, if you would have God's ear, obey him and hearken to his
voice ; and then for the asking you may obtain anything which a good
conscience will permit you to ask of him ; and upon other terms you
must not deal with God. Keep close to God's will, and he will give
you your will. Surely it is a profitable thing to obey God. Do you
do that which God requireth of you, and God will do that which you
ask of him.
2. The next thing to be regarded is the matter of our prayers and
requests, and there we have the limitation : 1 John v. 14, 15, ' And
this is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask anything
according to his will, he heareth us. And if we know that he hear us,
whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired
of him.' All the business is, what is the meaning of that, ' According
to his will ? '
With conformity to his revealed will.
With due submission and reservation of his secret will.
Surely with conformity to his revealed and commanding will,
that we ask nothing that is sinful or unjust ; as if we would seek to
entice God to our lure, and to avenge our quarrels ; as Balaam built
altars and offered sacrifices to draw God to curse his people ; or when
we would have God to bless us in some unlawful undertaking or pur
pose, or are biassed by envy, revenge, or any corrupt and carnal affection,
and to ask things contrary to charity, or that meek spirit that should
be in Christians. Unlawful desires put into prayer are a double evil,
as contrary to God's law, and as presented in prayer. The wills of
God's children are limited by his word and will. The Spirit in them
maketh intercession according to the will of God, Rom. viii. 27.
When we mingle our lusts with our prayers, we make this pure
stream muddy, and would put dross into Christ's golden censer,
as if he should mediate that our lusts should be fulfilled, and sins
accomplished.
[2.] With a due reservation of and submission to his secret and
decreeing will. Many things are lawful, yea, commanded, yet we must
ask them with submission to the will of God ; that is, we must use the
means, and refer the success to God. As, for instance, when parents
ask the conversion of their children, and children the lives of their
parents ; but God disposeth of the event as it pleaseth him. Again,
many things may be good in themselves, but are not good for us ; as
Moses desired to enter into the land of Canaan, which God saw not
good for him. So thou art sick, and wouldst fain have thy life pro
longed, and therefore in the bitterness of thy heart makest thy moan
to God, as Hezekiah did ; it may be the Lord will take thee from the
evil to come, and translate thee to glory, which is much better for thee ;
as David fasted and prayed for the life of the child : 2 Sarn. xii. 22,
' Who can tell whether the Lord will be gracious to me, that the child
196 SERMONS UPON 1 JOHN III. [SfiR. XXVIII.
may live ? ' In this reservation of God's will we have two exceptions —
if it be for God's glory and our good.
(1.) God's glory : John xiv. 13, ' Whatever ye ask the Father in my
name, I will do it, that the Father may be glorified in the Son.'
Whatever belongeth to our duty we must do ; but for the event, how
he will be glorified, we must submit it to God.
(2.) For our good. Grace layeth this restraint upon the will of a
renewed man, but of this good, God will be judge, and not we. It may
be good for us to be afflicted, Ps. cxix. 71. Temporal things being but
accessary to our happiness, and belonging to our comfortable condition
in the world, but not of absolute necessity to our salvation, should not
be peremptorily asked, but in submission and limitation of God's will :
Mat. xxvi. 39, 'Yet not my will, but thine be done ;' so far as God
seeth them good for us. The short is, that in things necessary to sal
vation, we shall not be refused ; in other things, we should not ask of
God anything that agreeth not with his will, or is against his glory, or
may be hurtful to ourselves. Till we learn to acquiesce in the will
of God, and seek the most necessary things of God, we do not pray
aright.
3. The next limitation is as to the manner.
[1.] Fervently, and with that life and seriousness which such requests
call for : Mat. vii. 7, ' Ask, seek, knock.' Prayer is not answered if the
spirit of prayer be wanting, or those lively affections which are necessary
to constitute a prayer : James v. 16, ' The effectual fervent prayer of
a righteous man availeth much/ Afterwards he instanceth in Elias,
ver. 17. If a cold prayer meets with a denial, we have no cause to
complain. The ardency of holy desires is wanting; we are not in
earnest, which is the soul of prayer, though the form and fashion of it
be kept up: Dan. ix. 3, 'I set myself to seek the Lord;' Jer. xxix.
12, 13, 'And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for
me with all your hearts.' When God hath a mind to work, he sets
the spirit of prayer a-work.
[2.] Christ hath put faith among the conditions required to prayer :
Mat. xxi. 22, 'All things that ye ask in prayer, believing, ye shall
receive ; ' or, as it is in Mark xi. 24, ' What things soever ye desire,
when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them.'
There must be a confidence of that power that we would set a-work,
and of God's will and goodness to pity and relieve us. As things are
tendered to us in the promise, so are we bound to believe and pray for
them, and no otherwise ; for the word of promise is the measure, ground,
and foundation of prayer. And as to the promise of temporal things,
it is either personal or common. Personal ; so God absolutely promised
to some of his servants to give them temporal blessings, so absolutely
to be believed and prayed for. So he promised to Abraham to multiply
his seed as the sand on the seashore, Gen. xxii. 17; and this promise
Abraham was to believe with an absolute faith, whatever difficulties
there were to the contrary, Rom. iv. 18-21. God promised David the
kingdom, and anointed him by Samuel, but for a long time he was kept
in a private and perplexed condition, yet bound to be confident. So
God promised Paul the life of all that were with him in the ship, Acts
xxvii. 25, therefore in the greatest difficulties he encouraged his com-
YER. 22.] SERMONS UPON i JOHN in. 197
panions: 'Wherefore, sirs, he of good cheer; for I believe God, that
it shall be even as it was told me.' But the common promise of the
blessings of this life is not absolute, but shall be dispensed to us as it
shall be for God's glory and our good, and therefore are not to be
absolutely asked nor absolutely expected from God. So the saints
express themselves about these things: Joel ii. 14, 'Who knoweth if
lie will return and repent, and leave a blessing behind him, even a
meat-offering and a drink-offering unto the Lord ? ' God will hold us
in suspense about these things, and try our godliness and submission.
But yet though there be uncertainty about particular blessings, we
must always pray in faith. It is one thing to believe for certain that
God will grant our petition with this condition, if the grant be for his
glory and our good, and another thing to believe absolutely that he
will not deny the particular thing we ask of him, without such excep
tion and reservation. Of the former, we must be persuaded in all our
petitions ; of the latter, we cannot be confident ; there we can only say,
Who knoweth but that God may do it for us ? for it is not for us to
determine what is most conducing to the glory of God, or profitable
for us; all must be left to our heavenly Father, upon whose good
pleasure all our happiness dependeth. We must be persuaded of his
all-sufficiency, refer it to his goodness, as not to be troubled about it.
[3.] To the manner the end also belongeth, that the prayer be
directed to his glory : James iv. 3, ' Ye ask and receive not, because ye
ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts/
III. I shall speak of God's answer, and the success of our prayers ;
and there are several distinctions and considerations.
1. Sometimes God giveth an answer presently, at other times after
some competent space of time ; as Cornelius at the time of prayer,
Acts x. 3, and while the duty is a-doing, an angel was sent to him at
the ninth hour to assure him his prayers were heard. The ninth hour
was the usual time of prayer: Acts iii. 1, ' Now Peter and John went
up to pray at the ninth hour.' So Daniel, chap. ix. 20, 21, 'And while
I was speaking and praying and confessing my sin, yea, whilst I was
speaking in prayer, even the man Gabriel, whom I had seen in the vision
at the beginning, being caused to fly swiftly, touched me about the time
of the evening oblation/ The Lord is ready to answer the prayers of
his servants in the very instant of praying. So Acts iv. 31 , ' While
they prayed they were filled with the Holy Ghost/ The cases were
singular and extraordinary as to the token and manner of assurance ;
but as to the substance of the blessing, it is the common practice of
God's free grace: Isa. Iviii. 10, ' When they call, I will answer ; when
they pray, I will say, Here am I ; ' Isa. Ixv. 24, ' While they are speak
ing, 1 will hear/ The company that was met to pray while Peter was
in prison were heard at the time, Acts xii. 12, 13 ; God sent Peter to
them.
2. Sometimes a good while after. The prayers are upon record in
God's book : Mai. iii. 16, 'A book of remembrance was written before
him/ This God doth to exercise our faith, to believe what we see not.
Nay, God will hear them, though they know not the way how nor time
when : Micah vii. 7, ' Therefore I will look unto the Lord, I will wait
for the God of my salvation, my God will hear me/ And to try our
198 SERMONS UPON 1 JOHN III. [SER. XXVIII.
patience ; for he saith, ' I will wait for the God of my salvation.'
Though he doth not grant as soon as the prayer is made, yet we must
believe what we see not, and wait for what we have not. Paul prayed
thrice, 2 Cor. xii. 8. God taketh his own time for despatch. Abraham
prayed for a child, but many years he goeth childless.
Sdty. Consider the several ways how God giveth answer to his people's
prayers.
1. Extraordinarily ; so in ancient time, as an angel was sent to Cor
nelius, to Daniel, to Abel by fire, Heb. xi. 4, to Abraham by vision, to
Saul by oracle.
2. Ordinarily, and so several ways.
[1.] By granting the mercy prayed for ; as to Hannah : 1 Sam. i. 27,
' For this child I prayed, and the Lord hath given me the petition that
1 asked of him.' So to David : Ps. xxi. 2, ' Thou hast given him his
heart's desire, and hast not withheld the requests of his lips.' So often
to his people, when they have humbly sought to him, he giveth them
the very blessing they ask.
[2.] By giving in spiritual manifestations of his grace to the soul,
though he doth not give the particular mercy prayed for ; as when
upon prayer he reviveth the soul of him that prayeth : Job xxxiii. 26,
' He shall pray unto God, and he will be favourable unto him, and he
shall see his face with joy ; ' Ps. cxxxviii. 3, ' In the day when I cried
unto thee, thou answeredst me, and didst strengthen me with strength
in my soul.' Comfort is an answer; support is an answer: such an
answer had Paul, when God told him his ' grace was sufficient for him/
2 Cor. xii. 9 ; when the heart is quieted, though we do not know what
God will do with our requests. Hannah, when she had prayed, her
heart was no more sad, 1 Sam. i. 18.
[3.] Sometimes by way of commutation and exchange. So God doth
answer the prayer though he doth not give the mercy prayed for, when
he giveth another thing that is as good or better for the party that
prayeth ; though not in kind, yet the same in weight and value. This
commutation may be three ways —
(1.) In regard of the persons. David fasteth and prayeth, and
humbleth his soul for his persecutors, Ps. xxxv. 13, but it returned
into his own bosom, that is, it was converted to his own benefit. His
fasting had no effect upon them, but his charity did not lose its reward.
David prayeth for his first child by Bathsheba, but God giveth him
Solomon instead thereof, 2 Sam. xii. 15. In that supposition, 'Noah,
Daniel, and Job shall save their own souls,' Ezek. xiv. 18. They that
wished peace to a house, ' if the house was not worthy, their peace re
turned to them,' Luke x. 5, 6. They should have the comfort of dis
charging their duty.
(2.) In regard of the matter. Carnal things are begged, spiritual
given ; not a pompous kingdom to Israel, but the promise of the Spirit,
Acts i. 6, 7. Moses would fain enter into Canaan, but God saith,
Deut. iii. 27, ' Let it suffice thee ; speak to me no more of this
matter ; ' would fain 1 have a Pisgah sight, and be eased of the trouble
of the wars. We would have a speedy riddance of troubles, but God
thinketh it not fit; they go off by degrees. Showers that come by
drops soak into the earth better than those that come by a tempest or
1 Qu. omit ' would fain ' ? — ED.
VER. 22.] SERMONS UPON i JOHN TIL 199
hurricane. We ask for deliverance from troubles, and God will give
courage in troubles : Lam. iii. 55-57, ' I called upon thy name,
Lord, out of the low dungeon. Thou hast heard my voice ; hide not
thine ear at my breathing, at my cry. Thou drewest near in the day
I called upon thee : thou saidst, Fear not.' His gracious and powerful
presence in trouble was enough. Christ himself ' was heard in that he
feared,' Heb. v. 7 ; not saved from that hour, but supported and
strengthened in it. Job prayed, sacrificed for his children when they
were feasting, Job i. 5. God gave him patience, that he charged not
God foolishly when they were destroyed, ver. 20.
(3.) In regard of means. We pray such means may not miscarry ;
God will use other ; as Abraham would fain have Ishmael the child of
promise, but the Lord intended Isaac : ' Oh, that Ishmael might live
before thee ! ' Gen. xvii. 18. God may give us our will in anger, when
the thing begged turneth to our hurt. Therefore the way or kind of
God's answer must be referred to his own will in all things, for which
we are not to pray absolutely. And when we have discharged our
duty, and endeavoured to approve our hearts to God, take what answer
he will give.
Use 1. To show us with what confidence we must pray. You must
be persuaded that God will hear you according to your will or need,
when you ask things agreeable to his will, and fit for you to receive in
your station, and with a due subordination to his glory and the
interest of his kingdom ; upon other terms you should not ask any
thing of God. To support you, that you shall have what you ask,
there are three things — (1.) God's nature ; (2.) Christ's merits ; (3.)
The promises of the gospel.
1. God's nature. We conceive of God as wise, and powerful, and
good : all encourage prayer. God's wisdom and providence : Mat. vi.
8, ' Your Father knoweth what things you have need of before you ask
him.' His almighty power : Eph. iii. 20, ' He is able to do beyond
what we can ask or think ; ' Mark xiv. 36, ' Abba, Father, all things
are possible unto thee.' With these thoughts should we come into God's
presence. And lastly, his goodness and love ; that must not be left
out : John xvi. 27, ' The Father himself loveth you, because ye have
loved me, and believed that I came out from God.' Christ's intercession
made way for us, but the Father's love prevented that. We have wrong
thoughts of God if we do not think of his self-inclination to do good.
His readiness to hear and forgive doth encourage poor creatures to come
to him. All these things make him a God hearing prayer. And to
encourage poor suppliants —
2. There is the merits and mediation of our Lord Jesus Christ :
Heb. xii. 2, ' Looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith,
who, for the joy that was set before him, endured the cross, despised
the shame, and is sat down at the right hand of God ; ' Rom. viii. 3,
' God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin,
condemned sin in the flesh ; ' Heb. ix. 24, ' For Christ is not entered
into the holy place made with hands, which are the figures of the true,
but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us.'
We have a friend in court, who will join with us in the requests we
make to God, whose intercession answereth to the motions of his Spirit
in our hearts.
200 SERMONS UPON 1 JOHN III. [SfiR. XXVIII.
3. There are the gracious promises of the gospel, by which all
necessary things are secured to us. And though the dispensation of
particular blessings are reserved to God's good pleasure, yet there are
certain general promises which concern us for the present, of which \vc
may be confident; as that God will never utterly fail his people : Heb.
xiii. 5, ' He hath said, I will never leave thee nor forsake thee ; ' that
he will dispose of all things for the best to them that love God, Horn,
viii. 28 ; that he will not leave us to insupportable difficulties, 1 Cor.
x. 13. This should satisfy us.
Use 2. It teacheth us that we should look after the answers of
prayer. Certainly a man that is serious and sincere in prayer will be
earnest for an answer : Ps. Ixxxv. 8, ' I will hear what the Lord will
speak.' A gracious heart dareth not take God's name in vain, nor make
prayer a vain babbling or empty prattle, but will be listening and
hearkening after news from heaven : Ps. v. 3, ' I will pray and look up.'
Watch to see what cometh. Foolish boys, that knock at a door in
•wantonness, will not stay till somebody cometh to open to them ; but
a man that hath business will knock, and knock again, till he gets his
answer. To people that consider not what they do, whose prayers are
the sacrifices of fools, they throw away their prayers, and never look after
them, what cometh of it ? but they that are in earnest, and are per
suaded God heareth them, will wait for an answer. We should the
rather do this —
1. Because answers of prayer are notable confirmations of faith
concerning the truth of God's being and promises: Ps. Ixv. 2, ' Oh, thou
that nearest prayer, unto thee shall all flesh come ; ' Ps. xviii. 30, ' The
word of the Lord is a tried word; he is a buckler to all that trust in
him;' Ps. cxxxviii. 2, ' Thou hast magnified thy word above all thy
name.' They see this is the God to be prayed unto, these promises to
be trusted in ; that this God will not fail those that seek him, and
depend upon him. Now we should seek confirmation from experience,
as a rebuke and check to that atheism that still remaineth in us.
2. Excitements to love and obedience. Nothing increaseth our
love to God as to see he is mindful of us upon all occasions, especially
in our deep necessities: Ps. cxvi. 1, ' I will love the Lord, for he hath
heard the voice of my supplications.' Every answer of prayer is a
special instance of God's love to us, and so it begets love to God again ;
it is as new fuel to increase the fire.
3. Encouragements to pray again : Ps. cxvi. 2, ' Because he hath
inclined his ear unto me, therefore will I call upon him as long as I
live.' The throne of grace will not be neglected by them that have
found good success there ; they see there is mercy and help to be found.
As one adventure in point of traffic succeeding well encourageth
another, so is the success of duty : Ps. xxxii. 6, ' For this shall every
one that is godly pray unto thee in a time when thou mayest be found.'
From David's ready audience and despatch.
4. God will lose much honour, praise, and thanksgiving, if we do
not regard his answers : Ps. 1. 15, ' Call upon me in the day of trouble,
and I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify me ; ' Col. iv. 2, ' Con
tinue in prayer, and watch in the same with thanksgiving.' We are to
gather matter of praise to God ; as the intercourse between heaven and
2.] SERMONS UPON 1 JOHN III. 201
earth is maintained by vapours and showers, so is commerce between
God and us carried on by donatives and duties, by holy prayers arid
God's gracious answers.
SERMON XXIX.
Because we keep his commandments, and do those things which are
pleasing in his sight. — 1 JOHN iii. 22.
I COME now to the second thing, the character and property of a good
conscience. Here are two expressions, one relating to the matter of
our obedience, the other to the end.
1. The matter, ' Because we keep his commandments.'
2. The end and aim, 'And do those things which are pleasing in his
sight.'
Doct. That those have a gospel good conscience who keep God's
commandments, and do the things which are pleasing in his sight.
Here I shall inquire —
1. What it is to keep God's commandments, and do the things that
are pleasing in his sight.
2. How this is a gospel conscience; what could the law require
more ?
3. How this doth constitute a good and quiet conscience, free us
from fears of being rejected, and give us hopes of being accepted with
God.
I. What it is. The first expression is to keep the commandments
of God. Here we must open two things —
(1.) Commandments ; (2.) Keep ; the object, and the act.
First, The commandments that must be kept; and they are of several
sorts.
1. Moral and evangelical ; so it is explained in the next verse, ' And
this is his commandment, that we should believe in the name of his
Son Jesus Christ, and love one another, as he gave us commandment.'
Love is our primitive holiness, faith belongeth to our recovery. Not
only the moral law is the rule of our duty, but the gospel also ; faith
is commanded : John vi. 29, ' This is the work of God, that ye believe
on him whom he hath sent.' Sin is not our work at all ; the affairs of
the world are our by work. Particular duties are subordinate to the
great duty of the gospel, not our main work, nor must be gone about.
So repentance is commanded: Acts xvii. 30, ' He hath commanded all
men everywhere to repent.' At your peril will it be if you refuse this
grace. Gospel obedience falleth under a command ; it is not an indif
ferent thing, whether we will accept the remedy, yea or no. Moral
duties are evident by natural light. Remedial and gospel duties de
pend upon a positive institution, though highly reconcilable to natural
light.
2. First-table and second-table duties; as faith in Jesus Christ, and
202 SERMONS UPON 1 JOHN III.
love to one another. We must make conscience of all duties we owe
to God and men : Acts xxiv. 16, ' Herein do I exercise myself, to have
a conscience void of offence towards God and towards men.' There is
a first table and a second ; some are very punctual in dealing with men,
but neglectful of God. But both tables are owned from heaven, Kom.
i. 18. Some will not wrong men of a farthing, but stick not to rob
God of all that fear, love, trust, delight, which is due to him. They
will not defile their bodies with open uncleanness, but commit it in
their hearts ; they condemn the rebellion of Absalom, yet disobey their
heavenly Father. No murderers, but strike at the being of God ; are
tender of men's good name and reputations, but dishonour and take the
name of God in vain. Others are much in worship, but unconscionable
in their dealings with men; will not swear an oath, but are very
uncharitable, censuring their brethren without pity and remorse. This
is the fashion of the world, to be in with one duty and out with
another. The commandments are introduced by this preface, ' God
spake all these words/ Exod. xx. 1. He that hath enjoined the one
hath enjoined the other ; but as the echo rendereth but part of the
speech, so do we in our returns of obedience. God spake all, and we
return but a part.
3. Smaller as well as greater duties: Mat. v. 19, 'Whosoever shall
break the least of these commandments, and teach men so to do, shall
be least in the kingdom of heaven.' God counteth his authority de
spised, and the commandments and obligatory power of his law to be
made void by him that shall either in doctrine or practice count any
transgression of his law so light and venial as not to be stood upon, or
ns if it were a trifle to be so nice and exact as not to make conscience
of petty things, such as vain thoughts, light words, or passionate
.speeches. Deceit of heart is found on both sides. Some are apt to say,
' It is but a little one, and my soul shall live/ as Lot of Zoar. No sin is
little that is committed against the great God ; and it argueth the more
wickedness to break with God upon every trifling occasion. A little
force will make a heavy body move downward, because it is its natural
motion. Others are apt to stand much upon lesser things. John xviii.
28, the Jews would not enter into the judgment-hall lest they should
be defiled, yet at that very time they sought the life of the Lord of
glory. Hypocrites make a great business about small matters, wherein
the flesh and self have some special interest, when the weighty common
duties are little valued, relished, or insisted on ; by-matters, and the
more uncertain points which self hath espoused, are contended for with
all zeal and earnestness : Mat. xxiii. 23. They reject the weighty things
of the law, such as faith and love ; judgment and mercy are omitted,
while they tithe mint, anise, and cummin ; like one that cometh into
a shop to buy a pennyworth, and stealeth a pound's worth, or pays a
small debt, that he may run deeper into the creditor's books, and so
deceive him of a greater sum.
4. Commandments that require public and private duties; to fail in
either consists not with sincerity. In times of trouble many content
themselves if their hearts be right: 2 Cor. vii. 1, 'Cleanse yourselves
from all filthiness both of flesh and spirit/ The libertines in Corinth
did so. It is no matter whether they own God publicly, or, if they
VER. 22.] SERMONS UPON i JOHN in. 203
will, yet, to gratify their neighbours, go to an idol-feast; as if a wife
should prostitute her body, and pretend that she keepeth her heart
loyal to her husband. Others make a fair show to the world, but in
their family converse are loose and careless. David saith, Ps. ci. 2, ' I
will walk in my house with a perfect heart.' If a man be truly holy,
he will show it at home as well as abroad, in his family where his con
stant converse is ; yea, in his closet and secret retirements. A Chris
tian is alike everywhere, because God is alike everywhere. We strain
ourselves to make our best appearance in public, God will be served
with our uttermost in private also.
5. There are commands concerning the government both of the in
ward and outward man. We must make conscience of both, or else
our conscience is not a good conscience : Isa. Iv. 7, ' Let the sinner
forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts.' Not only
make conscience of our way or our outward actions, but also of our
thoughts, and the secret operations of our hearts : James iv. 8, ' Cleanse
your hands, ye sinners, and purify your hearts, ye double-minded.' As
we should riot do evil before men, so not think evil before the holy
God ; for those things fall under a law as well as the overt acts.
6. There are some commandments we have no great temptation to
break, others that lie more cross to our humours and interests ; there
fore not some or many must be kept, but all. A sanctified judgment
must approve all, a sanctified will choose all, as justly good, necessary,
and profitable for us ; and in our endeavours we must obey all : Rom.
vii. 12, ' The law is holy, and the commandment holy, just, and good.'
The law in general, and that commandment which had wrought such
tragical effects in his heart, it is all good, how contrary soever to our
natural or perverse inclinations. If we set up a toleration in our
hearts, we are not sincere : Ps. Ixvi. 18, 'If I regard iniquity in my
heart, God will not hear me ; ' that is, if he did cherish it, and secretly
foster it. There is something wherein you would be excused by God,
and expect favour from him. A man that would keep out the cold in
winter shutteth all his doors and windows, yet the wind will creep in,
though he doth not leave any open hole for it. We must reserve no
sin ; some will remain after the best care and caution. Therefore we
must not obey God in some things, and break with him in others, ' Nor
trust to our own righteousness and commit iniquity,' Ezek. xxxiii. 13.
If the bosom sin be not weakened, your whole righteousness is called
in question : Ps. xviii. 23, ' I was upright before him, and kept myself
from mine iniquity.' There are some sins most incident to us by
temper of body, course of life, or carnal interests. Now we should
mainly cross that sin which is most pleasing, and dry up that unclean
issue that runneth upon us. Thus for the object.
Secondly, The act, ' Keep ; ' that noteth two things — (1.) The in
ward respect which we have to God's laws ; (2.) The outward action
or course of life which results from this.
1. The inward respect which we have to God's laws in our memories,
consciences, and affections : Prov. iii. 1, ' Let thine heart keep my com
mandments.' The heart keepeth them when we keep them in mind so
as to understand them ; in memory, so as not to neglect them, but
have them ready at every turn ; in heart and affection, so as to stand
204 SERMONS UPON 1 JOHN III. [SfiR. XXIX.
in awe of them : Prov. xiii. 13, 'Whosoever feareth the command
ment, shall he rewarded ; ' Ps. cxix. 161, ' My heart standeth in awe
of thy word.' I dare not do anything against it, yea, do delight in it :
Ps. cxix. 14, 'I have rejoiced in the way of thy testimonies more than
in all riches ; ' Ps. xl. 8, ' I delight to do thy will, God ; thy law is
in my heart.' The great new covenant blessing is to write the law in
the heart and mind : Heb. viii. 10, ' I will put my laws into their
mind, and write them upon their hearts/ Not only a simple approba
tion, but a delight, or a ready inclination to do them. Now if we shall
rise up in rebellion against our convictions, and offer violence to incli
nation and conscience, we grossly break God's law, as in all heinous
sins we do : 2 Sam. xii. 9, ' Wherefore hast thou despised the com
mandment of the Lord, to do evil in his sight ? ' An inward contempt
or disrespect of the commandment maketh the sin more heinous.
2. The outward observance of them : Ps. cxix. 5, ' Oh, that my ways
were directed to keep thy statutes ! ' It is the business of our lives to
live according to this direction : John xiv. 21, ' He that hath my com
mandments and keepeth them ; ' where keeping is distinguished from
having. The commands of God were not given us to talk of or think
on, but to do them : Deut. xii. 32, ' Whatsoever I command you, ob
serve to do it.' Do not gaze on it, think it an excellent thing to do so,
but set about the practice.
Secondly, The next notion whereby the good conscience is expressed
is this. ' And do those things which are pleasing in his sight/ This
implieth many things.
1. That it be our design and scope to approve ourselves to God : 2
Cor. v. 9, 'Wherefore we labour, that, whether present or absent, we
may be accepted of him/ This is the end that we propound to our
selves, what is your mind principally set upon ? The end which you
design and endeavour, the pleasing and glorifying of God, and the
everlasting fruition of him, or the pleasing of your fleshly minds in the
fruition of any inferior things? That is your end which you love
most, which pleases you best, and would do most for, and can least
want. The people of God are described to be those that ' choose the
things which please him, and take hold of his covenant,' Isa. Ivi. 4.
They do not live at random without an aim, nor do good by chance, but
by choice. He that is false at first setting out can never hold out
with God.
2. This is not only their choice, butthe tenor and course of their lives.
Enoch, that walked with God, is said to have this testimony, that he
pleased God, Heb. xi. 5, with Gen. v. 24. The Septuagint read it, they
are sincere and uniform in their obedience to him. Every day you
must reckon with yourselves, Have you complied with your great end ?
What have I done, or what have I been doing ? have 1 pleased or dis
pleased God ?
3. It is not in a few things, but in all : Col. i. 10, ' Walk worthy of
the Lord to all pleasing ; ' not in with one duty and out with another, for
that is to please ourselves, not to please God ; or to please men, not to
obey our rule.
4. We must every day be more exact in our walking and care to
please God, and that no offence or breach may arise between him
VEIL 22.] SEUMONS UPON i JOHN nr. 205
and us : 1 Thes. iv. 1, ' As you have received of us how to walk and
to please God, so you would abound therein more and more.' You
never please God so much but you may please him better, and he ex-
pecteth more from you the more you are acquainted with him. One
that is newly put to service is raw at first, but afterwards he groweth
more handy and fit for his work; so you must first outgrow your
weaknesses if you think to please God, and grow more exact in the
spiritual life.
5. If there be anything more pleasing to God than another, your
main care must be about those things ; as, for instance, it is mighty
] (leasing to God that you should seek grace rather than greatness, and
direction in your duty rather than worldly honour : 1 Kings iii. 10,
the speech ' pleased the Lord, that Solomon had asked this thing.'
Surely it is more pleasing to God that we should pray from the spirit
than from the flesh, not seeking great things for ourselves, but that we
may have grace to discharge our duties to God. So that in our duty
we should mind the substantials of religion rather than rituals : Rom.
xiv. 17, 18, ' For the kingdom of God is not meat and drink, but right
eousness and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost ; for he that in these
things serveth Christ is acceptable to God and approved of men.'
That in the substantials of religion we should not leave out the duties
of the second table, as faithfulness in our relations. The scripture
instanceth in the duties of parents and children ; of children's duty to
parents : Col. iii. 20, ' For this is well-pleasing unto God.' Duties of
liberality and mercy to all men : Heb. xiii. 16, ' For to do good and to
communicate forget not, for with such sacrifices God is well pleased.'
Not only careful of justice, but also of mercy. Now it is a shame that,
when Christians hear these things are so pleasing to God, they should
not set about them. Esau took his bow to seek savoury meat for his
lather when he desired it.
II. But how is this a gospel conscience ? What could the law re
quire more ?
Ans. 1. We consider this with respect to fallen man, who entereth
upon this course of new obedience as one delivered and recovered by
Christ, and put into a capacity again to obey and please God : Luke i.
74, 75, ' That being delivered out of the hands of our enemies, we should
serve him without fear, in holiness and righteousness before him all the
days of our life ; ' and Eph. iv. 24, ' The new man is created after God
in righteousness and true holiness.' We suppose him as redeemed by
Christ, and renewed by his Holy Spirit. Take either expression ; the
first, ' because we keep his commandments.' We receive these com
mandments out of the hand of a mediator, whose power and right to
command is not destructive of our former duty, but accumulative ; the
debt of duty ceased not by man's sin, but will remain while there is a
relation between the Creator and the creature ; but this is a power
superadded to the former, and is more comfortable and beneficial to us,
that Christ would set us in joint again, and put us into a capacity of
obeying God. It is a blessed thing to take a law of duty out of the
hand of a mediator ; for he hath not only obliged us by his great love
in dying for us, but provided both for our assistance and acceptance,
whilst by the Spirit of Christ we have Christ to help us, and work all
200 SERMONS UPON 1 JOHN III. [Sutt. XXIX.
our works for us and in us, and give ' Grace to serve God acceptably
with reverence and godly fear,' Heb. xii. 28. And the more we use
this grace, the more it is increased upon us ; but we have also his right
eousness, by virtue of which we are accepted with God : Eph. i. (5,
' Who hath accepted us in the Beloved.' God will help us in our duty,
and will accept of it as we can perform it. For the second expression,
' And do the things that please him.' God is first placandus then pla-
cendus, first appeased towards us and then pleased with us ; appeased
by the satisfaction of Christ, which is imputed to none but those that
are converted and justified by faith : Rom. v. 8, ' They that are in the
flesh cannot please God.' Till we have an interest in the great sin-
offering which was offered for the whole congregation of the elect, God
will not accept of a thank-offering at our hands, nor be pleased with
anything we do in particular duties, while we neglect the general duty of
returning to God by Christ : Heb. xi. 6, ' Without faith it is impossible
to please God.' None can please God, then, but those that are regene
rated by the Spirit, and reconciled to him by Christ.
2. These duties are done in a gospel-like manner, out of love to God,
or a sense of that wonderful grace which is showed us in Christ : 2
Cor. v. 14, 'The love of Christ constraineth us.' They are done as out
of thankfulness and that great love which we owe to God ; the cord
which binds our duty upon us is not terror but love. It is said, 1 John
ii. 5, ' Whoso keepeth his commandments, in him verily is the love of
God perfected;' that is, hath produced its proper effect. Faith is the
means, love is the end* and obedience is the proper fruit and effect of
love. Faith is physic, love is health, and the more perfect it is the
sounder Christians we are. Now the perfection and strength of love
is seen in new obedience ; so that here is a gospel spirit, and a gospel
good conscience, when we study and endeavour to please God.
3. This keeping the commandments and pleasing of God is accepted
where there is a cordial and hearty endeavour to do so, though our
success in every point be not answerable. It is not unsinning obedi
ence only which the new covenant accepteth, but sincere obedience ;
by sin we are disabled from an exact keeping of the commandments,
but by grace we are accepted, if there be an upright heart unfeignedly
bent and heartily endeavouring to please God in all things. Grace
doth not perfectly produce its acts, yet it doth produce them, and that
in such a degree as hypocrites cannot attain to. It is their constant
care to avoid all known sin, and allow themselves in the neglect of no
duty ; now such are pardoned and accepted with God : Ps. xxxii. 1,
2, ' Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered.
Blessed is the man unto whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity, and
in whose spirit there is no guile.' And have all manner of blessings
bestowed upon them : Prov. xi. 20, ' Such as are upright in their way
are his delight ; ' Ps. xviii. 25, ' With an upright man thou wilt show
thyself upright'
III. The reasons why this doth constitute a good and quiet con
science.
1. Because then our hearts will not disprove our confidence grounded
on the new covenant, which accepteth the upright. Certainly the
upright are within the compass of the blessing of the covenant. That
VER 22.] SERMONS UPON i JOHN m. 207
is so obvious a truth, that it needeth not much confirmation. When
God came to covenant with Abraham, Gen. xvii. 1, he saith to him,
' I am God all-sufficient ; walk thou before me and be thou perfect ; '
that is, upright and sincere, as the word also signifieth, and is noted
in the margin. That was the condition required of him. An absolute
perfection human frailty doth not admit, and an impossible condition
maketh the covenant void in the making, and so the transaction would
be to no purpose. So elsewhere all the blessings of the covenant are
entailed upon the upright : Ps. Ixxxiv. 11, 'For the Lord God is a sun
and a shield ; the Lord will give grace and glory, and no good thing will
he withhold from them that walk uprightly.' Once more, eternal hap
piness shall be their portion : Ps. cxl. 13, 'The upright shall dwell in
thy presence.' Besides all the testimonies of God's love granted to the
believer, he shall have everlasting fellowship with God in the world
to come. David asketh the question, Ps. xv. 1, 2, 'Who shall abide in
thy tabernacle ? who shall dwell in thy holy hill ? He that walketh
uprightly, and worketh righteousness, and speaketh the truth in his
heart ; ' that is, if I should take the boldness to interrogate thee, who
art the Lord of heaven and earth, who shall be rewarded with eternal
bliss hereafter ? the answer certainly will be this, He that walketh
uprightly, he, and none but he, that goeth on in a course of uniform
and steady obedience, that doeth all things sincerely and in the sight
of God ; he it is that shall be accepted and admitted, not out of any
worthiness in himself, but from God's love and promise to dwell ever
lastingly with him.
2. This walking uprightly comprehendeth true faith, and cheerful
obedience to God's commandments ; that is to be righteous and up
right: 'To walk in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord
blameless,' Luke i. 6 ; for a care to avoid all known sin, and make
conscience of all known duty, is certainly uprightness. It doth not
imply a total exemption from sin, but an allowance of none ; they
mourn for it, strive against it, and prevail so far that the contrary
principle groweth, and doth mostly and generally command and influ
ence their conversations. Grace getteth the upper hand, not for a fit,
but habitually ; therefore such may with comfort come to God, and
have no reason to question their acceptance with him, for they are
conscious to themselves of their faithfulness to God, and sincere desire
to walk in his ways ; their own hearts do not reproach them, and God
will not refuse them : Ps. cxix. 6, ' Then shall I not be ashamed when
1 have respect unto all thy commandments.' No cause to be afraid
or ashamed to come to him ; there is enough to humble, but not to
discourage them, for their hearts do acquit them of any allowance of
.sin or breach of God's law.
3. It is the true trial and proof of our sincere love to Christ, and
therefore we may have confidence towards God, and this confidence,
c That what we ask we shall receive of him," under the cautions and
restrictions forementionecl. I shall prove this argument by these con
siderations.
[1.] That true faith in Christ breedeth sincere love to God : Gal.
iv. 6, ' Faith worketh by love.' The true office of faith is to persuade
the soul of the astonishing wonders of God's love shown in the redemp-
208 SERMONS UPON 1 JOHN III. [§ER. XXIX.
tion by Christ: 'We have known and believed the love that God hath
to us,' 1 John iv. 16. And why ? Not only that we may gaze on it
with amazement, but ' that we may love him again who loved us first/
ver. 19. That this love may make a clue impression upon us, and
melt us into all love and respect to God, who pitied us in our lost
estate, and provided so full and costly a remedy for us. The gospel
is an art or science to teach us to love God.
[2.] That the true proof of our love to God is our keeping his com
mandments, and doing the things which are pleasing in his sight. For
God's love is a love of bounty, ours a love of duty, a studying to please
God according to his will : 1 John v. 3, ' This is love, to keep his com
mandments, and his commandments are not grievous ;' John xiv. 21,
' He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that
loveth me.' That is the love of Christ. It is a lazy love that only
talketh of the great things he hath done for us, but doeth nothing for
God again, or languisheth in complaints after sensible consolations.
No ; do your duty ; love must be laborious, not idle, and one cannot be
better employed than in doing those things which he hath given us in
charge.
[3.] Obedience, as it is an evidence of our love to Christ, so it is a
means of keeping up the sense and assurance of his love to us : John
xv. 10, ' If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love, as
I kept the Father's commandments, and abode in his love.' It is holy
walking is a means that will not delude us, but give us a large share in
his heart and love. God delighteth to vouchsafe the testimonies of his
love and well-pleasedness with us : John xiv. 15, ' Ye are my friends
if ye do whatsoever I command you.' There is a double-tried friend,
actively, passively. Actively, you show yourselves friends to Christ
when to the uttermost of your power you set yourselves to do what he
hath commanded. Passively, he will show himself a friend to you ;
ye shall be dealt with as friends ; I will reckon you as friends ; all the
world shall see I love you ; I will bountifully reward and gratify
you : John xiv. 21, ' He that hath my commandments, and keepeth
them, he it is that loveth me ; and he that loveth me shall be beloved
of my Father, and I will love him, and manifest myself to him;' ver.
23, ' If a mail 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.'
God delights to manifest himself to such, to own them, to bestow
peculiar marks of favour upon them.
