VeR. 8.] SERMONS UPON EPHESIANS V. 255
a more plentiful condition, and those comforts which we should have counted a wonderful mercy before ; or when we are recovered from a sickness, and live in health, we forget the tediousness of sickness, and are not thankful for the health which we enjoy; so we undervalue, or overlook, or question the present state of grace, because we forget the unfruitful works of darkness, or the evil disposition and practices of our unregeneracy, and have not such comfortable apprehensions of the mercy which God hath bestowed in our change. Time was when you had little savour of the things of the Spirit, little mind to Christ and holiness, and were wholly given up to the pleasures of the flesh, and profits of the world ; but your minds and ways are changed, and you are not the persons that you were, and that will help you to interpret your condition before God.
8. It increaseth your confidence and hopes of eternal life : he that could take us with all our faults, and love us, and pardon us, and heal our natures, and reconcile us to himself, will he not give us eternal life after we begin to obey him, and love him, and serve him in our measure ? Kom. v. 9, 10, ' Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him. For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled unto God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, shall we be saved by his life.' You can- not be worse than you were at first.
9. It putteth an argument in your hands against sin : Eom. vi. 20, 21, ' For when ye were the servants of sin, ye were free from right- eousness : what fruit had you then in those things whereof ye are now ashamed ? ' and ver. 22, ' But now being made free from sin, and become servants to God, you have your fruits unto holiness.' Shall a servant of God walk as he did when he was a servant of sin ? Right- eousness had no whit of your service, why should sin have any part of your service now ? especially if you consider how little fruit, benefit, or satisfaction your sins brought you in the time of enjoying them ; but now having given over yourselves to the service of God, sanctifi- cation must daily increase in you.
Secondly, We ought to remember what Ave were by nature, so as not to deny what we are by grace : Rom. vi. 17, ' But God be thanked that ye were the servants of sin ; but ye have obeyed from the heart the form of doctrine which was delivered you.' Christ checketh Peter, John xiii. 10, for not owning grace. Though his feet need to be washed, God would not have us deny our renewed estate. Remember your past estate for humiliation, not for your confusion. Remember , old sins and old mercies. So David : Ps. xxv. 6, 7, * Remember, O Lord, thy tender mercies and thy loving-kindnesses ; for they have ever been of old. Remember not the sins of my youth, nor my transgres- sions : according to thy mercy remember thou me for thy goodness' sake, 0 Lord.' Not to tear open the wounds of an healed conscience, not to terrify conscience, but admire mercy, and to ' love much, because much is forgiven,' Luke vii. 47.
IV. This change must be manifested by a suitable conversation : * Walk as children of the light.' We have the same exhortation, Rom. xiii. 12, 13, ' The night is far spent, the day is at hand ; let us there- fore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armour of
256 SERMONS UPON EPHESIANS V. [SeR. VIII.
light. Let us walk honestly as in the da}'^, not in rioting and drunk- enness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and envying ; ' 1 Thes. V. 5-8, ' Ye are all the children of the light, and the children of the day ; we are not of the night, nor of darkness. Therefore let us not sleep, as do others, but let us watch and be sober : for they that sleep, sleep in the night ; and they that are drunken, are drunken in the night. But let us who are of the day be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love, and for an helmet the hope of salvation.' Children of the light may refer to the dispensation we are under, or the grace we have received by it.
1. The dispensation we are under, as those that live in the clear- ness of gospel light are children of the day. Ye are not of the night ; walk as children of light, that have the light of the gospel, or becoming that most holy religion which Christ hath taught us. (1.) In the light all blemishes are soon discovered, and so our sins are without excuse ; whereas people that have not the gospel, or not so fully preached, are more excusable. Men might plead this, that they knew no better ; but now they ' have no cloak for their sin,' John xv. 22. Men have some cloak to hide the odiousness of sin from themselves and others ; their ignorance, their infirmity ; yea, the Lord himself doth pity men, considering their education, prejudices, temptations; but the gospel holdeth out such convincing light as taketh away all excuse from wicked sinners. (2.) As they are without sin, so without shame, when they sin in the open light : Zeph. iii. 5, ' Every morning, doth he bring his judgment to light; he faileth not, but the unjust knoweth no shame.' While the light of nature is not violated, sin breedeth a bashfulness and unconfidence ; but when men despise both the light of nature and scripture, they grow impudent, and lose all tenderness, and awakening of conscience, and outgrow the heart of a man. (3.) Sins are more dangerous and deadly: John iii. 19, 'And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds are evil.' It is an affront to the light that shineth to us, gives a double dye to our sins, and so increases our punishment and condemnation.