1. Because they are his redeemed ones, being redeemed to God by his blood; and his Spirit in them shews the blood sprinkled on them; so that no destruction can befal them.

2. Because he loves them, having loved them with an everlasting love, and drawn them to him with the bands of love and the cords of a man; and he will love them to the end. He sympathizes with them in all their troubles, and will see to their comfort and safety.

3. His own honour is engaged for their preservation and safety, that the world may see they serve a good Master, and that it is not in vain to row against the stream of a backsliding generation. An inference or two shall conclude all.

1. Hence see that none shall be losers at Christ's hands, however heavy hearts they get for his sake. The tables will be turned, Is. lxv. 13, 14. "Thus saith the Lord God, Behold, my servants shall eat, but ye shall be hungry: behold, my servants shall drink, but ye shall be thirsty: behold, my servants shall rejoice, but ye shall be ashamed: behold, my servants shall sing for joy of heart, but ye shall cry for sorrow of heart, and shall howl for vexation of spirit."

2. Here we may see that upright walking is sure walking in the worst of times. It is better to sigh and groan with the remnant, than rejoice with the multitude, in the time of the apostasy of a generation "for it shall be well with the righteous, but ill with the wicked. They that sow in tears, shall reap in joy."

THE

DISTINGUISHING CHARACTERS

OF

TRUE BELIEVER S.

VIII. IN RELATION TO THEIR FRIENDSHIP TO CHRIST, AND EVIDENCING IT, BY DOING WHATSOEVER HE COMMANDS THEM.

*

BELIEVERS THE FRIENDS OF CHRIST.

JOHN XV. 14.

Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command

IN these words we have two things.

you.

1. A high and honourable privilege which some enjoy: they are Christ's friends. It is a relation, and a kindly and honourable one. Some are his enemies, and he will treat them as such, saying, "Those mine enemies which would not that I should reign over them, bring hither, and slay them before me," Luke xix. 27. Yea all are so by nature, Rom. viii. 7, "The carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be." But there is a party of mankind brought into a state of friendship with him, whom he has done and will do the office of the best of friends to. 2. The character of those who enjoy that privilege. Many are pretenders to it; but few can make it out. Here is the badge they bear, the sign they are known by, If ye do whatsoever I command you. Those who bear it, Christ will own. This character Christ lays before his disciples and all the visible church, (1.) That they may strive to answer it, as ever they would evidence to the world, and their own consciences, this relation. (2.) That they may at

These sermons were preached at Ettrick in June and July, 1724; and were begun June 21, the Lord's day immediately after the author's finishing his dicourses on the covenant of

grace.

times examine themselves by it, and so clear their interest in him: "Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you."

The character is taken from practice. Friends must show themselves friendly. This Christ's friends do by doing whatsoever he commands them. This doing is not the foundation of the friendship: that is faith applying Christ's reconciling blood, Rom. v. 10, 11: but it is the fruit of the friendship, and therefore follows after it. It necessarily springs from it, and so manifests and makes it known, as the fruit doth the tree. So John viii. 31. "If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed. Heb. iii. 14. We are made partakers of Christ, if we hold the beginning of our confidence stedfast unto the end." Thus obedience is not the condition upon which the privilege is obtained; but there is a necessary connection betwixt the privilege and the duty, which is all that the if here signifies as if one should say, If there is smoke, there is fire; if there is good fruit, there is a good tree. Now observe here,

(1.) The character itself, universal obedience to the commands of Christ. Christ our Friend is our Lord and our God: he requires obedience of us: he must command, and we must obey, and that without exception, with unlimited obedience. The friendship betwixt Christ and his people reserves still the distance of Sovereign and subjects, Psal. xlv. 11. He is thy Lord, and worship thou him.

(2.) The decision on this character, "Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you." (1.) In that case, ye really are, and prove yourselves to be my friends. Fair words and a profession will not do it; but the practice of a friend will do it; and sincere obedience is the touchstone of friendship to Christ. (2.) Ye shall be owned to be real friends. Christ himself will take it as full evidence of your friendship to him.

The substance of this text may be summed up in the three following observations.

DOCT. I. It is the privilege of some of mankind-sinners to be the friends of Christ.

DOCT. II. It is the distinguishing character of the friends of Christ to do whatsoever he commands them.