[4.] Among other rewards of love and faithful obedience, this is one,
the audience and acceptance of their prayer. In his providential gov
ernment, internal or external, God doth many ways own them, by his
gracious presence, counselling, directing, quickening them : John viii.
29, * And he that sent me is with me ; the Father hath not left me
.alone, for I do always those things that please him.' By mollifying
the hearts of enemies : Prov. viii. 17, ' When a man's ways please the
Lord, he maketh his enemies to be at peace with him.' By the com
forts of his Spirit, and shedding abroad his love in their hearts that
love Christ : Prov. xvi. 7, ' I love them that love me.' By peace of
conscience ; for the fruit of righteousness is peace. By entertainment
of them in all their approaches to God : Isa. Ixiv. 5, ' Thou meetest
VER. 22.] SERMONS UPON i JOHN in. 200
\
him that rejoiceth and worketh righteousness, those that remember
thee in thy ways.' God showeth abundance of kindness to them in the
course of his providential government, but chiefly in assisting and ac
cepting their prayers ; so that ' whatever we ask we receive,, because
we keep his commandments, and do the things that are pleasing in. his
sight.' All the rest tend to this, and this is often promised in the
word, and the contrary threatened to those who pretend love to God ,
but do not keep his commandments : Ps. xxxvii. 4, ' Delight thyself
also in the Lord, and he shall give thee the desires of thy heart ; ' Prov.
x. 24, ' The desire of the righteous shall be granted.'
Use 1. Is information, to show us the necessity of obedience, if we
would keep a good conscience and be accepted with God. All the
prayers of men that continue in their sins are but like bribes ; the gifts
of enemies are giftless : Prov. xxi. 27, ' The sacrifice of the wicked is
an abomination ; how much more when he bringeth. it with an evil
mind ? ' However he bringeth it, there is some perverse aim in his
worship, that God should prosper him in his sins.
2. That in the Christian religion there is true genuine holiness,
because it is derived from the highest fountain, the Spirit of Christ ;
and it is carried on in conformity to the highest rule and pattern, the
will of God ; and designed to the noblest end, the pleasing, glorifying,
and enjoying of God ; all this must needs breed peace. So is the
gospel good conscience described in the text. First, The highest
fountain ; for we obey as redeemed and renewed : 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 regeneration, and renewing
of the Holy Ghost, which he shed on us abundantly through Jesus
Christ our Saviour.' As changed in our natures, and made like God :
John iii. 6, ' That which is born of the Spirit is spirit ; ' 2 Peter i. 4,
' Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises,
that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature.' Secondly,
The highest rule, the will of God or his commandments. He doth
not only do what he commandeth, but because he commandeth, intuitu
voluntatis : 1 Thes. iv. 3, ' For this is the will of God, even your
sanctin'cation ;' 1 Peter ii. 15, ' For so is the will of God ;' 1 Thes.
v. 18, ' For this is the will of God concerning you.' We have the
best warrant for peace and assurance, the command and will of the
most high God. And, thirdly, the highest end, the pleasing God,
glorifying and enjoying God : I Cor. x. 31, ' Whether you eat or drink,
or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God.'
Use 2. To persuade you to holiness in keeping the commandments
and pleasing of God ; we have many arguments.
1. From the authority of God : Ps. cxix. 4, 'Thou hast commanded
ns to keep thy precepts diligently.' It is a course imposed upon us by
the sovereign Lawgiver, upon whom you depend every moment ; and
he will not be baffled and affronted.
2. The equity of the precepts : Horn. vii. 12, ' The commandments
are holy, just, and good.' They carry a great evidence and suitableness
to the reasonable nature; so that if man were well in his wits, he would
choose obedience to these laws rather than liberty.
3. The possibility of keeping these commandments, and of pleasing
VOL. xxi. o
210 SERMONS UPON 1 JOHN III. [SfiB. XXX.
God, by the grace purchased by Christ: Heb. xiii. 21, 'Make you
perfect in every good work to do his will, working in you that which
is pleasing in his sight.' The rule is the will of God. This will is
observed when we do every good work ; this done is pleasing unto God.
4. Consider the profitableness of obedience, and how much it con-
duceth to our good : Deut. xiii. 10, ' To keep the commandments of
God and his statutes, which I command thee this day for thy good.'
Our labour is not lost or misspent. A godly course is refreshed by
many sweet experiences for the present, and will bring in a full reward
for the future : Ps. cxix. 56, ' This I had because I kept thy precepts.'
SERMON XXX.
And this is his commandment, that toe should believe in the name of
his Son, and love one another, as he gave us commandment. —
1 JOHN iii. 23.
THE apostle instanceth what commandments we should observe if we
would keep a good conscience. Two are mentioned — faith in Christ,
and an unfeigned love to the brethren ; both are introduced by a
preface suitable to the occasion. Therefore I shall first explain the
preface ; secondly, the particular duties mentioned.
First, In the preface take notice —
1. Of the unity, agreement, and fair accord between these duties ;
though two duties are mentioned, yet but one commandment.
2. The excellency of them, ' His commandment.'
1. The unity and agreement between gospel duties. He had said
' commandments ' in the former verse ; and here are two duties speci
fied, yet these are not ' his commandments,' but ' his commandment,'
a change of numbers often used by the sacred writers. The whole
gospel is but one commandment: 1 Tim. i. 5, 'The end of the com
mandment is charity ; ' that is, of the gospel institution.
2. The excellency ; this is the commandment which is signalised by
Christ's authority, and expressly charged on us, and to which other
duties are reduced. It is such an expression as you have, John vi. 29,
' This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent.'
The context there standeth thus ; thousands being fed by a miracle,
many followed him for the loaves, therefore Christ telleth them of
spiritual bread. He came down from heaven, not to supply hungry
stomachs, but to comfort hungry consciences : ' Labour not for the
meat that perisheth, but for the meat that endureth for ever, which
the Son of man shall give you ; for him hath the Father sent.' That
direction occasioned a question, What shall we do that we may labour
or work the works of God ? Christ answereth them, ' This is the work
of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent.' There is a meiosis
in the expression ; you talk of works, this is the work. As if a man
should come to a charitable physician, Sir, I am grievously tormented
VEH. 23.] SERMONS UPON i JOHN in. 211
with such a disease, what shall I give you for the cure ? and his answer
should be, This is that you shall give me,, to be confident of my skill
and fidelity to help you, and use the means which I prescribe for your
recovery : ' This is the work of God.' So here ; this is the command
ment.
Secondly, The particular duties mentioned are faith in Christ and
love to the brethren.
1. Faith in Jesus Christ, that we should believe on the name of his
Son Jesus Christ. The name of Christ is Christ himself, or Christ
considered as revealed in the gospel ; then we believe in the name of
Jesus Christ when we believe all that is revealed in the gospel con
cerning Jesus Christ, i.e., assent with an affiance to the doctrine con
cerning his person, offices, benefits, and the way how we come to attain
them according to the covenant of grace. This is to believe in his
name, to assent to what is said concerning his person and offices, and
to consent to deal with him upon these terms, depending upon him to
obtain these benefits in the appointed way. The same expression is
used, John iii. 18, 'Because he believeth not in the name of the Son of
God.' So Acts x. 43, ' Through his name whosoever believeth on him
shall receive the remission of sins.' So John xx. 31, ' These things are
written, that ye may believe that Jesus is the Son of God, and that,
believing, ye may have life through his name ; ' that is, obtain salvation
according to the way appointed in the scriptures or the new covenant.
2. For love : ' And love one another, as he gave commandment.'
By ' one another,' he meaneth principally that Christians should love
one another. Christians are bound to love all men, even their enemies,
Mat. v. 44. Yet seeing God is to be loved chiefly, and others in subor
dination to him, as Mat. xxii. 38, 39, it followeth that those ought to
have most of our love who love God most, and are most beloved of
him, and are made partakers of the divine nature, and resemble God
most. But not only the duty, but the manner is here enforced : ' As
he hath given us commandment ; ' and that is, that when the case
requireth it, we must lay down our lives for the brethren : John xiii.
34, ' A new commandment give I unto you, that ye love one another.'
There is the substance of the duty, and then it followeth, ' As I have
loved you, that ye also love one another.' There is the manner again :
John xv. 12. 13, ' This is my commandment, that ye love one another,
as I have loved you : greater love hath no man than this, that a man
lay down his life for his friends ; ' meaning thereby, not only to com
mend his own love to us, to heighten our gratitude, but also to commend
his example tons, and to heighten our charity and love to the brethren.
Doct. That faith in Christ and brotherly love are things intimately
conjoined, and must always go together.
1. I shall speak of the nature of these two graces or duties apart.
2. Show how intimately they are and must be conjoined; and there
speak — (1.) Of the inseparable connection between faith and love ; (2.)
The order, how the one groweth out of the other, as the effect out of
the cause ; first faith, then love.
I. I shall speak distinctly of the graces and duties ; and there —
First, Of faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. A subject necessary to bo
treated of, because the scripture is so full in assuring pardon and life
212 SERMONS UPON 1 JOHN III. [SER. XXX.
to believers, and because Christians do so often ask us what that saving
faith is by which they may assure their title and interest ; and because
a mistake in this point is of a dangerous nature. Therefore to open to
you the faith by which the just do live cannot be unpleasing to you.
I shall do it in these considerations or propositions.
1. That faith in Christ and in his word is reckoned distinct from
believing in God: John xiv. 1, 'Ye believe in God, believe also in me.'
We believe in God as an all-sufficient fountain of grace, and in Christ
as an all-sufficient mediator, whom he hath sent to recover the lost
world : John xvii. 3, ' And this is life eternal, that they might know
thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent.' To
know God as the only supreme being to be worshipped, obeyed and
enjoyed, and the Lord Jesus as our Kedeemer, and the Holy Spirit as
our guide, to bring us home to God, and to procure for us the benefits
of pardon and life, which life is to be begun here and perfected in
heaven.
2. That Christ executeth the office of mediator as king, priest, and
prophet ; for he is not only said to be sent, but anointed : Acts x. 38,
' God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power.'
As priests, prophets, and kings were used to be anointed, so was Jesus
Christ anointed, thence called both .Christ and Messiah, which signifieth
anointed : John xx. 31, ' That Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God ; '
and Acts ii. 36, ' God hath made that Jesus whom ye crucified both
Lord and Christ.' Now one of these offices concerneth his mediation
with God, the other his mediation with men. His priesthood implieth
all that good which he procureth for us by his mediation with the Father.
His prophetical and kingly office concerns his mediation with us, to
bring us to be partakers, and interested in these things ; both must be
considered by faith : Heb. iii. 1, ' Consider the apostle and high priest
of our profession, Jesus Christ.' Though his prophetical office be there
only mentioned, yet his regal must not be excluded; for all truths
are not laid down in one place. Both are mentioned, Isa. Iv. 4,
' Behold I have given him for a witness to the people, a leader and
commander to the people,' i.e., prophet and king. Now we must not
so reflect upon his mediation with God as to overlook his mediation
with men ; for a mediator is not of one, but must deal with both parties ;
and therefore Jesus is a saviour, not only as our ransomer and surety,
but also as our teacher and king. Therefore they deceive you, and under
stand not the nature of faith, that make it conversant about one office
only, as those do that confine it to the death and righteousness of Christ,
and pardon of sin, and promise of pardon ; as if faith only served to com
fort them with the assurance of God's love, and were but a claim and
application of privileges: this is to mangle Christ and the gospel, to
reflect upon his mediation with God only, and not with man. Or if
there be any consideration of his mediation with man, they rend his
prophetical office from his kingly, while they look only to the privileges
of the covenant, do not receive Christ Jesus as the Lord, that they
may be ruled by his authority, and live by his laws. Nay, in his
prophetical, they abstract privileges from duties, and promises from,
precepts, and so do not follow the order prescribed in his word and
teaching, but take up a Christ according to their own fancy, and mis-
VER. 23.] SERMONS UPON i JOHN in. 213
take a dream for faith. No ; the Christ represented to us as an object
of faith is a priest who died for us, and representeth his death and
merit by his constant intercession, and, as the great prophet of the
church, hath taught us the way of life, and as a king hath required
obedience at our hands, under the promise of eternal life and the
punishment of eternal death, binding us to do all that he hath
required, that we may obtain the effect of his promises.
3. That the great business of the Mediator in the discharge of these
offices is to recover us to God, which is done both by redemption and
salvation. By redemption : 1 Peter iii. 18, ' For Christ also hath once
suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God.'
Salvation: John xiv. 6, 'Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the
truth, and the life ; no man cometh to the Father but by me.' Now
this is either begun or perfected ; begun by regeneration and reconcilia
tion. By regeneration : Titus iii. 5, ' Not by works of righteousness
which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the
washing of regeneration and the renewing of the Holy Ghost.' By
reconciliation : 2 Cor. v. 19, ' To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling
the world to himself, not imputing their trespasses to them.' And
perfected in heaven, which is our complete salvation, or salvation to the
uttermost: 1 Tim. i. 15, 16, 'This is a true and faithful saying, that
Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners. Howbeit for this
cause I obtained mercy, that in me first Jesus Christ might show forth
all long-suffering, for a pattern to them which should hereafter believe
on him to everlasting life.' Then a full and mutual complacence : we
delight in God, and God in us ; we love him, and God loves us ; we
love him perfectly, and we have the perfect reception of his love to us,
and the benefits flowing thence.
4. That this grace of recovery and restoration is revealed and
declared to us in the word ; for the gospel word is both the means and
the matter of our faith. It is the means : ' For how shall they believe
in him of whom they have not heard ? ' Eom. x. 17. And Christ
prayeth, John xvii. 20, ' Neither pray I for these alone, but for them,
also which shall believe in me through their word.' And it is the
matter and object of our faith ; for in the text it is said, we believe in
the name of the Son of God ; that is, all which is revealed concerning
him in the scriptures, and the way of salvation and recovery offered by
him. Christ is the object of faith, and the covenant of grace is the
object of faith, called therefore, ' The word of faith,' Eom. x. 8. Now
we make a gospel to ourselves if we pitch upon benefits only or pro
mises only ; for the word of faith consists of precepts as well as
promises, and requires duties as well as it offers benefits. Therefore,
as we expect pardon and life from God, we must perform the duties
due from us to God and man.
5. That the acts of faith are three about this word of truth, or
Christ revealed therein — assent, consent, trust or dependence.
[1.] Assent to the truth of the Christian doctrine, that Jesus is such
as the word representeth him to be, the Christ and the Saviour of the
world, who came to recover us to God : John vi. 69, ' We believe
and are sure that thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.'
This is the fundamental principle which supporteth all religion, and
214 SERMONS UPON 1 JOHN III. [SER. XXX.
enliveneth all the lesser truths, that they have the greater influence
upon our hearts. This begets firm adherence to Christ, whatever
temptations we have to the contrary : 1 John v. 5, ' Who is he that
overcometh the world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of
God ? ' Many have a human credulity that find no such effects, but
not a cordial and hearty assent wrought in them by the Holy Ghost.
They take up this opinion upon custom, education, and common induce
ments, but not as a divine testimony brought to us in the word, and
sealed and confirmed to us by the Holy Spirit.
[2.] Consent to God's offer of Christ, that he may be our Lord and
Saviour : John i. 12, ' To as many as received him, to them gave he
power to become the sons of God, even to as many as believe in his
name ; ' Col. ii. 6, ' And as ye have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so
walk in him.' Or to the covenant of grace, called ' A receiving the word,'
Acts ii. 41. Accepting the benefits offered us, as our only happiness,
resolving on the duties required as our constant work.
[3.] Trust or dependence on Christ, or as putting ourselves into his
hands, that we may be recovered and saved from sin and punishment,
and brought home to God in perfect happiness and glory : Eph. i 11,
12, ' In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated
according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel
of his own will : that we should be to the praise of his glory, who first
trusted in Christ ; ' 2 Tim. i. 12, ' For I know whom I believed, and I
am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed
unto him against that day.'
6. The modification of these acts is this, that this assent, joined with
consent, is cordial and hearty : Acts viii. 37, ' If thou believest with
all thine heart ; ' and both accompanied with a fiducial trust. Now
this trust is practical, so as, forsaking all other things, we give up our
selves to the conduct of his word and Spirit.
[1.] It produceth mortification and self-denial. This is included in
the nature of faith ; for faith implieth a carrying off the heart from
things visible and temporal to things spiritual, invisible, and eternal ;
in a recess from the world and worldly things, and an access to God
and heaven : 2 Cor. iv. 18, ' For we look not to the things which are
seen, but to the things which are not seen ; for the things which are
seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal ; ' 1
John v. 4, ' Whosoever is born of God overcometh the world ; and this
is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith.' We must
forsake all other happiness and hopes in confidence of God's promise
through Jesus Christ ; in vow and resolution, as soon as we believe ;
actually, when anything in the world is inconsistent with our duty to
Christ and fidelity to him : Mat. xiii. 45, 46, ' The kingdom of heaven
is like unto a merchantman seeking goodly pearls ; who when he had
found one pearl of great price, he went and sold all that he had, and
bought it ; ' Luke xiv. 33, ' Whosoever he be of you that f orsaketh not
all he hath, he cannot be my disciple.' You cannot continue constant
in the profession of Christ, nor uniformly perform the duties he re-
quireth of you, unless your hearts be weaned from the world. Christ
propoundeth the true happiness, to draw us off from the false happi
ness. Our accepting the one is a kind of quitting the other, or a lessen-
VER. 23.] SERMONS UPON i JOHN in. 215
ing of it at least in our esteem, as a thing unworthy to come in com
petition with Christ or the benefits offered by him, or to obstruct the
duty we owe to him.
[2.] A devoting and giving up ourselves to the conduct of his word
and Spirit. Certainly all those that believe in the Son of God put
themselves into his hands, taking his will for the rule of their lives and
actions, and look to be kept by his power unto salvation : 2 Cor. viii.
5, ' And this they did, not as we hoped, but first gave their, own selves
to the Lord, and unto us by the will of God.' His word is their rule :
Gal. vi. 16, 'As many as walk according to this rule.' His Spirit
their guide : Eom. viii. 14, ' For as many as are led by the Spirit of
God, are the sons of God.' His precepts show their duty, and by the
strength of his Spirit they perform it ; so that faith in the Son of God
is such a trusting ourselves in his hands as begets fidelity to him.
Faith and faithfulness are nearer akin than so, and we must trust
Christ if we mean to be true to him. We have sincerity enough in
the promise, and fidelity enough in the thing promised.
Secondly, Love to the brethren is the next thing to be opened: 'That
ye love one another, as he gave commandment.'
1. There must be an internal affection. He doth not only press us
to do good to one another, but to love one another. A real love there
must be, otherwise the most glorious actions are insignificant as to our
acceptance with God : 1 Cor. xiii. 1-3. A sincere love there must be
to them for God's sake, for the goodness he hath endued them with, and
for the service they may do him, or the relation they have to him as
creatures or children ; not for our own sakes, to barter courtesies with
them. A selfish man can faithfully love none but himself, for he
loveth all others for himself.
2. The persons ; we must ' love one another.' We are to love all
things with respect to God, his natural image in all his creatures, and
his moral and spiritual image in his children. There is a love to every
one without exception to whom there is an opportunity offered of doing
them good. When the wounded man was passed by by the priest and
Levite, the Samaritan performed the office of a neighbour ; and Christ
biddeth us go and do likewise, Luke x. 36, 37. But because love to
our neighbour supposeth love to God, and floweth from it as a stream
from a fountain, therefore chiefly to the children of God : 1 John v. 1,
' Every one that loveth him that begat loveth him also that is begotten
of him. By this we know we love the children of God, when we love
God and keep his commandments ; ' 1 John iv. 21, ' This command
ment we have from him, that he that loveth God, loveth his brother
also.' We ought not to live to ourselves only, but for the benefit of
one another, especially of our fellow-christians.
3. For the manner of exercising this love, it must be in a self-deny
ing way ; it is a Christ-like love, not only as we should love ourselves,
but as Christ hath loved us ; that is, to seek their benefit with our own
loss. In two things Christ showed his self-denial — in washing his
disciples' feet, and dying for sinners. By the first he taught us that,
if we may be serviceable to one another, we should stoop to the
meanest offices, John xiii. 3, 4. Surely this is more binding upon us
who are all mutual servants to one another, as being fellow-members
216 SERMONS UPON 1 JOHN III. [SER. XXX.
of one body, 1 Cor. xii. 25, 26 ; therefore we ought to employ our
selves in all the duties of love to our neighbour, though never so mean
and never so laborious. The apostle speaketh of the labour of love,
Heb. vi. 10. Though it be laborious and irksome to the flesh, yet the
will and love of God must sweeten it. The apostle saith, Gal. v. 13,
14, ' By love serve one another, for all the law is fulfilled in one word,
Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.' Love will make us stoop
to the meanest duties, to the meanest persons. The other example is
in dying for sinners ; so ought we to love the brethren at the dearest
rates: 1 John iii. 16, '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.' To prefer their good before our conveniencies and natural
desires, especially where their spiritual good and the glory of God is
concerned ; but alas ! few know how to prefer God's glory and their
neighbour's good before the fulfilling their own fleshly lusts.
4. The fruits of this love are usually seen in giving and forgiving ;
giving or parting with our estates for their relief: this I largely pleaded,
verse the 17th ; and it is elsewhere pleaded from Christ's example : 2
Cor. viii. 9, ' Ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though
he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that through his poverty
you might be made rich.' And he telleth them that this he said to
prove the sincerity of their love ; if love be hearty, it will discover
itself this way. So in forgiving, Eph. iv. 32, ' Forgiving one another,
as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you.' God hath forgiven greater
miscarriages and disingenuities, Mat. xviii.; therefore we must forgive
with a readiness to do all duties of love and kindness to those that have
done the wrong ; yea, none of us are so free from infirmities but that
we need forgiveness ourselves, not only from God but men.
II. How these are conjoined, faith in Christ, and love to the brethren.
And here, first, Of the connection, secondly, Of the order.
First, The connection. There is another sum and abridgment of
the commandments given by Christ : Mat. xxii. 36, 37, ' Master, which
is the great commandment in the law ? Jesus said unto him, Thou
shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul,
and with all thy mind.' Other things are mentioned by another
apostle : Acts xx. 21, ' Testifying both to the Jews, and also to the
Greeks, repentance towards God, and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ.'
All have their use, for they speak accommodately to their purpose ;
Christ of the sum of the law given by Moses, Paul of the sum of evan
gelical doctrine or covenant, John with respect to the purpose of his
exhortation : he might have reduced the sum of the gospel to one head,
faith in Christ ; yet for more distinct explication's sake includeth love
also ; and this not without good reason, for these things are often
coupled in scripture : Col. i. 4, ' Since we heard of your faith in Jesus
Christ, and the love which you have to all the saints/ So Eph. i. 15,
' After I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus, and love to all the saints ; '
2 Thes. i. 3, ' Your faith groweth exceedingly, and your love towards
each other aboundeth.' But above all, 2 Tim. i. 3, ' Hold fast the
form of sound words which thou hast heard of me, in faith and love,
which is in Christ Jesus.' Now this connection must be always
observed.
VER. 23.] SERMONS UPON i JOHN nr. 217
1. With respect to our own personal safety and the good of the
church. Faith relateth more to our personal benefit : justification,
Rom. v. 1, ' Being justified by faith;' sanctification, Acts xv. 9,
' Purifying their hearts by faith ;' salvation, 1 Peter i. 9, ' Eeceiving
the end of your faith, the salvation of your souls.' Love to the
good of others, that we may have a tender care of the duty, honour,
and prosperity of Christ's church. We are to build up ourselves in
our most holy faith ; and we are also to love and edify the body, which
is by love, and that which every joint supplieth, Eph. iv. 16. Surely
their welfare should be regarded as your own. Love is called by the
apostle, Col. iii. 14, ' The bond of perfection.' Love is the tie and bond
which knitteth all the members of the church together, that their
several gifts and graces may be employed for the public, whereas other
wise they serve for mutual prejudice. Without love we should, as a
besom unbound, fall to pieces ; there would be no peace and safety,
but only malice and reviling, and that too often mingled with our
worship.
2. This connection is necessary, that grace may be found saving
and sincere ; for faith without love is dead, James ii. 17 ; and love
without faith is no saving grace, but a natural inclination, but a little
good nature : so that faith and love are in a manner the rivals 1 of a
Christian, without which he cannot walk ; and if any one be wanting,
the other is dead and withered.
Second, For the order, first faith, then love ; for faith produceth love,
and the cause is before the effect. Faith apprehending the love of God
in Christ, inflameth the heart in love to God again ; and then we keep
his commandments, and love other things for God's sake, Gal. v. 6.
When faith hath kindled in our souls love to God, then we love God
above all, we shall love God in all, and that most which hath most of
God. Surely if you love God as God, it will teach you to love the
brethren ; the example of God's love in Christ will make some im
pression upon you, and you will love all that belongeth to God in the
world.
Use 1. To reprove those that do little regard the planting, growth, or
exercise of faith and love ; you are not truly subject to God if you
decline any of his commandments, much more if you neglect the great
commandments of faith and love.
1. By many faith is little minded, believing in Christ is a mystical
truth. Moral obedience is evident by natural light ; for the law was
written on the hearts of men, Horn. ii. 14, as well as in the book of
God. Things seen by a double medium are greater. We are not
sensible of the evil of unbelief, as we are of immoralities ; but now
the gospel is confirmed by the Spirit, it is a great sin : John xvi. 9,
' Of sin, because they believe not on me ; ' and a dangerous sin : Mark
xvi. 16, ' He that believeth not shall be damned ; ' John iii. 18, 19,
' He that believeth on him is not condemned, but he that believeth
not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name
of the only-begotten Son of God. And this is the condemnation, that
light is come into the world, and men love darkness rather than light,
because their deeds are evil.' A double condemnation ; we are under
condemnation already ; the sentence of the law is not reversed till we
i Qu. ' limbs ' ?— Ea
218 SERMONS WON 1 JOHN III. [Stilt. XXX.
believe in Christ, it is ratified in the gospel court if we refuse the
remedy. Now Christ is come into the world, sufficiently revealed to
be Lord and Saviour by the gospel, confirmed by miracles ; there
fore, this is a business of greater necessity than is usually minded or
thought of.
2. And so love to the brethren is very rare : many are quite
strangers to it, the best are very imperfect in it ; witness the cruelties
and frauds that are practised in the world, and the unmercifulness
that Christians use one to another upon all occasions. Alas ! we that
should be plentiful in doing good to one another, can hardly live quietly
one by another ; we that should pardon injuries, offer them, and instead
of turning the other cheek to the smiter, we smite ourselves, as if we
did bid defiance to all Christ's laws and counsels. We live as if he
commanded .us to be treacherous, envious, hurtful, designing others'
ruin and destruction, and forbidding us to be tender-hearted, com
passionate, ready to help and to do good to one another ; as if love
were too much recommended to us, and were known better by slan
dering, reviling, and backbiting, rather than by tenderness of each
other's welfare and reputation ; as if Christ had said, By this shall all
men know that ye are my disciples, not because you love, but because
ye hate one another.
Use 2. To exhort us to be tender of this double commandment.
1. Believing in the name of the Son of God ; charge it on yourselves
as your work when you are sinning, This is none of my business or
work. The work of God is to believe in him whom he hath sent ;
that we should recover out of sin by Christ, and abandon it more and
more, not live in the practice of it. When you are hunting after the
world, or indulging carnal pleasures, this is not your work. God and
heaven are the great objects faith is conversant about, and Christ is the
means to bring me thither ; nay, other duties are not the commandment,
for without faith all is nothing ; for in vain do men busy themselves about
particular duties when they neglect the main, Heb. xi. 6. This, if sincere,
draweth other things along with it ; faith is the first stone in the spiri
tual building, 2 Peter i. 5, 6 ; faith is at the bottom of all : he that is
to entertain a king will make reckoning of his train. All the privileges
depend on this, pardoned, sanctified, Acts xxvi. 18 ; glorified, John iii.
16 ; communion with Christ, Eph. iii. 17. All blessings, Mat. xv. 28.
God is at liberty to do for us what we desire ; otherwise tied up by
his own methods and instituted order : Mark vi. 5, ' And he could do
no mighty work there because of their unbelief.'
Let it be your constant work, 1 John v. 13. No men believe so
much but they may believe more ; and the more you grow in faith
the more you please God and honour him : Horn. iv. 20, ' Being strong
in faith, giving glory to God.' And have more comfort in ourselves :
Horn. xv. 13, ' The God of hope fill you with all peace and joy in
believing.' The more you believe, the more you know you do believe,
and the more will God own your faith : John i. 50, ' Believest thou ?
thou shalt see greater things than these/ Weakness of faith is pun
ished as well as total unbelief: Num. xx. 12, 'Because ye believed
not to sanctify me in the eyes of the children of Israel, therefore ye
VER. 24.] SERMONS UPON i JOHN in. 219
shall not bring the congregation into the land which I have given
them.'
2. For love. We should grow in love as well as faith ; he that
maketh conscience of the one will make conscience of the other also ;
both are recommended by the same authority ; the one is a necessary
effect of the other. Can a man have a due sense of God's love, and
not love what belonseth to God ?
SERMON XXXI.
And he that keepeth his commandments dwelleth in him, and he in
him : and hereby know ice that he abideth in us, by his Spirit
which he hath given to us. — 1 JOHN iii. 24.
HERE is the further happiness of those that make conscience of an
entire and uniform obedience to God's holy will — (1.) Access to God
in prayer ; (2.) Success, ver. 22 ; (3.) Constant communion with God.
In the words, first, we have an excellent privilege, ' And he that
keepeth his commandments dwelleth in him, and he in him.'
Secondly, The proof, fruit, and evidence of it, ' And hereby knosv
we that he abideth in us, by his Spirit which he hath given to us.'
1. The privilege, ' Dwelleth in him, and he in him.' Dwelling
noteth the continued presence and influence of Christ.
2. The proof hereby : God is where his Spirit is. Mark, he dotli
not prove the former, our dwelling in God, for that is our duty as well
as our privilege, but his dwelling in us, that needeth most to be con
firmed : and in proving that he proveth both ; for Christ dwelleth in
none but those that dwell in him. The first is all we can handle at
present.
Doct. A near, intimate, and constant conjunction with Christ is the
privilege of those who make conscience of keeping the commandments.
First, What is this near, intimate and constant conjunction with
Christ ? It is expressed here by a mutual inhabitation.
1. Dwelling noteth nearness and intimacy ; it is not dwelling by one
another, but dwelling in one another : ' You in me, and I in you,'
John xiv. 20 ; which noteth presence and influence. So John vi. 56,
' He that eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood, dwelleth in me, and
I in him.' As meat is turned into the eater's substance, so they and
Christ become one. Christ is present with and in the believer, that
is, graciously present ; not in substance at all, as man ; for ' the
heaven of heavens must contain him till the days of refreshing come
from the presence of the Lord,' Acts iii. 21. Nor in substance only
as God, for so he is everywhere : Jer. xxiii. 24, ' Do not I fill heaven
and earth? saith the Lord.' But by his gracious operation and
special influence upon them, whereby he conveyeth life, strength, and
glory to them. Life: Gal. ii. 20, ' I live, yet not I, but Christ livetli
in me ; and the life that I live in the flesh I live by the faith of the
220 SERMONS UPON 1 JOHN III. [SER. XXXI.
Son of God ; ' 1 John iv. 4, ' Greater is he that is in you than he that
is in the world.' Glory : Col. i. 27, ' Christ is in you, the hope of
glor\ r .' The first gift \ve have from God is Christ; we partake of
him before we partake of his benefits : 1 John v. 12, ' He that hath
the Son hath life, and he that hath not the Son hath not life.' There
fore we are most strictly united to him as members to the head,
whence they receive strength and motion ; so do we receive gracious
influence as from our head.
2. It is a constant habitual presence ; for dwelling noteth continu
ance and perseverance. Christ cometh not for a visit and away, but it
noteth his abode and constant residence : he doth not sojourn only for
a season, but take up his abode in us : John xiv. 23, ' We will take
up our abode with him.' Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, those blessed
guests will dwell there. The Spirit may come upon the carnal by a
transient motion, move them at times as they have their good moods
and fits ; but he doth not act the faithful per modum actus transients,
but per modum habitus permanentis, by a constant habitual influence
or principle of life. God hath put our life into Christ's hands :
' Because he liveth we shall live also/ John xiv. 19. So that we do
not use him as an instrument for a turn, which is then laid by till we
need it again ; or as a pen to write, or a knife to cut ; but we con
stantly live in him, as the principle and root of our life, as branches
use the root, and members the head, which they live by, and from
which when they are severed they die and wither, 'When Christ,
who is our life, shall appear, we shall appear with him,' Col. iii. 4.
He will convey life to us, begun in grace here and perfected in glory.
This life is maintained on his part by a constant influence, on our
part by a constant dependence : therefore by dwelling in him and he
in us is intended not only intimacy — that is implied in the phrase ' in
him' — but constancy, in the word ' abide or dwell. Being united to
Christ, we still cleave to him, and Christ withdraweth not the Spirit
from us.
3. It is a mutual presence; we dwell in Christ, and he in us.
This must be heeded and regarded for two reasons —
[1.] Because our abiding in him is the way to have him abide in
us, and so the communion is mutual : John xv. 4, ' Abide in me and
I in you.' One clause is the exhortation, the other the promise. No
man hath any dwelling in Christ, but Christ hath first his dwelling in
him ; he first cometh into our hearts, and then giveth us place in his
heart also : we must take the course, use the means, whereby he may
abide in us.
[2.] Because there is no danger the union will break on Christ's
part : if we abide in him, he will not fail to abide in us. His gracious
presence is secured by his love and promise ; all the danger is of
breaking on our part ; and therefore we must be quickened and
exhorted to abide in him : and as by other motives, so by the danger
of apostasy, not only that we may evidence the reality of our union
with him, but that we may keep the bonds entire and unbroken. So
doth our Lord testify, John xv. 6, ' If any man abide not in me, he is
cast forth as a branch, and is withered, and men cast them into the five
and they are burned.' Now should we be wiser than Christ, who
VER. 24.] SERMONS UPON i JOHN in. 221
minded his own disciples of the danger of apostasy, and the dreadful
wrath following upon it, to make them afraid of defection ? For this
is one means which God useth to contain and keep the elect within
the bounds of their duty ; and therefore they must not be smoothed
up with persuasions of their immutable standing, but be warned of
the inseparable connection between apostasy from the known truth
and way of godliness, and the dreadful wrath and displeasure of God
on supposition they do so. Suppositions nihil ponunt in esse. Such
suppositions do not shake the foundation of God, but confirm our con
stant adherence to him.
4. It is an exiinious and excellent privilege ; for here it is not pro
pounded by way of exhortation, but motive ; not enforced as a duty,
but asserted as the reward of a duty, that if we be tender of breaking
God's laws, he abideth in us and we in him : and so it is in other
places : John xiv. 23, ' If any one keep my commandments, my Father
will love him, and we will come to him, and make our abode with
him.' It is our great work to love God, and our great happiness to be
beloved of him ; therefore the greatest expression of his love is to
dwell in us, and fix his residence in our hearts. This Christ pro-
miseth to his disciples, as knowing they will prize it, how contemptibly
soever the world thinketh of it ; and we should also prize and value
this above other favours. Take either part for our dwelling in God,
to have a lodging in the heart of God, and then God in us ; he will
dwell in us in these houses of clay before we come to dwell with him
in his palace of glory. It is surely the greatest happiness that can
befall man in this world, and accordingly it should be valued.
5. This strict union and conjunction is begun by the Spirit, but con
tinued by faith, love, and obedience. It is begun in us by his Spirit ;
for Christ maketh his first entry into believers wholly by the Spirit :
1 Cor. vi. 17, ' He that is joined to the Lord is one spirit.' As in the
matrimonial bond, they who are joined together are one flesh, so in
this mystical union one spirit ; not only to show its spiritual nature,
but its author. It is done by the Spirit uniting us to Christ, and by
Christ to God : 1 Cor. xii. 13, ' We are by one spirit baptized into one
body, and we are made to drink into one spirit.' Our first insition or
implantation into Christ is represented by baptism, as our nutrition
and growth by the Lord's supper ; and there it is said to be done by
the Spirit; as bees first build their cells, and then dwell in them.
But then it is continued by faith, love, and obedience : Eph. iii. 17,
' That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith.' It is by his dwelling
in us by his Spirit that we receive his influence and assistance ; and
then it is manifest to us by love : 1 John iv. 16, ' We have known and
believed the love which God hath to us. God is love, and he that
dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him.' When the heart
is moulded and framed to love God, upon the apprehension of his great
and wonderful love in our redemption, God dwelleth in us and we in
God. And John xv. 9, 10, ' As the Father hath loved me, so I have
loved you ; continue ye in my love : if ye keep my commandments, ye
shall abide in my love, even as I have kept my Father's commandments,
and abide in his love.' If they would maintain the exercise of their
love to Gocl ; and the sense of his love to them, they should obey him.
222 SERMONS UPON 1 JOHN III. [SER. XXXI.
And then, for obedience, it is plainly asserted in the text; and again,
1 John i. 7, ' If ye walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have
fellowship one with another.' Surely the more we fulfil his will, the
more God delighteth in us, and to communicate his grace to us ; our
state of sin was a state of enmity to God, but the state of holiness and
obedience to him is our state of conjunction and agreement with him,
which is perfect when our holiness is perfect.
6. The effect of this strict union, conjunction, and presence is spiri
tual influence, or the assistance of his Spirit, on Christ's part ; on our
part, holiness and fruitful obedience. Hence we have his Spirit to
guide us : Kom. viii. 14, ' As many as are led by the Spirit.' To
quicken us, ' For the Spirit that dwelleth in us is life/ Born. viii. 10.
To strengthen us to perform duties : Eph. iii. 16, ' To be strengthened
with might by his Spirit in the inner man; ' Heb. xiii. 21, ' Working
in us what is pleasing in his sight/ and helping us to fulfil his will.
For bearing of burdens : Phil. iv. 16, ' I can do all things through
Christ that strengtheneth me/ So that they are continually acted,
excited, and strengthened by God. On our part the effect is holiness
and fruitful obedience ; before we made it a means of this conjunction,
now we make it the fruit and effect of it, for it is both. It is enforced
by two arguments : John xv. 4, 5, ' Abide in me and I in you : as the
branch cannot bear fruit of itself except it abide in the vine, no more
can you except ye abide in me. I am the vine, 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.' Where there are two things
asserted — First, That without his dwelling in us, and we in him, we can
be no more fruitful than a branch which is broken off from the vine ;
no communion, no fruitfulness : he cannot do anything acceptable to
God ; not only nihil magnum, no great thing, but nihil prorsum,
nothing at all. As we cannot do the greatest and most difficult things,
so not the least thing, if broken off from Christ. Secondly, That if we
still dwell and abide in him, we shall abound in fruit ; he is able and
willing to supply all our wants, and make us ready for every good
work.
7. Though Christ do familiarly communicate himself to all believers,
so as to dwell in them by his gracious presence, yet not to all alike,
but to some in a larger measure and proportion than to others, as he
worketh more or more effectually on them than he doth on others.
