1 Qu. ' limbs ' ? — Ed.
218 SERMONS uroN 1 JOHN HI. [Ser. XXX.
believe in Christ, it is ratified in the gospel court if we refuse the remedy. Now Christ is come into the workl, sufficiently revealed to he Lord and Saviour by the gospel, confirmed by miracles ; there- fore, this is a business of greater necessity than is usually minded or thought of.
2. And so love to the brethren is very rare : many are quite strangers to it, the best are very imperfect in it ; witness the cruelties and frauds that are practised in the world, and the un mercifulness that christians use one to another upon all occasions. Alas ! we that should be plentiful in doing good to one another, can hardly live quietly one by another ; we that should pardon injuries, offer them, and instead of turning the other cheek to the smiter, we smite ourselves, as if we did bid defiance to all Christ's laws and counsels. We live as if he commanded us to be treacherous, envious, hurtful, designing others' ruin and destruction, and forbidding us to be tender-hearted, com- passionate, ready to help and to do good to one another ; as if love were too much recommended to us, and were known better by slan- dering, reviling, and backbiting, rather than by tenderness of each other's welfare and reputation; as if Christ had said. By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, not because you love, but because ye hate one another.
Use 2. To exhort us to be tender of this double commandment.
1. Believing in the name of the Son of God ; charge it on yourselves as your work when you are sinning. This is none of my business or work. The work of God is to believe in him whom he hath sent ; that we should recover out of sin by Christ, and abandon it more and more, not live in the practice of it. When you are hunting after the world, or indulging carnal pleasures, this is not your work. God and heaven are the great objects faith is conversant about, and Christ is the means to bring me thither ; nay, other duties are not the commandment, for without faith all is nothing ; for in vain do men busy themselves about particulardutieswhen they neglect the main, Heb. xi. 6. This, if sincere, draweth other things along with it ; faith is the first stone in the spiri- tual building, 2 Peter i. 5, 6 ; faith is at the bottom of all : he that is to entertain a king will make reckoning of his train. All the privileges depend on this, pardoned, sanctified, Acts xxvi. 18 ; glorified, John iii. 16 ; communion with Christ, Eph. iii. 17. All blessings, Mat. xv. 28. God is at liberty to do for us what we desire ; otherwise tied up by his own methods and instituted order : Mark vi. 5, ' And he could do no mighty work there because of their unbelief.'
Let it be your constant work, 1 John v. 13. No men believe so much but they may believe more ; and the more you grow in faith the more you please God and honour him : Kom. iv. 20, ' Being strong in faith, giving glory to God.' And have more comfort in ourselves : Kom. XV. 13, ' The God of hope fill you with all peace and joy in believing.' The more you believe, the more you know you do believe, and the more will God own your faith : John i. 50, ' Believest thou ? thou shalt see greater things than these." Weakness of faith is pun- ished as well as total unbelief: Num. xx. 12, 'Because ye believed not to sanctify me in the eyes of the children of Israel, therefore ye
YeR. 24.] SERMONS UPON 1 JOHN III. 219
shall not bring the congregation into the land which I have given them.'
2. For love. We should grow in love as well as faith ; he that maketh conscience of the one will make conscience of the other also ; both are recommended by the same authority ; the one is a necessary effect of the other. Can a man have a due sense of God's love, and not love what belonsieth to God ?
SERMON XXXI.
And he that keepeth his commandments dioelleth in him, and he in him : and hereby know lue that he ahideth in us, by his Spirit zvhich he hath given to us. — 1 John iii. 24.
Here is the further happiness of those that make conscience of an entire and uniform obedience to God's holy will — (1.) Access to God in prayer ; (2.) Success, ver. 22 ; (3.) Constant communion with God.
In the words, first, we have an excellent privilege, ' And he that keepeth his commandments dwelleth in him, and he in him.'
Secondly, The proof, fruit, and evidence of it, ' And hereby know we that he abidetli in us, by his Spirit which he hath given to us.'
1. The privilege, ' Dwelleth in him, and he in him.' Dwelling noteth the continued presence and influence of Christ.
2. Tlie proof hereby : God is where his Spirit is. Mark, he doth not prove the former, our dwelling in God, for that is our duty as well as our privilege, but his dwelling in us, that needeth most to be con- firmed : and in proving that he proveth both ; for Christ dwelleth in none but those that dwell in him. The first is all we can handle at present.