order to be handled He lifted up his eyes to heaven and said And here you have his gesture and expression His gesture first he lifted up his eyes to heaven while he made it And in the next place his expression he did not meditate or think it only but he said it his Prayer was not mental only but it was a vocal prayer He lifted up his eyes to heaven and said As for the first of these my brethren it was usual with our Saviour to pray with eyes erected and lift up to heaven as I might give you many instances out of the Scripture And out of question it proceeded from the zeal and earnestness of his affections and from the fixedness and the intention of his thoughts he being as it were withdrawn from the earth and from those lower things and wholly taken up to heaven while he prayed He was no longer here below no he was above with God while he was exercised in this duty Indeed it is observed of the Publican that he was contrary to Christ in this regard viz. in the external gesture of his body Our Saviour prayed as you have heard with eyes erected and lift up to heaven The Publican with eyes dejected and cast downward to the earth and yet this carriage also seems to be approved Luke 18.13 The Publican saies the Evangelist would not lift up so much as his eyes to heaven but smote his breast saying God be mercifull to me a Sinner And truly both these gestures have their use in prayer the one to manifest a repentance the other to declare our faith The one to shew that we are cast down in our selves the other to discover that we are raysed and lifted up to God But it became not Iesus Christ to pray in such a posture as that wretched creature did because he had no sin in him and consequently no shame nothing to cast him down or hinder him from looking up with boldness and with confidence to God the Father And hence he prayed not like the Publican in a dejected way but lifted up his eyes to heaven and said That leads us to the second thing considered Christ did not meditate or think his prayer only but he said it His prayer was not mental only but it was a vocal prayer he lifted up his eyes to heaven and said Father the hour is come and so on It s true indeed that as a man may say and yet not pray he may utter good petitions and speak a form of Specious words to God and yet he may not pray indeed so as to find acceptance and success with God So on the other side a man may pray and yet yet not say that is not use the voice at all nor utter any words to God in prayer And therefore it is said of Moses that he cried to God when he was silent And the Apostle speaking of the Spirit tells us that he makes request to God sometimes with sighs and groans that are not yea that cannot be expressed Rom. 8.26 So that a man may make request to God without expression as well by meaning as by speaking And therefore it is added in the following verse God knows the meaning of the Spirit that is he understands it and accepts it David prefers the meditation of his heart as well as the petitions of his mouth Psal 19. ult Let the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart c. And therefore in another place he saith of God Lord thou hast heard the desire of the humble Psalm 10.17 So that you see that Prayer is not tyed to the expression of the tongue For even Ejaculations that are swift and sudden wishes darted from the heart to God the inward anhelations thirstings longings meditations meanings of the Soul are honoured in the Scripture with the name of prayer Such mentall prayers we have cause to think our Saviour sometimes offered to his Father when he was alone But here his prayer it should seem was vocal he uttered it aloud that his Apostles and Disciples who were about him at that time might hear it He lifted up his eyes to heaven and said Now this you see the Holy-Ghost takes special notice of as a remarkable and a memorable thing He doth not only tell us that our Saviour prayed and what his prayer was from the beginning of it to the end But he acpuaints us also with the manner and the circumstances of his prayer He shews us what his gesture was he tells us how he placed his eyes and how he used his voice in prayer These things may seem but small matters and we may look upon them as petty inconsiderable things But wherefore doth the Holy Ghost so carefully take notice of them and set them down in writing for the Church unless they be of some weight and some consideration Methinks he intimateth thus much to us DOCTRINE That there should be Consideration had not only of the matter but even of the circumstances the very gesture and the utterance of a prayer The Spirit of God you see doth not let pass such things as these no he observeth them exactly And therefore surely so should we too He sets them down for our use and there is somewhat to be learned from them For whatsoever things are written are written for our learning as the Apostle Paul speaks And therefore it is usual in the Scripture not only to express the prayers that the Saints have made and that Christ himself hath made but also to describe their outward carriage and behaviour in them which shews that there is something even in that too Sometimes our Saviour Christ is noted to cast himself prostrate upon the earth in prayer as you may see Mat. 26.39 he fell upon his face and prayed And sometimes to look up to heaven as you have it in my text So also when he raised Lazarus John 11.41 he lifted up his eyes and when he healed the deaf man he looked up to heaven Mark 7.34 Sometimes he only sigheth to himself in prayer and we hear of no expression in the sore-alleadged text He Sighed you must conceive in some petition which he then put up to God and said to the deaf man Epphatah be opened Sometimes he utters words also which are audible to others as I might give you divers instances out of his storie in the Gospel So for the Saints sometimes we find them represented sitting as holy David 2 Sam. 7.18 Sometimes standing up as Neh. 9.2 and sometimes kneeling in their Prayers as that is very usual in the Scriptures Sometimes we find them speaking words in prayer and sometimes using meditation only as David so divides his prayer in the fore-alleadged text into the words of his mouth and the meditations of his heart and prayes that both may find acceptance with the Lord Psal 19. ult And all these wayes the holy Ghost takes special notice of and leaves upon record for our instruction by which he teaches
to be as mercifull as God is if you look to the degree For as the heavens are higher then the earth so are his thoughts above ours in this particular But yet we may be mercifull as he is though not as mercifull as he is So in the Text our Saviour prayes for his Disciples That they may all be one as thou Father art in me and I in thee that they also may be one in us The meaning is not that they may be one as nearly that is impossible but as truly as we are That as we are in one another so they may in some respect be all in us How and in what respect they may be so I shall shew at large anon in the mean time the point is this DOCTRINE It is the will of Jesus Christ that his Disciples should not only be one among themselves but that they also should be one in God Indeed it is the will of Jesus Christ that his Disciples should be one Vse 4 among themselves That they should be all one as you have it in my Text Indeed he shed his blood for this purpose Eph. 2.14 that though they be of divers Nations as for instance Jews and Gentiles yet they may be both one as in the fore-alledged Scripture He is our peace saith the Apostle there who hath made both one having abolished in his flesh the enmity to make in himself of twain of Jews and Gentiles one man Though they be of divers places some in heaven and some on earth and though they that are on earth are many of them many thousand miles asunder yet he would have them to be all one It is his project and design to gather all things into one which are in heaven and which are in earth as Ephes 1.10 But you will ask me How can this be done that they that are so distant should be one I answer Very easily because the bonds of this conjunction are not carnal but spiritual So that they may be one without a corporeal or local union From him the head saith the Apostle all the body by joints and bands is knit together Col. 2.19 Part of the body is in heaven and part of it is on earth and here some persons are in one some in another quarter of the earth yet all the body so divided and so distant as you see by joints and bands is knit together And you will easily conceive it when you consider what these bands are 1. They have all one spirit and so in that respect are one I speak not of the spirit or soul of a man but of the spirit of the Lord Christ which being one dwells in all the Saints at once and so makes them one too yea let them be as distant as they will And as the formal reason of the union of the members of the body natural consisteth not so much in contiguity as animation by the same soul so that if any part be mortified and if the soul give over to enliven it it is no more to be esteemed a member notwithstanding its external and corporeal inherence to the body So though the Saints be far from one another in regard of place yet they are closely knit together by the same spirit being joyned to the Lord they are all one spirit and so indeed are all one 2. They have all one faith one at least in fundamentals and one faith makes one as Ephes 4.4 5. They that are of many faiths in fundamentals cannot come so close together to be all one and therefore Jesus Christ when he ascended up on high gave gifts unto men for the work of the Ministry and for the edifying of the body of Christ till we all come all both Jews and Gentiles come in the unity of the faith c. So that there is a unity in the faith you see and to say truth my Brethren faith will make a union at a distance as well as if the persons joyned were all together What doth th the corporal or local presence of the parties contribute to the union that is made by faith which is a spiritual and invisible thing and consequently joineth in a spiritual and invisible manner which no division or distance in regard of place can hinder 3. They have all one heart and one affection and so in that respect are one The multitude of believers were of one heart Act. 4.32 Though they were multitudes yet they had but one heart and when there is but one heart there is a great Oness The understanding is the principle of speculation the heart the seat of love and of affection And the Saints are so united and linked togther in affection as if they had among them but one common principle of this affection as if they had but one heart and therefore the Apostle speaking of the faithful saith that they were knit together in love Col. 2.2 The term there used importeth such a knitting as is between the divers parts and peices of a building For so the Saints though there be Millions of them in the world yet they are built up altogether to a spiritual house 1 Pet. 2.5 And love is as it were the morter and the pins the ligaments and tyes of the connexion and elsewhere it is called a bond Col. 3.10 Above all these things put on charity which is the bond of perfectness with which we are perfectly joined together 1 Cor. 1.10 Now love will make a union at a distance as well as near at hand The nearness of the place simply considered in it self contributes nothing to the nearness and to the strength of the affection No love will reach a person at the other end of all the earth as well as if he were just by us in the very next room or in the very next dwelling You see both that and how it is the will of Jesus Christ that his Disciples should be one among themselves which is the first thing in the point But now there is a Second branch he would not have them only to be one among themselves but he would have them also to be one in God This is the special thing for which he is a Suitor to his Father in my Text That they may be all one as thou Father art in me and I in thee that they also may be one in us Not one among themselves alone but one in us which is indeed a very high thing Now that you may the better know what Christ intends in this particular you must consider that he speaks to God the Father as man and Mediator in this place For he speaks in prayer here and consequently when he saith As thou Father art in me and I in thee he speaks not of the union which is between his Father and himself as he is God For in that consideration the Father and the Son are so in one another that they are the very same The same Essence for so the union is Identical though they
