John 16:8–11.

John 16:8–11.

[Where has God said to them, “Let not your hearts be troubled?” No such word can be found in all the sacred volume. They have need of continual fear and terror: for, what refuge have they, whilst they are not united unto Christ by faith? Whither can they go under the trials of this life? and what consolation can they have in the prospects of eternity? Better were it, if they die in such a state, that they had never been born. Hear then what Jesus says to you: Look unto ME, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth; for I am God; and besides me there is none else. His address, in the text, is a proof of his Godhead, and consequently of his sufficiency to save all that come unto God by him.]

MDCLXXXIII

THE COMFORT TO BE DERIVED FROM CHRIST’S ASCENSION

  John 14:2, 3.

In my Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.

A HOPE of future happiness affords strong consolation under present trials. The children of God, if destitute of this, would be “of all men most miserable;” but this renders them incomparably more happy, even under the most afflictive dispensations, than the greatest fulness of earthly things could make them. Our Lord opened these springs of comfort to his disconsolate Disciples. Being about to leave them, he not only told them whither, and for what purpose, he was going, but that he would assuredly return to recompense all which they might endure for his sake—“In my Father’s house,” &c.

We shall consider,

  I.      Our Lord’s description of heaven—

We are taught to conceive of heaven as a place of unspeakable felicity. The description given of it by St. John is intended to elevate our thoughts, and enlarge our conceptions to the uttermost; but a spiritual mind, which is dead to earthly things, may perhaps see no less beauty in our Lord’s description.

Our Lord thus describes it; “My Father’s house with many mansions”—

[Here seems to be an allusion to the temple at Jerusalem: God dwelt there in a more especial manner; around it were chambers for the priests and Levites. Thus in heaven God dwells, and displays his gloryc; there also are mansions where his redeemed people “see him as he is.”]

This description may be depended upon—

[The Disciples had left all in expectation of a future recommence: our Lord had taught them to look for it, not on earth, but in heaven. Had no such recompence awaited them, he “would have told them so.” Thus he pledges, as it were, his love and faithfulness for the truth of what he had told them.]

Our Lord further acquaints them with the reason of his ascending thither:

  II.      The end of his ascension thither—

All which our Lord did on earth was for the good of his people. He consulted their good also in his ascension to heaven: he went “to prepare a place for them,” which he does,

  1.      By purging heaven itself with his own blood—

[Heaven would have been defiled, as it were, by the admission of sinners into it; he therefore entered into heaven to sanctify it by his blood. This was typified by the atonement made for the altar and the tabernacle. The type is thus explained and appliede—]

  2.      By taking possession of it as their Head and Representative—

[He is the head, and his people are his members. His ascension to heaven is a pledge and earnest of theirsg. In this view he is expressly called “our forerunner.”]

  3.      By maintaining their title to it—

[They would continually forfeit their title to it by their sins: but he maintains their peace with God by his intercession. Hence his power to bring them finally to that place is represented as depending on his living in heaven to intercede for them.]

By these means every obstacle to his people’s happiness is removed.

  III.      The prospects which his ascension affords us—

His ascension is the foundation of all our hope: as it proves his mission, so also it assures us,

  1.      That he shall “come again”—

[The high-priest, after offering incense within the vail, was to come out and bless the people. This was a type of our Lord’s return from heaven when he shall have finished his work of intercession there.]

  2.      That he shall take his people to dwell with him—

[He had promised this as a condition of their engaging in his service. He declared it to be his fixed determination just before his departurem. It may even be inferred from his ascension; seeing that his ascension would have been utterly in vain without it.]

What a bright and blessed prospect is this! What an effectual antidote against their approaching troubles!

  INFER—

  1.      How wonderful are the condescension and grace of Christ!

[We cannot conceive any thing more tender than the whole of this address. Such is still his conduct towards all his people — — — Let us admire and adore this compassionate high-priest.]

  2.      How highly privileged are they that believe in Christ!

[How different was our Lord’s address to unbelievers; but to believers he says, “Where I am, ye shall be also.” Let this inestimable privilege have its due effect upon us; let it stimulate our desires after heaven; let it reconcile us to the thoughts of death; let it engage us more earnestly to serve Godp.]

MDCLXXXIV

NO WAY TO GOD BUT THROUGH CHRIST

  John 14:6.

Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.

THERE is in the Christian church a great diversity of character: some, like Nebuchadnezzar’s image, have heads of gold, while their feet are of materials as unstable as they are unsuitable, even of iron and clay. Others are upright in their conversation, while yet their views of divine truth are very imperfect. Such the Apostles shewed themselves all the time of our Lord’s sojourning on earth: nor could the plainest instructions wholly eradicate the errors in which they had been educated from their earliest years. Our Lord had just informed them, that he was about to die, and to go to his Father; and that he would soon come again and receive them to himself, that they might be with him for ever. And, knowing that, in general, they were acquainted with his intentions, he said, “Whither I go, ye know; and the way ye know.” But, alas! though this was true in the general, their minds were at present so engrossed with the notion of an earthly kingdom, that they supposed him to be speaking of some great palace, where he was about to erect his standard. Hence St. Thomas requested further information: to which our Lord replied in the explicit manner related in the text.

In discoursing on his words, it will be proper to consider,

  I.      Our Lord’s description of himself—

He speaks of himself as,

  1.      The way—

[The first way to heaven was, by the covenant of works. But, when man had sinned, that way was closed for ever. From that time another way was opened, through the incarnation and sufferings of God’s only Son. This was announced to the unhappy pair, who were informed, that “the seed of the woman should bruise the serpent’s head.” To him therefore they were to look as their mediator and advocate, and through him they were to obtain reconciliation with God. There were two obstacles to their re-admission to the divine favour: these were, guilt and corruption. But both of these were to be removed by Jesus; the former by his blood, the latter by his Spirit. Thus is Christ our way also to the Father making atonement for us by his meritorious death, and renewing us by his all-sufficient grace.]

  2.      The truth—

[As the Disciples might not be able to reconcile this with the ceremonial law, which appeared to prescribe other means of access to God, our Lord informed them that the legal sacrifices were only shadows, of which he was the substance; and figurative representations, of which he was the truth. There had been many persons raised up as saviours and deliverers. Many different things also were intended to mark out the way of salvation: the manna from heaven; the water from the rock; the brazen serpent; the daily sacrifices, with innumerable others; but they all pointed at him as the one true source of reconciliation, of healing, of spiritual vigour, and of eternal salvation. He was the one scope and end of all, in whom all were united; from whom all derived their efficacy; and by whom they all were both accomplished and annulled.]

  3.      The life—

[It would have been to but little purpose to direct his Disciples in what way to go, if he had not told them how they might obtain life and strength to walk in that way. They, as well as all others, were by nature dead in trespasses and sins. Jesus therefore added yet further, that he was “the life.” By this we are not to understand merely that Jesus is the author and giver of life: but that he is really to the soul what the soul is to the body. Without the soul, the body is altogether motionless and senseless. It is the soul that animates, as it were, the different members, and enables them to perform their proper functions. So, without Christ, the soul has no spiritual motion or perception: it is from its union with Christ that it has a sufficiency for any thing that is good. Christ must live in the soul, as the soul does in the body. If we live, it is not we that live, but Christ that liveth in us.” Hence He both calls himselfe, and is called by others, “our life.”]

This description will appear of the greatest importance, if we consider,

  II.      His declaration founded upon it—

Many are the ways which men have devised of coming unto God—

[Some have sought for mediators among their fellow-creatures. Others have trusted in their own repentances and reformations — — — Innumerable are the refuges of lies in which sinners have sought to hide themselves from the displeasure of God — — —]

But there is no way to God but through Christ—

[Nothing can be plainer than our Lord’s assertion. If we ask, What is the way to God? He answers, ‘I am.’ If we inquire, What other way there is? He answers, ‘None.’ If we wish to be informed whether there be not some exception in favour of those who have served God from their earliest infancy, as Timothy, or to the most advanced age, as John? the answer is, ‘No: “no man cometh unto the Father, but by me:” ’ Timothy must come as Mary Magdalen, out of whom seven devils were cast; and John, as the thief, who died a few hours after his conversion. All need equally to have their guilt expiated, and their hearts renewed: and there is none but Jesus who can do either the one or the other of these things fur us: therefore there is no other name or power but his, that can ever save us.]

  ADDRESS—

  1.      Those who are ignorant of the Saviour—

[Have you so little concern for heaven that you will not inquire the way thither? Or do you suppose that a life of worldliness and carnal ease is the path that leads to God; and that men will find it, as it were, blindfold? If this were the case, Jesus would never have become incarnate, and died upon the cross, to open a way for you; nor would he have warned you to the contrary in such solemn terms as those before us. Consider this; for every tittle of his word, whether credited or not, shall be fulfilled.]

  2.      Those who desire to come to God—

[Beware lest you attempt for a moment to find any other way than that marked out for you by Christ. He must be your only way of access to God. We do not say that you are not to walk in the way of holiness, (for the Scripture asserts the contrary in the strongest terms) but this we say; It is the blood of Christ, and not your own holiness, that must reconcile you to God; and it is the Spirit of Christ, and not your own natural powers, that must enable you to believe in him, or to serve him. Submit to this at once; for you must be brought to it, if ever you would enter into the kingdom of heaven. You cannot come to God in prayer, but by Christ; much less can you be admitted to him in heaven. Even Christ himself, as the sinner’s representative, entered into heaven by his own blood: think not therefore that ye shall enter in by any other way.]

  3.      Those who have already come to God—

[Yes; blessed be God, many have come, through Christ as their way, and by Christ as their life: and O, whither are they going? to their Father’s house, whither Christ is gone before to prepare a place for them! What a joyful thought! every day and hour brings them nearer to their home! and, for aught they know, they may arrive at those blissful mansions within the space of a few months, or days, or even hours! Regard not then if your road be occasionally rough; but keep in it; press forward; turn not from it even to the end; and, “when Christ, who is your life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory.”]

MDCLXXXV

CHRIST ONE WITH THE FATHER

  John 14:8–11.

Philip saith unto him, Lord, shew us the Father, and it sufficeth us. Jesus saith unto him, Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? He that hath seen me hath seen the Father; and how sayest thou then, Shew us the Father? Believest thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in me? The words that I speak unto you I speak not of myself: but the Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works. Believe me that I am in the Father, and the Father in me; or else believe me for the very works’ sake.

IT was a great advantage to the Apostles, that, at the close of his daily ministrations, they were admitted to a more intimate and familiar intercourse with their Lord: for by this means they received a much fuller instruction than others, and gained a deeper insight than others into the discourses which had been publicly delivered. Nor do we derive less benefit from this than they: because the explanations which were given to them in private are handed down to us, and unfold to us many things which we should not otherwise have been able to comprehend. We behold, too, their errors rectified. They were greatly mistaken in many things. Their spirit was far from being, on some occasions, what God would approve; as for instance, when they would have called fire from heaven to consume a Samaritan village; and also when “they disputed amongst themselves which of them should be the greatest.” Their views, also, of the Messiah’s kingdom were extremely erroneous; insomuch that, when our blessed Lord told them what was coming upon him, “Peter took him, and began to rebuke him, saying, That be far from thee, Lord.” In like manner, they could not conceive aright of his divine character. Sometimes, indeed, they spake well respecting it: “Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living Godb:” but, at other times, they shewed that their judgment respecting it was very wavering and ill-informed. When our Lord spake of his equality with the Father, they knew not how to understand him: and though he told them, that, in having “seen and known him, they had seen and known the Father,” Philip, in the name of all the rest, contradicted him, and said, “Lord, shew us the Father, and it sufficeth us.” And this brought from our blessed Lord an answer, which is of the greatest importance to the Church in all ages, inasmuch as it establishes the doctrine of the divinity of Christ beyond all contradiction.

In opening to you this passage, we will consider,

  I.      The desire expressed—

This, in part, was good—

[To desire a manifestation of the Father’s glory could not but be pleasing to God himself. After the giving of the law, such a revelation had been vouchsafed to Moses, and Aaron, and “the nobles” of Israel; as, at a subsequent period, it had been in a more especial manner to Moses alone, in answer to that request of his, “Lord, I beseech thee, shew me thy glory.” Of this request God had expressed his approbation, by “proclaiming to him his name,” and causing “all his goodness to pass before him.” Now, therefore, at the first introduction of the Gospel, the Apostles conceived it possible that their Divine Master might favour them with somewhat of a similar manifestation; more especially because he had, without any solicitation on their part, spoken to them on the subject of “seeing the Father.”

The satisfaction, too, which they expressed, at the expected result of such a manifestation, could not but be pleasing to their Lord and Master: “Lord, shew us the Father, and it sufficeth us.” It must not be forgotten here, that the Lord Jesus had been speaking to them of his expected departure, an event which they could not but contemplate with extreme pain. Yet, in the very prospect of such an overwhelming loss, Philip says, “Shew us the Father, and it sufficeth us;” that is, there is no bereavement which we shall not readily submit to, if only this extraordinary token of the Divine favour may be conferred upon us.

In this view, I cannot but consider the request as expressing a piety like that of David, when he said, “Many say, Who will shew us any good? Lord, lift thou the light of thy countenance upon us.” That is the good, the only good, that my soul desires. But]

In some respects it was faulty—

[Our blessed Lord had often represented the Father as speaking in him, and working by him, and as, in reality, one with him. Indeed, so plainly had he spoken on this subject, that his enemies had repeatedly taken up stones to stone him for blasphemy. They understood him to be affecting an equality with God, yea, and an identity with God: and they were filled with indignation against him on account of it, as an usurpation of the Divine prerogative.” And well they might be indignant, if he was not really God: for, after they had brought the accusation against him, he demanded, in yet stronger terms, their acquiescence in his claims, and their acknowledgment of him under his true and proper character. He told them plainly, that God required all men to “honour the Son, even as they honoured the Father;” that the works which he performed bore ample testimony to him as equal with the Father, because they were wrought, not, like the miracles of others, by a power derived from above, but by a power inherent in himself.

Now, of this the Apostles ought to have been aware: they should not have suffered things of such infinite importance to escape from their memory, or to pass without more minute inquiry into their true meaning: and least of all should they, when informed by their Divine Master in plain terms, “Henceforth ye know the Father, and have seen him,” have questioned the truth of his assertion.

Inasmuch, therefore, as their reply argued a blameable ignorance and inadvertence, it may justly be considered as deserving of reproof.]

