b Eccles. vii. 20. and 1 Kings viii. 40. c Jam. iii. 2.
d 1 John i. 8—10. e 1 John ii. 1, 2.
f o 7roi<li>v, See the same word used by St. John in his Gospel. John viii. 34,
scriptural hope of his adoption into God's family, will " purify himself, even as Christ is pure :" and the person who does not labour to attain this purity, is declared, in ver. 8, to belong to a very different family, even that of Satan : " He that committeth sin, is of the devil." And in the verse after the text, this contrast is brought to a point: " In this the children of God are manifest, and the children of the devil : whosoever doeth not (o firj iroiwv) righteousness, is not of God."]
The assertion, thus explained, is verified in every regenerate man —
[A man " born of God" does not commit sin in the way that he was wont to do in his unregenerate state. Previous to his conversion, sin was the element in which he lived. He might, in respect to an external conformity to the law, be blameless, even as the Apostle Paul was, before his heart was changed : but he never truly gave himself up to God, or took his perfect law as the rule of his conduct : he never lived for God, or made it the one object of his life to glorify God : self was the source and end of all his actions. But from the instant of his conversion, his one inquiry is, " Lord, what wilt thou have me to dog?" Not that he then becomes perfect : for to his latest hour he will find, as the Apostle did, that " there is a law in his members warring against the law of his mind, and occasionally bringing him into captivity to the law of sin, which is in his members :" yes, to his latest hour, there are things clone by him which he would not, and things left undone by him, which he would gladly do : so that he is often constrained to cry, " O wretched man that I am ! Who shall deliver me h ?" But though, through the influence of his indwelling corrup- tion, he may have occasion to mourn over many deviations from the perfect path of duty, he never does, nor ever will, return to the love and practice of sin : if he offend in any thing, he will lament it, and implore forgiveness for it, and labour with renewed diligence and circumspection to " stand perfect and complete in all the will of God."]
If such be the state of the regenerate man, it will be profitable to inquire into,
II. The means by which he has attained to it —
" He that is born of God doth not commit sin ; for his seed remaineth in him"
Let us distinctly mark, 1. What seed this is —
* Acts ix. 6. h Rom. vii. 15, 19, 23, 24.
i.n l JOHN. in. 9. [2446.
[Many imagine that the " seed" here spoken of, is an imperishable spark of grace, which not all the Hoods of perse- cution or corruption can ever quench1. But it is not of grace that the Apostle speaks, but of the word of God. The word is that '; seed" of which we are born : and that is incorruptible, as St. Peter has said: " We are born again, not of corruptible 1, but of incorruptible, of the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever k. "J
2. How it operates to its destined end —
[This seed " abides" in those who are born of God. Its operation, in the first instance, was to humble, quicken, and sanctify the soul. Being once implanted in the soul, it grows there, and continues to produce the very same effects which it put forth in the first instance. Did it come with power to convince of sin ? it enlightens the mind progressively, and gives juster views to the conscience, and augmented sensibility to the soul. Did it lead to the Saviour, and inspire with a desire to serve and glorify him? it continues to give brighter discoveries of his love, and to impress the soul with a more fixed determination to live to his glory : and in this way it keeps the believer from ever returning to his former paths.