the world There will be some elect continually to be brought in by this means Some to be added to the Church some to be joyned to the body mystical untill the dispensation of the fullness of time which the Apostle mentions Eph. 1.10 when all things shall be gathered into one which are in heaven and which are on earth So that you see my brethren Jesus Christ will be continually making further declarations of his Fathers Name to other Nations and to other persons But how will he make these further declarations Brethren he will not do it in his own person or by his own immediate voyce But he will do it other wayes 1. By his written word and Ministers in all ages for that which they declare in his name and by authority from him Jesus Christ himself declares To this end Christ hath set some in the Church some Ministers of all sorts as the Apostle tells us 1 Cor. 12.28 And that is out of all dispute in the universal Church which is not limited to any Countrey or to any age That so there might be continually some in all Churches and in all ages to publish what is to be manifested of his Father And hence said Christ to his Apostles Mat. 28.20 Lo I am with you to the end of the world They were not to continue for their own parts by many hundred years so long And therefore it must also stretch to those who were to follow them in the office and the work of Gospel preaching till it be published universally to all Nations in the outward promulgation and in the inward and effectual revelation to all persons to whom it is appointed so to be revealed Which was not done you know by the Apostles it was but begun by them and must be carrried on till it be finished by other Ministers to the end of the world And therefore when our Saviour Christ ascended and consequently could no longer teach his Church immediately in his own person he gave gifts unto men such gifts as he never gave before And he gave some Apostles Prophets Evangelists Some temporary some perpetual for the perfecting of the Saints for the work of the Ministry How long Till we all come all that are chosen whether Jews or Gentiles in the unity of the Faith unto a perfect man So that the Ministry shall be continued till all be gathered into Christ that shall be gathered and that is till the end of the world 2. Christ makes these further declarations of his Fathers name in every age by his spirit As he declares it outwardly to other persons by his word so he declares it inwardly to other persons by his spirit to his elect in every age to the end of the world And therefore when our Saviour Christ withdrew his corporal and fleshly presence he sent his spirit down to teach his people to lead them into all truth And by that spirit he declares his Fathers name and will do to the worlds end And he assured his Apostles in the place even now alledged Mat. 28.20 when he was even about to leave them as to his fleshly presence with them Lo I am with you alwayes viz. by my spirit to the end of the world That is with you and such as you are with you and your Successors still in every age as long as the world endureth Go ye therefore and teach all Nations and my spirit shall be with you So that what you teach all without he shall teach my elect within powerfully and with success till the last man be gathered in And then shall the end come Is it so that Jesus Christ will be continually making further declarations of his Fathers name to other Nations and to other persons to the end of the world Vse Then let us seriously consider what our dutie is in reference to this work which will be beautifull and glorious beyond all comparison and what Christ expects of us If he will do as he hath said let us examine what we are to do and what duty lyeth upon us relating to it in the mean time And here I shall propound a few things 1. Let us give him so much credit as to believe what he hath spoken And though it seem improbable that Christ should manifest his Fathers name to all Nations That all the Countreyes in the world should come to know him and to be acquainted with him yet seeing Christ hath undertaken it and bound himself by faithfull promise to his Father that as he hath declared his name already so he will be continually making further declarations of it to other persons and to other Nations let us say Amen to it As Mary sometimes when she had staggerd at the difficulty of the Promise at length recovered out of that fit of unbelief and set the seal of faith to it Be it according to thy word 2. Let our hearts be full of hope in reference to this business Since Christ hath undertaken it let us expect the execution of it Our Saviours words my brethren are a promise to the Father what he will do in after times for his people Saith he I will declare thy name to them And therefore as it is our duty to believe the promise so to expect the good things promised To be continually in a waiting frame looking and harkning after the accomplishment of this eximious work of his spying if we can see the day break and the Fathers name shine forth to other Nations who never had a glimsp of it by any Gospel Revelation till in the end from the rising of the Sun unto the going down of the same his name be great among the Gentiles according to that Prophesie relating to these latter times and ages of the world Mal. 1.11 3. Let us strive with Christ in prayer that he would make good the word that he hath spoken to the Father before so many witnesses Oh my beloved when ye look on many Heathen Nations that yet are overwhelmed in ignorance and Egyptian darkness that yet know nothing of the Fathers name when you look on many Christians in profession that yet are even in as bad a case as they some of which it may be have relation to your selves go to Jesus Christ and say O Lord thou hast professed that thou wilt declare thy Fathers name to other persons and to other Nations to the end of the world Lord there are such Nations there are such persons who yet are strangers to the Father who know no more of God in Christ then the very beasts that perish O be intreated to declare thy Fathers name to them Lord manifest the Father to them that they may know him to salvation 4. Let our hearts be full of joy while we are looking forward to the accomplishment of this work O let it chear our spirits under all the sinking damps and deep discouragements that are upon them in relation to the Church to think in what a blessed state and glorious
great honour It appears that God hath a design to honour Christ by the authority that he hath endowed him with and that is his own authority yea all his own authority as Christ himself acknowledges Mat. 28.18 All power is given to me both in heaven and in earth not some but all power The father judgeth no man saith our Saviour but he committed all Judgment to the Son John 5.22 He hath done in this respect as great men sometimes use to do if they have any title office or place of honour they are contented to convey it over to their eldest Son that they may credit him and raise him to esteem and reputation in his Country and it delighteth them as much to have him honoured as themselves Just so hath God the Father done by Jesus Christ The Father judgeth no man but hath committed all judgement to the Son He will be Iudge no longer by immediate execution but he hath made his Son the Judge of all the world And why so that he may compass the design of his for glorifying of his Son Christ That all men should honour the Son as they honour the Father as it is added in the next verse And as he hath in the sense that we have said resigned up his judiciary power abroad to Iesus Christ so the private Government of his family at home He hath made his eldest Son the Lord of all he hath set him over his house Heb. 3.6 The Son of God hath got a match though a poor one I confess and now the Father gives up the house-keeping wholly to him And hence saith the Apostle Paul Eph. 3.14 15. I bow my knees unto the Father of the Lord Jesus Christ of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named The whole family of heaven and earth is named from Christ whether the upper family of heaven or the lower family on earth whether the Church triumphant or the Church militant it is Christs family and Christs Church and Christs houshold God you see hath two houses and yet he doth not govern one himself and leave the other to his Son he commits the government of both to Jesus Christ that he may be all in all that he may be the more honoured It appears that God hath a design to glorifie his Son Christ by the great offices of dignity and trust and honour which he hath advanced and raised him to For he hath crowned him with glory and honour Three offices there are which have been alwayes looked upon as full of honour The office of a King of a Priest and of a Prophet Of a King in the Commonwealth and of a Ptiest and Prophet in the Church And all of them concurr in Jesus Christ he is annointed to them altogether And this is singular to Jesus Christ it is peculiar to himself alone no other man was ever thus advanced besides himself Some other men have had one of these offices or two at most but never any man had all three but Christ only So that he is in this respect transcendently advanced you see and God hath glorified him beyond measure and beyond pattern And that you may the better see the honour that is done to Iesus Christ in that he hath these three great Offices altogether in his hands I shall represent it to you in a few Particulars First By this means whatsoever good is purchased for the Church is procured by him only The Father that he may advance and honour Christ the more will have the Church beholding unto none but him for any good that she enjoys or looks for He must purchase peace and he must purchase grace for her the grace of righteousness and the grace of holiness he must satisfie he must sanctifie he must obtain her absolution and he must obtain her sanctification and he must obtain her glorification he must renew her right in outward things which she forfeited in Adam And he must do all this alone there must be none besides him none with him No he must tread the wine-press of his Fathers wrath alone By once offering of himself he must perfect for ever them that are sanctified The Lord hath given us no other King to subdue our enemies and to get peace for us No other Priest to satisfie his wrath and to obtain Grace for us No other Mediator between God and man either of Redemption or Intercession either of Redemption to purchase grace or of Intercession to sue out that which he hath purchased All lies on Jesus Christ you see that he may be all in all that all the glory may redound to him As whatsoever good is purchased for the Church is procured by him only so it is revealed by him only As he and he alone must get it so he and he alone must tell us of it It is an honour to be sent with good news and God hath done his Son this honour The Gospel as you know is glad tydings of great Joy and Christ is he that makes it known to men He brings it forth out of the bosome of the Father And therefore it is called the word of Christ Not only because Jesus Christ is the author and the Subject matter of it but the revealer of it too God in these latter daies hath spoken to us by his Son saith the Apostle speaking of the revelation of the Gospel Heb. 1.2 He had good news to tell the world and he sent his Son with it He sent Moses with the Law which was a Message full of terrour Moses was good enough for that The Gospel was a Message full of sweetness and full of Comfort and Christ must have the honour to reveal that to the world Indeed my brethren whatsoever good we know of God or of his favour and good will towards us or of the work of our redemption and reconciliation and attonement all comes out by Jesus Christ Christ is the only Prophet of the Church and if we ask the question which the Psalmist mentions Psal 4.6 Who will shew us any good The answer must be None but Iesus Christ can do it or those that are sent out by him with his Message and in his Name As whatsoever good is purchased for the Church is procured by Christ only and revealed by Christ only so it is dispensed by Christ only God doth not give it out immediately himself but he communicates it to us in and by and through Christ as the Expression of the Scripture is The grace of God is shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Lord Titus 3.6 As all comes by his means so all goes through his hands And therefore he is said to have received gifts for men Isa 68.18 God doth not give his gifts directly and immediately to men himself but Jesus Christ receieth their endowments for them of the Father that of his fulness they may all receive He is the Treasurer of his Fathers grace that every one may come to him
