156 SERMONS UPON 1 JOHN III. [SeR. XXIV.
also trusted, after ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your sal- vation : in whom also, after that ye beUeved, ye were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, which is the earnest of our inheritance, until the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of his glory.' The great business of our Kedeemer was to purchase this privilege 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 therefore shall make you free, then are you free indeed.' The great privilege we have by baptism as a sign, by faith as giving us the reality : Gal. iii. 26, 27, ' For ye are the children of God by faith in Jesus Christ. For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ.' The church of the new testament, as to her outward estate, is an estate of sonship or adoption, and the truly godly have the real effect of it ; they have the dignity, privilege and right which does belong to the children of God : John i. 12, ' To as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God.'
2. We must cherish no confidence of our adoption but what will hold good before God ; for it is said, we must assure our hearts before him. The law which we have broken, and which condemneth us, is the law of God ; the wrath and punishment which we fear and have deserved is the wrath of God ; that which is the true proper matter of our joy, peace, and comfort is the favour of God ; and the family into which we are admitted is the family of God, and the presence into which we come is the presence of God, and the glory which we expect is the glory of God ; the punishment which we must undergo, and must determine our final estate, is the judgment of God. He is the supreme judge, at whose sentence we must stand or fall; therefore to him we must approve ourselves, and before him must be able to defend our claim, and maintain our confidence. It is easy to make good our plea before men, but not so before God. Take all the senses before explicated. We are before him in our ordinary conversation. Sincere though imperfect sanctification is a righteousness that will hold out before God, and will be graciously accepted by him : Luke i. 74, 75, ' That we might serve him without fear, in holiness and righteousness before him all the days of our life.' A christian should cheerfully serve God in a faithful discharge of all duties towards God and towards men, as remembering that he is always in his sight, as the witness, judge, and observer of all his actions ; therefore we must still ' labour that, whether present or absent, we approve ourselves to him, and be accepted of him,' 2 Cor. v. 9. This will be matter of comfort to us : 2 Cor. i. 12, ' But our rejoicing is this, the testimony of our conscience, that, in simplicity and godly sincerity, we have had our conversations in the world.' And partly in your prayers. Our legal fears are re- vived by the presence of God. Cain had his guilty fears ; so shall we unless we be sincere ; so the righteous are as bold as a lion : 1 John iii. 21, ' If our hearts condemn us not, then have we confidence towards God.' When our hearts do not condemn us of any insincere walking, then we have confidence ; otherwise we are shy of the presence of God, as David when he had sinned hung off from the throne of grace: Ps. xxxii. 3, 'When I kept silence, my bones waxed old.' And Adam
VeR. 19.] SERMONS UPON 1 JOHN III. 157
when he had sinned ran to the bushes. They that walk crookedly crack and break their own confidence, and cannot look God in the face with any comfort ; whereas others can come to him as children to their father. And partly as it importeth our appearance before him in the day of our accounts. The sincere have a confidence that will hold out then, as appeareth by their constant and steady cheerfulness, when they most mind his judgment : ' The sinners in Zion are afraid, tearfulness hath surprised the hypocrite,' Isa. xxxiii. 14. Pinching weather maketh the unsound feel their aches and bruises, so a time of eminent judgments is grievous to them ; but it is otherwise with the upright, who are emboldened by a good conscience, and a sense of their own integrity : Ps. cxii. 4, ' Unto the upright there ariseth light in darkness.' Not only after, but in darkness ; they have great comfort in their greatest perplexities ; yea, when God summoneth them into his immediate presence : 2 Kings xx. 3, ' Lord, thou knowest that I liave walked before thee with a true and perfect heart.' Hezekiah was then arrested with the sentence of death. A christian can look death in the face with cheerfulness, and comfortably review his past life, when hypocrites vomit up their own shame. Yet the sincere, though conscious to themselves of many infirmities, have made it their busi- ness to honour and please God.