VeR 11.] SERMONS UPON EPHESIANS V. 307
other sort. Surely it is a grief to the Holy Spirit that you are so like the devil and his children, and yet profess a nearness to God. Christ hath done his part to difference you from 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 ; and hold up their ways with the greater pretence, as justified by you. If you be proud, covetous, envious, voluptuous, backbiting, wanton, where is the difference? When God hath made a difference, you unmake it again, and confound all by walking according to the course of the world; it is a confusion of what God hath separated. God made the difference when none was, by the power of his grace, and you must keep up the difference.
2. This difference is discovered by those actions that are proper to either state ; for actions are agreeable to their principle, and in actions must this difference be expressed, or how is it visible? Both show forth the influence of an unseen power, both the children of God and the children of the devil, the children of light and the children of darkness. The powers are unseen, both God and Satan ; and the principles are unseen, unless they discover themselves in operations suitable : Kom. viii. 5, ' For 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.' The devil driveth on his instruments furiously to act wicked- ness, and God would not have us flatter ourselves with an imaginary respect to him, but hath put the trial of our love upon some visible demonstration : 1 John v. 3, ' For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments ; and his commandments are not grievous.' Our Saviour says, John xiv. 21, '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.* And therefore the children of light must live in a perfect abhorrence of, and keep at a distance from, the works of darkness. Every root beareth proper fruit ; we do not expect grapes from thorns, nor figs from thistles ; but from a good tree we expect good fruit. A good tree cannot bear ill fruit, as a kindly and ordinary production : Mat. vii. 16-18, 'Ye shall know them by their fruit. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles ? even so every good tree briugeth forth good fruit, and a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit. A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit.' It is there spoken of the fruits of doctrine, but it is true also of the frui<ts of grace in the hearts of believers ; for grace is nothing but Christ's heavenly doctrine imprinted on our hearts and minds, and there it bringeth forth fruit like itself.
3. This distinction is to be kept up on the part of the godly, and so conspicuously held forth, that they may either convince or convert the wicked. God intended that the conversations of his people should be a living instruction ; as in many places : Mat. v. 16, ' Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven ; ' that is, holiness must so shine forth that the world may be convinced or converted to God. God is glorified by either, chiefly in their conversion ; or if not so, in their conviction : their condemnation is justified, and it maketh the justice of his punishment
30S SERMONS UPON EPHESIANS V. [SeR. XIII.
more clear and evident : Phil. ii. 15, 16, ' That ye may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom ye shine as liglits in the world, holding forth the word of life.' All Grod's chiklren are lights. God is the Father of liglits ; Christ is the great light that came into the world; ministers are lights by office, as tliey dispense God's word publicly. All christians are lights by their general calling, and they are to hold forth the word of life too ; that is, in their profession and practice they must discover the way to life revealed in the gospel. Some will fall in love with it, which is matter of joy to us ; others will be reproved and convinced by it, which is matter of glory to God, not only in their final doom, but as their mouths are stopped, and they cannot easily bespatter religion, when they see the splendour and lovely beauty of it in your conversations. Well, then, if we have such a charge upon us, and it be such a blessed work to bring about the salvation of others, we ought to keep at a great distance from the works of darkness ; for if our deeds be like theirs, how do we convert or convince them ? Those that do not desire to do good to others are not children of light, and they that blemish their conversations with the pollutions of the world do not behave themselves as children of light. When the sun and moon are eclipsed, and lose their light, it sets the world on wondering ; and it is observed of all when godly men miscarry. See another place, 1 Peter ii. 12, ' Having your conversations honest among the gentiles, that whereas they speak against you as evil-doers, they may, by your good works which they shall behold, glorify God in the day of visitation.'