very great hazard He doth what lies in him to cross the Lord in that which he is most intent upon on which his heart is wonderfully set Great men cannot endure you know to be crossed in their wills or hindered of their purposes and how think you will the great God endure to be affronted and opposed and crossed in such a thing as this is From all Eternity he hath determined with himself to glorifie his Son Christ he hath had it in his heart from everlasting he hath resolved he shall be honoured and that not by men alone but by the very Angels too those eminent and glorious Creatures It is the Fathers pleasure that it shall be so as the Apostle tells us Heb. 1.6 When he bringeth in his first begotten into the world he saith and let all the Angels of God worship him Not serve him and obey him only but worship him with divine and with religious adoration which is the heigth and top of honour with the same honour that belongeth to the Father as Christ himself expresseth it Iohn 5.23 And if he must have honour such transcendent honour from the very Angels must he not have it from inferiour creatures who are far below Angels Yes Gods expects it that at the name that is the power and authority of Jesus every knee should bow not of things in heaven only but of things in earth too that is not of Angels only but of men So that you see the father looks for this at our hands he looks we should do honour to his Son He saith as in the Parable They will reverence my Son Though they have slighted and abused other messengers that I have sent among them yet they will surely reverence my Son It is impossible they should be so unworthy to contemn my own Son And what then do we think of those who dishonour and contemn him notwithstanding will the father who hath sent him to this End that he might be honoured take this well at their hands to be thus crossed in such a great design of his by wretched men To see his own begotten Son despised and scorned whom he hath done so much to honour Why you will say what need you be so earnest upon this particular Who doth dishonour Jesus Christ Who doth despise him or contemn him do we not all acknowledge him to be our Lord and Saviour and the like yes we do all acknowledge him in words indeed we call him Lord. But many of us buffet him and spit upon him in the very same breath There are abundance of us my beloved who in name are Christians who do exceedingly dishonour Jesus Christ whatever their pretences and protestations be and I will shew you briefly who they are All unbelievers do dishonour Christ exceedingly in this respect that they do not close with him That when he is proposed and offered to them in the Gospel they do not take him and receive him on the terms that he is offered but put him off with a denial This is a great dishonour to the Lord Christ It is no less then an implicite scorning and despising of him As if he were so poor a gift that he were not worth the taking Ah my beloved do but think upon it that after Christ hath undergone so much as he hath done for our salvation and after comes a begging to our own doors beseeching us that we will entertain him and receive him and accept of him and that not for his own advantage or profit that accrews to him but meerly for our own good That he should stoop so low even by entreaties to impose himself upon us and we should be inexorable to him and basely thrust him quite away from us and refuse to meddle with him Oh what a horrible indignity is this to Jesus Christ What an unspeakable debasing of him Yet thus all unbelievers use him All I mean where Christ is preached And that may be applied to them which the Evangelist affirmeth of the Jews Iohn 1.11 He came unto his own his own friends his own Kindred his own acquaintance his own nation yea people of his own Country But though they were his own they would not own him nor embrace him He came unto his own and his own received him not And so he comes to these men and that with obsecrations and entreaties too and they clap the door against him and shamefully gâ—ve him the repulse They tell him in effect that he may go to those that need him and look after him or care for him For their parts they will none of him then which there cannot be a viler or more ignominions usage in the world They that despise and slight the blood of Christ they dishonour Christ himself His blood you cannot chuse but think is dear to him and the contemptuous usage of it reflects with high disparagement upon him But you will say who de pises Christs blood are any so unworthy and so base among us yes there are some such among us who use the blood of Christ as if they did account it an unholy thing as if it were but common blood the blood of any ordinary creature which they might freely undervalue at their pleasure And so in doing this they tread underfoot the son of God as the Apostle speaks Heb. 10.29 they throw him down and tread him under foot as if he were but dust or dung or some such base unworthy thing which is the horriblest contempt that can be They tread under foot the Son of God while they account his blood an unholy thing But who accounts it so you will demand Why they that use it so do in effect account it so and truly there are multitudes of such among us When ordinary blood is shed as the blood of any beasts you know we make no reckoning of it we look not after it we spend not any thought upon it it is shed and there 's an end And verily my brethren there are many who make no more of the blood of Christ himself then if it were but common blood then if an Ox or any other beast were slain and so account it an unholy thing They never think upon it unless it be to swear by it they never meditate upon the end for which he shed it or the use which they ought to make of it He shed his blood for us saith the Apostle that we should live no longer to our selves but to him that died for us And yet how many are there who live wholly to themselves notwithstanding all this who seek themselves their own ends their own things and not the things of Jesus Christ He loved his Church and gave himself for it that he might sanctifie and cleanse it Eph. 5.25 that he might wash it in his own blood Apoc. 1.5 And yet what multitudes are here among us who are not cleansed or washed to this day but tumble in the Kennel still wherein the swine of this world wallow
could not be the least addition to him any way The meaning is that he had manifested and declared him to be glorious that he had shewed him in his glory to the world And this is that which he expresses clearly in the following verse saith he I have made known thy name to the men which thou hast given me And this he tels him he had done on earth It was done in heaven before the glory of the Lord was fully and immediately manifested there And now saith Christ it is done in earth too I have glorified thee on earth And hereupon he looks his Father should glorifie him with himself in heaven as it is added in the following words So that the point to be observed is this DOCTRINE Who ever will be glorified with God in heaven must glorifie him first on Earth Our Saviour Christ himself you see can have it on no other terms And therefore he desires it only upon this account saith he to God the Father I have glorified thee on Earth and now O Father glorifie me with thy self in heaven According to his first desire in his beginning of his prayer Father glorifie thy Son q. d. I should not look for any glory from thee unless I had brought glory to thee I should be far from any expectation that thou shouldst glorifie me with thy self in heaven unless I were assured in my self that I had glorified thee here upon the earth But seeing I have done the former I pray thee Father do the latter since I have glorified thee let me be glorified by thee And as it was with Christ the Head so it must be in some degree with all the Members No glory to be had in heaven till they have glorified God on earth It s true they merit not the glory they receive from God by that which they bring to God as Christ did but yet the one is not to be attained without the other They that bring God no glory in the present world shall have no glory from him in the world to come The Lord indeed will render glory to every man that worketh good and so glorifieth him as the Apostle shews Rom. 2.10 But unto them that are contentious and do not obey the truth but obey unrighteousness and so dishonour God in their lives and conversations he will render nothing else but shame and ignominy and confusion They shall be raised to everlasting contempt Dan. 12.2 and be made spectacles of shame to men and Angels Reas 1 And the ground is evident because so is the everlasting Counsel and Decree of God which is not to be altered or reversed Those whom he chuses for himself whom he predestinateth to be glorified with him in the world to come those he predestinateth also to bring glory to him in this present world As he predestinateth such to the inheritance above who is abundantly and out of measure glorious so he predestinates them also that they should be to the praise of his glory as the Apostle shews you Eph. 1.11 12. That he may manifest the riches of his glory in the vessels of mercy which he had afore prepared unto glory so that you see as he prepares them unto glory as he appoints them to be glorified themselves so he prepares them and appoints them to bring glory to himself Rom. 9.23 To shew forth the praises of him that hath called them to his Kingdom and glory 1 Pet. 2.9 Thy people shall be all righteous saith the Lord of his Church Isa 60.21 The branch of my planting the work of my hands that I may be glorified Not only that they may be glorified but that I may be glorified too And if this be the purpose and decree of God will he not see it executed and fulfilled in all respects as well with reference to his glory as with reference to theirs shall his Counsel be accomplished in the one and not in the other do you imagine that the Lord will be put off in such a fashion that he will be disappointed of his end and of his purpose in such a business as this is No no assuredly if he predestinate men that they may be to the praise of his glory as well as that they may be glorified by him to his praise and to his glory they shall be And if they be not so at all it is apparent they are not predestinated by him and consequently they shall have no glory from him Now is it so my Brethren that whoever will be glorified with God Vse 1 in heaven must glorifie him first on earth This then may serve to shew the vanity of their conceit and apprehension who look for glory in the world to come and yet they bring the Lord no glory here It is the miserable folly and delusion of the greater part of men there is not one of us almost but thinks that God will glorifie him with himself hereafter He is an extraordinary man that doth not feed himself with this fancy And yet those very persons many of them who are strong in this opinion take no care to honour God in any of their ways nor to bring him any glory why my beloved how can you think now to be glorified with him Jesus Christ his own Son the darling of his own bosom could not have glory with him upon these terms He did not once so much as look for it Had he not glorified his Father here in this world he would not have expected that he should have glorified him with himself in heaven ye see he seeks it and desires it only upon this account And what now do you think to speed better with the Father then Jesus Christ his own Son do you imagine that you shall have glory from him though you bring no glory to him when Christ himself did not could not obtain it upon such terms as these are do you look in this regard to be preferred before Christ to have the better of God himself Ah my beloved do not gull your souls with this delusion I beseech you think upon it you who by your lewd and vitious conversations dishonour God continually you who lie in wickedness and wallow in uncleanness whose lives are full of nothing but prophaneness who are conscious to your selves that God hath not a whit of glory brought him by you unless ungodliness and sin will do it To whom a man may truly say as the Apostle doth to some Rom. 2.24 The name of God is blasphemed by your means do you expect that God should glorifie you with himself in heaven when you have done nothing else but dishonoured him on earth believe it he will be so far from this that seeing he hath not been glorified by you he will be glorified upon you He made you for his glory and glory he will have either one way or another he will not lose a farthing by you And if he be not glorified by your holy conversation he will be glorified in
