with his lusts and deeds: serve him no longer it is a blessed part of redemption to be saved from his service. God be thanked, that he may be put off, as a garment which you have done with, and will put on no more. Away with it, it is filthy and abominable altogether. Yea worse still the plague is in it. Death and hell are in it for the old man, sinful nature, thus to be put off, is a body of sin, and selfish tempers are his members, such as anger, wrath, malice, lies, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry. These must be put off, or they will be always plotting and acting against brotherly love. Therefore the new man, renewed in the spirit of his mind, opposes them, and is mighty through God to mortify them. By the same power he puts on, as the elect of God, holy and beloved bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, long suffering, forgiveness of injuries: even as Christ forgave him, so he forgives: and unto all these graces he puts on love, which is the complete binding of them together. What an amiable character is here of the new man! He is created anew in Christ Jesus, that he may exercise every kind and benevolent temper to the brethren. He is renewed in his heart to the unfeigned love of them; and is enabled to manifest it by every work and labour of love. And lest the vile tempers of the old man, still in being, although dethroned, should get dominion again, he is strengthened mightily by the Spirit in the inner man to crucify them day by day. Since this is hard work consisting in continual and severe self-denial, no less than in cutting off right hand, and in plucking out right eye, lusts; for thine encouragement, to persevere, consider, Fourthly, that thou art in Christ-a member in his body-and in him thou hast perfect and eternal redemption from the old man of sin with his affections and lusts. The more this is believed, the more will the fruits of it appear. Faith in the absolute and everlasting victory of thy glorified head will animate thee as one of his members to resist thy vanquished foes, knowing thou art a partaker of his victory, and in his strength, and to his glory thou art fighting against them. In him thou hast already conquered. In him thou shalt be more than a conqueror. Reckon thyself therefore to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God in Jesus Christ thy Lord. And depend on him for the power of his death, that he may put it forth in thee, and mortify sin, and for the power of his resurrection to quicken thee to newness of life. Thy communion with him in his death and resurrection will be in proportion to thy faith. If thou believest stedfastly, that thou art one with him, thou wilt find the effect of it in stedfast communion. Cleave then to him, as a branch to the vine. Planted together in the likeness of his death, thou wilt find virtue coming from him to crucify thy selfish tempers. Planted together in the likeness of his resurrection, thou wilt find virtue coming from him to keep thee alive to God. To this fellowship with Jesus thou art called. Thou hast a right to communicate with him in his life and death. And whilst thou art enjoying it by the faith of the Son of God, sin shall have no more dominion over thee than it has over him. This being thy glorious birth-right, O my soul, put honour upon it. Enjoy it in the peace of thy conscience, and in the love of thy heart. Read thy perfect redemption in Jesus from every thing opposite to brotherly love, and improve this thy experience. As there is sufficient grace promised and provided for thee, see thou make use of it, and manifest it openly in thy tempers and in thy walk! For, consider, Fifthly, Thy God and Father calls upon thee to give glory to him for his love to thee by exercising love towards the brethren: and thou art bound to this by ten thousand ties. Has he loved thee freely, dost thou know it, and is the grateful sense of it upon thy heart? How then can it be hid? It cannot; it will manifest itself, as light does. The Father has chosen thee in his Son, that he might communicate to thee of his goodness, and he has made thee a child of light, that thou mighest re flect the rays of his goodness upon others. Thou art to shew forth the praises of him that hath called thee out of darkness into his marvellous light. He hath called thee out of the deadness and blindness of thy natural state, and hath enlightened thee with the light of life. How marvellous, that it should ever shine upon thee! Marvellous indeed, that thou shouldst shine, as a light in the world! Admire this grace. grace. Let others admire it with thee by seeing the reality, and by feeling the comfort of it. As the sun not only enlightens, but also enlivens with his fruitful rays the face of the earth, and cheers every creature upon it: so let thy light shine before men. Give them clear proof of thy love to God by thy love to them: let them feel the blessed fruits of it, that they may see thy good works, and glorify thy Father who is in heaven. Love in thy heart will shew itself: It will communicate its gracious rays, and the Father of lights will have the