452 SERMONS UPON 1 JOHN III. [SEE. II.
dition of peace and rest. He loveth us, and we are precious in his sight : Isa. xliii. 3, 4, ' For I am the Lord thy God, the Holy One of Israel : I gave Egypt for thy ransom, Ethiopia and Seba for thee ; since thou wast precious in my sight, and thou hast been honourable, and I have loved thee.'
[3.] We have the comfort of it now, and the first-fruits and earnest to show how good and sure it is : Gal. iv. 6, ' Because ye are sons, he hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father ; ' 2 Cor. i. 22, ' Who hath sealed us, and given us the earnest of the Spirit ; ' Eom. viii. 23, ' We ourselves, who have the first-fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our bodies.'
[4.] Now the fruits and effects do break out in our conversations, so that we are more visibly like unto God than others are, so that there is a manifest difference between the children of God and the children of the devil : 1 John iii. 10, ' In this the children of God are manifest, and the children of the devil : whosoever doeth not righteousness is not of God, nor he that loveth not his brother.' In some sort we are like him now in holiness, hereafter shall be more perfect in purity, blessedness, and immortality. The world is sensible of this difference now : 1 Peter iv. 4, ' Wherein they think it strange that you run not with them into the same excess of riot.' They look on the children of God as contrary to them in nature, interest, and design, having other comforts, other dependencies, other practices. There is a generation of men whose life is not carnal, who have other delights and pleasures than the rest of mankind have. It is no wonder to see men proud, covetous, voluptuous, as it is no wonder to see the sun move, or the earth stand still, or water run downward ; but it is a wonder to see men live as born of God, as having other hopes and expectations, to see them renounce what they see and love for God and heaven, which they never saw, to live upon supernatural supports, to comfort them- selves with invisible hopes, and to sacrifice interests, life, and all to enjoy him. A christian that roweth against the stream of flesh and blood is the world's wonder and the world's reproof : Heb. xi. 7, ' By faith Noah, being warned of God of things not seen as yet, moved with fear, prepared an ark to the saving of his house, by the which he con- demned the world.' Well, then, we are the sons of God ; we have much in hand, though more in hope.
2. That in the future state the glory of God's children shall be manifest : ' When he shall appear we shall be like him.' That shall be the day of the manifestation of the sons of God : Bom. viii. 19, ' The earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God.' First Christ, and then all the rest of his children : Col. iii. 3, 4, ' Your life is hid with Christ in God ; but when Christ, who is our life, shall appear, we shall appear with him in glory.'
Doct. That though God hath bestowed upon his people the glorious privileges of his children, yet little of this is seen in their present estate in the world.
1. I shall prove that the glory of our privileges and prerogatives is not seen in the present state.
2, Shall give you the reasons.
VeR. 1, 2.] SERMONS UPON 1 JOHN III. 453
3. The uses.
I. Our glorious relation to God, with the effects and fruits of it, is a thing hidden and not seen.
1. It is not seen by the world ; the world knoweth us not, as it knew him not ; it is hidden from the world, as colours from a blind man ; they have no eyes to see them —
[1.] Because they are blinded by the delusions of the flesh, and can- not judge of spiritual things : 1 Cor. ii. 14, ( The natural man receiveth not the things of God, for they are folly to him ; neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned ; ' as beasts cannot judge of the affairs of a man ; it is a life above them ; these are things out of their sphere ; they know all things after the flesh, and value them according to the interests of the flesh ; spiritual prerogatives are a riddle to them.
[2.] Being blinded with malice and prejudice, they censure this estate perversely, and so malign it and oppose it : 1 Peter iv. 4, 5, ' They think it strange that ye run not with them into the same excess of riot, speaking evil of you : who shall give an account to him that is ready to judge the quick and the dead.' They are unwilling that any should part company, that there may be none to make them ashamed ; and therefore, if they cannot draw others into a fellowship of their sins, they labour to blacken them with censures, or root them out by furious opposition and persecutions. But their perverse judgment should be no discouragement to the godly in the way of holiness, wherein they endeavour to imitate God, their heavenly Father.