c. that in the mean time till he take us up to him to heaven personally he may draw us up to heaven virtually That till we follow him in person we may follow him in heart and in affection that may set them on the things that are above where Christ also fits on the right hand of God If Christ were still among us in the body and in a visible and fleshly way you are not able to imagine how much it would detain us here We should not care much to look higher then the place where Christ is But now he is departed from us into heaven this draws up our affections after him who is so infinitely dear pretious to us for where the treasure is there will the heart be also This makes us to desire with the Apostle to be with him to be dissolved and to be with Christ This makes us keep him company though at a distance It makes us heavenly in our discourses meditations conversations as the Apostle was Phil. 3.30 Our conversation is in heaven from whence we look for the Saviour even the Lord Jesus Christ JOHN 17.11 And now I am no more in the world IS it so that Jesus Christ as he is man is gone away out of this Vse 1 lower world c. Then let us not expect to see him here till he return again from heaven It 's true he shall so come again from heaven as the Apostles saw him going into heaven as you may see Act. 1.11 He shall come down again in a remarkable observable and visible way Behold he cometh with the clouds and every eye shall see him Apoc. 1.7 And in the mean time my Beloved the heavens must contain him or confine him as to his bodily or fleshly presence he must be comprehended there Act. 3.21 I say then as our Saviour Christ himself upon the like occasion Mat. 24.4 Take heed that no man deceive you for many shall come in my name saying I am Christ And though it seem so gross a business that there can be no danger in it yet it is added presently and they shall deceive many so that there may be need of this Caveat And therefore I beseech you my Brethren lay it up against the time of trial come if it ever come upon you For there shall arise false Christs and false Prophets as the true Christs tell us Mat. 24.24 insomuch that if it were possible they shall deceive the very Elect. And therefore if they say unto you Lo here is Christ or there believe them not If they say he is in the Desert go not forth he is in the secret chambers believe it not as Christ addes in that place If a seducing spirit tell you Christ is in such or such a place such or such a one is Christ as some have been so grossly impudent in these times believe him not If a Papist or Ubiquitary tell you Lo here is Christ lo he is corporally present in the Sacrament the bread is really and truly chang'd into his body believe him not No my Beloved do you depend on that which Christ himself affirmeth in my Text and now I am no more in the world as to my bodily and fleshly presence untill you see him come again as the Apostles saw him go away for every eye shall see him when he comes be confident he is not here in this world I say as Christ in the fore-alleadged place Take heed I have foretold you Vse 2 Is it so that Jesus Christ as he is man is gone away c. and that he hath withdrawn his corporal and fleshly presence from us Then let us make the more of the presence of his Spirit by which he is still among us If he be absent from us one way it is good reason that we should the more improve his presence with us in another The chief comfort of the soul consisteth in Communion with the Lord Christ in having fellowship with him Now Christ as he is man is ascended into heaven and so in that respect he is no more in the world We cannot yet go up to him though we would gladly die and be dissolved that we might be with Christ yet it cannot yet be But which way then shall we enjoy Communion with him Why my Beloved because we are not able to go up to him the Spirit will do so much for us that he will bring him down to us and thus though he be absent from us in the body yet he is present with us in the Spirit and will be to the worlds end according to his own promise Matth. 28.20 Lo I am with you always to the end of the world They are the last words of the Chapter and the last words of the Book and there is nothing added but Amen Let it be so and sure it is a sweet close Well then my Brethren let our work and business be to consider with our selves how we may the more enjoy him in the Spirit because we can no longer now enjoy him in the body How we may make the most of that we have And I shall give you the best advise that I am able in this great business If you desire to make the most of the presence of your Saviour in the Spirit now he is absent from you in the body you must be infinitely cautious that you do not grieve that Spirit by which he is present with you If you grieve and trouble him he will withdraw and hide himself from you and then Christ is wholly gone both in the Body and the Spirit too you do not sensibly enjoy him neither one way nor the other and so are in a very sad case Since the presence of the Spirit is all that you enjoy of Christ so that if he be gone my Brethren all is gone you must be very wary that you do not vex the Spirit and cause him to depart from you But you will ask me Which way do we vex and grieve the Spirit we would know it that so we might be careful to avoid it I might speak much of this Subject and draw out my discourse into abundance of particulars but I will say it in a word you grieve the Spirit when you deal unkindly with him any away This is the specal thing that grieves friends when one of them deals unkindely with another and so it is between the Spirit and the soul He comes to us from Christ in much love and much kindness to supply his absence from us and we are unkind to him and this grieves him out of measure Now we are unkind to him especially two ways and that is either when we slight him or resist him 1. When we slight him this is a very great unkindness and that which friends can very ill bear He makes tenders of himself and we take no notice of him he stands knocking at our doors or rather Jesus Christ by him and we let him knock still He would be
entertained by us and we will not entertain him or if we do it is in such a careless and in such a slight way as if he were not worthy to be looked upon The evil spirit comes and he hath all the welcome that the house can make he finds it swept and garnished the Holy Spirit comes and he is set behind doors He offers holy motions to us he stirs us up to read to pray to humble and afflict our souls to meditate of holy things and we neglect them as if they were not worth the hearkning to He offers sweet and pretious comforts to us and we forsake our own mercy we hanker after other pleasures and delights the comforts of the Spirit will not rellish with us our souls loath this light bread we must have fleshly satisfactions and refreshments spiritual will not serve the turn Brethren this is no good usage the Holy Spirit grieves at this He thinks as well he may he hath deserved better at our hands then this is I have brought down Christ to them and so have comforted and cheered them thinks he and now they slight and grieve me 2. And as we deal unkindly with him when we slight him so we deal more unkindly with him when we oppose him and resist him when we set our selves against him I know the Spirit of grace is irresistible in some respect but yet ad luctam he may be resisted though he cannot ad victoriam and so he is sometimes even by the Lords own people Even they have flesh within them that lusts against this Spirit as the Apostle Paul speaks That doth not slight it and neglect it only but lust against it The Spirit will have this or that done no saith the flesh it shall not the Spirit shall not be obeyed the Spirit will have such a lust cast out that is always crossing him and thwarting with him No saith the flesh it shall not goe The Spirit would have us set about such or such a holy duty the flesh opposes and resists the motion and we are well content it may be at present that it should do so and so we sit still and let all alone say the Spirit what he will Brethren the Spirit takes it very ill to be thus used by us it makes him sad that these whom he hath done so much for should make him such a recompence and that he should be wounded thus in the house of his friends That they should keep and favour fellows there and make them houshold-guests that go to thrust him out of doors when he comes to lodge with them I beseech you think upon it and give him better entertainment that so he may take pleasure to be with you If you desire to make the most of the presence of your Saviour in the Spirit now he is absent from you in the body as you must not grieve him so you must take singular and extraordinary comfort in him for he is sent down as a Comforter you know in Christs absence and therefore this is the special use that you are to make of him It is sad that Christ is gone but it is comfortable that the Spirit is come down from heaven to supply his place and therefore let us see that we take comfort in it Ah my Beloved is not this a sweet and welcome Office of the Spirit to represent Christ to us and so pretious and so sweet a friend as Christ is when he comes in and tells us Christ is gone up indeed to heaven and he will fetch you after him ere it be long that where he is there may you be also And in the mean time he hath taken care of you and he hath sent me down of purpose to be instead of him to you and he would have you look upon me as if he himself were with you Ah my Beloved should not our hearts even leap within us at such news as this Doth not the Spirit comfort us should it not be a ravishing and a reviving thing to us when he comes in Christs stead and supplies Christs room and Christs place Doth not our Saviour Christ himself propound it oftentimes to his Apostles and Disciples for their comfort when they were in heaviness and when their hearts were even about to break within them come be not troubled that I am about to leave you I will send you another Comforter that shall abide with you for ever Joh. 14.16 I have been a comfort to you I confess but I will send you another Comforter one that shall comfort you as much as I have done and one that shall stick to you and shall not leave you as I am about to do but shall abide with you for ever I will not leave you comfortless as Christ adds in the 18. verse No which way will you help it might they say How can we but be comfortless when Christ is gone why this way I will help it might our Saviour say I will come to you and be with you by my Spirit And though the world can never see me while my body is withdrawn and I am only present with you by my Spirit yet you have eyes to see me present with you this way and while you have this presence with you I hope you have no reason to complain that you are left without comfort So that the Spirit is a comforter you see by representing Christ to us yea it is a greater comfort that the Spirit is with us then if Christ himself were with us It is a greater comfort that Christ is present with us by his Spirit then if he should be present with us by his body then the comfort were more narrow but now it is more large then the comfort were more outward but now it is more inward then the comfort were more fleshly but now it is more spiritual and therefore let us take in this comfort If you desire to make the most of the presence of your Saviour in the Spirit now he is absent from you in the body as you must take in the comforts so you must take in the graces of the Spirit for even as Christ is present with you by the comforts so he is present with you by the graces of the Spirit By these he dwells among us though he be in heaven in the body as the Psalmist intimates Psal 68.18 When he ascended up on high he received gifts for men the gifts and graces of the Spirit to bestow on men that the Lord God might dwell among them by those gifts and those graces And therefore the Apostle prays for the Ephesians that Christ might dwell in their hearts by faith one of the principal of those graces Ephes 3.17 Well then my Brethren when Jesus Christ makes tenders of himself to you by these graces let him come in and dwell with you Make the more of this way of his residence and habitation with you because you cannot have him in the other When he offers any