praise. This should be thine end, as it is his. He aims at his own glory in all his mercies: this aim should be thine also. Thy Father calls upon thee to do good to others, that he may be glorified thereby. O what an high calling is thine! What an honour does God put upon thee. Thou art to bring him glory from men-from his own children: for their bowels are to be refreshed by thee-and from others, that whereas they would speak against thee as an evil doer, they may, by thy good works which they shall behold, glorify God in the day of visitation. Aim at this. Look at no motive to do good to men below the glory of God. And remember, thy doing it may be the means of his visiting them, as he visited thee, with his great salvation. O blessed fruit of brotherly love: may it be the happy effect of thy light shining before men. May God be daily honoured by it, and the comfort, and, if it please him, the salvation, of his people be thereby promoted Yea, Lord, this is my prayer. My heart says, Amen. If thou findest it very difficult to live in the constant practice of brotherly love, meditate, O my soul, upon the Gospel motives for an increase of faith, and seek for the promised assistance to enable thee to love others as God hath loved thee. Above all expect the effectual teaching of the Holy Ghost. He only can write this delightful law upon the heart-the fair impression of it is kept by his power-and the exercise of it in thy tempers and walk is the work of his grace. O O pray then for a constant supply of the Spirit, that in all thy dealings with mankind it may appear thou hast been with Jesus. Set his most amiable life before their eyes. Give them reason to honour his beneficence, from thy copying it legibly after him. Let his love to thee be glorified from thy labour of love to them. Study to shew forth his praises, and go about doing good, as he did. And hereby convince the world, that Jesus Christ was the greatest moralist, and that his disciples come the nearest to the perfect pattern of their master; as a poet of our own observes Talk they of morals? O thou bleeding love! The grand morality is love of thee. The love of Jesus teaches and enforces the love of the brethren. The spirit of Jesus writes it upon the heart, and makes it practical in the life. And thus the two tables are joined together: and love to him that begat, produces love to them that are begotten of him. When the happy believer is walking in this love to his Father and to his family, then he will live in the observance of the duties, which relate to himself: for he was taught them when he returned in his heart to God. And every step he walks with God is in the practice of them. The first temptation was an offer of independence"Ye shall be as Gods"-man was drawn away by it, and fell from his high estate. Still this mother sin iş fruitful in fallen man. In great mercy there is a pardon provided, and in the way of receiving the pardon, there is a remedy for it. The infinite wisdom of God so contrived the way of our recovery, that without Christ we can do nothing. His salvation undertaken and finished for us, his salvation applied to us, the blessings of his salvation enjoyed by us in time and in eternity, are the free gifts of his free grace. He is the author. He is the finisher. He carries it on from first to last. All our sufficiency is of him. We cannot without him so much as think a good thought. Therefore his redeemed people are brought off from all trust in any other object, and are taught to place their whole dependence for salvation, and for every thing that accompanies it, upon the Lord Jesus Christ. To this end the Holy Spirit, the great convincer of sin, had made them acquainted with themselves. He had awakened them to a right knowledge of their state, of which they had not been sensible before; and they found that they were fallen and apostate creatures. He shewed them sin in its exceeding sinfulness, and they tasted some of the bitter fruits of it: they felt in what a dreadful condition their departure from God had left them-so ignorant, that they could not by any human means attain to the least saving knowledge of God-so guilty, that let them do all they could, still the condemning sentence of the law stood out against them-so unholy, that soul and body were sold under sin, and ready to every unholy word and work-so utterly helpless, that it was impossible they should of themselves attain. true happiness, or escape deserved misery. The Holy Spirit taught them these lessons practically. His conviction carried demonstration with it. He not only made them feel their guilt and their danger, but he also opened a way for pardon and safety. He led them to Jesus, and in him they found every thing needful for their salvation-treasured up for them by the free covenant love of the Father-secured to them by the fulfilling of all covenant conditions in the life and death of the God-man -and received by the faith of the operation of the Holy Ghost by whom they were made new creatures in Christ Jesus-members under him their head-united as intimately as the branches are to the vine-and living |