Latest / Philosophy and Faith / 12 - The Witness of our own Spirit - Sermons on Several Occasions

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12 - The Witness of our own Spirit - Sermons on Several Occasions · Philosophy and Faith

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  Speaker 1: Sermon twelve. The witness of our own spirit. This is
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  Speaker 1: our rejoicing, the testimony of our conscience, that in simplicity
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  Speaker 1: and godly sincerity, not with fleshly wisdom, but by the
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  Speaker 1: grace of God, we have had our conversation in the
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  Speaker 1: world Tewod Corinthians one, verse twelve. Such is the voice
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  Speaker 1: of every true believer in Christ, so long as he
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  Speaker 1: abides in faith and love. He that followeth me saith.
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  Speaker 1: Our Lord walketh not in darkness, And while he hath
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  Speaker 1: the light, he rejoiceth therein. As he hath received the
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  Speaker 1: Lord Jesus Christ, so he walketh in him. And while
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  Speaker 1: he walketh in him, the exhortation of the apostle takes
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  Speaker 1: place in his soul day by day. Rejoice in the
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  Speaker 1: Lord always and again. I say, rejoice, but that we
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  Speaker 1: may not build our house up on the sand, lest
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  Speaker 1: when the rains descend, and the winds blow, and the
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  Speaker 1: floods arise and beat it up, it fall, and great
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  Speaker 1: be the fall thereof. I intend in the following discourse
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  Speaker 1: to show what is the nature and ground of a
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  Speaker 1: Christian's joy. We know in general it is that happy peace,
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  Speaker 1: that calm satisfaction of spirit, which arises from such a
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  Speaker 1: testimony of his conscience as is here described by the Apostle.
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  Speaker 1: But in order to understand this the more thoroughly, it
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  Speaker 1: will be requisite to weigh all his words. Whence will
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  Speaker 1: easily appear both what we are to understand by conscience
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  Speaker 1: and what by the testimony thereof, And also how he
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  Speaker 1: that hath this testimony rejoiceth evermore. And first, what are
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  Speaker 1: we to understand by conscience? What is the meaning of
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  Speaker 1: this word that is in everyone's mouth? One would imagine
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  Speaker 1: it was an excas exceedingly difficult thing to discover this
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  Speaker 1: when we consider how large and numerous volumes have been
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  Speaker 1: from time to time wrote on this subject, and how
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  Speaker 1: all the treasures of ancient and modern learning have been
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  Speaker 1: ransacked in order to explain it. And yet it is
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  Speaker 1: to be feared it has not received much light from
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  Speaker 1: all those elaborate inquiries. Rather, have not most of those
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  Speaker 1: writers puzzled the cause, darkening counsel by words without knowledge,
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  Speaker 1: perplexing a subject plain in itself and easy to be
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  Speaker 1: understood for set aside but hard words, and every man
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  Speaker 1: of an honest heart will soon understand the thing God
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  Speaker 1: has made us thinking beings capable of perceiving what is present,
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  Speaker 1: and of reflecting or looking back on what is past.
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  Speaker 1: In particular, we are capable of perceiving whatsoever passes in
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  Speaker 1: our own hearts or lives, of knowing whatsoever we feel
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  Speaker 1: or do, and that either while it passes or when
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  Speaker 1: it is passed. This we mean when we say man
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  Speaker 1: is a conscious being, he hath a consciousness or inward perception,
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  Speaker 1: both of things present and past, relating to himself, of
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  Speaker 1: his own tempers and outward behavior. But what we usually
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  Speaker 1: term conscience implies somewhat more than this. It is not
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  Speaker 1: barely the knowledge of our present or the remembrance of
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  Speaker 1: our preceding life. To remember, to bear witness, either of
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  Speaker 1: past or present things, is only one and the least
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  Speaker 1: office of conscience. Its main business is to excuse or accuse,
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  Speaker 1: to approve or disapprove, to acquit or condemn. Some latter writers, indeed,
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  Speaker 1: have given a new name to this, and have chose
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  Speaker 1: to style it a moral sense. But the old word
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  Speaker 1: seems preferable to the new. Were it only on this
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  Speaker 1: account that it is more common and familiar among men,
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  Speaker 1: and therefore easier to be understood, and to Christians it
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  Speaker 1: is undeniably preferable on another account, also namely because it
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  Speaker 1: is scriptural, because it is the word which the wisdom
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  Speaker 1: of God hath chose to use in the inspired writings,
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  Speaker 1: and according to the meaning wherein it is generally used there,
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  Speaker 1: particularly in the epistles of Saint Paul. We may understand
