1 John 2

You shall have a kingdom, and be as rich as heaven can make you. He who has the promise of an estate, after the expiring of a few years, though at present he has nothing to help himself, yet comforts himself with this, that shortly he shall have an estate come into his hands (1…

6. What great need there is to be settled, because indeed there are so many things to unsettle us, and make us fall away gradually from the truth. Seducers are abroad whose work is to draw away people from the principles of religion (1 John 2:26). These things have I written con…

Clemens Alexandrinus writes of a fish that has its heart in its belly; an emblem of Epicureans, their heart is in their belly; they mind nothing but indulging the sensual appetite; they do sacrificare lari, their belly is their god, and to this they pour drink-offerings: thus me…

Thus when Satan accuses the saints, or the justice of God lays anything to their charge, Christ shows his own wounds, and by virtue of his bloody sufferings, he answers all the demands and challenges of the law, and counter-works Satan's accusations. 3. Christ by his intercessio…

Knam kodsheca, The people of your holiness. The called of God are anointed with the consecrating oil of the Spirit (1 John 2:20). You have an anointing from the holy One.

Epiphanius says, That the looseness of some Christians in his time, made many of the heathen shun the company of the Christians, and would not be drawn to hear their sermons. So by our exact Bible-conversation we glorify God; though the main work of religion lies in the heart, y…

The new creature is God's temple, adorned with all the graces, which he will not suffer to be demolished. Riches take wings, kings' crowns tumble in the dust: in fact, some of the graces may cease; faith and hope shall be no more, but the new creature abides for ever (1 John 2:2…

Sanctification is the seed, assurance is the flower which grows out of it: assurance is a consequent of Sanctification. The saints of old had it (1 John 2:3): We know that we know him. 2 Timothy 1:12: I know whom I have believed; here was Sensus Fidei, the reflex act of faith; a…

God has both asserted it and promised it. 1. God has asserted it (1 John 3:9): His Seed remains in him (1 John 2:27): The anointing you have received of him abides in you. 2. As God has asserted it, so he has promised it: The Truth of God, the most brilliant Pearl of his Crown,…

This must needs cut the sinews of a Christian's endeavor, and be as the boring a hole in the vessel, to make all the wine of his joy run out. Were the Arminian doctrine true, how could the Apostle say, The seed of God remains in him (1 John 3:9), and the anointing of God abides…

God often gives the purse to the wicked, but the Spirit only to such as he intends to make his heirs. 1. Have we had the consecration of the Spirit? If we have not had the sealing work of the Spirit, have we had the healing work (1 John 2:20). You have an unction from the Holy O…

In heaven are fresh delights, sweetness without surfeit. And that which is the crown and zenith of heaven's happiness is, it is eternal (1 John 2:25). Were there but the least suspicion that this glory must cease, it would much eclipse, indeed embitter it; but it is eternal.

What are the promises for, but to encourage holiness? What is the sending of the Spirit into the world for, but to anoint us with the holy unction (1 John 2:20)? What are all afflictions for, but to make us partakers of God's holiness (Hebrews 12:10)?

God is wise, and he thinks this way fittest to make his mind known to us by writing; and such as will not be convinced by the Word shall be judged by the Word. The belief of the Scripture is of high importance: it is the belief of Scripture that will enable us to resist temptati…

He who is truly sanctified cannot fall from that state. Indeed seeming holiness may be lost; colors may wash off; Sanctification may suffer an eclipse (Revelation 2:4): You have left your first love; but true Sanctification is a blossom of eternity (1 John 2:27): The anointing w…

Where there is sanctity in the soul, there Holiness to the Lord is engraved upon our life; we are adorned with patience, humility, good works, and shine as lights in the world (Philippians 2:15). We carry Christ's picture in our conversations (1 John 2:6). O let us labor for thi…

(5.) The sinner under wrath has none to speak a good word for him. An elect person when he sins has one to intercede for him (1 John 2:1): We have an advocate, Jesus Christ the righteous. Christ will say, It is one of my friends, one whom I have shed my blood for; Father, pardon…

The essence of the Spirit is in heaven, and everywhere, but the influence of it is in the hearts of believers. This is that blessed Spirit who gives us the holy unction (1 John 2:20). Though Christ merits grace for us, it is the Holy Ghost works it in us.

Do we emulate and imitate the angels in sanctity? Do we labor to copy out Christ's life in ours (1 John 2:6)? It was a custom among the Macedonians on Alexander's birthday to wear his picture about their necks set with pearl and diamond: do we carry Christ's picture about us? an…

If a man were to climb up a steep rock, and had weights tied to his legs, it would hinder him from his ascent: Too many golden weights will hinder us from climbing that steep rock which leads to heaven; (Exodus 14:3) They are entangled in the land, the wilderness has shut them i…

(3.) God has given you grace. Grace is the rich embroidery and workmanship of the Holy Ghost; it is the sacred unction (1 John 2:27). The graces are a chain of pearl to adorn, and beds of spices which make us a sweet odor to God; grace is a distinguishing blessing.

To this end you may further consider that in men's hearts — though they be stony toward God — there are yet some sparks of fire which may be struck out by the word, by education, by the enlightening of conscience, and by working upon self-love in men. The sparks of this fire are…

Groan, sigh, sob, chatter as Hezekiah did (Isaiah 38:14), bewail yourself for your own unworthiness, and desire Christ to speak your requests for you and God to hear him for you. Christ is an advocate with the Father, and pleads no bad case, nor was ever cast in any suit he plea…

This is life eternal to know you the only God, and whom you have sent Jesus Christ (John 14:17). The world cannot receive the spirit of truth because it has neither seen him nor known him (1 John 2:23). Whoever denies the Son has not the Father.