grace consider with your selves Now Jesus Christ draws nigh to me he that is above in heaven and with relation to his bodily and fleshly presence is no more in this world is in another way coming into my soul And therefore do not shut the doors against him but bid him very welcome when he comes when he offers more knowledge faith love hope patience let not these offers be refused Remember when you take in these you take in Christ with them in the presence of his Spirit So much as you enjoy of these so much you enjoy of Christ and therefore seek and value every saving grace the more and be the readier to receive and entertain it because it brings Christ with it Is it so that Jesus Christ as he is man is gone away c. Then let us Vse 3 also go away out of the world to him that we may be where he is I say as Christ to his Disciples in another case Arise let us go hence Jesus Christ is gone you hear and why then do we stay behind him why do we tarry here when Christ is gone It 's true we cannot go to him in the body but yet as Christ though he be absent from us in the body yet he is present with us by his Spirit so we upon the other side though we be absent from him in the body let us be present with him in the Spirit and as he comes from heaven to us by his Spirit though his body stay there so let us go from earth to heaven to our Saviour in our spirits though our bodies stay here But you will ask me How may this be done or how may we be present with our Saviour in our Spirits I Answer 1. We may be present with him in the thoughts and meditations of the Spirit These are the proper actings of the soul the inner man and if our thoughts be much upon him we are in this respect much with him And therefore I beseech you my Beloved let us feed our selves continually with sweet and pretious thoughts of Jesus Christ though we be here below and must continue so till Christ be pleased to take us to himself yet let our minds ascend to heaven and let our thoughts and meditations be where Christ is Oh let us think upon him in the day and in the night upon our beds when we are still and have nothing to distract us then let our hearts be filled with sweet soliloquies with ravishing and transporting thoughts of Christ that we may speak to him as David did Psal 104.34 How pretious are the thoughts of thee O Lord How great is the sum of them It passes my Arithmetique to cast them up 2. Let us be present with our Saviour in the affections of the Spirit let our spirits cleave to him though we be absent from him in the body Where Jesus Christ our treasure is there let our hearts be also That as Elisha said to Gehazi once Went not my heart with thee when at that very time he was sitting in his house and Gehazi was abroad 2 King 5.26 So we may say to Jesus Christ though in another way However we be absent from thee in the body yet is not our heart with thee as the Apostle to the Thessalonians We Brethren being taken from you in presence not in heart 1 Thes 2.17 so we to Jesus Christ Oh Lord though we be separated from thee in our bodies we are not separated from thee in our hearts They are continually with thee nor shall they be divided from thee 3. Let us be present with our Saviour in the desires and anhelations of the Spirit let them be always mounting up where he is he is gone and in the mean time till he come again to us let us long to go to him Oh let us build no Tabernacles on the Tabor of this world since our Saviour is not here But let us look upon our selves as banished men as the Apostle did knowing that while we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord 2 Cor. 5.6 and so let us groan earnestly to get to Christ as he did Let us be always breathing gasping fainting after Jesus Christ and putting out our heads to see when he will come and receive us to himself that where he is there may we be also And thus far of the first particular suggested in the words the departure of our Saviour out of this lower world to the immediate presence of his Father And now I am no more in the world but I come to thee The second follows now in order to be handled and that is his Disciples stay behind him But these are in the world and are where they are like to be and where they are to tarry and remain when I am gone The world in which our Saviour Christs Apostles and Disciples were and were to stay must be conceived to be the very same which Christ himself was now about to leave and from which he was ready to depart viz. this lower world beneath heaven that from which he was to go in that were his Disciples and Apostles to remain And now I am no more in the world but these are in the world the self same world in which I am to be no more But why is this alleadged by our Saviour to his Father here that the Apostles and Disciples were to stay in this world apparently to shew what cause he had to mention them in his Petitions and to commend them to the special care and mercy and protection of his Father As in the words that are immediately annexed Holy Father keep them through thy own Name q. d. I am even now about to leave them and to leave them in the world and thou knowest what a place the world is how troublesome unpleasing and vexatious it hath continually been to my Disciples and therefore I beseech thee Father keep them have a special eye upon them who are to stay behind me in such a place as this is So that the point apparently suggested here is this DOCTRINE The world hath alwayes been and is an evil and uncomfortable place to Christs Disciples It is a sad and doleful place to live in and hence our Saviour seeemeth to bewail the case of his Apostles and Disciples in my Text These are in the world saith he as if he should have added and that is but an ill place Now that I may the better clear it and evince it to you I shall shew in what respects the world is such an evil and uncomfortable place to Christs Disciples It is in this respect an evil and uncomfortable place to Christs Disciples that it is a place of suffering In which they are continually to be exposed to many tryals and to many troubles Though they be in the world yet they are not of the world and therefore they are hated by the world as Jesus Christ himself informeth his Disciples John 15.19 If ye were of
fruitfull and have more encrease of children then she that sometimes had an husband Oh let us magnifie the grace of Iesus Christ let us adore the infiniteness of his mercy that he hath cast us on these happy times wherein he takes such care of poor Gentiles wherein he sends to them and wherein he looks after them as if they were some rich purchase Ah my beloved did we follow this mercy as far as we could reach it in our thoughts we should at length finding no end or bottom in it cry out with the Apostle Oh the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and goodness of Christ c. JOHN 17.18 Even so have I also sent them into the world DOCTRINE 3. There is a great similitude between the Fathers sending Christ into the world and Christs sending his Apostles and Ministers into the world THis is apparently suggested here in the particle as and the particle also As thou hast sent me into the world even so have I also sent them into the world My sending them is much like thy sending me So he compares them each with other in another place almost in the same words Iohn 20.21 As my Father hath sent me so send I you The thing is plain enough that so it was in some respects But wherein and in what respects this likeness stood will need to be explained with much Caution Because as there was great likeness between the Fathers sending Christ and Christs sending his Apostles and Ministers into the world so there was a great unlikeness too As the similitude was great so certainly the dissimilitude was great too And therefore while I shew the likness I will shew you the unlikeness both of them at one veiw That you may see the one the better for the other As God the Father sent the Son with authority and power so Jesus Christ sends his Apostles and Ministers with authority and power too as God gives him power so he gives them power And therefore having said to his Apostles All power is given to me both in heaven and in earth Mat. 28.18 he adds immediately in the very next words Go ye therefore and teach all Nations and baptize them q. d. because I have received such ample power my self therefore I give you this Commission by which I put a part of this authority and power on you Go forth and exercise it over all the world And this is that which the Apostle calls the power which Christ hath given him 2 Cor. 13.10 To intimate that he received his power and his authority by way of delegation from the Lord Christ as Christ received his power and his authority as he is man and Mediator by way of delegation from the Father and as the Father gives the Son a Key of power as you may see in that remarkable place Isa 22.22 The Key of the house of David will I lay upon his shoulder that is upon the shoulder of Eliakim who was in that respect a figure and a Type of Christ and he shall open and none shall shut and he shall shut and none shall open so Christ gives Keyes of power to his Apostles and his Ministers as you may see exemplified in Peter Mat. 16.19 I will give thee saith Christ the Keyes of the Kingdom of heaven and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven viz. either in the preaching of the word or in the regular administration of the censures of the Church Here is a great Similitude you see between the power with which the Father sendeth Christ and the power with which Christ sendeth his Apostles and his Ministers into the world As Christ hath power to shut and open from the Father so have they from Jesus Christ as Christ hath power to bind and loose from God the Father so have they from Jesus Christ As Christ hath power to remit sins and to retain them from the Father so have they from Christ and therefore having said to his Apostles As my Father hath sent me so send I you he adds immediately in the next verse save one Whosesoever sins ye remit they are remitted and whosesoever sins ye retain they are retained But yet as the similitude is great in this respect so is the dissimilitude The power which Jesus Christ received from God the Father is an universal power All power is given to me saith our Saviour both in heaven and in earth Mat. 28.19 And in another place he minds his Father That he had given him power over all flesh Joh. 17.2 But now that power which the Apostles and the Ministers of Christ received from him is more particular and more confined Jesus Christ hath all power all sorts and all degrees of power they have but some power some sorts and some measures The power which Jesus Christ receives from God the Father is a Kingly power he sets him up as King upon his holy hill of Sion and so accordingly he crowns him The power which they receive from Christ is but a Ministerial power Christ hath a Legislative power to make laws while they have but a Legis-narrative or Declaratory power to publish laws Christ doth jus dare and they do but jus dicere Christ binds and looses shuts and opens remitteth and retaineth sins authoritatively as a Soveraign Lord they do it but declaratively as his Ministers and servants There is a great similitude between the Fathers sending Christ c. in regard of qualification as Christ receives an unction from the Father to his Office so they received an unction from the Son to their Office as Christ is qualified with the Spirit so are they Let us compare them each with other and we shall see it very clear The Prophet speaking in the Person of our Saviour saith The Spirit of the Lord is upon me he hath anointed me to preach Isa 61.1 And so accordingly when he first began to preach he took this very Text to preach upon as you may see Luk. 4.18 Behold my servant saith the Lord whom I uphold Isa 42.1 and mine Elect in whom my soul delighteth I have put my Spirit upon him and that to qualifie him for his Office as is apparent in the following words for it is added presently That he shall bring forth judgement to the Gentiles A bruised reed shall he not break c. And this is that which is suggested in the Prophesie Isa 11.2 The Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him and it shall rest upon him in those graces and endowments that fit him for the places to which he is designed And hence it is immediately annexed The Spirit of wisdom and of understanding the Spirit of counsel and of might the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord. So then you see the Father as he sends Christ so he endues him with the Spirit to fit him for the business that he sends him