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  Speaker 1: by conscience of faculty or power implanted by God in
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  Speaker 1: every soul that comes into the world of perceiving what
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  Speaker 1: is right or wrong in his own heart or life,
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  Speaker 1: in his tempers, thoughts, words, and actions. But what is
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  Speaker 1: the rule whereby men are to judge of right and wrong,
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  Speaker 1: whereby their conscience is to be directed the rule of Heathens,
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  Speaker 1: as the Apostle teaches. Elsewhere is the law written in
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  Speaker 1: their hearts by the finger of God, their conscience also
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  Speaker 1: bearing witness whether they walk by this rule or not,
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  Speaker 1: and their thoughts the mean while accusing or even excusing,
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  Speaker 1: a quitting defending them hey Kai apologummanon Romans two, verses
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  Speaker 1: fourteen and fifteen. But the Christian rule of right and
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  Speaker 1: wrong is the word of God. The writings of the
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  Speaker 1: Old and New Testament, all that the prophets and the
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  Speaker 1: holy men of old wrote, as they were moved by
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  Speaker 1: the Holy Ghost, all that scripture which was given by
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  Speaker 1: inspiration of God, and which is indeed profitable for doctrine
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  Speaker 1: or teaching the whole will of God, for reproof of
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  Speaker 1: what is contrary, there too, for correction or error, and
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  Speaker 1: for instruction or training us up in righteousness. Two Timothy three,
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  Speaker 1: verse sixteen. This is a lantern unto a Christian's feet,
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  Speaker 1: and a light in all his paths. This alone he
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  Speaker 1: receives as his rule of right or wrong, of whatever
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  Speaker 1: is really good or evil. He esteems nothing good, but
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  Speaker 1: what is here enjoined, either directly or by plain consequence.
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  Speaker 1: He accounts nothing evil, but what is here forbidden, either
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  Speaker 1: in terms or by undeniable inference. Whatever the scripture neither
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  Speaker 1: forbids nor enjoins, either directly or by plain consequence, he
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  Speaker 1: believes to be of an indifferent nature, to be in
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  Speaker 1: itself neither good nor evil, this being the whole and
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  Speaker 1: sole outward rule. Whereby his conscience is to be directed
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  Speaker 1: in all things. And if it be directed thereby, in fact,
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  Speaker 1: then hath he the answer of a good conscience toward God.
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  Speaker 1: A good conscience is what is elsewhere termed by the
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  Speaker 1: apostle a conscience void of offense. So what he at
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  Speaker 1: one time expresses, thus, I have lived in all good
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  Speaker 1: conscience before God until this day Acts twenty three, verse one,
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  Speaker 1: he denotes at another by that expression, ye're in do
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  Speaker 1: I exercise myself to have always a conscience void of
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  Speaker 1: offense toward God and toward men, Acts twenty four, verse sixteen. Now,
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  Speaker 1: in order to this, there is absolutely required, first a
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  Speaker 1: right understanding of the Word of God, or his holy
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  Speaker 1: and acceptable and perfect will concerning us as it is
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  Speaker 1: revealed therein, for it is impossible we should walk by
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  Speaker 1: a rule if we do not know what it means.
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  Speaker 1: There is secondly required, which how few have attained a
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  Speaker 1: true knowledge of ourselves, a knowledge both of our hearts
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  Speaker 1: and lives, or our inward tempers and outward conversation. Seeing
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  Speaker 1: if we know them not, it is not possible that
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  Speaker 1: we should compare them with our rule. There is required. Thirdly,
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  Speaker 1: an agreement of our hearts and lives, or our tempers
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  Speaker 1: and conversation, or our thoughts and words, and work with
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  Speaker 1: that rule with the written word of God. For without this,
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  Speaker 1: if we have any conscience at all, it can be
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  Speaker 1: only an evil conscience. There is fourthly required an inward
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  Speaker 1: perception of this agreement with our rule, and this habitual perception,
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  Speaker 1: this inward consciousness itself is properly a good conscience, or
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  Speaker 1: in other phrase of the apostle, a conscience void of
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  Speaker 1: offense toward God and toward men. But whoever desires to
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  Speaker 1: have a conscience thus void of offense, let him see
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  Speaker 1: that he lay the right foundation. Let him remember other
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  Speaker 1: foundation of this can no man lay than that which
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  Speaker 1: is laid, even Jesus Christ. And let him also be
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  Speaker 1: mindful that no man buildeth on him, but by a
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  Speaker 1: living faith, that no man is a partaker of Christ
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  Speaker 1: until he can clearly testify the life which I now live.
