do then? I am fure thou would fay, I would labour by any Means to have him mine; why then, thou knows that cannot be before believing, and receiving him on his Promises, and not at all, but by believing. Therefore, fince that this is it you must at length turn unto,fuppofe the Cafe were decided, why do ye not presently, rather without more wearying your felves, in the Greatness of your Way, turn in hither, as to a Place of Refuge, without further difputing in the Business; and fo by believing in Chrift, and waiting upon him in his Ways, you fhall put that out of Queftion, which de bating would make an endless Question. The Lord make you wife to know the Things that belong to your Peace. SERMON XV. i John i. 7. And the Blood of Jefus Chrift his Son cleanfeth us from all Sin. CAN AN two walk together except they be agreed? As Darkness cannot have Fellowship with Light, till it be changed into fome Conformity to the Light; even fo there can neither be any Fellowship in walking, nor Conformity in Nature, between God and us, who are Enemies to him by Nature, unless there be fome Agreement and Reconciliation of the Difference. Now, here is that which maketh the Atonement, The Blood of Jefus bis Son cleanfeth us from all Sin. This is it that takes away the Difference between God and Men, and makes Reconciliation for us; this Blood hath quenched the Flame of Indignation and Wrath kindled in Heaven against us. And this alone can quench and extinguish the Flames and Furies of a tormented Soul, that is burnt up with the Apprehenfion of his Anger: All other Things thou can apply, or caft upon them, will be as Oil to increase them, whether it 1 be to cool thy felf in the Shadows of the World's Delights, fuch a poor Shift as the rich Glutton would have taken in Hell; thofe Drops of cold Water that thou canst diftil out of the Creature, will never give any folid Eafe to thy Confcience; thou may abate the Fury of it, or put it off for a Season; thou who att afraid of Hell and Wrath, may procure fome fhort Vacancy from thofe Terrors, by turning to the World: But certainly they will recur again, and break out in a greater Fire, like a Fever that is not diminished, but increased by much drinking cold Water: Or if thou go about to refresh thy felf, and satisfie thy Challen ges by thy own Attainments in Religion, and by Reflection upon thy own Heart and Ways,finding fomething in thy Efteem, that may counterballance thy Evils, and fo give thee fome Confidence of God's Favour; thefe, I fay, are but deceitful Things, and will never either quench the Hhh Dif And will not rather come ftraightway at it, by the Door of Jefus Chrift, for he is the new and living Way, into which you must enter, if ye would walk in the Light; and the Wounds of his Side, out of which this Blood gushed, thefe open you a Way of Access to him, because he was pierced for us. That Stream of Blood, if ye come to it, and follow it all along, it will certainly carry you to the Sea of Light and Love, where you may have Fellowship with God. And O, how much Comfort is in it, that there is fuch a Stream running all the Way of our walking with God? all the Way of our Fellowship? That Fountain of Chrift's Blood runs not dry, but runs along with the Believer, for the cleaning of bis After-pollutions, of his Defilements, even Displeasure of God for thy Sins, but rather add Fewel to it, because thou justifies thy felf, which is an Abomination before him nor yet will it totally extinguish and put to Silence the Clamours of thy Confcience, but that fome Day thou shalt be spoiled of all that Self-confidence, and Self-defence, and find thy felf fo much the more difpleafing to God, that thou did please thy felf, and undertook to pacifie him. Therefore, my Beloved, let me above all Things recommend this unto you, as the prime Foundation of all Religion, upon which all our Peace with God, and Pardon of Sin, and Fellowfhip with God must be built, that the Blood of Jefus Chrift be applied unto your Confciences by believing; and that, first of all, upon the Discovery of your Enmity with God, and infinite Dif-in the very Light itself: This then, as it tance from him, you apply your Hearts unto this Blood, which is the Atonement, to the reconciling Sacrifice, which alone hath Virtue and Power with God. Do not imagine that any Peace can be without this; would yé walk with God, which is a Bidge of Agreement? Would ye have Fellowship with God, which is a Fruit of Reconciliation? Would ye have Pardon of Sins, and the particular, Knowledge of it, which is the greatest Effect of Favour? And all this, without and before Application of Chrift who is our Peace, in whom the Father only is well pleased; will ye feek these, and yet difpute this Point of Believing, as if it were pof fible to attain thefe without the Sprinkling of that Blood on the Heart, which indeed cleanfeth it from an evil accufing Confcience? If you defire to walk in the Light, as be is in the Light, why weary ye your felves in By-ways? Why take ye fuch a Compass of endless and fruitlefs Agitation, and Perplexity of Mind? is the