VeR. 21.] SERMONS UPON 1 JOHN III. 185
our sincere obedience. Our hearts may accuse us of imperfection, but not of insincerity and hypocrisy, or partial dealing with God. In this latter sense is the text taken.
Secondly, The privilege, ' Then have we confidence towards God.'
1. What is this confidence ?
[1.] It is sometimes put for boldness, or not fearing any danger or evil from one : 1 John ii. 28, ' That when he shall appear we may have boldness, and not be ashamed at his coming.' And so the sense will be. You need not fear any danger from him ; for God will not be wanting to them that walk sincerely before him. So it is said the ' righteous are bold as a lion,' Prov. xxviii. 1. So Phil. i. 20, ' Accord- ing to my earnest expectation and my hope, that in nothing I shall be ashamed, but that, with all boldness, as always, so now, Christ shall be magnified in my body, whether it be by life or death.' That he should boldly avow the truth, as fearless of any danger ; living and dying, he should glorify Christ. A christian feareth nothing that is established upon sound terms : Ps. xxiii. 4, ' Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil.' They are not discouraged and disquieted, as others, with the apprehensions of danger ; as not from men, so not from God, to whom they look chiefly. Fear and dread of God's displeasure followeth the consciousness of sin, but expectation and hope of reward and good countenance from God is the natural result of righteousness and holiness. This is the first notion of the word 'confidence,' and not to be excluded here.
[2.] It signifieth liberty in prayer, a telling God all our mind, and so it signifieth praying freely to God, and asking of him whatever we stand in need of ; a freedom to speak our hearts and open our minds to God in all necessities : Eph. iii. 12, ' In whom we have boldness, and access with confidence, through the faith of him ; ' and Heb. iv. 16, 'Let us come boldly to the throne of grace.' We may present our- selves and our requests before him with confidence. Only let me note, that this confidence noteth liberty of heart rather than liberty of speech ; not a flowing of words so much as a holy confidence of audience and acceptance whenever we draw nigh unto him.
2. In what sense we may be said to have it. It may be understood de facto or dejure. It is not meant of the first only, for two reasons — (1.) Because otherwise it were not an argument of the value of the testimony of conscience if we have confidence towards God, and he doth not allow it or approve it ; for though he doth not say, If our hearts condemn us not, God will not condemn us, as in the former verse, ' God is greater than our hearts, and knoweth all things ; ' yet it must be understood, or else the apostle's reasoning were impertinent. (2.) Because de facto all that are sincere have not this confidence ; they liave a right to it, though they enjoy it not ; for there needeth another Avitness : Rom. viii. 16, ' The Spirit itself bearetli witness with our spirit that we are the children of God.'
Doct That a good conscience is one means to open an effectual door to us for free and full communion with God.
I shall prove two things to you —
1. That it is a great privilege to have free and full communion with God in bis worship.
180 SERMONS UPON 1 JOHN III. [SeR. XXVII.
2. That a good conscience hath a great influence on this.
I. For the first, that free and full communion with God in his wor- ship, expressed here by boldness, or 'confidence towards God,' is a great privilege. This will appear if 3'ou consider —
1. Man's forfeiture by sin ; God's image, favour, and fellowship lost all at once. All sweet commerce between us and God was cut off, as is evident by the story of the fall, where you will find man first a fugitive, and then an exile. First he ran away from God, and then God banished him out of his presence. Gen. iii. 8. When God came walking in the garden in the cool of the day, Adam and his wife hid themselves, as being afraid of the presence of the Lord ; they shuffled out of the way, and ran among the trees of the garden ; and afterwards we read again, ver. 23, 24, that God sent him forth, and drove him out of his presence, and set a guard of cherubims, and a flaming sword turning every way upon paradise, which was a figure of his wrath. As it was thus with Adam, so it was with all his posterity ; sin is the wall of partition between us and God: Isa. lix. 2, 'Your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you, that he will not hear/
2. The estrangement of the heart that grows upon this forfeiture, as appeareth by that legal bondage and those guilty fears which are natural to us. Sinners fear God, and fly from him : ' I was afraid, and hid myself,' saith Adam, Gen. iii. 10 ; and all his posterity have the same disposition : Isa. xxxiii. 14, ' Who among us can dwell with devouring burnings ? ' Yea, it appeareth by the bashfulness and in- confidence that befalleth the children of God by reason of sin. The fears of a guilty child make him shun his father's presence, as David kept silence when he had sinned, Ps. xxxii. 3. Strangeness and dis- tance groweth between God and us while sin lieth on the conscience.