must withal go out of himself, to seek a Righteoufnefs without him, whereupon to build his Peace and Acceptance with God, or elfe, neither of them hath truly any Righteoufhefs without them, to cover them, or Holinef's within, to cleanse them. Now here the beloved Apoftle fhews us this divine Contexture of the Gofpe. The great and comprehenfive End and Design of the Gospel is, Peace in Pardon of Sin, and Purity from Sin: Thefe Things I write unto you, that you fin not, &c. The Gospel is comprifed in Commands and Promiles, both make one Web, and link in together. The im mediate End of the Command is, that we fin not; may, but there is another Thing always either exprefly added, or tacitely understood; but if any Man fin (that defires not to fin) we have an Ad vocate with the Father: So the Promife comes in as a fubfidiary Help to all the Precepts. It is annexed to give Se-even Jefus Chrift the Righteous, who curity to a poor Soul from Defpair; and hath all that we want, and will not fuftherefore the Apostle teacheth you a blef fer any Accusation to faften upon us, as fed Art of conftructing all the Com long as be lives to make Interceffion mands and Exhortations of the Gospel, for us. thofe of the highest Pitch, by supplying the full Senfe with this happy and feafonable Caution or Caveat, but if any Man fin, &c. Doth that Command, Be ye boly as I am boly, perfect as your beavenly Father, which founds fo much unattainable Perfection, and feems to hold forth an inimitable Pattern; doth it, I fay, difcourage thee? Then, use the Apoftle's Art, add this Caution to the Command, fubjoin this fweer Exceptive, But if any Man (that defires to be holy, and gives himself to this Study) fail often, and fall, and defile himself with Unholinefs, let him not defpair, but know that be bath an Advocate with the Father; If that of Paul's urge thee, prefent your Bodies a living Sacrifice, and be ye not conformed to the World, but transformed, and glorify God in your Bodies and Spirits which are bis, Rom. xii. 1, 2. and 1 Cor. vi. 20. And cleante yourSelves from all Filthiness of the Flesb and Spirit, 2 Cor. vii. 1. And walk in the Spirit, and walk as Children of the Light, &c. If thefe do too rigorously exact upon thee, so as to make thee lofe thy Peace, and weaken thy Heart and Hands; learn to make out a full Sentence, and fill up the full Senfe and Meaning of the Gofpel, according as you, fee it done here. But if any Man, (whofe inward Heart-defires, and chief Defigns are towards thefe Things, who would think himself happy in Holiness and Conformity to God, and eftimates his Bleffednefs or Mifery, from his Union or Separation from God) fin, then we bave an Advocate with the Father, On the other Hand, take a View of the Promifes of the Gospel, tho' the immediate, and next End of them is, to give Peace to troubled Souls, and fettle us in the high Point of our Acceptance with God; yet certainly they have a further End, even Purity from Sin, as well as Pardon of Sin, cleansing from all Sin and Filthiness, as well as covering of Fit thiness. Thefe Things I write unto you, that ye fin not; What Things? Confider what goes before, and what follows after, even the Publication of the Word of Life, and eternal Life in bim, the Declaration of our Fellowship with God in Christ, the offering of the Blood of Christ, able to cleanfe all Sin, the Promife of Pardon to the Penitent, Confeffion of Sin, all thefe Things I write, that ye fin not; fo that this feems to be the ultimate End and chief Design of the Gospel, unto which all tends, unto which all work together: The Promifes are for Peace, and Peace is for Purity; the Promises are for Faith, and Faith is for purifying of the Heart, and performing the Precepts: So that, all at Length returns to this, from whence, while we fwerv'd, all this Mifery is come upon us. In the Beginning it was thus, Man created to glorify God, by Obedience to his bleffed Will; Sin interpofeth, and marreth the whole Frame, and from this hath a Flood of Mifery flowed in upon us: Well the Gofpel comes offering a Saviour, and Forgivenefs in him: Thus Peace is purchased, Pardon granted, the Soul is reftored unto its primitive Condition and State of Subordination to God's Will; and fo Redemption ends where Creation began, or rather in a more perfect Frame of the fame Kind. The fecond Adam builds what the first Adam broke down, and the Son re-creates what the Father in the Beginning created, yea, with fome Addision: In this new Edition of Mankind, all feems new; new Heavens, and new Earth; and that because the Creature that was made old, and defiled with Sin, is made new by Grace. Now, hence you may learn the fecond Part of this Leffon that the Apostle teachetk us ; as ye ought to correct (as it were) Precepts of the Gospel, by fubjoining Promises in this Manner, lo ye ought to direct Promises towards the Performance of his Precepts, as their chief End. Whenfoever you read it written, The Blood of Chrift cleanleth from all Sin; if we confefs, be is faithful to forgive our Sins. God fo loved the World, that be gave bis Son. He that believeth bath everlasting Life, &c. Then make up the entire Senfe and Meaning, after this Manner, Thefe Things are written, that we fin not. Is there a Redemption from Wrath published? Is there Reconciliation with God preached? And are we beleech. ed to come and have the Benefit of them? Then fay, and fupply within thine own Heart, Thefe Things are written, publifbed, and preached, that we may not fin. Look to the furtheft End of these Things, it is, that we fin not. The End of Things, the Scope of Writings, and the Purpose of Actions, is the very Measure of them, and fo that is the best Interpreter of them. The Scope of Scriptures, is by all accounted the very Thread that will lead a Man right in and out of the Labyrinths that are in it. And fo it is ufed as the Rule of the Interpretation in the Parts of it. Now, (my Be loved in the Lord) take here