He that is spiritual judges all things: As the soul in the eye is the cause why it sees; so the Spirit of God in the mind is the cause why it savingly understands. The anointing of the Holy Ghost is irradiating; it clears a Christian's eyesight (1 John 2:27). The same unction te…

Second, a mediator must be perfectly just, so that no sin be found in him at all. 1 John 2:1: If any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father — Jesus Christ the righteous. Now the saints in heaven, however fully sanctified by Christ, yet in themselves were conceived and born…

By this reason we should as often be baptized as we fall into any sin, which is absurd. Again Saint John says (1 John 2:19): They went out from us, but they were not of us: for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us. Where he takes it for granted, that such as…

And in what subject else is it that the seed of God remains incorruptible, or the word of God abides for ever? Or how else comes that saying to be performed, (1 John 2:17): He that does the will of God endures forever? Having therefore all these riches by it, and as complete (as…

They could not satisfy for themselves, and no creature could satisfy for them, therefore the only wise God finds out a wise [reconstructed: means] for such an end, as is the saving of the elect, in a way in which justice and mercy, or free grace, sweetly kiss each other, and in…

So, having shown how it comes to pass that Christ suffered and suffered so much, and was brought so low under suffering; and having told that he was engaged to pay the Elect's debt, and that the Father had laid their iniquities on him; lest any might think that the Father would…

And if his strokes were procured by our sins, then the desert of them was laid on him, and his sufferings behooved to be the curse that we elect sinners should have suffered; so when he is called their guarantor, it tells that he undertook their debt, and his laying down of his…

2. As it is the ground of their consolation; considering that they have a suffering Mediator, that has paid the price that was due by them; even such an one that knows what it was to be bruised with wrath, and is therefore very tender of, and compassionate towards souls that are…

I say, what could He do more than to offer up Himself a propitiatory sacrifice for your sins? In the gospel He calls upon you to make use of it, that by virtue of His sacrifice your peace may be made with God — as it is in (1 John 2:1-2): "If any man sin, we have an advocate wit…

And Chapter 42:3, that a bruised reed he will not break, and the smoking flax he will not quench. And it is said (1 John 2), if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father — and who is he? — Jesus Christ the righteous, righteous in the faithful managing of His trust by maki…

So, (1 Corinthians 1) we preach Christ crucified. (1 John 2) We have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous, and he is the propitiation for our sins, where He is held forth in His sufferings, as the propitiation that faith lays hold on. (John 3:14) As Moses lift…

It is said likewise (Hebrews 7:25), that He is able to save to the uttermost all that come to God by him, seeing he ever lives to make intercession for them. So (1 John 2:1), it's said, "If any man sin we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous"; and frequen…

1. In its universality, as to the persons to whom it's extended; not indeed to all men in the world, but to all that will make use of it; and though it were simply of universal extent to all men in the world, yet it would comfort none, but such as made use of it: and that vanity…

A second time is, when challenges are very fresh, when the charge of one's debt given in is long and large, and the law is severe in exacting, and justice in pressing hard, and the conscience cannot deny nor resist; and the man has nothing to pay his debt, and he is like to be d…

First, then these things presupposed are: 1. A conviction of our natural sinfulness, not only of the distance that is between God and us, but of the quarrel and enmity, and that by our deserving, we may justly have the door of access to God shut upon us; that is what puts the si…

The seed of God abides in us (1 John 3:9). The anointing that teaches all things, [illegible], remains in you (1 John 2:27). And (Ezekiel 36:26) I will give you a heart of flesh, and I will put my Spirit [illegible] in the inner part, or in the midst of you.

2. To the sight Christ is a delightful thing; to behold God, in Christ, is a changing sight. 2 Corinthians 3:18. But 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 (Ep…

Now [reconstructed: it] is not a magazine and treasure of redemption to remain within the corners of Christ's heart and his bowels, but it is the mystery of the New Covenant to be made out to the world of Gentiles, heirs of the same promise. This heritage Christ never purchased…

Thus sins after the state of grace may be said more eminently to be taken away by that part of his priesthood which he now performs in heaven. That place also in 1 John 2:1–2 seems to make this the great end of intercession: 'If any man sin' (that is, if any of the company of be…

Reason 1. So it is in the text; Why by these Epistles? First, because John in this Epistle does set before you where eternal life is to be had, as the verse before the text, he in sundry places sets forth the Lord Jesus Christ, as the life which we are to receive from the Father…

This shows you, that a man that shall have occasion to trade with his faith, and to live and walk by his faith, he shall have much need of the growth and increase of it, if it be but for the healing of offences. Many occasions and temptations may meet with us in the world, tempt…

And what makes him more confident of speaking, and acceptance, than this principle, that he knows he is the child of such a father as is willing, and able to help him? Secondly, another principle in this epistle tending to build up this certainty, and confidence, is not only our…

He assaulted Christ by the same kind of temptations by which usually he assaults us. The kinds of temptations are reckoned up (1 John 2:16): The lusts of the flesh, the lust of the eye, and the pride of life. And (James 3:15): This wisdom descends not from above, but is earthly,…

2. A mediatorial sacrifice (Isaiah 53:3): 'When you shall make his soul an offering for sin' (Ephesians 5:2): 'Christ has loved us, and has given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet smelling savor.' He has undertaken the expiation of our sins, and the p…

Wealth has its incident cares, and honor its tortures; and all pleasures here are but bitter sweets: there is a worm that feeds on our gourd, and will in time wither it. At last death comes and then the lust of the world is gone (1 John 2:17), the world passes away and the lust…

Whoever is a lover of the world is presumed to be a professed enemy of God (James 4:4): "Know you not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God; whoever will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God." (1 John 2:15): "If any man love the world, the love of the fathe…