416 SERMONS UPON 1 JOHN II. 12-14. [Ser. V.
we shall be gone, but ' Christ is the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever.' Though days and years are in a continual flux and motion about him, yet he is the same for ever, he is the beginning without beginning, and the end without end ; before all, after all, and in all. Think often of his unchangeableness ; but consider also your own vanity, whose glory and perfection is like a summer flower, or like a vapour ascending for a little time. Our purposes are soon broken off, and made of none effect.
SEKMON V.
I lorite unto you, young men, because you have overcome the wicked one. I luxve written unto you, young men, because ye are strong, and the word of God abideth in you, and ye have overcome the wicked one, &c. — 1 John ii. 13, 14.
"We come now to the second rank of christians, such as are called young men. They are described —
1. By the perfection proper to their age, ' Because ye are strong.' As old men are noted for wisdom, so young men for strength : Prov. xx. 29, ' The glory of young men is their strength.'
2. The subordinate cause or means, ' And the word of God abideth in you.
3. The effect and fruit, and that is victory over Satan, ' And ye have overcome the wicked one.'
That which is said concerning this rank and order may be com- prised in these propositions —
1. There are a middle sort of christians, who may be called young men.
2. These above others are exposed to temptations and conflicts.
3. That which is most eminent in this age and rank of christians is strength.
4. This strength they have because the word of God abideth in them.
5. Those that have the word of God abiding in them overcome the wicked one.
Prop. 1. That there are a middle sort of christians, who may be called young men.
So the apostle frameth the distinction ; and the reason of the thing carrieth it, for experience telleth us that there are seme christians or believers who have felt comfort in Christ, tasted the good word of God, and are affected with the offers of an heavenly life, and thereupon have renounced the devil, the world, and the flesh, that they may seek their happiness in God through Christ ; yet they have not attained to that strength of grace and comfort, nor that experience in the ways of godli- ness, as the fathers have gotten ; neither do they walk therein so evenly and constantly as they do ; so that they cannot be placed among the
VeR. 13, 14.] SERMONS UPON 1 JOHN II. 12-14. 417
higher sort of christians ; neither yet are they so weak and unex- perienced as the babes. It will not be lost time a little to show more particularly wherein they differ from the fathers, or the old and more experienced christians, and from the babes and younger sort.
1. From the fathers they differ —
[1.] Because they are not so well settled in an heavenly frame of spirit. Though they set their faces heavenward, yet they are often apt to look back, and are not so constantly exercised about heavenly things, or doing all things to eternal ends, but that they are cumbered with many vain, loose, and roving imaginations and dreams of riches, preferment, worldly pomp, and ease and honour ; as if that God whom they have chosen for their portion were bound to provide these things for them, and in that measure wherein they crave them. In this rank I place the disciples before the pouring out of the Spirit. I cannot count them babes, they being so long then trained up in Christ's company ; nor yet fathers, because before the solemn pouring out of the Holy Ghost they had not attained to the perfection of the gospel- spirit, which is not the spirit of this world, but the earnest of a better inheritance. Therefore we find them troubled when Christ telleth them of the cross, and how hard a matter it was to enter into the kingdom of God, Mark x. 26. Contending among themselves who should be greatest (and that in a time when the passion was near at hand, Luke xxii. 21, 24), the mother of Zebedee's children with her sons (no doubt set a-work by them, Mat. xx. 21) came to Christ with this request, ' Grant that these my two sons may sit the one on thy right hand, and the other on the left in thy kingdom.' There were many pleasant dreams about worldly happiness in the hearts of chris- tians. The apostles and their friends did dream of an earthly kingdom of Christ, and worldly honours to be distributed to his servants and follow- ers, though Christ did often warn them to the contrary, and seek to prepare them for the cross. And doth not the love of the dignities, and honours, and profits, and pleasures of the world still creep into the hearts of believers, and tickle and inveigle them with many a vain thought and corrupt lust ? Surely yes. Witness their frequent thoughts of turning the tide and stream of affairs, and comforting themselves more with hopes of seeing their desire upon their enemies, and of temporal ease, than of the heavenly felicity ; their vain wishing for what others have, and misliking that which is their own ; their offence at God's providence, if he doth not find them meat for their lusts, and maintain them at such a rate as they fancy. Yet if we should say, they have no grace, we should condemn the generation of the just, and speak against plain experience.