CONTEMPLATE now, I pray you, the object which the Apostle had in view in all these earnest solicitations ["These things," says he, "I write unto you, that your joy may be full. It was for this end that our blessed Lord himself had so strongly and so continually inculcated them: "These things speak I in the world, that they may have my joy fulfilled in themselves." And this is the object which I also would endeavour to attain. Beloved brethren, consider how unspeakable must be the joy of being brought into fellowship with the Apostles in all that they ever did, or ever shall, possess! All that access to God, all that intercourse with God, all that sense of Christ's incomprehensible love, all that enjoyment of his presence, and all that fruition of his glory! it is all yours by promise and by oath, if only you truly believe in Christ! O, put it not from you: defer not to seek it, yea, to seek it with your whole hearts! Then shall you know what it is to have a heaven upon earth: for, though now ye see not the Lord Jesus with your bodily eyes, yet shall you, by believing, be brought into such communion with him, that " your joy in him shall be unspeakable and glorified"."] c ver. 4. d John xvii. 13. e 1 Pet. i. 8. MMCCCCXXXI. THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING CONFORMED TO GOD'S IMAGE. 1 John i. 5-7. This then is the message which we have heard of him, and declare unto you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth: but if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin. IN fulfilling the ministerial office, it is not sufficient that we set before our people the evidences of Christianity, or inculcate the performance of some moral duties we are messengers from God to men; and we must "declare to them the message which we have received from him." We must not alter or conceal any part of that which we have been commanded to deliver; but must make known the whole counsel of God; and, having declared it with all plainness and fidelity, must urge the acceptance of it with all the energy we possess. We have a message then from God to you: we are commanded to open to you the Divine character, and to call you by the most impressive arguments to become conformed to his image. In discharging this duty we proceed to set before you, I. The character of God The term " light," in Scripture, has various acceptations; but there are two things which we shall notice as more particularly comprehended in it in the words before us. It is the property of light to discover all things; and it is perfectly pure and incapable of pollution: when therefore it is said, that God is light," we must understand it as designating, 1. His infinite knowledge [God is "a God of knowledgea." "There is no creature which is not manifest in his sight." The transactions of darkness are not hid from him: he sees the adulterer, that avails himself of the darkness of the night to visit his guilty paramour. His eye is upon the thief, that lays his hand upon his neighbour's property. He notices the fraudulent dealer, who sells by false weights and measures, or takes advantage of the purchaser's ignorance to get rid of a bad commodity, and to exact of him a higher price than it is worth. Nor is it the actions only that God inspects; his eyes are not only on our ways, but on our very hearts. We are apt to think that "the thick clouds are a covering to him, so that he cannot see";" but "the darkness and light to him are both alike." "He searcheth the heart, and trieth the reinsd:" "He knows the things that come into our minds, every one of theme:" "He weigheth our spirits'," and discerns the precise quantity of good or evil that there is in all our thoughts and desires: yea, "He knows the imaginations that we go about, even now, years before" the thoughts are distinctly formed in our hearts. Our inmost souls are as much open to his view, as the sacrifices were to the priest, when he had flayed them for the purpose of examining the flesh, and cut them open to inspect their inward parts. In short, "with him is no darkness at all:" "hell a 1 Sam. ii. 3. d Jer. xvii. 10. 8 Deut. xxxi. 21. b Job xxii. 13, 14. e Ezek. xi. 5. c Ps. cxxxix. 11, 12. f Prov. xvi. 2. h This is the idea suggested, Heb. iv. 13. and destruction are before him; much more the hearts of the children of meni."] 2. His unspotted holiness ["Light" is perhaps the only thing which is incapable of being polluted; and therefore is peculiarly fit to represent the immaculate purity of God. God is a holy Being; yea, "glorious in holiness," as well as in every other perfection. "He hateth all the workers of iniquity:" "He is of purer eyes than to behold iniquity k," without the utmost abhorrence of it. In this respect also, as well as in the former, "there is no darkness at all in him :" there is none in his nature; there is none in his dispensations. Consider his nature: Which of his attributes has the smallest mixture of unholiness? His sovereignty is not a weak partiality, but a holy exertion of his will, according to his own. determinate and eternal counsels. His justice is not a rigorous severity, but a holy regard to the honour of his broken law. His mercy is not a weak exercise of pity at the expense of justice and truth, but a holy display of his unbounded compassion, in a way that at the same time illustrates and magnifies all his other perfections. Consider his dispensations: these, it is true, are oftentimes inscrutable to us; yet is he " righteous in all his ways, and holy in all his works." We are sometimes indeed ready, through unbelief, to question his wisdom and his goodness m. When we see the wicked triumphing, and the