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  Speaker 1: I live by faith in the Son of God, in
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  Speaker 1: Him who is now revealed in my heart, who loved
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  Speaker 1: me and gave himself for me. Faith alone is that evidence,
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  Speaker 1: that conviction, that demonstration of things invisible, whereby the eyes
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  Speaker 1: of our understanding being opened and divine light poured in
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  Speaker 1: upon them, we see the wondrous things of God's law,
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  Speaker 1: the excellency and purity of it, the height and depth,
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  Speaker 1: and length and breadth thereof, and of every commandment contained therein.
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  Speaker 1: It is by faith that beholding the light of the
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  Speaker 1: glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ, we
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  Speaker 1: perceive as in a glass all that is in ourselves,
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  Speaker 1: yea the inmost motions of our souls. And by this
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  Speaker 1: alone can that blessed love of God be shed abroad
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  Speaker 1: in our hearts, which enables us so to love one
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  Speaker 1: another as Christ loved us. By this is that gracious
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  Speaker 1: promise ful fit unto all the Israel of God. I
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  Speaker 1: will put my laws into their mind and write or
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  Speaker 1: engrave them in their hearts Hebrews eight, verse ten. Hereby
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  Speaker 1: producing in their souls an entire agreement with His Holy
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  Speaker 1: imperfect law, and bringing into captivity every thought to the
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  Speaker 1: obedience of Christ. And as an evil tree cannot bring
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  Speaker 1: forth good fruit, so a good tree cannot bring forth
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  Speaker 1: evil fruit. As the heart therefore of a believer, so
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  Speaker 1: likewise his life is thoroughly conformed to the rule of
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  Speaker 1: God's commandments in a consciousness, whereof we can give glory
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  Speaker 1: to God and say with the apostle, this is our
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  Speaker 1: rejoicing the testimony of our conscience, that in simplicity and
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  Speaker 1: godly sincerity, not with fleshly wisdom. But by the grace
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  Speaker 1: of God we have had our conversation in the world.
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  Speaker 1: We have had our conversation. The Apostle in the Original
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  Speaker 1: expresses this by one single word and estaphemen. But the
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  Speaker 1: meaning thereof is exceeding broad, taking in our whole deportment.
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  Speaker 1: Yea every inward as well as outward circumstance, whether relating
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  Speaker 1: to our soul or body. It includes every motion of
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  Speaker 1: our heart, of our tongue, of our hands and bodily members.
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  Speaker 1: It extends to all our actions and words, to the
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  Speaker 1: employment of all our powers and faculties, to the manner
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  Speaker 1: of using every talent we have received, with respect either
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  Speaker 1: to God or man, we have had our conversation in
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  Speaker 1: the world, even in the world of the ungodly, not
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  Speaker 1: only among the children of God that were comparatively a
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  Speaker 1: little thing, but among the children of the devil, among
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  Speaker 1: those that lie in wickedness. En toy ponturoi in the
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  Speaker 1: wicked one? What a world is this? How thoroughly impregnated
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  Speaker 1: with the spirit, It continued breaths, as our God is
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  Speaker 1: good and doeth good. So the God of this world
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  Speaker 1: and all his children are evil and do evil. So
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  Speaker 1: far as they are suffered to all the children of God.
