Use 2. Is to persuade us to keep his commandments. I shall press this — (1.) From the excellency of the privilege; (2.) The necessity of obedience.
VeR. 24.] SERMONS UPON 1 JOHN III. 227
1. The excellency of the privilege; this deservetli our choicest en- deavours.
[1.] Consider what an obliging act of condescension it is on God's part to dwell in us. Could we liave used these expressions if God had not used them before us ? ' But will God in very deed dwell with men on earth ? ' was the wonder of one of the wisest men on earth, 2 Chron. vi. 18. But more to dwell in us and walk in us, 1 Cor. vi. 16 ; to dwell in the hearts of such poor vile creatures as we are. What base and unclean guests lodge within us naturally ; but what a blessed thing is it to have God dwell in us and we in him !
[2.] Consider how much the people of God value his external pre- sence : Exod. xxxiii. 15, 'If thy presence go not with us, carry us not up hence.' But now Christ is not only with us, but in us, 2 Cor. v. 3. It is that which bringeth us nearer to God, and fits us to receive more from him. Temporal blessinirs, Eom. viii. 32 ; all spiritual blessings, 1 Cor. i. 30 ; eternal, John xvii. 23, 24.
2. The necessity of obedience ; it is not only profitable for more ample communion, but necessary, the union else is but pretended; it cannot be continued, but is interrupted and broken off. Now when God hath made a difference between you and others, will you seek to unmake it again ? He cometh to dwell in you to make you holy.
SEEMON XXXII.
And ice knoio that he abidetli m us,hy his Spirit, lohich he hath given us. — 1 John iii. 24.
DocT. That God's dwelling and abiding in us is known by the Spirit given to us.
It is not said merely that he abidetli in us by his Spirit, but ' Hereby we know that he abidetli in us, by his Spirit, which he hath given to us.' Christ is where his Spirit is. It is a sure sign to us that he hath not forsaken us, but still continueth united to us.
Let us inquire — (1.) What is meant by the Spirit given to us ; (2.) Why this is a sure evidence ; (3.) How this Spirit worketh.
I. What is meant by the Spirit given to us. By the Spirit is meant the person of the Holy Ghost, or some created gift, called the divine nature, or new creature. The word signifieth both. Sometimes it is taken for the Holy Ghost himself: Mat. xxviii. 19, 'Baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.' Sometimes for tlie gifts and graces of the Spirit: John iii. 6, ' And that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.' That divine nature which is begotten or born in us of and by the S[)irit is called spirit also, and both given to us : Rom. v. 5, 'The love of God is slied abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost, which is given unto us.' The latter is siipposed to be spoken of 1 John iv. 13, 'Hereby we know that we dwell in him, and he in us,
228 SEKMONS UPON 1 JOHN III. [SeE. XXXII.
because lie hath given us of liis spirit ; ' bestowed a gracious charitable temper upon us, for that temper which was in Christ is in us also ; for those words follow this clause ; if we love one another, God dwelleth in us, and his love is perfected in us. Now it mattereth not much whether we interpret it of the one or the other, for we have both the fruit and the tree, the fountain and the stream. The one cannot be without the other, nor the graces without the Spirit, for they are of his production ; nor can the Spirit be said to dwell in any without respect to these graces, for the Spirit dwelleth where he worketh ; and his dwelling in the souls of believers is his working there in such a peculiar manner as is not common to all men ; a familiar and continued working, such as produceth life, and likeness to Christ in righteousness and holi- ness, which is the same with gracious habits or the new nature, which is the more immediate principle of man's actions ; and the Spirit of God produceth and worketh all that good which we do by the media- tion of the new frame of heart which he hath raised in us. Yet I chiefly understand the text of the Spirit of sanctification, by whom being re- generated we live unto God, for these reasons —
1. Because it is brought as a proof of that part of the privilege, his abiding in us. The privilege is mutual and reciprocal ; we abide in liim and he in us. Now he doth not prove the former, but the latter ; the soul dwelleth where it delighteth, but God dwelleth where he work- eth by his Spirit, which is the cause of this intimate and immediate presence, which is here expressed, not by cohabitation, but by inhabit- ation ; and so the meaning is, the constant operations of the Holy Spirit dwelling and working in you show that Christ hath not forsaken us, but taken up his abode in our hearts.