We all receive of his fulness, John i. 16, but all according to our capa
city and degree of receptivity : Eph. iv. 7, ' To every one of us is given
grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ.' All have the
same saving graces for substance : 2 Peter i. 1, ' To them that have
obtained like precious faith with us/ But for the degree, every one
hath his peculiar measures, some are babes, some young men, and some
fathers, 1 John ii. 13. Visible professors have common gifts, and there
is variety ; but all real members have saving gifts in such a measure
as Christ judgeth sufficient and most convenient. In the degrees there
is much of his sovereignty seen, yea, and also of his justice sometimes,
when, being provoked by sin and our unkind dealing, he doth withhold
a great measure of that gracious influence which at other times he
vouchsafeth more plentifully. There is an influence necessary to the
VER. 24.] SERMONS UPON i JOHN nr. 223
•
well-being, and to the being of grace. First, Necessary to the well-
being, flourishing, and vigorous acting of grace in the heart. So the
spouse complaineth that her beloved had withdrawn himself,' and was
gone, after she had been lazy and negligent, Cant. v. 6 ; yet some influ
ence of his grace still remained, for she opened to him, and he was gone.
Secondly, There is an influence which is necessary to the being of grace,
and without which grace would utterly die and perish. David telleth
as that his feet were almost gone, and his steps had well-nigh slipped,
Ps. Ixxiii. 2. But what kept him ? He telleth us that,ver. 23, ' Never
theless I am continually with thee ; thou hast holden me by thy right
hand.' He was upon the brink of a precipice, ready to cast off or
question a main article of faith or point of religion ; but God kept him,
and powerfully sustained and supported him from being overcome with
that temptation. He doth not forsake us when many times we are
ready to forsake him, but by his power doth secretly withhold us and
keep us fast to himself. Nay, necessary vital grace may be greatly
wounded and weakened, and heinous sins may make such fearful havoc
in the soul, and God manifest his displeasure by withdrawing the
Spirit in such a degree, that they cannot tell whether they have any
thing of it or no: Ps. li. 11, 'Cast me not away from thy presence,
neither take thy Holy Spirit from me.' They are not utterly cast off
from God, nor bereft of saving grace, yet they have lost the sensible
communion of the Spirit, both in a way of comfort and grace ; they see
this is their desert, and that God is provoked ; and it is terrible to them
to be excluded from the actual sense of God's favour, and therefore
deprecate this as their saddest loss.
8. The general rule is, that the strictly obedient have a greater degree
of his indwelling presence than others have. In scripture sometimes
God is said to dwell with the contrite : Isa. Ivii. 15, ' I dwell in the
high and holy place, with him also that is of a contrite and humble
spirit.' He dwelleth in the highest heaven, and he dwelleth in the
humblest heart ; they most need him ; and he hath work there to do,
to comfort them in their serious remorse for sin. Sometimes with the
trusting soul : Ps. xci. 1, ' He that dwelleth in the secret place of the
Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.' He that
dwells in God shall dwell in God ; i.e., he that adhereth to God, and
expecteth his safety from God's protection, shall not miss of what he
seeketh : God will be with him, as he is always with God. But these
are but branches of holiness and obedience ; generally the privilege is
restrained to the pure and holy : ' With the pure thou wilt show thy
self pure.' He that keepeth himself pure from sin, God will not leave
any degree of godliness in him unrewarded ; and this is one of his
rewards, to vouchsafe them his gracious presence and influence ; they
have not only his sanctifying, but his comforting presence. His sanc
tifying presence, for as he doth punish sin with sin, so he doth reward
grace with grace, with a further increase of what they seek after. His
comforting presence: John xv. 11, ' These things have I spoken to you,
that my joy may remain in you, and your joy may be full.' What
things were those ? concerning abiding in him, in faith and love,
and fruitfulness in obedience ; he speaketh of his joy and their
joy ; he causeth it, they felt it, or the comfort they had in his bodily
224 SERMONS UPON 1 JOHN III. [SfiR. XXXI.
presence, and which should afterward be excited in them by the Holy
Ghost.
Secondly, Why it is a privilege proper to them that keep his com
mandments, for the clause is exclusive of others.
1. Because this is God's instituted order. Now all God's institutions
carry a condecency to his nature. God is holy, and requireth holiness,
and delights in holiness, and therefore vouchsafeth his intimate presence
with them that are holy, as the reward of their fidelity and obedience
to him : Ps. xi. 7, ' The righteous God loveth righteousness, his counte
nance doth behold the upright.' God's heart is toward the holy and
the righteous, they are most amiable in his sight, and he puts most of
the marks of his favour upon them, and such marks as they most value
and esteem, which is his comfortable and holy presence. The same is
true of Christ, for the name and nature of God is in him : 1 John ii.
6, ' He that saith he abideth in him, ought also to walk even as he
walked.' If we would have Christ dwell in us, we must imitate him
in obedience to God.
2. Communion presupposeth union, and union agreement : Amos
iii. 3, ' How can two walk together except they be agreed ? ' If not
walk together, not dwell together, not dwell one in another. What
concord and agreement between Christ and Belial, between a holy
God and Saviour and the workers of iniquity ? There is none, there
can be none : 2 Cor. vi. 16, it is enforced out of this, ' I will walk in
them, and I will dwelt in them ; ' that excludeth all that is unsuitable.
3. The end and fruit of this union, which is that we may live unto
God, and bring forth fruit unto God ; that is the end of the spiritual
marriage, which is one notion by which this near conjunction is set
forth : Horn. vii. 4, ' That ye should be married to another, even
to him that is raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit
unto God.' It is the end of the spiritual engrafting ; John xv. 1, 2,
' I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman : every branch
in me that beareth not fruit, he taketh away ;-and every branch that
beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit.' This
is another notion used ; the members receive influence from the head
for motion, a free intercourse of blood and spirits, that every part may
do its offices. Now if we would keep the commandments, and live
unto God, and bring forth fruit unto God, this would not be in vain :
Christ hath works to be done by us, as well as comfort to bestow
upon us.
4. One part of this privilege would contradict the other ; it is a
mutual inhabitation spoken of, ' I in him, and he in me.' Now many
would have Christ to dwell in them when they are not in him but
against him. Our being in him imports duty as well as privilege, that
we should be for him, our hearts set upon him and his glory ; he is in
us by his Spirit, and we are in him by faith and love, both which
produce new obedience : Gal. v. 6, ' For in Christ Jesus neither
circumcision availeth any thing, nor uncircumcision, but faith, which
worketh by love.'
5. Wherever Christ is, he will be as Lord and sovereign ; he will rule
where he dwelleth, and dwell alone : Col. ii. 6, ' As ye have received
Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him.' He ruleth in us as Lord, therefore
VER. 24.] SERMONS UPON i JOHN in. 225
lie must be obeyed, his commandments kept. Many times in travel
ling, when we see a great house we ask who dwelleth here, meaning
the master of the family, not the ,servants, the scullions, but the owner
and governor of the house ; so where Christ dwelleth he will be chief.
We intend it in saying, He dwelleth here. When men cool and
decline in their affections to him, when they take in another inmate
and indweller, whose interest shall command the interest of Christ, and
whom they are more ready to serve and obey, this is to discharge
Christ, not to suffer Jesus Christ any longer to dwell in them.
6. This near, intimate, and constant conjunction with Christ doth
necessarily beget a likeness to him : 2 Cor. v. 17, ' If any man be in
Christ, he is a new creature; old things are passed away, behold all things
are become new.' And according to our pattern they are created anew ;
Christ is formed in them, Gal. iv. 19. The stamp of Christ is left
upon them. So John i. 16 ; some expound that ' grace for grace,' for
each grace in Christ there is the like and answerable grace in the
heart of a believer. As in the wax there is word for word, letter for
letter, syllable for syllable, answerable to what was in the seal ; or in
the body of a child there is limb for limb, part for part, answerable
to the parents ; so in us and Christ there is patience for patience,
humility for humility, obedience for obedience. Now this doth neces
sarily infer holiness, or keeping the commandments.
Use 1. Is information.
1. That they do in vain boast of communion with God who do not
keep his commandments. It was a cheat usually among the heathens
to pretend secrecy with their gods, and human nature is the same
still : many usurp this high honour of communion with God, but no
fruit of it appeareth. Now Christ abhorreth all pretences of commu
nion with him, which do not appear in the effects : 1 John ii. 4, ' He
that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar.'
' I know him,' is there put for, I enjoy him, or I am in him ; for in the
next verse it is explained, ' Hereby we know that we are in him.'
And the Holy Ghost pronounceth there that ' he is a liar ! ' A lie is
more than a falsehood, it is a falsehood with intention to deceive. The
gross hypocrite, that liveth in secret wickedness, that contents himself
only with a plausible appearance, intendeth to deceive others, as if he
were in Christ when he is not ; but the more refined hypocrite, that
lives in partial obedience, doth deceive himself. If the communion
with Christ were real, it would discover itself, and the fruit of the
Spirit would be ' all goodness, righteousness, and truth,' Eph. v. 9. It
cannot be otherwise while he abideth in you by his Spirit, and you
abide in him by faith and love.
2. That those who have tasted the good of communion with God
need often to be exhorted and encouraged to continue in it. I observe
this, because many are possessed with this thought, that union with
Christ will do its own business ; and they expect the fruits of it, but
do nothing to keep this union being a real union. Nomine non
cogitante ; they think though man had no thought or apprehension of
it, and contributeth nothing in the way of duty to receive the fruits
of it, yet it will preserve him and keep him : but this is an abuse, for
we are to be in him as well as he in us ; and the care of preserving it,
VOL. XXL p
226 SERMONS UPON 1 JOHN III. [&ER. XXXI.
though it lieth mainly on Christ, and the grace cometh from Christ, yet
it is our duty, and we need often to be quickened to it, for these reasons —
[1.] Because of dulness, laziness, and backwardness to those duties
which maintain this communion. Christ abideth in us by constant
influence and quickening virtue ; but there are duties required on our
part of faith, love, and new obedience. As there is a constant influence
on his part, so there must be a constant adherence on ours. We are
to ' cleave to him with full purpose of heart,' Acts xi. 23. And by
constant endeavour seek to please him, and frequently draw nigh to
him in holy services, as the scripture everywhere showeth ; but we
are idle and apt to neglect our duty.
[2.] Because of our averseness to self-denial, and dependence by
reason of that security and selfishness which is very natural to us,
especially if we have received anything by way of ability and power
to do that which is good. Man is a proud creature, and would fain
be sufficient to himself, live of himself, and do all things by himself ;
though Christ telleth us, ' Without me ye can do nothing.' The sense
of our impotency and emptiness is troublesome and humbling ; there
fore we need often to quicken you to he nothing in yourselves, and all in
Christ, who still giveth and continueth all that we have or can do for
God. This dependence begetteth observance, Phil. ii. 12, 13 ; 1 Cor.
xv. 10, ' Not I, but the grace of God which was with me.' We
being but inferior agents and instruments under him, though voluntary
arid obedient instruments, by our own strength, and without the grace
of Christ, we are not sufficient to begin or finish any Christian duties ;
it is not we that live, but Christ that liveth in us, and breatheth upon
us by fresh and continual inspirations. Peter was confident of the
sincerity of his own resolutions, but he was not sensible of his weak
ness ; now this must often be revived upon us, that we may entirely
depend upon God.
[3.] We are often hotly assaulted with temptations after our hearts
are set for God and heaven. God may permit us to be exercised with
sharp trials, and buffeted very sorely ; therefore we need quicken you
to abide in him. Do not run away from your defence and strength ;
do not think that Christ will cast you off. Now is the time to show
he is in you, Rom. viii. 39.
[4.] We may run into sins which endanger a forfeiture ; therefore
we need often to be put in remembrance of abiding in Christ, that we
may not wrest ourselves out of the arms of mercy.
3. It informeth us how dangerous it is to injure and wrong them
that fear God and keep his commandments ; they are in Christ, and
Christ is in them ; he taketh the injuries as done to himself : Acts ix.
4, ' Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me ? ' You do wrong to the
Lord Jesus when you hate what of Christ is in them : Isa. xxxvii. 28,
' But I know thy abode, and thy going out and coming in, and thy rage
against me,' saith God to Sennacherib. Benefits done to us are taken
as done to him, Mat. xxv. So injuries, Christ taketh them as done to
himself.
Use 2. Is to persuade us to keep his commandments. I shall press
this — (1.) From the excellency of the privilege ; (2.) The necessity of
obedience.
VER. 24.] SERMONS UPON i JOHN in. 227
1. The excellency of the privilege; this deserveth our choicest en
deavours.
[1.] Consider what an obliging act of condescension it is on God's
part to dwell in us. Could we have used these expressions if God
had not used them before us ? ' But will God in very deed dwell with
men on earth ? ' was the wonder of one of the wisest men on earth, 2
Chron. vi. 18. But more to dwell in us and walk in us, 1 Cor. vi. 16 ;
to dwell in the hearts of such poor vile creatures as we are. What
base and unclean guests lodge within us naturally ; but what a blessed
thing is it to have God dwell in us and we in him !
[2.] Consider how much the people of God value his external pre
sence : Exod. xxxiii. 15, ' If thy presence go not with us, carry us not
up hence.' But now Christ is not only with us, but in us, 2 Cor. v. 3.
It is that which bringeth us nearer to God, and fits us to receive more
from him. Temporal blessings, Horn. viii. 32 ; all spiritual blessings,
1 Cor. i. 30 ; eternal, John xvii. 23, 24.
2. The necessity of obedience ; it is not only profitable for more
ample communion, but necessary, the union else is but pretended ; it
cannot be continued, but is interrupted and broken off. Now when
God hath made a difference between you and others, will you seek to
unmake it again ? He cometh to dwell in you to make you holy.
SERMON XXXII.
And we know that he abideth in us, by his Spirit, which he hath
given us. — 1 JOHN iii. 24.
DOCT. That God's dwelling and abiding in us is known by the Spirit
given to us.
It is not said merely that he abideth in us by his Spirit, but ' Hereby
we know that he abideth in us, by his Spirit, which he hath given to us.'
Christ is where his Spirit is. It is a sure sign to us that he hath not
forsaken us, but still continueth united to us.
Let us inquire — (1.) What is meant by the Spirit given to us ; (2.)
Why this is a sure evidence ; (3.) How this Spirit worketh.
I. What is meant by the Spirit given to us. By the Spirit is meant
the person of the Holy Ghost, or some created gift, called the divine
nature, or new creature. The word signifieth both. Sometimes it is
taken for the Holy Ghost himself : Mat. xxviii. 19, ' Baptizing them
in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.' Sometimes for the
gifts and graces of the Spirit : John iii. 6, ' And that which is born of
the Spirit is spirit.' That divine nature which is begotten or born in
us of and by the Spirit is called spirit also, and both given to us : Rom.
v. 5, ' The love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost,
which is given unto us.' The latter is supposed to be spoken of 1
John iv. 13, 'Hereby we know that we dwell in him, and he in us,
228 SERMONS UPON 1 JOHN III. [SER. XXXII.
because he hath given us of his spirit ; ' bestowed a gracious charitable
temper upon us, for that temper which was in Christ is in us also •
for those words follow this clause ; if we love one another, God dwelleth
in us, and his love is perfected in us. Now it mattereth not much
whether we interpret it of the one or the other, for we have both the
fruit and the tree, the fountain and the stream. The one cannot be
without the other, nor the graces without the Spirit, for they are of his
production ; nor can the Spirit be said to dwell in any without respect
to these graces, for the Spirit dwelleth where he worketh ; and his
dwelling in the souls of believers is his working there in such a peculiar
manner as is not common to all men ; a familiar and continued working,
such as produceth life, and likeness to Christ in righteousness and holi
ness, which is the same with gracious habits or the new nature, which
is the more immediate principle of man's actions ;' and the Spirit of
God produceth and worketh all that good which we do by the media
tion of the new frame of heart which he hath raised in us. Yet I chiefly
understand the text of the Spirit of sanctification, by whom being re
generated we live unto God, for these reasons —
1. Because it is brought as a proof of that part of the privilege, his
abiding in us. The privilege is mutual and reciprocal ; we abide in
him and he in us. Now he doth not prove the former, but the latter ;
the soul dwelleth where it delighteth, but God dwelleth where he work
eth by his Spirit, which is the cause of this intimate and immediate
presence, which is here expressed, not by cohabitation, but by inhabit
ation ; and so the meaning is, the constant operations of the Holy Spirit
dwelling and working in you show that Christ hath not forsaken us,
but taken up his abode in our hearts.
2. Because this is the great fruit of God's love, and reward of our
obedience : John xiv. 23, ' If any man love me, and keep my command
ments, my Father will love him, and we will come to him, and make
our abode with him.' ' We/ that is, all the persons of the blessed
Trinity ; not the Father and the Son only, but the Holy Spirit, who
doth constantly and by his habitual effects abide in the hearts of the
faithful, and thereby evidenceth God's love to them : John xiv. 17,
Christ speaking of the Spirit of truth, saith, ' Ye know him, for he
dwelleth with you, and shall be in you.'
3. This Spirit is more discernible by us by his motions and powerful
influence, and the ways which he hath to manifest himself ; and so
more proper to discover and make known the dwelling of God in us
than the bare habits of grace, especially both together than the latter
singly and alone. Indeed, one way by which he doth discover his
sanctifying presence is by that habitual bent of heart towards God
which we call the new nature, and the fruits and works of it. When
we find the frame of our hearts changed for the better, and if we act
accordingly, we may conclude it ; but that which maketh all evident
is his continual presence and powerful influence, by which we are acted
and quickened ; for as the apostle saith, ' By the Spirit of God we know
the things which are freely given us of God,' 1 Cor. ii. 12, both in the
gospel and in our own hearts.
4. The Holy Ghost is said to dwell in believers as his temple :
1 Cor. iii. 16, ' Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the
V r ER. 24.] SERMONS UPON 1 JOHN III. 229
Spirit of God dwelleth in you ? ' 1 Cor. vi. 19, ' Know ye not that your
body is the temple of the Holy Ghost, which is in you ? ' So that the
Spirit himself abideth in believers ; and not only grace from the Spirit,
but he is present in the soul as Christ's agent to convey light, life, and
love to us ; and not as a distant agent, but as the immediate exciter of
all that grace that is in us. There is his power and presence, as in his
temple and proper place of residence ; he first builds up his temple,
and then dwelleth in it.
II. Why this is a sure, rich, full, and pregnant evidence of God's
dwelling in us.
1. Because the coming down of the Holy Ghost upon Christ was the
evidence of God's love to him, and the visible demonstration of his
filiation and sonship to the world : John iii. 34, ' The Father loved the
Son, and gave him the Spirit without measure.' Now Christ prayed,
John xvii. 26, ' That the love wherewith thou hast loved me may be
in them, and I in them.' Before he had said, ver. 23, ' That the world
may know that thou hast loved them, as thou hast loved me.' None
will think in degree, therefore in kind, that God manifests his love to
us the same way which he did to him, and that is by the gift of the
Holy Spirit, or his filiation. John knew Christ to be the Son of God
by the Spirit descending and abiding on him : John i. 32, ' I, John, bare
record, saying, I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove,
and it abode upon him.' Yea, God himself declared this to be a visible
demonstration of his sonship, Mat. iii. 17. So do we know ourselves
to be the children of God, by the Spirit's inhabitation and sanctifying
work upon our souls.
2. The pouring out of the Spirit was the visible evidence given to
the church of the valuableness and acceptation of Christ's satisfaction
for us, to set afoot the gospel covenant. When God was reconciled and
pacified, then he shed forth the Spirit : Acts ii. 33, ' Therefore being
by the right hand of God exalted, and having received of the Father
the promise of the Holy Ghost, he hath shed forth this which ye now
see and hear.' So John vii. 38, 39, ' He that believeth on me, as the
scripture hath said, 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 ; for the Holy Ghost was not yet given, because that Jesus was
not yet glorified.' Now this is true of God's reconciliation to us in
particular : when pacified towards us, he giveth the Spirit ; because
the part followeth the reason of the whole : Rom. v. 11, ' And not only
so, but we also joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom
we have now received the atonement.' There is the atonement made,
and the atonement received; they are both evidenced the same way, by
this fountain of living waters, which is given to all believers : John
iv. 14, ' But whosoever shall drink of the water that I shall give him
shall never thirst; but the water which I shall give him shall be in
him a well of water springing up to everlasting life.' And all the good
God worketh in us, he worketh as a God of peace reconciled to us by
Christ.
3. Because it was the first witness of the truth of the gospel, and
therefore the best pledge we can have of the love of God in our hearts;
for believers are confirmed the same way which the gospel is confirmed ;
230 SERMONS UPON 1 JOHN III. [SEE. XXXII.
that which confirmeth Christianity confirmeth the Christian, the reality
of our interest ; as the extract and original charter have value from the
same attestation or stamp and seal : Acts v. 32, ' And we are witnesses
of these things, and so is the Holy Ghost.' And the wonders wrought
by the Spirit : Heb. ii. 4, ' God also bearing them witness, both with
signs and wonders, and with divers miracles, and gifts of the Holy
Ghost.' This was extraordinary, therefore the Christian needeth not
to have his Christianity confirmed by miracles, but by the sanctifying
Spirit : John xvii. 17, ' Sanctify them through thy truth ; thy word is
truth.' This the believer must have : 1 John v. 10, ' He that believeth
on the Son of God hath the witness in himself ; ' the Spirit comforting
the conscience by the blood of Christ, and sanctifying and cleansing
the heart as with pure water, ver. 8. This is our evidence that we
are true Christians : so the testimony of Christ is confirmed in us.
4. It is proper to the matter in hand, union and communion with
Christ.
[1.] Consider the privilege itself, the nature of this union with
Christ, the object, the author and continual preserver : 2 Cor. xiii. 14,
' The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the
communion of the Holy Ghost.' Communion is imputed to the Holy
Ghost, as love to God, and grace to Christ : 1 Cor. vi. 17, ' He that is
joined to the Lord is one spirit.' As a man and a harlot are one flesh,
so we are one spirit, because it is not a communion of bodies, but spirits.
There is the same spirit in head and members ; therefore the apostle
concludeth, Kom. viii. 9, ' Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ,
he is none of his ; ' is not grafted as a living member into Christ's
mystical body.
[2.] For the bands of this union, faith and love and new obedience,
they are all wrought in us, and stirred up in us by the Spirit.
(1.) Faith, it is the Spirit which giveth faith : Gal. v. 5, ' For we
through the Spirit wait for the hope of righteousness by faith.' It is
he that doth internally enlighten our minds, and incline our hearts to
embrace the . gospel covenant, and Christ revealed in it. All that
faith which we have is the gift of God, Eph. ii. 8 ; and God worketh by
his Spirit, ' who openeth the eyes of our mind, that we may believe
and receive the gospel,' Eph. i. 17, 18.
(2.) For love, it is his production also, for love is of God, 1 John
iv. 7, that is, wrought in us by the efficacy of his Spirit. The great
design of the gospel is to reveal the love of God, and thereby to recover
our love to God, that we may love him again, who hath loved us first,
1 John iv. 19. Now the bare revelation of this love in the word will
not do it, unless it be shed abroad in our hearts by the Spirit given to
us, Eom. v. 5. Therefore, as the Spirit of light, he worketh faith ; as a
Spirit of love, he worketh love in us, and recovereth us from the world
and the flesh to God. Naturally we love our own selves, that is, our
own flesh, above God ; for ' that which is born of flesh is flesh,'
And we love the world above God, 2 Peter i. 4. All this is remedied
by the new nature given to us by the Spirit, that we may love God,
and live to him.
(3.) For new obedience, it is wrought in us by the Spirit also:
' Seeing ye have purified your hearts in obeying the truth through the
VER. 24.] SERMONS UPON i JOHN in. 231
Spirit,' 1 Peter i. 23. He qnickeneth all the acts of the new life :
Ezek. xxxvi. 27, ' I will put my Spirit into you, and cause you to walk
in my statutes.' So that the Holy Ghost being given to us as our
sanctifier, he resideth in our hearts as the immediate agent of Christ,
and the worker of all grace ; as a Spirit of light and love maintaining
and carrying on our communion with God in Christ. If we have
such a spirit, we may know that he abideth in us ; but without his
illuminating, quickening, sanctifying work on the heart, we are not
Christians.
[3.] The Spirit given to us is fit only to satisfy us concerning our
interest in this blessed and glorious privilege, for these reasons —
(1.) Because the privilege is so high, that we should dwell in God
and God in us, that we need some great benefit to assure us of it.
Now the Holy Ghost is a benefit becoming God to give and us to receive.
For God to give us his Spirit, it is more than if he had given us all the
world. A believer valueth it above all other evidences, and in its own
nature it deserveth it, as being the highest demonstration of God's
bounty and liberality to us; if he giveth all the world, he giveth some
thing without himself, but when he giveth the Spirit he giveth himself.
The uncreated Spirit is a person of the Godhead, and the Godhead is
undivided, and saving grace is the permanent effect thereof. Other
mercies run in the channel of common providence, but this could only
be conveyed to us by the mediation of Jesus Christ. The Father sends
him in Christ's name : John xiv. 26, ' And the Comforter, which is the
Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name/ And Christ
sendeth him from the Father : John xv. 26, ' But when the Comforter
is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father.' He proceedeth
from the Father and the Son, and is the fruit of both their loves to us.
Christ hath merited this effectual operation, and conveyed the Spirit to
us as our head : John xvi. 14, 15, ' He shall glorify me, for he shall
receive of mine, and shall show it unto you. All things that the
Father hath are mine ; therefore said I, that he shall take of mine, and
shall show it unto you.' Other things are given in anger, but not the
Spirit ; we may have them and perish for ever ; but when we have this
great benefit, then we know we live in God, and are fitted to live to God,
and shall live with him for ever.
(2.) Because it is a privilege into which we are admitted after a
breach. Persons that have been at variance will not easily believe one
another, and trust one another, unless their reconciliation be sealed by
some remarkable good turn and visible testimony of love. A great
offender was never reconciled to Augustus unless he did put some
mark of favour upon him ; as David to Amasa, in giving him the
generalship of his army. And further, the breach hath been so great
between God and us, that we shall have no peace and joy in believing,
till we have some gift that may be a perfect demonstration that he is
at peace with us. This is the work of the sanctifying Spirit : 1 Thes.
v. 23, ' And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly ; ' Heb. xiii.
20, 21, ' Now the God of peace, that brought again from the dead our
Lord Jesus Christ, the great shepherd of the sheep, through the blood
of the everlasting covenant, make you perfect in every good work to do
his will, working in you that which is well-pleasing in his sight ; ' Rom.
232 SERMONS UPON 1 JOHN III. [SER. XXXII.
xvi. 20, 'And the God of peace shall bruise Satan under your feet
shortly ; ' 2 Cor. v. 18, ' And all things are of God, who hath recon
ciled us to himself by Christ Jesus, and hath given to us the ministry
of reconciliation.' Most men's confidence conieth from their stupid
security and slightness in soul matters. A Christian that is in good
earnest must have a sufficient proof of God's love, that he is recon
ciled, taken into God's family, made ' an heir according to the hope of
eternal life.' Now this is done by the Spirit.
(3.) It is an inward and spiritual privilege, and therefore must have
a spiritual confirmation. Now this is within our own hearts. The
death of Christ was a demonstration of God's love, but that was done
without us, and before we were born. Justification is a blessed privilege,
but that is either God's act in heaven accepting us in Christ, or else the
sentence of his law and new covenant, constituting us just and righteous.
But this is done in our hearts by the Spirit : Gal. iv. 6, ' He hath sent
the Spirit of his Son into our hearts; ' 2 Cor. i. 22, 'Given the earnest of
the Spirit in our hearts.' This witness we have within ourselves.
(4.) Because the Spirit may act transiently, and in a passing way
upon others, and that which is seldom done may be mistaken or sus
pected, therefore the Holy Ghost abideth in us by his constant opera
tions: John xiv. 17, 'Ye shall know him, for he abideth in you.' What
we feel constantly, frequently, we cannot be deceived in it. They feel
his operations comforting, quickening, instructing them, mortifying
their lusts, exciting them to holiness, and so may see how they are
beloved of God, and minded by him upon all occasions. The effects
of the Spirit show it, such as are life, holiness, faith, strength, comfort,
joy, peace, support under our crosses and afflictions, groans after heaven.
This constant experience can be no delusion ; therefore the observing
of this breedeth true and solid comfort.
III. The properties or operations of this Spirit, as he is a proof and
evidence of our communion with God.
1. It is a Spirit of life : Rom. viii. 2, ' The law of the Spirit of life
in Christ Jesus ; ' and Gal. v. 25, ' If we live in the Spirit.' The Spirit
maketh the soul alive that was dead in sin ; therefore when we are dead
to the world, we are really alive to God, as will appear by our actions
and earnest desires after heavenly things. Many have a name to live,
for parts do strangely counterfeit grace ; but if the Spirit becometh a
principle of life within us, then we live indeed. Surely it is a sign of
great weakness, at least, to be alive to other things, and dead-hearted
in all acts of religion.
2. It is a Spirit of love as well as of life. Some make the Holy
Ghost the love that passeth between the Father and the Son. Surely
the operative love of God to us is conveyed by the Spirit. Now accord
ing to his nature so he worketh, inclining us to love God and our
brother, yea, our very enemies : ' For the fruits of the Spirit are love,
joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith.' The apostle
saith, 1 Thes. iv. 9, 'We are taught of God to love one another.' God's
teaching is by impression and inclination. Envious and bitter zeal,
malice, and all uncharitableness and revenge, is not of God, but the
devil ; therefore they that are acted by these things know not what
spirit they are of.
VER. 24.] SERMONS UPON i JOHN in. 233
3. It is a Spirit of sanctification, often so called : 2 Thes. ii. 14,
' God hath chosen you to salvation, through sanctification of the Spirit.'
A pure and holy Spirit given to us to renew our natures, and put us
into the way of salvation : Titus iii. 5, 6, ' He saveth us by the wash
ing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost, which he hatli
shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Lord ; ' to purge out
sin, and suppress the motions of all that pride, worldliness, and sen
suality which is so natural to us : Kom. viii. 13, ' If ye through the
Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live ; ' and to quicken
us to grow more complete in the will of God, that we may both do it
and suffer it, and be prepared and fitted to live with God for ever.
4. It is a Spirit of power, enabling us to vanquish temptations that
arise either from the terrors and delights of sense, by propounding the
blessedness of the other and better world : 2 Tim. i. 7, ' For God hath
not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love, and of a sound
mind.'
5. It is a Spirit of adoption : Kom. viii. 15, 16, ' But ye have received
the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. The Spirit itself
beareth witness with our spirits that we are the children of God ; '
and Gal. iv. 6, ' And because we are sons, he hath sent forth the Spirit
of his Son into our hearts.' It is the surest sign of God's fatherly
love, and the pledge of our adoption, and so inclineth us to God as a
Father in Christ, that we may love him, delight in him, and depend
upon him. It breedeth a childlike affection to God, childlike con
fidence, childlike obedience ; these are the true fruits of the Spirit of
Christ. All God's children have not a childlike confidence, but a
childlike inclination ; they cannot keep away from God ; when they
cannot own him as a Father with delightful confidence, yet they dare
not offend him ; there is an awe of God, though they are not assured
of his love. In short, they love him, though they cannot say he loveth
them.
6. It is a Spirit of supplication : Zech. xii. 10, ' I will pour upon
the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the Spirit
of grace and supplication/ Wherein we manifest our childlike affec
tion to God ; and in that duty he doth most help our infirmities, Rom.
viii. 26, stirring up in us ardent groans and desires, and in giving us
life in our prayers, and a holy boldness whenever we come to God.
There the renewed soul doth directly apply itself to God, and the work
of the sanctifying Spirit is most sensibly acted and discovered.
Use 1. To inform us how to know whether our communion with God
be interrupted, yea or no, or whether God be pleased or displeased witli
us, by observing the motions or withdrawings of his Spirit. We can
not know it by outward things ; for God may ' rebuke those whom ho
loveth, and chasten every son whom he receiveth/ Heb. xii. 6, and may
give outward comforts in anger; these are not evidences of God's love
and hatred, Eccles. ix. 2. God will not mark out men by their out
ward estate, discover the wicked by their afflictions, nor reward the
godly with this world's good things, nor distinguish them by the bless
ings of his common providence, but hath taken another course to show
his anger or his love, his pleasure or displeasure, by giving and with
holding the Spirit. When he is provoked by his people, there is some
234 SEHMONS UPON 1 JOHN III. [&ER. XXXII
abatement, not only of the comforting, but quickening and sanctifying
influences of his Spirit. Therefore David prayeth, Ps. li. 10, ' Take
not thy Holy Spirit from me.' On the contrary, when he is well pleased
with any, they are filled with the Spirit : Acts xi. 24, ' For he was a
good man, and full of the Holy Ghost ; ' Acts ix. 31, ' They walked in
the fear of God, and in the comforts of the Holy Ghost;' Actsxiii.52, 'And
the disciples were filled with joy, and with the Holy Ghost.' Therefore
when there is any stop of this kind of influence, we should inquire what is
the matter, where it sticketh, how came our delightful commerce with
God to be interrupted, what unkindness there hath been on our part ?
Use 2. To put us upon self-reflection, what kind of spirit dwelleth
in our hearts. Some are acted by the wrathful unclean spirit : Eph.
ii. 2, ' According to the prince of the power of the air, that worketh in
the children of disobedience.' Others guided and influenced by the
mere corrupt natural spirit : James iv. 5, ' The spirit that dwelleth in
us lusteth to envy.' But all that are adopted into God's family, all
that are members of Christ's mystical body, they are guided and influ
enced by the Spirit of God : Horn. viii. 14, ' For as many as are led by
the Spirit of God are the sons of God/ If we will follow the impure and
revengeful spirit, he will hurry us to destruction, as he did the herd of
swine into whom he entered, Mat. viii. If we be guided by the wisdom
of the flesh and our own carnal affections, we shall easily be led away
from God and our happiness. It is the Holy Ghost only who bringeth
us into a state of communion with God, and is as necessary to make
all right between us and Christ, as Christ is between us and God. Now
who are those that are guided by the Spirit of God ? Our conversa
tion will declare that principiata respondent suis principiis. The
constant effects declare the prevailing principle ; therefore what effects
and fruits can you produce of the Spirit's dwelling in you ?
1. The Spirit leadeth us to an holy life and perfect obedience to God.
His first work is. to renew the soul to the image of God, and change
us into the likeness of Christ, 2 Cor. iii. 18. That is the impression of
this seal, left on the hearts of those where he cometh, and by which
God's children are distinguished from others. He is given on purpose
to heal our natures, destroy our sins, and to excite us to perfect holiness
in the fear of God. Now where this effect is accomplished, they may
certainly say, God hath given his Spirit, namely, where God doth sanc
tify the souls of his people, mortify their lusts, and master their strongest
corruptions, and raise them to those inclinations and affections which
mere nature is a stranger unto. Surely a divine power hath been
working there ; when they are more like God, and fit for the service of
God, they are sealed by the Holy Spirit of promise, Eph. i. 13. His
first renewing and sanctifying work, and his carrying on that work,
whereby the image of God is more imprinted on us, will be our surest
evidence, especially when holiness of life floweth from it ; for graces
acted and exercised do more discover themselves ; and such a super
natural effect as the sanctifying our natures, and the ruling and govern
ing of our lives. Could the love and fear of God be produced by any
other cause than the Spirit of God ?
2. The Spirit is a perfect opposite to the flesh ; and they that are
under the power and conduct of the Spirit do resist and conquer the
VER. 24.] SERMONS UPON i JOHN in. 235
desires of the flesh ; for it is not a fruitless resistance: Gal. v. 16, 17,
' This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lusts
of the flesh : for the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit
against the flesh ; and these are contrary the one to the other ; ' Rom.
viii. 5, ' They that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh,
but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit ; ' Gal. vi. 8,
' For he that soweth to the flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption ; but
he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting.'
They spend their time and strength, life and love, care and thoughts
in seeking after spiritual things ; their business is not to gratify the
flesh, but enrich the soul, to excel in knowledge, love to God, faith in
Christ, and hopes of the other world, though with the loss of carnal
pleasures ; and so they comply with the precepts of Christ, which every
where call upon us to curb the flesh, to dispossess us of the beast that
is gotten into our natures, and to raise us in some measure into the
degree and rank of an angel ; to draw us off from the natural and animal
life to life spiritual and eternal, or, which is all one, to drive out the
spirit of the world, and to introduce a divine and heavenly spirit.
The brutish part of the world is enslaved to lower things, but they
that are recovered out of this defection by the power of the Spirit grow
wise and heavenly. The great disease of mankind was, that our immortal
souls are depressed and tainted by the objects of sense, and did wholly
crook and writhe itself to earthly things ; and instead of likeness to
God, the image of a beast was impressed on man's nature, and the
better part, his soul, was enslaved and embondaged to the worser part,
his flesh. Now the Spirit of God cometh by degrees to restore human
nature to its primitive perfection, that the spirit might command his
flesh, and man might seek his happiness in some higher and more tran
scending good than the beasts are capable of, something that suits with
his immortal spirit, and to elevate us from a state of subjection to the
flesh into a liberty for divine and heavenly things.
3. The Spirit inclineth us to all duties to our neighbours ; for it is
said, Eph. v. 9, ' The fruits of the Spirit in us are in all goodness and
righteousness and truth.' Meaning thereby, he maketh men sincere,
good, just in their carriage to men ; by ' goodness/ taking all occasions of
being useful to others as to their spiritual and bodily estate ; by 'right
eousness,' just dealings in all our transactions with others ; and by
' truth,' a sincere carriage, free from lying hypocrisy and dissimulation.
So Gal. v. 22, 23, ' But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-
suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance : against
such there is no law.' Duties to our neighbour are implied in all these
graces. By 'love,' understand love to our neighbour ; by 'joy,' sweetness of
converse, or delighting in their good ; by ' peace,' that which concerneth
all men as much as possible can be ; by ' long-suffering,' patience, bear
ing and forgiving of injuries ; by ' gentleness,' easiness to be entreated ;
by ' goodness,' a communicativeness to all, especially the household of
faith; by 'faith,' fidelity, truth in our commerce; by 'meekness,' restraint
of our anger ; by ' temperance,' a holy moderation in the use of earthly
things and the delights thereof. Well, then, when these things are
practised by us, the Spirit is given to us.
4. The Spirit leadeth us to a heavenly life, as the flesh did to things
236 SERMONS UPON 1 JOHN III. [SliR. XXXII.
grateful to present sense ; he discovereth those things to us : Eph. i.
17, 18, ' That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory,
may give unto you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation in the know
ledge of him ; the eyes of your understanding being enlightened, that
ye may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of
the glory of his inheritance in the saints.' The reality of future glory
and blessedness, he prepareth and fitteth us for it : 2 Cor. v. 5, ' Now
he that hath wrought us to this self-same thing is God, who hath given
us the earnest of the Spirit ; ' Horn. ix. 27, ' Prepared unto glory.'
