1 John 3

- 1. It implies our seeing of God. - 2. Our loving of God. - 3. God's loving of us. 1. The enjoying of God implies our seeing of God (1 John 3:2). We shall see him as he is: Here we see him as he is not; not mutable, mortal; there as he is.

Answ. Sin is any want of conformity to, or transgression of the Law of God. Sin is a transgression of the law (1 John 3:4). Of sin in general.

Question 3. From where is it that true grace cannot but grow? Response 1. It is proper for grace to grow, it is semen manens, the seed of God (1 John 3:9). It is the nature of seed to grow; grace does not lie in the heart, as a stone in the earth, but as seed in the earth, which…

They have angels for their life-guard (Hebrews 1:14). They are of the blood-royal of heaven (1 John 3:9). The Scripture has set forth their spiritual heraldry; they have their escutcheon or coat-armor: Sometimes they bear the lion for their courage (Proverbs 28:1), sometimes the…

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,…

Use 1. See the excellency of grace, it perseveres: Other things are but [in non-Latin alphabet], for a season; health and riches are sweet, but they are but for a season, but grace is a blossom of eternity. The seed of God remains (1 John 3:9). Grace may suffer an eclipse, not a…

Oh be sure to keep a good conscience; this is the best way to stand with boldness at the Day of Judgment. The voice of conscience is the voice of God; if conscience does upon just grounds acquit us, God will acquit us (1 John 3:21). If our heart condemn us not, then have we conf…

Though it is true, the curse causeless shall not come — it is not in man's power to make another cursed — yet to wish a curse is a fearful sin. If to hate our brother be murder (1 John 3:15), then to curse him, which is the highest degree of hatred, must needs be murder. To use…

Oh be not venomous like the serpent. Malice is mental murder, you may kill a man and never touch him (1 John 3:15). Whoever hates his brother is a murderer.

2. God is a Father by election, having chosen a certain number to be his children, whom he will entail heaven upon; Ephesians 1:4. [in non-Latin alphabet], he has chosen us in him. 3. God is a Father by special grace; he consecrates the elect by his Spirit, and infuses a superna…

Happiness is the quintessence of holiness. 6. Sanctification is an abiding thing (1 John 3:9): His seed remains in him. He who is truly sanctified cannot fall from that state.

(2.) Murder is committed with the mind. Malice is mental murder (1 John 3:15): Whoever hates his brother is a murderer. To malign another, and wish evil against him in the heart, is a murdering him.

Covet grace. Grace is the best blessing; it is the seed of God (1 John 3:9). The angels' glory: covet heaven.

If the pavement of it be bespangled with so many bright shining lights, glorious stars, what is the Kingdom itself? 1 John 3:2. It does not yet appear what we shall be. This Kingdom exceeds our faith.

There is a party of grace in the heart, true to Christ, but sometimes it may be over-voted by corruption, and then a Christian yields; it is sad thus to yield to the tempter, but yet let not a child of God be wholly discouraged, and say there is no hope, let me pour in some balm…

And this plainly affirms his pre-existence to that assumption of our nature, and the unity of his person in it being so assumed. 1 John 3:16. Hereby perceive we the love of God, because he laid down his life for us.

4. It is yet farther objected, that if Christ made satisfaction for sin, then he did it either as God, or as Man, or as God and Man. Answ. (1.) As God and Man (Acts 20:28): God redeemed his Church with his own blood (1 John 3:16); herein was manifest the love of God, that he lai…

Chap. 3:18, 19. But Christ also has once suffered for sinners, being put to death in the flesh, but quickned by the Spirit; by which also he went and preached to the spirits in prison which sometimes were disobedient, when once the long suffering of God waited in the dayes of No…

1. The imperfection of man's righteousness; though he be a believer, and consequently sanctified by the Spirit of God. Evangelically indeed he is looked upon as one that cannot sin (1 John 3:9): He cannot sin because he is born of God. But yet at the same time legally, he does n…

2. Here also we may be informed, that a man may be without sin in respect of justification, and yet have a great deal of the remainders of sin in him, in respect of sanctification. It has offered matter of no little perplexity to serious souls, when they read such texts of Scrip…

They have not only liberty thus to admonish one another, but it is their express and indispensable duty so to do. The neglect whereof is interpreted by God to be hatred of our brother; such as wherewith the love of God is inconsistent (Leviticus 19:17; 1 John 4:20; 1 John 3:15).…

Q. If these things be vouchsafed to believers in this life, what shall they have in the life to come? A. Unspeakable glory and happiness in the immediate fruition of communion with God and Christ to all eternity (Colossians 3:4; 1 John 3:2; Hebrews 12:23; 1 Corinthians 15:28). Q…

God may give Satan leave to cast us into prison, to clap bolts upon us again, and to become a lying spirit of bondage to us, as he became a lying spirit in the mouths of Ahab's prophets. And he may give up our hearts to be fettered with the cords of our own sins, and to be ensna…

But those that do utterly or wholly fall away from faith and grace, are the second time to be ingrafted into Christ: and consequently, they are not once regenerated but again: and therefore they are oftener than once to be baptized. Fourth reason: (1 John 3:9) Whoever is born of…

Secondly, in that Cain offered as well as Abel; Hence we learn diverse instructions. 1. It is a common opinion, that if a man walk duly and truly in his calling, doing no man harm, but giving every man his own, and so do all his life long, God will receive him, and save his soul…

First, because they be taken out of the world, in regard of state and condition in grace, John 15:19, therefore the world hates them, John 15:19. Secondly, the world knows them not, 1 John 3:1 and therefore speaks evil of them, Jude, 10. Thirdly, the wicked measure others by the…

And since those times, in the History of the Church under the Gospel, we may find, that when the Christians were urged by persecutors to reveal their brethren, they rather chose to lay down their own lives, than to betray their brethren into their enemies' hands. And this is tru…

1 John 2. [illegible]. Hereby we know that we know him, that we keep his Commandments. 1 John 3:14. We know we have passed from death to life, because we love the Brethren. Verse 19. Hereby we know we are of the [illegible].

