SERMON VI. THE NECESSITY OF THE CHRISTIAN'S CLEANSING. 2 COR. vii. 1. Having therefore these promises, dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves. VI. THERE is not, I conceive, any piece of divinity more un- SERM. luckily mistaken, more inconveniently corrupted and debauched by the passions and lusts of men, made more instrumental to their foulest purposes, than that of the promises of Christ; whether by giving them the inclosure and monopoly of our faith, the commands of Christ and the threats of Christ, which have as much right to be believed as they, His kingly and prophetic office, to which He was as particularly anointed as to that of our priest, being for the most part set aside as unnecessary, and by many steps and degrees at last not only left quite out of our faith, but withal fallen under our envy, become matter of quarrel against any that shall endeavour to obtrude them not only so impertinently, but so dangerously, either on our gospel, or on our practice,-or whether again by persuading ourselves and others that the promises of Christ are particular and absolute, confined to some few, and to those howsoever they be qualified; when the whole harmony and contexture of Christian doctrine proclaims directly the contrary, that they are general and conditional, a picture that looks every man in the face that comes into the room, but cannot be imagined to eye any man else, unrestrained to all so they shall perform the condition, and an éoppáуioтaι тapieîa, those diffusive store-houses sealed up against all who do not perform it. SERM. [2 Cor. vi. 17, 18.] Shall we therefore have the patience, and the justice, and the piety awhile to resist these strong prejudices, to rescue this sacred theme from such misprisions, to set up the promises of Christ in such a posture as may have the safest and kindest influence, the benignest and most auspicious aspect upon our lives, not to swell and puff up our fancies any longer with an opinion that we are the special favourites to whom those promises are unconditionally consigned, but to engage and oblige our souls to that universal cleansing that may really enstate us in those promises, either of deliverance here or salvation eternally; that may, like the angel to St. Peter in prison, even to God Himself, shake off those gyves and manacles which have even encumbered His omnipotence, made it impossible for Him to make good His promises, temporal or spiritual, to such unclean uncapables as we? To this purpose there is one short word in the text which hath a mighty importance in it, the Taúras, the 'these' annexed to the promises. What is the interpretation of that you must enquire of the close of the former chapter; and that will tell you, that upon coming out from the pollutions and villanies of an impure profane heathen world,-and such is our unregenerate estate, I would I could not say, such is the condition of many of us that most depend on God's promises,-on our going out of this tainted region, our strict separation from all the provoking sins of it, all the mercies of heaven and (which some have a greater gust and appetite to) of earth also, are become our portion, a most liberal hospitable reception; "I will receive you, and I will be a Father" to all such proselyte guests, "and you shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty;" as if His almightiness, which is here pawned for the discharge of these promises, could not bring them down upon us, unless by this coming out of Sodom,-to which this angelical exhortation was sent to rouse us-we should render ourselves capable of them. In a word, the promises here, as all other in the Gospel, are not absolute, but conditional promises, on condition of "cleansing from all impurity," and not otherwise; and if there be in the whole world an engagement to cleansing, an obligation to the practice of the most defamed purity that a profane age can scoff or rail at, this certainly may be SERM. allowed to pass for it. "Having therefore," &c. The words are an exhortation to cleansing, and in them you may please to observe these three particulars: 1. The ground. 2. The address. 3. The exhortation itself. The ground the fittest in the world for this turn when you shall consider it thoroughly; ἐπαγγελίας ταύτας, “ these promises." The address, adding somewhat of sweetness to that of rational advice, "Having these promises, dearly beloved." And the exhortation itself, in the remainder of the words at large in the whole verse. We shall content ourselves with the contraction of it, καθαρίζωμεν ἑαυτοὺς, “let us cleanse ourselves." I begin with the first, the ground or foundation of the Apostle's exhortatory to cleansing, èπayyeλías таÚTаs, "these promises." 1. Promises. 2. And particularly, conditional promises. And yet 3. more particularly, the conditional promises of this text, the "these promises" as they are set down in the end of the former chapter, are the most competent, most engaging, effectual arguments or impellents to set any Christian upon the work of Christian practice, that especially of impartial universal cleansing. It will be best demonstrated if we take them asunder, and view them in the several gradations. 