Sermon

I JOHN III. II. Beloved, now are we the Sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know, that when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is.

Not to seek far for the coherence of these Words, we may only take notice of thus much; that the Apostle having in the latter part of the foregoing Chapter, warned those he writes to of Antichrist; declared that there were many even at that time in the World, and given such a Character of them, as might serve easily to make them known: describing of them by their defection from the Doctrine of the Gospel, and particularly their denying of Christ: he from thence takes an occasion at ver. 24. to Exhort them to Constancy, in maintaining the Faith which they had received at their first embracing of the Christian Religion: unto which Exhortation ⟨p. 2⟩(further to quicken and encourage them so to do) he adds divers Arguments by way of motive; one of which is taken from the consideration of their Adoption, presented and pressed in the three first verses of this Chapter in the urging of which Argument, he,

NOt to seek far for the coherence of these Words, we may only take notice of thus much; that the Apostle having in the latter part of the foregoing Chapter, warned those he writes to of Antichrist; declared that there were many even at that time in the World, and given such a Character of them, as might serve easily to make them known: describing of them by their defection from the Doctrine of the Gospel, and particularly their denying of Christ: he from thence takes an occasion at ver. 24. to Exhort them to Constancy, in maintaining the Faith which they had received at their first embracing of the Christian Religion: unto which Exhortation ⟨p. 2⟩(further to quicken and encourage them so to do) he adds divers Arguments by way of motive; one of which is taken from the consideration of their Adoption, prefented and pressed in the three first verses of this Chapter in the urging of which Argument, he,