gious piece of folly therefore is it for men to value themselves more upon these outward advantages, of which ere long they must be stripped, than upon the graces and virtues of their own minds, on which they must subsist for ever! Suppose now you were a merchant in a far country, where you were allowed for a short uncertain time the benefit of free trade and commerce, in order to your gaining a good estate to maintain you in your native country, whenever you are forced to return, would you be so indiscreet as to lay out all the product of your merchandise in building fine houses and purchasing great farms, when you know not how soon you may be commanded to depart, and leave all the immoveable goods behind you? Or rather, would you not think yourselves obliged, by all the rules of interest and discretion, to convert all your gain into portable wealth, into money or jewels, or other such moveable commodities, as, whenever you are forced to depart, you might carry home along with you, and there maintain yourselves with them in many years ease and plenty? Do but think then, and think it often, that while you live here, you are but strangers and foreign merchants; that you came hither from another world, to which you know not how soon you may be forced to return; that all the wealth, the lands and houses, you gain by your present commerce, are immoveable goods, which you must leave behind you when you go from hence, and that there is nothing portable of all that you can gain in this world, but only the graces and virtues of your minds; and that therefore, while you have opportunity, it concerns you, above all things,

to store and treasure up a plentiful portion of these, that so, whenever you are shipped off into the eternal world, you may carry such an estate of them thither with you, as may suffice to maintain you there in glory and happiness for ever. Which God of his in

finite mercy grant.

DISCOURSE IX.

UPON

1 JOHN III. 9.

Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin; for his seed remaineth in him: and he cannot sin, because he is born of God.

FOR the right understanding of these words, it will be necessary to inquire, first, What is here meant by sin; secondly, What is meant by being born of God; thirdly, In what sense he that is born of God cannot commit sin.

First, What is here meant by committing sin? I answer, that this phrase, in the writings of this our apostle, hath a special energy, and doth not denote the simple doing of any sinful action whatsoever, deliberately, wilfully, and presumptuously. For as for the first, it is not true that he that is born of God doth commit no sin at all, seeing the best of God's children are liable to be surprised into evil actions through their weakness, ignorance, or inadvertency; of all which there are some remains even in the most purified natures. And as for the second, viz. the habit of sinning wilfully, though that in the apostle's sense is not only to commit sin, but to commit it in the most eminent degree; yet it is plain that it is the deliberate acts of sin that he here primarily intends for so verse the 4th, He that committeth sin transgresseth the law; for sin is a transgression of the law; which is plainly meant of every single act of wilful sin. So verse 8. He that committeth sin is of the Devil; that is, he is therein

an imitator of the Devil, which is true of every deliberate act, as well as of the habit of sin. So here in the text, He that is born of God doth not commit sin; that is, understanding him still in the same sense, he doth not commit any wilful and deliberate act of sin.

2. Our next inquiry is, what is here meant by being born of God? To which I answer, that to be born of another denotes in general our receiving the beginning and principle of our life and motion from him; and consequently, to be born of God, is to receive from him, through the operation of his grace and Spirit, the beginning and principle of our spiritual life and motion, viz. a considerate, universal, prevailing resolution to obey God, proceeding from our belief of the Christian religion. When therefore God, by the influence of his grace and Spirit, hath wrought our minds into such a resolution, then are we truly born of him, as having herein received from him the principle of a new life and motion. And this the apostle expresses by being transformed by the renewing of our mind, Romans xii. 2. i. e. having a new practical judgment and resolution of soul begotten in us; and this he elsewhere calls the renewing of the Holy Ghost, Titus iii. 5. Upon which account we may very well be said to be born of God; because it is from his blessed Spirit that we derive this renewing, which is the principle of our spiritual life and motion.

Our last inquiry is, in what sense this assertion of the apostle holds, viz. that he who is thus born of God cannot sin? To which I answer, that this expression, he cannot, relates to the state he is now in he cannot, as he is one that is born of God, and while

he doth continue so for so the phrase is frequently used in scripture. So Romans viii, 7. The carnal mind cannot be subject to God: not but the mind which is now carnal may hereafter be subject unto God, viz. when it is renewed and changed; but it cannot be so while it continues carnal. And in the same sense he tells us in the next verse, that it cannot please God. So Matthew vii. 18. A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit; which can import no more than this, that whilst the good tree continues good, it cannot bring forth evil fruits, nor the corrupt tree bring forth good fruits, whilst it continues corrupt not but that one may hereafter become evil, and bring forth evil fruits, as well as the other may become a good tree, and bring forth good fruits. So that the meaning of he cannot sin, is no more than this; it is so utterly inconsistent with the state of one that is born of God to sin wilfully and deliberately, that whenever he doth so, he actually falls from that blessed state, and for the time ceases to be born of God. And hence the reason assigned why a man cannot sin wilfully, and be born of God at the same time, is, for his seed remaineth in him; that is, because that principle of new life and motion, which the divine Spirit hath produced in him, and which is nothing else but an universal prevailing resolution of obeying God, remains within his breast: and for a man to be universally and prevalently resolved to obey God, and at the same time to sin wilfully, is a contradiction in terms; because whenever he sins wilfully, he is prevalently resolved to disobey him. And therefore, seeing in every wilful sin we are prevalently resolved to disobey God,