The heavenly mind, the purified heart ; he assureth us of it : 2 Cor.
i. 22, ' Who hath sealed us, and given us the earnest of the Spirit.'
Comforteth us with it, and raiseth our longing after it : Rom. viii. 23,
' And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the first-fruits of
the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the
adoption, to wit, the redemption of our bodies.' Quickening us to dili
gence and seriousness in the pursuit of it : Phil. iii. 20, ' But our con
versation is in heaven, from whence we look for a Saviour.' Much of
the Spirit's operation is about fitting us for heaven.
SERMONS UPON ACTS II. 37, 38.
SEKMON I.
Now when they heard this, they were pricked in their hearts, and said
unto Peter and the rest of the apostles, Men and brethren, ivhat
shall we do ? — ACTS ii. 37.
THIS scripture telleth us what was the fruit and effect of the first
sermon that was preached after the pouring out of the Spirit. Peter
preached that sermon, and brought in thousands of souls to Christ :
Acts ii. 41, ' Then they that gladly received the word were baptized ;
and the same day there were added unto them about three thousand
souls.' Never did Peter show himself such a fisher of men as now.
Three thousand souls were gained at that one draught, or one casting
of the net of the gospel ; and those not very pliable ductile men neither,
and easy to be caught, but sturdy sinners, such as had imbrued their
hands in the blood of their Saviour, and were now in a mocking, scoff
ing humour. But thus it is to venture in the confidence of the power
of Christ's Spirit. It was a mighty thing that an angel should slay a
hundred and eighty-five thousand in one night in Sennacherib's host;
but it is easier to kill so many men than to convert and save one soul.
One angel, by his mere natural strength, could kill so many armed
men, but all the angels in heaven, if they should join all their forces
together, could not convert one soul to God. Here was more done.
Well, then, this being the first instance of the power of the word ac
companied with the Spirit, we ought to regard it the more. When we
hear of some physic that hath notably wrought on others, and cured
them of their diseases, every sick man would try that physic, or inquire
after it. Here we see how the word worketh for the cure of sick souls ;
therefore let us consider a little the way of its operation. There is
some account of that in the text, how it began to work, ' Now when
they heard this, they were pricked at their hearts/ &c.
In which words observe three things —
1. The means and instrumental cause by which their trouble and
perplexity was wrought, ' When they heard this.'
2. The commotion or affection wrought in them, compuncti sunt
corde, ' They were pricked at the heart.'
3. The course they took for ease and relief, or the carriage of these
converts after this piercing and brokenness of heart, ' And they said
238 SERMONS UPON ACTS II. 37, 38. [&ER. I.
unto Peter and the rest of the apostles, Men and brethren, what shall
we do ? '
First, The means, ' When they heard this.' There are these things
that offer themselves to our consideration — (1.) It was the word of
God produced this effect ; (2.) The word judiciously and powerfully
managed ; (3.) Closely applied ; (4.) In this close application they
were charged with a grievous sin ; (5.) This grievous sin was wrong
done to Christ. All these things conduced to the piercing of their
hearts.
First, It was the word of God, which is of great power and force.
Its piercing property discovereth its author : Heb. iv. 12, 13, ' For
the word of God is quick and powerful, and sharper than any two-
edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit,
and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and
intents of the heart : neither is there any creature that is not manifest
in his sight, but all things are naked and open to the eyes of him with
whom we have to do.' He speaketh not of the hypostatical and sub
stantial word ; for he had before spoken of the word heard, and to be
mingled with faith in the hearing. ^0709, for Christ, is peculiar to
John ; only it is observable that the same things may be applied to
Christ, the great prophet of the church, and the word by which he
governeth the church, as if he resolved to discover all his power and
.glory by this instrument. Now of this word it is said that it is £<w
KOI evepyrjs, 'quick and powerful.' It is not a dead letter, neither to them
that believe, nor the wicked ; it quickeneth the one, and maketh the
conscience of the other feel its force. Either it openeth the heart, or
hardeneth it. And again, 'That it is sharper than any two-edged
sword.' No weapon like this to wound the souls of men, ' piercing
even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and
marrow.' It can search every bone, muscle, and vein ; ' and all things
are naked and open,' cut down by the chine-bone before God. So doth
the word rip up the conscience of the sinner, and make him throw
aside all his disguises and pretences ; so that he hath no reasons to
allege, no excuses to make, no arguments to plead, but wholly lieth
under the convictions of it : Isa. Iv. 10, 11, 'As the rain cometh down
from heaven and watereth the earth, and returneth not again, so shall
my word be.' The word is not preached in vain ; it worketh whereto
it is sent, to convert or harden. When we have rain and snow in their
season, we expect a fruitful year; so God's word shall have its effect.
It is very notable here in the text that the virtue of the Holy Ghost
did not show itself in the gift of tongues, as it did in and by the word.
When they spake with divers tongues, as the Spirit gave utterance,
though it were a wonderful effect, yet the Jews were still hardened,
and thought that this unusual jabbering was nothing, but that it came
from the fumes of wine ; that the apostles had taken a cup too much,
rather than the effect of the operation of the Holy Ghost, But ' when
they heard this/ when the word came, and was urged, and applied to
their consciences, then they were pricked at the heart, and relented.
Uses. Now this is —
1. An argument to confirm us in the divine authority of the word,
because it worketh such terrors and agonies in men's hearts. What
VER. 37.] SERMONS UPON ACTS n. 37, 38. 239
but the word of God can cite men's consciences before his tribunal, who
alone giveth laws to the conscience, and appalleth the stoutest sinners ?
Paul, a prisoner at the bar, maketh the judge tremble. It is true,
natural conscience can accuse and terrify, but it is for sins evident by
natural light : Eom. ii. 15, ' Which show the work of the law written
upon their hearts, their consciences also bearing witness, and their
thoughts the meanwhile accusing or excusing one another ; ' Heb. ii.
15, ' Who through fear of death are all their lifetime subject to bon
dage.' But not for gospel sins, and not believing in Christ ; that is
the property of the word, accompanied by the Spirit : John xvi. 9,
' He shall convince the world of sin, because they believe not in me.'
And to convince them in such a heart-breaking manner as that
nothing will satisfy them but the favour of God in Christ, that is
divine. They that have not felt this power of the word fear it : John
iii. 20, ' For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh
to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved.' They see the majesty
of God in his word ransacking the conscience.
2. It encourageth us to preach the word with power and authority,
as knowing whose ministers we are, and whose word it is. Yea, though
we have a refractory people, who are ready to deride and mock at what
we say to them in the name of the Lord, yet we ought not to be daunted,
but set our faces as an adamant stone. The prophet Jeremiah was dis
couraged, and ready to give over, when he heard ' the defaming of
many, and the word of the Lord was made a reproach to him,' Jer. xx.
8-11, ' But the Lord is with me, as a mighty and terrible one.' That
fetched up his spirits, and got up his courage again. We distrust the
power of our Master, and his mighty Spirit, that hath ever gone along
with his word, and made it able to break the stoutest and stiffest hearts.
Two things may encourage us —
[1.] The blood of Christ, which is of virtue sufficient to work off
men from their inveterate customs : 1 Peter i. 18, ' For ye were not
redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain
conversations received by tradition from your fathers.' There is merit
enough on his part to make the word effectual, and the power of his
Spirit, which can bear down all prejudices. As here, where it was first
poured out, when some of the persecutors of Christ were in a scoffing,
mocking frame, they were indicted and arraigned by Peter, and con
demned in their own consciences, yea, were changed and converted by
it. And such a power doth still accompany the word : 1 Cor. xiv. 24,
25, ' But if they all prophesy, and there come in one that believeth not,
or one unlearned, he is convinced of all, and judged of all; and thus
are the secrets of his heart made manifest ; and so falling down on his
face, he will worship God, and report that God is in you of a truth.'
An infidel coming in by chance, God taketh him by the heart ; there
fore why should we be dismayed and discouraged in the Lord's work ?
2 Cor. x. 4, ' For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but
mighty through God, to the pulling down of strongholds/
[2.] Encouragement to those that are sensible of hardness to wait on
the word of God. It is a powerful instrument in the hand of God when
used as his ordinance, and his blessing is waited for, to melt and soften
us, and make us pliable to every holy purpose. God appealeth to our
240 SERMONS UPON ACTS II. 37, 38. [SfiR. I.
experience : Jer. xxiii. 29, ' Is not my word like fire, saiih the Lord,
and like a hammer that breaketh the rock in pieces ? ' A fire to melt,
and a hammer to break ! Ob, what can stand before the power of it ?
Use it in good conscience, as one of the means of grace, and you shall
find it will awaken you ; nay, wound and heal you, and prove the power
of God to your salvation. Some consideration or other will be given
out to set your hearts a-work in heavenly things with greater life and
power. All the miracles which God showed, either before or at the
death of Christ, did not work so as this one sermon of Peter's. Cer
tainly either the word will do it, or nothing will do it.
Secondly, It was the word of God, soundly taught, and handled with
wisdom, and in a convincing way ; for Peter taketh the scriptures, and
solidly proveth to them that Jesus, whom they crucified, was the
Christ. That is his conclusion in the 36th verse, ' Therefore let all
the house of Israel know assuredly that God hath made that same
Jesus, whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ/ He maketh it
evident in a powerful way of conviction : ' Now when they heard this
they were pricked in their heart.' Note, a powerful searching ministry,
that bringeth men to a sight and sense of their sins, is best to fit men
for conversion to God. There is a playing with scripture in oratorian
flourishes, and a sound inculcation of it. When men strive to make
those that hear them the better for what they say, that is the ministry
that will prick the heart ; the others scarce tear the skin. It was said
of Pericles, that his speech was piercing, in animis auditorum aculeos
reliquit: he left a sting in the minds of his hearers, not by the charms
of rhetoric, but by a serious, pungent discourse. That is the best
preaching which woundeth the heart ; it is most for the glory of God,
and for the good of souls. Speaking pleasing things to tickle the ear
better becometh the stage than the pulpit. It is said, Eccles. xii. 11,
' That the words of the wise are as goads and nails, fastened by the
master of the assemblies ; ' words that have a notable acumen in them ;
some spiritual sharpness to affect the heart and quicken our dull
affections. He meaneth sound and spiritual doctrine, such as doth not
flatter men in their sins, but awaken and rouse them up. Si prcedica-
toris non pungit sermo, sed oblectat, sapiens non est — He is not a wise
preacher who doth not mind his end, whose speech is fuller of flashes
of wit than of savoury wholesome truths, that rather thinketh to please
the ear than to awaken the conscience. He dotli not act like a master
of the assemblies. Illius doctoris vocem libenter audio, non qui sibi
plausum, sed qui mihi plan ctum movet, saith Bernard. They are the
best preachers, and most affectionate to you, that wound your souls ;
though they rub an old sore till it ache, it is the better. The work
of a minister is not to gain applause to himself, but souls to God. That
maketh you go away, and say, not, How well hath he preached ! but,
How ill have I lived ! — that ends with self-loathing rather than com
mendation of his parts. He must not lenocinia qucerere, sed remedia,
saith Salvian : seek out, not jingling words, but choice remedies for
your souls.
Use. All this is spoken that you may not grow weary of a sound and
searching ministry. Many think they trouble the world, and drive
men to despair. Indeed God's witnesses do torment the dwellers upon
VER. 37.] SERMONS UPON ACTS n. 37, 38. 241
earth, Eev. xi. 10 ; they trouble their carnal rest, and will not let men
sleep in their sins ; but is it not better you should be troubled in your
sleep of sin than awake in flames ? Is it not a good despair that driveth
you to God, and maketh way for a hope that will never leave you
ashamed ? And if we go to heaven by the gates of hell, can you be
angry for leading you aright ? I speak the rather, because the world
cannot endure masculine, sound preaching. Ahab hated Micaiah : 1
Kings xxii. 8, ' He doth not prophesy good of me, but evil.' Men are
displeased with them that deal faithfully with their souls : Isa. xxx.
10, ' They say unto the seers, See not ; and the prophets, Prophesy not
unto us right things ; speak unto us smooth things, prophesy deceits.'
They would have the prophets sleek their tongues, and come with loose,
garish strains ; a sound practical sermon is loathed. They are cut at
heart when they hear it, Acts vii. 54 ; they were unwilling to be
searched at the bottom. It is one of the great sins of the age. Men
preach in jest, and the people love to have it so ; and speak of heaven
and hell as things made to play withal, rather than propound them to
their serious belief.
Thirdly, It was closely applied. The apostle doth not hover in
generals, shoot at rovers ; he holdeth the point of the sword at their
breasts, and dischargeth in their faces : ' This Jesus, whom ye have
crucified, is both Lord and Christ. When they heard this, they were
pricked in their hearts.' Applicative and close preaching is the best
way to wound the heart, or to bring men to a sight and sense of their
miserable condition. ' Thou art the man,' saith Nathan to David, 2
Sam. xii. 6, 7 ; Acts vii. 51, 52, ' Ye stiff-necked and uncircumcised
in heart and ear, ye do always resist the Holy Ghost ; as your fathers
did, so do ye. Which of the prophets have not your fathers persecuted ?
and they have slain them which showed before the coming of the just
One, of whom ye have been now the betrayers and murderers.' A clap
of thunder at a distance doth not startle me so much as when it is in
my zenith : 'The man is. convinced of all, and judged of all, when the
secrets of his own heart are discovered,' 1 Cor. xiv. 25. We make
little account of those things we have not a real interest in ; therefore
this is a warrant to fly in the face of sinners, and charge them home,
You are the men. Souls that are rocked asleep in a sinful course will
else throw off all. An indictment without a name signifieth nothing.
It prevents that captious cavil, The minister meant me, will they say,
when their corruptions are met with ; not by an humble application of
the word to their consciences, but by way of cavil and calumny, judg
ing it some sinister intention or reproachful reflection upon them : Jer.
vi. 10, ' The word of the Lord is to them a reproach, they have no
delight in it.' They make reproof railing. If thy heart misgive thee
that thou art guilty, he did mean thee, and should mean thee. The
minister did no more than he ought, no more than he ought in point
of conscience ; and it is just that every man should bear his own
blame. But that he intended to shame thee before men, that is the
false surmise of a galled conscience, when it beginneth to be stricken
in its comforts. Apply it so as to humble thee, not to hate thy
reprover.
Fourthly, It was a close application of a grievous sin. That was it
VOL. XXI. Q
2i2 SERMONS UPON ACTS II. 37, 38. [&ER. I.
touched them so nearly, that they had crucified the Messiah, whom
they had so long expected, and whom by their profession they were
bound to receive : ' Now when they heard this.' Usually in awakening
a sinner there is some remarkable and special sin that God sets home
upon the conscience; as here, that they had crucified him who was
appointed to be Christ and Lord. Christ convinceth the woman of
Samaria of adultery : John iv. 18, ' He whom thou now hast is not
thy husband.' Nothing that Christ had said before could work upon
her conscience till he took this course with her. There is some special
sin we are guilty of, which, when it is touched in the word, maketh
guilt fly in the face of a sinner most insensible ; as a blunt iron, that
toucheth many points at once, maketh a bruise, but a needle, that
toucheth but one point, entereth to the quick. Loose discourses about
sin in general do not affect the heart so much as the sound discovery
of sin ; and when that one sin is discovered, it bringeth others into the
view of conscience. As a man that is asleep is not awakened but by
some great sound, but when once he is awake, he easily heareth lesser
sounds ; so there is some gross or secret sin God sets home upon the
conscience, some special sin that bringeth all the rest to remembrance ;
usually the most shameful sin that ever we committed. Now it is our
duty to lay these convictions to heart, and to consider our estate before
God, when we find the word falling with light and power on any one
sin of ours.
Fifthly, This grievous sin was wrong done to Christ Jesus, ' Whom
ye have crucified/ Now they find the nails pricking in their hearts
as so many sharp daggers ; and having formerly pierced Christ, are
now pierced themselves: 'Now when they heard this, they were
pricked in their hearts.' Note from hence, that sin will then affect
the heart most when the wrong done to Christ thereby is seriously
thought of. It was prophesied of these Jews, Zech. xii. 10, 'They
shall look upon him whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn
for him, as one mourneth for his only son, and shall be in bitterness
for him, as one that is in bitterness for his first-born ; ' John viii. 28,
' When ye have lift up the Son of man, then shall ye know that I
am he.' Christ had foretold this conviction ; after it was done they
should be convinced of it, and their consciences let loose upon them,
that they might see what a woful sin they had committed. And did
the Jews only wrong Christ ? All of us have wronged him in his laws
and servants ; and it is not only Jews, but Christians may look upon
him whom they have pierced. Some are said, Heb. vi. 6, ' To crucify
to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put him to open shame/
The blood of Christ may not only be upon them that shed it, but on
those that slight it. We do him the greatest contumely ; the Jews
knew him not. Christ prayeth, ' Father, forgive them, for they know
not what they do/ We know him, or else do ill in professing his
name, and rejecting his benefits.
Secondly, I come to the trouble and anxiety of heart caused by the
word, Kctrevvyiiaav rfj tcapSia, 'They were pricked in their hearts/
Mark, it was not a slight stroke, the razing of the skin, but a com
punction or pricking, a deep remorse and trouble. This was not of
the eye, as Esau sought the blessing with tears when he had lost it,
VER. 37.] SERMONS UPON ACTS ir. 37, 38. 243
Heb. xii. 17, but in the heart. Not a lighter touch or sudden pang,
but a deep wound. The words are passive, not pricked themselves,
but ' were pricked.' Could they have told how to prevent it, it had
never been ; but God breaketh in upon their consciences by his word,
and then they are sore troubled. We read of some that, when they
were charged with the same crime, they were ' cut at heart ; ' Acts
vii. 54, ' Ye have been betrayers and murderers of the just One. And
when they heard these things, they were cut to the heart, and gnashed
on him with their teeth.' This is the more kindly work of the two.
The word, when it is used as a means of conversion, then men are
pricked at heart ; but when they misuse it, as a means of embittering
their spirits, then they are cut at heart. This perplexity and trouble
we may consider as the fruit and issue of sin, or as the beginning of
grace.
1. If you consider it as a fruit of sin, that sin will be bitterness and
terror to the soul in the issue, however it seem to content us, and
please the flesh for a while. It carrieth a sting with it in the tail,
that will show itself one time or other : 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, and that my fear is not in thee, saith
the Lord God of hosts.' Thou shalt know it by the gripes of thine
own heart. Though conscience be seared and senseless for a time, yet
after a little while it will awake. For the present men do with
difficulty smother checks of conscience, and repel the reproofs of the
word, but after a while your trouble will come upon you like an armed
man, which you cannot resist : ' The pleasures of sin are but for a
season,' Heb. xi. 25. But all this while you are but providing for
your own sorrow : Job xx. 12-14, ' Though wickedness be sweet in
the mouth, though he hide it under his tongue, though he spare it,
and forsake it not, but keep it still within his mouth, yet his meat in
his bowels is turned, it is the gall of asps within him.'
Use 1. Oh, take we heed then how we play with sin, or the occa
sions that lead thereunto. The contentment is soon over, like a
draught of sweet poison, and then men feel the gall of asps within
themselves, either in terrors of conscience in this life : Prov. xviii. 14,
' A wounded conscience who can bear ? ' or in the torments of hell
hereafter : Luke xvi. 24, ' Send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of
his finger in water, and cool my tongue ; for I am tormented in this
flame : ' Horn. ii. 9, ' Tribulation and anguish upon every soul of man
that doeth evil.' Nay, though a kindly remorse should intervene :
Mat. xxvi. 75, ' Peter went out and wept bitterly.' It will cost you
heart-grief and sorrow. Therefore be not deceived ; do not sow to the
flesh ; forbidden fruit will cost dear. You think it pleasant to satisfy
your lusts : ' Stolen waters are sweet, and bread eaten in secret is
pleasant ; but he knoweth not that the dead are there, and that her
guests are in the depths of hell,' Prov. ix. 17, 18. The sting of con
science and eternal torments will follow this. You are merry now,
but this temper will not always last. If God put you into the stocks
of conscience, or cast you into the prison of hell, then you will pay
dear for all this frolicking.
244 SERMONS UPON ACTS II. 37, 38. [SfiR. I.
2. As a preparation and step towards grace.
Doct. That the work of regeneration beginneth in a lively and smart
sense of our sin and misery.
Because this is the main point, I shall show you — (1.) What is this
pricking of heart ; (2.) That this is the way God taketh to bring men
to themselves ; (3.) Why, or for what reasons.
I. What is this pricking at heart ? There is a preparatory trouble
that goeth before a saving change. It is gradus ad rem, a step to this
change, though not gradus in re, a part of this change ; as drying of
the wood is not kindling of the wood. After this pricking at the
heart, Peter biddeth them repent. This trouble lieth most in the
passions and affections ; yet it presupposeth some work upon the
understanding. Among the passions it lieth most in the fear of being
damned for ever ; but it doth not exclude the work of other affections,
as shame and sorrow ; for nature hath a quick and more tender sense
of danger than any other thing ; as a man overgrown with sores is
sensible of the filthiness and nastiness of his condition, but first and
most of the pain. Well, then, let us consider it more distinctly.
1. There is in our understanding an apprehension of our miserable
and undone condition, by reason of our many and great sins. A
sight of sin is necessary, or a sound conviction of our sinful estate :
Jer. xxxi. 19, ' Surely after that I was turned, I repented ; and after
I was instructed, I smote upon my thigh : I was ashamed, yea, even
confounded, because I did bear the reproach of my youth;' 1 Cor.
xiv. 25, ' He is convinced of all, and judged of all, and falleth on his
face, and worshippeth God.' Not a slight confused knowledge that
we are all sinners in the general, nor empty notions by which sin may
be made loathsome to us in a speculative way, but a setting it home
upon the heart : 1 Kings viii. 47, ' Yet if they shall bethink them
selves in the land whither they are carried captives, and repent, and
make supplications unto thee in the land of them that carried them
captives, saying, We have sinned, and done perversely, we have com
mitted wickedness ;' Luke xv. 17, 18, 'And when he came to himself,
he said, How many hired servants of my father have bread enough,
and to spare, and I perish for hunger ? I will arise, and go to my
father, and will say unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven,
and before thee ; ' Jer. viii. 6, ' No man repented him of his wicked
ness, saying, What have I done ? ' There must be also a sight and
sense of the wrath of God that hangeth over our heads, and the danger
we are in of being condemned and lost for ever ; as a man asleep on a
bridge, and ready to fall into the water : Rom. vii. 9, ' I was alive
without the law once ; but when the commandment came, sin revived,
and I died.' Men snort securely over the pit's brink till awakened.
2. After this conviction follows compunction, which is made up of
fear, shame, and sorrow. Guilt breeds fears and terrors, and the folly
and filthiness of sin, shame, and our misery, by reason of both, sorrows
and groans, and sad lamentations. Fear is one great part of it, or sense
of the wrath of God due for sins : Ps. xc. 11, ' Who knoweth the power
of thine anger ? According to thy fear, so is thy wrath.' While
others slight the wrath of God, pass their time merrily, not caring what
estate they are in, these are deeply affected with the sense of God's dis-
VER. 37.] SEKMONS UPON ACTS n. 37, 38. 245
pleasure. There is also shame, or a sense of being found faulty, or
their folly in doing what they have done. When the soul is filled with
confusion because of its own ways : Bom. vi. 21, ' What fruit had ye
then in those things whereof ye are now ashamed? for the end of
those things is death.' Then sorrow and deep lamentations because of
their sad condition. That affection is expressed by the prophet, Lam.
v. 16, ' Woe unto us, that we have sinned ; ' Ps. xxxviii. 8, ' I am feeble,
and sore broken ; I have roared by reason of the disquietness of my heart.'
Now in all these things there lieth compunction or brokenness of heart,
which serveth, not as a bridle to keep us from God, but as a spur to
drive us to him.
II. That God taketh this course to bring home sinners to himself.
God terrified Adam (Gen. iii. 10, 'I was afraid') to make him sensible
of his defection, before he comforted him. So the Israelites, when he
would enter into covenant with them, he first terrified them by giving
the law with thunderings. When he would convert Paul, Acts ix. 6,
1 He, trembling and astonished, said, Lord, what wilt thou have me to
do ? ' Acts xvi. 39, 40, the jailor came in trembling before Paul and
Silas, and said, 'What must I do to be saved ? ' In the Old Testament,
Ps. li. 17, ' The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and con
trite heart, God, thou wilt not despise;' and in the New, Kom. viii.
15, ' For we have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear.' The
holiness of God's nature seemeth with a kind of comely necessity
to call for such a dispensation, that the sinner should be sensible of his
displeasure by reason of sin, before he tasteth of grace ; that he should
not per saltum leap into comfort and the assurance of God's love all
of a sudden. And herein God is contrary to the devil, the world, and
sin, which make promise of much pleasure, gain, arid honour at the
first, and men find something that giveth contentment to their sensual
desires and corrupt lusts, but it ends in bitterness and sorrow at last.
But here a little bitterness at first, that maketh way for endless comforts.
Not that all that are pricked in heart and troubled for sin shall be
converted and saved ; the work may die with some in the very pangs,
or their trouble may be slight, and soon worn off ; but all that are
converted are thus troubled, and filled with perplexity about their
eternal estate, though the degrees be different. As there is no birth
without the pain of travail going before, though some have easier
labour than others, as the Hebrew women ; so here.
III. Why?
1. To make us serious. A true sense of sin and misery maketh a
soul active and inquisitive about a remedy ; as a man sensible of his
wounds will not rest till he hath found a plaster. The prodigal when
bitten with hunger came to himself, and then thought of returning to
his father. W T e never make it our chief care to save our souls till we
come to this. A wounded conscience will inquire after balm in
Gilead. As men's trouble is, so do they lay out for help and relief.
If sickness be the trouble, they seek for health ; if poverty, for riches ;
if disgrace and contempt, for favour and reputation ; if outward
affliction, for outward deliverance ; if terrors of conscience, for the re
moval of the guilt of sin ; all their thoughts are about that. Here in the
text, ' What shall we do ? ' They now find they have souls to lose,
246 SERMONS UPON ACTS II. 37, 38. [SfiR. I.
and souls to save. Till you find yourselves lost in the midst of your
greatest earthly happiness and abundance, you will go on in a secure
course of voluptuousness, worldliness, and profaneness ; but when you
are once in straits of conscience, your greatest care will be to save your
souls. Many live without all care or fear, doubt or distrust, of their
spiritual estate ; they pass their time merrily, and hope well, but have
no certainty, live at all adventures with God. But when God toucheth
the heart of a sinner, then he beginneth to question himself about his
estate and course of life. What is it, and what hath he been a-doing
all his life hitherto ? What provision hath he made for eternity ?
Whether he hath pleased the flesh, or pleased the Lord ? and what
will be the end of this when he cometh to die ? None but the holy
humble soul will seriously ask this question, ' What shall I do to be
saved ? ' Men are not humbled. The wheel of the law never went
over them, to the breaking of their hearts ; and this is the cause of
all idleness and slothfulness in religion. These are the questions
an humbled heart is conversant about.
2. To wean us from sin. Corruption is the soul's darling, born and
bred with us ; and the league between us and it is not easily dissolved.
Till we feel the vileness of sin we shall never be brought to hate it.
While we taste the sweet of it only, we spare it, and hide it under our
tongue : Job xx. 12, ' Though wickedness be sweet in the mouth, and
he hide it under his tongue.' But when once we feel, we are cautious of
thrusting our hands into the fire of sin again : Josh. xxii. 17, ' Is
the iniquity of Peor too little for us ? ' Children will no more play
with snappish dogs when bitten by them. The old compunctions are
never forgotten : Prov. i. 31, 'Therefore shall they eat of the fruit of
their own way, and be filled with their own devices.' We are too bold,
and too apt to play about the cockatrice's hole ; but when these sins
have been as swords in your hearts, and you have felt the torment of
an accusing conscience, this maketh you more cautious.
3. That Christ may be more heartily welcome to us, and that we
may the better entertain his comforts and grace. Christ is sweet
to hungry consciences. Our passover must be eaten with sour herbs ;
so it is the sense of our sin and misery that giveth these comforts a
bitter 1 relish : Isa. Ivii. 15, 'To revive the spirit of the humble, and
to revive the heart of contrite ones ; ' ver. 18, ' And restore comfort
unto him and to his mourners.' Unutterable groans make way for
unspeakable joys. It was not meet that Christ should be received with
contempt or coldness, and made light of, and therefore exercised with
piercing and heart-breaking sorrows. The bondage of Egypt maketh
us long for Canaan.
4. That we may more readily yield to God's terms : Acts ix. 6,
' Lord, what wilt thou have me to do ? ' Terrified Paul giveth God a
blank to write his pleasure concerning him. A soul truly sensible of
sin is ready to submit to any terms which God will impose upon him,
and not stand hucking with God, as Pharaoh did. In our ease we
would never hearken to the crucifying of the flesh, or deny ourselves,
taking up our cross. Heaven must fall into our laps, or we will have
none of it. Like Naaman the Syrian, we would pass away a trouble
some condition ; but when our souls are perplexed, we will be glad to
1 Qu. ' better '?— ED.
VER. 37.] SEKMONS UPON ACTS IT. 37, 38. 247
•accept of mercy upon any terms, take things at God's price : Anything,
Lord ; a perfect resignation to the will of God. In pangs of conscience
any course will please that shall be prescribed for our comfort and
relief.
5. That we may be more chary of grace afterwards. Things that
cost dear are the better kept. There need all means to fix the heart.
Now this is a good means, to consider how hardly we came by it. It
cost us many a bitter groan, and shall we part with it easily? How
soon would we forfeit our pardon, and embezzle our stock of grace, and
sin away our comforts, did we not remember how hardly we came by
them ! As a riotous heir, that never knew what it was to get an
estate, spends it freely.
SERMON II.
Now when they heard this, they ivere pricked in their hearts, and said
unto Peter and the rest of the apostles, Men and brethren, ichat
shall we do ? — ACTS ii. 37.
USB 1. If it be so that this is the method of God in conversion, let us
not hinder nor smother so good a work ; for so far as this is cherished,
we are in our way home to God. Let us not hinder it by omitting
hearing, meditation, application. First, Hearing. It is a sign men
have a mind to remain in the hardness of their hearts when they will
not come to the means that might soften them : Zech. vii. 11, 12, ' But
they refused to hearken, and pulled away the shoulder, and stopped their
ears, that they should not hear ; yea, they made their hearts as an ada
mant, lest they should hear the law, and the words which the Lord of
hosts hath sent in his Spirit by the former prophets. Therefore came
a great wrath from the Lord of hosts.' The way to harden the heart
is to refuse the means. The word would keep alive some notions and
thoughts of God that would not let us sleep in sin. Secondly, Medi
tation and consideration, without which all availeth nothing, unless we
debate points between God and ourselves in secret. All actions require
time and space for their operations. A sudden glance without musing
bringeth nothing to perfection ; as a hen that soon leaveth her nest.
All arguments must be holden in the view of conscience, applied close
to the soul : Ps. cxix. 59, ' I considered my ways, and turned my feet
to thy testimonies.' A man may take fire in his hand, and presently
throw it away without being burnt or hurt. The greatest matters in
the world will not work upon him that will not think of them :
Deut. xxxii. 46, ' Set your hearts to all the words which I testify among
you this day.' Things will never go to the quick till the heart be set
on them : Hosea vii. 2, ' And they consider not in their hearts that I
remember all their wickedness ; now their doings have beset them
about, they are before my face.' There the business stops. Men will
not take it into their thoughts. There is a time when you shall con-
248 SERMONS UPON ACTS II. 37, 38. [SER. II.
sider, and not be able to look off : Ps. 1. 21, ' These things hast thou
done, and I kept silence ; thou thoughtest that I was altogether such a
one as thyself ; but I will reprove thee, and set them in order before
thine eyes.' You will not think of it now, but then you cannot choose
but think of it ; you will have nothing to occupy your thoughts but
your sins, and the sad effects of them. If it be so irksome to think of
hell, what will it be to feel it ? Now we .cannot prevail with you to
bestow a few sober thoughts upon eternity, but then you shall do it
without entreaty. As a man that hath the stone and the gout, he
cannot forget the pain, if he would never so fain ; though now you
cast off all thoughts of your condition, and therefore live peaceably in
your sins, the time will come when you shall remember them. Thirdly,
Application, and urging our own souls with the truths heard: Jer. viii.
6, 'I hearkened and heard, but they spake not aright: no man repented
him of his wickedness, saying, What have I done ? every one turneth
to his course, as the horse rusheth into the battle;' Rom. viii. 31, 'What
shall we say to these things ? ' Job v. 27, ' Hear it, and know it for thy
good ; ' Heb. ii. 3, ' How shall we escape if we neglect so great salva
tion ? ' We will not let the word come close and home to our own
consciences. Bouse up thine own heart, and bring home the stroke of
the word, or else it proveth not effectual. Self-love puts by the blow,
and thrusts it to others, as if they were unconcerned.
2. Let us not hinder this work of compunction by way of commis
sion. There is something that we cherish in ourselves that hinders
this piercing of the heart.
[1.] A misconceit of God's anger against sin; this is one great means
to hinder the power of the word. Men think that God doth make no
great reckoning of their sins, that it will not be so bad with them as
others say; indeed, that we care not for sin, it is no wonder we have
not such a lively indignation against it. Oh, but ' God is of purer eyes
than to behold iniquity/ Hab. i. 13. His nature sets him against it.
Any man that hath but a spark of the divine nature in him, how doth
lie hate sin ! Lot's righteous soul was vexed from day to day ; and
if man, how much more God ! If God make no great reckoning of
sin. why hath he punished it so severely, as in drowning the whole
world, burning of Sodom, bringing such calamities upon his people as
we cannot read them with dry eyes ? Why is ' his wrath revealed from
heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men ' ? Eom. i.
18. If God make so little reckoning of sin, why is it that little infants,
that are free from all actual sins, die ? Eom. v. 14, '' Nevertheless death
reigned from Adam to Moses, even over them that had not sinned after
the similitude of Adam's transgression.' And many times with great
gripes and pains, such as would make a man's heart grieve to see it.
If God make so little account and reckoning of sin, why is it that little
sins to appearance are chastised with so great punishments ? Adam for
eating an apple, Uzzah for touching the ark, the Bethshemites for look
ing into the ark, 1 Sam. vi. 19, 20 ; Ananias and Sapphira struck dead in
the place for a lie, Zachary for unbelief struck dumb. Why are his
people, the dearly beloved of his soul, so dreadfully punished ? Prov.
xi. 31, ' Behold, the righteous shall be recompensed in the earth, much
more the wicked and the sinner.' If God make so little reckoning of
VER. 37.] SERMONS UPON ACTS n. 37, 38. 249
sin, why is hell and everlasting woe threatened to his creature, the work
of his own hands ? We cannot without horror think of the howling of a
dog in a fiery furnace for half-an-hour. If God make so little reckon
ing of sin, why was Jesus Christ so troubled and exceedingly amazed
when he stood in the place of sinners ? Mark xiv. 33, ' And he began
to be amazed, and to be very heavy." He wanted not wisdom nor
courage ; he knew the value of things as well as you ; had no want of
fortitude ; he foresaw the sufferings would be short, the event glorious ;
he knew God was his Father, that he loved him while he suffered ; yet
when he took the task of sinners upon him, he was sore amazed. Oh,
therefore be ashamed of so sottish a conceit, as if sin were nothing.
[2.] Sensuality and inordinate love of pleasures. These take away
the heart : Hosea iv. 11, 'Whoredom, and wine, and new wine, take
away the heart,' wasteth all tenderness and feeling. Pleasures bring
a brawn and deadness upon us, thrust the soul into a dead sleep :
1 Tim. v. 6, 'She that liveth, in pleasure is dead while she liveth.' Like
Nabal's heart, which died within him, and he became as a stone, 1
Sam. xxv. 37. These things stupify the conscience and dull the spiri
tual senses, so that men have not an ear for God, or a heart that is
likely to be sensible of anything. Oh, therefore take heed of such a
frame of heart.
[3.] Worldliness. Men throng their hearts with care and business,
and so have no time and leisure to mind the state of their souls:
Luke xxi. 34, ' Take heed unto yourselves, lest at any time your hearts
be overcharged with surfeiting and drunkenness and the cares of this
life.' As Cain fell a-building to divert his conscience, or as they that
offered their children to Moloch did still and drown their cries with
drums and tabors ; so the din and noise of business will not let con
science speak, they being ' cumbered with much serving.' They that
cumber themselves with many things seldom mind the one thing
necessary. This keepeth away all 1 heart-qualms.
[4.] Great and heinous sins. These cast the soul into a swoon, and
deprive it of all sense. There is some tenderness left with lesser sins,
as a prick of a pin will make a man start, but a heavy blow stunneth
him. David, for cutting off the lap of Saul's garment, his heart
smote him, and so for numbering the people, he was pricked and
wounded in conscience, 2 Sam. xxiv. 10 ; but in the matter of Uriah
and Bathsheba it was not so ; he lay long dead and senseless. We
hear of no kindly meltings and workings of heart from him till Nathan
came to him: Ps. li., the title, 'A psalm of David, when Nathan
the prophet came unto him after he had gone in to Bathsheba ; ' and
that was when the child was born : 2 Sam. xii. 14, ' Howbeit, because
by this deed thou hast given great occasion to the enemies of the Lord
to blaspheme, the child also that is born to thee shall surely die.' Let
a man run on in a course of gross sin, and he loseth his feeling : Eph.
iv. 19, 'Who being past feeling, have given themselves over unto lasci-
viousness, and to work all uncleanness with greediness.' And that
is a sad crisis and state of soul. Oh, take heed of these presumptuous
sins : Ps. xix. 13, ' Keep back thy servant from presumptuous sins, and
let them not have dominion over me ; so shall I be upright before thee,
and innocent from the great transgression.'
[5.] The customary committing of any lesser sins against conscience ;
250 SEUMONS UPON ACTS II. 37, 38. [SflR. II.
these lead on to hardness of heart, and senselessness, and stupidity.
The heart of young men, especially if well educated, is tender, and
startleth at the least sin and thought of God's judgments ; the least sin
will trouble it, and make it tender ; but when once we give way to small
sins against knowledge, we every day grow more and more bold and
venturous, and then shall swallow greater evils without any great trouble
or fear of wrath. Water, when it beginneth to freeze, will not endure
anything ; the least weight put upon it sinketh it presently ; but after
a while it will bear the weight of a laden cart. Therefore take heed
of giving way to sin. That heart that was easily troubled before, when
once it is inured to sin, loseth all its sensibleness and tenderness, and
what seemed intolerable at first will grow into a delight ; as Alipius,
St Austin's friend, first abhorred the bloody spectacles of the gladiators,
but giving himself leave, by importunity of friends, to be present, but
would wink, and not open his eyes, yet at length, when the people
shouted, he gave himself liberty to see, and then not only beheld them
with delight, but drew others to behold what himself once loathed.