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  Speaker 1: Like their father, they are always lying in wait or
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  Speaker 1: walking about, seeking whom they may devour, using fraud or force,
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  Speaker 1: secret wiles, or open violence, to destroy those who are
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  Speaker 1: not of the world, continually warring against our souls, and
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  Speaker 1: by old or new weapons and devices of every kind,
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  Speaker 1: laboring to bring them back into the snare of the devil,
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  Speaker 1: into the broad road that leadeth to destruction. We have
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  Speaker 1: had our whole conversation in such a world in simplicity
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  Speaker 1: and godly sincerity. First, in simplicity, this is what our
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  Speaker 1: Lord recommends. Under the name of a single eye, the
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  Speaker 1: light of the body, Saith, he is the eye. If
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  Speaker 1: therefore thine eye be single, the whole body shall be
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  Speaker 1: full of light. The meaning whereof is this what the
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  Speaker 1: eye is to the body, That the intention is to
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  Speaker 1: all the words and actions. If therefore this eye of
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  Speaker 1: thy soul be single, all thy actions and conversation shall
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  Speaker 1: be full of light, of the light of Heaven, of
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  Speaker 1: love and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost. We
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  Speaker 1: are then simple of heart when the eye of our
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  Speaker 1: mind is singly fixed on God, when in all things
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  Speaker 1: we aim at God alone as our God, our portion,
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  Speaker 1: our strength, our happiness, our exceeding great reward, our all
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  Speaker 1: in time and eternity. This is simplicity when a steady view,
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  Speaker 1: a single intention of promoting His glory, of doing and
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  Speaker 1: suffering His blessed will, runs through our whole soul, fills
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  Speaker 1: our heart, and is the constant spring of all our thoughts,
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  Speaker 1: to say, desires and purposes, we have had our conversation
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  Speaker 1: in the world. Secondly, in godly sincerity. The difference between
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  Speaker 1: simplicity and sincerity seems to be chiefly this simplicity regards
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  Speaker 1: the intention itself, sincerity the execution of it, and this
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  Speaker 1: sincerity relates not barely to our words but to our
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  Speaker 1: whole conversation. As described above. It is not here to
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  Speaker 1: be understood in that narrow sense wherein Saint Paul himself
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  Speaker 1: sometimes uses it for speaking the truth or abstaining from guile,
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  Speaker 1: from craft and dissimulation, but in a more extensive meaning
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  Speaker 1: as actually hitting the mark which we aim at by simplicity. Accordingly,
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  Speaker 1: it implies in this place that we do in fact
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  Speaker 1: speak and do all to the glory of God, that
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  Speaker 1: all our words are not only pointed at this but
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  Speaker 1: actually conducive there too, that all our actions flow on
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  Speaker 1: in an even stream, uniformly subservient to this greater end,
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  Speaker 1: and that in our whole lives we are moving straight
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  Speaker 1: toward God, and that continually walking steadily on in the
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  Speaker 1: highway of holiness, in the paths of justice, mercy, and truth.
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  Speaker 1: This sincerity is termed by the apostle godly sincerity, or
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  Speaker 1: the sincerity of God Eli Crenii theo to prevent our
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  Speaker 1: mistaking or confounding it with the sincerity of the heathens,
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  Speaker 1: for they had also a kind of sincerity among them,
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  Speaker 1: for which they professed no small veneration. Likewise, to denote
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  Speaker 1: the object and end of this as of every Christian virtue,
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  Speaker 1: seeing whatever does not ultimately tend to God sinks among
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  Speaker 1: the beggarly elements of the world. By styling it the
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  Speaker 1: sincerity of God, he also points out the author of it,
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  Speaker 1: the Father of Lights, from whom every good and perfect
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  Speaker 1: gift descendeth, which is still more clearly declared in the
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  Speaker 1: following words, not with fleshly wisdom, but by the grace
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  Speaker 1: of God, not with fleshly wisdom, as if he had said,
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  Speaker 1: we cannot thus converse in the world by any natural
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  Speaker 1: strength of understanding. Neither by any naturally acquired knowledge or wisdom.
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  Speaker 1: We cannot gain the simplicity or practice this sincerity by
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  Speaker 1: the force either of good sense, good nature, or good breeding.
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  Speaker 1: It overshoots all our native courage and resolution, as well
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  Speaker 1: as all our precepts of philosophy. The power of custom
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  Speaker 1: is not able to train us up to this, nor
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  Speaker 1: the most exquisite rules of human education. Neither could I,
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  Speaker 1: Paul ever attain hereto, notwithstanding all the advantages I enjoyed,
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  Speaker 1: so long as I was in the flesh, in my
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  Speaker 1: natural state, and pursued it only by flesh natural wisdom.
