269 SERMON XIII. SIGNS THAT WE ARE "IN CHRIST 1 St. JOHN II. 5. (Part.) "HEREBY KNOW WE THAT WE ARE IN HIM." To be, what in Scripture phraseology is termed" in Christ Jesus," i.e., to be a partaker, by faith, of that union with the Saviour, which the Word of God continually presents, and for which the Church of England continually prays, is the one great and leading anxiety of every truly enlightened mind. The reason for this anxiety is obvious, it is in Him alone that we can possess that righteousness which will satisfy God, for the Apostle says, "He hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God, in Him." It is in him alone, that we can stand the scrutinizing eye of our Judge, and be secured against the vengeance of a broken law; for, the Word of God says again, "There is, therefore, now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus." It is in Him alone that we can be preserved from the devices of our spiritual adversaries, the iniquity of our own hearts, and the fiery darts of the wicked one, for the same inspired Word has said, "The name of the Lord is a strong tower, the righteous runneth into it and is safe."3 2 This being, then, to the spiritual reader of Holy Writ, an unquestionable truth, a truth most merciful and most consolatory, a truth which the renewed mind receives without hesitation, and without distrust, it is not my intention to endeavour to demonstrate it upon the 1 2 Ep. Cor. v. 21. 2 Rom. viii. 1. 3 Prov. xviii. 10. present occasion, but to apply myself more immediately to the direct purport of the text " Hereby KNOW WE that we are in Him." The consideration, therefore, not of the great, and unspeakable, and inestimable benefits of being in Christ, but of the method whereby we may ascertain that we are ourselves, individually, partakers of it, is what I desire especially to bring before you. May the Holy Spirit of God accompany these reflections to every soul among us, with his especial blessing; to you who are really" in Christ Jesus," and know it not, and therefore enjoy but a very small portion of that peace, and happiness, and abiding consolation, which ought to be your own, by making you sensible that you are even now partakers of this indescribable mercy, which shall, by God's grace, issue in your infinite and eternal felicity; and on the other hand, to you who are not in Christ Jesus, that you may learn the important truth, that there is far, far more in religion, than you have ever yet experienced, and that, while you are contenting yourselves with the mere outward form and ceremonial observance, with the mere shell of the imperishable fruit of paradise, there is that within which you have never tasted, a reality and a sweetness, a consolation and a joy, which you have never found, of which you have at present no experience, and in your present state can form no conception. The method in which we propose to investigate this subject is, by bringing forward certain evidences, with which the Word of God has furnished us, upon this peculiarly difficult, and yet important question; hoping, thus, that we may be enabled to expose the false professor to his own heart, while we trust we may be permitted at the same time, to establish and comfort the true. I. There is a very common mistake, which greatly increases the difficulty of the subject before us, viz., that the visible Church of Christ, and the invisible Church, are one and the same thing. The truth is, that although the visible Church includes the invisible, they are by no means synonymous, since, while many are "in Christ," by an outward profession, many of these same person are not in Christ by a true, and living, and obeying faith; are not, therefore, partakers of that spiritual union which binds the real believer to the Saviour, as the living branch to the living vine, to which our Lord so beautifully compared himself.' Indeed, were it otherwise, the words of the text-and there are many of a similar tendency-could never occur, since the very fact, that all to whom St. John wrote, were baptized and professing Christians, would establish, beyond question, that they were all "in Christ," as spiritual Christians, and therefore would render every evidence of such a fact, useless and unnecessary. So far from this being the case, the 1 See St. John xv. 5. |