can teach us to love our brethren whom we see then much more none but he can teach us to love him whom we do not see and therefore let us earnestly beseech him to help us to take forth this Lesson 2. Let us endeavour to grow up in the knowledge of the Lord and as we know him better we shall love him more That which one affirms of Learning may be well applied to God Non habet inimicum nisi ignorantem He hath such matchless excellency and beauty in him that he that knows him cannot choose but love him Indeed while we are unacquainted with him the admirable worth and lustre that is in him doth not take a whit upon us The Philosopher will tell us that the judgement must be first of all convinced of the worth and value of a thing before the heart will close with it and the affections cleave to it Nec enim potes aut amare quem nescias aut habere quem non amaveris Thou canst not love him thou knowest not nor have him whom thou lovest not And hence it is that wicked and ungodly men love not God or Christ at all because they know him not at all Or if they know him any way it is not under such a notion as makes him beautifull and lovely to them Perhaps they know him as a Judge or an Avenger not as a Father and a Saviour And this is indeed the cause why the triumphant Saints in heaven love him more then the Saints militant on earth because they have a fuller clearer and distincter knowledge of him We see him darkly in a glass but they see him face to face And this is the reason also why we love not God so much on earth as we shall do in heaven viz. because we know him not so well here as we shall do in that place So that our love to God you see is answerable to our knowledge of him as we know him more or less so we love him more or less And therefore if we do desire indeed to love him more let us strive to know him more 3. Another means to grow up in the love of God is to have daily more communion and intimacy with him And this as I conceive it is a means distinct from that which goes before For it is one thing to know him and another to have communion and to be familiar with him We know abundance with whom we have no intimacy in the world No we know them too well perhaps to be familiar with them So we may have a speculative knowledge of the Father and the Son and yet may have no intimate acquaintance with them And this is very necessary to encrease love To kindle and enflame affection as the Philosopher observeth there must be Convictus crebra conversatio They must dine and supp together they must walk and talk together And wheresoever there is strangeness there can be no great love And therefore if we would abound in the love of God and Christ let us have more communion with them Beloved if we be not wanting to our selves we may be very much with God We may speak with him often in a day we may talk with him face to face in our addresses to his holy Majesty we may give him many visits he doth not interdict us but invite us to come and sup with him and be acquainted with him throughly once he is so pretious and so sweet a friend that we shall love him out of all measure 4. Endeavour to the utmost of your power to dispossess your hearts of the unlawful love of worldly things for this is incompatible inconsistent with the love of God If any man saith the Apostle love the world the love of the Father is not in him 1 Joh. 1.15 Let him be what he will my Brethren if he love the world he loves not God And therefore ler not any covetous and wretched worldling make shew of having any love to God For certainly it is not in him The friendship of the world saith the Apostle James 4.4 is emnity with God And therefore if we would be friends of God we must dissolve this friendship with the world Inordinate irregular unlawful love of worldly things must be expelled And as this love is cast out the love of God will come in 5. Be often in the company and fellowship of those that love God Converse with those who are most endeared to him and they will be continually speaking of him and seting forth his excellency beauty love and so will kindle and enflame your hearts towards him They who are full of sweet affections to the Lord if you be much among them will work you to the same temper You may observe it in Cant. 5.10 and the following verses that when those daughters of Jerusalem who at first despised Christ and wondred why the Church his Spouse should praise him so and make such a stir about him yet when they had a while conversed with the Church and heard her speak of Christ with such affection admiring and extolling him above the skies they also fall in love with him and they will go together with the Church to seek him out Whither is Beloved gone say they O thou fairest among women whither is thy Beloved turned aside that we may seek him with thee And thus you see my Brethren frequent intercourse and holy conference with those that love God is one effectual means to fill and to enflame our hearts with love to him 6. Labour to comprehend with all the Saints the greatness of the love of God to you and to assure it to your own souls It is not all the beauty and the excellency in the world that will allure us to the 〈◊〉 love one that we imagine doth not love us But if we see and be assured of the love of God to us this will kindle love to him and make our hearts to melt towards him When we consider with our selves what kindness he hath shewed to us what he hath done for us what matchless and unfathomed love he hath discovered to us this will raise our affections high to him again and make us even sick of love And therefore I beseech you strive to be more and more assured of this for at this flame you must kindle your fire Here you must fetch your little spark of love whereof the Saints are capable in this life from the love of God to you which being kindled in your hearts it will never leave aspiring and flying higher and higher still till it have joyned it self unto that infinite and endless flame from whence it issued and proceeded And indeed as Bernard very well observes we cannot answer God or Christ so well in any thing as love To say the truth we must not answer him in other things If he be angry or displeased with us we ought not be angry or displeased with him again If he condemn and censure us we
only but he is his heir too Yea he hath made him heir of all things Heb. 1.1 Why just so he hath done by us for we are children whom he loves even as he loves Christ As Christ is his Son and Heir so we are heirs of God through Christ Gal. 4.17 Joint heirs with Christ Rom. 8.17 Not heirs divided and apart from Christ but joint with Christ And even as Christ is heir of all things so we are heirs of all things too All is ours and we are Christs 1 Cor. 3.21 A man can have but earth and heaven and we are heirs to both in Christ The meek shall inherit the earth saith the Psalmist Psal 37.11 c. And as we are heirs to earth so we are heirs of heaven too and that by virtue of our Son-ship we are begotten to it as the Apostle speaks 1 Pet. 1.3 He hath begotten us to an inheritance c. So that the child of God you see engrosseth all earth is his and heaven is his and nothing else remains for other men but hell only Oh the unutterable happiness of those whom God the Father loves even as he loves Christ he gives his own Son nothing but they have a share with him And thus far of the first main thing which Christ desires of God the Father in the behalf of true believers that they may be all one Which suit he prosecutes with many arguments as you have heard The second follows now in order to be handled and this is that they may be all in one place They may be one by such an union as our Saviour means a spiritual and a mystical union though they be in divers places But Christ is not content with this you see he will not only have them to be all one but he will have them also to be all in one place the same place where he is Father I will that they also whom thou hast given me be with me where I am c. And here you may take notice with me of these two particulars First the manner how our Saviour Christ propounds this suit of his And then the matter of it or the suit it self First the manner how our Saviour here propounds this suit of his and that is boldly and confidently as you see Father I will he saith not as in other places Father I pray or I desire or I beseech thee and entreate thee that it may be thus but I will have it to be thus No more but so Father I will that they whom thou hast given me Secondly And then you have the matter of the suit which he propounds the thing which he will have to be That they also whom thou hast given me be with me where I am Begin we with the manner how our Saviour here propounds this suit of his confidently as I said Father I will I shall not hence conclude as Austin did sometimes against the Arrians the Sons equality with God the Father because he speaks in such a peremptory manner to him if I may express it so Father I will or elsesaith he he would have spoken in a supplicating and entreating not in a willing and commanding way That Christ as God is equal with the Father is a certain truth and manifestly to be proved from other Scriptures But certainly it is not to be gathered hence for in this Chapter all along he speaks as man and as man he is inferiour to the Father And therefore usually before he saith I pray or I intreat he speaks in a submissive way though here he uses such a term as seems to to carry more authority Father I will Now since he speaks as man and mediator as that is very evident we must understand him here in such a way as is agreeable to Christ in that capacity and under that consideration And consequently that he doth not here imperiously require of God the Father and yet upon the other side he doth so express himself as being very confident that he shall have his own pleasure and that his will shall surely carry it with God the Father without any contradiction If he will it it is done without any more ado Father I will have it so and there 's an end And so accordingly the point shall be DOCTRINE The will of Christ as Mediator is as it were a law with God the Father or Christ may have even what he will of God the Father And therefore praying here that all believers might be together with him in the same place he saith no more but this Father I will that they also whom thou hast given me be with me where I am And this is that which Martha was so stedfastly perswaded of that Christ was sure to speed with God in any suit that he would make to him She had no doubt at all concerning this as you may see John 11.22 I know saith she that whatsoever thou wilt ask of God God will give it thee Let it be what it will God will not turn thee off with a denial And least you should conceive that this was but a groundless confidence in her you shall find it seconded by Christ himself ver 42. of the very same Chapter which puts it out of all question If you survey the supplications that he made while he was here upon the earth you shall perceive what force they had with God the Father The Apostle Paul observes that he was very earnest with him in a weighty business Heb. 5.7 and what was the event and issue of it he was heard as it is added presently no more but so he was granted out of hand So in another place he prayed for Peter in a special manner that his faith might never faâ—l Luke 22.32 that it might not wholly fail so as to be quite lost and utterly extinct in him His faith was shaken after this indeed but it was not overthrown it fainted but it did not fail So that Christ had his full desire in that particular I shall add no more for proof you see the will of Christ as Mediator is c. And there are many Reasons of it For He is the Fathers own Son And Fathers use to be indulgent to their Reason 1 Children to let them have their ears yea and their very hearts too Our Saviour calls him Father all along this prayer Indeed he gives him once the attribute of Holy once the attribute of Righteous Father But this is still the appellation that he uses and from which he never varies If he call him any thing he calls him Father And therefore he presumeth much upon him because of this relation to him that he shall not be denyed he is the bolder while he considers he is speaking to a Father as that is his expression in my Text it self Father I will Come I must have my will in this particular thou must not put me off with a denyal for I am thine own Son Reason 2 Yet this is not sufficient
