A34689:4773
A34689:4773
A practical commentary, or an exposition with observations, reasons, and uses upon the first Epistle general of John by ... John Cotton ...A practicall commentary, or an exposition with observations, reasons, and vses upon the first Epistle generall of John by ... John Cotton ...
London: printed by M.S. for Thomas Parkhurst, 1658
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
And how is this done?
1 By longing and thirsting after him.
2 Seek him in all the means. Hear diligently and your souls shall […], Isa. 55.13. It's a notable promise, Prov. 8.35, 36. Therefore men should be willing to straitened themselves a little in their worldly businesses, to loy• and hear Gods Word.
2 Seek him in all the means. Heare diligently and your souls shall 〈…〉, Isa. 55.13. It's a notable promise, Prov. 8.35, 36. Therefore men should be willing to straighted themselves a little in their worldly businesse•, to loy• and hear Gods Word.
3 Seek him in prayer, Isa. 55.6.
Use 6. To teach every soul that hath Christ, and yet complains of the deadness and dullness of his heart; if thou findest a decay of life, seek Christ again, get faster hold of him, and thou shalt increase thy life; exercise your faith, live daily by faith, and you shall not want life.
Ʋse 6. To teach every soul that hath Christ, and yet complai•s of the deadnesse and dulnesse of his heart; if thou findest a decay of life, seek Christ again, get faster hold of him, and thou shalt increase thy life; exercise your faith, live dayly by faith, and you shall not want life.
Use 7. Of consolation to every soul that hath Christ. If thou hast Christ, thou hast life, and shalt have it more abundantly; he that findeth him, findeth life; and they that seek not Christ, seek death.
Ʋse 7. Of consolation to every soul that hath Christ. If thou hast Christ, thou hast life, and shalt have it more abundantly; he that findeth him, findeth life; and they that seek not Christ, seek death.
1 JOHN 5.13. These things have I written unto you that believe on the Name of the Son of God, that ye may know that ye have eternal life, and that you may believe on the Name of the Son of God.
WE are now come to the beginning of the conclusion of this whole Epistle, wherein he sets down the persons to whom he writes;
These things have I written to you, to you that believe.
2 The end wherefore he writes these things to these: the end is twofold.
1 That ye may know that ye have eternal life.
2 That ye may believe on the Name of the Son of God; which he amplifies in the verses following.
These words afford three Notes.
This is evident not only in the Text, but sundry other places of the Epistle, cap. 1.4. He wrote it to such, as by reading this Epistle might attain to full joy. This is evident likewise by recounting the several sorts of persons to whom he wrote, cap. 1.12, 13, 14. Which were of three sorts, Babes, Young men, and Fathers, yet all believers so, cap. 4.4. Ye are of God little children. His second Epistle was written to the elect Lady; and the third Epistle to his beloved Gaius, vers. 1, 2. All his writings were directed to believers; so were all the Epistles of the rest of the Apostles, directed to believers, to Saints, to the chosen of God, to their brethren, as will appear in all their first greetings; when our Saviour himself wrote, he wrote to such in whom he acknowledged many special graces, yea even in the worst of them, in the Church of Sardis, he acknowledged that she had a few names. Now this gives us just occasion to enquire; Why they were written to believers? 2 Why to them only.
This is evident not onely in the Text, but sundry other places of the Epistle, cap. 1.4. He wrote it to such, as by reading this Epistle might attain to full joy. This is evident likewise by recounting the several sorts of persons to whom he wrote, cap. 1.12, 13, 14. Which were of three sorts, Babes, Young men, and Fathers, yet all believers so, cap. 4.4. Ye are of God little children. His second Epistle was written to the elect Lady; and the third Epistle to his beloved Gaius, vers. 1, 2. All his writings were directed to believers; so were all the Epistles of the rest of the Apostles, directed to believers, to Saints, to the chosen of God, to their brethren, as will appear in all their first greetings; when our Saviour himself wrote, he wrote to such in whom he acknowledged many special graces, yea even in the worst of them, in the Church of Sardis, he acknowledged that she had a few names. Now this gives us just occasion to enquire; Why they were written to believers? 2 Why to them only.