Again, let us consider his example. Will you be so unlike Christ? ' In him was no sin,' and you are all overspread with sin. He learned obedience by the things he suffered, Heb. v. 8, 9. He came to be the leader to everlasting happiness of an obeying people ; his stamp and character should be upon ail his followers. He is Christ, you are christians ; and you should not be polluted members of his body. How will you look him in the face at the last day if you are so uulike
l4 siiiii^roNs UPON 1 JOHN iiL [Ser. IX.
him ? 1 Jolin iv. 17, ' Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment ; because as he is so are we in the world ; ' if we be holy as he, spotless as he. Of polluted sinners he will say, Are these my people ? How will you then be ashamed ? But it will give us a bold confidence when we have written after his copy. We shall never be like him in glory unless we be first like him in holiness. Christ will own his image. Boldness is opposite to fear and shame ; we shall neither be afraid nor ashamed at the day of judgment, if we bear his image upon us.
Secondly, It assureth and sealeth our comfort when we are afflicted either with the guilt or power of sin. To this end I shall discuss this argument more at large, and show you —
1. How siu is taken away — (1.) By justification ; (2.) By sanctifi- cation.
2. What grounds we have to expect that Christ will do this for us.
3. What we must do that this effect may be accomplished in us. First, How sin is taken away ; but first we must determine what sin
is. It is usually said there are in sin four things — culpa, reatus,'pcena, macula, the blot or stain. The three first belong to sin as it respects the law ; the last, as it respects the rectitude of human nature in innocency. The three first do more concern justification, the last sanctification.
[1.] Sin may be considered with respect to the law ; for so the nature of it will best be found out ; for we are told in the verse before the text, that ' sin is a transgression of the law.' In the law there is the precept and the sanction. The precept showeth what obedience is due from us to God ; the sanction or threatening what punishment is due to us in a state of disobedience. Accordingly, in sin, with respect to the precept, there is culpa, the fault, or criminal action ; with respect to the sanction or threatening, there are two things considerable — sentence and execution. As the commination importeth a sentence and respecteth a sentence, so there is guilt : ' Because sentence is not speedily executed,' Eecles. viii. 11. The sentence is passed in the threatenings of the law, but execution is deferred. But with respect to execution it is called pcena, punishment.
[2.] Sin may be considered with respect to that rectitude of our heart and mind which God gave us at first to enable and incline us to keep his law ; and so cometh in macula, the stain or blot, as it defaced God's image in our hearts: Kom iii.'23, ' We have all sinned, and are come short of the glory of God ; ' meaning thereby his glorious image, which was lost and forfeited by the fall of Adam ; and actually, because in the day of God's patience, as he continueth other forfeited mercies to us, so some relics of his image in that knowledge and con- science that is left. Therefore when we rebel against the light, and live in a course of heinous sin, we lose more and more of that goodness of human nature that is yet left, and bear the character of such as are given up to vile affections, Kom. i. 26 ; and Eph. iv. 19, 'And being past feeling, have given themselves over to lasciviousness, to work uncleanness with greediness.' God leaveth them to their own lusts without restraint, withholdeth the good Spirit that was wont to counsel and warn them. 3Iacula, then, the blot or stain, is the inclination to
TeR. 5.] SERMONS UPON 1 JOHN III. 15
sin again ; as a brand that hath been once in the fire, is more apt to take fire again. This is the fruit of sin, and we pray God to free us from it yet more and more, by giving us more of his Spirit. It is the heaviest judgment that can befall us, to be given over to our own heart's counsels, Ps. h, 11 ; and David prayeth, after heinous sin, that God would not take his Holy Spirit from him.
But let us now consider how sin is taken away : therein what is to be done by Christ, and what is to be done by us, that this effect may be accomplished in us.
And first, as to what is to be done by Christ, and there how sin is taken away, both as to justification and sanctification.
1. With respect to justification ; so that culpa, reatus, poena, the fault or criminal action, cannot be said to be taken away, but only it is passed by as it is the foundation of our guilt, as it is a natural action ; such a fact we did, or such a duty we omitted to do. As it is a faulty action, contrary to the law of God, Christ taketh it not away, for that were to disannul the law, or the obliging force and authority of it, as it is a rule of perpetual equity. The sins we have committed are sins still ; therefore Christ came not to make the law less holy, or a fault to be no fault.