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  Speaker 1: And yet surely if any man could Paul himself might
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  Speaker 1: have attained thereto by that wisdom. For we can hardly
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  Speaker 1: conceive any who was more highly favored with all the
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  Speaker 1: gifts both of nature and education. Besides his natural abilities,
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  Speaker 1: probably not inferior to those of any person then upon
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  Speaker 1: the earth, he had all the benefits of learning, studying
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  Speaker 1: at the University of Tarsus, afterwards brought up at the
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  Speaker 1: feet of Gamaliel, a person of the greatest account both
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  Speaker 1: for knowledge and integrity, that was then in the whole
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  Speaker 1: Jewish nation, and he had all the possible advantages of
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  Speaker 1: religious education, being a Pharisee, the son of a Pharisee,
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  Speaker 1: trained up in the very straightest sect or profession, distinguished
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  Speaker 1: from all others by a more eminent strictness. And herein
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  Speaker 1: he had profited above many others who were his equals
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  Speaker 1: in years, being more abundantly zealous of whatever he thought
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  Speaker 1: would please God, and as touching the righteousness of the
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  Speaker 1: law blameless. But it could not be that he should
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  Speaker 1: hereby attain this simplicity and godly sincerity. It was all
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  Speaker 1: but lost labor in a deep piercing sense of which
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  Speaker 1: he was at length constrained to cry out the things
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  Speaker 1: which were gained to me those I counted loss for
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  Speaker 1: the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord
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  Speaker 1: Philippians three, Verses seven and eight. It could not be that, ever,
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  Speaker 1: he should attain to this but by the excellent knowledge
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  Speaker 1: of Jesus Christ our Lord, or by the grace of God.
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  Speaker 1: Another expression of nearly the same import by the grace
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  Speaker 1: of God is sometimes to be understood that free love,
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  Speaker 1: that unmerited mercy by which I am a sinner, through
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  Speaker 1: the merits of Christ, am now reconciled to God. But
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  Speaker 1: in this place it rather means that power of God,
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  Speaker 1: the Holy Ghost, which worketh in us both to will
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  Speaker 1: and to do of His good pes pleasure. As soon
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  Speaker 1: as ever the grace of God in the former sense,
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  Speaker 1: his pardoning love is manifested to our souls. The grace
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  Speaker 1: of God in the latter sense, the power of His
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  Speaker 1: Spirit takes place therein. And now we can perform through
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  Speaker 1: God what to man was impossible. Now we can order
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  Speaker 1: our conversation art We can do all things in the
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  Speaker 1: light and power of that love through Christ which strengtheneth us.
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  Speaker 1: We now have the testimony of our conscience, which we
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  Speaker 1: could never have by fleshly wisdom. That in simplicity and
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  Speaker 1: godly sincerity we have our conversation in the world. This
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  Speaker 1: is properly the ground of a Christian's joy. We may
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  Speaker 1: now therefore readily conceive how he that hath this testimony
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  Speaker 1: in himself rejoiceth evermore my soul, May he say, doth
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  Speaker 1: magnify the Lord, and my spirit rejoiceth in God, my Savior.
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  Speaker 1: I rejoice in Him who, of his own unmerited love,
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  Speaker 1: of his own free and tender mercy, Hath called me
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  Speaker 1: into this state of salvation, wherein through his power I
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  Speaker 1: now stand. I rejoice because his spirit beareth witness to
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  Speaker 1: my spirit that I am bought with the blood of
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  Speaker 1: the Lamb, and that believing in Him, I am a
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  Speaker 1: member of Christ, a child of God, and an inheritor
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  Speaker 1: of the Kingdom of Heaven. I rejoice because the sense
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  Speaker 1: of God's love to me Hath by the same spirit
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  Speaker 1: wrought in me to love Him and to love for
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  Speaker 1: his sake, every child of man, every soul that Hath made.
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  Speaker 1: I rejoice because He gives me to feel in myself
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  Speaker 1: the mind that was in Christ, simplicity, a single eye
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  Speaker 1: to Him in every motion of my heart, power always
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  Speaker 1: to fix the loving eye of my soul on Him
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  Speaker 1: who loved me and gave himself for me to aim
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  Speaker 1: at Him alone, at his glorious will. In all I think,
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  Speaker 1: or speak, or do, desiring nothing more but God, crucifying
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  Speaker 1: the flesh with its affections and luss setting my affections
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  Speaker 1: on things above, not on things of the earth. Holiness,
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  Speaker 1: a recovery of the image of God, a renewal of
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  Speaker 1: soul after His likeness and godly sincerity, directing all my
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  Speaker 1: words and works, so as to conduce to His glory.