righteous suffering under the accumulated trials of persecution from man and desertion from God, we are apt to be offended, and to ask, whether there be a God that ruleth in the earth? But in both these respects is his holiness expressly vindicated in the sacred writings: the martyrs that are now in glory, at the same time that they expostulate, as it were, with God on the subject of his forbearance towards their persecutors, address him as "holy and true":" and David, when complaining bitterly of the dereliction that he suffered, takes especial care to acknowledge that, in the midst of all, his holiness is unimpeached; "O God, I cry in the day-time, but thou hearest not; and in the night-season I am not silent; but thou art holy"." When therefore we are not able to comprehend the reason of God's dispensations, we must still confess, that though "clouds and darkness are round about him, righteousness and judgment are the basis of his throne P."] The next part of the message points out to us, i Prov. xv. 11. m Ps. lxxiii. 12-14. P Ps. xevii. 2. k Hab. i. 13. n Rev. vi. 10. 1 Ps. cxlv. 17. II. The necessity and benefit of a conformity to him The saints are said to be renewed after the Divine image and it is worthy of particular observation, that the only two points in which this renovation is said to consist, are knowledge, and holiness'. We see then from hence wherein that conformity, which we are to attain, consists: it consists in knowledge and in holiness, or, as my text expresses it, in "walking in the light as he is in the light:" our minds must be enlightened with the knowledge of God's truth; and our hearts must be purified in the performance of his will. Let us notice then, 1. The necessity of this conformity [Many will pretend to have communion with God, while they are ignorant of the salvation revealed in the Gospel, and living in the habitual indulgence of sin. But, while they thus "walk in darkness," what "fellowship can they have with God?" What access can they have to him, when they do not so much as know the way of "access to him through the rent vail of the Redeemer's flesh?" and what regard can they feel in their hearts towards him, while they are under the allowed dominion of worldly and carnal lusts? Their profession is a system of falsehood and hypocrisy: "they lie, and do not the truth:" they may work up themselves to ecstacies if they will; but they neither have, nor can have, any fellowship with God; for how "shall the throne of iniquity (or one in whom sin reigns) have fellowship with him1?" "What fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness"?"] 2. The benefit of this conformity [If a person be walking unfeignedly and progressively in the study of God's will, and in obedience to it, he possesses two great and unspeakable benefits; namely, communion with God, and acceptance before him. He has communion with God. God loves the humble, diligent, obedient servant: "He will come to him," and "lift u 2 Cor. vi. 14. s Heb. x. 19, 20. t Ps. xciv. 20. x The opposition between the 6th and 7th verses shews that ver. 7 does not relate to the communion of the saints with each other, but to their fellowship with God. up the light of his countenance upon him," and "manifest himself to him as he does not unto the world." He will "shed abroad his love in his heart," and "give him a spirit of adoption, whereby he shall cry, Abba, Father." The person himself may not be very conversant with raptures: but, whether he be more or less sensible of God's favour to him, it is manifest that he has fellowship with God: his knowledge of the Gospel proves that God has taught him; and his experience of its sanctifying power proves that God has strengthened and supported him. He has also acceptance before God: he is not like an unpardoned sinner: Jesus Christ has washed away his sins in the fountain of his blood; yea, every day, every hour, every moment, is he cleansing him from the pollution that adheres to his best services. This cleansing is a continued act of Christy and through it the soul maintains its peace with God, and is regarded by God" without spot or blemish"." Cleansed by Jesus from "the iniquity of his holy things," he is presented" faultless before the presence of God's glory with exceeding joy"." Such are the benefits of cleaving to Christ, and "walking as he walked:" and a life devoted to God is not so properly the means of obtaining these benefits, as it is the evidence that we already possess them.] From this most instructive subject we may Learn, 1. The connexion between faith and works [One man hopes to be saved by his works, while he disregards faith in Christ: another hopes that his faith will save him, though it never produce good works. But both of these deceive their own souls: for no man can do such works as the Gospel requires, unless he embrace the truths which it reveals: and, if he could do them, they would be utterly insufficient to justify him before God. On the other hand," the faith that is without works, is dead:" and as it differs not from the faith of devils, so will it bring us no better portion than theirs. Knowledge is necessary to produce holiness; and holiness is necessary to evince that our knowledge is truly spiritual and saving. It is not by separating them from each other, but by uniting them together, that we are to "walk in the light as God is in the light."] 2. The connexion between duty and happiness— [The greater part of the world expect happiness in the ways of sin but God has warned us that there is "no peace to the wicked." There is no real happiness but in fellowship y "Cleanseth." z Eph. v. 26, 27. a Jude, ver. 24. |