Fellowship with God, Sermon 12
SERMON XII·
1 Joh. 1.6.
If we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darknesse, we lie, &c.
THere is nothing in which men suffers themselves to be so easily deceived, as in thi… highest concernment of Religion, in which the ete…nal interest of their …ouls lyes: there is no delusion either so grosse, or so universal, in any other thing, as in this thing, in regard of which, all other things are nothing. This hath overspread the world, (to speak only of that part which pretends to Ch…istianity) a strong, pertinacious, …nd blind …ancy of being in Jesus Christ, and having interest in salvation. I call it a blind and ignorant …ancy, for truly ignorance and d…rknesse is the strong…st foundation of such conceits: Papists call it the mother of devotion; it is true, in this sense it is the mother of a mans groundles… devotion towards himself, that is, of delusion: this, together with self-love, which always hood-wink… the mind, and will not suffer … serious impartial examination of a mans self, these I say, are the …ottom of this vain perswasion, that possesseth the generality of men. Now what it wants of knowledge, it hath of wilfulnesse, it is a conceit altogether void of reason, but it is so wilfull, and pertinacious, that it is almost utterly inconvincible, and so it puts souls in the most desperat fo…lo…n estate that can be imagined, it makes them, as the Apostle speaks, Ephes. 5.6. foreign, children of imperswasion, it is rendered commonly children of disobedience, and indeed they are joyned together, they are children of disobedience, carrying the manifest characte… of wrath upon them; yet they are withall, children of imperswasion, uncapable of any perswasion contrary to these deluding insinuations of their own minds, though they be manifest to all men to be sons of disobedience, living in rebellion against God, yet it is not possible to perswade them of it; they are as far from conviction of what they are, as reformation to what they should be. Notwithstanding if men would but give …n impartial and attentive ear to what the Apostle sayes here, I suppose the very frame of his argument is so convincing, that it could not but leave some impression: If any thing will convince a child of imperswasion, the terms here propounded …re fittest, God is light, and in him is no darknesse. Hence it follows by inavoidable consequence, as clear as the light, that no man can have fellowship with God, that walks in darknesse.
Those that delude themselves in this matter, are of two kinds, the generality pretend to Christianity in general, and to an interest in salvation, but if we descend into the chief parts and members of Christianity, as holiness, fellowship with God, walking after the Spirit, and such like, these they do not so much as pretend … and withal, think they have a dispensation from such strictnesse, and make it a sufficient plea tha… they are not such, because they never professed to be such: others again, though fewer, can pretend even to these higher points of Christianity, as communion with God, walking after the Spirit, and indeed in this they are more consonant to their profession of Christianity: But, as the Apostle saith, there may be a practical li… in it too, if we consider and compare their practice with their profession.
I would speak a word by way of preparation to you who are of the first sort, that is the very multitude of professing Christians, because you do not profess so much as others, and do not give out your selves for the students of holiness, you think your selves exempted from the stroak of all this soul-piercing Doctrine, you think read…ly, it is not pertinent to apply this to you, of walking contrary to profession, and so committing this gross lie, in not doing the truth. If any say I have fellowship with God, &c. And who will say that … say ye, Who will speak such a high word of himself as this? Therefore since you do not presume so high, you think you have escaped the censure that follows.