firft Foundation of Peace and Communion with God, fo it is the perpetual Affurance and Confirmation of it, that which first gives Boldness, and that alone which still continues Boldness in it. It is the firft Ground, and the constant Warrand and Security of it, without which it would be as foon diffolved as made: If that Blood did not run along all this Way, to wash all his Steps; if the Way of Light and Fellowship with God were not watered, and refreshed with the continual Current of this Blood, certainly none could walk in it without being confuined; therefore it is, that the Mercy of God, and Riches of Grace in Cbrift, hath provided this Blood for us, both to cleanse the Sins of Ignorance, before believing, and the Sins of Light, after believing, that a poor Sinner may conftantly go on his Way, and not be broken off from God, by his Infirmities and Escapes in the Way. You fee then the Gospel runs in these two two golden Streams, Pardon of Sin, and Purity of Walking; they run undividedly, all along in one Channel; yet without Confufion one with another, as it is reported of fome great Rivers, that run together between the fame Banks, and yet retain diftinct Colours and Natures all the Way, till they part: But thefe Streams that glad the City of God, never part one from another; the clean fing Blood, and the purifying Light, thefe are the entire and perfect Sum of the Gofpel; Purification from Sin, the Guilt of Sin, and the Purity of walking in the Light, flowing from that, make up the full Complexion of Chriftianity; which are fo nearly conjoyned together, that if they be divided, they ceafe to be, and cannot any of them fubfift, fare in Mens deluded Imagination. The End of washing in the Blood of Chrift is, that we may come to this Light, and have Fellowship with it; for the Darkness of Hell, the utter Darkness of the Curfe of God, which overspreads the unbelieving Soul, and ecclipfes all the Light of God's Countenance from him, that dark and thick Cloud of Guiltinefs, that Heap of unrenewed Converfation; this, I fay, muft be removed by the cleaning of the Blood of Chrift, and then the Soul is admitted to enjoy that Light, and walk into it. And it is removed chiefly for this End, that there may be no Impediment in the Way of this Fellowship; this Blood cleanfeth, that you being cleanfed, may henceforth walk in Purity; and there is no Purity like that of the Light of God's Countenance and Commands: And fo you are washed in the Blood of Chrift, that you may walk in the Light of God, and take heed that you defile not your Garments again. But if fo be (and certainly it will be, confide ring our Weakness) that you defile your felves again, like foolish Children, who after they have washed, run to the Puddle again, forgetting that they were cleansed; if either your daily Infirmities trouble, or fome groffer Pollution defile and waste your Confcience, know that this Blood runs all along in the fame Channel of your Obligation to holy walking; and it is as fufficient now as ever, to cleanfe you from all Sin, from Sins of daily Incurfion, and Sins of a groffer Nature; there is no Exception in that Blood, let there be none in your Application to it, and Apprehenfion of it. Now, this is not to give Boldness to any Man to fin, or continue in Sin, because of the lenghtned Ule, and continued Virtue and Efficacy of the Blood of Chrift; for if any Man draw fuch a Refult from it, and improve it to the Advantage of his Flefh, he declares himfelf to have no Portion in it, never to have been washed by it; for what Soul can in Sobriety look upon that Blood fhed by the Son of God, to take away the Sins of the World, and find an emboldning to Sin from that View? Who can wash and cleanse here, and presently think of Defilement, but with Indignation? I fpeak thefe Things the rather, be caufe there is a twofold Mifapprehenfion of the Gospel among Chriftians, and on both Hands much Darkness and Stumbling is occafioned. We have poor narrow Spirits, and do not take entire Truth in its full Comprehention, and fo we are as unfit and unequal Difcerners of the Gofpel, and Receivers of it, as he that would judge of a Sentence by one Word, of a Book by one Page, of a Harmony by one Note, and of the World by one Parcel of it. The Beauty and Harmony of Things confifts in their entire Union; Hhh 2 and and though there should appear many Discrepancies, and unpleasant Difcords in feveral Parts, yet all united together, makes up a pleasant Confort. Now this is our childish Foolishness, that we look upon the Gospel only by Halfs, and this being alone feen, begets Mifapprehenfions and Mistakes in our Minds; for ordinarily we supply that which we fee not with fome Fancy of our own. When the Blood of Jefus Chrift is holden out in its full Virtue, in the large Extent of its Efficacy, to cleanfe all Sin, and to make Peace with God, and wipe away all Tranfgreffions, as if they had never been, the Generality of you never apprehending much your own defperate Condition, nor conceiving an abfolute Neceffity of a Change, you think this is all that is in the Gospel, and