Yet nothing could be more mild than,

  II.      The reproof administered—

Here let us mark,

  1.      How decisive was our Lord’s assertion—

[“Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? He that hath seen me hath seen the Father; and how sayest thou then, Shew us the Father? Believest thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in me?” What words could our Lord have used more clearly declarative of his identity with the Father, than these? The way to estimate the force of them aright will he to put them into the mouth of any of his Apostles, or of any creature whatever. Can we suppose that any created being would use such words, and use them too in a way of reproof, and in answer to such a desire as was here expressed? No: if any creature in the universe dared to arrogate to himself such an identity with the Father, we should instantly unite with the Jews in denouncing him a blasphemer. Moreover, the very circumstance of its being a reply to such a request, and of its being uttered in so emphatical a manner; not as a mere assertion, but a reproof; and not in a way of simple affirmation, but in an appeal to the person reproved; this, I say, gives a weight and force to the words, which nothing can withstand. And, if they do not prove, beyond all reasonable doubt, the divinity of our Lord, we shall in vain look for words capable of expressing such an idea.]

  2.      How strong the testimony with which it was confirmed—

[“Believe me, that I am in the Father, and the Father in me: or else believe me for the very works’ sake.” The repetition of the point before asserted, and of the very words in which it had been asserted, shews the earnestness with which our Lord sought to establish and confirm it. And, if his own testimony to this mysterious truth was thought not sufficient, he was willing to abide by that which was given in his works. Here it is of importance to observe, that, in this appeal to his works, we must clearly understand him as referring to the manner in which they had been wrought: for otherwise there would be no force in his appeal to them; since, if the mere working of miracles were of itself a proof of his identity with the Father, it would prove the same in reference to his Apostles; who, as he foretold, would soon work even greater miracles than any which he had wrought. But no Prophet or Apostle ever professed to work miracles by any power of his own: they utterly disclaimed any such vain and impious conceit: whereas, Jesus, though he spoke of “his Father as doing the works,” spoke of himself as concurring with the Father, in a way of personal and independent exertionl. And as this had been his habit from the beginning, he might well expect that his Apostles should have comprehended his meaning, and have been fully satisfied, that he was indeed “the brightness of his Father’s glory, and the express image of his person.”]

  We may SEE from hence,

  1.      How slow even the best of men are to apprehend and believe the truths of God—

[After the day of Pentecost, the Apostles had juster views of their Lord and Saviour. They might then say with truth, “We beheld his glory, as the glory of the only-begotten of the Father.” But, previous to that time, they did not even understand the true nature of his kingdomo: and the answer of Philip clearly shewed that they did not yet fully see him as their incarnate God. And is there not reason to complain that multitudes in this day hear the Gospel, but understand it not; and have the whole counsel of God declared unto them, yet perceive it not? It is perfectly surprising, that persons should have line upon line, precept upon precept, repeated to them for many years together, and yet never attain a distinct knowledge of “the truth as it is in Jesus.” But so it is: and our adorable Lord may yet, with just displeasure, address himself to many amongst us, “Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip?” I pray you, brethren, be more attentive to the blessed truths which from week to week are brought before you; and “give more earnest heed to them, lest in future, as in past times, you let them slipq.”]

  2.      How much infirmity there is mixed even with our best services—

[Certainly, upon the whole, the request of Philip must be considered as an expression of a pious mind. But yet it was full of imperfection. And who that examines his prayers, either in public or in private, must not blush at the recollection of the infirmities that have attended them? Were they all scrutinized, and weighed, as it were, in a balance, how defective would they all be found! Had Philip’s error not been pointed out, he would probably have taken credit to himself as deserving the highest commendation: whereas his words rather merited reproof. Let us not, then, be too confident respecting any of our services as pleasing and acceptable to God. At all events, let us bear in mind that they are attended with many imperfections; and that, “if God were to call us into judgment for them, we could not answer him for one of a thousand.”]

  3.      What reason we have to bless our God, who has provided us with such a Saviour—

[It is not a mere man, no, nor the first of all created beings, that is appointed to be a Saviour to us: but it is our incarnate God, “Jehovah’s Fellow,” “God over all, blessed for evermores.” Hear ye this, and rejoice, all ye who feel your guilt and helplessness! It is “God who has purchased the Church with his own blood:” it is God who has wrought out a righteousness for his believing peopleu: He, “in whom all the fulness of the Godhead dwells,” has in him “a fulness treasured up for us,” out of which we are to receive, according to our diversified necessities, “even grace for gracey.” Have you, then, seen Christ, known Christ, received Christ? You have seen, and known, and received the Father also. If Christ be dwelling in you, then does the Father also dwell in you: and, if you are one with Christ, then are you one with the Father also. Know ye this, my brethren, that He who has said, “Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth,” has added, for your encouragement, “for I am God, and none else.” Go on your way, therefore, rejoicing in him; and let this be your song and boast, “In the Lord Jehovah have I righteousness and strengtha.”]

MDCLXXXVI

CHRIST ENGAGES TO ANSWER PRAYER

  John 14:13, 14.

Whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If ye shall ask any thing in my name, I will do it.

THE Gospel is properly termed “glad tidings of great joy:” it finds men guilty; and reveals to them a way in which their iniquities may be pardoned: it finds them polluted; and provides means for their restoration to the Divine image: it finds them altogether destitute; and supplies them with every thing that their souls can desire. The words before us are fully decisive on this point: they were addressed, indeed, by our Lord, to his own immediate Disciples only: but they must not be confined to any individuals of any age: they were intended for the whole world. As referring to the persons to whom they were addressed, they may be considered as including a promise of miraculous powers: but, as extending to us, they unequivocally engage that we shall possess all that we pray for, provided we ask for it in Jesus’ name.

That we may more fully enter into the scope and meaning of them, we will shew,

  I.      To what extent Jesus will answer prayer—

Our blessed Lord is appointed of the Father to answer prayer—

[It was a part of the reward bestowed on him as Mediator, that he should have the whole universe subjected to his dominion. For this end, every thing, upon his ascension to heaven, was committed into his hands; that as “a Prince” he might subdue his enemies, and as “a Saviour” he might secure the happiness of his believing people. He was in a more especial manner constituted “Head over all things to his Churchc,” and furnished with an inexhaustible fulness of all good, that he might communicate to all according to their respective necessitiese. He received gifts himself, in order that he might communicate them unto men: and he will impart them to all who pray to the Father in his name.]

Nor is there any limit to his bounty in answering it—

[In our own name it is impossible to approach God: he is a holy God; and we are altogether filthy and abominable: and of this our unworthiness we ought to be deeply sensible: but at the same time we should have such a view of Christ’s worthiness, as emboldens us to expect the most favourable acceptance with God for his sake. We should come trusting in his sacrifice, and pleading the merit of his blood, This is indispensable in all our addresses at the throne of grace. We must not think of asking for any thing, but in His name. But if we have a becoming respect to him, we need not be straitened in our requests to God: we may “open our mouths wide, and he will fill them.” Of course, a person thus humbled with a sense of his own sinfulness, and thus exercising faith m the Lord Jesus, will desire nothing but what is agreeable to the Divine will: that limit to his prayers he himself will readily assign: he will take the promises as the legitimate standard of his petitions: and, so doing, he needs not be afraid of asking too much: the repeated declarations of Christ shall be literally fulfilled: “Whatsoever he asks, he shall have:” yea, he shall have “exceeding abundantly above all that he can ask or thinkk:” nothing can be so great, but it shall be granted to him; nothing so small, but he shall be heard concerning it. Of this we have repeated assurances from our Lord in the words before us: “Whatsoever ye shall ask, that will I do: if ye shall ask any thing, I will do it.”]

Of the accomplishment of these promises we have the strongest pledge, when he tells us,

  II.      For what end he will answer it—

The end for which Jesus left the bosom of the Father was to do his Father’s will: and during the whole time of his sojourning on earth, he invariably sought, not his own glory, but the glory of Him that sent himm: and in the last prayer he offered with his Disciples, he desired only to be glorified himself, that he might thereby advance the Father’s glory. This same end does he keep in view in answering the prayers that are offered in his name.

  1.      The effect of his answers is, that his Father is glorified—

[See what effects were produced by the miraculous powers which he bestowed on his Apostles: multitudes were converted by their ministry: the empire of sin and Satan was weakened: the authority of God was established over the hearts of men: and all the perfections of the Father were magnified and adored. Similar effects are produced by every communication of his grace to the souls of men; who are thereby “turned from darkness unto light, and from the power of Satan unto God.” Only trace the change that is wrought in the heart and life of any individual, when the Spirit of God works effectually in his soul, and it will instantly appear how greatly the honour of God is advanced by the answers which our Saviour gives to the prayers of men — — —]

  2.      The circumstance of the prayers being answered by him tends also to the glory of God the Father—

[The power of God would appear equally if the prayers were answered by the Father: but not so his other perfections: they are more eminently displayed by that office being vested in the Lord Jesus. By that the justice and holiness of the Father are exalted; inasmuch as men are thereby taught, that God cannot accept a sinner, if coming in his own name, nor reject him, if coming in the name of Jesus: the holiness of God prohibiting all access to him, except through a Mediator; and the justice of God withholding from none the blessings which have been purchased for them by the Saviour’s blood. By that also the love and mercy of God are magnified; in that, when there was no possibility of salvation to our fallen race if left to themselves, God gave his only-begotten Son to obtain salvation for them, and to impart it to them. By that too are the truth and faithfulness of God displayed; because, the promises being given us only in Christ Jesus, the accomplishment of them by Christ is an evidence that “with God there is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.” If it should be thought by any that the delegation of this power to Christ derogates from the honour of the Father, let him know, that God the Father accounts himself then alone honoured, when equal honour is given to his co-equal, co-eternal Son.]

  Hence then we may SEE,

  1.      Whence it is that so few persons receive answers to prayer—

[Many offer prayers, both in public and private; but they do not pray with that humility, or that faith, which are necessary to procure an answer from God. They do not feel that deep consciousness of their own vileness that makes a Mediator necessary: though they may notionally acknowledge Christ as their Saviour, they do not really feel the impossibility of coming to a holy God in their own name: and consequently they do not depend so entirely on the merits of Christ as the only ground of their hopes; nor do they plead those merits for the acceptance of their prayers, as they ought: hence it is that the Father does not hear their prayers; and that the Lord Jesus does not answer them. If then we would really experience the truth contained in our text, let us seek help from God, that we may be enabled to approach him in that way which alone will prevail for our eternal good — — — Let us also draw nigh to him with that frequency, and delight, which a firm belief in our Saviour’s veracity must produce.]

  2.      What they should attend to who have received answers to prayers—

[That which is Christ’s end in answering prayer, ought to be our end when an answer has been obtained; we should seek to glorify our heavenly Father. Do we ask, “How can we glorify him?” I answer, “In bringing forth much fruit.” Holy tempers, and a life devoted to the service of God, are the proper fruits of grace received. As a seal stamps its own image on the wax, so does the sealing of the Spirit impress the Divine image on the soul. By this we must judge of answers to prayer. It is not by vain conceits, or transient impressions, that we can judge, but by the practical results. “If we have received Christ Jesus the Lord, we must walk in him, rooted and built up in him;” or, in other words, “we must walk as he walked.” Where such fruits of prayer are wanting, God is grievously dishonoured: it is only by a conformity to Christ in all his dispositions and actions that we can approve ourselves his Disciples. Beware then how you substitute the reveries of enthusiasm for the holiness of the Gospel: “He that doeth righteousness, (as every Disciple of Christ must,) is righteous, even as he is righteous.”]

MDCLXXXVII

THE GIFT OF THE SPIRIT AN ENCOURAGEMENT TO OBEDIENCE

  John 14:15–17.

If ye love me, keep my commandments. And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever; even the Spirit of truth: whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you.

IT has pleased God to unite man’s happiness with his duty, and to ordain, that the paths of righteousness alone should be paths of pleasantness and peace. Hence our Lord, in his last discourse, wherein he laboured more abundantly to comfort his Disciples, insisted on obedience to his commandments as the best proof of their attachment to him, and the best means of securing blessings from above: yea, when he was informing them how richly the loss of his bodily presence should be overbalanced by the indwelling of the Spirit in their hearts, he first reminds them, that this benefit was inseparably connected with holiness of heart and life.

In discoursing on his words, we shall consider,

  I.      The promise made by Christ to his obedient Disciples—

Our Lord requires all his followers to “keep his commandments”—

[The believer is said to be “dead to the law;” but though dead to it as a covenant, he is as much alive to it as ever as a rule of life. The marriage connexion which once subsisted between him and it, is dissolved: but it is only dissolved, “that he may be married to another, even to the Lord Jesus Christ, and through him may, in the quality of his Spouse, be enabled to “bring forth fruit unto God.” The obeying of Christ’s commandments is the only satisfactory evidence that he can give of his love to Christ. In fact, to his latest hour he must try himself by this test. All the professions in the world will be regarded as hypocrisy, if destitute of this evidence and this support. Obedience and love are inseparable from each other. Love without obedience is no better than dissimulation, as obedience without love is mere servile drudgery. The command therefore here given to the Disciples, must be considered as given to all the followers of Christ in all ages.]

To those who follow this injunction he gives the most encouraging of all promises—

[His Disciples were now about to lose his presence by reason of his removal to the worlds above. But he promised, that, “if they would obey his commandments, he would pray the Father for them, and that the Father would send them another Comforter to abide with them for ever.” And here let me observe, that the Holy Spirit is represented by him, not as a quality, or operation, but as a distinct Person: not as a Comfort, but a Comforter; who should come from the Father, in answer to the intercessions of the Son, and abide in the bosoms of God’s obedient people. Yes, as in the days of old, God, by the bright cloud, the Shechinah, the symbol of his presence, abode first in the tabernacle, and afterwards in the temple, so will the Spirit of God now descend and dwell in the hearts of Christ’s obedient followers, displaying before them his glory, and imparting to them his blessings to the full extent of all their diversified necessities. They, like the Apostles, are subjected to trials, and called both to act and suffer for their Lord: but the Holy Spirit shall give to them all needful succour and support, and make them more than conquerors over all their oppressors. Never for one moment will he leave them, till he has accomplished in them all that God of his unbounded love and mercy has ordained for them.]

Enlarging on this promise, our Lord shews his Disciples,

  II.      What a distinguished blessing they are privileged to enjoy—

This divine Comforter is known to none but Christ’s obedient followers—

[“The world knows him not, nor can, in fact, receive him.” As “the Spirit of truth” he spake in all the prophets: but the ungodly world cast his word behind their backs. In the days of our Lord they did the same. The same also they did when he spake by the Apostles. And the same they do at this day. For want of a spiritual discernment, “they see him not:” for want of an enlightened understanding, “they know him not:” and for want of holy dispositions, they neither do, “nor can receive him.” Their hearts are closed against him: and are so full of corrupt affections, that he could not endure to make his abode with them. If for a moment he enter as a Spirit of conviction, he cannot possibly abide there as a Spirit of consolation. But to the obedient followers of Christ he comes with all his glorious manifestations and endearments. In their hearts he “sheds abroad the love of God:” to them he “witnesses their adoption into God’s family:” and he is in them “an earnest of their eternal inheritance.”]

