God promises to us a kingdom, and makes the condition of our passage to it, only the cleansing ourselves from all filthiness of flesh and spirit. A work that is our privilege as well as our duty; and shall we not obey him in this one command? A command so reasonable for him to enjoin, and so advantageous for us to perform? For shall he be willing to make us glorious, and we grudge to make ourselves pure? Shall he hold forth such vast wages, and we not find in our hearts to set about the work? These things are absurd and disingenuous, and such as the world would cry out of in common converse. And therefore let no man think, that that disposition can commend him to God, that would justly make him abhorred by men. 4thly and lastly, The fourth argument, by which the hope of heaven persuades the soul to purify itself, shall be taken from this consideration; that purity is the only thing that can evidence to us our right and interest in those glorious things that we profess ourselves to hope for. It is infinitely fond and presumptuous for a man to hope to inherit that estate, to which he can shew no title. The reasonableness of our hopes of heaven depends upon the sure right and claim that we have to it; and prove this we cannot in the court of our own conscience, much less in the court of heaven, but only by the obedience and purity of our lives, and their strict conformity to the excellent precepts of the gospel. No man can ascertain himself that he is an heir of glory, unless he can prove himself to be a son; and he shall never be able to find that he is a son, till holiness makes him like his heavenly Father; for where there is this relation, there will be also some resemblance. And now, I suppose, that from what has been discoursed upon this subject, every one does, or at least may, gather a certain mark or criterion, by which to judge of his hopes and pretences as to the happiness of his future estate. It is grace only that ends in glory. And he that hopes for heaven in earnest, will be as active in his repentance as he is serious in his hopes. Who almost is there that does not own himself a candidate and an expectant of future glory, nay, even amongst those whose present glory is only in their shame? But if such persons did not wretchedly prevaricate with themselves, how could there be so much of heaven in their hopes, and yet so little of it in their conversation? How comes their heart to be in one place, and their treasure in another? It is evident that the very hope and religion of every profane and vicious liver is but mockery and pretence. For can any one of common sense really expect to be saved in the constant practice of those enormities, for which the God of truth himself assures him he shall be damned? It is infinitely vain for a man to talk of heaven while he trades for hell, or to look upwards while he lives downwards; yet thousands do so, and it is the common practice of the deluded world; which shews how much men trifle in the grand business of their eternal condition. They profess an hope of that, of which they have scarce a thought; and expect to enjoy God hereafter, though they live wholly without him here. But the issue will be accordingly; neither 548 A SERMON ON 1 JOHN III. 3. they nor their hopes can ever stand before the pure eyes of him, with whom live only the spirits of just men made perfect. To whom be rendered and ascribed, as is most due, all praise, might, majesty, and dominion, both now and for evermore. Amen. END OF VOL. IV. INDEX ΤΟ THE FIRST FOUR VOLUMES. ABIHU, offering strange fire, i. 418. Ability of parts in a Christian minister, not to be discouraged, i. Abimelech, king of Gerar, withheld from sinning, ii. 564. iv. 298, king of Shechem, slain by a stone, i. 216. Abner, killed treacherously by Joab, ii. 128. Abomination, what is meant by committing abomination, iii. 69. Absolution, no infallible ground for confidence, ii. 168. Academies, conventicle academies set up in defiance of the Uni- Act, there is no new immanent act in God, i. 207. Action, the morality of an action, what it is founded in, i. 263. Christ in our actions, i. 64. The main end of religion is the ac- Adam's restless appetite of knowledge, the occasion of his fall, iv. I. Adversity, a way by which God sometimes delivers us out of temp- Adultery, spiritual adultery; the Jews an adulterous generation, i. 59. Affections, man's affections bid for nothing till the judgment has set the price, iii. 232. The difference of men's affection for Agag's foolish security, iii. 106. Agathocles, king of Sicily, from a potter, i. 213. Ahab, with an handful of men, overthroweth the vast army of Ben- Ahithophel, hanging himself because he had not the good luck to Ajax kills himself by Hector's sword, i. 254. Alexander bathing himself in the river Cydnus, i. 210. Troubled at the scantiness of nature, i. 243. Married Roxana, and what Alienation of sacred things is a robbing of God, i. 192. Altar, profaned by revelling in St. Paul's time, i. 179. It receives Ambassador, represents his prince, ii. 199. Ambition of the pharisees hinders them from embracing Chris- Αμετρία τῆς ἀνθολκής, iii. 461. Anabaptism, easy to be fallen into by one who would slight the Angels, their nature and business, ii. 328. Anger. See Passions. Anthropomorphites, the opinion of that sect, i. 48. Antinomians, their assertions, ii. 30, 333. Antinomianism seldom Antiochus's sacrilege punished, i. 182. Antiperistasis, iii. 469. Antonius, (Marcus,) subduing himself and his affections to Cleo- Apostasy, not reparable but by an extraordinary grace, iii. 145. Appearance; men commonly are either valued or despised from the of truth, the formal cause of all assent, iii. 228. |