begin to flatter your felves, and bless your felves, though you live in the Imaginations of your own Hearts, and never apprehend the abfolute Need, and inevitable Sequel of walking in Purity after Pardon. And alas, there is something of this sometimes overtakes the Hearts of true Believers, in the flight and overly Confideration of the Mercy of God, and Blood of Chrift: You do not lay the Conftraint upon your Hearts to a holy Converfation. I fay, it is not because you apprehend that Blood, that you take more Liberty to the Flesh, but rather because you too flightly and fuperficially confider it, and that but the one Half of it, without piercing into the proper End of that cleansing, which is, that we may walk in Purity. But on the other Hand, fome believing Souls, having their Defires enlarged after more Holiness and Conformity to God, and apprehending not only the Neceffity of it, but the Beauty and Comlinefs of it: Yet finding withal, how infinitely fhort they come, and how oft their Purpofes are broken and disappointed, and themselves plunged in the Mire of their own Filthiness; this doth difcourage them, and drives them to fuch a Defpondency and Dejection of Spirit, that they are like to give over the Way of Holiness as defperate. Now my Beloved, for you who look upon the Gospel by a Parcel, and fuch a Parcel as injoins much upon you; I would earnestly befeech, to open and enlarge your Hearts to receive the full Body of the Truth, to look upon that cleanfing Blood, as well as that pure Light; to confider the perpetual Use of the one, until you have fully attained the other. Know that the Fountain is kept open, and not fhut; not only to admit you to come at firft, but to give ready Accefs in all After-defilements; and there is no Word more comprehenfive than this here, it cleanfetb from all Sin. All thy Exceptions, Doubts and Difficulties, are about fome particular Sins, and Cire cumftances; thy Debates run upon fome Exception; but here is an univerfal comprehenfive Word, that excludes all Exception; no Kind of Sin, either for Quality, or Degree, or Circumstance, is toa great for this Blood; and therefore, as you have Reafon to be humbled under your Failings, fo there is no Reason to be difcouraged, but rather to revive your Spirits and Vigour again, in the Study of this Walking in the Light, knowing that one Day we fhall be in the Light, as he is in it. Nay, take this alongs with you, as your Strength, and Encouragement to your Duty, as the greateft Provocation to more Purity, that there is fo conftant Readiness of Pardon in that Blood. SER 1 John i. 8. If we Jay that we have no Sin, we deceive our felves, and the Truth is not in us. THE HE Night is far spent, the Day is | Word is, 1 John v. 19. The whole at Hand, Rom. xiii. 12. This World xsiral, lieth in Wickedness. But Life is but as Night, even to the Godly: we know that we are of God: Therefore There is fome Light in it, fome Star- the Apoftle fubjoins here very feasonably light, but it is mixt with much Darkness a Caution, or Correction of that which of Ignorance and Sin; and fo it will be, was spoken, about the walking in the till the Sun arife, and the Morning of Light, and Fellowship with God; which their Tranflation to Heaven come: But Words found out fome Perfection, and, though it be called Night in one Senfe, to our felf-flattering Minds, might pofin Regard of that perfect glorious per- fibly fuggeft fome too high Opinion of petual Day in Heaven; yet they are cal- ourselves. If we, even we that have led the Children of Light, and of the Fellowship with God, even I the Apostle, Day, and are faid to walk in the Light, and you believing Chriftians; if we fay, and are exhorted to walk boneftly as in we have no Sin, no Darkness in us, we the Day; because though there be a Mix- do but deceive our felves, and deny ture of Darkness in them, of Weaknefs the Truth. But who will fay that I have in their Judgments, and Impurity in their no Sin? Solomon gives a Challenge to all Affections, yet they are nati ad majora, the World, Prov. xx. 9. Who can say, born to greater Things, and afpiring to I have made my Heart clean, I am that perfect Day: There is fo much pure from my Sin? And indeed, there Light, as to difcern these Night-monfters, is no Man fo far a Stranger to himself; their own Corruptions, and Satan's Temp- but if he in Sobriety and Calmness retire tations, to fight continually against them: into his own Heart, the very Evidence They are about this noble Work, the of the Impurity of it, will extort this. purifying themselves from Sin and Dark- Confeffion from him. As it ufeth to be nefs; fo that they ly in the Middle, be- faid of an Atheift, he feels that divine tween the Light of Angels and glorified Majefty, within in his fecret Thoughts Spirits, that hath no Darkness in it, and and Confcience, which he denyeth with the Midnight of the rest of the World, his Mouth, and he is often forced to who are buried in Darkness and Wicked-tremble at the Remembrance of him nefs, and ly intombed in it, as the whom he will not confefs; fo if there be any |