In all this the distinction between them and the ungodly world is incalculably great—

[Mark the contrast as it is here drawn by our Lord himself, between the obedient and the disobedient Christian. The one is benefited by the Saviour’s intercession; the other not. The one has received the Holy Ghost; the other not. The one has an experimental acquaintance with the Spirit of truth; the other scarcely “knows whether there be any Holy Ghost,” or, if he do, he has no delight in any thing that he knows respecting him. The one has the Spirit dwelling in him as a Comforter; the other, instead of experiencing the Spirit’s consolations, cannot so much as know or receive them. The one has all the persons of the ever-blessed Trinity interesting themselves in his behalf; the other has God, even the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, for his enemy. The world may ridicule these things as enthusiasm, if they will: but they are the true sayings of God. And I pray God, that these thoughts may be laid to heart by every one here present: for, as God is true, no man shall dwell with God in heaven, who has not first had the Spirit of God dwelling in him on earth.]

  SEE then here,

  1.      The importance of consistency—

[A man professes to love the Saviour, and rests his pretensions on some internal feelings and conceits of his own, whilst by his life and conversation he dishonours and denies his Lord. But to every such person our Lord will say, “Why call ye me Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say?” Beloved brethren, whatever ye may profess, as to Christian principles, or pretend, as to Christian experience, you shall find that saying verified at the last, “Without holiness no man shall see the Lord” — — — Look into the text, I pray you, and see, that our Lord gave these promises on purpose to encourage your obedience. If then you would be partakers of them, treasure them up in your minds, and say, ‘How highly are we privileged! How wonderfully are we made to differ from the world around us! Is there no less than a divine Person sent down to dwell in us as our Comforter? Have we a Comforter, whom none but a chosen few are qualified to receive? And is this marvellous gift bestowed upon us in answer to our Saviour’s intercessions? Shall we not then testify in every possible way our love to him? Has he done such things for us, unasked, and shall we not do for him the things which he commands?’ This is the consistency that he requires: and this alone will be accepted as any proof of your love to him.]

  2.      The benefit of self-devotion—

[We suppose that some of you at least are giving up yourselves to the Lord in a way of holy and unreserved obedience: look up then to heaven, and there you may see the Saviour interceding for you. There too you may see the Holy Spirit of God just ready to come down at the very first intimation of the Father’s will, to take possession of your bosom, and to make your soul his habitation. From thence will he come with all his consolations and supports, so that there shall be nothing in the whole universe able to depress you, or to stop your progress in the divine life. With him shall you enjoy the sweetest fellowship, such as no worldly man can have the least idea of; and by him you shall be progressively prepared for the enjoyment of your God in heaven. Only wait on the Saviour in the way of his appointment; and his promises shall he fulfilled to you in all their boundless extent. You have seen how they were accomplished to the Apostles, and in what felicity they issued: and to those who trust in them, not one jot or tittle of them shall ever fail.]

MDCLXXXVIII

OUR LIFE DEPENDENT ON THE LIFE OF CHRIST

             John 14:19.

Because I live, ye shall live also.

AMONGST the various sources of consolation which our Lord opened to his Disciples, to support them under the disappointment that would be occasioned by his death, a very principal one seems to have been, that they themselves would be greatly benefited by his departure: for that he would send to them his Spirit, who should more than supply the want of his bodily presence; and that he himself would more effectually advance their eternal interests than he could do if he were to continue upon earth. He assures them, that though dead as to the body, he would still live; and that, “because he lived, they should live also.”

From this declaration of his we shall make two inquiries;

  I.      What connexion has the life of Christ with his people’s life—

Those who are not altogether ignorant of Christ are yet more apt to think of him as a dying, than as a risen Saviour; whereas his life is not at all less connected with our salvation than his death.

His life is the ground and confirmation of all our hopes—

[What do we most wish to be assured of, in reference to Christ? We wish to know that he was indeed the Son of God, and not a common man—that he was sent of God on purpose to redeem a ruined world—and that what he did and suffered for us has been accepted in our behalf. These are points of infinite importance, and that lie at the foundation of all our hopes. But by the resurrection of Christ they are all clearly and satisfactorily ascertained: “By that he was declared to be the Son of God with power:” by that was the sign, which above all others he himself appealed to in proof of his divine mission, fulfilledb: and by that is the acceptance of his sacrifice made known, since the release of our Surety is an undeniable evidence that our debt is paid.

Hence the testimony borne by the Apostles to the resurrection of Christ, was considered as a complete and sufficient proof of every thing that they asserted respecting him.”]

It is also a pledge and earnest of all our joys—

[Do we feel happiness in the thought of our being made partakers of eternal life, and in the prospect of a speedy possession of it? Behold him risen, him ascended, him seated at the right hand of God: in what capacity enjoys he all this exaltation? As a mere individual? No: but as the Head and Representative of all his people: in his resurrection, he is “the first-fruits” of which there remains a whole harvest to be gathered: in his ascension, he is gone as “our Forerunner,” “to prepare a place for us:” and even enthroned as he is at the right hand of the Majesty on high, he sits not there alone; for we, though personally on earth, are mystically “made at this very hour, to sit with him in heavenly places in Christ Jesus.”

What then is his life but a pledge of ours, or rather an earnest? since it not only assures to us a future blessedness, but is itself the very commencement of our bliss?]

But the expression in our text intimates, that the life of Christ is not merely intimately but also inseparably, connected with the life of his people.

Let us proceed therefore to notice,

  II.      What security it affords them that they shall live— Here let it be considered how our Lord is occupied, and what he has engaged to do for his believing people:

  1.      He intercedes for them—

[As the high-priest, after offering his sacrifice, went within the vail to sprinkle the blood upon the mercy-seat, and to burn incense before it, so did our Lord ascend to heaven on purpose to complete the work he had begun, and to offer continual intercession for us at the right hand of God. Now we are assured that “him the Father heareth always;” and consequently the benefits of his intercession cannot but be poured out on all his people. Hence there is peculiar stress laid on this act of his, as ensuring to us the benefits of his death. His death indeed is represented as making the atonement for our sins, and reconciling us to God; but it is his resurrection to a life of glory in heaven, that completes our justification, and perfects our salvationh.]

  2.      He works effectually in them—

[By his Spirit he yet dwells in all his saints: and he has engaged that “his grace shall be sufficient for them,” so that the weakest of them all shall be “enabled to do all things through his strength” communicated to themk. It is this which renders them invincible: “their life is hid with Christ in God;” yea, “Christ himself is their life;” and therefore, when he shall appear in his glory, they will assuredly appear there with him.]

  3.      He will come at last, and take them to himself—

[When they shall have fought the good fight of faith, and gained the victory over all their spiritual enemies, they will not be forgotten of him: he will send his angels to bear up their spirits to the realms of bliss; and in due time he will restore also their bodies to life; that, in a re-embodied state, they may inherit the kingdom prepared for them. This assurance he gave to his Disciples in the preceding context; and when, by that event, death shall be swallowed up in victory, then will the promise in our text be finally accomplished; and their life of grace will be completed in a life of glory.]

  Behold what ENCOURAGEMENT this subject affords to all;

  1.      To believe on Christ—

[Were Christ unconnected with us in his present state, we might well doubt the expediency of putting our trust in him: but when we are informed that his almighty power is always occupied in forwarding our salvation, we should instantly commit ourselves into his hands, and expect from him all that our necessities can require. Do we, as creatures dead in sin, desire life? or, as persons quickened from the dead, do we desire more life? or, being possessed of life, do we desire an assurance that we shall never lose it? Behold, Jesus, who “came that we might have life, and have it more abundantly,” meets your case with exactly such a promise as you want—Let me then put the question to you, “Believest thou this?” O beg of God that he would enable you so to do: say, “Lord, I believe; help thou my unbelief!”]

  2.      To suffer for him—

[Sufferings of some kind you must expect: there is not one of his people but has some cross to bear. You will find too at times that your trials are heavy: but the heavier they are, the more will his power be magnified in you. This thought afforded inexpressible consolation to the Apostle Paul, and made him even “take pleasure” in his multiplied afflictions. Your enemies think little respecting Christ as actively engaged in behalf of his people: but in you they shall see his power and grace: and, whilst his death is exhibited in your sufferings, his life shall be manifested in your supportq. Only take the promise in the text, and you need fear nothing.]

  3.      To press forward for universal holiness—

[You are not called to beat the air, or to engage either in an uncertain or an unproductive contest: you have a living Saviour, that is pledged both to give you the victory, and to reward your conflicts. Will you not then fight? Will you leave a sin unmortified, an enemy unsubdued? Gird you to the combat: put on the whole armour of God: quit yourselves like men: and know assuredly, that “your labour shall not be in vain in the Lord.”]

MDCLXXXIX

OBEDIENCE THE TEST OF OUR LOVE TO CHRIST

  John 14:21.

He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father; and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him.

IT is supposed by many, that to profess an assurance of our acceptance with God is the very height of presumption. But, whilst we acknowledge that such a profession may be made very erroneously, and by persons who deceive their own souls, we cannot admit that no such thing as a scriptural assurance exists: on the contrary, we affirm, that a consciousness of so great a change as takes place in conversion cannot but exist in some degree; and that our blessed Lord has taught all his people to expect it: “In that day ye shall know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you.” If indeed such a persuasion were to be entertained without being subjected to any test, then would it be the most enthusiastic, and most dangerous: but, if we have an infallible rule whereby to try it, then have we no reason to feel that jealousy respecting it, which so generally prevails. The truth is, that in this very passage where our Lord has sanctioned an assurance of our state, he has established a criterion whereby all our professions must be judged: nor, till our experience has been found to accord with that standard, have we any right to expect the rewards and consolations of his Gospel: “He that,” &c.

Now in these words we may see,

  I.      How to judge of our love to Christ—

We must not imagine that the adoption of certain sentiments, or the joining of ourselves to a particular set of people, or the manifesting of a regard for public or social ordinances, or the having had great exercises of mind in reference to religion, with many hopes or fears, or joys or sorrows, or the feeling a strong confidence about the safety of our own state, are any certain proofs of love to Christ: these things not only may, but often do, exist, where there is no real love to Christ in the soul. There is one mark, and one only, whereby we can form any decided judgment about the states of men; and that is, “By their fruits ye shall know them:” they alone truly love the Lord Jesus Christ, who manifest a due regard for his commandments:

  1.      Who “have them” in their hearts—

[Those who “love the Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity,” desire a perfect conformity to his mind and will. With this view they study his commandments: they do not read them in a cursory way, but meditate on them, and search into them, and beg of God to open them to their view, and are thankful for any light that may be cast upon them, even though their own conduct should thereby be condemned. Having obtained a deeper insight into them, they treasure up the welcome truth in their minds, and “hide it in their hearts,” as a rule of their conduct, “that they may no longer sin against him.” “They account not any one of them grievous,” but approve of them in their utmost extent, and “pant” after a more entire conformity to them, and long to “stand perfect and complete in all the will of God.” They would not willingly have “a thought, that should not be brought into captivity to the obedience of Christ.”]

  2.      Who “keep them” in their lives—

[Those who truly love Christ will be always “walking in the way of his commandments.” Do you inquire into their general conduct? you will find them “labouring, not so much for the meat that perisheth, as for that which endureth unto everlasting life:” they will “not be taking thought what they shall eat and drink, and be clothed with, as the poor ignorant Gentiles do; but will seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness;” “not laying up treasures upon earth, but laying them up in heaven.” In “love to the world and the things thereof, they will form a contrast with the ungodly world.”

In like manner, if you inquire into their conduct under any particular circumstances, you will know beforehand where to find them: you need only examine the commandments in relation to that subject, and you will know how they will act. You will not expect to find them conceited, selfish, querulous: because they are commanded to “prefer others in honour before themselves;” to “mind, not their own things, but also the things of others;” and “in whatsoever state they are, therewith to be content.” Nor will you expect to find them censorious, passionate, unforgiving, or vindictive; because Christ has bidden them “not to judge others,” or “to say to any one, Thou fool;” but rather to “turn the left cheek to any one that smites them on the right,” and to “forgive him not only seven times, but seventy times seven.”

They are not unlike a mariner that is ordered to cruize in a given latitude. There is no visible object in the ocean to which he directs his way; but he consults his chart, and his compass, and the heavenly bodies, and then makes his observations with all the accuracy that he can. The spot is not so defined, but that a difference of opinion may exist respecting its precise situation: but a skilful mariner will not be far wrong; or, if for a moment he be driven by a storm from the place he should occupy, he will be sensible of his departure, and will make every effort to return to his post again as soon as possible. Thus it is with all that truly love Christ: they have in their hands the means of ascertaining the way that they should walk in: and they use those means with diligence, knowing that any considerable and habitual departure from it will be an impeachment of the sincerity of their love. The commandments indeed, especially in circumstances of expediency, are not always so defined, but that there may be room for difference of opinion respecting the precise line of conduct prescribed by them: but, in relation to the spirit in which we should act, they leave nothing doubtful; they are as clear as the light at noon-day: so that, though a difference of opinion may exist, it never can be such as to occasion any great departure from the path of duty: and as a man, who, being ordered to cruise in a northern latitude, should go to the southern hemisphere, and then maintain that he was in his proper place, would be justly deemed unworthy of any credit as a mariner; so the man who justifies himself in the indulgence of any evil tempers, is unworthy of the name of a Christian: a proud Christian, a passionate Christian, a covetous Christian, a lewd Christian, is as much a contradiction in terms, as an infidel, an idolatrous, or a murderous Christian.]

This is the criterion whereby every man must be judged: and though there are imperfections even in the best, yet this on the whole is the true, the manifest, and the uniform character of all who really love Christ: all others, whatever they may be, only deceive their own souls.

