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enemy will not be asleep. It is a season of temptation. One or another of you have found him working already, and prompting to your minds schemes of indulgence or riot. Take heed. Behold, you are warned. Do not so great wickedness, which the devil will be sure to drive you into if he can. What! when we pretend to remember the birth of the Son of God to save us, shall we do works that will shame him, and damn us, unless mercy afterwards interpose? I entreat you to remember that Christmas is the season of commemorating the nativity of the holy One; and not, as it is usually taken, a season for every sort of foolish mirth and abominable licentiousness. And therefore do not yield to the sinful thought, "now Christmas is at hand, and I will keep it merrily." The mirth you propose is no other than madness. Away with these practices; Christmas is not a Heathen feast. Behold, you are warned. And I trust in God you will be cautious, and demean yourselves in such manner that your hearts and conduct shall be in concord with and under the spirit of that anthem with which the angels ushered the Only-Begotten into the world, when the multitude of them brake forth and sang Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will towards men.' This is the way to express your thankfulness. And thus let us keep the feast.

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SERMON XLIX.

1 JOHN ii. 3, 4.

And hereby we do know that we know him, if we keep his commandments. He that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him.

I HAVE shown you, from these words, that a right knowledge or faith is the only principle of true obedience. The obedience here intended is that only which can deserve the name; the obedience of the whole man, beginning in the deliberate choice of the heart, and issuing in a conformity of the conduct with the will of God. Without any knowledge of God at all, that this obedience is impossible, every one sees. But, although God should be perfectly known to be all that he is, yet if he be known only absolutely, that is, without respect to the mediation of Jesus Christ, by us guilty and perverted creatures, there is nothing in that knowledge which could draw over our hearts unto him; nor would that knowledge give us the least power of turning to him: but, on the contrary, the more perfectly we should know God in this absolute manner, the more fearfully we should hate him for being such a God as he is; so great and mighty, so eternal and ever-present with us: because, however perfect in himself, we should in all his perfections see him against us, while also he does not communicate unto us any grace (without which we cannot choose his service) but as we look unto him through the Redeemer. Wherefore that knowledge or faith, which constrains the heart unto obedience, is the knowledge of God in Christ; and this is, and only can be, a principle of obeying God from the heart. Having seen therefore what that knowledge or faith is, which is the principle of real obedience, we will now,

Secondly.-Endeavour to show that obedience from the heart is the direct proof of such a knowledge or faith; We do know that we know him, if we keep his commandments. He that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him.' Here this is manifest, "That where there is a true knowledge of God in Christ, obedience from the heart is the certain and necessary effect of that knowledge." From which it will follow of consequence,

First. That obedience from the heart is an infallible proof of the truth of our faith or knowledge. And that therefore, Secondly. Where this proof is not, it is a mere lie to say we know God.

The two latter, you observe, are plain consequences from the former. For if the knowledge of God in Christ, and that only (as has been shown), does necessarily constrain the heart unto obedience, then on the one side obedience from the heart must prove our knowledge to be of the right sort, and the want of that obedience convince us that we have not that knowledge. The doctrine is,

"Where there is a true knowledge of God in Christ, obedience from the heart is the certain and necessary effect of it." And that for these two reasons:

First. Because of the incomparable excellency, loveliness, and desirableness of the object. There is that in the blessed God, which, when it is seen (and seen, observe, with self-application, as what we have an interest in), is infinitely suited to engage the heart of any rational creature, whether angel in heaven or sinner upon earth. Devils only may not appropriate God unto themselves, and therefore their knowledge of his excellences cannot engage their spirits unto him. But when, to say nothing of angels, a sinful man beholds the fair beauty of the Lord in the face of Jesus Christ; beholds him as what he is, a Spirit self-existing, and whose essential property it is to have life in himself; a Spirit filling the universe with his presence, and upholding and directing both it and everything in it, great and little, by his amazing operation, almighty, in his power to do even what he pleases, and everlasting without possibility of decay, while generations and worlds rise up and pass away; a Spirit too to whose free goodness he owes his

being, his soul and body, and every enjoyment and means of happiness, nay, and upon whom, though he be a sinner, he can look as his God, reconciled by a method, the glory of which astonishes and dazzles the eyes of the most exalted creatures, while they consider the wisdom, grace, and love, held out in it: I say, when the enlightened sinner thus beholds the fair beauty of the Lord in the face of Jesus, he finds an object before him infinitely suited to engage his heart, whom he cannot choose but love supremely, and delight in, whom he would have to be honoured through the whole creation, whom he thinks it his glory to obey, and besides whom there is none in heaven or earth that he can desire. In the sight of this object sin appears in its true colours of deformity, and holiness in its proper beauty. The whole man stands prepared to obey; and, fixing itself on the revealed will, is asking with cheerfulness, What wilt thou have me to do?

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Secondly. The other reason why this knowledge of God begets obedience in the heart is because it was revealed to this very purpose, that the Spirit having enlightened the dark soul in the knowledge of God reconciled in Jesus Christ, might thereby influence and engage the heart unto a conformity with him. Thus, it is said, Christ gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works."* And, when God made himself known to Abraham as his God, he speaks thus, 'I am the Almighty God; walk before me, and be thou perfect.' And so, at the giving out of the law, we find God speaking in the character of a covenant-God as moving us to obedience thereunto, I am the Lord thy God, thou shalt have no other gods but me." And, in short, The end of the commandment is charity;'§ the design and completion of the Gospel is the love of God and our neighbour. Now, if the very purpose of God's thus revealing himself in Jesus Christ was that we might be sanctified through faith that is in him,|| it cannot be that the Spirit should make this revelation of God in the soul, and not thereby form the heart unto obedience. That he does hereby work unto the begetting and nourishing love, in the Exod. xx. 2, 3.

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↑ Gen. xvii. 1.

* Titus ii. 14.
§ 1 Tim. i. 5.

Acts xxvi. 18.

hearts of all who really know God in Jesus Christ, is expressly assured. St. Paul says of himself, that as soon as ever it pleased the Lord, who had called him by his grace, to appoint him his commission, he was not disobedient to the heavenly vision. He was all readiness, and went directly to his work. And he says elsewhere of himself and all believers, We all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord:'t where the motive, the agent, and the work, are most plainly marked out and placed together.

From these two reasons it appears, that wherever there is a true knowledge of God in Christ, there obedience from the heart necessarily follows. And you see in what manner it follows; namely, by the glory and loveliness of the object presented to the soul, which while the mind is regarding and beholding, the Spirit takes occasion by that blessed sight to turn the heart unto God. From hence I must make two very need

ful remarks.

The first is concerning unfruitful knowledge, that it is indeed no knowledge at all; for it does not set up the object in the mind, and so has no effect on the heart. I say it is no real knowledge or faith concerning God. It is not a knowledge of God evangelically seen, for so it would beget love; and it is not a knowledge of God in an absolute view, for then at least it would beget fear. But it begets neither love nor fear, and therefore is not really any knowledge at all. Real knowledge or belief of anything does unavoidably influence us according to the importance of that thing to us; and, where there is no influence, there is really no belief or knowledge concerning things which are of the very smallest moment to us. So that that state of mind wherein men do neither fear God's wrath, nor love him for his mercy, is plain atheism. There is no real belief or knowledge of God's being in it; although through certain suspicions, taken up by hearsay, and conceived upon the opinions of others, there are oftentimes some disquieting apprehensions raised in the soul. Nevertheless this is evidently the general knowledge of God that is in the world; and this the † 2 Cor. iii. 18.

* Acts xxvi. 19.

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