respects besides it matters not in this of what Nation Condition Station Disposition or Conversation for the present if God have given them to him his will is that they be with him where he is But then we must distinguish as we have done before of the Fathers giving to the Son The Father gives men to the Son either for outward Ministration or inward union and incorporation Either to be his servants or to be his members In the first sence Judas was himself given to the Lord Christ to be his Minister and his Apostle as Christ himself acknowledges ver 12. Those whom thou gavest me I kept and none of of them is lost but the Son of perdition Now they who in this sence are given to the Lord Christ to be his Ministers and Servants only not his members are not the men for whom he prayes in this place that they also may be with him where he is because he knows they are appointed for another place Judas was so bestowed upon him and yet he was a lost Creature The Father gave him to the Son and he lost him as you may see in the forecited Text never to enjoy him more But now there are another sort whom God the Father gives to Christ for inward union whom he bestows upon him for to be members of his body And they must needs be with him who are in him And therefore out of question these are they for whom he prayes Father I will that they also whom thou hast given me be with me where I am But where was Christ when he spake these words Why he was upon the earth he was here in the world what then doth he desire that true believers might be with him here Is that the aim of his petition No it is a higher thing for which he is Suitor here their being with him in a higher and more glorious place Only you must conceive him here to speak as his usual manner is as if he were in heaven already As ver 11. of this Chapter And now I am no more in the world So in my Text Father I will that they whom thou hast given me be with me where I am That is in heaven where I am to be and whither I am now going So that it is as if I were already there it being such a certain near approaching instant thing and in that place I would have all those to be whom thou hast given me by election and whom in thine eternal Counsell and Decree thou hast appointed to be members of my body Father I will c. So that the Point to be observed is this DOCTRINE It is the will of Jesus Christ that all that are his own by the donation of the Father shall be in heaven where he is There are two things in the Doctrine which I might prove clear in order before I come to Application First that there are some certain men whom God the Father hath made over to the Son that belong to Jesus Christ and are his own by donation from the Father Secondly that it is the will of Christ that they who are so his own shall be in heaven where he is There are some certain men who belong to Jesus Christ who are his own by donation from the Father And he gives them to the Son by his Decree from everlasting and by the execution of the same Decree in time This I do but mention here because it hath been largely handled on ver 12. Now for the second branch that it is the will of Christ that they who are so his own shall be in heaven where himself is you see it is the Suit he makes to God the Father in my Text Father I will that they whom thou hast given me be with me where I am that is in heaven where I am to be In heaven where I am already in my Godhead and where I am to be very shortly in my Manhood there I will have them to be also And for this end our Saviour Christ is gone to heaven even to make heaven ready for his people that so they may be presently admitted when they come He yields it as one special cause of his departure from his Apostles and Disciples when he was about to leave them saith he I go to prepare a place for you Joh. 4.2 When he entred into heaven and passed in to the immediate presence of his Father he took possession of it in our name and stead and left it open after him to all his members He hath in this respect prepared it for them that he hath made it ready to receive them And when they are ready too he will come and receive them to himself that where he is there may they be also as it is added Joh 14.3 And upon this account it was that the Apostle Paul desired to be dissolved because he was assured that assoon as that was over he should be with Christ Phil. 1.23 and so he teaches us expresly in another place that all that sleep in Christ Jesus shall be for ever with the Lord 1 Thes 4.17 By which it is apparent that it is the will of Christ that all that are his own by the donation of the Father shall be in Heaven where himself is But you will ask me Why will he have them to be there To this I answer that a man would think it necessary by reason of the union between Christ and them that seeing they are one they should be in one place But you must know my brethren that the corporeal and local presence of the parties contributes nothing to the union that is made between Christ and his members which is a spiritual and invisible thing and which no neerness in regard of place can further no distance in regard of place can hinder So that Christs people may be in him though they be not with him in the sence wherein I speak I mean not with him in the same place Their being with him locally in heaven is no way necessary to their union with him Or were it so the Saints on earth were in a very ill case Well then this cannot be the reason why Christ would have his people to be in one place with him that they may be one with him They may be this without the other But there are divers other weighty reasons of the Point I shall name a few of them Reason 1 Christ would have his people be in heaven where himself is because he hath a dear affection to them his heart is carried out exceedingly in love to them And more particularly and distinctly he loves them with a love of benevolence and he loves them with a love of complacency 1. Christ would have his people be in heaven where himself is because he loves them with a love of benevolence With such a love as makes him with them all the good that they are possibly capable of Now my beloved what greater good can be
wished to true Believers then to be with Christ in heaven To be in heaven where they shall be absolutely and compleatly holy and happy where they shall never sin and where they shall never suffer any more where holiness and happiness shall be both perfect where there is fulness of joy and pleasure for evermore and to be with Christ there of whose immediate prefence true believers are inavoidably debarred as long as they remain in this world While they are at home in the body they are absent from the Lord as 2 Cor. 5.6 But when they come to heaven they shall be with him they shall have the compleat and full fruition and enjoyment of him which is the greatest happiness that can be To be with Christ is best of all 1 Phil. 23. To be with Saints on Earth is good though they be imperfect here and though by reason of their imperfections they be the less delightfull and the less beneficial to us To be with Saints in heaven is better because they are perfect there There are the spirits of just men made perfect But to be with Christ there is best of all This is so good that there is nothing better there is no higher happiness attainable by any creature And therefore Christ would have his people to enjoy it to be in heaven where himself is because he loves them with a love of benevolence 2. Jesus Christ would have his people to be in heaven where himself is because he loves them with a love of complacency because he takes delight in them and friends that delight in one another think it not sufficient to be present each with other by the presence of their hearts and spirits No if it be possible they will be present each with other in their bodies too as you may see in Jonathan and David what shifts they made to come together So Jesus Christ who loves his people out of measure is not content that he is with them in his spirit and that they are again with him in their spirits No this is not enough but he must have their bodies with him too he must enjoy their company in heaven or else it is not well there Christ is not fully satisfied till he enjoy the sweet Society of his beloved Saints in heaven with whom he hath such intimate and dear acquaintance while they are here upon earth And hence he beggs his Father for them to bring them to the same place where himself is as if he could not live in heaven without them Father I will that c. 2. There is a second reason added in the Text which I shall handle Reason 2 only under that consideration Father I will that they whom thou hast given me be with me where I am And why so might the Father ask him Why that they may behold my glory which thou hast given me as it is added in the next words That they may see the lustre which I sparkle with The glory of Christs humane nature in heaven is exceeding great The Evangelist who saw it through the dimm spectacles of humane frailty endeavours as he can to set it forth Saith he his Countenance was as the Sun that shineth in his strength Apoc. 1.16 But this was but a short resemblance Our Saviour Christ who knew it better carries it a little higher The Son of man saith he shall come in the glory of the Father Mat. 16.27 In comparison of whose incomparable lustre and transcendent brightness the Sun it self is but a shaddow Now Christ would have his people be in heaven where himself is that they may see this glory which he sh nes withall But why would he have them see it what shall they gain by it 1. While they see it they cannot but exceedingly rejoyce in it It cannot but transport them even to an extasie of joy to see him whom they love so infinitely sparkle forth with such dazling raies of glory Oh will the poor believer say This is my head my husband whom my soul loveth that is become so out of measure glorious There was a time when he was black and when there was no form nor beauty in him when wretched men made him vile and ignominious and when they hid their faces as if they were ashamed of him But now he shines forth as the Sun that hath been masked with a gloomy cloud This is he that died for me that shed his blood for me that loved me and gave himself for me Oh how my heart is ravished to behold his glory 2. While they behold it as they shall rejoyce in it so they shall partake of it And that especially two wayes both by union and reflection First they shall partake of it by union for being one with Jesus Christ they cannot choose but share together with him in his glory And as the glory of the members redoundeth to the glory of the head in which respect it is that the Apostle saith that Christ shall be admired in all them that believe So on the other side the glory of the head redoundeth much more to the glory of the members Secondly And as they shall partake hereof by union so also by reflection when they see Christ while they behold the glory of the Lord they shall be transformed into the same image from glory to glory Their vile bodies shall be conformed to his glorious body Phil. 3.21 And while they see him as he is they shall be like him as the Apostle John insinuates 1 Epist 3.2 They shall bear the very image of the heavenly Adam 1 Cor. 15.48 And as the face of Moses shined when he had been with God upon the Mount so when we come to be with Christ in heaven and to behold his glory there we shall reflect it back again and so shall shine together with him in the same glory And this is another reason why Christ will have his people to be with him that they may see his glory and seeing may partake of it both by union and reflection Use Now to descend to application Is it the will of Christ c. Here then you see the singular and extraordinary happiness of Christs people If they were alwayes to remain to set up their perpetual abode in this world it would be very sad with them It is a vale of tears a most uncomfortable place especially to Christs people in which they are not like to have a quiet hour almost as long as they remain in it But now the comfort is that it is the will of Christ that they that are bestowed upon him by his Father shall not alwayes stay here that he will have them come to heaven where himself is That he will not alwayes leave them in this vale of tears but he will one day bring them to a place of joy there to enjoy himself for ever to keep no longer at a distance from him but to be with him where he is To be with Christ in any
