connexion. That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, of the Word of Life. (For the life was manifested, and we have seen it, and bear witness, and shew unto you that eternal life, which was with the Father, and was manifested unto us.) That which we have seen and heard, declare we unto you, that ye also may have fellowship with us: and truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ. And these things write we unto you, that our joy may be full. So it is in the Bible before me; in others it is, that your joy may be full. The words of my text may be thus divided; and considered as containing the following particulars. 1. The things which were before written.

2. The end and design of writing the same.

3. What the joy was which could not but result therefrom, both to the apostle, and to saints. And these things write we unto you, that

our joy, your joy may be full.

4. What this fulness of joy consisteth in. These are the particulars I am to treat on, that I may fill up the division into which I have cast my text. I am then to begin

1. With the things which were before written. And these things write we unto you, that our, your joy may be full.

It does not appear any where concerned with our apostle, in writing this epistle. It seems the Holy Ghost called him, and influenced him to write it, and that under his immediate influence and direction. How then does he say, And these things write we unto you, that our joy may be full; or, that your joy may be full? My reply to this is, the apostles were filled with, and possessed with one and the same spirit, respecting the whole church of the Lord Jesus Christ. There was nothing they knew of Him, but they were of one heart and one soul, in the imparting the same. What they saw in Christ, what apprehensions the Holy Ghost had given them of his worth, and transcendent excellency, they were all of one mind in this very particular, to communicate the full knowledge of, so far as words could possibly convey the same. This being their one desire, our apostle might well use the term, we. There being in this but one soul possessing each of them. Again the subject they every where declared was one and the same. Their testimony of Him was one and the same. Their witness and setting of Him forth differed not a whit. Nor did their aim and end vary. It was to make Him known. To gain Him a glorious Name. To spread his fame and renown. That sinners under the operation of the Holy Ghost might be led to believe on Him, they preached Christ crucified. When any of these persons wrote to the churches of the saints, their one view was their real and spiritual good. And all the difference with respect to their particular, and distinct gifts, lay here. They neither of them wrote, but as they were moved by the Holy Ghost. He directed them to write as seemed good in his sight. There is no difference in their writings, but this One is called to write on one particular subject. Another on what the others were not to meddle with. Every epistle is on a different subject, let it be written by Paul, James, Peter, John, or Jude. I would add, with a particular end and design also. In these their epistles, there is a difference, just agreeably to what they were influenced by the eternal spirit to engage on. But in their personal testimony of Christ,

they differed not a whit, their end being in the whole, whether by their preachings or writings to glorify and exalt their, and the one only, and common Lord of all the churches of the saints, they therefore sometimes use the term we, and us to enforce their writings on the minds of saints. You have an example of this in Peter. "This second epistle, (beloved,) I now write unto you; in both which I stir up your pure minds by way of remembrance. That ye may be mindful of the words which were spoken before by the holy prophets, and of the commandment of us the apostles of the Lord and Saviour." 2 Epis. iii. 1, 2. And Peter and John before the senate at Jerusalem, said one for the other, "For we cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard." Acts iv. 20. It was the will of the eternal Spirit, our John shouid write on the most important of all subjects, which concerns inward, vital, experimental christianity. This is communion with God. He had the true blessedness of it in his own mind. He knew by what means it was begun in his own soul. How it had been maintained therein. That it was still carried on. He was well persuaded all the holy apostles, together with himself, were favoured with having real fellowship with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ. That they would most cordially join with him, in aiming to promote this, ministerially, amongst all saints. That, were the end obtained by this means, it would afford them, and himself, joy: and it would increase the joy of saints also. He therefore says in the words before us, And these things write we unto you, that our joy, that your joy may be full. It may be here asked what are these things which he wrote to attain this end? And what are those special and peculiar subjects our minds must be conversant with, that we may attain this most blessed end, viz. fellowship with the apostle, and with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ? I refer to the words of the preceding verse. That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you, that ye may have fellowship with us: and truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ. And these things write we unto you, that our, your joy may be full. It is the utmost end and design of the ministration of the gospel, to bring believers into a state of fellowship with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ. This was the state of blessedness into which the apostles were brought. That other saints might enjoy the same blessedness, was John's aim and design in writing to the saints, this "First Epistle General," which will be continued down to the second coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. The things which the apostle had written to attain this blessed end which he proposed to himself, concerned Christ. Who he was. What he was. The Person of Christ, and the Incarnation of Christ, are the glory of the sacred page. The love of Christ is the spring of life to us. The salvation of Christ is our foundation to hope in Him. And to expect most blessed communications from Him. It is from his immutability, and his inexhaustible fulness of grace and glory, we are encouraged to expect to receive supplies suited to all our wants, 'equal to all our spiritual desires. Grace, now, and evermore, to the closing of a time state with us. And glory everlasting, out of the same immensity of blessedness, contained in the fulness of Christ, God-Man, to constitute us glorious to the ages of eternity. Christ as God-Man, is the Head of his Church. The Life of his Church. The Perfection of his Church. The Glory of his Church. The blessedness of his Church. He is ber Treasure.

