II. 1. And, first, does Satan endeavour to damp your joy in the Lord, by the consideration of your sinfulness, added to this, that without entire, universal holiness no man can see the Lord? You may cast back this dart upon his own head, while through the grace of God, the more you feel of your own vileness, the more you rejoice in confident hope, that all this shall be done away. While you hold fast this hope, every evil temper you feel, though you hate it with a perfect hatred, may be a means, not of lessening your humble joy, but rather of increasing it. “This and this, may you say, shall likewise perish from the presence of the Lord. Like as the wax melteth at the fire, so shall this melt away before his face.” By this means the greater that change is, which remains to be wrought in your soul, the more may you triumph in the Lord and rejoice in the God of your salvation: who hath done so great things for you already, and will do so much greater things than these.
2. Secondly, the more vehemently he assaults your peace with that suggestion, “God is holy, you are unholy. You are immensely distant from that holiness, without which you cannot see God: how then can you be in the favour of God? How can you fancy you are justified?” Take the more earnest heed to hold fast, that, Not by works of righteousness which I have done. I am found in him: I am accepted in the beloved; not having my own righteousness (as the cause either in whole or in part of our justification before God) but that which is by faith in Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith. O bind this about your neck: write it upon the table of thy heart. Wear it as a bracelet upon thy arm, as frontlets between thine eyes: I am justified freely by his grace, through the redemption that is in Jesus Christ. Value and esteem more and more that precious truth, By grace we are saved through faith. Admire more and more the free grace of God, in so loving the world as to give his only Son, that whosoever believeth on him might not perish but have everlasting life. So shall the sense of the sinfulness you feel on the one hand, and of the holiness you expect on the other, both contribute to establish your peace and to make it flow as a river. So shall that peace flow on with an even stream, in spite of all those mountains of ungodliness, which shall become a plain in the day when the Lord cometh, to take full possession of your heart. Neither will sickness or pain, or the approach of death, occasion any doubt or fear. You know a day, an hour, a moment with God is as a thousand years. He cannot be streightened for time, wherein to work whatever remains to be done in your soul. And God’s time is always the best time. Therefore be thou careful for nothing. Only make thy request known unto him, and that not with doubt or fear, but thanksgiving: as being previously assured, he cannot withhold from thee any manner of thing that is good.
3. Thirdly, the more you are tempted to give up your shield, to cast away your faith, your confidence in his love, so much the more take heed that you hold fast that, whereunto you have attained. So much the more labour to stir up the gift of God which is in you. Never let that slip, I have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous: and the life I now live, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. Be this thy glory and crown of rejoicing. And see that no one take thy crown. Hold that fast, I know that my Redeemer liveth, and shall stand at the latter day upon the earth. And I now have redemption in his blood, even the forgiveness of sins. Thus, being filled with all peace and joy in believing, press on in the peace and joy of faith to the renewal of thy whole soul, in the image of him that created thee. Mean while cry continually to God, that thou mayst see that prize of thy high calling, not as Satan represents it, in a horrid dreadful shape, but in its genuine native beauty: not as something that must be, or thou wilt go to hell, but as what may be, to lead thee to heaven. Look upon it as the most desirable gift, which is in all the stores of the rich mercies of God. Beholding it in the true point of light, thou wilt hunger after it more and more: thy whole soul will be athirst for God, and for this glorious conformity to his likeness. And having received a good hope of this, and strong consolation through grace, thou wilt no more be weary or faint in this mind, but wilt follow on till thou attainest.
4. *In the same power of faith, press on to glory. Indeed this is the same prospect still. God hath joined from the beginning pardon, holiness, heaven. And why should man put them asunder? O beware of this. Let not one link of the golden chain be broken. God for Christ’s sake hath forgiven me. He is now renewing me in his own image. Shortly he will make me meet for himself, and take me to stand before his face. I whom he hath justified thro’ the blood of his Son, being throughly sanctified by his Spirit, shall quickly ascend to the New Jerusalem, the city of the living God. Yet a little while and I shall come to the general assembly and church of the first-born, and to God the judge of all, and to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant. How soon will these shadows flee away, and the day of eternity dawn upon me! How soon shall I drink of the river of the water of life, going out of the throne of God and of the Lamb? There all his servants shall praise him and shall see his face, and his name shall be upon their foreheads. And no night shall be there; and they have no need of a candle or the light of the sun. For the Lord God enlighteneth them, and they shall reign for ever and ever.
5. And if you thus taste of the good word and of the powers of the world to come, you will not murmur against God, because you are not yet meet for the inheritance of the saints in light. Instead of repining at your not being wholly delivered, you will praise God for thus far delivering you. You will magnify God for what he hath done, and take it as an earnest of what he will do. You will not fret against him, because you are not yet renewed, but bless him because you shall be; and because now is your salvation from all sin, nearer than when you first believed. Instead of uselessly tormenting yourself because the time is not fully come, you will calmly and quietly wait for it, knowing that it will come and will not tarry. You may therefore the more chearfully endure as yet, the burden of sin that still remains in you, because it will not always remain. Yet a little while and it shall be clean gone. Only tarry thou the Lord’s leisure: be strong, and he shall comfort thy heart, and put thou thy trust in the Lord.
6. And if you see any who appear (so far as man can judge, but God alone searcheth the hearts) to be already partakers of their hope, already made perfect in love: far from envying the grace of God in them, let it rejoice and comfort your heart. Glorify God for their sake. If one member is honoured, shall not all the members rejoice with it? Instead of jealousy or evil surmising concerning them, praise God for the consolation. Rejoice in having a fresh proof of the faithfulness of God in fulfilling all his promises. And stir yourself up the more, to apprehend that for which you also are apprehended of Christ Jesus.
6. *In order to this, redeem the time, improve the present moment. Buy up every opportunity of growing in grace, or of doing good. Let not the thought of receiving more grace to-morrow, make you negligent of to-day. You have one talent now. If you expect five more, so much the rather improve that you have. And the more you expect to receive hereafter, the more labour for God now. Sufficient for the day is the grace thereof. God is now pouring his benefits upon you. Now approve yourself a faithful steward, of the present grace of God. Whatever may be to-morrow, give all diligence to-day, to add to your faith, courage, temperance, patience, brotherly kindness and the fear of God, ’till you attain that pure and perfect love. Let these things be now in you and abound. Be not now slothful or unfruitful. So shall an entrance be ministred into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ.
7. Lastly, If in time past you have abused this blessed hope of being holy as he is holy, yet do not therefore cast it away. Let the abuse cease, the use remain. Use it now to the more abundant glory of God and profit of your own soul. In stedfast faith, in calm tranquillity of spirit, in full assurance of hope, rejoicing evermore for what God hath done, press ye on unto perfection. Daily growing in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ, and going on from strength to strength, in resignation, in patience, in humble thankfulness for what ye have attained, and for what ye shall, run the race set before you, looking unto Jesus, ’till through perfect love ye enter into his glory!