Our Lord having thus accurately drawn the character of his people, shews us,

  II.      What to expect, if we do truly love him—

It is not possible to enlarge our expectations too much, if only we confine them within the promises of God. As surely as we attain this character,

  1.      We shall possess his favour—

[Much as “he abhors all the workers of iniquity,” he will retain no unkind thought towards us: on the contrary, “he will love us,” approving our spirit, accepting our services, and “rejoicing over us to do us good.” The Lord Jesus Christ also says, “And I will love you.” A love of benevolence he felt towards us when we were yet enemies; but now he will feel a love of complacency, even such a love as shall make him attentive to our every want, our every concern — — —

Of course, it must here be supposed, that our obedience to his commandments proceeds from proper principles; not from a desire of establishing a righteousness of our own, but from a grateful sense of his redeeming love, and from a zeal for his glory: if this be not the case, our best efforts will be even hateful both to the Father and to Christ, inasmuch as they are substituted in the place of that atoning blood of Christ, which alone can cleanse us from all sin: but if our obedience be pure in its principle, uniform in its tenour, and impartial in its extent, then shall it surely be accepted for Christ’s sake, and be rewarded with the everlasting favour of our God.]

  2.      We shall have the present manifestations of it to our souls—

[There are manifestations of God to the soul, which the world have no idea of. In reading of the word, in prayer, in meditating on the promises, God will take away the veil from our hearts, and discover himself to us, and lift up the light of his countenance upon us, and “shed abroad his love in our hearts.” By the communications of his Spirit to us, he will enable us to cry, Abba, Father; he will witness with our spirits that we are his children; he will give us an earnest of our inheritance, even the present foretaste of heaven itself in our souls.

Our Lord, when interrogated by Judas, confirmed this truth by repeated asseverations, and repeatedly also confirmed what he had spoken respecting the character of those to whom these blessings should be vouchsafed. We may be assured therefore, that to expect these manifestations is no presumption; but, on the contrary, they are the proper portion of all who love and serve the Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity.]

  From this subject we may clearly SEE, that religion is,

  1.      A holy thing—

[That there are those who profess religion and yet grievously dishonour it by their conduct, is a melancholy truth; and that the prejudices of many against religion are hereby greatly strengthened, is also true: but religion is no more accountable for the inconsistencies of those who profess it, than reason is for the follies of those who pervert it. What is the true tendency of love to Christ, has already appeared: and every one must try his professions by that test.

I would solemnly call upon all those who are habitually violating any one commandment, to remember, that all their pretended love to Christ is mere hypocrisy and delusion: and the more confident they are of their own acceptance with him, the more they deceive their own souls.

And all who are in a measure shewing forth their faith by their works, I would exhort to abound more and more; that, “making their light to shine more bright, they may constrain all around them to glorify their heavenly Father.”]

  2.      A happy thing—

[As there are unholy, so are there also unhappy professors of religion. But shall we therefore conclude, that Christ will not fulfil his promises to his loving and obedient people; or that there are any circumstances under which his presence with the soul cannot make it happy?]

MDCXC

CHRISTIANS BRANCHES OF THE TRUE VINE

  John 15:1, 2.

I am the vine, and my Father is the husband-man. Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away: and every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit.

THE union which subsists between Christ and his Church is mysterious: the Scripture sets it forth both in figurative and plain expressions. It is spoken of not as a speculative or doubtful point, but as well known. It is declared in the text under a beautiful similitude:

  Christ is the vine—

If this was a continuation of our Lord’s discourse, the idea of a vine might arise from what he had just before said respecting the fruit of the vine: if it was spoken in his way to the Mount of Olives, it might be suggested by his passing through a vineyard. The representation respects Christ not personally, but as united to his Church.

In this view it fitly exhibits our union with him—

[This union is not natural to any. We are, by nature, plants of a degenerate vine: we are, however, separated from it by Almighty powerd, and are made willing to be united to Christ: we are then engrafted into Christ by the Spirit on God’s part, and by faith on oursf. Thus we become branches of the true vine; and the union, when formed, is intimate and inseparable.]

It expresses, moreover, our dependence on him—

[A branch derives all its fructifying power from the root: so believers receive all their grace out of Christ’s fulness. Hence it is that Christ is so precious to themi: hence, too, they determine to live entirely by faith on him.]

  The Father is the husbandman—

The husbandman has many offices to perform—

[He engrafts the scions, digs about them and dungs them, guards them from the weather, prunes the luxuriant branches, &c.]

The Father performs these offices—

[He chooses (but not for their superior goodness) what scions he will: he separates them from their stock by the means he judges best: he engrafts them, in his own time and manner, into the new stock: he continues to promote their good by his word, his Spirit, and his providence: he separates or combines, renews or changes, the various means of culture, as he sees occasion.]

  His treatment of the branches is suited to their state—

There are “branches in Christ,” which are so only in appearance—

[They have never been thoroughly separated from their old stock: they have never been truly engrafted into Christ. The change wrought in them has been only partial: they bring not forth such fruit as the living branches do.]

These the Father “taketh away”—

[They are a disgrace to the vine, and to the husbandman himself: he, however, exercises forbearance towards them. His culture of them, in the meantime, shews their unfruitfulness to be of themselves; but he will ere long separate them from the others. He will take them away, in order to burn themn. How fearful should we be lest we be found such branches at last! And how carefully should we examine our fruit, in order that we may not be self-deceived!]

There are other branches, which are vitally united to Christ—

[They manifest that they are so, by the fruits which they produce.]

These the husbandman purges and prunes—

[Notwithstanding their fruitfulness, they need the pruning-knife. Afflictions have a tendency to make them more fruitful. God therefore sends them afflictions of various kinds. This he does to “every one of them:” he even promises affliction to them as a blessingq.]

  Let us then INQUIRE whether we be living branches of the true vine—

[Let us study to answer the ends of all his care. If we be indeed fruitful branches, let us welcome affliction as a blessing in disguise. Let us, above all, seek to be confirmed in our union to Christ, and our dependence on him.]

MDCXCI

OUR IMPOTENCY WITHOUT CHRIST

             John 15:5.

Without me ye can do nothing.

THE various systems of heathen philosophers were all calculated to confirm the pride of man: the tendency of the Gospel, on the contrary, is to humble and abase the soul. Its sublimest doctrines are by far the most humiliating. The sovereignty of God, for instance, annihilates, as it were, our fancied greatness; and the atonement of Christ brings to naught our boasted goodness. Thus the mysterious doctrine of union with Christ proclaims our insufficiency for any thing that is good. Our blessed Lord declares this, first by a comparison, and then in plain terms, “Without me ye can do nothing.”

In discoursing upon this assertion, I will,

  I.      Explain it—

In explaining the words of Scripture we must take care not to strain them beyond their obvious meaning. These must evidently be understood in a qualified sense:

They must not be understood in reference to things which come within the province of the natural man—

[A natural man has the same faculties and powers as a spiritual man: his understanding is as capable of comprehending common subjects, or of investigating the depths of human sciences: his will and affections are as capable of being exercised on objects according to their quality, as much as ever they will be when he shall be converted to God: and his memory is as retentive as that of any other man. A spiritual man has no advantage over him in these respects. Consequently, our Saviour’s assertion must not be interpreted as extending to things purely intellectual, or even moral: since, beyond a doubt, a natural man may either do or forbear many things which come under the designation of morals.]

They refer exclusively to what is spiritual—

[There are different gradations or different kinds, of life, if I may so speak: there is a vegetative life, an animal life, a rational life, and a spiritual life: and the powers of each are limited to its own order: a thing which vegetates, is not capable of animal exertion; nor is an animal capable of exercising the faculties of reason; nor does the rational man comprehend or enjoy what is spiritual. If any one order of being will affect the offices of that above it, it must first attain the powers of that superior order: for without the powers suited to the object, its efforts will be in vain. There is indeed this point of difference between the different kinds of life. The three first differ in their nature: but the last differs only in the application of powers previously possessed. Yet is the last called a new nature, because it is produced in the soul by the Spirit of God, who “opens the eyes of the understanding,” constrains the will, and purifies the affections, and thus, in fact, makes the person so changed, “a new creature.”

But our Lord’s illustration will place the matter in the clearest light.

“Christ is a vine: his people are the branches;” and by virtue derived from him they are enabled to bear fruit. If a branch be broken off from a vine, it can no more bear fruit: it has nothing in itself independent of the stem; and, if separated from the stem, it must wither and die. So we, if separated from, or not united with, the Lord Jesus Christ, are incapable of bearing fruit; because we have nothing in ourselves independent of him, and have no means of deriving grace and strength from him. In respect of natural actions, we can effect all which nature qualifies us to effect: but in respect of spiritual exertions, we are incapable of them; because, in consequence of our separation from Him, we are destitute of all spiritual life and power.]

This is, as clearly as I can state it, the import of our Lord’s assertion, I shall now proceed to,

  II.      Vindicate it—

I grant, that in itself the assertion is very broad and unqualified: but in the sense in which it has been explained, it may be fully vindicated:

  1.      From Scripture—

[Throughout all the Holy Scriptures man is represented as dependent upon God for the communications of his grace. In himself he has nothing but evil: his whole soul is corruptd: and he must have “the heart of stone taken away, and an heart of flesh given him,” before he can keep the commandments of his God. So far is this carried, that the natural man is declared to be incapable of performing a good actf, or uttering in a becoming manner a good word, or entertaining with real approbation a good thoughth. And with this statement our Church fully accords, when, in addressing Jehovah, it says, “O God, from whom all holy desires, all good counsels, and all just works do proceed.” As far as the Scripture testimony therefore is admitted, the point is clear; and our Saviour’s declaration is fully justified.]

  2.      From experience—

[Where shall we find one from the beginning of the world to this hour, who ever served God but by a power derived immediately from God? If any one think he have a power in himself to do good works, let him consult the tenth Article of our Church, which says, “The grace of God by Christ prevents us, that we may have a good will; and worketh with us when we have that good will.” Or let him rather try what he can effect by any power of his own. Go, and get your soul filled with love to God; or with hatred of sin; or with a contempt for this present evil world and all that is in it: go, determine to do these things; and then carry them into effect: and then we will confess that what our Saviour has affirmed is not true. There is not any one, I apprehend, who will not acknowledge three things necessary to the salvation of his soul; namely, repentance, faith, and obedience. Go then, and repent with real contrition, and unfeigned self-lothing and self-abhorrence. Go, and work up your soul also to faith in Christ, so as to flee to him, and rely upon him, and cleave to him, and glory in him as all your salvation and all your desire. Go too, and get your whole soul cast into the mould of the Gospel, so as to delight in every part of God’s revealed will, and to and all your happiness in the performance of it. Do anyone of these things, and we will confess, either that the word of God is altogether false, or at least that it is so expressed, as to mislead every person who endeavours to understand it. But I will not require so much at your hands. Only go home from this place, and fall upon your knees in your secret chamber before God, and for one half hour pour out your soul before him in fervent supplications for mercy, and in devout thanksgivings for all the blessings of redemption as set before you in the Gospel. Put this matter to a trial: see whether you can effect even this small matter by any power of your own. I am not afraid to abide the test of this experiment, and to constitute this whole assembly judges in their own cause. If then not so much as one amongst you is able to do this small thing, know every one of you that the declaration in my text is true.]

  ADDRESS—

  1.      Those who are yet without Christ—

[Truly, whilst you are “without Christ,” you are “without any scriptural hope” of salvation. Renounce therefore, I pray you, brethren, all confidence in yourselves. That you have brought forth fruit, I confess; but it has been “only wild grapesl.” But it is a far different fruit that God looks for: and in order to bring forth that, you must be cut off from the stock on which you have hitherto grown, and be graffed into Christ. Seek then to become living branches of the living vine: seek an union with the Lord Jesus Christ by faith: so shall you be enabled to bring forth fruit to his glory, and be approved by the Great Husbandman in the day that he shall come to inspect his vineyard — — —]

  2.      Those who by faith are united to him—

[Happy, happy are ye: for, as “those who are separate from him can do nothing,” you, on the contrary, by virtue of your union with him can do every thing; as St. Paul has said, “I can do all things through Christ, who strengtheneth me.” In order to this however you must “abide in him,” just as the branch abideth in the vine. You must be continually “receiving out of his fulness the grace” which your necessities requirep. This life of faith is your wisdom, your happiness, your security: and the more entire is your affiance in him, the more will you “be filled with all the fruits of righteousness which are by Jesus Christ to the glory and praise of God.”]

MDCXCII

FRUITFULNESS IN GOOD WORKS

             John 15:8.

Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit; so shall ye be my Disciples.

IT is not uncommon to hear those who preach or profess the Gospel spoken of as depreciating and disregarding good works. But this is nothing more than what the Gospel itself teaches us to expect: and, if we be not spoken of in a greater or less degree as undervaluing good works, there is reason to fear that we have not yet fully embraced that Gospel which Paul preached. We see it was the objection raised against him, when he proclaimed salvation by faith in Christ; and therefore he took frequent occasion to obviate it, and to shew that it had no real foundation. He abhorred the idea of such a consequence being deduced from the doctrines of grace, and therefore shuddered at the very mention of it: “Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? God forbid! how shall we, who are dead to sin, live any longer therein?” Yea, he affirms, that however salvation by faith alone may appear to ignorant or prejudiced minds to supersede the necessity of good works, it has directly the opposite tendency: “Do we then make void the law through faith?” says he; “yea, we establish the law.” If the objectors understood aright the nature and office of faith, they would see that nothing but that would secure the performance of good works; since it is by that only that we are united to Christ; and it is only in virtue of that union that we can perform any good work whatever. But, in various other respects, also, is faith favourable to good works. To go no further than the text, we see in these few words two of the strongest inducements to Christian practice that can possibly be imagined; namely, that it conduces most eminently to the glory of God, and evidences most decisively the sincerity of our own souls.

Let fruitfulness in good works be considered then by us in both these points of view:

  I.      As glorifying God—

We are not to imagine that any act of ours can really add any thing to the Divine glory: for “our goodness, however it may benefit our fellow-creatures, can never extend to him.” But, as God is pleased frequently to speak of our conduct as reflecting glory upon him, we also may with propriety adopt that language, and say, that our fruitfulness in good works glorifies him; in that it shews,

  1.      The proper scope of his Gospel—

[His Gospel was never revealed for the mere purpose of informing our understandings in relation to mysteries which we could never otherwise have known: nor was it revealed for the mere purpose of saving man from perdition. It had a higher and nobler end in view: namely, the destroying of sin, and the restoring of sinners to the Divine image; “The grace of God, which bringeth salvation,” was revealed to “teach us, that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live righteously, soberly, and godly, in this present world.” The gift of Christ as a Saviour was “to save us from our sins;” delivering us from the present evil world; and purifying unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good worksd.” The gift of the Holy Spirit, also, was “to convince us of the evil and bitterness of sin;” and to “sanctify us throughout, in body, soul, and spiritf.” There is not a promise belonging to it which had not this direct aim in view, that, by laying hold of it, we might “cleanse ourselves from all filthiness, both of flesh and spirit, and perfect holiness in the fear of God.”

It is clear, therefore, that the Gospel, as being altogether designed to restore men to the Divine image, does and must reflect the highest glory on Him from whom it proceeds.]

