[3.] Love will set us a-purifying. Love to God begets hatred of sin : Ps. xcvii. 10, ' Ye that love the Lord hate evil.' The one is as natural to the new nature as the other ; and the one is inferred out of the other. Now where there is a hatred of sin, there will be an exter- mination of it ; not a scratching at the face, but a digging at the root of it ; not a little faint resistance, but a striving to get rid of the being of it ; or else a groaning under it as a sore burden : Rom. vii. 24, ' 0 wretched man that I am ! who shall deliver me from the body of this death ? ' Therefore nothing puts us upon this perfecting holiness so much as love.
4. Our felicity and state of blessedness to which we are invited is pure and holy : 1 Peter i. 4, 'An inheritance incorruptible and unde- filed, reserved for you in the heavens.' And it is* elsewhere called ' the inheritance of the saints in light,' Col. i. 12. It must needs be so, for it is nothing else but the Lord himself to be enjoyed to all eternity. Now holy men are only fit for holy things. These are the months of our purification, as Esther purified herself when she was to come into the presence of Ahasuerus, Esther ii. 9.
Secondly, Having given you reasons, let me now give you some directions about the nature of this purity that ye must seek after.
1. Let it be a universal purity, beginning at the heart, and flowing from thence into the conversation. It must begin at the heart. The prophet, to cure the brackishness of the waters, casts salt into the spring ; and the scripture speaketh of a pure heart as the fountain of all godliness : 2 Tim. i. 5, ' The end of the commandment is charity, out of a pure heart, and faith unfeigned.' Now a pure heart is such a disposition or constitution of soul as consists in a hatred of sin and love to righteousness ; and till this be in us, there is no purity. The operation of the Spirit beginneth at the soul, and from the soul it is derived to the outward man ; for from the polluted fountain of the heart floweth all the pollution of life: Mat. xv. 19, 20, 'Out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false- witness, blasphemies. These are the things which defile a man.'
486 sermons upon i john in. [Seti. V.
Now as pollution began there, so doth purity also : Mat. xxiii. 26, ' Thou blind pharisee, cleanse first that which is within the cup and platter, that the outside of them may be clean also.' First purify the heart within, and then purity of life will follow of its own accord ; yea, if we should be defiled where the constitution and settled disposition of the heart is for purity, you will sooner recover your state ; as a living spring, when the waters are mudded and troubled, will work itself clean again. But, on the contrary, the apostle telleth us that ' some who had escaped the pollutions of the world, through the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, were again entangled and over- come,' 2 Peter ii. 20. The constitution of their hearts was not altered, but they lived in secret love with their sins, while they seemed for a while to avoid some grosser shameful acts. Therefore the temper of your souls must be altered, that you may not delight to wallow in this muddle like swine in the mire. But it may be a thing hateful to you to sin, not only contrary to }rour interest, but your very nature. But then the temper of the heart being changed, you must look to the operations of the thoughts, words, and actions : Prov. xv. 26, ' The thoughts of the wicked are an abomination to the Lord ; but the words of the pure are pleasant words.' There is a defect in both parts of the proverb, to be supplied from the former branch to the latter, and the latter branch from the former ; thus as the thoughts of the wicked, so their words are abominable to the Lord ; and as the words, so the thoughts of the godly are pure and acceptable. The words depend much on the thoughts, as the thoughts do on the constitution and frame of the heart. The tap runneth according to the liquor with which the vessel is filled. We are responsible to God for thoughts, therefore our hearts should be good and holy. So also for words ; the impurity of the heart bewrayeth itself much in rottenness of speech. Therefore, as the heart must be pure, so must the tongue and lip. The prophet saith, Isa. vi. 5, ' I am a man of polluted lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips.' Faultiness in this kind is very frequent, and not without difficulty avoided. Then for our actions, and first for sacred ones: 2 Tim. ii. 22, 'Call on the Lord out of a pure heart;' and Mai. i. 11, ' They shall bring a pure offering.' So for ordinary conversation : Prov. xxi. 8. ' The work of the pure is right.' A man that is pure must be pure throughout, that there be no blot upon him, or spot that is not as the spot of God's children.