VeU. 10.] SERMONS UPON 1 JOHN III. 85
to them that hate you, and pray for them that despitefully use you, and persecute you.' God must be loved in all his creatures ; his natural image in all men, his spiritual image in his saints. Well, then, if you would be accounted children of }'our Father which is in heaven, love to all in their several capacities must be your very nature, and the doing them all the good that you can must be the very business of your lives.
Use. Look after these evidences, and see they be more and more found in you.
i. Nothing quiets the mind but a persuasion that God loveth us as his children, and that he will give us eternal life. Get this persuasion once, that God is your Father and you are his children, and then all the controversy between God and us is at an end. The reason is clear : He that taketh God for a judge only can never be fully satisfied in his condition, nor live in peace ; there is no safety but in God's family, and no holy security but in being his children. The great business of the Spirit of God is to clear this to us : Rom. viii. 15, 'But you have received the Spirit of adoption, crying, Abba, Father.' So Gal. iv. 6, ' Because ye are sons, he hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father ; ' Eph i. 13, 14, ' Whom also after ye believed, ye were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, which is the earnest of our inheritance, until the redemption of the purchased posses- sion, unto the praise of his glory.' The great business of our Redeemer was to purchase this blessing for us : Gal. iv. 5, ' To redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons ; ' John viii. 36, ' If the Son make you free, then are you free indeed.' The great privilege which we have by baptism as a sign : Gal. iii. 26, 27, ' For ye are all children of God, by faith in Jesus Christ. For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ, have put on Christ' By faith as to the reality : John i. 12, ' To as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name.' The church of the new testament, as to her outward estate, is an estate of sonship and adoption ; and the truly godly have the real effect of it ; they have the dignity, the privileges or the rights which belong to the children of God.
2. Purity of life and charity, which are here asserted to be the two sure signs of a child of God, are to be understood evangelically. If so, then they that lead impious and uncharitable lives are no children of God, however they flatter themselves in the goodness of their estate. The exclusive mark is more easy than the inclusive, because of the many failings of God's children, who have a deep reverence for God's holiness and the exactness of his law, therefore they are not so clear. What shall be said to them ? They must labour to make their qualification more explicit, and remember it is to be interpreted evangelically, that is, if they be sincere. The first covenant required unsinning obedience, the second alloweth of uprightness and sinceritj- ; the old covenant bringeth all things to the balance, the new to the touchstone. If the best of us were put into the balance of the sanctuary, we should be found wanting, and then who can be saved? Ps. Ixxxiv. 11, 'He is a sun and a shield, and will give grace and glory, and no good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly.' The upright are the Lord's
86 SERMONS UPON 1 JOHN III. [SeR. XVII.
delight, Prov. xi. 20. These may take comfort in God, as God delighteth in them, both in affliction and prosperity : Ps. cxii 9, ' To the upright there ariseth hght in darkness,' not only after, but in life : 2 Cor, i. 12, ' This is my rejoicing, the testimony of my consci- ence, that, in simplicity and godly sincerity, we have had our conversa- tion in the world.' In death : 2 Kings xx. 3, ' Remember, 0 Lord, that I have walked before thee with a perfect heart, and done that which is good in thy sight.'
3. No sincerity is to be discerned but by our constant walk and course : * He is a sun and a shield to them that walk uprightly ; ' and ' I have walked before thee with a perfect heart.' Here the upright are described by their conversations ; newness of life is the perpetual testi- mony of our adoption. A man may force himself for an act or two ; Saul in a raptural fit may be among the prophets ; therefore we are to judge by our scope and walk. A child of God may be under a strange appearance in some simple acts ; so the wicked have their good moods ; an aguish man hath his well days : Ps. cvi. 3, ' But blessed are they that keep judgment, and do righteousness at all times.'