  2.      The efficacy of his grace—

[Whatever we had been, even though we had been as perfect as when we first came out of our Creator’s hands, the practice of universal holiness would have been honourable to Him from whom our powers had proceeded; but, considering what creatures we really are, how corrupt and sinful in all our parts, the change wrought in us displays the marvellous efficacy of God’s grace. If a husbandman take good scions, and they all prove fruitful, his skill is displayed and honoured in the estimation of all who behold it. But, suppose he were to take none but dry and withered sticks, and to make all of them fruitful, his honour would be the more exalted, in that he should be able to educe fruits from dead sticks, which in themselves were incapable of producing any. Such honour is the Lord’s when we dead and barren creatures are enabled to bring forth any fruit unto our God. Such “trees of righteousness of the Lord’s planting” do indeed reflect the highest glory upon him.]

  3.      The blessedness of his salvation—

[Let any one behold a “wilderness made to blossom as the rose, and a desert to become, like Eden, the garden of the Lord;” then he will have some little idea of what is wrought upon the soul by the grace of Christ. See, on the day of Pentecost, the change wrought by a single discourse upon three thousand murderers, whose hands were yet reeking with the Saviour’s blood: Was God not glorified in that? Or let us look amongst ourselves: Are there none of us, who, previous to our reception of the Gospel, were left to shew what was in our hearts, and to manifest that we were altogether “led captive by the devil at his will?” Compare those persons now with their former state of folly and wickedness; and will any one say that the change, though still very imperfect, reflects no glory on the Lord? Let the persons themselves judge: Are ye not happier now than in the days of your unregeneracy? Would ye willingly go back to your former state? Does not every day evince to you the blessedness of the change that has taken place? and can you forbear to honour Him who, by the mighty working of his power, has wrought it in you?]

But let us contemplate fruitfulness in that other view; namely,

  II.      As an evidence of our own sincerity—

Our blessed Lord told his Disciples, that “if they should continue in his word, then they should be his Disciples indeed. In truth, fruitfulness in good works is that test of sincerity which is,

  1.      Exclusively admissible—

[All professions without this are vain: “Why call ye me Lord, Lord, and do not the things that I say?” “Not every one that saith unto me Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.” But if a person manifest a great zeal for divine ordinances, will not that suffice? No: God, speaking by the Prophet Isaiah, says of many of his professing people, “They seek me daily, and delight to know my ways, as a nation that did righteousness, and forsook not the ordinances of their God: they ask of me the ordinances of justice; they take delight in approaching to God. Wherefore have we fasted, say they, and thou seest not? Wherefore have we afflicted our soul, and thou takest no knowledge?” Yet these people he proves to have been immersed in the vilest wickedness. By the Prophet Ezekiel, also, he describes the same kind of professors in very striking terms: “Son of man, the children of thy people speak one to another, saying, Come, I pray you, and hear what is the word that cometh forth from the Lord. And they come unto thee as the people cometh, and they sit before thee as my people, and they hear thy words, but they will not do them: for with their mouth they shew much love, but their heart goeth after their covetousness. And, lo, thou art unto them as a very lovely song of one that hath a pleasant voice, and can play well on an instrument: for they hear thy words, but they do them not.” Take the favourable part of this description, and you would suppose them all to be very eminent saints: but see the dark part of their character, and they are most detestable hypocrites. In the parable of the sower we have the same truth yet more fully delineated; for persons may bring forth fruit for a season, and prove apostates at last; yea, they may continue to bring forth fruit to the very end of life, and be found at last to have brought forth no such fruit as God will approve; the briers and thorns having so choked the corn, that “it brought forth no fruit to perfection.”

Hence it is clear, that nothing short of “a patient continuance in well-doing” can ever prove us to be truly upright before God. If we would be acknowledged by Christ as his, we must be “Israelites indeed, in whom there is no guile.”]

  2.      Universally sufficient—

[Shew me a fruitful Christian, and I inquire not to what Church he belongs, or what be the subordinate tenets of his creed. I know full well that nothing but an union with the Lord Jesus Christ can ever render a man fruitful in good works. Philosophy never could accomplish this; no, nor could the law of Moses, with all its precepts, and promises, and threatenings, effect it. An outward form of religion was all that the law could give: the Gospel alone could supply the power. Hence St. Paul says, “What the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God, sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin [did; that is, he] condemned sin in the flesh; that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.” “The law made nothing perfect; but the bringing in of a better hope did;.” Yes, the Gospel sanctifies us throughout, in body, soul and spirit, and transforms us altogether into the Divine image in righteousness and true holiness: and that image, enstamped upon the soul, proves to demonstration whose we are. To ourselves it is “an evidence that we have passed from death unto life:” and “by it all others, also, know us to be Christ’s Disciples.”]

  You will now be anxious to ASK,

  1.      What are those particular fruits, by which we are to judge of our state before God?

[It is not by any particular class of fruits, but by fruits of every kind, that we should judge of our state. There must be “no partiality” in God’s law; “nor any hypocrisy,” in preferring one part of it before another. In all that relates to God, we must be upright; humbling ourselves before him, embracing the salvation he has offered us in Christ Jesus, and devoting ourselves unreservedly to his service — — — In all that relates to our neighbour, we must do unto him exactly as we, in a change of circumstances, should think it right for him to do unto us — — — In all that relates to ourselves, there must be a subjugation of our own passions, a government of our tempers, and an habitual exercise of all holy and heavenly affections — — — The whole circle of the Divine commandments must be our rule of duty; and superadded, as it were, to them must be the whole life of faith on the Son of God, and the whole life of love to him and to his people for his sake. In a word, see what were the fruits which the Vine itself, the Lord Jesus bare; and then you will see what is expected from the branches, and what will prove you to be vitally united to him. Set “Christ before you as an example, and follow his steps;” and you will need no other directory whereby to prove you are his Disciples.]

  2.      What encouragement have I to address myself to this laborious undertaking?

[If I were to say, that in so doing you will save your souls alive, I should speak what would be amply sufficient to encourage you. But what if I should say, that God would be glorified in you? Would you need more than that, to animate your endeavours? I do say it then, yes, and declare it most confidently, that in proportion as you are fruitful in good works, you will glorify your God. This is the uniform declaration of the inspired volume — — — and on this is grounded that exhortation of our blessed Lord, “So let your light shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.”]

MDCXCIII

THE FATHER’S LOVE TO CHRIST, AND CHRIST’S TO US

             John 15:9.

As the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you: continue ye in my love.

REASON could never suggest motives sufficient to counteract the passions: the law of God itself, with all its sanctions, could not change the heart. The Gospel alone can make sin odious, and holiness delightful. It effects this by revealing to us the love of Christ. Hence our Lord reminds us of his love in order to confirm our love to him.

  I.      The nature and extent of Christ’s love to us—

The comparison in the text denotes not equality, but resemblance. The love of Christ to us, like that of his Father to him, is,

  1.      Without beginning—

There never was a period when the Father first began to love his Son—

[He loved him before his entrance on his ministry, before his existence in the worldd, before Isaiah’s time, from all eternityf.]

There never was a period when Christ first began to love us—

[His love is first manifested when we believe in him. But our faith in him is the effect, not the cause, of his love to us. This is affirmed by the prophets, and by Christ himselfh.]

  2.      Without measure—

The Father’s love to Christ was unbounded—

[He is one with Christ in nature, and therefore in affection. He has shewn the greatness of his love to him, in the gifts bestowed upon himk, and in his constant co-operation with him.]

Christ’s love to us is also boundless—

[It produces most astonishing acts of kindness towards us. Human affections fall far short of itn. It “passess all knowledge,” whether of men or angels.]

  3.      Without variation—

The Father’s love to Christ was unchangeable—

[His love seems to have been withdrawn for a season: he seemed not to answer his prayers: but he heard him alwaysq, and loved him always. The apparent suspensions of his love were the necessary means of accomplishing the purposes of his love even towards Christ himself.]

Christ’s love to us also is unchangeable—

[There are seasons when he seems to withdraw his love. But his chastisements are tokens of his love. He hates sin indeed, and will correct his people till they put it away: but he will not withdraw his love from themt. Wherever he fixes his love, he rests unalterably in it.]

  4.      Without end—

The Father’s love to Christ shall endure for ever—

[He has given him a pledge of this in his exaltation to heaven.]

Christ’s love to us shall also be everlasting—

[He knows no change of mind with respect to what He has bestowed. Whomsoever he loves he continues to lovey. This truth is a just ground of joy and confidence.]

What returns can we ever make to Christ for such amazing love?

  II.      The duty resulting from it—

  This part of the text requires APPLICATION rather than discussion—

It sets before us, not merely our privilege (which is, to continue in a sense of Christ’s love to us) but our duty;

  1.      To love Christ—

[This would have been our duty, though he had not so loved us. But the obligation to it is greatly increased by his love. Let him then he exceeding precious to us. Let us despise every thing in comparison of him.]

  2.      To continue in love to him—

[We are too apt to decline in our love. But declensions, however secret, are very offensivec. They will, if continued in, disqualify us for heaven: they will reduce us to a worse situation than evere. Let us therefore cleave to the Lord with full purpose of heart.]

  3.      To abound in all acts and offices of love to him—

[In secret, let us contemplate, admire, and adore his excellencies: in public, let us confess, honour, and obey him.]

It commends to us that duty as resulting from the declaration that precedes it—

[The love of Christ towards us is the strongest of all motives to the love of him. Was Christ’s love to us so unmerited, unbounded, invariable, and lasting? and shall ours to him be weak and transient? Let it operate then suitably on all our hearts. Let us not rest satisfied with what we have attained. Let us meditate on his love as the means of increasing oursi.]

MDCXCIV

CHRISTIANITY INTENDED TO PROMOTE OUR HAPPINESS

  John 15:11.

These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full.

THOUGH every possible perfection was exhibited in its brightest colours in the person of our Lord, yet the most striking feature of his character was benevolence. Like the sun in its course, he diffused blessings wherever he went, and laboured with indefatigable zeal to promote the good of mankind. By his discourses as well as by his miracles he sought to advance the happiness of his followers. In the passage before us he assures his Disciples that this was the one end of the instructions he had given them. That we may improve this gracious declaration, let us inquire,

  I.      What things he had spoken to them—

We do not apprehend that he refers to his discourses in general, but to the things which he had been just uttering—

The doctrinal part of what he had spoken related to their union with him—

[He illustrates their union with him by the similitude of a vine and its branches; and informs them that their fruitfulness in good works depended entirely upon their receiving of grace from him. This is the most sublime, and the most important doctrine of our holy religion. It is, alas! too commonly overlooked, even by those who think themselves well versed in the truths of Christianity. It does not so much as enter into the mind of Christians in general. They have no idea what is meant by an union with the Lord Jesus Christ. They have some general notion that we are to be saved by him; but, in what manner, they know not. But this doctrine cannot be too attentively considered, seeing that it is the very corner-stone of our religion — — — the one means of procuring us an interest in Christ — — — and the only method by which we can derive any blessings from him — — —]

The preceptive part directed them how to secure the full advantages of that union—

[Some might possibly infer from the foregoing representation, that the Disciples of Christ were secure by virtue of their union with him, even though they should not exert themselves at all in the way of duty. He therefore cautions his Disciples against any such mistake. He bids them to “abide” in him by the continual exercise of faith, and to approve themselves to him by a diligent observance of his commandments. These injunctions mark the duty of all his followers. If on the one hand we must not depend on ourselves, but receive continual supplies of grace out of his fulness; so neither on the other hand are we to be supine as though we had nothing to do. We must go to him in fervent prayer — — — rely upon him with unshaken affiance — — — and labour to serve him with our whole hearts — — —]

After having delivered these instructions our Lord condescended to declare,

  II.      For what end he spake them—

The slightest alteration in our translation of the text will both remove an appearance of tautology, and suggest some very important reflections—

Our Lord desired to confirm the joy that he and his Disciples mutually communicated and received—

[Our Lord rejoiced exceedingly in his Disciples, even as a bridegroom over his bride. His delight in all his people is as great as language can possibly expresse. As a mother forgets her pangs when she beholds her first-born, so is our Lord satisfied with the travail of his soul, when he beholds those whom he has redeemed with his blood. The prospect of saving them was his great support when he endured all the shame and misery of crucifixiong. Now, if his Disciples should turn back from the faith, his soul can have no more pleasure in them. But he is not willing to resign this happiness, and to feel all the painful sensations which their apostasy would occasion. He wept even over his blood-thirsty enemies: how much more would his soul be filled with anguish if any of his elect were left to perish! To guard effectually against this calamity, he shewed to his Disciples, and left on record for our instruction, both the privilege and the duty of all his followers; the privilege, to “abide in him;” the duty, to “obey his commandments.”

As he rejoices in his Disciples, so do they in him. It is the most distinguishing feature of true “Christians, that they rejoice in Christ Jesus.” Some are so highly favoured that they rejoice in him with an unspeakable and glorified joy. Nor would Jesus wish them ever to lose that joy. He would rather that what they now possess should be perfected in heaven. But, alas! how would it all vanish in an instant, if by any means they should be “moved from their steadfastness!” That they might never thus “cast away the rejoicing of their hope,” but “hold it firm unto the end,” and finally “obtain a full reward,” he opened to them whatever might conduce to the comfort of their minds or the encouragement of their souls.]

His instructions were admirably calculated to promote this end—

[What could be more encouraging to his Disciples at that time, or indeed at any time, than to know that there was a fulness of grace treasured up for them in him? What more consoling than to know that they were united to him as branches to a vine? How trivial would they think any losses that they might sustain, or any trials they might endure, when they had such provision and security in Christ Jesus! The caution also that was given them would of necessity operate to make them watchful. Thus would they be preserved both from open and secret declensions, and “be to their Lord for a praise, and for an everlasting name that should not be cut off.”]

  INFER—

  1.      How erroneous is the idea that religion tends to make us melancholy!

[A religious person may have a constitution that inclines to melancholy as well as any other person; or he may he rendered melancholy by mistaken views of religion. But let not the blame in either of these cases attach to religion. We are assured that the Gospel, so far from producing such an effect, is “glad tidings of great joy to all people”—it enjoins us all to “rejoice in the Lord always;” and, where it is best understood, and most experienced, namely, in heaven, the most exalted joy abounds universally without the smallest intermission. Let then this prejudice be for ever banished; and let Christians be careful so to walk in delightful fellowship with Jesus, as to shew to the world that his yoke is easy and his burthen light.]