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  Speaker 1: In this I likewise rejoice yea, and will rejoice because
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  Speaker 1: my conscience beareth me witness in the Holy Ghost, by
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  Speaker 1: the light He continually pours in upon it that walk
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  Speaker 1: worthy of the vocation. Wherewith I am called that I
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  Speaker 1: abstain from all appearance of evil, fleeing from sin as
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  Speaker 1: from the face of a serpent, that as I have opportunity,
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  Speaker 1: I do all possible good in every kind to all men,
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  Speaker 1: that I follow my Lord in all my steps and
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  Speaker 1: do what is acceptable in his sight. I rejoice because
• 21:57
  Speaker 1: I both see and feel, through the inspiration of God's
• 22:00
  Speaker 1: Holy Spirit, that all my works are wrought in Him, yea,
• 22:04
  Speaker 1: and that it is he who worketh all my works
• 22:07
  Speaker 1: in me. I rejoice in seeing through the light of
• 22:10
  Speaker 1: God which shines in my heart, that I have power
• 22:14
  Speaker 1: to walk in His ways, and that through his grace
• 22:18
  Speaker 1: I turn not therefrom to the right hand or to
• 22:21
  Speaker 1: the left. Such is the ground and the nature of
• 22:25
  Speaker 1: that joy, whereby an adult Christian rejoiceth evermore. And from
• 22:29
  Speaker 1: all this we may easily infer first that this is
• 22:33
  Speaker 1: not a natural joy. It does not arise from any
• 22:37
  Speaker 1: natural cause, not from any sudden flow of spirits. This
• 22:41
  Speaker 1: may give a transient start of joy, but the Christian
• 22:45
  Speaker 1: rejoiceth always it cannot be owing to bodily health or ease,
• 22:49
  Speaker 1: to strength and soundness of constitution, For it is equally
• 22:53
  Speaker 1: strong in sickness and pain, yea, perhaps far stronger than before.
• 22:59
  Speaker 1: Many Christians have never experienced any joy to be compared
• 23:02
  Speaker 1: with that which then filled their soul when the body
• 23:06
  Speaker 1: was well nigh worn out with pain or consumed away
• 23:09
  Speaker 1: with pining sickness. Least of all can it be ascribed
• 23:13
  Speaker 1: to outward prosperity, to the favor of men, or plenty
• 23:16
  Speaker 1: of worldly goods. For then, chiefly when their faith has
• 23:20
  Speaker 1: been tried, as with fire, by all manner of outward afflictions,
• 23:24
  Speaker 1: have the children of God rejoiced in Him whom unseen
• 23:27
  Speaker 1: they loved, even with joy unspeakable. And never surely did
• 23:32
  Speaker 1: men rejoice like those who were used as the filth
• 23:35
  Speaker 1: and off scoring of the world, who wandered to and
• 23:39
  Speaker 1: fro being in want of all things, in hunger and cold,
• 23:42
  Speaker 1: in nakedness, who had trials not only of cruel mockings,
• 23:46
  Speaker 1: but moreover of bonds and imprisonments, yea who at last
• 23:51
  Speaker 1: counted not their lives dearer unto themselves, so they might
• 23:54
  Speaker 1: finish their course with joy. From the preceding considerations, we
• 23:59
  Speaker 1: may secondly infer that the joy of a Christian does
• 24:02
  Speaker 1: not arise from any blindness of conscience, from his not
• 24:06
  Speaker 1: being able to discern good from evil, so far from
• 24:10
  Speaker 1: it that he was an utter stranger to this joy
• 24:13
  Speaker 1: till the eyes of his understanding were opened. That he
• 24:17
  Speaker 1: knew it, not until he had spiritual senses fitted to
• 24:21
  Speaker 1: discern spiritual good and evil. And now the eye of
• 24:24
  Speaker 1: his soul waxeth not dim. He was never so sharp
• 24:28
  Speaker 1: sighted before. He has so quick a perception of the
• 24:31
  Speaker 1: smallest things, as is quite amazing to the natural man.
• 24:35
  Speaker 1: As a moat is visible in the sunbeam, so to
• 24:38
  Speaker 1: him who is walking in the light in the beams
• 24:41
  Speaker 1: of the uncreated sun, every moat of sin is visible.