1. Promises are a very competent argument to that purpose, a bait to the most generous passion about us, our emulation or ambition, drawing us with the cords of a man, the most rational masculine allectives, I shall add,—to an ingenuous Christian man, as that signifies neither saint in heaven, nor beast on earth, but that middle imperfect state of a Christian here,-the most agrecable proper argument imaginable to set us a cleansing. Two other arguments there are, both very considerable, I confess. 1. The love (in the moralist of virtue, but in the Chris VI. VI. SERM. tian) of God Himself, and that love, if it be gotten into our hearts, will be very effectual toward this end; "the love of God constrains us," saith the Apostle. [2 Cor. v. 14.] ،، 2. The fear of those threats, those formidable denunciations which the Gospel thunders out against all unmortified carnal men, that horrid representation of our even Christian's God, as He is still under the gospel,-to all unreformed, ob[Heb. xii. durate sinners, " a consuming fire;" and consequently, what 29.] "a direful thing it is to fall into the hands of that living God:" [Heb. x. 31.] and "knowing these terrors of the Lord, we persuade men," [2 Cor. v. saith the same Apostle. There is some rousing oratory, some 11.] awakening rhetoric and eloquence in this also. And let me tell you, though it be but by the way, that I am not altogether of their opinion that think these terrors of the Lord are not fit arguments to work on regenerate men; that fear is too slavish a thing to remain in a child of light, a Christian. I confess myself sufficiently persuaded that our Apostle made choice of no arguments, but such as were fit to be made use of by Christians, and those terrors are more than Heb.xii. 28. once his chosen arguments, even to those that "had received the kingdom that cannot be moved," and are exhorted xápiv exew," to have grace," to make use of that precious talent received, which supposes a gracious person, or possibly xápiv exe, "to be thankful" to this munificent donor for this inestimable gift, yea, and this duty raised to the highest pitch that a Christian is capable of, to serving God capéorws, whether that refer to the persons, and signify "serving with all cheerfulness" and alacrity and well-pleasedness, or to God, as we render it, "serving Him acceptably with reverence and godly fear;" you have still in this Apostle these terrors immediately annexed to enforce this duty, "for our Godis a consuming fire." And so again you cannot but remember the advice of "working," and "working out salvation," and emphatically "our own salvation, with fear and trembling;" not only with love and faith, but peculiarly "fear and trembling," this trembling fit enough to accompany the saint to heaven gates, to salvation itself; and therefore the apóßws, "without fear," in the first of Luke, which we ordinarily join with the arpeúetv, as if we were thereby obliged to serve Him without fear, is in ancient [Luke i. copies and editions joined with the pvo0évras, "that we being [Phil. ii. 12.] 74, 75.] VI. delivered without fear,"-i. e. without danger,-"might serve SERM. Him in holiness," &c. And so I think it is a little clear, that the fear which is so cast out by perfect love, that, as the Apostle saith, 1 John iv. 18, "there is no fear in love," is not the fear of God's wrath, but of temporal dangers and persecutions. For so that love to Christ, if it be perfect, such as Christ's was to us, chap. iii. 16,-and is referred to again, chap. iv. 17, "that as He is, so we should be in this world,”will make us content to adventure any thing for the beloved, even death itself, the most hugely vast formidable, as it is there, ràs yuxas Tilévai, "to lay down our lives" for Christ,but sure not the displeasing of God, and torments of hell; that were too prodigal an alms, too wild a romance valour, would have too much of the modern point of honour for St. John to prescribe, and so certainly is but misapplied to this business. And so still I cannot but think it wisdom and sober piety in him that said, he would not leave his part in hell, the benefit which he had from these terrors,―for all the goods of this world; knowing how useful the flesh of the viper was to cure his poison, the torments to check the temptations, the apprehension of the calenture that attended to restrain from the pleasant but forbidden fruits that were always a soliciting his senses; and she that ran about the city, that Novarnius tells us of,-with the brand of fire in one hand, and a bottle of water in the other, and said, "her business was to set heaven on fire with the one, and quench hell-flames with the other, that there might be neither of them left, only pure love to God to move or incite her piety," had certainly a little of the flatus thus to drive her, her spleen was somewhat swollen or distempered, or, if one may guess by her appearing in the street, she was a little too wild and aerial in her piety. But this by the way, as a concession that there is (not only love, but) fear also that may set men a cleansing, as well as the promises in the text; the denunciation of punishments is as considerable an act of Christ's kingly office, whereby He is to rule in our hearts by faith, as that of proposing rewards, that other act of regality, Rom. xiii. And the truth is, all is little enough to impress the duty and happy is he that hath this threefold cord, this threefold obligation, paternal, and both kinds of regal, each |