Sin at first seemeth insupportable, then heavy, then light ; then the
sense gone, then delightful, then desired. Oh, therefore watch over
your souls if you would keep any feeling. Ab assuetis non fit passio.
Things to which we are used do not work upon us ; we are not much
moved with them. Custom maketh men sleep quietly by the falls of
great waters where much noise is ; and some parts of the body grow
callous, brawny, dry, and dead, as the labourer's hand and the
traveller's heel, by much use. So doth the conscience; when often
offered violence to, and used to sin, it groweth senseless, and less capable
of this work, which is of such use and profit.
3. Do not smother it when God beginneth it. Oh, it is dangerous to
stifle convictions or lose the benefit of them ; for either afterwards
conscience is more stupified or terrified. First, More stupified. No
iron is so hard as that which hath been oft heated and oft quenched ;
so no heart so hard as that which hath outworn these convictions and
compunctions. As God saith of outward strokes, ' Why should ye be
stricken any more ? ' Certainly he that will not take such warnings as
God sends him is every day than other more unapt to be wrought to
repentance. As water that hath been heated over the fire congealeth
the soonest after it is taken off, so they that have felt the motions of
God's Spirit freeze the soonest in the dregs and lusts of the flesh, and
have their hearts extraordinarily hardened if once they forsake him.
God ceaseth to renew and continue his former motions, and sin gets
more strength ; conscience giveth over its office of checking, accusing,
and awakening them. A wounded conscience neglected will prove a
dead conscience ; as an ungracious child, after many corrections, is
hardened thereby, and at length quite given over and cast off. Oh,
therefore, when God cometh near, then call upon him : Isa. lv. 6, ' Seek
ye the Lord while he may be found, call upon him while he is near.'
It is dangerous to slight these rebukes from God, and, when the waters
are stirred, not to put in for cure : Prov. i. 23, ' Turn at my reproof.'
Secondly, By slighting convictions, conscience is terrified ; it maketh
way for anguish of soul. They will be terrified when they come to
die : Prov. i. 26, ' I will laugh at your calamity, and mock when your
VEK. 37.] SERMONS UPON ACTS n. 37, 38. 251
fear cometh ; ' Prov. v. 11, 12, And thou mourn at last, when thy flesh
and body are consumed, and say, How have I hated instruction, and
my heart despised reproof ? ' Oh, with what horrors and amazing
thoughts will you be filled when conscience, which lay asleep in sin
before, shall be awakened by the approaches of death and the fears of
judgment to come, and your repentance shall not be repentance to life,
but, like that of Judas, repentance to death, the beginnings of sorrow,
or the pledge of the worm that shall never die. t Oh, take heed then of
smothering the work of God !
But when is this done ?
[1.] When you take up with other comforts on this side Christ.
Your hearts are set a- work, and your thirst is increased, but you quench
it at the next ditch, not at the fountain of living waters. You drown
all this work in mirth, and pleasures, and merry company. As Saul
sought to cure the fit of the evil spirit by music, so these, when they
are haunted with thoughts of sin, and guilt, and the world to come,
think to put it off, and do not turn it to a right use, which is to turn
to the Lord ; or as a man arrested maketh the officer drunk that he
may escape for that time ; and so, when it might have been a beginning
of conversion, it is to them a means of further hardening their hearts.
This is quenching the Spirit, 1 Thes. v. 17, by suppressing his motions.
Guard the heart then against all comforts but those which God speaketh
and alloweth : Ps. xciv. 19, 'In the multitude of my thoughts within
me, thy comforts delight my soul.' This is a work that must end well.
Take heed lest the good seed be choked as soon as it is cast into the
heart.
[2.] When you easily return to former sins, and after this qualm can
lick up your vomit again. You have smarted, and been wounded, and
burdened, and will you take up your load again ? John v. 14, ' Sin no
more, lest a worse thing come unto thee.' This is to run to hell again,
when you have felt the smart of it. Pharaoh had his qualms, but as
soon as the plague was off, he returneth to what he was : Exod. ix. 27,
'And Pharaoh sent, and called for Moses and Aaron, and said unto
them, I have sinned this time : the Lord is righteous, and I and my
people are wicked.' Who could have thought but Pharaoh would have
been another man ? But when the qualm is over, Pharaoh is Pharaoh
still, and there must be a new judgment to humble him. Ahab
oppresseth Naboth, and God threateneth him, and Ahab humbleth
himself and walketh softly, but afterward imprisoneth Micaiah, and
then God slayeth him. Felix trembled, but still continueth his course.
Many have their tears, and sighs, and sorrows, and after all this they
relapse. Oh, this is dangerous !
Thirdly, We come now to the course they take for ease and relief :
' They said unto Peter and the rest of the apostles, Men and brethren,
what shall we do ? ' Observe here —
1. To whom they go, to ' Peter and the rest of the apostles.'
2. What they say, ' Men and brethren, what shall we do ? ' Where —
[1.] Their civil compilation and form of address, ' Men and
brethren.'
[2.] Their solemn question, ' What shall we do ? '
From the whole I shall make these observations —
252 SERMONS UPON ACTS II. 37, 38. [SER. II.
1. The change that is wrought upon a sinner when God hath
him under this preparative trouble; it doth not amount to a full con
version, yet it inferreth a change ; a strange change in these men, both
as to their thoughts of Christ and his apostles.
[1.] As to Christ, where are those words now, ' Thou art a Samaritan,
and hast a devil ? ' They are now convinced that Jesus is Lord and
Christ. Where is now their fury, crying, ' Crucify, crucify him ' ?
They are now pricked in their hearts, and hang the head : ' If thou
lettest him go, thou art no friend to Cassar.' No such thing heard
now. No ; but, ' What shall we do ? '
[2.] Their thoughts are changed towards the apostles. Now it is
viri, fratres, 'Men and brethren,' whom before they looked upon as
deceivers, and men full of new wine ; those whom they hated as enemies
they now consult with as friends and physicians. They do not in con
tempt call them Galileans and impostors, but 'Men and brethren.'
They have other thoughts of men and things than formerly they had.
I observe this —
(1 .) To show the necessity of a change in conversion. If conviction
and compunction work such a mighty change, what will conversion
do ? Ego non sum ego — I am not myself. A man should not be the
same man he was before. There is as palpable a difference as between
light and darkness, life and death, the old man and the new. Broken-
ness of heart varies the price and value of things and persons strangely.
He that was judged to have a devil is now found to be Lord and Christ ;
and those that were mocked as men full of new wine, and had taken a
cup too much, are now owned to be the precious servants of the Lord.
We are not the same men, have not the same thoughts and notions of
things, when the Lord beginneth to work upon us. Men look upon
men and things in the glass of their own humours, and passions, and
brutish lusts, when they are wild careless creatures ; but when they
come to themselves, and begin to be serious, they look upon things as
they are in themselves. Men look upon men and things at a distance
and by a slight view before ; now they look upon them nearer at hand,
and by a different and more accurate view. Peter Martyr's similitude
wrought upon Galiacius Caraccialus. Those that afar off see men
skipping and dancing would think they were light and vain persons,
but when they draw near unto them, they find their motion orderly,
and keeping time and pace with the music, and as the laws of the
exercise and dance require. There is a great alteration in men's notions
of wisdom and folly, misery and happiness, liberty and bondage. The
work of a sound conviction bewrayeth itself in nothing so much as in
these things. They are wise who mind earthly things, fools and crazy
brains who consult not with their profit, but their conscience ; no
happiness but to flow in ease and plenty ; no misery like that to be
kept short and bare in temporal conveniences and worldly accommo
dations; no such bondage as to be held to duty and in the fetters of con
science ; no such liberty as to live at large. But afterward they find
it to be quite otherwise ; no folly like pleasing the flesh ; no misery like
the loss of God's favour; no bondage like the slavery of sin.
(2.) I observe it to show what difference there is in our thoughts of
sin before and after the commission. With what a hurry and madness
VER. 37.] SERMONS UPON ACTS u. 37, 38. 253
of a furious spirit were this people carried to desire the death of Christ !
' Crucify him, crucify him ! ' And now it is done, their consciences
work, they are pricked in their hearts, and are at an utter loss : ' Men
and brethren, what shall we do ? ' Christ foretold this : John viii. 28,
' Then said Jesus unto them, When ye have lift up the Son of man,
then shall ye know that I am he, and that I do nothing of myself, but
as my Father hath taught me, I speak these things.' Evil men are
permitted to run their own course, but when their consciences and
God's judgments are let loose upon them, to see what a course they are
engaged in, then they are ' pricked in heart.' Our first parents, when
they had sinned, then their eyes were opened, and they knew they
were naked, Gen. iii. 7, that is, ashamed in their nakedness ; they began
to take notice of the miserable and sad condition into which Satan had
brought them, that they might be humble, and seek to God for pardon.
Many discover not aforehand the evils which their sins lead them into ;
but afterwards they see it, and are left shiftless and helpless. When
Judas had betrayed his master, the foulness of the act terrified him,
and he goeth and hangeth himself. Peter hath no sense of his condi
tion while he is denying Christ ; but afterwards conscience beginneth
to work : ' He goeth out, and wept bitterly,' Mat. xxvi. 75. It is well
when this is discovered to bring us to repentance for failings past, to
make us more watchful for time to come, and to give us a fuller and
quicker taste of God's mercy in our reconciliation by Jesus Christ.
But when it is only discovered in order to our despair, as it was to Cain,
Gen. iv. 14, that is sad. Well, then, they have other thoughts. This
is the general observation.
2. I observe again, that they took some course for their comfort and
relief : ' They said unto Peter and the rest of the apostles, Men and
brethren, what shall we do ? ' Felix trembled, but it was but a super
ficial work, and came to nothing, Acts xxiv. 25 ; it was soon over ; he
delayeth and adjourneth the consideration of his danger. Cain and
Judas being terrified, they despair : Gen. iv. 13, 14, ' And Cain said
unto the Lord, My punishment is greater than I can bear ; ' Mat. xxvii.
3, 4, ' He brought again the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests
and elders, saying, I have sinned, in that I have betrayed innocent
blood. And they said, What is that to us? See thou to that.' But
this in the text was a more kindly work. They do not turn the sense
of their misery into a slothful despair and despondency, but ask counsel.
Many have some qualms and risings of conscience, but they soon die
away. Therefore it is good to see what we do with our trouble. It is
opus respectivum ; it reacheth to some further work, which we should
look after, that we smother it not.
3. I observe that they take a good course. They do not go to the
scribes and pharisees, whose malice would have prompted them to have
defaced this work, but to Peter and the rest of the apostles ; not to
merry company and carnal delights, where it might be quenched, but
to those that could best direct them how to improve it for good, to the
ambassadors of Christ. When we are sick, it concerneth us to think
what physician we choose ; some are mere mountebanks, and will pre
scribe poisons instead of remedies. Many, when they are wounded in
spirit, run to their carnal companions, and drink away sorrow, or game
254 SERMONS UPON ACTS II. 37, 38. [SER. IIL
and play away sorrow, or read away sorrow, and seek to put themselves
out of the humour. Alas ! this is but to put off that which they can
not put away, and to fly from grief, not to cure it : not to settle, but
to sear the conscience ; vain helps, that will in the issue perplex us the
more, and make the cure the more difficult.
4. I observe in the general, that they speedily took a good course.
It is not good to neglect the present time, and lose the importunity of
the present conviction. While it is warm upon our hearts, let us carry
on the work of God as far as it will go. Let us step in as soon as we
see the waters troubled, John v. 4. There is much time in a little
opportunity. As soon as the wound is given and felt ; in bodily diseases
delay is dangerous ; as soon as we feel the first strivings and grudgings
of conscience : Acts xxiv. 25, ' Felix trembled.' He was all in an
agony ; but he put off his conviction, and we hear no more of him.
We read of converts that followed Christ forthwith : Mat. iv. 20,
' Straightway they left their nets, and followed him ; ' and Gal. i. 16,
' Immediately I consulted not with flesh and blood.' These impulses
will be lost, and you will outgrow the feelings of conscience in a little
time. These good motions are spent if not prosecuted, and then you
will be in a worse condition than before. Your comforts will come the
sooner, the sooner you look after a cure. Sorrow will increase to horror
and desperation : 2 Chron. xxiv. 19, 20, 'When the king heard the
words of the law, he presently rent his clothes, and commands them to
go and inquire of the Lord for him.' Green wounds are the soonest
cured. When a bone is out of joint, the longer the setting is forborne,
the greater will the pain of the patient be ; yea, it may be so long
neglected that no skill nor art can set it right again. So it is in the
cure of a wounded spirit and bleeding conscience. The ground is fitter
to receive the seed after it is newly ploughed, and the present impres
sion of grace is a great advantage. Work while you have that advan
tage. Worldly occasions and distractions will choke the sense we have
of our condition ; therefore let us betimes strike in, and seek a remedy.
To put it off is strangely to neglect the soul and eternal peace. When
thy conscience is struck by the word, and thy heart is pierced, withdraw
thyself from all other distractions, and drive the work home ; seek
presently for direction and remedy.
SEKMON III.
And they said unto Peter and the rest of the apostles, Men and
brethren, what shall we do ? — ACTS ii. 37.
OBSERVE in the words — (1.) To whom they go ; (2.) What they say.
1. Their civil compellation.
2. Their solemn question.
First, Their civil compellation and respect to the apostles, ' Men and
brethren.' Ministers are in season (and therefore in esteem) when
VER. 37.] SERMONS UPON ACTS u. 37, 38. 255
men lie under distress of conscience. Pharaoh ran not to his magicians
in his trouble, but to Moses and Aaron. Those that humour our lusts
are ministers only for our carnal prosperity ; those that deal consci
entiously are ministers for our distress ; and though they were con
temptible before, and scorned by us, yet then they are in request.
Before, they and their pains might be well spared, their persons are
hated, their doctrine scorned and despised ; but stay a little, till a pang
of spiritual trouble comes upon them, and then their sentiments are
altered. Those that mocked at them before will now be glad of their
advice. The jailor put the apostles into the inner prison, and put
their feet in the stocks; but when a trembling fit cometh upon him,
then it is, ' Sirs, what must I do to be saved ? ' Acts xvi. 30. Those
that slighted holy things before, yet when chastened with pain upon
the body, and their soul draweth near to the grave, and their life to
the destroyers, oh, then for a faithful minister, for a ' messenger of God,
one of a thousand, to show a man his uprightness,' Job xxxiii. 23.
Then they are of great account and esteem. Ob, that we had the
same notions of men and things in trouble and out of trouble, living
and dying ! it would prevent a great deal of mischief.
Reasons — (1.) Because the men are altered ; (2.) Because their
work is altered.
1. The men are altered, both in their judgments and affections.
[1.] In their judgments. The pride of their carnal reason is sub
dued ; or rather, their reason is set free from the captivity of brutish
passions. Now they know what sin is, the nature of it, and the
danger of it, and what necessity lieth upon them to part with it.
Formerly they lived by sense, and were under the power of brutish
lusts, and they thought it more than needs to wind up men to such
a pitch of holiness, or to call upon them to be so watchful, serious,
and diligent ; that this niceness and fond scrupulosity was over-doing.
Now they see it is but necessary strictness ; that these were their best
friends. Smart experience openeth their eyes. They now feel the
evil they never feared before ; and by experience and sensible proof
they see the deceit of them that cried, Peace, peace, that declaimed
against strictness, and hated those that taught them the way of salva
tion : Prov. xxviii. 23, ' He that rebuketh a man, afterward shall find
more favour than he that flattereth with his tongue.' Kubbing an
itch breedeth soreness and rawness.
[2.] Their affections are altered, the stubbornness of their hearts is
subdued: Job xxiii. 16, 'For God maketh my heart soft, and the
Almighty troubleth me.' Before, Shall they pine and whine, and
tremble at the word ? No ; they are no such babies. Till the arrows
of Christ stick fast in the heart, they do not fall down before the truth :
Ps. xlv. 5, ' Thine arrows are sharp in the heart of the king's enemies,
whereby the people fall under thee.'
2. Their work is altered. They mind that which requireth a
minister's work, the salvation of their souls. They slight God and
their souls, and therefore may well slight God's ministers. There is
no work for them to do.
Use 1. To press ministers to evidence themselves to men's consciences
rather than their lusts. Make known the truths of God sincerely to
256 SERMONS UPON ACTS II. 37, 38. [SfiR. III.
them : 2 Cor. iv. 2, 'Buthave renounced the hidden things of dishonesty,
not walking in craftiness, nor handling the word of God deceitfully,
but by manifestation of the truth commending ourselves to every
man's conscience in the sight of God;' 2 Cor. v. 11, 'Knowing the
terror of the Lord, we persuade men ; but we are made manifest unto
God, and I trust also are made manifest in your consciences/ You are
accounted enemies fora while ; but if ever God touch their hearts, they
will love you, when they are freed from the slavery of their lusts. It
is not those that have quaint notions and rhetorical flourishes, that cry,
Peace unto them, that will then serve their turn.
Use 2. Is information, that he that hath a secret grudge and distaste
against God's faithful servants and messengers was never kindly
wrought upon. He might be touched at heart, but was not pricked
at heart. They are sensible of a light that troubleth them, not a
kindly remorse that maketh them to ask advice and counsel. If they
had any true pangs of conscience, it would be otherwise.
Secondly, Their question, ' What shall we do ? ' that is, do to
escape the deserved punishment, do to obtain remission of sins, do to
be saved ? Acts xvi. 30, as may be gathered by parallel places, and
out of the apostle's answer, ' Repent, and be baptized for the remission
of sins ; ' and, ' Save yourselves from this untoward generation.' The
point is —
Doct. That men are at a good and hopeful pass when once they
come anxiously and fervently to ask, ' What shall we do to be
saved ? '
This is the usual question of men wounded in spirit and in straits
of conscience : Acts ix. 6, ' And he, trembling and astonished, said,
Lord, what wilt thou have me to do ? ' Luke iii. 10, ' And the people
asked him, saying, What shall we do then ? ' Acts xvi. 30, ' And
brought them out, and said, Sirs, what must I do to be saved ? ' Job
vii. 20, ' What shall I do unto thee, thou preserver of men ? '
1. It is a weighty question.
2. When it is fitly proposed, it argueth a good and hopeful con
dition and state of soul.
1. It is a weighty question. The case is not for another, but for
themselves. We read of an impertinent question put forth by Peter to
Christ : John xxi. 21, ' Peter seeing him, saith to Jesus, Lord, what
shall this man do ? ' But here it is, ' What shall we do ? ' Many do not
look inward, but are busy about the concerns of others. It is not,
What shall he do ? but, ' What shall we do ? ' It is not about in
tricate doubts, and nice debates, or the decision of scholastical questions,
but a necessary thing. Curious questions argue too much levity and
wantonness in those that propose them. Many that are heart-whole
dispute and wrangle about nice things, but these ask advice. Those
that wholly give up themselves to nice debates neglect the main profit
able matters. A man in straits and pangs of conscience is not in a
condition to trouble himself with niceties ; he is in danger of hell, and
his care is how he shall do to escape it. It is not about the body,
but the soul ; not for necessaries for the outward man. There are
questions of that nature which we are apt to put : Mat. vi. 25, ' What
shall we eat, or what shall we drink, or what shall we put on ? ' ' Take
VER. 37.] SERMONS UPON ACTS u. 37, 38. 257
no thought for the body.' A man's main care is to save the soul.
Christ, to divert them, puts them upon that : Mat. vi. 33, ' But seek ye
first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness, and all these things
shall be added unto you.' These worldly questions perplex men's
hearts ; as their trouble is, so they inquire. If they distrust God's pro
vidence, what more usual than these questions ? Once more, it is not
about speculations, but practicals; not, What shall we say? but, What
shall we do ? Not about events : Luke xiii. 23, ' Lord, are there few
that are saved ? ' but about duty. Chrysostom observeth well, They
say not, How shall we be saved ? but, ' What shall we do to be saved ? '
It is presumptuous folly to hope for the end without the means. There
is somewhat to be done if we mean to be saved. Balaam said, ' Let
me die the death of the righteous,' Num. xxiii. 10. At oportuit sic
vixisse — We should live so. There are means leading to every end.
We must not think to go to heaven with hand in bosom, and land at
the haven of glory when you turn the boat to the stream. Salvation
will not be had without duty. That is worth nothing that is gotten
for nothing. You cannot imagine such a worthy thing will cost you
no pains. There is a proportion still between the means and the end :
1 Thes. ii. 12, ' That ye would walk worthy of God, who hath called
you to his kingdom and glory ; something that will answer the great
ness of your hopes. Many will go to heaven as far and as fast as good
hopes and good wishes will carry them. They make a gentleman-like
life of the profession of godliness ; their rents are brought in by their
stewards, whether they sleep or wake, work or play. No ; these con
verts propound it, ' What shall we do ? ' what course shall we take to
save our souls ?
But is not this a legal question, ' What shall we do ? ' as if heaven
were to be had for doing ?
Some think this is spoken with respect to the covenant of works, the
sense of which is upon our hearts naturally. It is true such a question
may be put in a legal way, as the young man that came to Christ, Mat.
xix. 16, 'And behold one came, and said unto him, Good master, what
good thing shall I do that I may have eternal life ? ' He was a rich
man, but he saw his happiness lay not in riches, but in everlasting sal
vation ; he desireth that, but he would earn it, and seek his justifica
tion by works. But to inquire after the necessary means without such
a presumption of merit is not legal. Christ answereth him according to
his legal apprehensions : ver. 17, ' If thou wilt enter into life, keep the
commandments/ That was the best way to humble a proud pharisee,
to bid him make good his pretensions to keep the whole law in all
points without sin; that was to hold him to his own covenant. But
now Peter answereth these according to their meaning ; they inquire
after the way and means of relief : ' Repent, and be baptized for the
remission of sins.' Well, then, we have found it a good and weighty
question.
II. It is fitly propounded. It argueth a good and hopeful state of
soul if anxiously and seriously put. We ask it in jest at other times,
but convinced men are in the greatest earnest. Things now begin to
be real, and seem other than formerly they did ; they think, and speak,
and talk like men in another world. Sin is another thing. They were
VOL. XXI. R
258 SERMONS UPON ACTS II. 37, 38. [SER. III.
wont to marvel what made men keep such a stir about sin ; what harm
was it to take a little forbidden pleasure ? that it was hard measure
to be held so closely to duty ; but now they have other thoughts, are
at a loss, ' What shall we do? ' This question seriously put argueth —
1. Their present helplessness, or a sense of their lost condition.
They speak like men at a loss, and at their wit's end, finding Jesus to
be the Christ, of whose death they were guilty, and so liable to God's
heavy judgment. They had cried out, ' His blood be upon us and our
children.' They could not undo what they had done, and now know
not what to do. They speak like men wholly void of senses ; as
Eeuben, ' The child is not, and whither shall I go ? ' Gen. xxxvii. 30.
So upon this their perplexity ariseth. Sin will put men to a nonplus,
and bring men to be shiftless and helpless ; as Christ spake when he
stood in our room, John xii. 37, ' Now is my soul troubled, and what
shall I say ? ' Job vii. 20, ' I have sinned ; what shall I do unto thee,
thou preserver of men ? ' What shall a sinner do ? In earth there
is no balm for his wounds. It is as the white of an egg. If he look to
heaven, there is a God to condemn him ; if to hell, there are devils to
torment him. Their minds are distracted with the sense of the present
evil. Now thus it should be before we can be brought home to Christ.
He came to save that which was lost. You should be at such a loss
that nothing should comfort you on this side Christ. Till the prodigal
was brought to penury, and could no longer sustain himself by his
shifts, he never thought of returning to his father ; but then he did.
There are two remarkable parts in conversion — to bring a man and
himself together, to bring Christ and him together. A man cometh to
himself by compunction, or a sense of his misery ; but one great means
to bring him to Christ is helplessness, when he can no longer shift for
himself, and patch up a happiness by his own devices. Till we are at a
loss, we go about like Ephraim : Jer. xxxi. 22, ' How long wilt thou
go about ? ' Man is a proud creature, loath to be beholden, would
be sufficient to his own happiness ; but when all his confidences are
broken, then he casts himself into the arms of Christ, to be by him
brought to God, when we see our utter inability to help ourselves.
2. This question argueth some kind of hope that there may be relief
for them ; for they do not give over the business as desperate, as if
nothing could be done, but inquire, ' What shall we do ? ' Is there no
remedy for such vile wretches as we are ? They presume there is
some course to be taken. There is a kind of twilight in the soul,
neither utter despair nor certain hope ; but only some present support,
that we may not give over the business in despair : Joel ii. 14, ' Who
knoweth if he will return and repent, and leave a blessing behind him,
even a meat-offering and a drink-offering unto the Lord your God ? '
They are in suspense, but incline to look for grace from God: Jonah
iii. 9, ' Who can tell if God will return, and repent, and turn away
from his fierce anger, that we perish not ?' It is a venture, but such as
encourageth them to wait. There is a possibility or probability, but
not a certainty , that hope is the fruit of faith. Sensible sinners have
many sad tossings and conflicts of spirit between the expectation of
God's mercy and the sense of their own deservings, so that they cannot
speak the pure language of faith nor the pure language of unbelief, but
VER. 37.] SERMONS UPON ACTS n. 37, 38. 259
mixed and made up of both ; as those Jews, Neh. xiii. 24, ' They spake
half the language of the Jews, and half of Ashdod.' Yet such as it is,
it maketh them wait and venture on God ; as Benhahad's servants on
the king of Israel: 1 Kings xx. 31, 'And his servant said unto him,
Behold, now we have heard that the kings of the house of Israel are
merciful kings : let us, I pray thee, put sackcloth upon our loins, and
ropes upon our heads, and go out to the king of Israel ; perad venture
he will save thy life.' So these doubtful thoughts have a mixture of
hope ; yea, some predominancy of it ; so that though they do not cer
tainly determine, yet they will try what will become of it. Now
the soul is in a hopeful way. Faith is coming on, and comfort will not
be far off, when we make these adventures, and inquire, though we do
not know what will come of it : Jer. xviii. 12, ' All his trangressions
that he hath committed, they shall not be mentioned unto him ; for his
righteousness which he hath done, he shall live.'
3. It expresseth their solicitude and anxious care, ' What shall we
do ? ' It is a point of the highest consideration, and therefore they ask
counsel. When the Corinthians were made sorry by Paul's letter, 2
Cor. vii. 11, ' This self-same thing, that ye sorrowed after a godly sort,
what carefulness it wrought in you ; yea, what clearing of yourselves,
yea, what indignation, yea, what fear, yea, what vehement desire, yea,
what zeal, yea, what revenge ! In all things ye have approved your
selves to be clear in this matter.' Carefulness and consultation about
the means of grace and salvation is a hopeful beginning, and men are
in a fair way of passing from death to life. The generality of the
world is stupid and listless : Eom. iii. 11, ' There is no man that under-
standeth, there is no man that seeketh after God.' Many never saw a
need to do anything, nor have a heart to do anything ; therefore when
men come to consult, either with themselves or others, there is some
hope. With themselves ; as those lepers, 2 Kings vii. 3, 4, ' And there
were four leprous men at the entering in of the gate, and they said
one to another, Why sit we here until we die ? If we say, We will enter
into the city, then the famine is in the city, and we shall die there ;
and if we sit still here, we die also. Now therefore come, and let us
fall unto the host of the Syrians ; if they save us alive, we shall live ;
and if they kill us, we shall but die ; ' Luke xv. 17, 18, ' And when he
came to himself, he said, How many hired servants of my father have
bread enough and to spare, and I perish for hunger? I will arise, and
go to my father, and say unto him, Father, I have sinned against
heaven and before thee.' And as the wise steward, Luke xvi. 3, 4,
' Then the steward said within himself, What shall I do ? For my
lord taketh the stewardship from me : I cannot dig, to beg I am
jishamed. I am resolved what to do, that when I am put out of my
stewardship they may receive me into their houses.' Or when they
consult with others, when a man asketh serious questions, how to frame
his heart to the obedience of the gospel, how to establish his heart in
the hopes of pardon and glory ; this will come to somewhat. Men
begin to be awake : Ps. xxii. 27, ' All the ends of the world shall re
member, and turn to the Lord.' For a while they are like men sleep
ing and distracted ; they do not act like men, having no sense, no heart
for heavenly things. But when once they are full of pangs of con-
260 SERMONS UPON ACTS II. 37, 38. [SfiR. III.
science then there is hopes of them ; then they are serious, and mind
things.
4. It expresseth their resignation. They do not stand booking and
dodging, but with readiness of mind offer themselves to be directed by
the apostles : ' Men and brethren, what shall we do ? ' As if they had
said, We will do anything that you shall enjoin. This is the fashion
and manner of those that are in a hopeful way of conversion. They
are wont to resign and offer themselves to be guided by Christ in his
own way to heaven, without reservation : Acts ix. 6, ' Lord, what wilt
thou have me to do ? ' ready to obey him in all things. They do not
dispense with some things, and say. Thus far can we go, or, The Lord
be merciful to me in this; but absolutely, 'What shall we do to be
saved ? ' There were some that would follow Christ upon conditions :
Luke ix. 59-62, ' And he said, Follow me ; but he said, Lord, suffer
me first to go and bury my father. And Jesus said unto him, Let
the dead bury the dead ; but go thou and preach the kingdom of God.
Another said, Lord, I will follow thee ; but let me first go and bid
them farewell which are at home at my house. And Jesus said unto
him, No man having put his hand to the plough, and looketh back, is
fit for the kingdom of God.' Herod did many things ; and the young
man had a forwardness, and a longing desire. Now what is the reason
they are so pliable to God's will, so ready to obey him in all things,
without reserving any sin or lust ? Partly because they see an absolute
necessity of coming out of the condition in which they are. Turn and
live, sin and die : Ezek. xviii. 32, ' For I have no pleasure in him that
dieth, saith the Lord ; wherefore turn yourselves, and live ye.' There
fore they are willing to be and do anything to come out of it. God
being peremptory to punish sin, they must be as peremptory in forsak
ing sin, unless they mean to perish for ever. And partly because they
think any condition more tolerable than that under which they are ;
for now they feel the evil they never felt before : Ps. xxxviii. 4, ' For
mine iniquities are gone over my head ; as a heavy burden they are too
heavy for me.' Therefore, if God will prescribe any terms to them,
they will accept them. The evil of sin is so great, that there is no
evil equal to it, no good that can countervail it. There is a pressing
necessity on the soul. These are the considerations that prevail in this
condition, before regeneration, or a real bent of heart towards God, and
sound consent be wrought.
Use 1. Is reproof of our carelessness. We busy ourselves about the
smallest matters : 1 Cor. vi. 2, speaking of the things of this life, he
calls them ' the smallest matters.' We will ask, What shall become
of us ? We are anxious about events, but not careful about duties ;
and this for the outward man, What we shall eat ? not, ' What shall
I do to be saved ? ' this question is very rare. A few poor, humble,
broken-hearted Christians, and some that are fallen under the chasten
ing of the Lord, and are ready to die, they see the need and worth of
salvation ; but go up and down among people everywhere, we have no
such questions as this. Now many live twenty or thirty years, and
never question with themselves, Where am I ? whither am I going ?
what shall become of me to all eternity ? Oh, that we could more
frequently, more seriously, put this question, and were more diligent and
VER. 37.] SERMONS UPON ACTS IT. 37, 38. 261
earnest to get it resolved. There is another question to make way for this :
Jer, viii. 6, ' What have I done ? ' And then there is another question
after this : Hosea xiv. 8, ' What have I any more to do with idols ? '
These are the questions to be put to conscience. Certainly if you
were troubled for sin, this would be your main inquiry ; but in most
people this is not in all their thoughts. Oh, how do we forget our
selves and our main errand in the world ! How little do we mind
that which most concerneth us ! One drudgeth for riches, and another
giveth up himself to pleasures. Hardly have we a thought wherefore
we were born, and what will be the end of things ; and therefore this
is the least part of our care, how we shall do to be saved. Some that
seem a little affected yet are not soundly awakened, have not such a
care as so weighty a business doth require ; like those that are heavy
to sleep, that hear a great noise in the night, of wind, and rain, and
thunder, or fire, are a little disturbed, but lie down and sleep again,
and trouble themselves no more with it.
Use 2. To direct you how to further, and also how to judge of,
your progress in the work of conversion.
1. When you begin to mind necessary things : Mat. vi. 20, 21, ' But
lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust
doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through and steal ; for
where your treasure is, there will your hearts be also.' When you put
questions to yourselves about heaven and the way thither, your thoughts
must be more upon it, and your discourses tend that way ; at least, you
will be running to means to hear more of God and heaven.
2. When you have an anxious sense of your lost condition, and God
hath showed you your danger, your hearts are troubled because of
sin, that you find it a heavy burden, you are in the eye of the promise :
Mat. xi. 28, ' Come unto me, all ye that are weary and heavy laden,
and ye shall find rest for your souls.'
3. When you find the burden groweth so heavy (as it was with the
young man that came to Christ, Mat. xix.) that you are resolved to
save your souls whatever it cost you : Mat. xiii. 46, ' And when he
had found one pearl of great price, he went and sold all, and bought it/
Many cheapen the comforts of Christianity, but do not go through
with the bargain. You will not stick with God for anything, but set
yourselves to do his will, whatever reluctances from within or dis
grace and oppositions from without you meet with.
4. When your heart is so fixed and confirmed in this purpose, that
when it cometh to trial and exigence, you do judge it better to deny
your lusts, renounce your interests, run all hazards for Christ ; you
can thwart your affections, run through straits, disgraces, nicknames,
scorns, and can lay down your life at Christ's feet, Mat. xviii. 8, 9 ;
part with right hand or right eye. Better go to heaven with the loss
of all, than to hell with the greatest crown.
262 SERMONS UPON ACTS II. 37, 38. [SER. IV.
SERMON IV.
Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized everyone of you in
the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall
receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. — ACTS ii. 38.
IN the former verse we had their serious question ; here is Peter's
seasonable answer. They that take a right course, and seriously in
quire after the way of salvation, are not likely to be disappointed.
God saith, ' Ask, and it shall be given you ; seek, and ye shall find ;
knock, and it shall be opened unto you/ Mat. vii. 7. Men that are in
good earnest in the use of means shall not be refused in any needful
suit. Therefore ' Stand ye in the ways, and see ; ask for the old paths,
where is the good way, and walk therein, and ye shall find rest for
your souls,' Jer. vi. 16. So do these poor wounded souls do, and so
must we do. Now what was the effect? It is the part of a good
physician not only to discover the disease, but also to prescribe a
remedy ; especially should spiritual physicians be tender of broken
hearted sinners, willing and ready to give them counsel. When Judas
had a wound in his conscience, he cometh to the high priest, and said,
' I have sinned in betraying innocent blood.' But do they tender his
case, or afford him any relief in his great straits ? No ; ' What is that
to us ? see thou to that/ Mat. xxvii. 4 ; they leave him to his own
horrors and despairing thoughts. But Peter dealeth more compas
sionately with these converts : he doth not upbraid them with their
past sin, and leave them in despair, but giveth them wholesome counsel
and advice for the good of their souls : ' Then Peter said unto them/ &c.
In Peter's direction and counsel to them take notice — (1.) What
he persuadeth them to do ; (2.) The argument by which he persuadeth
them ; what they shall do, and what they shall receive.
In the first, two things —
1. 'Bepent/
2. ' Be baptized in the name of Christ.' What ? why ? and to what
end ? ' For the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the
Holy Ghost/
First, The first thing he persuadeth them to is repentance. But
this advice seemeth needless, yea, burdensome. Was it seasonable to
press men that lay under deep terror and compunction to repent ? Is
not this to break a bruised reed, and add sorrow to sorrow ?
Ans. No such matter. Therefore I shall —
1. Show the difference between the former work, and that to which
they are now pressed.
2. Evidence to you that this is a proper cure.
[1.] The difference. Before it was Karevvyrjaav ; now it is /-tera-
voijcrare. There is a great difference between these things. The
word is more capacious, implying a change of mind and counsel. If
you take repentance for godly sorrow and trouble of heart, yet still
there is a difference between the former work and this. The former
sorrow was legal, wrought by terror, and a fear of being damned ;
VEIL 38.] SERMONS UPON ACTS u. 37, ss. 2G3
this is evangelical, wrought by a sense of God's love. A malefactor
ought not only to be sorry for his crime while he is in suspense, and
knoweth not how his prince will deal with him, but after he is par
doned is still to be ashamed and grieved for his offence. Their former
sorrow was an involuntary impression; this an active grief. They
were pricked at heart whether they would or no. Now repent : he
would have that work theirs. That was dolor ntorbi, the pain of the
disease ; this was dolor medicince, the trouble of physic, or the smart
that comes by the cure. That sting was the effect of an accusing con
science, which may be in the wicked ; this the grief of a confessing
penitent, which argueth a tender heart.
[2.] It is a proper cure. They were in sorrow ; therefore repent.
Ars delude sequatur, nalura monstrante viam. Physicians will cure
men of fluxes by giving a purge, and stay vomiting and a disposition
to cast by a vomit, divert bleeding by letting of blood ; so they were
in trouble and anguish, and he presseth them to repent, in a kindly
manner to come and bewail their sin to God : ' Kepent, and be bap
tized in, the name of Christ for the remission of sins.'
Doct. Repentance is one special means which God hath instituted
for the cure of a wounded soul.
Not only faith, as Acts xvi. 31, 'Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ,
and thou shalt be saved ;' but repentance. Indeed those two are the
two great means : Acts xx. 21, ' Testifying both to the Jews, and also
to the Greeks, repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord
Jesus Christ/
I. Let us see what is repentance, or wherein it consists. There are
three words by which it is expressed : fieravoia ; that word you
have in the text, and it signifieth an after- wit, or a change of mind.
Secondly, The next word is f^erafieXeta, an after-sorrow, or a change
of heart; that word you have Mat. xxi. 29, 'But afterwards he repented,
and went,' ^era/ieX^^ei? cnrrjkde ; he was sorry for his refusal.
Thirdly, /zeTacn-pe^t?, an after-turning, or a change of course. That
word you have Acts iii. 19, ' Repent ye, therefore, and be converted ; '
/Aeravoija'aTe KOI p,eraaTpe^rare : Acts ix. 35, 'And turned to the Lord ; '
as he that hath walked in a wrong course bethinketh himself, and
goeth back again, and taketh another way. In all these three consists'
repentance ; not in one alone, not in a change of mind. Many a man
knoweth better, but doeth that which is worse. Video meliora proboque,
deteriora sequor. There must be a change of heart as well as a change
of mind, such a sorrow for sin as ' crucifieth the flesh, with the affec
tions and lusts,' Gal. v. 24, that doth weaken the power and interest of
sin in the heart; and not only a change of heart, but a change of
course. Many men are troubled for sin, but still go on in the practice
of sin. Vera p&nitentia est, saith Augustine, poenitenda non admittere,
et admissa deflere; such a change of heart as draweth with it a change
of life ; to repent for what is past, and amend what is to come : Prov.
xxviii. 13, 'He that confesseth, and forsaketh his sin, shall find mercy.'
Well, then, repentance consisteth not in an acknowledgment of sin,
and saying, God be merciful ; but it is a change of our minds, hearts,
purposes, and evil course of life.