F

also

He

is her Portion. Her Righteousness. Her immutable Holiness. Her ineffable Purity. What the apostle had been expressing concerning Him, as the word of Life, as that eternal life, which was with the Father before all time, who became incarnate in the fulness of time, which the apostles were witnesses of, could not but shed its influence on spiritual minds, through the grace of the Holy Spirit. It had this very effect on this apostle himself. Therefore he expressed the communion he had, and the reality of the same, with the Father, and his Son Jesus Christ. Which, says he, I write unto you, that ye may have fellowship with us, in the same unspeakable blessing and blessedness. I would next take up the question, what are those special and peculiar subjects, that our minds must be conversant with, that we may attain this most blessed end, viz. fellowship with the apostles, and with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ? To this I cannot but reply, they must for the subject and substance of them, be the same with what the apostle has been setting forth in the former verses. He had been treating of fellowship with the Holy Trinity. It is through the God-Man, Christ Jesus, we have blessings inconceivable. These are made known to our minds, as the Holy Spirit is pleased to open our understandings, to know the Father's love to us, in Him, the Son of his love. It is through Him, we have fellowship with the Father, in all the blessings of his everlasting love. All which we enjoy through the indwelling of the Holy Ghost. It is he alone, who is the manifestor of our union to Christ-of our interest in Christ-of our title in Him to all the blessings of grace, and glory. It is He who is the efficient of all our fellowship with the Father, and the Son, in all contained in the realization of grace and glory, either in earth, or heaven. From hence a joy, yea, a fulness of joy abounds. God himself is the object of this joy. It arises from the knowledge we have of the Holy Three, being the fountain and spring of our exceeding joy. Our Lord says to his disciples, "These things have I spoken unto you that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full." John xv. 11. And John, speaking after his Lord and master, says, And these things write we unto you, that your joy may be full. So we the Master and the disciple are of one heart in this. The one spoke out the whole of his heart most fully, that his beloved might have the fullest participation of fulness of joy. And the other wrote what he did, concerning fellowship with the Holy Trinity, that they enjoying the same fellowship, might also have a fulness of joy. But to the question. What are the subjects the mind must be engaged on, and conversant with, that we may attain this most blessed end, viz. fellowship with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ? To this I reply. They must be the glorious truths and doctrines of the everlasting gospel. Such as concern the Person of Christ. The Three in Jehovah, as revealed and manifested in Him. The everlasting love of God, to the persons of the elect in Him. His union unto them, and with them, founded on their election in Him, and settlements of grace: with his Personal interest in them; salvation of them, and his presentation of them in his Person, before the Majesty in the heavens: These are the Truths with which the mind must be spiritually occupied, and conversant, that we may attain this most blessed end, viz. fellowship with the apostles, and with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ. Then it must follow, the ministry of the gospel in our present day, is not calculated to promote, or attain

