to know us for Christ's disciples11;" and by it we ourselves also are to judge of our having " passed from death unto life0."
That which closes the train, and which must of necessity be added to all the rest, is " charity." For though there is an especial regard due to " the household of faith p," our love must not be confined to them : it must be extended to all, even to enemies ; and must so pervade our whole spirit and temper, and so regulate all our words and actions, as to evince that we are indeed children of Him, whose name and nature is " Love i."]
2. The importance of them to the Christian character —
[No words can declare the importance of these graces to the Christian more forcibly than those in which the Apostle has declared it in my text : for he asserts, that the constant exercise of them will prove us to be intelligent and consistent Christians, whilst the want of them will prove us ignorant and inconsistent.
Attend to these assertions. " If these things be in you, and abound, they make you (that is, they render, or constitute1 you) neither barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ." How shall it be known that any man possesses a truly scriptural and saving knowledge of Christ ? It cannot be determined by his professions, but by the whole of his spirit and deportment. As a tree is known by its fruits, so is the faithful follower of Christ. If indeed these graces could flow from any other source than an union with the Lord Jesus, they would determine nothing respecting the reality of our faith in him : but they cannot. A man may have valour, and knowledge, and temperance, and patience, without any acquaintance with the Lord Jesus : but the whole assemblage of graces that are here mentioned he cannot have : they can be wrought in the soul only by the Spirit of God : and the Spirit can be supplied by none but the Lord Jesus Christ, " in whom is the residue of the Spirit s," and " in whom dwells all the ful- ness of the Godhead bodily4 :" and to none will Jesus so impart the Holy Spirit but to those who believe in him. Hence the existence and operation of these graces in the soul is a decisive evidence, that our faith in Christ is lively, our knowledge of him spiritual, and our walk before him consistent.
On the contrary, " he that lacketh these things is blind, and cannot see afar oif; and hath forgotten that he was purged from his old sins." A speculative knowledge may be possessed
11 John xiii. 35. ° 1 John iii. 14. p Gal. vi. 10.
<i 1 John iv. 8, 16. r KaBO^triv. s Mai. ii. 15.
1 Col. i. 19. and ii. 9.