1. Merdvota, a change of mind and understanding : Rom. xii. 2,,
264 SERMONS UPON ACTS II. 37, 38. [SfiR. IV.
' Be not conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing
of your minds.' A transmentation is necessary, by which a sinner
beginneth to approve the law of God, which before he disliked, and to
prize holy things, which before he lightly esteemed ; to see the excel
lency and sweetness of the spiritual life, and walking in communion
with God, which before he disesteemed as a heavy bondage or a foolish
niceness: 1 Cor. ii. 14, 'For the natural man receiveth not the things
of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness unto him ; neither can he
know them, because they are spiritually discerned.' In short, men's
eyes are opened, and they have other thoughts of sin and duty than
ever they had before. They did not think sin so bad as they find it ;
nor that there was so much good and sweetness in a course of obedience.
Now he seeth that all this while he hath gone astray, and been preju
diced against his own happiness : Titus iii. 3, ' For we ourselves were
sometimes foolish and disobedient, deceived, serving divers lusts and
pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful, and hating one another ;'
1 Cor. iii. 18, ' Let no man deceive himself ; if any man among you
seemeth to be wise in this world, let him become a fool, that he may be
wise.' That sin which was his delight before, is now his burden. He
was wont to marvel why men kept such a stir about sin, and that their
complaints were but words of course ; now he seeth it is the most hateful
thing in the world, and all that was said is little enough to express the
odiousness of it. He was wont to think a course of holy walking to be
a dark, sad, and gloomy course ; but now his judgment is altered, he
seeth that nothing is so lovely and sweet as obedience, and no liberty
but in God's service ; that none live at large so much as they whose
lusts are restrained, and whose consciences are still held under the awe
of God's precepts. He was wont to call the proud happy and blessed,
and that none lived so comfortable a life as they that had both ability
and opportunity to please the flesh ; now he seeth they are the most
miserable creatures in the world, because their snares and temptations
are multiplied, and that poor afflicted godliness is a far better condition ;
no preachers or scriptures are now too strict for him. This is a change
of mind.
2. MeraytteXeta, an after-care, when the soul cometh to grief, and
shame, and sorrow, and hatred of sin : 2 Cor. vii. 10, 'For godly sorrow
worketh repentance to salvation not to be repented of ; but the sorrow
of the world worketh death.' Godly sorrow is of great use in repent
ance, to alienate and turn away the soul from sin. Our evil estate con-
sisteth not so much in this, that we have sin, as that we love sin. Here
lieth the root of all our mischief, that we are (frtXtf&ovot, /j,aX\.ov rj $i\6Qeoi,
' that we are lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God/ 2 Tim.
iii. 4. Therefore, to dig at the root of sin, this breaking and rending
the heart with godly sorrow is necessary, that the bitterness of grief may
make it loathsome to us : Job ii. 13, ' His grief was great.' Therefore
we must exercise ourselves with grief, and shame, and sorrow, because
of our doings, and be touched with a deep sense of our folly and unkind-
ness to God, that we have wronged God, and abused his grace.
3. There is ^erao-Tpe-vJa?, a change of life. This ensueth upon the
change of heart. By the change of heart we put off the old man, with
his deceitful lusts ; and then there must needs be a change in our con-
VER. 38.] SERMONS UPON ACTS u. 37, 38. 26."
versations : Mat. ii. 2, 'Bring forth fruits worthy of repentance;' such
as will evidence a thorough change wrought in us, and give us a cer
tain proof of it : Isa. Iv. 7, ' Let the wicked forsake his way, and the
unrighteous man his thoughts, and let him return unto the Lord, and
he will have mercy upon him, and to our God, for he will abundantly
pardon.' This is always a-doing, wherein there is something privative
and positive : in the privative part, the internal work is the chief, when
a man maketh conscience of his thoughts ; the positive part is when a
man maketh it the great business and trade of his life : Acts xxiv. 16,
' And herein do I exercise myself, to have always a conscience void of
offence towards God and towards men.'
Reasons to prove that this is one special means which God hath
instituted for the cure of a wounded soul.
1. Because it is God's prescribed course. The Lord himself must
state the terms upon which his grace shall be dispensed ; now he hath
appointed this way: Acts iii. 19, 'Repent ye, therefore, and be converted,
that your sins may be blotted out when the times of refreshment shall
come from the presence of the Lord.' Repentance is a means or con
dition, or moral qualification on our parts ; it is conditio sine qua non,
without which we are not capable of the benefit. The first moving
cause is the mercy and grace of God : Isa. xliii. 25, ' I, even I, am he
that blotteth out thy transgressions for mine own sake, and will not
remember thy sins.' The meritorious and procuring cause is the
blood of Christ : Eph. i. 7, ' In whom we have redemption through
his blood, the forgiveness of sin.' That is the satisfaction given to
God for our offences, to repair him in point of honour. But the
causes do not exclude our duty ; there must be something done on our
part by way of application to make our right and title clear, and that
is faith and repentance : these two sister graces, the one respects God,
and the other the Mediator Jesus Christ : ' Repentance towards God,
and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ,' Acts xx. 21. The offence is
done to God, and he is the party to whom we return by Christ. These
two graces go hand in hand, and we must not put asunder what God
hath joined together. If you ask which goes first ? that is hard to
say ; there is not such a distinction of time in the work of conversion
that we can tell which is first or which is last ; the work is inter
mingled. The case in the new birth is somewhat like as it was in the
travail of Tamar, Zarah putteth out the hand, but Pharez breaketh
out first. We feel repentance, it is first in our sense ; but faith is the
first-born, the elder sister. When a candle is brought into a room,
the light showeth itself before the candle. Faith is first in order of
nature, for without it no act is pleasing to God, Heb. xi. 6. Well
then, repentance is God's prescribed course to get our sins blotted out ;
that is, either out of the book of his remembrance, or out of the book
of conscience. Out of the book of his remembrance : Col. ii. 14,
' Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances, which was against us,
which was contrary to us, nailing it to his cross ; ' that is, crossed out
by the blood of Christ. But out of the book of conscience it is blotted
by the Spirit of Christ : Heb. x. 22, ' Having our hearts sprinkled
from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water ; '
when he giveth us gospel peace and comfort.
206 SERMONS UPON ACTS II. 37, 38. [SlSB. IV.
2. Because the saints have found it an effectual course, and mar
vellously successful. God taught David by his own experience that the
exercise of repentance was the right way to seek relief, after his spirits
had been wasted and his flesh almost dried up : 'I acknowledged my
sin unto thee, and mine iniquity I have not hid ; I said, I will confess
my transgression unto the Lord, and thou forgavest the iniquity of
my sin/ Ps. xxxii. 5. When he resolved sincerely to humble his
heart before God, nay, though the purpose was not yet put into act,
he felt the comfort. Another instance may be that, Jer. xxxi. 18-20,
'I have surely heard Ephraim bemoaning himself thus, Thou hast
chastised me, and I was chastised as a bullock unaccustomed to the
yoke : turn thou me, and I shall be turned ; for thou art the Lord my
God. Surely after that I was turned, I repented ; and after that I
was instructed, I smote upon the thigh : I was ashamed ; yea, con
founded, because I did bear the reproach of my youth. Is Ephraim
my dear son ? is he a pleasant child ? for since I spake against him,
I do earnestly remember him still : therefore my bowels are troubled
for him ; I will surely have mercy upon him, saith the Lord.' There
is Ephraim's bewailing his sin, and God's returning an answer full of
fatherly affection : at first he was like an unruly bullock, not easily
brought to the yoke, but yet at length, when he was touched with
shame and sorrow, then, ' Is not Ephraim a dear son ? a pleasant
child ? '
3. Because it is the way to remove sin, which is the ground of the
trouble, and that which hath given the soul such a deadly wound.
There are two things that trouble the conscience, the guilt and power
of sin ; and we must be eased of both, or else the plaster will not be as
broad as the sore. A man that hath his leg broken, to be eased only
of his smart will not suffice him, he must have it set right again :
1 John i. 9, ' If we confess our sin, he is faithful and just to forgive
us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness/ Now repent
ance worketh on both parts of the sin, the removal of the guilt, and
also the filthiness and inherent corruption ; it maketh way for the
pardon of sin and the removal of the guilt of it, as I said before ; and
the whole tenor of the gospel showeth it, as Melancthon rightly defineth
it against Islebus first, and Flaccius and his followers. The gospel is
nothing else but a doctrine of repentance and remission of sin : these
are two great points. Look upon Christ as a lawgiver : Luke xii. 47,
' The servant which knew his Lord's will, and prepared not himself,
neither did according to his will, shall be beaten with many stripes.'
Or as a saviour and fountain of grace : Acts v. 31, ' Him hath
God exalted with his right hand to be a prince and a saviour, to give
repentance to Israel, and remission of sins.' He requireth and giveth
repentance in order to the remission of sins. Secondly, For the other
part, the power of sin ; it mainly serveth for that, and is required for
that. We use salt and bitter potions to kill the worms. The lusts
that haunt our souls are best mortified by the bitterness and sorrows
of repentance, otherwise it is sweet and dear to the soul, and we are
apt to roll it under our tongue. This rending of hearts spoileth the
taste of sin : Gal. v. 24, ' They that are Christ's have crucified the
flesh, with the affections and lusts.' Sorrow assaulteth sin in its
VER. 38.J SERMONS UPON ACTS n. 37, 38. 267
strength, which is love of pleasure, for all sin is founded in flesh-
pleasing delights ; it is lust draweth him away by some pleasurable
lure or bait ; the flesh is all for sensitive pleasure, and the proper cure
for it is godly sorrow.
Use 1. If this be God's instituted course to ease troubled consciences,
then they are physicians of no value for poor wounded souls that
would direct you to another course ; either, first, pleasures, and sports,
and plays, and play-books, and other merry books and company, and
carnal diversions to get off heart-qualms. Some such mountebanks in
religion there be in the world, that seek to divert men's grief rather
than to put it away; this is like a man in debt, that drinketh away
the thoughts of it, but his misery is never the further off. Secondly,
Others seek to cure trouble for sin with further sins ; as men to ease
themselves of the pains of a scald will hold the flesh to the fire again.
This may stupify the conscience, but God hath means enough to
awaken it. There is a worm that shall never die, and you will feel
it one day. Others would have altogether lenitives, and cannot
endure the sour doctrine of repentance, but would have men honied
and oiled with grace ; decry this as not suiting with their loose appre
hensions of the gospel. John said, ' Repent,' Mat. iii. 2 ; Jesus Christ
saith, ' Repent, and believe the gospel ; ' Mark i. 15 ; and Mark vi. 12,
' And the apostles went out and preached that men should repent.'
There is a fleshly laziness and wantonness in men ; they cannot endure
to hear of the severe and grave exercises of religion ; and when we go
Christ's way to do them good, they are displeased. If we did come to
you in our own name, and had a liberty of giving indulgence to one
another, we might huddle up the matter ; nay, if we were left to our
reason and discretion, we need not stand so exactly upon godly sorrow
and serious self-loathing ; but God bath prescribed this course. Now why
should we stick at it ? You should thankfully acknowledge the privilege ;
be glad that repentance is granted, rather than grumble because it is
required that we have leave to repent ; not mutter because of this
command to repent. It was counted a favour heretofore : Acts xi. 18,
' Then hath God also to the gentiles granted repentance unto life.'
The law doth not say, ' I will not the death of a sinner, but that he
repent and live;' but, 'Do this and live, sin and die.' The law doth
not say, ' Come unto me, all ye that are weary and heavy laden ; '
but, ' Depart, ye cursed.' It calleth for exact obedience, or threateneth
eternal ruin. It is a grace granted to man above angels. God did
not propound terms of repentance to them, whereby they should
recover their lost estate, when they sinned ; they were left to their
own obstinacy. A truly burdened soul is glad of this order and
method ; the guilt of sin is not only his trouble, but the power of it :
they like no terms like God's terras. Fulgentius saith, It is vile
unthankfulness to prefer softness and carnal ease above the comfort of
godly exercises. If repentance seem a burden, the fruits of sin in the
end will be much greater : if this part of religion seem distasteful, the
comfort of being well settled and established upon sound terms will be
much greater than all the trouble it puts us to.
Use 2. Is to persuade you to this work upon the necessity of this
course. It is not only necessary necessitate prcecepti, but medii. It is
268 SERMONS UPON ACTS II. 37, 38. [SER. IV.
an irksome duty, but necessary. Till ye are brought to repentance, ye
never had, nor can have, pardon of sins, and so no true peace of consci
ence. Some things have only the necessity of a duty, we sin if we do
it not ; but this hath the necessity of a remedy, we perish if we omit it.
It is not only a duty but a remedy. When a father shall command a
sick child to use such a remedy to save his life, he is not only guilty of
disobedience if he refuse it, but destroyeth his own life by refusing a
remedy necessary to preserve it. This is absolutely necessary. If you
disobey God in other things, yet you should not in the command of
repentance : those that need none, and care for none, Christ will have
nothing to do with them : Mat. ix. 13, ' For I am not come to call the
righteous, but sinners to repentance.' Would you hope for mercy in
another way than God and Christ are agreed on ? But because exhor
tations lose their force unless they be particularly directed, I must
speak to two sorts.
1. Some that never yet repented nor turned to the Lord. Oh, con
sider, without repentance no pardon, and without pardon no salvation ;
he that remaineth in his sins shall die in his sins. You may have ex
perience of God's patience and common goodness, but never of his
special mercy. A dog when he dieth will be in a better case than you :
a dog when he dieth, his misery dieth with him ; but the misery of
an impenitent sinner then beginneth. You are condemned already,
what hindereth execution ? only God tarrieth, ' is long-suffering to
us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to
repentance,' 2 Peter iii. 9. He is willing to take a little more pains
with you, to give you a little further time ; but do you know how long
he will bear ? Have you any certain lease of enjoying the world and
the comforts you now have ? After a few more refusals of his renewed
offers, and slighting of his mercies and patience, who can tell but God
may take the denial, and fret the slender thread of life asunder ? Who
knoweth but the next day he will say, ' Cut it down, why cumbereth
it the ground ? ' Therefore it is time to set about self-loathing and
grieving for your sins, and dedicating yourselves seriously to God's use
and service.
2. To those that have repented already, to renew their repentance.
This is a work that must always be doing, if you would maintain quiet
and peace in your souls. As long as there is sin in your hearts, you
ought to groan under it : Eom. vii. 24, ' Oh, wretched man that I am !
who shall deliver me from the body of this death ! ' And as often
as sin is committed, so often must repentance be renewed: sin and
trouble are inseparable. Conscience would be no conscience if it were
otherwise. Therefore I would press you —
[1.] To use this way constantly of fetching out grace. As your
salvation is carried on from faith to faith, Kom. i. 17, so from repent
ance to repentance. By repeated acts of the first graces our privileges
are continued to us. Faith is never out of season, nor repentance ; it
is as necessary afterwards as it was at first, whenever you sin against
God. Those that have a Father in heaven must still come to him for
forgiveness, Mat, vi. 13. It is a renewed act, for the continuance, sense,
and the increase of the sense and feeling of pardon. If you are pre
judiced against such a course, you have no reason to think your
VER. 38.] SERMONS UPON ACTS n. 37, 38. 269
sins are pardoned. The Christian religion revealeth no other way of
comfort and sound peace ; and that assurance is justly liable to suspi
cion which can be maintained without repentance.
But you will say, Sinners are pardoned already ; justification is one
indivisible act of grace, pardoning all sins past, present, and to come.
I answer — Though there be a justification of the person, yet there is
a reiterated remission. There is a great deal of difference between
the merit of pardon, justification of the person, and the actual remis
sion of sin : the merit is but once, Christ never needeth to suffer more ;
the justification of the person is obtained upon our actual interest in
Christ ; then there is a release from the eternal punishment and wrath
due to us because of sin. A believer can no more come under the
power of the second death : this sentence is never reversed.
But now, pardon of sin is another thing : Acts xiii. 38, 39, ' Be it
known unto you therefore, men and brethren, that through this man is
preached unto you the forgiveness of sins ; and by him all that believe
are justified from all things, from which ye could not be justified by
the law of Moses.' The sinner is justified, but not the sin ; these are
distinct things. Justification noteth the state of the person, that is once
upon our implantation into Christ ; but upon every peccant act we need
a new pardon, that is repeated as sins are committed. Before it is com
mitted it is not remitted, for it is not sin. It is pardoned in that notion
in which it is sin ; virtually pardoned, but not formally. Justification
is the grant of a privilege, that we have interest in remission of sin.
Well, then, let me press you to — (1.) A daily repentance for daily
sins ; (2.) A solemn repentance on the occasion of special duties.
(1.) To a daily repentance for daily sins. As we pray for daily
bread, so for daily pardon ; we need one as much as the other. We
daily heap up new sins, and we must daily sue out our pardon. This was
the method God took with Adam when he was fallen : God came to
him in the cool of the day, Gen. iii. 8. God would not let them sleep
in their sins, that he might bring them suddenly to recall themselves,
and consider what they had done, that they might'long rest quiet in their
sins. Under the law, if a man were unclean, yet when the evening came
he was to wash his clothes, Lev. xi. 25 ; so we read of the evening
sacrifice : Num. xxviii. 3, 4, ' This is the offering made by fire, which
ye shall offer unto the Lord ; two lambs of the first year without spot
day by day, for a continual burnt-offering: the one lamb shall be
offered in the morning, and the other lamb shalt thou offer at even ; '
Eph. iv. 26, 'Let not the sun go down upon your wrath.' If poison is
taken, a man would get rid of it as soon as he could. While our faults
are in mind, repentance is more kindly ; as fresh wounds are best cured
at first, before they fester and rankle into a sore. Sin gets less ground,
and we shall have rest the sooner ; and it is good to divide our work
by parts, to come to an account, and make all even between God and
us every day, as merchants sum up their accounts at the foot of every
page ; AVC shall have the less to do when we come to die.
(2.) To a solemn repentance on the occasion of special duties. At
the Lord's table we come to renew our sense of the remission of sins ;
for the cup of the new testament is given for that end : Mat. xxvi.
28, ' For this is my blood of the new testament, which is shed fur
» Qu. ' juigbt not ' ?— ED.
270 SEHMONS UPON ACTS II. 37, 38. [SfiU. IV.
many, for the remission of sins.' We use this duty for the obtaining of
this benefit, either to get a confirmation or new extract when our dis
charge hath been darkened by former failings. Now as we would
renew the sense of pardon, so we must renew the exercise of repentance.
There are two duties required of us in order to that work — (1.) Exa
mination ; (2.) Meditation on Christ's death.
First, examination, 'Let a man examine himself, and so let him eat.'
Look into thy bill ; what owest thou ? When we come to counting
and reckoning with ourselves, how many defects and failings may we
discover ! If that work be done seriously, we must needs come num
bly and penitently. Well, then, in this serious work consider —
1. The exact purity of the law ; it condemneth the secret motions of
our souls, thoughts, lusts, imperfect desires : ' The law is spiritual, but
I am carnal,' Kom. vii. 14. ' What shall we do ? ' There are few that
can stand before the letter of the law, but who can stand before the
spiritual meaning of it ? You do not set up other gods ; ay, but your
hearts are estranged by the secret idols of your hearts from the true
God : Ezek. xiv. 3, 5, ' These men have set up their idols in their
hearts, because they are estranged from me through their idols ; ' as
the Jews preferred Barabbas before Christ. Practical atheism is
worse than speculative. You may reason a man out of one, but not
out of the other ; that is cured by grace. You abhor idols and images,
but do your hearts submit to all the ordinances of Christ, to use them
to the ends appointed ? You cannot endure vain or rash swearing, but
doth thy life praise God ? Is there that reverence and seriousness in
all matters of God ? You hate Sabbath profanations, but do you call
it your delight ? You honour parents, but do you carry yourselves
well in all your relations, and live as in the fear of God, and make con
science of the duties which belong to them ? You are no murderers,
but make no conscience of rash anger ; no adulterers, but yet have
wanton glances and unclean motions, Mat. v. 28. No thief, but
have no charity ; do not take away that which is another's, but do not give
your own ; no liar, but a slanderer, whisperer, backbiter ; thy life is a
lie, when thou wouldst seem better than thou art ; suppress the first
motions ; but, ' Who can say his heart is clean, I am pure from my
sin ? ' Prov. xx. 9.
2. The holiness of God, we have not sense enough of that : Job iv.
18, 'His angels he chargeth with folly ; ' 1 Sam. vi. 20, ' Who is able
to stand before this holy Lord God ? ' I would excite Christians to
have a sense of this above all things.
3. Our proneness to sin : Ps. xl. 12, ' For innumerable evils have
compassed me about ; mine iniquities have taken hold upon me, so that
I am not able to look up ; they are more than the hairs of my head ;
therefore my heart faileth me.'
4. The strictness of the last day's account. A long process : 1 Cor.
iv. 5, ' Who will both bring to light the hidden things of darkness,
arid make manifest the counsels of the heart.' Not only the state of
the person, but all our actions. Conscience will be extended to the
recollecting of all our ways ; a general bill will not serve the turn :
else how will the wicked be ashamed, and the righteous applauded ?
Idle words will come into account at that day, Mat. xii. 36.
VER. 38.] SERMONS UPON ACTS n. 37, 38. 271
Second, Meditation of Christ's death. He that maketh light of sin
is guilty of the contempt of Christ's blood, that either despiseth the
causes or effects of it : Heb. x. 29, ' Of how much sorer punishment,
suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy who hath trodden under foot
the Son of God, and hath counted the blood of the covenant, where
with he was sanctified, an unholy thing, and hath done despite to the
Spirit of grace ? ' It was not shed for a light cause, nor to produce
mean effects : it showeth the heinousness of sin as well as the worth
of God's image and favour : Zech. xii. 10, ' They shall look upon him
whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him, as one
mourneth for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for him, as one
that is in bitterness for his first-born.' Faith is required to promote
repentance.
(3.) After heinous sins we are especially to humble ourselves
before God : this is the ready way to obtain pardon : Ps. xxxii.
5, ' I acknowledged rny sin unto thee, and mine iniquities have I not
hid : I said, I will acknowledge my transgression unto the Lord ;
and thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin ; ' 1 Kings xx. 32, ' And
they girded sackcloth on their loins, and put ropes on their heads, and
came to the king of Israel, and said, Thy servant Benhadad saith, I
pray thee let me live.' Better come in voluntarily, than be drawn in
by force. Heinous sins are wont to rifle all our confidences, therefore
after such failings we are more seriously to renew our repentance, and
to humble our souls in the sight of God.
SEKMON V..
Repent, and be baptized in the name of Christ. — ACTS ii. 38.
DOCT. That we obtain remission of sins by believing in the name of
Christ.
By ' the name of Christ ' is meant Christ himself, as revealed and
set forth in the gospel ; the doctrine of his person and office : Acts iv.
12, ' Neither is there salvation in any other ; for there is none other
name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved ; '
that is, Christ is the only person by whom we shall be saved ; and
Christ, as revealed in the gospel ; for that is the name by which he
maketh himself known to us. Now this must be received and applied
by faith ; so Peter explaineth it elsewhere : Acts iii. 16, ' And his
name, through faith in his name, hath made this man strong.' The
name of Christ is Christ himself, and he puts forth his power upon
believing.
I shall, for the opening of this point — (1.) Show what Christ doth
or hath done for the pardon of sins ; (2.) That no other but Christ can
procure this benefit for us ; (3.) The necessity of faith, that we may
apply it to ourselves.
I. What Christ doth or hath done in order to the pardon of sins.
272 SERMONS UPON ACTS II. 37, 33. [SfiR. V.
This benefit is chiefly the fruit of his priestly office. Now in his
priestly office there are two parts — his oblation and intercession. They
are spoken of in many places, but both together you have in one place :
1 John ii. 1, 2, 'My little children, these things write I unto you, that
ye sin not; and if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father,
Jesus Christ the righteous, and he is the propitiation for our sins.'
Our propitiation and our advocate. Let me insist upon these two
notions —
1. He is our propitiation. Christ is not only Ikacnij^, our propi
tiator, but tXaoyio?, our propitiation ; that is, victima, i\a<mKr), the
propitiatory sacrifice that was offered to God to appease his wrath for
our sins. He is both the priest and the sacrifice, the propitiator and
propitiation. This last is what we now pitch upon ; and the apostle
telleth us, Korn. iii. 25, 'Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation
through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission
of sins.' The justice of God, and the truth of his commination in the
former dispensation, permitted not so great a benefit to be bestowed
without a satisfaction ; and this Christ hath made : so that God may
be just, though he forgive sin. There can be no propitiation for sin
without the expiation of it. The expiation of sin is by suffering the
punishment due to it, which Christ hath done for us by his death, and
so made way for our pardon and discharge.
2. He is our advocate, ' We have an advocate with the Father, Jesus
Christ the righteous.' There are several terms by which Christ's plead
ing his merit for us, and going between us and God, are set forth, and
they have all their proper use. We shall compare them with this term
of an advocate. The general word is 'mediator.' Christ is a mediator
both in respect of his person and office, but an advocate only in respect of
his office. A mediator, as a middle person indifferently disposed between
two parties, that hath a mutual interest in both parties : Job ix. 33,
' Neither is there any daysman betwixt us, that might lay his hand
upon us both.' One that miudeth the concernments of both, and could
value the honour of God and the sins and misery of man. A mediator
in respect of all his offices, but an advocate in respect of his priestly
office. A mediator, as he doth deal with God for man, and with man
for God, pacifying God towards man, and bringing man to God ; but
an advocate as interceding with God and pleading our cause in
heaven : ' We have an advocate with the Father.' Another word is
'intercessor/ Intercession doth more of itself look like a friendly
entreaty ; as Jonathan interceded for David : 1 Sam. xix. 4, ' And
Jonathan spake good of David unto Saul his father, and said unto him,
Let not the king sin against his servant, against David, because his
works have been to thee-wards very good.' And Joab for Absalom's re
turn, after he had suborned the woman of Tekoah: 2 Sam. xiv. 22, 'And
Joab said, To-day thy servant knoweth that I have found grace in thy
sight, my lord, king, in that the king hath fulfilled the request of his
servant.' But advocate is verbum forense, a judicial word ; it noteth
Christ's undertaking the cause of a believer in a legal and judicial way ;
not to solicit our pardon, but plead it, and make it out in a judicial way.
Once more, Christ is not patronus, a word used in the civil law, but
advocatiis. A patron or defender is one that under taketh to justify
VER. 38.] SERMONS UPON ACTS u. 37, 38. 273
the fact, but an intercessor or advocate is one that pleadeth to prevent
the punishment, that doth not defend the fault, but intercedeth for the
remission of the offence.
Now in what manner this intercession is managed, and how Christ
acts the part of an advocate for us, needeth a little to be cleared.
It will not be enough to say that his merit and sufferings do continue
to deserve such things for us, as if his pleading were only the virtue
of his merit, which figuratively may be said to plead good for his
people. So the apostle telleth us, ' The blood of sprinkling doth yet
speak,' Heb. xii. 24. As the blood of Abel against Cain, so his blood
for us. To grant no more than this would quite overturn the great
act of Christ's intercession. And yet, on the other side, it cannot be
thought that he intercedeth with such gestures and verbal expressions
as men use with men, or as he himself did in the days of his flesh, when
he offered up prayers with strong cries and tears, Heb. v. 7, which did
become the state of his humiliation, but not his glorification. These
are the two extremes.
Let us now see what it is.
[1.] This intercession of his may be conceived to consist in his
appearing in heaven in our name, whereby the Son of God, being now
man, presenteth himself as ready to answer for such and such sinners.
His very being there in our nature speaketh his purpose in reference to
this end, and God accepteth of it according to appointment : Heb. ix.
24, ' For Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands,
which are figures of the true, but into heaven itself, now to appear in
the presence of God for us.' He presenteth himself as one that hath
made satisfaction for our offences, hath performed his sacrifice without
the camp, and bringeth blood before the mercy-seat.
[2.] It may be supposed also to include a declared willingness and
desire in our behalf to have such requests granted, such sinners par
doned. This was a part of his intercession : John xvii. 24, ' Father,
I will that they also whom thou hast given me be with me where I am,
that they may behold my glory.' ' Father, I will.' He declareth this
to be his will ; it was his interceding to have it accomplished. The
like may be conceived in heaven. Thus far Aquinas explaineth it :
Interpellat autem pro nobis, primo, humanitatem, quam pro nobis
assumpsit, representando ; item animce suce sanctissimce desiderium,
quod de salute nostra kaouU, exprimendo — he intercedes for us by pre
senting his human nature, which he took for us ; and also by expressing
the desire of his most holy soul for our salvation.
But is there not more ? Certain it is that a proper and form.nl
prayer is not contrary to the human nature of Christ in that glorious
estate in which it now is, neither as hypostatically united to the Godhead,
nor as glorified. Not the first, for that he had in via, in which he
made prayers and strong cries, Heb. v. 7. Not the second ; still it is
a creature, inferior to God, therefore capable of prayer. Indeed, when
lie was in the form of a servant, there was more subjection than now
in heaven ; but still he prayeth. Therefore —
[3.] There is a holy, reverent, though inconceivable adoration of the
sovereign majesty of God, whereby the Mediator, now at the Father's
right hand, doth in all his appearing for us, as being the head of the
VOL. xxr. s
274 SERMONS UPON ACTS II. 37, 38. [SER. V.
body, adore the sovereignty, goodness, and wisdom of God with
respect to the covenant of redemption, and sue out the benefits due to
him thereby, namely, the pardon of our sins, and our comfort and
peace : ' Ask of me/ Ps. ii. 8. By virtue of his paid ransom he may
call for those blessings that are necessary for those that come to God
by him. His saying to his disciples oftener than once, ' I will pray
the Father for you/ John xiv. 16, ' And I will pray the Father, and he
shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever;'
this doth imply some address to God, even in respect to peculiar
persons and particular cases. It is a suing out of his merit in their
behalf. I would add one thing more.
[4.] He presents our prayers and supplications which we make in the
behalf of ourselves to God, after he hath set us a-work by his Spirit :
Rev. viii. 3, ' And there was given unto him much incense, that he should
offer it with the prayers of all saints upon the golden altar which was
before the throne ; ' Heb. viii. 1, 2, ' We have such an high priest, who
is seated on the right hand of the throne of the majesty in the heavens,
a minister of the sanctuary.' He presents our prayers to his Father,
perfumed with his merit. By his Spirit we are furnished with sighs
and groans.
II, No other but Christ can procure this benefit for us.
1. Because none else was appointed : Acts iv. 12, ' Neither is there
salvation in any other ; for there is none other name under heaven
given among men whereby we must be saved.' Authorised by the
Father: Acts v. 31, ' Him hath God exalted with his right hand to be
a prince and a saviour, to give repentance to Israel, and remission of
sins.' This is necessary, because the supreme authority resideth with
God, who must and will choose in what way he will be satisfied and
reconciled to sinners. Moses, that interposed of his own accord to
be a mediator, was refused : Exod. xxxii. 32, 33, ' Yet now, if thou
wilt, forgive their sin ; and if not, blot me, I pray thee, out of thy
book which thou hast written. And the Lord said unto Moses, Who
soever hath sinned against me, him will I blot out of my book.' Christ
is authorised to do you good : John viii. 42, ' Neither came I of myself,
but he sent me.' Christ had a commission from his Father.
2. Because it needed to appear to us upon good evidence that he is
the party whom God sets forth to save sinners. This is opus liberi
consilii, an act of God's free grace; and therefore it cannot be determined
by natural reason, but we must stand to the way revealed by God.
The light of nature may show that man is fallen, but the light of
nature cannot show the way of restoration. Heathens could not dream
of it. The angels only knew it by the church : Eph. iii. 10, ' To the
intent that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places
might be known by the church the manifold wisdom of God.' Those
natural apostles, the sun and moon, are gone up and down the world
to preach a God, an infinite and an eternal power ; their sound is gone
out into all lands ; and conscience joining with this discovery will
easily tell us that this God hath not been glorified as God ; therefore
we are obnoxious to him.
3. This appointment needed to be evidenced to the world by some
notable discovery, that the world may be satisfied that this revelation
VER. 38.] SERMONS UPON ACTS n. 37, ss. 275
is from God: John vi. 27, 'For him hath the Father sealed.' Christ
hath a commission and letters patent sealed with the broad seal
of heaven. As every ambassador hath letters of credence under the
hand and seal of that prince from whom he is sent, so Christ working
miracles, and giving other demonstrations of the divinity of his person,
hath manifested his commission, that he is the person authorised to
do us good : Acts x. 38, ' How God hath anointed Jesus of Nazareth
with the Holy Ghost and with power, who went about doing good, and
healing all that were oppressed of the devil ; for God was with him ; '
ver. 43, ' To him gave all the prophets witness, that, through his name,
whosoever believeth in him should receive remission of sins.' He is
the person. If you saw none of his miracles, the .whole church in all
ages and places will come as a witness and deposit for it, and we
have the scriptures of the old testament, and many evident principles
of natural light, that have a fair correspondence with this mystery.
Well, then, God, the supreme judge, hath taken up the controversy
between him and us, and appointed Jesus Christ to be the person.
His institution is instead of all reasons.
Again, none else is able to satisfy God and pacify conscience.
[1.] Not to satisfy God. Sin being committed against an infinite
majesty, the suffering by which he is expiated must be of an infinite
value ; and therefore it is impossible that any or all the angels, though
holy and just, should propitiate God for our sins. As angels, they were
not capable of punishment ; and though they should have assumed
human nature, yet being but finite creatures, the worth of their
sufferings would not be infinite. Therefore Christ himself, being God
and man, was capable to suffer, and give a value to his sufferings ; and
therefore we are said to be redeemed by the blood of God, Acts xx. 28,
that is, by the blood of that person that was God. God would lose no
glory by the fall ; therefore, whoever was the redeemer, he was to
restore what Adam lost : Ps. Ixix. 4, ' I restored that which I took not
away.' Adam was the robber, but Christ was to make amends. By
the fall God's authority was violated, his honour despised. His
authority was violated in the creature's transgression ; his command
was just, our obedience reasonable. Now it was meet that God
ishould keep up the authority of his law. His majesty despised in the
threatenings ; his holiness, as if he did not hate sin ; his justice and
truth, as if he would not punish it ; his power, it was an act of pre
sumption, and a contest with God. Now in all these respects it was
necessary God should vindicate his glory, and be no loser, which is
fully done by Christ.
[2.] Not pacify conscience. Conscience is not pacified till God be
satisfied. God is infinitely merciful, but infinitely just. We cannot
expect any more pity from his mercy than fear from his justice; yea,
guilty nature is more presagious of evil than of good, as appeareth
when we are sensible and serious. Every conscience must have content
and satisfaction ; therefore till we can have such a righteousness as
will take off the guilt of former sins, and make us bold to stand before
God, which only we can have in Christ, guilty nature can never be
quiet, nor till God be pacified. Conscience is God's deputy ; till he
be satisfied, the creatures are at a loss. The great inquiry of nature
276 SERMONS UPON ACTS II. 37, 38. [SER. V.
is, 'Wherewith will he be pleased ?' Micah vi. 6, 7, ' Wherewith shall
I come before the Lord, and bow myself before the most high God ?
shall I come before him with burnt-offerings, with calves of a year
old ? will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, or with ten
thousands of rivers of oil ? shall I give rny first-born for my trans
gression, and the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul ? ' Barbarous
cruelties and costly offerings. Again, lost nature knoweth something
of a sacrifice, and something of price and value. Now judge you
whether God be satisfied or no. First, A priori. He hath the
sacrifice of his own appointing: Heb. ix. 13, 14, ' For if the blood of
bulls and goats, and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean,
sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh, 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?' The sacrifices of the law could do that for which they
were appointed, which was typical expiation and external sanctification ;
they did qualify for worship-work, so far as appointed. And the same
apostle saith, Heb. ix. 9, ' Which was a figure for the time then pre
sent, in which were offered both gifts and sacrifices, that could not
make him that did the service perfect, as appertaining to the consci
ence.' There was no real worth in themselves. The conscience could
not have found any ground of satisfaction how God's justice could be
satisfied by such mean things as the blood of bulls and goats. There
must be something penal, something of value. But in this sacrifice,
besides God's institution, there is a real intrinsic worth, which is the
dignity of the person and the innocency of the person ; but he could
not offer it for himself, therefore it must be intended for some other.
Secondly, A posteriori. Consider how God hath accepted Christ.
Christ is risen, our surety let out of prison. The Lord sent an angel
to remove the stone, not to supply any lack of power in Christ, but as
a judge, when the law is satisfied, sends an officer to open the prison
doors. As the apostles, Acts xvi. 38, 39, 'And the Serjeants told these
words unto the magistrates ; and they feared, when they heard that
they were Romans; and they came and besought them, and brought
them out, and desired them to depart out of the city.' ' The God of
peace brought again from the dead the Lord Jesus Christ,' Heb. xiii.-
20. Though Christ had power to rise, yet not authority till the angel
rolled away the stone: he did not break prison, but was brought out ;
then he arose. If our surety had perished in prison, we could have
no assurance ; and if he had continued under death, the world could
have no discharge. But he rose again for our justification, Kom. iv.
25. And not only so ; Christ is not only taken out of prison, but
carried up to God in glory and honour : received into heaven, 1 Tim.
iii. 16 ; not avefirj, ascended, but ave\^6ri, received. God hath
rewarded him ; therefore Christ hath perfectly done his work. God
hath not only taken him out of the grave, but taken him up to glory.
Certainly God is well pleased, since lie hath not only given him a dis
charge, but a reward. He did undertake to carry it through ; as Reuben
said. Gen. xliii. 9, 'I will be surety for him ; of my hand shalt thou
require him: if I bring him not unto thee, and set him before thee,
let me bear the blame for ever.'
VJSR. 38.] SERMONS UPON ACTS II. 37, 38. 277
[3.] None so willing to relieve a poor afflicted creature as Christ : Heb.
ii. 17, ' Wherefore in all things it behoved him to be made like unto
his brethren, that he might be a merciful and a faithful high priest in
things pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for the sins of the
people.' He was once at liberty, but when he had undertaken he was
bound. He was merciful to undertake, and faithful to accomplish it.
He was God, equal in glory with the Father ; yet merciful to us, and
faithful to God: merciful in dying, faithful in interceding, and mind
ful of us at every turn ; and so every way qualified to do our souls
good.
III. The necessity of faith, that it may be applied to us.
1. There must be an application. Many think there is a Jesus Christ,
we need take no further care, he did die for sinners, and therefore we
shall do well enough. No ; there must be some way how we may
come to receive benefit ; besides the meritorious cause, there must be
an effectual application, for we read of blood shed and blood sprinkled,
of making the atonement and receiving the atonement, Rom. v. 11.
It is for Christ's sake, for his merit and worthiness, that we are accepted.
But then there is a way appointed how we shall be accepted ; therefore
let us not presume of a propitiation without application. The cup of
salvation yieldeth no benefit to us except we drink of it. Therefore
since such a great part of the world miscarry, let us see that we do
not defraud ourselves of so great a benefit.