the Scope of the whole Scriptures, the Mark that all the Gospel thoots at, Thefe Things ⇓ write unto you, that ye fin not. You hear it is true, of Pardon of Sin, of De livery from Wrath, of not coming into Condemnation, of covering Offences, of blotting them out as a Cloud; all these you read and hear; but what do they all aim at? If you confider not that attentively, you shall no more understand the plain Gofpel, than you can expound a Parable without obferving the Scope of it. Do you think the fe have no further Aim, than to give you Peace, and to fecure you from Fears and Terrors, that you may then walk as you lift, and follow the Guiding. of your own Hearts? Nay, if you take it fo, you totally mistake it; if you do not read on, and find all thefe Things written to this End, that we fin not, you err, err, not understanding, or misunder- Thefe Things I write unto you, little melting Affections, nothing that will admit of fuch Bowels of Compaffion as this, the Multitude of Souls pofting to Destruction, and fo blindfolded that they cannot fee it. Here the Fountain of Tears might be opened to run abundantly. The Lord perfonates a tender-hearted Father or Husband often, Oh, why will ye die? Ye have broken my Heart with your whorish Heart: O Jerufalem, how oft would I, but thou wouldst not? When he, who is not fubject to humane Paffions, expreffeth himself thus, how much more doth it become us, poor Creatures, to have Pity on our Fellowcreatures? Should it not prefs out from us many Groans, to fee fo many perish true, another Way of Terrors, Threat would take it fo, that the Warning you to flee from the Wrath to come, is the greatest Act of Favour and Love that can be done to you. It becomes us to be folicitous about you, and declare unto you, that you will meet with Destruction in thofe Paths you walk into: That these Ways go down to the Chambers of Death. O that it might be done with fo much feeling Compaffion of your Mifery, as the Neceffity of it requires. But, why do many of you take it fo hard to be thus forewarned, and have your Danger declared unto you? I guess at the Reason of it; you are in a Diftemper, as fick Children diftemper'd in a Fever, who are not capable to discern their Parents tender Affection, when it croffeth their own Inclinations and Ways. SER **** *** SERMON XXII. 1 John ii. 1. My little Children, thefe Things write I unto that ye fin not: And if any Man fin, we have an Advocate with the Father, &c. you, CHRIST Jefus came by Water and you that ye fin not: Here is the proper Thele that we fin not. Take all the whole Work of Creation, of Providence, of Redemption, all of them speak one Language, that we fin not: Day unta Day uttereth Speech, and Night unto Night Thefe Things I write unto you, that ye fin not: This then is the Defign of the whole Gospel, the great and grand Defign, to destroy Sin, and fave the Sinner. There is a Treaty of Peace made with the Sinner, and Chrift is the Peacefbeweth Knowledge: There is no maker: A Tender of Life and Salvation Speech nor Language where their Voice is made to him, but there is no Treaty, is not heard, Pfal. xix. 2, 3. And, as no Capitulation or Compofition with in that Place, their Voice proclaims the Sin; out it must go, first out of its Do- Glory, Majefty, and Goodness of God, minion, then out of its Habitation. It fo they, with the fame Sound, proclaim muft first tofe its Power, and then its and declare, That we should not fin aBeing in a Believer; yea, this is one of gainst fuch a God, fo great, and fo good; the chief Articles of our Peace, not only all that we fee fuggefts and infinuates this sequired of us as our Duty, that we unto our Hearts: All that we hear fhould destroy that which cannot but de- whispers this unto our Ears, that we fin stray us; (for, if any Man will needs not: That he made us, and not we ourhug and embrace his Sins, and cannot Selves, and that we are the very Work part with them, he muft needs die in of bis Hands: This fpeaks our abfolute their Embracements, because the Council and effential Dependence on him, and of Heaven hath irrevocably paft a fatal therefore proclaims with a loud Voice, Sentence against Sin, as the only Thing that Sin, which would cut off this Subor that in all the Creation hath the moft per- dination, and loofe from this Dependence fect Opposition to his blessed Will, and upon his holy Will, is a monftrous unnaContrariety to his holy Nature) but also tural Thing. Take all his Mercies toand efpecially, as the great Stipulation wards us, whether general or particular, and Promife upon his Part, to redeem us the tranfcendent Abundance of his infinite from all our Iniquities, and purify us Goodness in the Earth, that River of his to bimfelf, a People zealous of good Riches that runs through it, to water eWorks; and not only to redeem us from very Man, and brings Supply to his Hell, and deliver us from Wrath,Tit.. 14. Doors, that infinite Variety that is in He hath undertaken this great Work, to Heaven and Earth, and all of them of ecompefce this Mutiny and Rebellion that quil Birth-right with Man, yet by the was raised up in the Creation by Sin, elfe Law of our Maker, a Yoke of Subjection what Peace could be between God and and Service to Man is impofed upon us, as long as his Enemy and ours dwelt them; fo that Man is, in a Manner, fet in our Bofom, and we at Peace with it. in the Center of all, to the end, that all the feveral Qualifications and Perfections that are in every Creature, may concenter and meer together in him, and flow towards him. Look upon all his particular Acts of Care and Favour towards thee, confider his Judgments upon the World, upon the Nation, or thine own Now, take a fhort View of these Things that are written in the preceed ing Chapter, and you fhall fee that the harmonious Voice of all that is in the Gofpel, is this, that we fin not. Let me fay further, as thefe Things are written that we fin not, fo all Things are done Per ! |