DOCT. III. They are the friends of Christ, who are in a gospelsense universal in their obedience to his commands.

I shall handle each doctrine in order.

DocT. I. It is the privilege of some of mankind-sinners to be the friends of Christ.

In discoursing from this doctrine, I shall shew,

I. What this privilege is in general.

II. How this friendship is made up.

III. What a privilege this is.

IV. Make application.

I. I am to shew what this privilege is in the general. It is a state of peace and oneness of interest with Jesus Christ. In these two it lies, as is evident from the common nature of friendship.

1. The friends of Christ, whereas naturally they were in a state of enmity with God, they are now in a state of peace with Christ, and God through Christ, Eph. ii. 14. “ For he is our peace who hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us." All the children of Adam in their natural state, the elect not excepted, are in a state of enmity with God. God bears a legal enmity against them, as the judge against the criminal whom he condemns, according to law and they have a real enmity against him appearing in their hearts, Rom. viii. 7. and in their works, Col. i. 31. But now those enjoying this privilege are now in a state of peace and reconciliation with God. God's legal enmity against them is now removed; he condemns them no more, there being no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, Rom. viii. 1. The countenance of the wrathful Judge is now laid by as to them. And their real enmity against him is removed too, out of their hearts and lives, that it reigns no more, Col. i. 21, 22. "You that were sometime alienated, and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled in the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy and unblameable, and unreproveable in his sight." So that most dangerous fever in their case, is cooled.

2. Whereas they had divided interests as to heaven, now there is an unity of interests betwixt Christ and them, 1 John i. 3. "Truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ.” Many are at peace, who yet are not in a state of friendship: so this is more than to be at peace with God simply. When Christ makes up the peace with sinners, he enters into a friendship with them: there is an alliance, a covenant betwixt God and them, offensive and defensive their interests are woven together from that moment: they have common friends and common enemies. Christ espouses their interests, and they espouse his; and they mutually pursue the interests of one another as a common interest.

II. The next head is, How this friendship is made up.

1. The first spring and source of it is everlasting free love. Hence says the Lord to the prophet, Jer. xxxi. 3. "Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love." It is as ancient in the design. of it as from eternity. Sometimes one friend will say to another, When I saw you in such a place, or at such a time, there was some

thing in you that I liked extremely, and from that time I was still desirous of a friendship with you. So Christ may say to his people, Since I saw you from eternity, lying in the corrupt ruined mass of mankind, I liked you, my delights were with the sons of men, Prov. viii. 31.

2. The plot for compassing it was laid from eternity between the Father and the Son, Tit. i. 2. "In hope of eternal life, which God that cannot lie, promised before the world began." The covenant of grace was made for bringing about this friendship: the method was there laid down, how, with the honour of the divine perfections, these enemies to God might be brought into a state of friendship; how they might be won into it.

3. The foundation of it was laid in the blood of Christ, in the fulness of time, Gal. iv. 4, 5. "When the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons." The friendship with them, as little worth as they were, could not be purchased, but by blood that might satisfy justice; for they were criminals under a sentence of death; Heb. ix. 22. "Without shedding of blood is no remission." So Christ died for them, and gave them the greatest demonstration of friendship for them; therefore says he, John xv. 13. "Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends." Hence we are often said to be redeemed by his blood.

4. It was moved to them in the gospel, 2 Cor. v. 20. “We are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us we pray you in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God. In the word of the gospel Christ courts the acquaintance of sinners, and proposes a strict friendship betwixt him and them. He sends his letters to them in the written word for that effect, which many times have remained unanswered, or got an ill answer. He sends some of their own acquaintance, earthen vessels, to prevail with them to enter into this friendship, who many times labour in vain. But he continues his solicitations till he win them.

5. They are won to it by his own Spirit, Is. xliv. 3, 5. "I will pour water upon him that is thirsty, and floods upon the dry ground; I will pour my Spirit upon thy seed, and my blessing upon thine offspring. One shall say, I am the Lord's: and another shall call himself by the name of Jacob: and another shall subscribe with his hand unto the Lord, and surname himself by the name of Israel." They will not be friends with him, till the Spirit take the work in hand. Their old friends, the devil, the world, and their lusts, have the ascendant so over them, that they cannot value Christ's friend