2. That God must state the way of application as well as the way
of redemption. There is the same reason for the one as for the other ;
that God should propose the terms upon which Christ should be made
ours ; for all is a work of his free grace and counsel. Well, then, we
must be careful to find out God's appointment, and the way of salva
tion which he hath declared : Bom. iii. 25, ' Whom God hath set forth
to be a propitiation through faith in his blood.' Not, ' through his
blood ; ' but ' through faith in his blood.'
3. God hath declared this way to be faith : Acts x. 43, 'That through
his name, whosoever believeth in him shall receive remission of sins.'
First, The scripture is very express in limiting the promises of pardon
to believers : John iii. 16, ' For God so loved the world, that he gave
his only-begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not
perish, but have everlasting life.' Secondly, In declaring all those to
be under the curse that believe not : John iii. 36, ' He that believeth
on the Sou hath everlasting life ; and he that believeth not the Son
shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him.' Thirdly, In
placing faith, correlatively taken, in the room which works had in the
first covenant. Thence so often have we these sayings, ' It is of faith,
not of works,' which we meet with everywhere ; so that there needeth
no more ado. Faith is then required, not in the popish sense, as if
faith were the beginning of that righteousness for which sins are
forgiven ; neither is faith that which God accepteth instead of right
eousness, but the means to receive it as our legal qualification.
4. This faith must be of a right constitution ; namely, such a
believing in Christ as receiveth him to all the ends and purposes that
God hath appointed him ; that he may be Lord and Christ, Prince and
Saviour : John i. 12, ' But as many as received him, to them gave he
278 SISHMONS UPON ACTS II. 37, 38. [SEB. V.
power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe in his
name ; ' James ii. 14, ' What doth it profit, my brethren, though he hath
faith, and have not works? can faith save him?' Christ must be
received so as he may dwell and rule in our hearts, and quicken us in
the way of holiness to everlasting glory. When a sinner doth thus take
Christ to himself, and give up himself to Christ, the work is ended :
Acts xxvi. 18, ' To open their eyes, and to turn them from darkness to
light, and from the power of Satan unto God, that they may receive
forgiveness of sins, and an inheritance among them which are sanctified
by faith that is in me.' This is the faith that is required on our part,
as on God's part there is required the intervention of Christ's merits ;
this is the faith that every one should strive to get, and see if we have
it, yea or no.
Use 1. To show us what course to take for peace and pardon. When
we lie under a sense of guilt and anguish for sin, plead Christ's satis
faction to God's justice. Lord Jesus Christ, thou didst take these
my sinful debts upon thyself, and undertake to satisfy for them ; and I
know that he hath made a full satisfaction ; I renounce all other hope
of pardon and rest for my soul but upon his precious blood. If he
be not able to save, I am content to perish : ' But he is able to save to
the uttermost all that come unto God by him.' When you do this in a
penitent broken-hearted manner, God will not refuse. As Adonijah
took hold of the horns of the altar, 1 Kings i. 51, and said, ' If I
perish, here will I perish ; ' so are we to plead that satisfaction before
the tribunal of God. We are allowed to ask blessings in his name,
and use his merit in pleading with God : John xvi. 23, ' Whatsoever
ye shall ask the Father in my name, he will give it you.' When you
have a feeling of all your wants, and seriously need the pardon of sins,
you will get a good answer. This is to use Christ as our propitiation :
Heb. x. 14, ' For by one offering he hath perfected for ever them that
are sanctified.' There needeth no more to be done by way of expiation.
2. When you are confessing your sins, depend upon him as your
advocate, as one that died for your sins, and is ready to appear before
God, to plead for you, and put all your debts upon his score. Let us
be sure to arraign and accuse ourselves : we must confess our sins, 1
John i. 9, and then Christ will plead for the pardon of them. If we
think to be our own advocates, and do deny, extenuate, or excuse sin,
it will never succeed well with us ; but if Christ be our advocate, how
can we miscarry ? There will not want accusers to lay sin to our
charge : ' But we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the
righteous.'
It is not a servant or a friend, but the dearly beloved of his soul
that pleadeth for us , one that pleadeth not by way of entreaty, but
merit : he is Jesus Christ the righteous. Now ' the prayer of a right
eous man availeth much,' James v. 16, but much more the prayer of
a righteous Saviour ; he that hath fully suffered for thy sins, that can
bring blood to the mercy-seat, he prayeth for no more than he hath
paid for. Oh, who shall condemn ? Bom. 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, who also maketh
VER. 38.] SERMONS UPON ACTS n. 37, 38. 279
intercession for us.' Here is comfort enough, if we were in a condition
to beg it, nay, if we were in a condition to need it ; for this comfort is
for poor burdened souls.
The next clause in this verse is remission of sins ; but this being
handled in the first and second sermons of the twenty that were
printed in quarto, and in the Lord's Prayer, and on 1 John ii. 11 in
this volume, 1 it is omitted here.
SERMON VI.
Be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the
remission of sins. — ACTS ii. 38.
IN Peter's answer we have two things — (1.) His advice ; (2.) The
encouragement.
In his advice we have two things — (1.) Repent every one of you ; (2.)
' Be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the
remission of sins.'
The second part of the advice I shall now insist upon : ' Be baptized
every one of you.' And here I shall speak to three questions.
Quest. 1. Why is baptism mentioned rather than faith, and other
things more internal and necessary to salvation ?
Ans. 1. Faith is implied : Mark xvi. 16, ' He that believeth and
is baptized shall be saved.' For baptism is an open and real profession
of faith in Christ crucified ; so that it must be explained thus : Be
baptized, believing on the name of the Lord Jesus, for the remission of
sins. Surely he would not have them dissemble, and seek remission of
sins without faith in Christ, by the bare submission to the outward rite
of baptism.
2. Baptism is mentioned, because it was the visible rite of receiving
proselytes to Christ. Now it imported them who were convinced as
persecutors to turn professors, if they would have ease for their con
sciences ; and not only to believe with the heart, but to make their
profession manifest and open by submitting to this way : Rom. x. 10,
' For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness, and with the
mouth confession is made to salvation.'
Quest. 2. Why in the name of Christ only ? The Father and the
Holy Ghost are not mentioned, according to the precept, Mat. xxviii.
19, 'Go ye, therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the
name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.'
Ans. He speaketh not of the form of baptism, but the use and end
thereof. Now the great use of baptism is, that we may have benefit by
the mystery of redemption by Christ ; therefore we are said to be
baptized into Christ, Rom. vi. 3, and Gal. iii. 27, ' For as many of
you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ.' He is the
head of the church, and by baptism we are planted into the mystical
body.
1 All contained in prior volume* of this Edition. — ED.
280 SERMONS UPON ACTS II. 37, 38. [SER. VI.
Quest. 3. Doth not this put too great an honour and necessity upon
baptism to entitle remission of sins to this act, as it' every one that
were baptized had his sins forgiven him ?
Ans. When we submit to the gospel covenant, we believe that God
for Christ's sake will forgive us our sins : in testimony of this faith
we receive baptism, which, supposing that we do not ponere obicem,
lay any block in the way, that we repent and believe the gospel, doth
seal and deliver a pardon to us ; it doth seal, that is, confirm us in the
expectation of it, and deliver it to us. It is our legal investiture ;
it is the rite by which we are first solemnly put in possession of it.
Supposing that we have a promise before, as all that repent and
believe have, it doth seal and deliver. But because most are baptized
in infancy, it doth excite and oblige us to take the way whereby we
may obtain pardon according to the new covenant ; doing what is
necessary, it assures and confirms us that he will be as good as his
word.
Doct. That baptism hath an especial use and respect unto this
benefit of obtaining remission of sins in the name of Christ.
To evidence this unto you, I must take it for granted for the
present that baptism belongeth to the gospel or the new covenant ;
or, if you will have it confirmed, that place doth it fully which was
mentioned before : Mark xvi. 16, ' Go, preach the gospel to every
creature. He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved ; but he
that believeth not shall be damned.' Whence it followeth clearly and
undeniably that baptism belongeth to the gospel or new covenant.
Supposing this, let me take my rise a little higher.
1. That God hath ever delighted to deal with his creatures in the
way of a covenant, that we might know what to expect from him, and
we might look upon ourselves under the firmer bonds of obedience to
his blessed majesty ; for in a covenant, which is the most solemn
transaction between man and man, both parties are engaged ; God to
us, and we to God. It is not meet that one party should be bound
and the other be free ; therefore both are bound to each other, God to
bless, and we to obey. Indeed, in the first covenant the debitum pcence,
the debt of punishment, is only mentioned, because that only took
place : Gen. ii. 17, 'In the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely
die.' But the other part is implied, Do and live, sin and die.
2. Because the first covenant was broken on our pnrt, God was
pleased to enter into a second, wherein he would manifest the glory of
his redeeming grace and pardoning mercy to fallen man. This was
brought about in Christ : 2 Cor. v. 19, ' God was in Christ reconciling
the world to himself.' And therefore this second covenant was called
a covenant of peace, as being made with us after the breach, or with
man obnoxious to the wrath of God : Isa. liv. 10, ' The covenant of
my peace shall not be removed, saith the Lord.' Man needeth such a
covenant, and Christ offereth it to us.
3. In this covenant of peace, both the privileges and duties are
suited to the state in which man was when God invited him into
covenant with himself. Man was fallen from his duty, and obnoxious
to the wrath and displeasure of God, and therefore the new covenant
is a doctrine of repentance and remission of sins. What is ' preach
VER. 38.] SERMONS UPON ACTS n. 37, 38. 281
the gospel to every creature/ in Mark xvi. 15, is in Luke xxiv. 47,
' That repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his
name among all nations.' That is the gospel, or the new remedial
law of our Lord Jesus ; repentance to heal us and set us in joint
again as to our duty, and remission of sins to recover us into God's
favour ; and both these benefits we have by the Redeemer : Acts v. 31 ,
' Him hath God exalted with his right hand to be a prince and a
saviour, to give repentance to Israel, and remission of sins.' He giveth
the one simply, and both gives and requires the other ; so that by the
new covenant remission of sins is conveyed to all true penitents.
4. The more distinctly to understand the nature of this covenant,
we must consider both the duties and privileges thereof ; for in every
covenant there is ratio dati et accepti, there is something promised
and given, and something required ; and usually the promise con-
sisteth of somewhat which the party is willing of, and the duty or
condition required is that to which he is more backward, and loath
to submit unto. So in the covenant of grace ; in the promise God
respecteth man's want ; in the duty, his own honour. Every man
would have pardon, and be saved from hell, but God will have sub
jection : every corrupt nature is not against desires of happiness; these
God maketh use of to gain us to holiness. All men naturally greedily
catch at felicity, and would have impunity, peace, comfort, glory, but
are unwilling to deny the flesh, and are unwilling to renounce the
credit, profit, or pleasure of sin, or to grow dead to the world and
worldly things. Now God promiseth what we desire on condition
that we will submit to those things we are against. As we sweeten
bitter pills to children that they may the better swallow them ; they
love the sugar, though they loathe the aloes ; so doth God invite us to
our duty by our interest. Therefore whoever would enter into the
gospel state must resolve to take the blessings and benefits offered for
his happiness, and the duties required for his work. Indeed, accepting
the benefits is a part of the condition, because we treat with an
invisible God about a happiness that lieth in another world ; but it is
but part, for there are terms : Heb. x. 22, ' Let us draw near with a
true heart, in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from
an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water.'
5. The privileges are two — pardon and life. These are the great
blessings offered in the new covenant ; you have both together, Acts
xxvi. 18, ' To turn them from darkness to light, and from the power
of Satan unto God ; that they may receive forgiveness of sins, and an
inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith that is in me.'
These two benefits are most necessary, the one to allay the fears of the
guilty creature, the other to gratify desires of happiness, which are
natural to us ; the one to remedy the misery incurred by the sin and
fall of man, the other to establish our true and proper felicity in the
everlasting enjoyment of God ; the one to ease our consciences, and to
support us against troubles of mind, the other to comfort us against
all the outward troubles and afflictions which sin hath introduced into
this world. In short, the one to free us from deserved punishment,
the other to assure us of undeserved blessings ; for one importeth
deliverance from eternal death, the other entrance into everlasting life.
282 SERMONS UPON ACTS II. 37, 38. [$ER. VI.
6. The duties thereof do either concern our first entrance into the
Christian state, or our progress therein. Our Lord representeth it
under the notions of the 'gate' and ' way ;' Mat. vii. 14, ' Strait is the
gate and narrow is the way which leadeth unto life/ Other scriptures
deliver it under the notions of making covenant and keeping covenant
with God. Making covenant : Ps. 1. 5, ' Gather my saints together
unto me, those that have made a covenant with me by sacrifice.'
Keeping covenant : Ps. xxv. 10, 'All the paths of the Lord are mercy
and truth to such as keep his covenant ; ' Ps. ciii. 18, ' To such as
keep his covenant, and to those that remember his commandments to
do them.' The covenant must not only be made, but kept.
[1.] As to entering into covenant with God, there is required true
repentance and faith : Mark i. 15, 'Repent ye, and believe the gospel.'
Repentance respects God as our end, faith respects Christ as the way
to the Father : Acts xx. 21, ' Repentance towards God, and faith
toward our Lord Jesus Christ.' God is our end: 1 Peter iii. 18,
' Christ also hath once suffered, the just for the unjust, that he might
bring us to God.' And Christ is our way : John xiv. 6, ' I am the
way, the truth, and the life : no man cometh to the Father but by
me.' And Christianity is a coming to God by Christ, Heb. vii. 25.
Now in our first entrance faith and repentance are both mixed, and it
is hard to sever them, and to show what belongeth to the one and
what to the other ; at least it would perplex the discourse. Both
together imply that a man be turned from a life of sin to God by faith
in Christ, or a renouncing the devil, the world, and the flesh, and a
devoting and dedicating ourselves to God as our God.
(1.) A renouncing the devil, the world, and the flesh ; for these are
the three great enemies of God and our salvation. When God is laid
aside, self interposeth as the next heir. That which we count self is
the flesh : Eph. ii. 2, 3, ' Wherein in time past ye walked, according
to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of
the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience ;
among whom also we had our conversation in times past in the lusts
of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind.' There
all your enemies appear abreast : the devil as the grand deceiver and
principle of all wickedness ; the world, with its pleasures, honours, and
profits, as the bait by which the devil would deceive us, and steal
away our hearts from God, and pervert and divert us, that we should
not look after the one thing necessary ; the flesh is the corrupt
inclination in us, which entertaineth and closeth with these tempta
tions, to the neglect of God and the wrong of our own souls. The
flesh is importunate to be pleased, and is the proper internal cause
of all our mischief : James i. 14, ' But every man is tempted when he
is drawn away of his own lust and enticed.' These must be renounced
before you can return to God : Josh. xxiv. 23, ' Now therefore put
away, said he, the strange gods which are among you, and incline
your heart to the Lord. God of Israel.' We must be turned from
Satan to God ; we must be delivered from the present evil world ; we
must abstain from fleshly lusts ; for God will have no copartners and
competitors in our hearts.
(2.) A devoting, consecrating, and giving up ourselves to God,
VER. 38.] SERMONS UPON ACTS ir. 37 38. 283
Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, as our God : 2 Cor. viii. 5, ' But first
gave themselves to the Lord ; ' Rom. vi. 13,.' But yield yourselves unto
God.' As our owner by creation : Ps. c. 3, ' The Lord is God ; it is
he that hath made us, and not we ourselves ; we are his people and the
sheep of his pasture.' As his by redemption : 1 Cor. vi. 19, 20, ' And
ye are not your own, for ye are bought with a price ; therefore
glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God's.' As
your sovereign Lord : Jer. xxiv. 7, ' I will give them an heart to know
me that I am the Lord ; and they shall be my people, and I will be
their God : for they shall return unto me with their whole heart ; '
Isa. xxvi. 13, '0 Lord our God, other lords besides thee have had
dominion over us.' As the fountain of our life and blessedness : Ps.
xxxi. 14, ' But I trusted in thee, God ; I said, Thou art my God ; '
Lam. iii. 24, ' The Lord is my portion, saith my soul ; therefore I will
hope in him ; ' Ps. cxix. 5, ' Thou art my portion, Lord ; I have
said, I will keep thy words.'
[2.] As to our progress, continuance, and perseverance ; for this
is not the work of a day, but of our whole lives. This is our walking
in the narrow way, and evidenceth our sincerity in making covenant,
and our pursuit showeth it is a true consent. As to this progress and
perseverance, three things are required —
(1.) As to the enemies of God and our souls, there must be a for
saking as well as a renouncing. The devil must be forsaken, we must
be no more of his party and confederacy ; we must resist, stand out
against all his batteries and assaults : 1 Peter v. 8, 9, ' Be sober, be
vigilant ; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh
about, seeking whom he may devour : whom resist, steadfast in the
faith.' The world must be overcome : 1 John v. 45, ' For whatsoever
is born of God overcometh the world ; and this is the victory that over-
cometh the world, even our faith. Who is he that overcometh the
world, but he that believeth Jesus is the Son of God ? * The flesh
must be subdued and crucified : Gal. v. 24, ' They that are Christ's
have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts ; ' that we be no
more governed by the desires of it. If we be sometimes foiled, we
must not go back again, but the drift of our lives must be for God and
heaven.
(2.) As to God, to whom we have devoted ourselves, we must love,
and please, and serve him all our days : Luke i. 75, ' In holiness and
righteousness before him all the days of our life.' We must make it
our work to love him, and our happiness to be beloved of him. and
carefully apply ourselves to seek his favour, and cherish a fresh sense
of it upon our hearts, and continue with all patience in well-doing,
Rom. ii. 7, till you come to the complete sight and love of him : 1
John iii. 2, ' We shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.'
(3.) You must always live in the hope of the coming of Christ and
everlasting glory : Titus ii. 13, ' Looking for that blessed hope, and the
glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ ; '
Jude 21, ' Looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal
life.' As we die at first, thankfully 1 accept of our recovery by Christ,
and at first consent to renounce the devil, the world, and the flesh, and
resolve to follow God's counsel and direction, we must still persevere in
> Qu. ' did at first thankfully ' ?— ED,
284 SERMONS UPON ACTS II. 37, 38. [SfiR. VI.
this mind, and use his appointed means in order to our final happiness.
The sum then of our Christianity is this, that we should by true repent
ance and faith forsake the flesh, world, and devil, and give up ourselves
to Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, that he may take us as his reconciled
children, and adopt us into his family, and for Christ's sake pardon all
our sins, and by his Spirit give us grace to persevere in these resolutions,
till our glory and final happiness come in hand.
7. This covenant, consisting of such duties and privileges, God hath
confirmed by certain visible ordinances, commonly called sacraments.
These are baptism and the Lord's supper ; both which, but in a differ
ent manner, respect the whole tenor of the covenant ; for as the covenant
bindeth mutually on God's part and ours, so these duties have a mutual
aspect or respect to what God doth and what we must do. On God's
part they are a sign and seal ; on our part they are a badge and a bond.
[1.] On God's part they are sealing signs. As circumcision is called
a ' sign and seal of the righteousness which is by faith/ Rom. iv. 11 ;
that is, of the grace offered to us in Christ ; so is baptism, which came
in the room of circumcision : Col. ii. 11, 12, ' In whom also ye are
circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, in putting off
the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ ; buried
with him in baptism.' Surely the gospel ordinances sign as much
grace as the ordinances of the Jews or legal covenant ; as circumcision
was a sign and seal of the righteousness which is by faith, or a pledge
of God's good-will in Christ, so is baptism, and so is the Lord's supper,
to signify they are signs, and to confirm they are seals, to represent
the grace, and confirm the grant of pardon and life by the use of these
duties. As, for instance, baptism signifies pardon and life, so doth
the Lord's supper : Mat. xxvi. 28, 29, ' For this is my blood of the
new testament, which is shed for many, for the remission of sins. I will
not drink henceforth of the fruit of the vine until that day when I
drink it new with you in my Father's kingdom.' That for our growth
and nourishment, this for our initiation. Baptism is under our con
sideration at present. That this hath respect to remission of sins, the
text is clear for it ; and so are many other scriptures. It was Ananias'
advice to Paul, Acts xxii. 16, 'Arise and be baptized, and wash
away thy sins, calling on the name of the Lord.' His sins were
solemnly washed away by baptism : Eph. v. 26, ' That he might
sanctify and cleanse it by the washing of water through the word.'
This washing represents the washing away of the guilt and filth of sin.
And it signifieth also our resurrection to a blessed arid eternal life :
1 Peter iii. 21, 'Even baptism doth now save us; not the putting away
of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience towards
God, by the resurrection of Jesus Christ.' Well, then, it is a sealing
sign : 2 Kings xx. 8, ' What shall be the sign that the Lord will heal
me ? ' It is a witness between us and God : Gen. xxxi. 48, ' This
heap is a witness between me and thee this day.' So baptism is a
witness that God will pardon our sins, and upon pardon give us eternal
blessedness.
[2.] On our part they are a badge and a bond to oblige us to the
duties of the covenant ; a badge of the profession, and a bond to engage
us to the duties which that profession calleth for. It is a debt : Gal. v.
SERMONS UPON ACTS II. 37, 33. 285
3, ' For I testify again to every man that is circumcised, that he is a
debtor to the whole law.' He bindeth himself to the observances of
Moses' law ; so a Christian to the law of Christ. Therefore the apostle
saith, Rom. viii. 12, ' We are not debtors to the flesh.' And it is an
answer towards God, 1 Peter iii. 21, or an undertaking faithfully to per
form the conditions required of us. It is a vow or obligation taken upon
ourselves : Horn. vi. 11, ' Likewise reckon ye yourselves to be dead
indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord.'
It bindeth us chiefly to the duties that belong to our entrance ; as the
Lord's supper doth more directly to the duties which belong to our
progress. It bindeth us- to a true belief of the gospel, or an accept
ance of Christ, and a consent to the covenant of grace ; to renounce
the devil, the world, and the flesh ; and therefore the baptismal cove
nant, by which we are initiated into the Christian religion, is expressed
by being ' baptized in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost,'
Mat. xxviii. 19, which implieth a dedication or giving up ourselves to
them in their distinct personal relations. To the Father, that we may
return to him and obey him as our rightful Lord, that we may love
him and depend upon him as our all-sufficient happiness, and be
happy in his love as his dear children, and may prefer his honour
before all sensual pleasures in the world. We are baptized in the
name of Christ, that we believe him and accept him as our Redeemer
and Saviour, expecting to be saved by his merits, righteousness, and
intercession, from the wrath of God, and the guilt of sin and eternal
death. And we are baptized in the name of the Holy Ghost as our
guide, sanctifier, and comforter, that he may free us from sin, and
change us into the image and likeness of Christ, and lead us into all
truth and goodness, and fit and frame us for all holiness and godliness
of conversation, and comfort us with the sense of our present interest
in God's love, and the hopes of future glory.
8. These visible confirming ordinances give us great advantages
above the word and bare proposal of the covenant there, as these seal
ing signs are an expression of God's earnest and sincere respect to our
salvation. God hath opened his mind in the word concerning his
love and good-will to sinners in Christ, and he hath also added his
seal, that the charter of his grace might be more valid and authentic.
[1.] It argueth the goodness and communicativeness of God to give
notice in his word, but his solicitousness and anxious care of our good,
to give us visible assurance, as sacraments do, as being willing over
and above to satisfy the heirs of promise, Heb. vi. 17. When any one
is more than ordinarily cautious to make all sure, it is a sign his heart
is upon the thing. It is a great condescension that God would dispose
his grace into a covenant form ; but it is a further condescension that
he would add seals, which needed not on God's part, yet he added
them to give us the more strong consolation. Nudum pactum, a
naked promise is not so valid and authentic as when articles of agree
ment are put into a formal instrument and deed of law, and that
signed and sealed, and interchangeably delivered ; this breedeth more
confidence and security on both sides. God's word certifieth us of his
good-will ; but when he is pleased to make a formal indenture of it,
and to sign it and seal it, it doth breed more assurance in our. minds
286 SERMONS UPON ACTS II. 37, 33. [SER. VI.
that his promises are made with a real intent to perform them ; and
it bindeth us the more firmly to God when, besides our naked promise,
there is a kind of vow and oath on our part solemnly entered into by
baptism.
[2.] There is this advantage in the sacraments above the word, that
they are a closer application. The word speaketh to all promiscuously,
as inviting ; the sacrament to every one in particular, as obliging.
By the word none are excluded from the grace offered to them upon
God's terms: ' Go, preach the gospel to every creature;' but by the
sacraments every one is expressly admonished of his duty. The object
revealed in the word is like the brazen serpent, which without differ
ence was exposed to the eyes of all, that whosoever looked upon it
might be healed ; but the same object offered in the sacraments is like
the blood sprinkled on the door-posts, that every man might be assured
that his family would be in safety. Now the reason of this difference
is because things propounded in the word are like a treaty between
God and us. It is an offer and a debating of matters till the parties
do agree ; but sacraments are not of use till both sides have agreed
upon the conditions of the covenant, in adults at least. The word
conduceth to the making of the covenant, the sacraments suppose it
made ; therefore the word universally propoundeth that which in the
seals is particularly applied. Now those things do not affect us so
much which are spoken indifferently to all as those that are particu
larly applied to ourselves. These stir us up to a more accurate care and
endeavour to fulfil the duty incumbent upon us. The conditions are
propounded in the word, Repent and believe, and I will pardon and give
eternal life ; but the sacraments suppose an actual consent, that thou hast
done or undertaken to do it. And then God cometh and saith, Take
this as an undoubted pledge that thou shalt have what I have promised,
which doth more increase our hopes, and persuade us to our duty.
[3.] By these sealing signs we are solemnly invested into a right to
the things promised, put in possession ; as when we are put in posses
sion of a bargain by formalities of law ; so, ' This is my body.' It is
our solemn investiture. A believer receiveth Christ in the word : John
i. 12, ' To as many as received him.' And is he not received in the
Lord's supper? his right is solemnly owned and confirmed in the way
which God hath appointed. As soon as a man consents to a bargain,
be hath an interest in the thing bargained for ; but that right is made
more explicit when it is delivered to him by some formality of law ;
as an house by a key, or a field by a turf or twig, when put in posses
sion of what he hath bargained for. Every penitent believing sinner
hath a right to Christ and pardon, but his solemn enfeoffment is by the
sacraments : ' Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of
Christ for the remission of sins ; ' ' Arise and be baptized for the wash
ing away of thy sins,' Acts xxii. 16. God gave Abraham the land of
promise by word of mouth, Gen. xiii. ; but he biddeth him go through
the land, and build an altar, and offer sacrifice there ; then he was
actually invested. God gave Israel a grant of Canaan, but the clusters
of Eshcol were as it were the livery and seisin of it. Though the gift
be sufficiently made over by the promise, yet it is further rectified, and
more solemnly conveyed and delivered, by the sacraments.
VER. 38.] SERMONS UPON ACTS n. 37, ss. 287
[4.] This is one advantage more, that the mysteries of godliness are
laid before our eyes in some visible rites, and so have a greater force
to excite the mind to serious consideration. When God will conde
scend to give us helps against our infirmities, it must needs be by the
senses, by which all knowledge coineth into the soul. Now feeling,
smelling, tasting, seemeth not so fit for this, as being more gross, and
conducing to the welfare of the body ; but sight and hearing convey
objects to the understanding, and therefore are called the senses of dis
cipline and learning. Now the covenant is made by words which strike
the ear, but the seals by visible things before our eyes: Gal. iii. 1,
' Before whose eyes Jesus Christ hath been evidently set forth crucified
among you.'
Use 1. Is caution to us, that we be not slight in the use of baptism
and the Lord's supper, for they imply a solemn covenanting with God,
that we may obtain remission of sins and eternal life, if we accept the
covenant for ourselves or others. For ourselves in the Lord's supper,
for others in offering our children to baptism. We must come ' with
a true heart, in full assurance of faith,' Heb. x. 22 ; with a true heart,
purposing the duties ; in full assurance of faith, depending upon the
promises of Christ for the privileges thereof.
As to children, we must resolve to instruct them in the duties of the
covenant, repentance, faith, and new obedience : Eph. vi. 4, ' And ye
fathers, provoke not your children to wrath, but bring them np in the
nurture and admonition of the Lord/ This is to make way for the
blessing, and to remove the obstructions : Gen. xviii. 19, ' For I know
him, that he will command his children and his household after him,
and they shall keep the way of the Lord, and do justice and judgment,
that the Lord may bring upon Abraham that which he hath spoken
of him.'
As to the privileges, to admire the grace of them : Gen. xvii. 3,
'Abraham fell on his face when God talked with him;' and David,
2 Sam. vii. 19, ' And this was yet a small thing in thy sight, Lord
God ; but thou hast spoken also of thy servant's house for a great
while to come : and is this the manner of man, Lord God ? ' Wait
ing for the accomplishment of them in God's way, as considering how
loath God is to let go his covenant children : Acts iii. 25, 26, ' Ye are
the children of the prophets, and of the covenant which God made
with our fathers, saying unto Abraham, And in thy seed shall all the
kindreds of the earth be blessed : unto you first, God, having raised up
his Son Jesus, sent him to bless you in turning every one of you from
his iniquities.'
Use 2. Is to put us upon self-reflection. We are all baptized in the
name of Christ, but what are we the better ? have we the more confi
dence of pardon of our sins for his sake? Voluterranus reports of Lucian,
that scoffing atheist, that when he revolted from the profession of
Christianity, he scoffed at his baptism, saying, Se nildl ex eo conse-
cutum, quam quod nomen ipsi esset cowuptum, ex Lucio Lucianum
factum — That he got nothing by his baptism but a syllable to his
name. What do the most get but a name ? It should not be so with
you ; you should improve your baptism.
1. For the obtaining of this benefit by a more serious work of
288 SERMONS UPON ACTS II. 37, 38. [SfiR. VII.
faith and repentance, for the washing away of sin : 1 Cor. vi. 11, ' And
such were some of you ; but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye
are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our
God.'
2. For the further sense, continuance, and increase of it, even to the
rejoicing of faith : Heb. vi. 18, ' That we may have strong consola
tion ; ' Acts viii. 39, ' And when they were come up out of the water,
the Spirit of the Lord caught away Philip, that the eunuch saw him
no more ; and he went on his way rejoicing.' Hath God applied to
me his covenant, taken me into his family, planted me into the mysti
cal body of Christ ; and shall not we be glad, and rejoice in his sal
vation ?
3. For comfort in all our afflictions, perplexities, doubts, and fears.
Luther telleth us that all his answer to the devil tempting him to
despair was, Ecce ego baptizatus sum, et credo in Christum — I am
baptized into the belief of the Christian faith. We must expect to be
tempted. The devil tempted Christ after his baptism to question his
filiation : Mat. iv. 6, ' If thou be the Son of God/ &c. So in outward
troubles, Dionysia comforted Majoricus her son, an African martyr,
with this, Memento fili, te in nomine Patris, &c. — Remember, son, that
thou wast baptized in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.
So in temptations to sin : Luther speaketh of a holy virgin, who,
when tempted to sin, replied, Baptizata sum — I am baptized. A
Christian hath but this one answer, I am dedicated to God to obtain
pardon and life.
Use 3. To condemn —
1. The careless, who never look after the remission of sins so solemnly
sealed in baptism, and those saving graces which may evidence their
title thereunto : 1 Peter i. 3, ' Blessed be God, who hath begotten us
to a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.'
2. The profane, that live directly contrary to their baptismal engage
ment. To be worse than our words to men is bad enough ; but to
forfeit our words to God, to list ourselves into his service, and then to
turn deserters and fight against him, is grand apostasy. To be made
Christians by baptism, and then to live like heathens, is a sin which
will be attended with a severe doom.
SERMON VII.
And ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. — ACTS ii. 38.
THIS chapter giveth an account of the'pouring out of the Spirit, accord
ing to promise, presently after Christ's ascension. As soon as he was
warm in the mediatorial throne, he was mindful of the church, and shed
abroad his Spirit for the gathering and increasing thereof by the gospel.
As soon as the Spirit was poured out, the apostles were enabled to speak
in various languages, to the astonishment and wonder of the hearers.
VER. 38.] SERMONS UPON ACTS n. 37, 38. 289
This was for the glory of God, and the confirmation and authoris
ing them as messengers. At the sight of this miracle, some wonder,
others mock, as if this speaking with divers tongues had been a confused
jabbering that proceeded from the fumes of wine rather than the operation
of the Holy Ghost. To satisfy both, Peter declareth the effect and intent
of the miracle, proving Jesus Christ, whom they had slain, to be Lord
and Christ. When they heard this, many of the most obstinate among
them were pricked in their hearts, and relented. A happy sermon it
was that Peter preached ; for it brought in thousands of souls to Christ ;
the first handsel of the power of the Spirit and success of the gospel.
It is good to observe what course they took for ease and relief after
this piercing and brokenness of heart : ' They said to Peter and to the
rest of the apostles, Men and brethren, what shall we do ? ' This is
the usual question of men under sound and pressing convictions. To
their serious question Peter rnaketh a seasonable answer, of which the
text is a part. It is the part of a good physician not only to discover
the disease, but also to prescribe a remedy ; especially should spiritual
physicians be tender of broken-hearted sinners, willing and ready t6
give them counsel. In Peter's direction and counsel to them observe —
1. What he persuadeth them to do.
2. By what motive and argument. We have seen already what
they must do. Now what they shall receive : ' Arid ye shall receive
the gift of the Holy Ghost.' There are twofold gifts of the Spirit —
common or saving. The common were either miraculous or ordinary.
The miraculous and extraordinary were those gifts of tongues, and pro
phecy, and healing, which, in the primitive times, were poured out upon
the church. The common are such gifts as are still vouchsafed.
Now the question is, which of those gifts are intended in the pro
mise, the extraordinary gifts, which were so rife in those times, or the
gifts of the Spirit, which are necessary to salvation.
I answer — I take the promise indefinitely, as it is propounded, and
so exclude neither the one nor the other.
First, The extraordinary gifts are not wholly to be excluded, partly
because these were the things which they now saw and admired in the
apostles. Now saith Peter, Kepent, and believe in Christ, and ye shall
be made partakers of these gifts which ye so admire in us. And partly
because the promise is to be interpreted by the effect. Those gifts
were given to many upon their baptism : Actsiv. 30, 31, ' By stretching
forth thine hand to heal, and that signs and wonders may be done by
the name of the holy child Jesus. And when they had prayed, the
place was shaken where they were assembled together, and they were
all filled with the Holy Ghost ; ' Acts x. 44, 45, ' While Peter yet spake
these words, the Holy Ghost fell on all them that heard the word ; and
they of the circumcision which believed were astonished, as many as
came with Peter, because that on the gentiles also was poured out the
gift of the Holy Ghost.' And partly because these gifts are not to be
slighted, because they conduced much to the propagating and confirm
ing of the gospel : Heb. ii. 4, ' God also bearing them witness, both
with signs and wonders, and with divers miracles and gifts of the Holy
Ghost, according to his own will.' They were wonderfully confirmed
by this means in the assurance of the truth of the gospel.
VOL. XXI. T
290 SERMONS UPON ACTS II. 37, 38. [SEE. VIT.
Secondly, Besides this gratia gratis data, these free gifts, there is
gratia gratum faciens, saving graces ; these are principally intended ;
for—
1. Miraculous gifts would have been small comfort to them that were
pricked in heart, and did so anxiously inquire after the way of salvation,
to put them off with tongues, and prophecy, and gifts common to
hypocrites : Mat. vii. 22, 23, ' Many will say unto me in that day, Lord,
Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name, and in thy name have cast
out devils, and in thy name have done many wonderful works ? And
then will I profess unto them, I know you not ; depart from me, ye
workers of iniquity ; ' 1 Cor. xiii. 1, ' Though I speak with the tongues
of men and angels, and have not charity, I am become as a sounding
brass or a tinkling cymbal.' The apostle, who knew better how to satisfy
and to heal these wounded souls, promiseth such a gift of the Holy
Ghost as is joined with remission of sins.
2. All parts of Peter's answer, both the precept and the promise,
must be supposed to be suited to the question asked. Now the ques-
fion asked was, ' What shall we do to be saved ? ' or freed from the
misery into which we have plunged ourselves ? His answer was, Re
pent, and seek remission by baptism in the name of Christ. If you do
so, you shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost, which shall teach you
all things, and make you fit to do all things that are necessary to your
salvation ; you are weak and impotent, but you shall have power from
the Holy Ghost. For it concerned them not only to know what they
should do, but whence they should have strength to do what was
required of them.
3. In the next words the apostle speaketh of a promise, and such a
promise as was to them and their children, and to all that are afar off,
even as many as the Lord our God shall call. This promise was the
promise of internal grace ; be it the promise in Joel, or the promise in
John vii. 38, ' He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out
of his belly shall flow rivers of living waters." And the evangelist tell-
eth us in the words that follow, ' But this spake he of the Spirit, which
they that believe on him should receive ; for the Holy Ghost was not
yet given, because that Jesus was not yet glorified.' Those rivers out
of the belly imply something flowing out of the heart ; a spring of
living waters there, that would send forth life and influence to all their
actions. Well, then, this was the promise, and a promise that did not
only concern the first age, when these miraculous and extraordinary
gifts were dispensed, but all the ages of the church ; a promise to us
and our children, and as many as the Lord our God should call. It
relateth to the gracious covenant, that God will be our God, and the
God of our seed ; even that promise spoken of Gal. iii. 14, where the
npostle saith that Christ was made a curse for us, ' that the blessing of
Abraham might come on the gentiles through Jesus Christ, that we
might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.' The blessing
of church privileges was Abraham's blessing, even ordinances accom
panied with the Spirit,
4. The process of the story showeth what the gift of the Holy Ghost
is : ver. 41, ' There were added to the church about three thousand
souls that day,' who received the faith of Christ, joined themselves to the
VfiR. 38.] SERMONS UPON ACTS II. 37, 38. 291
apostles, conversed together in a wonderful, charitable manner, owned
Christ boldly and comfortably in the midst of afflictions. The sum is
this, that though all had not miraculous gifts, yet they had better, being
enabled to believe on Christ unto righteousness, and make a bold pro
fession of his name with their mouths, and live with his followers in a
high pitch of charity.
Doct. Those that repent, and believe on Jesus Christ for the remis
sion of sins, shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.
I shall handle this point in this method —
1. Show you in what sense we are said to receive the Spirit after
repenting and believing.
2. The use and office of the Spirit so received.
3. The peculiar property and right of those that repent and believe
to this gift.
I. In what sense we are said to receive the Spirit after repenting and
believing ; for this doubt doth presently arise in our minds, Can we
repent and believe before we receive the Spirit ? or can a man convert
himself to God without the Holy Ghost? So much seemeth to be
intimated by the apostle's method, ' Repent, and be baptized in the name
of Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the
Holy Ghost.' I answer —
1. We must distinguish between the spirit of regeneration and the
spirit of adoption and perseverance ; for though the spirit of regenera
tion be tied to no condition, but is dispensed according to the good
pleasure of God, yet the spirit of adoption and perseverance in holi
ness is tied to conditions, and is promised to all those that, with true
faith and repentance, do seek after the grace of God in Jesus Christ.