• 24:45
  Speaker 1: Nor does he close the eyes of his conscience anymore
• 24:49
  Speaker 1: that sleep is departed from him. His soul is always
• 24:52
  Speaker 1: broad awake, no more slumber or folding of the hands
• 24:56
  Speaker 1: to rest. He is always standing on the tower and
• 24:59
  Speaker 1: hearkening what his Lord will say concerning him, and always
• 25:03
  Speaker 1: rejoicing in this very thing, in seeing Him that is invisible.
• 25:09
  Speaker 1: Neither does the joy of a Christian arise. Thirdly, from
• 25:12
  Speaker 1: any dulness or callousness of conscience. A kind of joy,
• 25:16
  Speaker 1: it is true, may arise from this in those whose
• 25:19
  Speaker 1: foolish hearts are darkened, whose heart is callous, unfeeling, dull
• 25:24
  Speaker 1: of sense, and consequently without spiritual understanding. Because of their senseless,
• 25:30
  Speaker 1: unfeeling hearts, they may rejoice even in committing sin, And
• 25:34
  Speaker 1: this they may probably call liberty, which is indeed mere
• 25:38
  Speaker 1: drunkenness of soul, a fatal numbness of spirit, the stupid
• 25:42
  Speaker 1: insensibility of a sacred conscience. On the contrary, a Christian
• 25:48
  Speaker 1: has the most exquisite sensibility, such as he could not
• 25:51
  Speaker 1: have conceived before. He never had such a tenderness of
• 25:55
  Speaker 1: conscience as he has had since the love of God
• 25:58
  Speaker 1: has reigned in his heart. This also is his glory
• 26:01
  Speaker 1: and joy that God hath heard his daily prayer, Oh,
• 26:07
  Speaker 1: that my tender soul might fly the first abhorred approach
• 26:12
  Speaker 1: of ill, quick as the apple of an eye, the
• 26:16
  Speaker 1: slightest touch of sin to feel. To conclude, Christian's joy
• 26:22
  Speaker 1: is joy in obedience, joy in loving God and keeping
• 26:27
  Speaker 1: His commandments. And yet not in keeping them, as if
• 26:30
  Speaker 1: we were thereby to fulfill the terms of the covenant
• 26:33
  Speaker 1: of works, as if by any works or righteousness of
• 26:36
  Speaker 1: ours we were to procure pardon and acceptance with God.
• 26:41
  Speaker 1: Not so we are already pardoned and accepted through the
• 26:45
  Speaker 1: mercy of God in Jesus Christ. Not as if we
• 26:48
  Speaker 1: were by our own obedience to procure life life from
• 26:52
  Speaker 1: the death of sin. This also we have already, through
• 26:55
  Speaker 1: the grace of God us hath he quickened who were
• 26:59
  Speaker 1: dead in sins. And now we are alive to God
• 27:03
  Speaker 1: through Jesus Christ, our Lord. But we rejoice in walking
• 27:07
  Speaker 1: according to the covenant of grace, in holy love and
• 27:11
  Speaker 1: happy obedience. We rejoice in knowing that being justified through
• 27:16
  Speaker 1: His grace. We have not received that grace of God
• 27:19
  Speaker 1: in vain, that God having freely not for the sake
• 27:23
  Speaker 1: of our willing or running, but through the blood of
• 27:25
  Speaker 1: the Lamb reconciled us to himself. We run in the
• 27:29
  Speaker 1: strength which He hath given us the way of his commandments.
• 27:33
  Speaker 1: He hath girded us with strength unto the war. And
• 27:36
  Speaker 1: we gladly fight the good fight of faith. We rejoice
• 27:40
  Speaker 1: through Him who liveth in our hearts by faith to
• 27:43
  Speaker 1: lay hold of eternal life. This is our rejoicing that
• 27:47
  Speaker 1: as our Father worketh hitherto so not by our own
• 27:51
  Speaker 1: might or wisdom, but through the power of His Spirit,
• 27:53
  Speaker 1: freely given in Christ Jesus, we also work the works
• 27:57
  Speaker 1: of God. And may He work any us whatsoever is
• 28:01
  Speaker 1: well pleasing in His sight, to whom be the praise
• 28:04
  Speaker 1: forever and ever. It may easily be observed that the
• 28:08
  Speaker 1: preceding discourse describes the experience of those that are strong
• 28:12
  Speaker 1: in faith, but hereby those that are weak in faith
• 28:16
  Speaker 1: may be discouraged to prevent which the following discourse may
• 28:21
  Speaker 1: be of use. End of Section twelve.