this end. The general stream of all, goes no further than to reach the minds of the hearers, with an apprehension of their sinful state, and the necessity of a change. If some go beyond this, yet it is not sufficient to fix the mind on Christ. Those who are looked on to be the greatest in our times, they express the terms of "Jesus Christ," and some doctrines of grace, more than they even attempt to open and explain his most glorious Person, or explain one single doctrine of the gospel. They may be said to name him, and some gospel truth. But it cannot be said with Truth they preach Him, neither can it ever be proved, either in this world or in the world to come, they ever were the means of establishing one real saint on Christ, or directing Him ministerially into real fellowship with the apostles, into clear views of the doctrines of God our Saviour, and into fellowship with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ. It is owing to this, many who are saints wander from one congregation to another. Yet with all their goings from one to the other, they do not meet with that which does their souls any real good. They want guides to go before them. Pastors after God's own heart, to feed them with knowledge and understanding. The mysteries of the gospel must be opened and explained, the Personal Glories of Christ unveiled, the love the Holy Trinity love the elect in Him with, and the communion they have with the elect in Him, these are the subjects which the called of God in Christ Jesus must have their minds fully possessed with, that they may be disposed to seek after real, distinct, and personal communion with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ. But I will proceed 2. To the apostle's end and design in writing on this subject: These things write we unto you. What for? The words of the text say, that your joy may be full. If we quote the words of the former verse, which may be done with safety, and bring them into this, then the end and design will be this. He aims these, and all saints down to the end of time, might freely and fully partake in their measure and degree, of all the blessings of Christ, and salvation, with themselves. He would they should know it a real privilege and blessing which they were interested in, as truly as the apostles were, to have and hold fellowship with the Holy, blessed, and glorious Trinity. They were not to look into themselves for any worth or worthiness, to entitle them to this inestimable grace, but to look to the grace, and in the views of the same, seek for the blessedness contained in this holy, personal fellowship with the Persons of the Father, and his Son Jesus Christ in real, experimental accesses to, and fellowship with them. Assuring them of the reality there was in all this, by saying, That which we have seen and heard, declare we unto you, and truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ. And these things write we unto you, that your joy may be full. This was most noble. It expresseth their spirit towards the saints. They want them to be as truly blessed as themselves, so far as it was possible, in their knowledge of the Father, and the Son, in their acts of grace towards them, in their relation and union with them, in their love to them, into that fellowship they had most blessedly opened for them, for their satisfying their souls with holy and divine joys, such as were truly foretastes of Heaven and Glory, as might give them the best experience of what those joys will consist in, they would be the real partakers of, when they should be admitted into the kingdom of glory.

All this could not be effected in their minds, but by this as the medium thereof. The supreme and transcendently excellent truths, which concern the deep things of God, The Person, and Glories of the Lord Jesus Christ, how he stood in the Father's sight before all time; how he was conceived in the divine mind, and laid as the foundation of all the eternal decrees, will, council, purposes, ends and designs of Jehovah respecting all things visible and invisible. How he was brought forth openly in his incarnation, as the first-born of all God's vast ends and designs, and He is God's Alpha and Omega, his beginning and ending, in all his displays of love, grace, and glory towards the elect. Now, if these are the subjects which alone can feed a spiritual mind, and increase the spirituality thereof; and if it is by means of the same, the mind is drawn forth towards the Father and his Son Jesus Christ, so as to breathe after, and really to enjoy distinct fellowship, in an apprehensive way, with the Father, in clear scriptural views of his everlasting love to his Church in Christ, God-Man; and so as also to have such blessed scriptural apprehensions of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, in his Person and salvation, as to worship Him, by acknowledging his distinct Personality with the Father, whilst we confess his coequality in Godhead with the Father and the Spirit, this is that knowledge of the subject as alone can draw out the renewed mind into real affections and desires after communion with the Lord, so as to partake of this inestimable blessing-distinct and personal communion with the Father and the Son. I again repeat it, that to fit the mind for this, there must be a proportionable light, let in from the Lord on the same, to give it a holy relish for it, and draw out the desires after it. Hence it follows, that that preaching which suits this, must be wholly supernatural. It is not preaching Christ's salvation, and how complete we are in Him, is sufficient to effect this great end. No. It must be preaching what God is to us in Christ, above and beyond all consideration of the fall. It must be setting Christ forth in his ancient and primordial glories, and then coming down to his sub-lapsarian state, is the preaching which alone, in the hand of the Spirit can produce this. For a proof of which I only refer you to the three former verses, which issue in our text, in which the apostle says, And these things write we unto you, that our joy, your joy may be full. It follows then, the utmost the gospel produces, in the minds of the saints of the most high God, is, communion with him. And that this is the uttermost of its blessedness-personal fellowship with the Father, and his Son Jesus Christ. These things write we unto you, that our joy may be full. To see the gospel as set forth by us unto you, hath produced this, which is the very essence of all its blessedness. That you and we, have real fellowship with the Father and the Son. These things write we unto you, also, that your joy may be full. As thereby you, and we, will have matter and cause for increasing joy. I come

3. To speak of what the joy was, which could not but result from the same blessed fellowship with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ, both to the apostles, and to saints, And these things write we unto you, that our, your joy may be full.

And

Spiritual joy in God, is a most inestimable blessing. It flows from God himself. The people of God are the partakers of the same. on many and various occasions their souls are filled through and through