his duties, in order to fulfil them He will propose to
himself the Lord Jesus Christ as his pattern : and though he can never hope to attain absolute perfection in this life, he will not rest satisfied with any thing short of that. He would gladly be " holy as God is holy, and perfect, even as his Father in heaven is perfect." He considers how the Lord Jesus acted in reference to God: how in reference to man; and what tempers he manifested in the whole of his deportment ;
then he labours to follow his example, and to " walk
in all things as he walked."]
To these endeavours he will be stimulated by his hope in Christ :
[He cannot endure to think himself a child of God, and yet act like a child of the devil : he cannot please himself with a prospect of enjoying and resembling God in a future life, without seeking communion with him and a resemblance to him in the present world. He will feel himself impelled to holiness by a sense of dutye; by a sense of gratitude1 ; yea,
moreover, by a love of holiness itself s ;
We must not however imagine that it is by any power of his own that he thus " purifies himself;" the duty and the exertion are hish: but the power, both to will and to do, proceeds from God alone1.]
We shall improve this subject,
1. For conviction —
[All profess to have a hope in Christ : but before we conclude that to be well-founded, we must examine what fruits it produces : Are we seeking after universal holiness ? Are we contented with no measure of holiness short of perfection itself? Are we setting the Lord Jesus before us, and taking him for our pattern in all our tempers, and in our conduct to- wards God and man? This is the criterion by which St. John himself teaches us to judge of our hopek : and St. James con- firms it — by declaring, that, if in any one point (the not bridling of our tongue, for instance) we allowedly deviate from this path, " our religion is vain1." O consider this, lest your hope be only as the spider's web, that will be swept away with the besom of destruction !]
2. For encouragement —
e He knows he cannot be saved in any other way. Ps. xxiv. 3, 4. Matt. v. 8. Heb. xii. 14. Rev. xxi. 27.
f 1 Thess. ii. 12. 2 Cor. v. 14, 15. s Ps. cxix. 12S.
11 Jam. iv. 8. * Phil. ii. 13. k ver. G— 10.
5 Jam. i. 26.
426 1 JOHN, III. 5. [2j| |.
[Though we must not think our hope well founded, unless it produce in us the fruits of righteousness, yet we must not imagine that onr righteousness is to be the ground of our hope, or even our warrant to hope in Christ. The only ground of our hope must be found in Christ, and in the promises which God lias made to those who believe in him. We must go to Christ as sinners; and then he will enable us to live as saints. This distinction is clearly marked in the text : our hope in Christ is to precede, not to follow, the purification of our hearts: and our holiness is to be the fruit, not the root, of our hope. The same distinction is made by St. Paul also, who, having spoken of our sonship with God, says, " Having there- fore these promises, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness both of flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of Godm." We must not wait till we are cleansed, and then embrace the promises: but first embrace the promises; and then make use of them for the cleansing of our souls.
\\ hat encouragement does this afford to those who feel the corruption of their hearts, and who, if their own purity were to be the foundation of their hope, would be in utter despair! Go then, how polluted soever ye are, and seek pardon and sanctification at the hands of Jesus; and you shall find him " faithful and just to forgive you your sins, and to cleanse you from all unrighteousness"."]