Now offences must come, but woe to the men by whom they come: it were better for me, that a millstone were hanged about my neck, and that I were cast into the sea, than that I should offend one of these little ones (Luke 17:1, 2). If we frequent devised forms of worship in praye…

And he who first acted in that frame and spirit which came upon them was a murderer, and slew his brother. And this the Apostle proposes as the instance and example of that hatred and enmity which is among men under the curse (1 John 3:11, 12). And there is no greater evidence o…

Fourthly, there belongs to this perfection that [in non-Latin alphabet], that liberty and boldness which believers have in their approaches to God. This is frequently mentioned as an especial privilege and advantage of the Gospel-state (Ephesians 3:12; Hebrews 3:6; Chap. 4:16; C…

And [〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉] is a voluntary unconformity to the Law. Herein the formal nature of sin consists, as the Apostle tells us (1 John 3:4). And this is that which in the first place passeth on the conscience of a sinner.

1. The unspeakable love of Christ in offering himself and his own blood for us. See (Galatians 2:20; Revelation 1:5; 1 John 3:16; Ephesians 5:26, 27). There being no other way whereby our sins might be purged and expiated (chap. 10:5, 6, 7), out of his infinite love and grace he…

(2.) By the destruction of its subjective power, purging our consciences from dead works, in the way that has been declared. This was the principal end of the appearance of Christ in the world (1 John 3:8). The way whereby he did this was by the sacrifice of himself; [in non-Lat…

But (1) it is required that this property of repentance be prevalent against the common sins of the world, men's old sins which they lived in before their conversion. Those sins which are expressly declared in the Gospel to be inconsistent with the profession, ends and glory of…

And yet indeed this which seemed to overthrow and disannul the Promise, was only a means of its farther confirmation. For the death of Abel upon his offering his acceptable sacrifice, was a type of Christ and his suffering in his mystical body (1 John 3:12). When the wickedness…

He willingly, and voluntarily, out of his own abundant goodness and love took upon him to make atonement for us, wherein he was our surety. And accordingly this undertaking is ascribed to that love which he exercised herein (Galatians 2:12; 1 John 3:16; Revelation 1:5). And ther…

And as this was the greatest effect of divine wisdom and grace, so it is the first cause, the root and spring of all spiritual blessings to us. This the whole Scripture bears testimony to (Hebrews 10:7; 1 John 3:16). This is the fundamental article of faith evangelical.

They by whom this is denied, do overthrow the faith of the Gospel. This is the Spirit of Antichrist (1 John 3:1, 2, 3). And this may be done two ways.

He knows how to discover, and to deal with such well enough; and will do it in due time; he will discover the guile and treachery of their own hearts to themselves, and to all the world. Ponder that place, 1 John 3:3. He that has this hope (which springs from a lively faith) pur…

Here then consider whether you have seen Christ or not: for till a person see him, he cannot come to, or close with him, as John 6:40. As we have already intimated, persons do not use to match with a person, whom they have never seen; or if they [illegible] it seldom proves well…

First, for the place of scripture which he alleges, namely, that God is greater than our hearts: it is so far from comforting an afflicted conscience, that it will rather drive him to despair. Neither does John (1 John 3:20) make mention of it, to ease such as are in despair, sh…

The means then to make ourselves fit is, to seek to be reconciled to God in Christ for our sins past, and withal to endeavor to have an assurance of the free remission and pardon of them all in the blood of Christ. And as touching that part of life which is to come, we must reme…

But whoever has this world's good, and sees his brother have need, and shuts up his bowels of compassion from him how dwells the love of God in him? 1 John 3. 17. London, Printed for Thomas Parkhurst at the three Crowns over-against the great Conduit at the lower end of Cheapsid…

While he is fighting with temptation, hope is a helmet; while he is upon the waters of affliction, hope is an anchor; the anchor of a ship is cast downwards, the anchor of the soul is cast upwards in heaven. A saint's hope is a purifying hope (1 John 3:3), a deathbed hope (Prove…

You see then every faculty must be seasoned with the new nature; this leaven must get into the whole lump; the mind, memory, conscience, will, desires, delights, all must be brought into conformity to the image of God. And as every faculty must be sanctified, so there must be ev…

Answer: In this text, love is not made an impulsive cause to move God to pardon her sins, but only a sign to show and manifest that God had already pardoned them. Like to this is the place of John, who says (1 John 3:14): We are translated from death to life, because we love the…

And in Psalm 119:11, it is put for the memory: 'Your word have I hid in my heart.' And in 1 John 3:20, it is put for the conscience, which has in it both the light of the understanding and the recognitions of the memory: 'If our heart condemn us' — that is, if our conscience, wh…

'Tis said of Noah, that by that eminent act of faith, the building of the Ark, he condemned the unbelieving world (Hebrews 11:7). This was the matter of Cain's contest with his brother, and the reason why he slew him, because his own deeds were evil and his brother's righteous (…

And without repentance, everlasting vengeance will follow that sin. It is said, No murderer has eternal life (1 John 3:15), that is, without true repentance: and if he has not eternal life, then I am sure he has eternal death and damnation. If the murderer were only to have the…