Fellowship with God, Sermon 21
SERMON XXI·
1 Joh. 2.1.
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, &c.
THE Gospel is an intire uniform piece, all the parts of it are interwoven through other, and interchangeably knit together; so that there can be no dividing of it, no more then of Christs coat that was without seam. If you have it not altogether by the divine lot, you cannot truly have any part of it, for they are so knit together, that if ye disjoyn them, you destroy them; and if they cease to be together, they cease al…ogether to be. I …peak this, because there may be pretensions to some abstracted parts of Ch…stianity; one man p…etends to …aith in Iesus Christ, and perswasion of pardon of sin, and in this there may be some secret glo…ying, a…ising from that con…dence: another may p…eten… to the study of holinesse and obedience, and may indeavour something that way, to do known duties, and abstain from grosse sin…. Now, I say, if the first do not conjoyn the st…dy of the second, and, if the …econd do not lay down the first as the foun…tion, both of them imb…ce a shadow for the thing it self; be…au… they separat these things that God hath joyned▪ and so can …ve no b…ing, but in mens fan…y, when they are not conjoyned. He that would pretend to a righteousnesse of Christ without him, must …ithall study to have the righteousnesse of the Law fulfilled within him; and he that indeavours to have holinesse within, must withal go out of himself, to seek a righteousnesse without him, whereupon to build hi… peace and acceptance with God, or else, n…ither of them hath truly any righteousnesse without them, to cover them, or holinesse within, to cleanse them. Now here the beloved Apostle shews us this divine contexture of the Gospel, The gre…t and compr…hensive end and design of the Gospel is, peace in pardon of sin, and purity from sin: These things I write unto you, that you sin not, &c. The Gospel is comprised in commands and promises; both make one web, and … in together. The immediat end of the command is, that we sin not; nay, but there is another thing alwayes either expresly added, or t…citly understood; but if any man sin (that desires not to …in) we have an advocate with the Father: so the promise comes in as a su…sidiary h…lp to all the pr…c…pts. It is ann…x…d to give security to a poor soul from despair; and therefore the Apostle t…cheth you a bless…d Art of constructing all the commands and exhortations of the Gospel, those of the highest pitch, by supplying the full sense with this happy and seasonable caution or caveat, but if any man sin, &c. Doth that command, Be ye holy as I am holy, perfect as your heavenly Father, which sounds …o much unattainable perfection, and seems to hold forth an inimitable pattern, doth it, I say, discourage thee? Then, use the Apostles Art, add this caution to the command, subjoyn this sweet exceptive, But if any man (that desires to be holy, and gives himself to this study) fail often, and fall, and defile himself with unholinesse, let him not despair, but know that he hath an advocate with the Father; If that of Pauls urge thee, present your bodies a living sacrifice, and be ye not conformed to the world, but transformed, and glorifie God in your bodies and spirits which are his, Rom. 18.1, 2. and 1 Cor. 6.20. And cleanse your selves from all fil…hiness… of the flesh and spirit, 2 Cor. 7.1. And walk in the spirit, and walk as children of the light, &c. If these do too rigorously exact upon thee, so as to make thee lose thy peace, and weaken thy hea…t and hands; learn to make out a …ull sentence, and fill up the full sense and meaning of the Gospel, according as you see it done here. But if any man, (whose inward heart-desires, and chief designs are towards these things, who would think himself happy in holinesse and conformity to God, and estimat… his blessednesse or misery, from his union or separation from God) sin, then we have an advocat with the Father, even Iesus Christ the righteous, who hath all that we want, and will not suffer any accusation to fasten upon us, as long as he lives to make intercession for us.
