VI.

SERM. ter. And therefore their Knowledge alfo is very far different from that intended in my Text For the Knowledge Saint John speaks of, he mentions as defirable: Hereby (faith he) We DO KNOW that we know him:- He fpeaks of it, you fee, as of a Knowledge, which they were very glad to attain. And with good Reason might he do so, as we shall perceive, if we look back upon the two Verses preceding my Text. My little Children, thefe things write I unto you, that ye fin not, i. e. that ye do not, like these Boafters, live in any Habit of Sin; or wilfully commit any one fingle Act of Sin: But if any Man fin through Inadvertency or Surprize, or for any Time paft has lived in Sin, but now fincerely repents and amends his Life; we have an Advocate with the Father, Jefus Chrift the Righteous: And he (in such Cases) is the Propitiation for our Sins; and not for ours only, but alfo for the Sins of the whole World: i. e. of all that lay hold on him by Faith and Repentance. And then immediately follows my Text And hereby we DO KNOW that we know him, i. e. we don't vainly and impiously boaft, but we ASSUREDLY know that he is an Advocate for us, a Propitiation for our past Sins, and not only fo, but also for our future

Slips and Failings, provided we be careful, to the utmost of our Power, to keep his Commandments.

So that to know Chrift, in the Apostle's Senfe, is not only to know that Chrift is the Advocate, and Propitiation for the Sins of all that repent; but to know alfo affuredly, that if we perfevere in the State we are in, he is our Advocate, and our Propitiation : that we are of the happy Number of those for whom he prays and intercedes, and of those whom, in Confequence of his Interceffion, his Father looks upon as interested in him, as Members of him, united WITH him, and IN him. And fo the Apostle feveral Times explains himself in this very Epistle: In the Verse next but one to my Text

-Hereby (faith he) know we that we are IN bim, ver. 5. And fo in the next ChapterHe that keepeth the Commandments dwelleth IN Christ, and Chrift IN him: And hereby we know that he abideth IN us, by the Spirit which he hath given us, Ch. iii. 24. And so again in the 4th Chapter Hereby know we, that we dwell in him, and he IN us, because he bath given us of his Spirit, Ch. iv. 13. By the Communication and Influence of which Holy Spirit, we shall farther know that we are

BORN

VI.

VI.

SERM. BORN of him : Which is another Phrase that St. John ufes to express this State: BORN of him, Ch. ii. 29. i. e. of Chrift, and born of GOD: Whofe Seed, he affures us, remaineth in every one that is fo born, to preserve him from Sin, Ch. iii. 9. and to be a perpetual Spring and Principle within him, of a new, holy and fpiritual Life: Agreeable to what another Apostle faith, If any Man be in Chrift, he is a new Creature, 2 Cor. v. 17. i. e. A Man who truly believes in Chrift, and has his Spirit, renounces all the carnal Deeds of the old Man, and lives up to that new Evangelical Law, which Chrift introduced; which is the only Test whereby we can know that we know Chrift, that we are born of him, and abide in him*: As will

appear from

my

II. SE

* The Reverend Mr. Whitefield in his Sermon on this Text (viz. 2 Cor. v. 17) makes it one of his principal Heads, to fhew " Why we must be new Creatures ere [i.e. before] we " can be in Chrift, or in order to be rightly in Chrift." Whereas it is obvious that St. Paul means, that a Man's becoming a new Creature, is a necessary Effect of his being in Chrift; and confequently that he must be in Chrift, before he can be a new Creature. If a Man could new create himself, or become a new Creature by his own Strength, before he was in Chrift; he would be tempted to believe, he had but little need of Chrift afterwards. Mr. Whitefield's Arguments on this Head could not fure be fuggefted by the Holy Ghoft, because the Holy Ghoft

VI.

II. SECOND Head, under which I am to SER M. enquire, what Means the Apoftle prescribes for the attaining fuch Knowledge.

And

That my Text exprefly tells us, is Keeping the
Commandments: Hereby we DO KNOW, or
are fure, that we know him, IF WE KEEP
HIS COMMANDMENTS.

But to speak diftinctly to this 2d Head, I muft fubdivide it into two Particulars: And enquire

Firft, Who may be faid in the Apostle's Senfe, to keep the Commandments: And

Secondly, What Affurance or Certainty the keeping the Commandments will yield, that we are born of GOD, that we know Christ, that He is in us, and we in HIM.

First I fhall enquire, Who may be said to keep the Commandments; or what the keeping his Commandments implies. Does it mean an abfolute and perfect Obedience, and to all his Commands? If fo; then are we never the nearer to the Knowledge of Christ as yet. For though a Man which does thofe Things

never fuggefts any thing that contradicts his own Word. Let Mr. Whitefield therefore take heed, what Spirit it is of which he boasts he has a double Portion given him*, and in the Demonftration of which he tells us he fpeaks †, with fuch great Enlargements, and irrefiftible Power +.

* Journal III, p. 15, + Ibid. p. 13.

+ Ibid. P. 24.

Shall

VI.

SER M. fhall live by them, Rom. x. 5. yet who is the Man, and where is he to be found, that ever thoroughly obferved them? Who can fay, 1 have made my Heart clean, I am pure from my Sin? Prov. xx. 9. This is a Question which the Wife-Man puts in one Place, and he himself anfwers it in another: There is not a juft Man upon Earth (faith he) that doth good, and finneth not, Ecclef. vii. 20. St. James affirms, that in many things we offend all, James And therefore, a few Verses before my Text, St. John warns us, that if we fay that we have no Sin, we deceive ourselves, and the Truth is not in us, Ch. i. 8. And again, if we say, that we have not finned, we make GOD a Liar, and his Word is not in us, ver. IO. From all which it follows, that an abfolute and perfect Obedience to GOD's Laws

iii. 2.

is not attainable in this Life: But that the best of Men, although they indulge not themselves in any Habit of Sin; yet fometimes offend, both in doing what they ought not, and alfo in omitting to do what they ought. And even the best Actions of the best Man alive have, it is to be feared, fome Allay of Infirmities and Imperfections in them.

All