  2.      How precious ought the Scriptures to be in our eyes!

[It is in them that Jesus, being dead, yet speaketh to us; and if we will attend to his instructions, they will “make us wise unto salvation.” The intent of every word he there utters, is, to secure us to himself, and to make us eternally happy with himself in heaven. Why then do we not love the Scriptures more? Why do we give such a decided preference to books of human composition, yea, perhaps to plays, or novels, or the common publications of the day? Let us no longer treat with such indignity that sacred volume. “Let the word of Christ dwell in us richly in all wisdom;” and let us, like the prophet, eat it, that it may be the joy and rejoicing of our heartn. Especially let us regard what it speaks of our union with the living vine. Let us seek to be ingrafted into Christ; that, deriving sap and nourishment from him, we may be fitted for every good work, and bring forth fruit unto life eternal.]

MDCXCV

LOVE TO THE BRETHREN

             John 15:12.

This is my commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you.

THE law and the Gospel are in perfect unison with each other: the law, as a covenant, sends us to the Gospel, that we may obtain mercy with God; and the Gospel sends us back again to the law, as a rule of life, that, by obeying its commands, we may honour and glorify our God. The loving our neighbour as ourselves was enjoined by the law, and indeed was a summary of all the duties of the second table. Our blessed Lord, enjoining the same duty from new considerations, calls it “a new commandment,” and emphatically his commandment; that so we may be led to examine it with stricter attention, and to regard it with deeper reverence: he says, in effect, Labour constantly to fulfil that old commandment of the law; and, that you may never want either a directory to guide, or a motive to animate you in your exertions, take my love to you as the reason and pattern of your love to each other.

To elucidate his words, we shall shew,

  I.      How Christ has loved us—

We must, of course, content ourselves with a few hints only of a subject, which has a height and depth, and length and breadth that can never be comprehended, never explored. Consider then the love of Christ to us:

  1.      How free!

[Who ever did any thing to procure it? It exerted itself towards us long before we had any existence in the world. Who can do any thing now to merit it? We deserve to forfeit it every day and hour; but to earn an interest in it is beyond the power of man. We have nothing of our own but sin; and that would be a strange price to pay for the love of Christ. Indeed, if we deny the freeness of his grace, we rob him of the brightest jewel in his crown.]

  2.      How tender!

[There is not one of his people, however weak and afflicted, whom he does not watch over with more than parental tenderness, “carrying the lambs in his bosom, and gently leading them that are with young.” Yes; “we have not an High-priest who cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities:” “in all our afflictions He is afflicted:” if we are stricken by the hand of persecution, He feels the blow: “Whoso toucheth us, toucheth the apple of his eye.” In every possible state he sympathizes with us, as a head with the members; and never fails to succour us with “grace sufficient for us.”]

  3.      How abundant!

[If we regarded only the temporal blessings we receive at his hands, we must confess his love to us to be very abundant. But who can contemplate his unwearied intercessions at the right hand of his Father, or the incessant communications of his Spirit to their souls, and not stand amazed at the exceeding riches of his grace and love? And besides all this, he is “preparing mansions for us in his Father’s house,” and training us up daily, that we may be counted worthy to inhabit them for ever and ever. Well is his love represented as “passing knowledge!”]

  4.      How costly!

[Free as his love was to us, it was not exercised by him but at an expense that exceeds all calculation. Before it could operate for our advantage, he must leave his heavenly glory, assume our fallen nature, endure the scoffs and insults of his own creatures, and “pour out his soul unto death” as a sacrifice for sin. And would he pay this amazing price, in order to redeem our souls from death and hell? Yes, he undertook and executed the mighty work; and never drew back till he could say, “It is finished.”]

From contemplating this stupendous mystery, let us proceed to inquire,

  II.      In what respects his love to us is a pattern for our love to each other—

The love which the saints should hear to each other is of a sublime nature, very different from that which they owe to the world around them. To resemble that of Christ to us, it should be,

  1.      Disinterested—

[Our love to the saints should not be confined to those of the same Church or party, nor should it have respect to any pleasure or advantage that we expect to derive from them; for this is only a refined species of self-love: it should respect them only as children of our heavenly Father, as members of Christ our living Head, and as joint-heirs of the same eternal glory. It should be proportioned to their piety, rather than to any other endowments; and be occupied in advancing their happiness, not only as much as our own, but oftentimes in preference to our own. It was thus that the love of Christ operated towards us; and it is proposed for our imitation more especially in this point of view; “Mind not every one his own things, but every one also the things of others. Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus.”]

  2.      Sympathizing—

[We are all passing through a vale of tears, “born to trouble as the sparks fly upward.” Hence we need each other’s care and assistance through the whole of our lives. The kindness of friendship is a remedy which God has put within our reach, to enhance our joys and to alleviate our sorrows: we should therefore enter into the concerns of others, and feel them as our own; “weeping with them that weep, and rejoicing with them that rejoice.” By this we are told, we shall more especially comply with the injunction in the text; “Bear ye one another’s burthens,” says the Apostle, “and so fulfil the law of Christ.”]

  3.      Beneficent—

[Love must not interest merely the feelings of the mind: it must exert itself in acts correspondent to the occasions on which it is exercised. Is our neighbour distressed? we must relieve him. Is he ignorant? we must instruct him. Is he weak? we must strengthen him. Is he fallen? we must raise him up. Has he shewn some infirmities? we must bear with him. Has he offended us? we must forgive him. Are there any opportunities whatever of doing him good? we must gladly and speedily embrace them. It is in this way also that the Apostle urges us to imitate our Lord and Saviour: “Put on, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercies, humbleness of mind, meekness, long-suffering; forbearing one another, and forgiving one another; even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye.”]

  4.      Self-denying—

[That love which will exert itself only in things that are easy and pleasing to oneself, is not worthy the name of love. A truly Christian affection will lead one to “condescend to men of low estate;” to visit the chambers of the sick; to enter into the dungeon of the prisoner; to cut off some of one’s superfluities, in order to supply the necessities of others; to do good in return for evil; to expose oneself to the derision of a thoughtless world, in order to be instrumental in turning some of them from the evil of their ways; and “to lay down, if need be, even our own lives for the brethren.” This was the way in which St. Paul manifested his love; and in which we also, after the example of our Lord, are called to manifest oursk.”]

This being the way in which our love may resemble his, we shall shew you,

  III.      The obligation we are under to follow that pattern—

Our blessed Lord has enjoined a conformity to him in these respects,

  1.      As an act of obedience to him—

[He does not recommend such love as decorous and beneficial, but commands it as a duty which he will on no account dispense with. He stamps his own authority upon it; intimating thereby, that he will make it a subject of particular inquiry in the day of judgment. Indeed The decision at the last day is represented as turning principally upon this point; they who for his sake have abounded in offices of love being made exclusively the objects of his favour, while they who have neglected them are marked as objects of his indignation and abhorrence. If therefore we have any regard to his authority, or any dread of his everlasting displeasure, we must see the importance of following the example of his love.]

  2.      As an evidence of our love to him—

[Having in another place enforced this duty in terms similar to the text, he adds, that the exercise of brotherly love is the distinctive badge of our profession, the habit whereby all his followers must be known.” To the same effect his loving and beloved Disciple also speaks, declaring that our profession of love to God is mere hypocrisy without thism; and that without this we can have no assurance, no evidence, that we have passed from death unto life. Shall we then at once write ‘Hypocrite’ upon our foreheads? Shall we be contented to be ranked with “murderers, who certainly have not eternal life abiding in them?” If not, we must see the necessity of imitating Christ, who “has left us an example that we should follow his steps.”]

  INFER—

  1.      How little of true religion is there in the world!

[So far is love to the saints from being the common disposition of mankind, that almost all are rather filled with hatred against them: and where candour prevails over the enmity of the human heart so as to subdue its workings, there yet is a total want of that disinterested, sympathizing, beneficent, and self-denying love, which characterizes a true Christian — — —]

  2.      What reason have even the saints themselves to be ashamed before God!

[Let the most zealous and active Christian compare his love with that of Christ; how poor and defective will his best efforts appear! Alas! alas! how often are things found among professing Christians that are not only defective, but directly contrary to love! Beloved brethren, let us study more carefully St. Paul’s description of love: and above all, let us contemplate more the love of Christ to us: so shall we feel its constraining influence, and be stimulated to the exercise of this delightful duty.]

MDCXCVI

CHRIST’S FOLLOWERS HIS FRIENDS

  John 15:15.

Henceforth I call you not servants; for the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth: but I have called you friends; for all things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you.

KNOWLEDGE of every kind is excellent and useful; but that of religion far transcends all other. Hence we are commanded to pay a peculiar respect to those who labour in the word and doctrine. Hence also our Lord himself, having revealed to his Disciples the whole will of God, adduces his fidelity in this respect as one of the strongest tokens of his affection for them.

  I.      In what light Christ regards his followers—

The state of believers under the Gospel differs widely from that of those under the Mosaic dispensation. They were in the condition of servants, but we of friends. Christ assures us that from “henceforth” his people should be regarded by him in that light.

He has taken away from us the yoke of the ceremonial law—

[This was an exceedingly heavy burthen; but Christ has delivered his people from itd. He has imposed only two rites, and those easy and instructive: his service is perfect freedomf.]

He has delivered us from a sense of guilt—

[The offerings of a Jew afforded no assurance that God had accepted him; they were rather so many remembrances of his sinh: but Christ has freed us from the pains of a guilty conscience.]

He has set us at liberty also from a servile spirit—

[The Jews could not enter into the most holy place; none could go there but the high-priest, and he only on one day in the year, and then not without blood: but now all believers are priestsl. The vail which separated the most holy place was rent at the death of Christ: all therefore may enter thither without fearn.]

He has put us into the state of adult sons—

[Believers under the law were like minors, or children under age; but we are brought to the full possession of our privilegesp.]

Our Lord proceeds to prove his assertion:

  II.      What evidence we have that he does so regard us—

He still carries on the comparison between servants and friends. He points out one particular wherein he has eminently distinguished us, and exalted us above all the Jewish saints.

He has revealed to us the perfections of God—

[These were but little known to the Jews; but Christ has more clearly revealed them. He has declared them to us in his discourses: he has exhibited them in his lifer.]

He has shewn us the way of acceptance with him—

[This was but obscurely shadowed under the law. Many even rested in the ceremonies themselves; but Christ has plainly declared himself to be the way to the Father. He has expressly told us that we have acceptance through his blood.]

He has unfolded to us the privileges of God’s people—

[The Jews were encouraged by temporal promises; but “life and immortality are brought to light by the Gospel.” Christ has fully opened to us our present privileges, and our future prospectsx.]

He has “made known all which he himself had heard of the Father”—

[At that time he had not absolutely revealed all: but he had declared all which he had been commissioned to reveal, or was necessary for them to know; and he completed his revelation soon afterwards.]

This was a most undeniable evidence of his friendship—

[Servants are not admitted to the secret views and designs of their masters; but Christ has made known to us all the mysteries of his Father’s counsels. What abundant evidence of his friendship does this afford!]

  INFER—

  1.      How should we esteem the Holy Scriptures!

[It is by the Scriptures that Christ declares to us the Father’s will. In them therefore we see the strongest testimony of his love. The written memorials even of a creature’s love are dear to us. Of what inestimable value then should we account the word of Christ! Let us regard it with the same affection as David did: let it “dwell richly in us in all wisdomb.”]

  2.      What love and honour should we shew to Christ!

[We should not consider him merely as a lord and master: we should rather view him as our dearest friend. Let us then delight ourselves in communion with him: let us open to him all our cares, wants, fears, &c.: let us give him that best proof of our regard, a willing and unreserved obedience.]

MDCXCVII

THE DOCTRINE OF ELECTION EXPLAINED

  John 15:16.

Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain.

IT is of great importance to have a just view of the doctrines contained in Scripture. There are many passages which at first sight appear to contradict each other; but they are all true and consistent when properly explained. The assertions respecting the freedom of our will, and our proneness to apostasy, are true, and necessary to excite us to care and watchfulness: nor are those that respect our election of God, and our assured perseverance in his ways, less true, or less conducive to our spiritual welfare. They have a strong tendency to produce in us humility and a dependence on God. All these passages therefore ought to be insisted on in their season. That which now demands our attention is a part of our Lord’s farewell address to his Disciples. It naturally leads us to consider,

  I.      The doctrine of election—

This being frequently misrepresented, it will be proper to state what we mean by the doctrine of election—

[It imports, that “that we have not chosen God.” No man by nature does choose him. The carnal mind is enmity against him, and prefers the vanities of time and sense before him: nor is any man ever brought to choose him without having discovered much reluctance, and been overcome by the constraining influence of Divine grace. It imports, moreover, that “God has chosen us.” He from eternity chose some to life. This choice of his was free and sovereign, without any respect whatever to works either done, or to be done, by us. In due time, God manifests his election, by sending his grace into our hearts: nor does any man differ from another, but in consequence of grace thus derived from God. Hence every saint on earth or in heaven must say, “By the grace of God I am what I amd.”]

The doctrine thus stated is capable of the fullest proof,

  1.      From reason—

[God is a Being of infinite perfection. But he could not be independent if the accomplishment of his purposes depended on our free-will; nor omniscient, if he did not know how we should act; nor immutable, because his knowledge must increase with a succession of events. Again, It is ordained, that man shall never have whereof to boast before Godf. But if the doctrine of election be not true, man may boast that he has made himself to differ. Again, Jesus Christ must have a seed to serve him. But if none are elected of God, it may happen that none will choose God; and thus Christ may have shed his blood in vain.]

  2.      From Scripture—

[In the Old Testament we find that God had a peculiar people, and that some from among them were chosen by him to particular stations. Nor can any argument be brought against God’s election of men to eternal life, which will not be equally valid against the right he has confessedly exercised in choosing them to the enjoyment of the means of grace. In the New Testament, we are plainly told that some of the Jews were chosen to special and saving mercies: they were called in time, in consequence of having been predestinated from eternity. God had no respect to any works of theirs, either done by them, or foreseen by him; but simply to his own eternal purposel. St. Paul not only argues this point at large, but, conceiving that he has fully established it, he lays it down as an incontrovertible truth, that the salvation of every man is entirely owing to the grace and mercy of God.]

  3.      From experience—

[Whence is it that so small a part of the world is evangelized? or that the persons who, according to human appearance, are least likely to receive the Gospel, are still, as in the early ages, the first to embrace it? Whence is it too that all the godly, not excepting even those who are most prejudiced against the word Election, are yet ready to ascribe their own salvation to the unmerited grace of God? These things strongly corroborate the testimonies of reason and Scripture; and though there are difficulties attending this doctrine, yet are there much greater difficulties attending the denial of it. And since God has affirmed it to be true, we should say to all objectors, Who art thou that repliest against God?]

