20 SERMONS UPON 1 JOHN III. [SeR. IX.
US to do what is proper to us : 1 Peter i. 22, ' Seeing you have purified your souls in obeying the truth through tlie Spirit.'
What then are we to do ? — (1.) As to our entrance into Christianity ; (2.) As to our recovery out of our falls.
1. As to our entrance into the grace of the gospel, there is required j'epentance towards God, and faith in our Lord Jesus Clu-ist, Acts XX. 21.
[1.] Repentance towards God, which consists in a serious purpose and willingness to let sin go, and a fixed resolution to love, serve, and please God, bewailing and bemoaning ourselves to God with grief and shame : Jer. xxxi. 18, ' I have heard Ephraim bemoaning himself
[2.] Faith, or an acceptance of Christ as the only physician of our souls, who alone can cure and change our hearts ; therefore, depending upon the universal offer of his grace, we are resolved to use the means which he hath appointed, that this cure may be wrought in us, Rom. vii. 24, 25.
2. For our recoveiy out of particular falls, something is to be done with respect to those four things which are in sin.
[1.] As to the fault ; be sure the fault be not continued, which is when the criminal acts are repeated. Relapses are very dangerous. A bone often broken in the same place is with the more difficulty set ngain. God's children are in danger of this before the breach be well made up, or the orifice of the wound well closed ; as Lot doubleth his incest, and Sampson goeth again and again to Delilah, Judges xvi. 2, 4. But wicked men sin frequently, as that king who would venture fifty after fifty ; nothing will stop them in the way of their sins.
[2.] The guilt continueth till serious and solemn repentance, and suing out our pardon in the name of Christ : 1 John i. 9, ' If we con- fess and forsake our sins, he is just and faithful to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.' Though a man should forbear the act, and never commit it more, yet unless retracted by seri- ous remorse, and humbling ourselves before God, it avails not. This self-accusing is necessary, that we may know how much we are indebted to grace. Look into thy bill, what owest thou ? Luke vii. 47, ' She wept much, because she loved much; and she loved much, because much was forgiven her.' She had a greater measure of love to God and Christ. This self-judging is that which makes us the more earnest for pardon, Luke xviii. 13, and grief and shame in both, to strengthen us against i-elapses, that we may forsake the sins we confess : Prov. xxviii. 13, ' He that confesseth and forsaketh his sins, shall have mercy.' Slight acknowledgments do not mortify sin.
[3.] The blot or evil inclination to sin again. The evil influence of sin continueth till we mortify the root of it ; it is not enough to mortify ihe sin, but we must pull out the core of the distemper before all will be well. Jonah repented of forsaking his call ; yet, not mortifying the root, it brake forth again. He stood upon his credit, Jonah iv. 1, 2. Christ trieth Peter : John xxi. 15, ' Lovestthou me more than these ? ' He had boasted before, ' Though all men forsake thee, I will never forsake thee,' Mat. xxvi. 33. Though Peter had wept bitterly for the fact, yet Christ would tij if the cause were removed. Peter is grown
VeR. 5.] SERMONS UPON 1 JOHN III. 21
more modest now than to make any comparisons. We must use means lo get the sinning disposition checked.
[4.] As to poena, we must deprecate the eternal punishment as de- served by us, through the merit of our actions, still 'looking to Jesus, who hath delivered us from wrath to come.' But as to temporal evils which God may inflict upon us partly for the increase of our repent- ance, when we smart under the fruits of sin ; for the evil of punish- ment doth much help us to judge of the evil of sin : Jer. ii. 19, * Thine own wickedness shall correct thee, and thy backsliding shall reprove thee : know, therefore, and see that it is an evil thing and bitter, that thou hast forsaken the Lord thy God, that his fear is not in thee.' Partly to make us a warning to others, that they do not displease God as we have done : 2 Sam. xii. 14, ' Howbeit, because by this deed thou hast given occasion to the enemies of God to blas- pheme ; the child also that is born unto thee, shall surely die.' For these reasons, I say, God may punish us in our persons, or in our families and relations ; wherefore we should humbly deprecate the judg- ment : Ps. vi. 12, ' Lord, correct me not in thine anger, nor chasten me in thy hot displeasure.' That we may stop the judgment, and get it mitigated ; or, if it come, we may patiently bear it with humble submission to the will of God : Micah vii. 9, ' I will bear the indigna- tion of the Lord, because I have siimed against him.' Not mourning as without hope, yet humbling ourselves, and putting our mouths iu the dust.