VeR. 19.] SERMONS UPON 1 JOHN III. 159
there our graces were weighed, here tried. Now if the best of us were put into the balance of the sanctuary, we should be found wanting as to matter or manner and principle or aim, and then who could be saved? But now all the blessings of God's family are entitled to the upright : Ps. Ixxxiv. 11, ' God is a sun and a shield, and grace and glory will he give ; and no good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly.' This scripture containeth an epitome or abridgment of the covenant of grace ; the good things there are expressed metaphorically and literally. Metaphorically he is a sun and a shield ; blessings privative and positive ; a sun, the fountain of all good ; a shield to keep off all evil or danger ; provision and protection. The one term is more verified in this life, the other in the world to come. Literally all spiri- tual good things come under the name of grace, eternal good things under the name of glory ; no temporal good thing will he withhold : Ps. xxxiv. 9, ' Tliere is no want to them that fear him.' But here who are the qualified parties ? The sincere, who are the Lord's delight ; the sincere in faith, the sincere in love, the sincere in obedience ; those who are what they seem to be, and profess to be ; these are the capable subjects of grace and glory, to whom God will be a sun and a shield, and to whom God will deny no good thing.
5. It is no easy matter to make out our sincerity, or to establish a solid peace and comfort in the soul. This I gather from the word ' assure,' or 'shall persuade.' There needeth much arguing and debat- ing the matter in the court of conscience, and we need sure signs to persuade us ; the conscience of sin is not easily laid aside. Shyness and stupidness may quiet us for a while, but a solid and durable joy needeth a good evidence and warrant. When we have no sense of sin and danger on our hearts, it is easy to leap into a false peace, but an awak- ened and sensible sinner is not so easily nor so soon established ; for the upright are prone to self-accusings, for their rule is exact, and grace and love would fain do more for God ; and grace in the best is but weak and small, and the remainders of sin so great, active, and troublesome, and the operations of man's soul so various, confused, and dark, and they see so many mistakes, and the children of the devil so often entitle themselves to God, John viii. 44. And frequent afflictions do also very often awaken in them a sense of sin, and all the reasonings of their minds will not still and quiet their consciences, so that the Lord is forced to come in by powerful and authoritative acts of grace, and in an imperial and Godlike manner to silence those doubts, and secure and settle a sense of his love upon our hearts : Ps. xlii. 7, 8, ' Deep calleth unto deep at the noise of thy water-spouts ; all thy waves and thy billows are gone over me. Yet the Lord will command his loving- kindness in the day-time, and in the night his song shall be with me, and my prayer unto the God of my life.' Ordinarily we have a good measure of grace before we can discern the truth of it. A working faith, a laborious and fervent love, and a lively hope cannot lie idle.
6. Though it be difficult to make out our sincerity, yet graces really, constantly, and self-denyingly exercised, will or may evidence it to us, or that the heart is sound in God's statutes, Ps. cxix. 80. Surely where grace is deeply rooted, and hath a predominant influence over our actions, so as it can countermand contrary desires and inclinations,
160 • SERMONS UPON 1 JOHN III. [SeR. XXIV.
there the heart is sound and upright with God. Now where this is found, which the context speaketh of, it makes us to assure our hearts before him.
[1.] A real exercise of grace. Compare this with the verse before the text, ' Let us not love in word, neither in tongue, but in deed and in truth.' A man may talk well from his convictions, nay, from a mere disciplinary knowledge ; but to do well needs a living principle of grace. The scripture still setteth forth graces by their lively opera- tion, for a dead and sleepy habit is worth nothing; it speaketh of the working faith as carrying away the prize of justification, Gal. v. 6. As honouring Christ : 2 Thes, i. 11, 12, ' Wherefore we pray also for you, that God would count you worthy of this calling, and fulfil all the good pleasure of his goodness, and the work of faith with power ; that the name of the Lord Jesus may be glorified.' The laborious love is that which God will regard and reward : Heb. vi. 10, ' God is not un- righteous, to forget your work of faith and labour of love.' So the lively hope is the fruit of regeneration : 1 Peter i. 3, ' Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which, according to his abundant mercy, hath begotten us to a lively hope, by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.' That which sets us a-doing: Acts. xxiv. 16, ' And herein do I exercise myself, to have always a conscience void of offence towards God and towards men;' and Acts xxvi. 7, 8, ' Unto which promise our twelve tribes, instantly serving God day and night, hope to come.' Grace otherwise cannot appear in the view of con- science : causes are known by their effects ; apples appear when the sap is not seen. It is the operative and active graces that will discover themselves. A man may think well or speak well, but that grace which governeth the conversation showeth itself to have a deep rooting in tiie heart.