The principal objection against this doctrine will be obviated, if we consider,

  II.      The ends to which we are elected—

There is no reason to think this doctrine injurious to morality. Indeed there is no other doctrine that secures morality on so firm a basis—

  1.      We are chosen expressly to good works—

[Our Lord might refer in part to the labours of his Disciples, and to their consequent success in them. But he certainly had a further view also to the fruits of righteousness which they should bring forth. In this sense his words are applicable to all believers. God has ordained holiness as the way to heaven — — — and has appointed the means no less than the end — — — yea, he has decreed the end to be obtained only in and by the meansq — — — Hence the performance of good works is secured by that same decree which secures the salvation of God’s elect.]

  2.      We are chosen also to persevere in them—

[God does not leave us at liberty to return to sin: on the contrary, he will have no pleasure in those who do. He will regard all the righteousness which they have wrought as though it had never beens: and their latter end will be worse than their beginning. But against such apostasy God will secure his own elect. He has given them a new heart, that they may fear him for ever. He has promised, that their path shall be steadfastx, and progressive. And every saint may indulge a humble confidence that it will be so.]

  ADDRESS—

  1.      Those who object to this doctrine—

[For argument sake, we will give up the doctrine, and allow the first choice to arise from ourselves. Have ye then chosen Christ? Have ye chosen him as your almighty Saviour and your rightful Lord? If you think you have, consider how much is implied in such a choice. If you acknowledge you have not, “out of your own mouth shall ye be judged.”]

  2.      Those who doubt their own election—

[You are too apt to perplex yourselves with unprofitable inquiries. You should rather examine whether ye have been called. It is by your vocation that you are to know your election. Keep your evidences of conversion clear, and they will be indisputable proofs that you have been chosen to life.]

  3.      Those who have good reason to hope that they have been elected of God—

[Never can you sufficiently admire the goodness of God to you. Well may you say, Why was I taken, while so many better than myself were left? But at the same time remember to what ye are chosen. Never attempt to separate the end from the means. If ye have this hope, ye are bound to purify yourselves, even as God is pure.]

MDCXCVIII

CONSOLATION TO THE PERSECUTED

  John 15:18–20.

If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you. If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you. Remember the word that I said unto you, The servant is not greater than his lord. If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you; if they have kept my saying, they will keep your s also.

WELL might our Lord enjoin his Disciples to love one another; for, if they be not united in affection towards each other, they will in vain look for any love in the world. They are “as sheep in the midst of wolves:” the wolves indeed are kept from devouring now, as they have done in former times; but the disposition to devour still remains in the minds of ungodly men, and the godly are still regarded as their legitimate prey. Our Lord may be considered as addressing his own immediate Disciples in the first place: but the grounds on which he teaches them to expect hatred from the world, are such as apply equally to all his people in every age; and consequently we may consider the words as addressed to all his followers.

We shall take occasion from them to consider,

  I.      What it is in Christians that calls forth the enmity of the world—

The reasons usually assigned are, that they are enthusiasts, and hypocrites, and disturbers of the peace of mankind: but the true reasons are those which our Lord assigns in the text, namely,

  1.      Their election out of the world—

[“The whole world lieth in wickedness,” all being equally alienated from God, however they may differ from each other in their moral conduct. But God has from eternity chosen a people, whom he has given to his dear Son, and whom in due time he calls by his grace, and brings out of nature’s “darkness into the marvellous light” of his Gospel. These, when called, are made sensible that they owe the change, not to any merit or power in themselves, but altogether to the effectual working of his grace: and they acknowledge thankfully their obligations to him, saying, “By the grace of God I am what I am.”

This acknowledgment is very offensive to the world. They cannot endure to hear of the sovereignty of God: they think that God cannot choose some to be objects of his favour without being unjust to others. Though they cannot but see that God has exercised his sovereignty in every age, in the case of Abraham, for instance, and of Isaac, and of Jacob, and of the Jewish nation, and of those nations that now enjoy the light of his Gospel, yea, in the redemption of fallen man when he never provided such a remedy for the fallen angels, yet they will not allow him to do so now: and every person who ascribes his conversion to the distinguishing grace of God, they consider as actuated by consummate pride; when, in fact, the doctrine of election is the most humiliating that can be imagined, and the denial of it is the fruit of ignorance and presumption — — —

That this is a principal ground of men’s enmity against the people of God is asserted by our Lord: and it is confirmed by every part of the sacred records. Why did Cain hate Abel, but for the distinguishing favour shewn him by God? In like manner Esau hated Jacob, not merely for the manner in which he had gained the blessing, but because the birthright was transferred to him. Thus Saul hated David also, because he saw that God was with him: and the Jews sought to destroy our Lord for no other reason than because he had brought to their recollection some instances wherein God had imparted to Gentiles favours which he had withheld from his own peculiar people.]

  2.      Their separation from the world—

[When once the Christian sees the sin and danger of a carnal life, he will of necessity depart from it. He not only desires to obey the command which says, “Come out from among them and be separate,” but he perceives, that, with his new views and principles, he can no more maintain communion with the world than light can with darkness, or Christ with Belial. Hence he no longer walks in “the broad road that leadeth to destruction, but in the narrow path that leadeth unto life.”

This is another great occasion of offence to the ungodly world; for in departing from the pursuits and vanities of the world, the Christian does, in effect, declare the danger of those who still adhere to them; just as “Noah condemned the world” by building the ark, and Lot condemned Sodom by fleeing from it. “Those who are of the world, the world will approve and love;” because their spirit and conduct have a direct tendency to justify the world in all its proceedings: but “those who, like their Lord, are not of the world,” and refuse to be conformed to its maxims and ways, will assuredly become objects of the world’s displeasure; for though their testimony be never audibly delivered, it will be seen and felt; and every effort will be made on the part of the world to bring back those who have deserted its standard and enlisted themselves under the banners of the Lord Jesus.]

That there is, however, no cause for alarm, will appear, if we consider,

  II.      What are those considerations which Christ has suggested for their support—

We confine ourselves to those mentioned in the text—

  1.      Our Lord himself was so treated—

[For the truth of this he appeals to his own Disciples: they had seen how justly he was characterized by the prophet, as “one whom man despised, and whom the nation abhorred.” They had seen how ill he had been treated, notwithstanding his unerring wisdom, his spotless piety, his unbounded benevolence.

Now, if He, our Head and Chief, was so hated by an ungodly world, how can we hope to escape their enmity? We have in him an indisputable proof, that no wisdom, no prudence, no perfection of character, can enable us to obtain the approbation of worldly men: on the contrary, the more entirely we resemble him, the more shall we be hated by his enemies.

And may we not find in this abundant consolation? If we were not so treated, we should have reason to doubt whether we were “walking as he walked:” but if we are reviled and persecuted as he was, then have we an evidence that we belong to him; and we have reason to “rejoice, inasmuch as we are partakers of his sufferings.”]

  2.      He has forewarned us to expect no other treatment than that which he himself received—

[We might well suppose, that, if HE was so treated, we should meet with similar treatment: for reason itself teaches us that the servant ought not to expect a better reception than his lord. But our Saviour himself also has told us this, and particularly calls upon us to “remember” his words. Indeed, if we only remembered what he has spoken to us, we should never be surprised at any thing that we meet with; seeing that he has so plainly forewarned us of it. He has even told us, that the persecutions we meet with shall “turn unto us for a testimony.” Being then forewarned, we should be forearmed. This was the consideration with which St. Paul endeavoured to comfort the Thessalonians, when they were startled at the greatness and multitude of his afflictions: and, in truth, if the Scriptures be fulfilled in us, as they were in Christ, we may well be reconciled to whatever an ungodly world may inflict upon us.]

  ADDRESS—

  1.      Those who are afraid of incurring the hatred of the world—

[Doubtless the hatred of the world is not to be desired: we should rather, if it could be, that they should love us: but, if the friendship of the world be incompatible with fidelity to God, then may we very cheerfully forego it. If we be apprehensive of consequences, what is there to fearn? Man, at the utmost, can only kill the body; whereas God can kill the soul: and therefore God only and exclusively should be the object of our fear.]

  2.      Those who have braved and borne the enmity of the world—

[Do you repent of what you have done? Has not God made up to you all that you ever suffered for his sake? Do you think that you will ever feel regret, when you come to heaven, that you suffered so much in your way thither? Are you not even ashamed that you ever for a moment accounted the cross of Christ heavy, or that you groaned under its weight? Sure I am, that “you shall receive an hundredfold even in this life, with persecutions;” and that one moment’s enjoyment of your Saviour’s presence will abundantly repay all that you endured for his sake. Be not careful then what men may do against you: only seek to cut off occasion from those who seek occasion; and determine through grace, that they “shall find no occasion against you, except concerning the law of your God.”]

MDCXCIX

THE GREAT SIN OF REJECTING CHRIST

  John 15:22.

If I had not come and spoken unto them, they had not had sin: but now they have no cloke for their sin.

EVERY sin is committed against an infinitely good and gracious God: yet the stoical doctrine of the equality of sins is not therefore true. Guilt may be aggravated or diminished by a variety of circumstances. Hence our Lord denounced peculiar woe against Chorazin and Bethsaida. To the same effect he speaks concerning the Jews in the text.

  I.      How greatly aggravated the sin of the Jews was in rejecting Christ—

Sin admits of so many degrees of malignity, that one may be considered as no sin in comparison of another; not that any man can be absolutely without sin, nor is any man really excusable in the sight of Godb; but comparatively some may be said to “have no sin.” Thus it was with those of whom our Lord spake. If he had not come to them, they might have pleaded a want of the necessary means of salvation: but our Lord’s preaching rendered them wholly inexcusable. They could not plead any want of

Instruction—

[Our Lord often spake in parables. This was the means of inflicting judicial blindness on the proud; but it was well calculated for the instruction of the humble. Besides, he delivered many things in the simplest terms.]

Evidence—

[Our Lord wrought many and stupendous miracles. He performed them by a touch, a word, and even at a distance. His miracles were as benevolent as they were open and undeniable. Those who wished to discredit them, imputed them to the agency of Satan. Our Lord mentions them as aggravating the guilt of those who rejected him.]

Warning—

[There was no want of fidelity on our Lord’s part. He warned the people in the plainest and most awful manner.]

Encouragement—

[Every one that thirsted for his benefits was invited by him. He offered to give spiritual life to all who would come to him. He promised also to crown them with eternal happiness and gloryi.]

If they were thus without excuse, it becomes us to consider,

  II.      How much more inexcusable we are if we reject him—

Christ has come and preached to us by his word and ministers, and many reject him after the example of the unbelieving Jews. Though we be not avowed infidels, we practically reject Christ, when we do not receive him for all the ends and purposes for which he was sent; and if we do so, our guilt is peculiarly aggravated.

We have not any Jewish prejudices to encounter—

[The Jews had received their law from God; they had been accustomed to expect a temporal Messiah, yet they saw a man altogether destitute and despised, and beheld the law of Moses superseded by a new religion. His works indeed should have obviated all these difficulties: but we have not these difficulties to contend with. We profess that the Gospel is from God. We profess that Christ’s kingdom is of a spiritual nature. We profess that his cross is his own glory, and his Church’s hope.]

We see the whole design of God unfolded—

[The Jews had only partial and contracted views: they could not reconcile many seeming contrarieties. The Disciples, even after Christ’s resurrection, were at a loss to account for the occurrences they had seen. But we behold the counsels of God completed; the various prophecies are all accomplished; the characters and offices of Christ are opened; the great ends of his incarnation and death are effected; the glory of God, as shining in his face, is fully displayed.]

We have witnessed the success of the Gospel—

[Those to whom our Lord spake, saw his ministry despised: the great and learned of their nation rejected him. His followers were only a few, and those of the lowest class: but we have seen the “grain of mustard become a large tree:” the Gospel has spread to the remotest corners of the earth; it has triumphed over the prejudices and passions, the interests and powers, of the world; its influence is yet daily exhibited before our eyes.]

How heinous then must be our guilt if we reject him! Surely our “sin must be of a crimson or a scarlet die.”

  ADDRESS—

  1.      Those who make excuses for their neglect of Christ—

[With what foolish and weak excuses do men deceive themselves! Surely God will not be deceived by these. What cloak for your sin will you find when he shall call you to account? Will you plead a want of instruction, evidence, warning, or encouragement? Know that in that day you will be speechless. Your love of sin and hatred of the light are the true causes of your rejecting Christn, and this will be the ground of a more aggravated condemnation.]

  2.      Those who desire to attain the saving knowledge of him—

[It is a great mercy to have such a desire formed in the heart; but beware of cloking or extenuating your sin. Remember that awful yet encouraging declaration—Confess your sin with all its aggravations. There is a virtue in the blood of Jesus to cleanse you from it allq.]

MDCC

HATRED OF CHRIST IS HATRED OF THE FATHER

             John 15:23.

He that hateth me hateth my Father also.

MEN are ever disposed to palliate their sins, and, by representing them under some specious name, to conceal their real enormity; but God calls every sin by its proper name, and speaks of it with just abhorrence. Covetousness in his eyes is not prudence, but idolatry: a disregard of his presence is not mere inadvertence, but a denial of his most essential attributesb: and a contempt of his Gospel is not a venial ignorance or inattention, but an absolute hatred both of Christ and of the Father. To confirm this truth we will endeavour to shew,

  I.      Who they are that hate Christ—

It may be thought that none but Jews can be guilty of hating Christ, and that the bearing of his name is a sufficient testimony of our regard for him. But there are too many who, notwithstanding they have been baptized into his name, are yet “enemies to him in their minds.” Certainly we must number among his enemies,

  1.      Those who disregard his Gospel—

[The Gospel of Christ ought to be universally received as “glad tidings of great joy:” but the greater part of mankind feel an aversion to it. Some dislike its fundamental doctrine of salvation by faith, and represent it as injurious to the interests of morality. Others hate the duties it enjoins, and traduce it as requiring a state of mind totally incompatible with the discharge of our offices in social and civil life. Many even of those who approve of the Gospel in their judgment, are yet very far from experiencing its power in their souls. They enjoy not its promises, they fulfil not its precepts, they know not its renovating, sanctifying effects. It may be asked, Are all these persons haters of Christ? Let Christ himself answer that question. He states, that a practical renunciation of his authority is a proof, that they are enemies to him in their hearts, and will cause them to be treated as his enemies in the day that he shall judge the world.]

