But let me a little more closely show how everything in religion obligeth us to the purifying ourselves yet more and more.
VER. 3.] SERMONS UPON 1 JOHN III. 481
1. With respect to the God, whom we serve in the Spirit, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.
[1.] Our God is pure : Hab. i. 13, ' He is of purer eyes than to behold iniquity ; ' that is, and let it go unpunished, however men please themselves in it. We should never think of him, but be ashamed of the inward remainders of corruption. The saints always express a deep abborrency and sense of their own impurity when they have to do with God : Isa. vi. 5, ' Woe is me, I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell among people of unclean lips, for mine eyes have seen the Lord of hosts ; ' Job xlii. 5, 6, ' I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear, but now mine eye seeth thee ; wherefore I abhor myself in dust and ashes/ When God manifested himself in a way of grace, thus were the saints affected, and deservedly. God is the most holy, pure being, and the fountain of all purity and holiness ; so pure, that in comparison of him the greatest purity of the creatures is but pollution : Job iv. 18, ' Behold, he puts no trust in his servants, and his angels he chargeth with folly. How much less on them that dwell in houses of clay ?' Job xv. 15, 16, ' Behold, he putteth no trust in his saints, and the heavens are not clean in his sight : how much more abominable and filthy is man, who drinketh in iniquity as water ? ' The angels were never defiled with sin, yet because of the mutability of their nature, they are not clean in his sight. God cannot absolutely trust them. Oh, how much more should we confess ourselves to be vile and abhorred, who are actually defiled with sin, and do so often show what dregs and dross remain in our hearts ! But though God be so good and holy in himself, yet may he dispense with the unholiness of others ? No ; this purity, as it implieth an exact holiness in God, and freedom from spot and defilement, so a hatred and aversion from all that is so ; for none can have communion with this holy God unless they be pure and holy also : Ps. lxxiii. 1, ' God is good to such as are of a clean heart;' Ps. xviii. 26, ' With the pure thou wilt show thyself pure, and with the upright thou wilt show thyself upright.' Well, then, if God be most righteous, pure, and holy, and the angels cover their faces in his pre- sence, and do proclaim him as only holy, and we at our best, since sin hath invaded our nature, have but a ragged, tattered holiness (Isa. lxiv. 6, 'All our righteousnesses are but as filthy rags',) it highly imports us to purify ourselves for the sight and fruition of this blessed, holy, and pure God.
[2.] Look to God incarnate, the second person in the Trinity, our Eedeemer and Mediator, he also is pure and holy ; and it doth more enforce this purifying ourselves as Christ is pure, so it is said in the text ; whether you consider his person, or the design of his coming into the world. For his person : Heb. vii. 26, ' Such a high priest be- came us, who is hol}r, harmless, and undefiled, separate from sinners.' This was he who is to bring us to God, and who was set up as a pat- tern of holiness in our nature. He was pure and holy in his concep- tion, birth, life, and death ; as innocent and harmless as the new-born child, never tainted with the least sin ; being more like God, and nearer to him, than any creature possibly can be ; who chose not a monkish sequestration, but a free life of conversation with men, yet never was defiled, and made partaker in their sins. And shall we be so un-
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482 SERMONS UPON 1 JOHN III. [SeR. V.
like him as we are ? Certainly if our hearts and lives he spotted with envy, malice, lust, ambition, affectation of greatness, and esteem in the world, and an excessive use of the pleasures thereof, to live a life so unlike to Christ is to contradict and defy our profession, and to he called christians to Christ's dishonour ; for his design in coming and dying was to cleanse, and purify, and sanctify us : Eph. v. 25-27, 'Christ loved the church, and gave himself for it, that he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word, that he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle, or any such thing, hut that it should be holy, and without blemish.' The Lord Jesus, when he undertook the recovery of lapsed mankind, wanted not love to intend us the greatest benefit, nor wisdom to choose it. nor merit and worth to purchase it. But what did he in- tend, choose, and purchase, but that he might sanctify and cleanse us ? Herein he showed the fervency of his love, the wisdom of his choice, the value of his purchase. He saw that our great misery was that we were polluted and unclean by sin, and so made loathsome to God. Therefore, as the fervency of his love inclined him not to loath us, but to seek our good, so out of the infinite wisdom of his choice he did pitch upon the most proper and necessary benefit for us ; and because of the value of his sufferings, he despaired not to get us made clean, and accordingly pursueth that work till it comes to its final perfection, and lie at length takes us home to himself, as fully pure and perfect, without any spot or remnant of sinful defilement. Now this being Christ's design, unless we would directly cross it, we are obliged to purify ourselves yet more and more.