On the other han…, take a view of the promises of the Gospel, though the immediat, and next end of them is, to give peace to troubled souls, and settle us in the high point of our acceptance with God, yet certainly, they have a further end, even purity from sin, as well as pardon of sin, cleansing from all sin and filthinesse, as well as covering of …lthinesse. These things I write unto you, that ye sin not; What things? Consider what goes before, and what follows a…ter, even the publication of the Word of Life, and eternal life in him, the declaration of our fellowship with God in Christ, the offering of the blood of Christ, able to cleanse all sin, the promise of par…on to the penitent, confession of sin, all these things … write, that ye sin not; so that this seems to be the ultimat end, and chief design of the Gospel, …nto which all tends, unto which all work to…ether: the promises are for peace, and peace … for purity; the promises are for faith, and …aith is for purifying of the heart, and perform…ng the precepts; so that, all at length returns …o this, from whence while we swerv'd, all this mi…ery is come upon us; In the beginning, it was thus, man created to glorifie God, by obedience to his blessed will, sin interposeth, and ma…reth the whole frame, and from this hath a flood of misery flowed in upon us: Well, the Gospel comes offering a Saviour, and …orgivenesse in him; thus peace is purchased, pardon granted, the soul …s restored unto its primitive condition, and state of subordination to Gods will, and so redemption ends, where creation began, or rather …n a more perfect frame of the same kind. The second Adam builds what the first Adam broke down, and the Son re-creats what the Father in the beginning created, yea, with some addition; …n this new edition of mankind, all seems new; new Heavens, and new Earth, and that because the creature that was made old, and defiled with …in, is made new by grace. Now, he…e you may …earn the second part of this lesson, that the Apostle teacheth us; as ye ought to correct (as it were) precepts of the Gospel, by subjoyning p…omises in this manner, so ye ought to di…ect promises, toward… the performance of his p…ecepts, as their chief end: whensoever you …ead it w…itten, The blood of Christ cleanseth from … sin, if we confesse, he is faithful to forgive our sins▪ God so loved the world, that he gave his Son; … that believeth hath everlasting life, &c. The… make up the intire sense and meaning, after … manner, These things are written, that we sin not. I… there a redemption from wrath published? … there reconciliation with God preached? And are we beseeched to come and have the benefit of them? Then say, and supply within thine ow… heart, These things are written, published, an… preached, that we may not sin. Look to the furthest end of these things, it is, that we sin not. The end of things, the scope of writings, an… the purpose of actions, is the very measure o… them, and so that is the best interpreter of them. The scope of Scriptures, is by all accounted th… very threed, that will lead a man …ight in and ou… of the labyrinths that are in it. And so it is used as the rule of the interpretation in the parts of it. Now, (my beloved in the Lord) take … the scope of the whole Scriptures, the mark th… all the Gospel shoots at, These things I write unto you, that ye sin not. You hear it is true, … pardon of sin, of delivery from wrath, of not coming into condemnation, of covering offences, o… blotting them out as a cloud, all these you read and hear: But what do they all aim at? If you consider not that attentively, you shall no more unde…stand the plain Gospel, then you can expound a parable without observing the scope of it. Do you think these have no further aim, then to give you peace, and to secure you from fears and terrours, that you may then walk as you li…t, and follow the guiding of your own hearts? Nay, i… you take it so, you totally mistake it, if you do not re…d on, and find all these things w…itten to this end, that we sin not, you erre, not understanding, or misunderstanding the Scriptures.
These things I write unto you, little children: To inforce this the more sweetly, he useth this affectionat compellation, little children, for, in all things affection hath a mighty stroak, almost as much as reason; it is the most suitable way to prevail with the spirit of a man, to deal in love and tendernesse with it; it insinuats more sweetly, and so can have lesse resistance, and therefore works more strongly. It is true, another way of terrours, threatnings, and reproo… mingled with sharp and heavy words of challenges, may make a great deal of more no…e, and yet it hath not such vertue, to preva…l with … rational soul; the Spirit of the Lord was not in the wind, nor in the earthquake, nor in the fire, but in the still and calm voice, which came to Elijah, 1 King. 19.11, 12. These suit not the gentle dove-like disposition of the Spirit, and though they be fit to rent rocks in pieces, yet they cannot truly break heart…, and make them cont…ite: The Sun will make a m…n sooner p…rt with his cloak, then the wind; such is the differen…e between the warm beams of affection, and the boistrous violence of p…ssion or terrour. Now, O that there were such a …pirit in them who preach the Gospel, such a fathe…ly affection, that with much pity and compassion they might call sinners from the wayes of death. O, there is no subject, in which a man may have mo…e room for melting affections, nothing that will admit of such bowels of compassion as this, the multitude of souls posting to destruction, and so blind-folded, that they cannot see it. Here the fountain of tears might be opened to run abundantly▪ the Lord pe…sonats a tender-hear…ed Father or Husband often, Oh, why will ye die? Ye have broken my heart with your whorish heart: O Ierusalem, how oft would I, but thou wouldst not? When he, who is not subject to humane pas…ions, expresseth himself thus, how much more doth it become u…, poor creatures, to have pity on our fellow-creatures? Should it not presse out from us many groan…, to see so many pe…ishing, even beside salvation. I wish you would take it so, that the warning you to flee from the wrath to come, is the greatest act of s…vour and love that can be done to you. It becomes us to be solicitous about you, and declare unto you, that you will meet with destruction in those paths you walk into▪ that these wayes go down to the chambers of death. O that it might be done with so much feeling compassion of your misery, as the necessity of it requires. But, why do many of you t…ke it so hard to be thus forwarned, and have your danger declared unto you? I guesse at the reason of it; you are in a distemper, as sick children distempered in a fever, who a…e not capable to discern their parents tender affection, when it crosseth their own inclinations and wayes.