Therefore this receiving of the Spirit is meant of the increase of his
grace in us ; namely, that the spirit of regeneration is followed with a
great increase of light, comfort, and virtue. First the Holy Ghost is
given to us to unite us to Christ, and afterwards to take up his abode
in us as in his temples, and to dwell in us for our comfort and support.
First as a Spirit of regeneration he buildeth an house for himself, then
as a Spirit of adoption and perseverance he cometh to dwell in the house
so built and furnished ; as bees first make their cells, and then dwell
in them. By repentance and faith there is a fit mansion and resting-
place prepared for him^and then he resteth upon us: 1 Peter iv. 14,
' The Spirit of glory and' of God resteth upon you.' He taketh up his
residence in us : not, comes upon them, but resteth on them. These
two things must be carefully distinguished, the Spirit of regeneration
and the Spirit of adoption, or God's converting and confirming grace.
The first is given us that we may believe, the second upon believing.
The first is spoken of 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 regeneration and the renewing of the Holy Ghost, which
he hath shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Saviour.
The Lord out of his good pleasure, not excited by any works of ours,
but merely by his grace, shed abroad the Holy Ghost in our hearts,
to renew and sanctify us, that we may repent and believe, and return
;ind obey him. This his prevailing 1 grace also is spoken of Zech. xii.
10, ' I will pour upon them the spirit of grace and supplication.' This
1 Qu. ' prevening ' ? — ED.
292 SERMONS UPON ACTS II. 37, 38. [SER. VII.
goeth before faith and repentance, and is the cause of it, as is there
expressed.
2. There is the Spirit of adoption and perseverance, that is, after
believing : Gal. iv. 6, ' And because ye are sons, God hath sent forth
the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, Abba, Father.' First we
are sons, and then we have the spirit of sons. When we are entered
as heirs to the promises, the Spirit of God doth more manifest his
presence in our hearts, and put forth his gracious operations there :
Eph. i. 13, ' After that ye believed, ye were sealed with that Holy Spirit
of promise.' Though none can actually believe before the Spirit of
God works in them, yet upon believing, he cometh to dwell in the heart,
and doth manifest that he hath taken up his abode there.
II. The use and office of the Spirit so received. It may be referred
to two things — (1.) Sanctification ; (2.) Consolation.
First, Sanctification. The great work of the Spirit is to be the
fountain and principle of the new life of grace within us, or to maintain
and keep afoot the interest of Christ in our souls : Gal. v. 25, ' If we
live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.' He doth not only
begin life, but continueth it, and still actuateth it, enabling us to all
the duties thereof. There is having and walking ; thence he is com
pared to a spring or well of living water, that is always springing forth :
John iv. 14, ' The water that I shall give him shall be in him a well
of water springing up unto everlasting life.' Not only a draught, but
a well. They that have any measure of true grace have the Spirit as a
fountain to make this grace endure in itself and in its effects. Some
have only a draught, a vanishing taste, others a cistern or a pond, that
may be dried up ; but they that have the Spirit have a well, and a well
that is always fresh and springing up and flowing forth till this stream
become an ocean, and mortality be swallowed up of life. It is a spring
that sendeth forth streams to water the ground about it. As the heart
of man sendeth forth life to every faculty and member, and a general
relief to all his parts, so doth the Spirit influence all our actions. Now
both parts of Sanctification are promoted by the Spirit, mortification
and vivification, subduing of sin and quickening us to holiness. Mor
tification is seen in two things — purging out the lusts, or suppressing the
acts of sin.
1. In purging out the lusts of it. The Spirit is said to cleanse us,
and to purify us to the obedience of the truth : 1 Peter i. 22, ' Seeing
ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit.'
The Spirit showeth what purity of heart is pleasing to God, and work-
eth it in us, casting out pride, and hard-heartedness, and malice, and
hypocrisy, and sensuality, and all those lusts which defile our hearts,
and dispose us to walk contrary to God. It is the contrary principle
that sets us a- warring and striving against the flesh.
2. Preventing and suppressing the acts of sin : Rom. viii. 13, 'If ye
through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live.' That
they may not break out to God's dishonour and our discomfort. We
cannot do it without the Spirit, nor the Spirit without us: Gal. v. 16,
' This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lusts of
the flesh.' There is no possibility of getting the power of inbred cor
ruption subdued, or the lusts of sinful flesh curbed to any saving pur-
VER. 38.] SERMONS UPON ACTS ir. 37, 33. 293
pose, without the Spirit of God ; otherwise lusts will gather strength,
and range abroad without any effectual resistance. He warneth us of
our danger, and checketh sin. If we would hearken to him, and observe
his checks and restraints, sin would not transport us so often, beyond
the bounds of duty ; a man cannot sin so freely as before.
[1.] He doth quicken us to holiness, increasing the internal habits :
Eph. iii. 16, ' That he would grant you, according to the riches of his
glory, to be strengthened with might by the Spirit in the inner man.'
That we may be fitted for the service of God, for which before we were
indisposed to, and prepared to every good work. There is an inward
man, holy and gracious qualities infused into the soul, which are so
called. These are created by the Spirit of God, and supplied and
cherished by him that reneweth strength upon us from day to day, that
we may go from strength to strength, and be more able for God's
service. Though a renewed heart be yet continued, yet, as the two olive-
trees, Zech. iv. 13, dropping into the lamps, and emptying through the
golden pipes the golden oil out of themselves ; so doth the Spirit of
Christ supply an increase of grace to our graces.
[2.] Exciteth to action, and helpeth us and aideth us therein, and
inditeth good thoughts, and stirreth up holy motions and desires, besides
new qualities, that we may be lively and fresh in God's service : Ezek.
xxxvi. 27, ' I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in
my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them : ' Phil. ii.
13, ' For it is God that worketh in you both to will and to do.'
Especially in prayer : Horn. viii. 26, ' The Spirit also helpeth our infir
mities ; ' goeth to the other end of the staff. Clothes do not warm the
body till the body warm them, and the body cannot warm them till the
soul, which is the principle of life, warm it ; so there can be no fervency
in prayer without the Spirit, no warmth in the heart. Oh, what a mercy
is it that we have an help at hand ! the Spirit of God dwelling in our
hearts, to relieve us in all our necessities, and quicken us in the ways
of God, which else would soon grow wearisome and uncomfortable
to us.
Secondly, The Spirit serveth for consolation, to uphold our hearts
in the midst of all trials and difficulties, that we may go on cheerfully
in a course of holiness, waiting for the end of our faith, the salvation
of our souls. The Holy Ghost, where he cometh, he cometh as a com
forter, refreshing and relieving the soul, especially when we most need
comfort, after great conflicts, and contrition, and brokenness of spirit.
Cordials are for those that faint : ' To revive the spirit of the humble,
and to revive the hearts of the contrite ones,' Isa. Ivii. 15. To those
that were pricked in their hearts Peter saith, ' Ye shall receive the gift
of the Holy Ghost.' It is welcome news to poor wounded souls that
they shall have the Comforter. So in deep afflictions : 1 Peter iv. 14,
' If ye be reproached for the name of Christ, happy are ye ; for the
Spirit of glory and of God resteth upon you.' The Spirit of God
dwelleth in the hearts of all his own, whether they be sufferers or not ;
but especially in the hearts of those that suffer, in regard of his com
forting and supporting operations. Philip, the Landgrave of Hesse, in
his imprisonment said, Se divinas martyrum consolationes sensisse — that
he felt the divine comforts of the martyrs. Their sense of his presence
294 SERMONS UPON ACTS II. 37, 38. [SER. VIL
is greater and sweeter, and their allowance of comfort larger than what
others have, or themselves formerly had. How dotli the Spirit com
fort ? Partly with respect to the time present, and partly with respect
to the time to come ; to witness our present standing in a state of grace,
and to assure us of life and glory to come.
1. For the present, to witness to us our adoption and pardon of sins,
and acceptance with God : Rom. v. 5, ' The love of God is shed abroad
in our hearts by the Holy Ghost given unto us.' The love of God is
shed abroad in the scriptures : ' Thy name is poured out as a precious
ointment.' But it is shed abroad in our hearts, that is, by the Holy
Ghost. How doth the Holy Ghost comfort ? Per modum argumenti,
et per modum causce efficients. Per modum argumenti, by way of
argumentation. The Spirit is given as a pledge of God's love ; he is
known by suitable gifts. Those whom God pardoneth he enricheth
with grace. Some things are never given in judgment, as the Spirit.
The comforts and honours of the world may be given us in wrath ; it
is a plain evidence. So per modum causce efficientis, by way of an effi
cient cause. He maketh us to feel the love of God in our consciences,
and to be sensible of the comfort of it : Eom. xv. 13, ' Now the God
of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that ye may abound
in hope through the power of the Holy Ghost ; ' Eom. viii. 16, ' The
Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit that we are the children of
God.' A witness is one who giveth in a testimony against a man or
for a man. Every matter of worth and weight is to be transacted
before and proved by two sufficient witnesses. Now here are two wit
nesses, our spirit and God's Spirit. Our conscience doth accuse or
excuse, but that is fallible ; but then there is the Spirit itself. A
greater witness cannot be had than the Spirit of God, that knoweth all
things, the deep things of God and our own hearts. When he assureth
us that we have God's favour, and may go boldly to him as to a father,
why should we doubt ?
2. To assure us of life and blessedness to come. The Holy Ghost is
given for this end, that we may look and long for heaven. Our hearts
of themselves are taken up with trifles and childish toys. Therefore,
that we may more vehemently long after and desire the actual posses
sion of this glory, and to sweeten the bitterness of the cross, the Spirit
of God doth somewhat about our future hopes as well as our present
interest. It is an earnest, and as the first-fruits. An earnest : 2 Co) 1 .
i. 22, 'Who also hath sealed us, and given us the earnest of the Spirit;'
Eph. i. 14, ' Which is the earnest of our inheritance.' It is not only
donum, a gift, but pignus, a pledge ; not only pignus, but arrha, an
earnest. A pledge may be taken away, but God hath given us an
earnest, that is, a part to assure us of the whole. Now it is not only
an earnest to show how sure, but the first-fruits to show us how good :
Bom. viii. 23, ' We ourselves also, which have the first-fruits of the
Spirit.' Some foresight and foretastes of glory to come, some prepara
tions. Increasing grace is begun glory : 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, by the Spirit of the
Lord.'
III. Quest. How is this peculiar to them that believe, to have the gift
VER. 38.] SEKMONS UPON ACTS n. 37, 38. 295
of the Holy Ghost ? Acts v. 32, ' And so is also the Holy Ghost, whom
God hath given to them that obey him ; ' that is, that obey the gospel,
that repent and believe : John xiv. 16, 17, ' And I will pray the
Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide
with you for ever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot
receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him ; but ye know
him, for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you.' That place
plainly showeth and proveth that he is peculiar to believers ; and that
they are incapable of such a gift in the increase of it that have not any
begun presence of the Spirit in their hearts. (1.) The world doth not
receive him, because they value him not. Carnal men value nothing
but the visible pomps and powers of the world ; they slight other
things. It is so with all men in the state of nature and under the
power of sin : 1 Cor. ii. 14, ' But the natural man receiveth not the
things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness unto him ; neither
can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.' They have
no value for spiritual comforts and spiritual privileges. If religion
would make them great in the world, they would embrace it ; but
these things are so little desired, because so little known. (2.) The
world cannot receive them; they are not prepared. There is a capacity
or receptivity necessary ; they neither see him nor know him. They
took no notice of his visible operations, arid did as little understand with
their heart as see with their eyes ; but ye know him, and he dwelleth
in you. His familiar presence shall be in them in a larger measure.
Use. First, Why ? To quicken us to look after this gift. Let us see
why and how.
1. Consider our necessity. Better never had the spirit of a man, if
we have not the Spirit of God. Man is only in fieri, in the way to his
perfection. A brute hath all things now that belong to the perfection
of his nature. Man, that was made for a higher end, must have a
higher guide : Job xxxii. 8, ' But there is a spirit in man, and the
inspiration of the Almighty giveth them understanding.' A brute, when
he hath served out his time, hath done his work, and when he dieth,
his misery and happiness dieth with him ; but man's happiness or misery
then beginneth.
2. If the Holy Spirit of the Lord be not in you, the evil spirit is. God
and Satan divide the world. The heart of man is not a waste ; it is-
either possessed by God or the devil. Natural men, the devil worketh
in them, Eph. ii. 2. The heart of a wicked man is Satan's forge and
workhouse : 1 Sam. xvi. 14, ' The Spirit of the Lord departed from
Saul, and an evil spirit from the Lord troubled him.' As soon as God
is gone, the devil taketh possession.
3. You may know where your mansion, your everlasting residence
will be, by the spirit that dwelleth in you. Every spirit fitteth for
his own place. There are vessels of wrath fitted to destruction, and
vessels of mercy prepared unto glory, Kom. ix. 21. Heaven is not only
prepared for us, but we for heaven ; and who prepareth us ? 2 Cor.
v. 5, ' Now he that hath wrought us for this self-same thing is God,
who hath given us the earnest of the Spirit.' The house and home of
good spirits is heaven, of bad is hell. Each of them labour to conduct
us to the several places whence they come.
296 SERMONS UPON ACTS IT. 37, 38. [$ER. VII.
4. Thou art unable for any duty, and incapable of any comfort :
1 Cor. xii. 3, ' No man can say that Jesus is the Lord but by the Holy
Ghost ; ' that is, acknowledge Jesus Christ to be the true Saviour of
the world. Thou canst not so much as pray, which is the most
natural duty : Horn. viii. 26, ' For we know not what we should pray
for as we ought.' Instinct teacheth all creatures to look for relief of
their necessities. And thou art incapable of any comfort. All the good
thoughts in us, all the good desires, the good hope we have, is by the
Spirit ; all that we have and shall receive, all the spiritual joys and
satisfactions. The Spirit indeed did not die, suffer, satisfy, reconcile
you to God, purchase grace and glory for you. You are beholden to
Christ for this ; yet all the sweet comforts depending thereupon, and
the application of them to our souls, is from the Spirit. Your joy is
from the Holy Ghost. You can neither live nor pray, nor work, not
walk, nor hope without the Spirit.
Secondly, How?
1. Pray for it. If you feel the want of the Spirit, and do in good
earnest seek for him, you shall find him. A cold suitor shutteth the
door upon himself : ' Ask, seek, knock,' Mat. vii. 7 ; Luke xi. 8, 8ia
rrjv dvaiSeiav, ' Because of his importunity he will rise and give him.'
A father may deny a wanton child bread to play with or throw under
his feet, but not a starving child, that cries, Bread, bread, to preserve
his life. He may and will deny the Spirit to them that ask him in a
careless fashion, or to pride himself in his gifts ; but not the hungry
soul, that is pinched with a want of his grace, that crieth to him, Father,
give me thy Holy Spirit. Nay, the vehemency is some evidence that
thou hast him already : Isa. xliv. 3, ' I will pour water upon him that
is thirsty, and floods upon the dry ground : I will pour my Spirit upon
thy seed, and my blessing upon thine offspring.'
2. The hopes to obtain him. It is donum, a gift : ' Ye shall receive
the gift of the Holy Ghost.' It is donum promissum, a promised gift :
' I will pour my Spirit upon all flesh,' Acts ii. 17. It is donum neces-
sarium, a necessary bequest. When you pray for the Spirit, you pray
as children when they ask bread. Bread is not so necessary for this
life, as the Spirit for the life of grace ; it is the spring and fountain of
holiness. We may crave health, and wealth, and outward prosperity,
and receive that answer, ' Ye know not what ye ask.' But when you
go beg the Holy Spirit, you ask that which is good and necessary for
you. It is such a gift as is the foundation of all the rest, and without
which we can have no pledge and assurance of God's love. Compare
Mat. vii. 11, with Luke xi. 13. That which is called 'good things' in
one place, is called the ' Holy Spirit ' in the other. Of whom do you
seek ? Of God, who is your Father. Tarn pater nemo, tampius nemo.
No one is so much a father and so good a father. In whose name do
you seek it ? In Christ's, whose merit hath purchased this gift for
you : Titus iii. 5, 6, ' The renewing of the Holy Ghost, which he hath
shed on us abundantly, through Jesus Christ our Saviour ; ' Eph. iii. 12,
' In whom we have boldness, and access with confidence by the faith of
him.' By him we have a kind of right. He opened the door by his
merit, and keeps it open by his intercession.
3. Wait in the word ; the Spirit is gotten and increased there : Gal.
VER. 38.] SERMONS UPON ACTS n. 37, 38. 297
iii. 2, ' Eeceived ye the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing
of faith ? ' The ordinary means whereby God worketh this grace is by
the hearing of the word : 2 Cor. iii. 6, ' Who also hath made us able
ministers of the new testament, not of the letter, but of the spirit ; for
the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life ;' Acts x. 44, ' While Peter
yet spake these words, the Holy Ghost fell on all them which heard
the word.' Therefore wait at wisdom's gate ; lie at the pool till the
waters are stirred, John v. ; wait for the secret illapses of the Lord's
grace ; improve the Lord's supper. Sacraments are blessed means to
convey the Spirit. Christ is said to return from his baptism full of the
Holy Ghost, Luke iv. 1. Especially the Lord's supper: 1 Cor. xii. 13,
' For by the Spirit we are all baptized into one body, and have all been
made to drink into one Spirit.' One Spirit is spoken of as the author,
and the other as the end. It is the Spirit that is figured by water,
which maketh fruitful, and wine, which maketh cheerful : Cant. i. 4,
' We will remember thy love more than wine/ Now what further
degree do you get by every receiving? What further comfort and
strength ? Now quicken your desires after the Spirit. When Elias
was about to depart, he saith to Elisha, ' What shall I do for thee ? '
' Only,' saith he, ' that thy spirit may be doubled on me.' Christ, in
the same night in which he was betrayed, instituted this supper. Lord,
thy Holy Spirit we ask. Will God deny such a request? When
Solomon asked wisdom, the thing pleased the Lord. Will a natural
father give a scorpion instead of fish, or a stone instead of bread ?
Ask the Spirit to guide and sanctify and comfort you with the sense of
his love ; ask and fear not: let your faith be strong. The woman said,
' If I can but touch the hem of his garment, I shall be whole.' We
have more reason to expect a blessing on these instituted signs than
she by touching the hem of his garment. Renew your expectations.
You take the cup to assure you. Christ continueth the same form in
the covenant still. Observe what effect you have. In ordinary repast,
how doth a man know that what he hath eaten doeth him good ?
Why, he findeth himself fresher, abler, stronger, and more cheerful for
his work. Do you go away walking in the fear of God and the com
forts of the Holy Ghost? Only take heed there be no secret sin
harboured in the heart or allowed in the practice : Ps. Ixvi. 18, ' If I
regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me/
Use 2. Let us see whether we have the Spirit or no. We cannot
say it —
1. Because we have some good motions stirred in us. The devil
stirreth up evil motions in the hearts of the godly, and maketh a foul
stir in their bosoms ; yet he doth not dwell there as in those that are
in the carnal state. These are slaves of Satan. But the Holy Spirit is
often moving in the hearts and consciences of carnal creatures, coun
selling, rebuking, exciting them ; but all cometh to nothing : Gen. vi.
3, ' My Spirit shall not always strive with man/
2. It cannot be known by common gifts, illumination, conviction,
restraining grace, assistance to perform external duties even to admir
ation : Mat. vii. 22, 23, ' Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord,
we have prophesied in thy name, and in thy name cast out devils, and
in thy name done many wonderful works , and then will I profess, I
298 SERMONS UPON ACTS II. 37, 38. [SfiR. VII.
never knew you ; depart from me, ye that work iniquity ; ' 1 Cor. xiii.
1, ' Though I speak with the tongue of men and angels, and have not
charity, I am become as sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal/ All
this is nothing when he doth not take possession of your hearts as his
dwelling-place and temple, 1 Cor. vi. 19.
3. It will be known by your temper and frame ; if you have a divine
nature and disposition put into you : John iii. 6, ' That which is born
of the Spirit is spirit.' A soul is raised above his natural inclination
as much as a man is above a beast : 2 Peter i. 4, ' Whereby are given
unto us great and precious promises, that by these you might be par
takers of the divine nature.' A man beginneth to look like God his
Father, and to resemble him for heavenly wisdom, holiness, and right
eousness ; he acts in another manner, as one that hath a divine spirit in
him.
4. By your savour : Horn. viii. 5, ' They that are after the flesh do
mind the things of the flesh, and they that are after the Spirit the things
of the Spirit.' Find therefore what thy gust is, and thou mayest know
whether thy life be natural or spiritual. Dost thou value thyself by
earthly enjoyments or spiritual ?
5. They are led by the Spirit : Eom. viii. 14, ' As many as are led
by the Spirit are the sons of God.' Dost thou take his counsel ? Art
thou ruled and determined by him which way thou shalt go ? What
authority and sway doth it bear with thee ? Art thou not driven, but
led ? There is spontaneity and readiness for holy things.
SERMONS UPON 1 PETER L 23.
SERMON I.
Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the
word of God, ivhich Itveth and abidethfor ever. — 1 PETER i. 23.
IN the context the apostle presseth to holiness, and in the immediately
preceding verse to the love of the brethren ; he enforceth both from
regeneration.
First, Holiness. They that have a new birth should have a new
life ; for another principle doth necessarily infer other manner of opera
tion. By the natural life, which consisteth in the union of the soul
with the body, a man is enabled to move, speak, reason, and dis
course, and do such actions as are consistent with that life ; so by the
spiritual life, which consists in the union of the soul with Christ, a
man is enabled to act suitably; therefore if Christians would walk
answerably to their new birth, they should be holy.
Secondly, Love to the brethren or fellow-saints.
1. There is ground and reason to love them, for they are brethren ;
not in respect of the first birth, which is from the flesh, but in respect
of the second birth, which is from the Spirit. ^iXaSeX^'a and
ar/airr) are joined together by the apostle Peter : 2 Peter i. 7, ' And
to godliness, brotherly kindness.' All are brethren or our own flesh,
as coming from the same stock ; but there is another relation, which
is spiritual. Saints are brethren, as children of the same Father in
heaven. If we be born again, it is but reason that we should live in
love with the rest of our Father's children.
2. The new birth doth not only yield us a reason to love them, but
an inclination, heart, and power to love them. It begets this love, as
well as enforceth it : 1 John v. 1, ' Whosoever believeth that Jesus is
the Christ is born of God ; and every one that loveth him that begat,
loveth him also that is begotten of him.' The same new nature that
inclineth us to love our Father doth incline us also to love his children,
which bear his image ; for there are the same inducements for the one
as for the other. Therefore, ' See that ye love one another with a
pure heart fervently ; being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of
incorruptible.'
In these words observe —
[1.] The state of believers; they are 'Born again.'
300 SERMONS UPON 1 PETER I. 23. [SER. I.
[2.] The instrumental cause or means used to bring them into this
estate, ' Not of corruptible seed, but by the word of God, which liveth
and abideth for ever. 1 Where the instrumental cause is laid down,
dvTideriKa)*; Kal egeyijTitcG)?, both by way of opposition and by way
of explication.
(1.) By way of opposition to other births: 'Not of corruptible
peed, but incorruptible;' alluding either to the seed of fruits, to which
the word of God is compared, Mat. xiii. 19, or else to that seed by
which we are born after the common course of nature ; that is, cor
ruptible, perishing, and defiled with sin : Job xiv. 2, ' Who can bring
a clean thing out of an unclean ? not one; ' John iii. 6, ' That which
is born of flesh is flesh.' A frail and polluted creature. But the
second birth is from incorruptible seed, spiritual, clean, and holy :
1 John v. 18, ' For we know that whatsoever is born of God sinneth
not; but he that is begotten of God keepeth himself, and the wicked
one toucheth him not.' The fruit of that birth is immortal.
(2.) It is set forth by way of explication ; for the apostle explaineth
himself what he meaneth by incorruptible seed, ' The word of God,
which liveth and abideth for ever.' Only mark the difference of
phrase ; it is etc <nropa$, of seed, but Bia \vyov, by the word ; for
the word of God is not the matter of spiritual regeneration, but the
instrumental cause of it. And he commendeth the word of God by a
twofold property — (1.) That it liveth ; and (2.) That it ' abideth for
ever.'
(1st.) Its actuosity and durability ; or from the constructure of the
Greek phrases, the two attributes may be thought to be given to
God, Sia \6yov £<wi/ro9 Oeov Kal pevovTos, ' by the word of the living
God,' and ' abiding for ever.' But by the following verses, which are
a quotation out of the prophet Isaiah, it appeareth plainly that they
are to be applied to the word. Only by the way observe how the same
attributes that may be given to God may be given to his word also ;
as Heb. iv. 12, 13, ' For the word of God is quick and powerful, and
sharper than any two-edged swovd, piercing even to the dividing asunder
of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of
the thoughts and intents of the heart : neither is there any creature that
is not manifest in his sight, for all things are naked and open unto
the eyes of him with whom we have to do/ God's word is like him
self. These titles are elsewhere given to the word. It is said to be
' living,' because of its efficacy ; it quickeneth us, and begets a life in
us that cannot be quenched. It is t&v KOI evepyfo, Heb. iv. 12, ' living
and powerful ; ' ' Thou hast the words of eternal life,' John vi. 63 ;
and it is called ' the word of life,' Acts v. 20 ; and Phil. ii. 16, ' Holding
forth the word of life,' and elsewhere. The word of God is a living
word, not a dead letter.
(2d.) The word ' abideth for ever.' The word dieth not when we
die : Luke xxi. 33, ' Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my word
shall not pass away ; ' Ps. cxix. 89, ' For ever, O Lord, thy word is
settled in the heavens.' It is an eternal truth. The word abideth in
the effects of it upon the regenerate. The sum of the words is this,
that life which we have by natural generation is a mortal, frail life,
but that life which we have by being born again is eternal.
VER. 23.] SERMONS UPON i PETER i. 23. 301
The first point is, Those that do truly believe in God through Jesus
Christ are born again.
Such are spoken of in the context; and of such the apostle saith,
' Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the
word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever.'
I shall inquire — (1.) What is regeneration, or what it is to be born
again ? (2.) The necessity of such a work, if we would be Christ's
disciples, or truly believe in him.
First, What is regeneration ? It is a notion often used in scripture :
John iii. 3, ' Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom
of God/ And baptism is called \ovrpov TraXiryyeveo-ias, ' The laver of
regeneration,' Titus iii. 5 ; and a godly man is said to be born of God,
and that his seed abideth in him, 1 John iii. 9. The occasion of the
expression might be, that the Jews were wont to call their proselytes
recens natos, men new born. But whatever the occasion were, the
expression is solemnly consecrated by the Spirit of God to note our
first implantation into Christ, and doth not barely signify outward
profession, nor yet naked faith, or persuasion of the truths of the gospel,
as appeareth by the dialogue between Christ and Nicodemus, who came
to him and owned him as a teacher sent from God ; yet Christ presseth
it upon him to be born again. Let us see then what is the true import
ance of this notion in the Christian faith. It implieth such a work of
God upon the heart as carrieth proportion with the outward and first
birth, as appeareth by all the places where it is used. And it is that
work of God whereby a new spiritual life and nature is communicated
to us. The analogy may be supposed to stand in these things —
1. A child is not born without some pain more or less, so neither is
this change carried on without its pangs. The first work of the Spirit
is to give us a sight of our own vileness and sinfulness, and to work in
us the fear of deserved wrath; therefore called a 'spirit of bondage;'
Rom. viii. 15, ' We have not received the spirit of bondage, again to
fear.' The Spirit worketh according to the covenant that we are under.
In our sinful estate we are obnoxious to the first covenant, unable to per
form the duty, and liable to its curse ; so the Spirit rnaketh us sensible
of it. Those converts in Acts ii. 37 ' were pricked in heart ; ' they had
their pangs and troubles ; and still this is the ordinary way of coming
to the new birth, by sorrow and brokenness of heart, as the child cometh
into the world by the sorrows of travail.
2. It is not a birth when there is nothing brought forth, though
there be never so much pain ; so convictions, qualms of conscience, and
pangs of legal sorrow, terrors wrought in us by the spirit of bondage,
will never prove a man regenerate unless the new creature be brought
forth. There is in many some deliberation and trouble about the ways
of God, yet no actual choice ; as the young man went away sad when
he heard the terms, Mat. xix. 22 ; he was sorry because he could not
have heaven in his own way. Some anxious thoughts they have, but
go not further. They have some throes, and give over.
3. A new creature is brought forth entire and whole ; so it is when
the birth is regular; but in the new birth it is so always. No new
creature is born maimed, but of perfect shape, because that is the
immediate work of the Spirit, "who cannot miscarry in his operations;
302 SERMONS UPON 1 PETER I. 23. [SER. I.
and a defect in parts cannot be supplied by after growth, and it
is fitted for the sight of God. Therefore here is a new creature
brought forth, not a new substance of soul or body, but the faculties
renewed and purified, and fitted for God's use and service, by certain
infused qualities or graces, which is called the ' inward man,' 2 Cor. iv.
16 ; Eph. iii. 16, ' That he would grant unto you, according to the
riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by the Spirit in the
inner man ; ' and the 'hidden man of the heart/ 1 Peter iii. 4. And
it is entire; a new mind, heart, conscience, will, and affections; new
thoughts, new desires, comforts, and contentments. It is all perfect as
to parts, though not degrees. In the natural birth, from little begin
nings there is a going on to perfection ; so in the new birth, from the
stature of a child there is a growing up to a perfect man in Christ Jesus,
as they get more knowledge, more grace, and more experience.
4. The child so born cometh from a place of darkness and confine
ment into a state of light and liberty ; so doth the new creature. The
terminus a quo, term from which, is darkness and bondage, figured by
the state of the child before his birth ; and the terminus ad quern, term
vo which, is a state of liberty,, of light, and the knowledge of God in
Christ : 2 Cor. iv. 6, 'For God, who commanded the light to shine out
of darkness, hath shined in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge
of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.' And they are called
into the liberty of God's children, or freedom from the slavery of sin,
and subjection to wrath : Kom. viii. 2, ' For the law of the Spirit of
life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death.'
We are freed from those manacles of corruption wherein we were
wrapped before.
5. The new creature brought forth is living, endued with properties,
inclinations, and dispositions agreeable to the nature that begat it ; so
there is in us a principle of a new life that carrieth some measure of
resemblance and conformity with the life of God. The effects of every
perfect generation are life and likeness. Likeness is not enough to
constitute a generation. An exquisite limner may draw a perfect pic
ture of his sou, yet this picture is not said to be begotten or born of him,
but made by him. The products of art have likeness, but not life.
Again, life is not enough ; in equivocal generations there is life, but not
likeness ; as frogs and worms and putrid creatures breed out of the
slime by the heat of the sun ; these are produced, but not born. Both
must be ; as when a man begets a son in his own image and likeness,
there is both: so here, when we are born again, there is life and
likeness.
[1.] Life. There is another manner of life than we lived before.
We live the life of God, from which we were alienated before, Eph. iv.
18, as appeareth by new actions, desires, and delights. So there are
other manner of principles and operations than came from life natural.
It is now a living unto God : Gal. ii. 20, ' The life that I live in the
flesh is by the faith of the Son of God.' As life natural is a living to
itself, to its own ends and interests, so is this. Take end and principle
together, it is a living to God. All the acts of the natural life are
overruled to nobler ends : 1 Peter iv. 6, ' That they might be judged
according to men in the flesh, but 'live according to God in the
VER. 23.] SERMONS UPON i PETER i. 23. 303
spirit.' They are quickened by the Spirit to live a life of purity and
holiness.
[2.] Likeness : 2 Peter i. 4, ' Whereby are given unto us exceeding
great and precious promises, that by these you might be partakers of
the divine nature.' A restitution of the image of God lost at first. And
because many duties imply inferiority and subjection, and many neces
sities are introduced by the fall, therefore we are not only conformed
to God, but to Christ, or God in our nature : 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 as by the Spirit
of the Lord.' That is the great work of the Spirit by the gospel ; there
is a nature put into us, that of all things in the world cometh nearest
to. the nature of God himself.
6. Upon the new birth there ariseth a visible relation between the
child born and his parents ; so, besides change of disposition, there is
a change of state, a relative change, and a real change ; from a child of
the devil he becometh the son of God through faith : John i. 12, ' To
as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons
of God, even to them that believe on his name.' And from a child of
wrath he is made an heir of salvation, accepted for one of God's family,
and hath a right to all the privileges depending thereupon.
Secondly, The necessity of this work of regeneration.
1. With respect to grace and glory.
[1.] As to the work of grace, a man is unmeet for God's use till he
be purified by this work of God upon his heart. There is something
that doth hinder, nothing doth further this work. Something doth
hinder: 2 Tim. ii. 21, ' If a man purge himself from these, he shall be
a vessel unto honour, sanctified and made meet for the Master's use,
and prepared unto every good work.' There is a mass of corruption
which remaineth as a clog upon us, which maketh us averse and indis
posed for the work of God ; all this must be done away. As a man
that would build his house exactly regular and uniform must not
patch up the old building, but raze it to the very bottom, that he may
lay a new foundation, so doth God take away the old rubbish of cor
ruption, wholly demolish Satan's work, purge the soul from those lusts
which inclined it to carnal vanities, before it is meet for his spiritual
service. Nothing to further; and so you cannot serve God till you
are born again: Eph. ii. 10, 'You are his workmanship, created in
Christ Jesus unto good works.' Every creature hath faculties suitable
to those operations which belong to that creature ; so man must be a
new created and formed creature, that he may be prepared, fitted, and
made ready for the Lord. You cannot expect new operations till there
be a new life. Here the business sticketh with man. This should be
looked after and desired first, as a peculiar branch of the spiritual life.
We expect strengthening grace before we have received renewing grace.
This is like little children, that attempt to run before they can go.
This is as if a man complained of an aching tooth when a mortal dis
ease hath seized on his vitals, of a cut finger when at the same time he
is wounded at heart, of wandering thoughts in prayer when at the same
time the heart is habitually averse and estranged from God. They
complain of want of quickening grace when they want converting grace;
304 SERMONS UPON 1 PETEK I. 23. [&ER. I.
as if we would have the Spirit blow to a dead coal. They confess only
the infirmities of soul, when they should bewail the misery of an unre-
generate and carnal estate. They complain of incident weakness, when
we should first see that our habitual aversion from God be cured.
[2.] As to the privileges of grace, you have no interest and title to
them till you are born again. Nothing avails to establish your interest
in Christ but a new creature : Gal. vi. 15, ' For in Christ Jesus neither
circumcision availeth anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creature.'
It is not being of this or that party or opinion, though some more strict
than others ; not doing this or that particular thing, submitting to this
or that ordinance, praying or hearing the word. This is only an evi
dence in our consciences of our justified estate and union with Christ :
2 Cor. v. 17, ' If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature ; old things
are passed away, and all things are become new.' Every one that is
an adopted son of God must have a new birth and a spiritual being :
John i. 12, 13, ' But as many as received him, to them gave he power
to become the sons of God, even to them that believe in his name ;
which are born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will
of man, but of God/ A change of disposition. God adopts otherwise
than men ; they take as they find, they cannot put in new qualities.
To be the people of God without regeneration is as impossible as to be
the children of men without generation ; for we are born God's enemies,
and must be new-born his sons, or else remain enemies still. No hope
of glory : 1 Peter i. 3, ' Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord
Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us
again to a lively hope by the resurrection of Christ from the dead.'
Children only can look for a child's portion.
2. As to glory. It is said, John iii. 3, ' Except a man be born again,
he cannot see the kingdom of God.' I know ' seeing' is put for 'enjoy
ing ; ' yet the phrase is emphatical : he shall not have a glimpse, or be
suffered to look within the veil. A stranger cannot lay claim to the
inheritance, but a son ; and sons we are not till we be regenerated.
As I said before, we are incapable of blessedness ; there is no suitable
ness between us and it. The apostle speaketh of being ' made meet,'
Col. i. 12, meet for the enjoyment of God. Man neither knoweth his
true happiness, nor careth for it, but followeth his own lusts. By
nature man is opposite to the kingdom of God, being corrupt and fleshly
in all the faculties of soul and body; hath no spiritual sense, disposition,
motion, and inclination towards heavenly things. In short, our frail
bodies must be changed before they can be brought to heaven : ' We
shall not all die, but we shall be changed.' If the body must be changed,
how much more the soul ? If that which is frail, much more that
which is filthy ; if bare flesh and blood cannot enter into heaven till it
be free from its corruptible qualities, certainly not a guilty soul till it
be freed from its sinful qualities. Think again and again of the necessity
of this.
Use 1. To exhort you all to look after this work, to be new-born.
And let me direct it to all sorts of men, young men and old.
1. You that are young, you have been born in sin: Ps. li. 5, 'Behold,
I was shapen in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me ; '
Gen. v. 3, 'Adam begat a son in his own likeness, after his own image.'
VER. 23.] SERMONS UPON i PETER i. 23. 305
Sinful man begets a sinful child. You must be born again. God
provided a laver for us as soon as we were born. Baptism is the laver
of regeneration, Titus iii. 5 ; and little ones were circumcised, Deut.
xxx. 6. There is filthiness in you, and it is lusty and strong. It is
good to begin with God betimes ; they glorify God more, and enjoy him
sooner. They glorify him more : Eph. i. 12, ' That we should be to
the praise of his glory, who first trusted in Christ.' They that get into
Christ before others bring more honour to God than they that are
brought in after : Rom. xvi. 7, ' Who also were in Christ before me.'
Old men may be ashamed when little ones get the start of them. The
sooner you close with Christ, the work is done the more easily, before
you are accustomed to a slavery to Satan, and your lusts are rooted in
you. You enjoy him more. Christ calleth little children : Mark x.
14, ' Suffer little children to come unto me, and forbid them not, for
of such is the kingdom of God.' He is willing to take them into his
arms. You cannot come before you are welcome. The great God
will deign to dwell in the hearts of little ones.
2. You that are old, oh, it is high time for you to be born again ;
you are as good as dead already : Heb. xi. 12, ' Therefore sprang from
him one, and him as good as dead/ Chimneys long foul, if they be
not swept, will be fired at length. You have long lived or died in the
world : ' A sinner of a hundred years old shall be accursed/ Isa. Ixv.
20. He that liveth unreclaimed and unrenewed, though his life be
never so much prolonged, shall die an accursed wretch. You never
begin to live till you live in Christ ; you have but told over so many
summers and winters. All that time is lost that is spent in your
unregenerate estate ; as a man may be a long time at sea, and yet
make but a short voyage, get but a little ground though long tossed
upon the waves. Oh, bethink yourselves before your hoary heads go
down to the grave in sorrow. Say not, as Nicodemus, ' Shall a man
return into his mother's womb, being old ? ' This is a spiritual work
which must pass upon you. God promiseth to pour out his Spirit
upon old ones, Acts ii. 17. A ruinous h