  2.      Those who neglect his ordinances—

[Our Lord has promised his peculiar presence to us while we seek him in the ordinances of his own appointment. Should not then the hope of enjoying his presence endear the ordinances to us, and make us regard them as our most inestimable privilege? But how are they regarded by the generality amongst us? Does not worldly business or pleasure often detain us needlessly from the house of God? And when we are assembled for worship, do not our thoughts rove to the very ends of the earth, so that, though we “draw nigh to God with our lips, our hearts are far from him?” Are not almost all persons cold and remiss in secret prayer? And is not family religion either banished altogether, or conducted with such formality as to render it irksome and unprofitable? Our Lord left it as his dying command that we should often partake of bread and wine in remembrance of his body broken and his blood shed for us. Yet is not his table either shamefully deserted, or else profaned by impenitent, unsanctified communicants? And what construction must we put on such conduct? Our Lord plainly tells us, that he considers them as his enemies, and that none of those who thus despise his invitations, shall ever taste of his supper.]

  3.      Those who persecute his people—

[Persecution is not carried now to the same extent that it has been in former ages. But has it ceased? Experience proves that there is the same enmity in the hearts of men against the faithful servants of God as ever there was. There are many at this day who are true descendants of Cain and Ishmael; and, as long as there shall be an unconverted man upon earth, it will be found, that they, who are born after the flesh, will persecute those who are born after the Spirit. If they do not kill the saints, they will “revile them, and separate them from their company, and say all manner of evil against them falsely for Christ’s sake.” And are not such persons enemies to Christ? Yes; he considers himself as the real butt of their malice. Saul thought he was justly punishing some wild fanatics when he dragged the Christians to prison and to death; but Jesus said to him, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? And the prophet tells us that whosoever toucheth the Lord’s people, toucheth the apple of his eyeg.]

The extreme enormity of their conduct appears in this,

  II.      That the hatred of Christ is, in fact, a hatred of the Father also—

Christ is essentially “one with the Father;” and as “whosoever had seen Christ, had seen the Father,” so, “whosoever hateth Christ must of necessity hate the Father also.” But it is evident in other points of view that they hate the Father; for they hate,

  1.      His authority—

[God commands all men to believe in his Son, to “kiss him” with holy reverence, and to honour him even as they honour the Father. But the unequivocal language of those who comply not with his command is, “We will not have this man to reign over us;” “Who is the Lord that we should obey him? we know not the Lord, neither will we obey his voice.” Whatever they may pretend, they are not deceived through unavoidable ignorance, or impelled by irresistible force to reject Christ; they do it from a rooted aversion to the Father himself, and evince by their conduct the truth of that declaration, “The carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.”]

  2.      His image—

[The word, the ordinances, and the people of God, all bear upon them the impression of God’s holiness: and this is the very ground of that aversion which rises against them in the hearts of the ungodly. The Gospel is disliked as requiring so much purity and self-denial. The worship of God could be easily tolerated, if an outward form would suffice; but the spirituality and devotion necessary to an acceptable performance of this duty, causes the carnal heart to revolt from it as irksome. If the saints too would countenance the world in its sinful practices, the offence of the cross would cease: but they “make their light to shine before men;” and on this account they, whose deeds are evil, hate, revile, and persecute them. Now this clearly proves, that holiness itself is their aversion, and consequently that the image of God, which principally consists in holiness, is hateful to them. Will any say, It is hypocrisy that they hate, and not holiness? Wherefore then were Christ and his Apostles so universally the objects of cruel persecution? Was there any guile in him? Was he not “the brightness of his Father’s glory, and the express image of his person?” and walked not his Disciples in his steps? It is certain, not only that the image of God is hated by the enemies of Christ, but that every thing that bears his image is hated by them on that very account, and in proportion as it exhibits a resemblance of him.]

  3.      His very existence—

[It is vain indeed to entertain the thought that God could be annihilated: but, if we could suppose for a moment that it were declared from heaven, “There is no God;” would not the tidings excite a general satisfaction? Would not all the haters of Christ congratulate themselves that there was no God to call them to an account, none to punish them for their iniquities? Would they not look forward to an unrestrained indulgence of their lusts with pleasure, instead of weeping for the loss of their best and dearest Friend? Yes; as the enemies of Christ exulted in his crucifixion, so would all who hate him rejoice, if the Father also were utterly extinct. That this is no fanciful idea will appear from the declaration of God himself, “The fool hath said in his heart, No God!”]

  INFER—

  1.      How desperate is the wickedness of the human heart!

[Wherefore is it that men are so full of enmity against Christ and his Father? Is it for having given us his dear Son that they hate the Father; or do they hate Christ for laying down his life for us? Many good things has he done; for which of them do we reject him? O let “the haters of God,” as the Apostle calls all of us in our unconverted state, blush and be confounded; let them abhor themselves for all their iniquities and abominations: for what our Lord says of us is strictly true, “We have hated both him and his Father.”]

  2.      What a dreadful place must hell be!

[Here the wickedness of men is restrained by the preventing grace of God: but in hell it will rage without controul. How will all the miserable spirits then vent their malice! How will they gnaw their tongues, and blaspheme their God! May we never know this by bitter experience!]

  3.      How astonishing is the tender mercy of our God!

[One would suppose that God should feel nothing but indignation against such an ungrateful world. But behold! he “waiteth to be gracious unto them;” he sends them offers of pardon; he even entreats and “beseeches them to be reconciled to him. O let his goodness lead us to repentance! Let us cast away the weapons of our rebellion, and bow to the sceptre of his grace. So shall we yet be numbered among the friends of God, and be lively monuments of his mercy to all eternity.]

MDCCI

THE PERSONALITY AND OFFICE OF THE HOLY SPIRIT

  John 15:26.

When the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify of me.

THE characters of the most holy men may suffer from envy and malevolence; but their righteousness often shines forth the brighter afterwards, as the sun obscured for awhile by an intervening cloud. According to all human appearances, our Lord’s name must either have sunk into speedy oblivion, or been handed down with infamy to the latest posterity. It scarcely seemed possible that the ignominy of his cross could ever be so obliterated as to be succeeded by respect and honour: but our Lord knew that the testimony of the Spirit would assuredly effect this. While therefore he consoled both himself and his Disciples with the reflection, that the causeless enmity of his countrymen was nothing more than a completion of the prophecies, he taught them to look forward to the time, when the Spirit of God should come down visibly from heaven, and by the most indubitable testimony efface every stain, and rectify the mistaken apprehensions of the world respecting him.

Let us consider,

  I.      Our Lord’s description of his promised messenger—

In speaking of the inscrutable mysteries of our religion, we are constrained to represent, heavenly things in terms, not strictly just perhaps, but such as are best accommodated to our own feeble apprehensions. We observe then respecting the messenger whom Jesus undertook to send, that,

He is a distinct person—

[Many deny the distinct personality of the Spirit, and affirm that he is only a virtue or quality belonging to the Father: but our text clearly shews, that this is not a just and scriptural idea: the names here given to the Spirit, as “the Comforter,” and “the Spirit of Truth,” import that he is a distinct person. And the circumstance of his mission leaves no doubt upon the subject; for he “proceeds from the Father,” is “sent” by the Son, and comes down to us. Besides, the very end of his mission implies the same; for he comes to “testify,” that is, to be a witness.]

Yet, though distinct from the Father, he is, in his essential properties, equal to him—

[He is sent to testify to all persons, in all places, at the very same instant of time: and does not the execution of such an office require both omnipresence and omniscience? Must he not know what every person needs to be instructed in, and be every where present to hear and grant their requests? And are there any attributes more appropriate to the Deity than these? Yet these the Spirit has in common with the Father: David says respecting him, “Whither shall I go then from thy Spirit? If I go up to heaven, thou art there; if I go down to hell, thou art there also:” and St. Paul observes that “the Spirit searcheth all things, even the deep things of God.” Nor are these testimonies unsupported by others that are yet more direct and clear: for the Spirit is constantly joined both with the Father and the Son as equally worthy of the highest honourc, and equally a source of the richest blessings. Indeed he is expressly and repeatedly called GOD. They who lied unto HIM, were therefore guilty of lying unto God; and they who had HIM dwelling in them, were therefore the temples of the living God.]

Nevertheless in some respects he is subordinate both to the Father and the Son—

[In the order of subsistence, as the Father is not of the Son, but the Son of the Father, so neither the Father nor the Son proceeds from the Spirit, but the Spirit from them, inasmuch as he proceeds from the Father, and is sent by the Son. In the order of operation also the Spirit is inferior: the Father is represented as the fountain of authority and of blessings: the Son acts as his servant: and the Spirit acts under Christ, being sent or deputed by him, (according as it was determined in the eternal counsels of the Father,) to apply to men that redemption, which was procured for them by his death. The Spirit acted in this subordinate capacity before the time of Christ’s incarnation: it was by him that Christ went and preached to the antediluvian world: by him also he inspired the prophets to foretel the things relating to his sufferings and gloryi. During the days of our Lord’s ministry on earth the Spirit still acted in subserviency to him; it was by the Spirit that Christ cast out devils, and performed his other miracles. In a more especial manner did the Spirit exert himself in subserviency to Christ after he had ascended to heaven; it was then that the Spirit began fully to execute the office assigned him, and to “glorify Christ” before an ungodly and unbelieving world. To this very hour does the Spirit bear the same part, “convincing the world of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment,” in order to magnify Christ, and to enlarge his kingdom.]

As our attention is principally directed to the Holy Spirit, we shall proceed to state,

  II.      The particular office committed to him—

The Father, Son, and Spirit, have distinct and different offices in the economy of redemption. That of the Spirit is twofold:

  1.      To be a witness for Christ—

[Our blessed Lord died under circumstances of the deepest ignominy and reproach; being treated by his whole nation as the vilest of malefactors. Nor could it be conceived that one, who under such circumstances saved not himself, should be constituted by God the Saviour of others. This was, to all appearance, so absurd an idea that it never could have gained any credit in the world, if it had not been confirmed by the most unquestionable testimony. To overcome these obstacles, the Holy Spirit testified of two things, namely, the righteousness of his person, and the sufficiency of his salvation. While the Apostles testified of these things to the ears of men, the Spirit confirmed their word with visible signs, and sealed it on men’s hearts by his invisible, but effectual, influenceo. This he did, not only on the day of Pentecost, when three thousand were converted at once, but on many other occasions. It is worthy of remark, that when he visibly descended on the Gentiles in confirmation of the word that was delivered by Peter, he descended at the very instant that the Apostle began to speak of the fulness and excellency of Christ’s salvation; as though he designed to intimate, that this was the great truth which he came to attest, and which we ought to receive with our whole hearts.]

  2.      To be a Comforter to us—

[When a soul begins to feel its guilty and undone state, it needs a comforter: but there is no creature in heaven or earth that can administer effectual consolation; none but the Holy Spirit is sufficient for so great a work: if he reveal Christ to the soul, all tears will instantly be wiped away; but if he withhold his influence, sorrow and despondency will overwhelm it utterly. Thus also in all subsequent trials and temptations, it is the Holy Ghost alone that can heal the wounded spirit, or bind up the broken and contrite heart. And it must further be noticed, that the principal, if not the only, way, in which he administers consolation to us, is by testifying of Christ; it is by shewing to us his beauty, his sufficiency, his truth and faithfulness, and by enabling us to rest entirely on him: and as there can be no comfort till this be done, so there can be nothing but joy and exultation arising from it.]

  This subject naturally leads us to REFLECT,

  1.      How great and glorious a person Christ is!

[It has been already shewn that the Holy Spirit is God equal with the Father: yet has Christ authority to send him into our hearts. If Christ say, Go, my Spirit, and quicken that dead sinner; go and dwell in that polluted heart; go and comfort that drooping and desponding soul; in short, whatever commission Jesus gives to the ever-blessed Spirit, it is executed instantly, and to its utmost extent. No unworthiness in us excites any reluctance in the mind of the Spirit; if Jesus do but speak, it is done. Who then would not wish to have this glorious person for his friend? Who does not desire an interest in him? Who would not seek him who is so able and willing to save? Blessed Lord, send thy Spirit now to testify of thee, and to glorify thee in all our hearts!]

  2.      How unspeakable is the happiness of Christ’s faithful people!

[These enjoy the witness of the Spirit in their own hearts. The Spirit not only testifies to them that Jesus is the Saviour of believers in general, but their Saviour in particular: he witnesses to, and with, their spirits, that they are children of God; and if children, then heirs, heirs of God and joint-heirs with Christ. Can we conceive any greater happiness than this? Surely not in this present world. Let every one then aspire after this honour; let every one seek the Spirit, not merely as an instructor, but a comforter. Thus shall we be filled with consolation, even under the most afflictive circumstances; and his testimonies shall prove to us an earnest, and a foretaste, of our heavenly inheritance.]

MDCCII

OFFICES OF THE HOLY SPIRIT

  John 16:8–11.

And when he is come, he will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment: of sin, because they believe not on me; of righteousness, because I go to my Father, and ye see me no more; of judgment, because the prince of this world is judged.

IN judging of the dispensations of God’s providence or grace, we are extremely apt to err. Hence we often mourn for things, which, if we knew the end of them, would afford us occasion for joy. This was the case with the Disciples, who were dejected on account of their Lord’s approaching departure from them. To relieve their minds, our Lord not only promised them another Comforter, but told them for what ends and purposes that Comforter should come:

  I.      To “convince the world of sin”—

This office the Spirit executed among the Jews—

[The sin of rejecting Christ was that which the Spirit was more particularly to reveal to the world; and he discovered it fully by his miraculous operations on the Disciples, and wrought an irresistible conviction of it by his gracious influences on the hearts of thousands.]

This office too he yet executes in the Christian Church—

[The external testimony which he gave, remains the same in all ages: the internal witness is given to those only whom “God has ordained to life.” To them the Spirit shews the number, the greatness, the malignity of their sins; and particularly, the guilt, and danger of that unbelief, in which they have ignorantly lain. This is the Spirit’s work; nor is it wrought in any, but by his almighty power.]

If he proceeded no farther, he would not be a Comforter; but it is his office also,

  II.      To convince the world “of righteousness”—

This also was accomplished by him on his first descent from heaven—

[Christ, though professing himself the Saviour of the world, had been crucified as a malefactor. The Spirit therefore was to evince, both that Christ was a righteous person, and that through his righteousness others also might be saved. Accordingly, by his descent, the Spirit proved these things beyond a doubt. He shewed that Christ was accepted of the Father (which he would not have been, if he had been an impostor), and had finished all that was necessary for our salvation; seeing that, if any thing had remained to have been done on earth, he must have returned hither in order to complete it. He moreover inclined, and enabled multitudes to believe on HIM for righteousness, whom they had just before reprobated as worthy of universal execration.]

And yet daily is he occupied in glorifying Christ among us—

↑ Back to top