But I beseech you, consider what your professions import, and what you ingage your selves to, even by the general profession of Christianity. I know you will all say you are Christians, and hope to be saved. Now do ye understand what is included in that, if any man say, that he is a Christian, he really sayes that he hath fellowship with God; if any man say, he is a Christian, he sayes he hath fellowship with Christ, and is partaker of his Spirit; for as the Apostle, Rom. 8.9. decl…res unto you, If any have not the Spirit of Christ he is none of his; that is, he is no Christian. For what is it, I pray you, to be a Christian? Is it not to be a new creature, formed again by the Spirit of Christ? 2 Cor. 5.17. Therefore in as far as you pretend to be Christians, and yet are not professors of holinesse, and think you have a dispensation from such a walking in God, and after Christ, you fall under a twofold contradiction, and commit a two-fold lie: First, between your profession and practice; then in your profession it self: your practice is directly cross to the very general profession of Christianity. But besides that, there is a contradiction in the bosome of your profession; you affirm you are Christians, and yet refuse the profession of holinesse; you say ye hope for Heaven, and yet do not so much as pretend to godlinesse, and walking spiritually. Nay, these you disjoyn in your profession, which a…e really one, without which the name of Ch…istianity is an empty, vain, and …idiculous appellation. There must be then a g…eat da…knesse of misapprehension in your minds, that you take on the name of Christians, and will not know what it impo…ts, and therefo…e in the mean time, you p…ofesse that which destroyes and anulls your former profession. Now certainly, this is a g…osser lie, a flatter contradiction, then it needs much inquiry into, to find it out. It is so palpable, that I wonder that these very common and received principles of t…uth, do not …se up within, to testifie against it: For if ye do not own the profession of holinesse and communion with God, what advantage have you then of Christianity? tell me, What will it se…ve you for? Can it save you? Can a bare, empty, contradicted, and blasphemed title save you? and if it do not save you, it will make your condemnation the greater. Let this then fi…st be settled in our hearts, and laid down as a principle, that the most general profession of Christianity layes an inviolable bond and obligation upon us, to all that is imported in the particular expressions of a Christians nature, walk, and society; whether we take it so or not, thus it is: to be a Christian infolds all that can be said; and if it do not import these, it is not true to its own signification, nor conformed to Ch…ists meaning. You may deprave the world as you please, and deform that holy calling so, as it may suit to your car…i…ge, but according to this wo…d, in this acceptation of it, you shall be judged: and if your Judge shall in that g…eat day lay all this great charge upon you, what will it avail you now to absolve your selves in your imaginations, even from the very obligation it self.
Let us suppose then, that you are convicted of this, that Christianity in the most gene…al and common acceptation, is inclusive of fellowship and communion with God; and that you professe and pretend to both; then let us apply this just rule of the Apostles, to examine the truth and reality of such a profession. The rule is str…ight, and so may be a trial both of that which is straight and crooked. Rec…um sui & obliqui index: and here the application being made, there is a discovery of the falshood and crookednesse of most mens hearts; this Golden Rule of Examination, is a Rule of Proportion, so to speak, or it is founded upon the harmony that should be between profession and practice, words and deeds, and upon that, conformity should interceed between those that have communion one with another. Now apply these to the generality of Christians, and behold, there is no harmony and consent between their speaking and walking; their calling and profession, as Christians, imports communion with God, who is the pure unmixt light, and yet they declare otherwise, that themselves are in darknesse of ignorance, and walk in the darknesse of sin, an… so that communion must be pretended, wher… there is no conformity and likenesse to God intended: The result then of …ll is this, herein is the greatest lie, and most dangerous withal, committed, It is the greatest li…, because it takes in all a mans conve…ation, which all along make… up one great unive…sal lie, a lie composed of infinit cont…arie…ies, of innumerable particul…r lies, for eve…y step, every word, and action, i… in its own nature cont…a…y to that holy profession, but all combined together, makes up a black constellation of lies; one powerful lie against the t…uth. And besides, it is not against a particular truth, but against the whole complex of Christianity. An e…or is a lie against such a particular t…uth as it opposeth; but the tract and cou…se of an ignorant, ungodly conversation, i… one continued lie, ag…inst the whole bulk …nd body of Christianity. It is a lie d…awn the length of many weeks, moneths, and year…, against the whole frame of Christi…n profession: for the…e is nothing in the calling of a Christian, that i… not ret…acted, contradicted, and repro…ched by it. Oh, th…t ye could unbowel your own wayes, and see what a clos…er of lies and incongruities is in them, what reproache… and calumnies these practical lies c…st upon the honour of your Christian Calling, how they tend of their own nature, to the disgracing of the truth, and the blaspheming of Gods Name. T…ese things ye would find, if ye would rip up your own hearts and wayes, and if you found how great that lie is, you could not but fear the danger of it; for it being no lesse then a denying of Jesus Christ, and a real abrenunciation of him, it puts you without the refuge of sinners, and is most likely to keep you without the blessed City, for there shall in no wayes enter therein any thing that defileth, or maketh a lie, Rev. 21.27. What shall then become of them whose life all alongs is but one continued lie.