the Godhead For the first person of the Godhead though it be the Father of our Saviour Christ as God yet it is not so properly the Father of our Saviour Christ as man And our Saviour Christ speaks as man in this place And therefore Father here is essentially taken for the whole Godhead subsisting in the three persons And even as we by Father mean the Godhead when we pray our Father which art in heaven So doth our Saviour Christ too As man he is in this respect like us as the Apostle tells us he is in all things like unto us sin only excepted Now the attribute he gives the Godhead which he denotes by Father here is righteous Righteous Father But wherefore doth he mention this rather then any attribute of God on this occasion Why might he not have said as well Almighty or Eternal or Mercifull or Gratious Father The special reason why he chooses this expression as far as I conceive cannot be cleerly and undoubtedly resolved Judicious Calvin thinks he doth it in opposition to the unrighteousness of men So to comfort true believers that however they were like to meet with nothing but injustice and unrighteousness in the world yet he was now committing them into the hands and keeping of a righteous God Others guess at other reasons Once this is clear and manifest that he picks out this attribute of God among the rest and whereas many others lay before him he fixes upon this only He comes to God in prayer by the name of righteous Father The thing is evident though the particular Consideration that induced him to it be unknown So that the Points to be observed here are two First God is a just and righteous God in himself and in all his dispensations Secondly That Jesus Christ came to him as a righteous God when he was pouring out his prayers to him or making his Petition to him DOCTRINE God is a very just and righteous God None knew him better then our Saviour and he calls him Righteous Father So doth the Holy Ghost in Scripture very often The Prophet David stileth him The Righteous God Psal 7.9 And Jeremiah The Lord that judgeth righteously Jer. 11.10 Indeed he doth not judge after the sight of his eyes nor reprove after the hearing of his ears that is he is not deceived with the external shew of things with which the eyes of men are often taken He is not misled and carried with reports to deal unjustly in the least degree No with righteousness he doth judge the poor who many times are over-born in lower Courts by those that are too strong and mighty for them and reprove with equity for the meek of the earth Though they be meek though they be not clamorous and troublesome and though they do not wring out justice from him as the poor widdow in the Gospel did from the unrighteous Judge by unweariedness earnestness and tyring importunity yet they shall have it easily and readily he will dispense it to them freely of his own accord And this is that which holy David so applauds him for and he will have it spoken to his praise among the Heathen Psal 96.10 Say among the Heathen The Lord reigneth and he shall judge the people righteously Let the Heavens rejoyce and let the Earth be glad before the Lord for he cometh for he cometh to judge the Earth He shall judge the world with Righteousness and his people with his Truth So that you see the point is clear That God is a very just and righteous God And you will be the better satisfied in it if you consider but these three things First the largeness of his Jurisdiction and Dominion His Government is universal and extends to all the world and therefore he must needs be righteous He is the judge of all the earth And what said Abraham Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right Gen. 18.25 The Supream and Soveraign Judge before whose dread Tribunal all the World must stand and at whose Bar they must be tryed for that which most concerns them too their precious souls from whose determination no man can appeal with any hope of being righted in a higher Court seeing there is none above it Is God unrighteous I say as the Apostle Rom. 3.5 How then shall he judge the world Indeed inferiour Governours may be unrighteous and corrupt and yet this universal frame continue and subsist because they are perpetually subject to the Soveraign Judge who standeth in the Congregation of the Mighty and is a Judge among the Gods as David speaks Psal 82.1 But if the universal Judge should be unjust whom none can over-top nor call to an account what could be lookt for but confusion Another ground of the righteousness of God is the immensity and infiniteness of his presence As he is Governour and Judge of all the world so he is in all the world The largeness of his presence is answerable to the largeness of his Jurisdiction and Dominion and this contributes very much to the uprightness and the justice of his Government Inferiour Magistrates although perhaps they have no mind to be unjust yet they are often times misled by sinister information They are not present everywhere they see not every thing themselves and therefore are necessitated to proceed secundum allegata probata And many times it comes to pass that things which are untrue are testified and proved before them and so they do injustum though not injustè by means of which the Innocent is injured and oppressed See an example of it in Mephibosheth who by the false suggestions of his wicked servant Ziba was outed of his goods and his possessions 2 Sam. 16.4 Had David known that good Mephibosheth had still remained loyal to him had he not been abused by a forged information how far would he have been from doing such apparent wrong as he did in that sentence But he relyed on Testimony for the truth of that which by reason of remoteness could not fall within the compass of his own notice and so was led into that gross mistake which you have heard Now there can no such Errors happen in the Government of God because himself is present every where and therefore cannot be misguided by finister information He taketh nothing upon trust upon suggestion as all our Governours on earth do No my beloved he sees all with his own eyes he hears all with his own ears nothing is said or done but in his presence His eyes in every place behold the evil and the good saith Solomon Prov. 15.3 whether it be good or evil whether it be near or far off it is within his own veiw his eyes behold it he need not to depend upon a witness for the proof of it So that in this respect he is not subject to such injustice in his government as other Kings and Rulers are Thirdly God must needs be righteous in his Administrations because he is
God so it is in some respect the chiefest thing that comes from God It is a grace of the first magnitude and therefore it is placed first by the Apostle in that Catalogue of his Gal. 5.22 The fruit of the spirit is love and then joy and other graces It is an excelling gift and therefore the Apostle Paul to shew the matchless worth and the surpassing value of it admits a kind of Solaecism in his discourse and makes it better then the best of gifts 1 Cor. 12. ult Covet saith he and covet earnestly the best gifts And then immediately annexeth a discourse of love and touching that he saith I shew unto you a more excellent way Indeed it is of greater latitude then other graces it runs through every precept of the Law of God For love is the fulfilling of the Law and that no other grace is It is of greater power then other graces for it sets them all on work And hence the acts of other graces are frequently ascribed to love as 1 Cor. 13.4 c she hopeth she believeth c. It is of greater permanency then other graces then faith or hope And other graces without love are nothing as the Apostle shews at large in that Chapter 2. And as love is the chiefest thing that comes from God so it is the chiefest thing that conformeth us to God It makes us like him more then other graces do God is not said in Scripture to be faith or hope or patience but he is said in Scripture to be Love If we believe God doth not so if we hope God doth not so if we suffer quietly God doth not so Indeed he suffer not at all either by way of passion or compassion But if we love my brethren so doth God In this we do as God himself doth And therefore we may pray for this my brethren in another way then we may pray for other graces according to the pattern in my Text. We cannot pray to God Lord grant us that the faith which is in thee may be in us Lord grant us that the hope which is in thee may be in us But we may pray Lord grant us that the love which is in thee may be in us That the love wherewith thou lovest may be given down to us Vse 2 Is it so that the love which is in true believers comes from God If then we have the love of God in us let us remember whence it came and to whom the glory of it ought to be returned We can hate God of our selves but we can never love him of our selves So that if there be any spark of the love of God in us we may be confident that it was kindled at his fire And therefore let it be continually working upward upward still yea let it never leave ascending till it have joyned it self unto that infinite and endless flame from which it issued and proceeded JOHN 17.26 That the love wherewith thou hast loved me may be c. DOCTRINE 2. The Declaration of the Fathers Name to men is one especial means to work the grace of love in them IT is to this end that our Saviour makes it known as you may see expresly in my Text I have declared unto them thy Name and will declare it Why so to what end That the love wherewith thou hast loved me that very property may be in them That as it is in thee it may be wrought in them also And out of doubt the means our Saviour pitches on are useful and available to his ends Indeed men come to know the Father by the discovery of his name to them for so his name is all that makes him known to men And that which worketh knowledge of him doth mediately work love to him So that if the discovery of his name do make men know him as that is very manifest it doth make them love him too That which one affirms of Learning may be applyed to God Non habet Inimicum nisi ignorantem Whosoever knows him clearly loves him truly Indeed while we are unacquainted with him the admirable worth and beauty and excellency that is in him every way doth not take a whit upon us The Philosopher will tell us that the mind must be informed and convinced of the goodness of a thing before the heart will cleave to it or the affections close with it And hence it is that carnal and unsanctified persons love not God because they know him not Or if they know him any way it is not under such a notion as renders him desirable or lovely to them Perhaps they know him as a Judge or an avenger they cannot know him as a Saviour and Redeemer And this is the real cause why the triumphant Saints in Heaven love him more then the Saints Militant on earth because they have a fuller clearer and distincter knowledge of him We see him darkly in a glass they face to face And this is the reason also why we love not God with such a high affection here as we shall do hereafter because we know him not so well we have not such distinct and full discoveries of his name as then we shall attain to So then you see in general that the discovery of the Fathers name to men is one especial means to work the grace of love in them To clear it yet a little further to you I shall shew you particularly and distinctly that there are divers things in Gods name which being manifested and declared unto men are means to win their hearts to him and so to work love in them As The beauty of the Lord is a part of his name and beauty being manifested and discovered is a means to win love It is a great attractive of affection Now herein God excells my brethren in this respect he is incomparably out of measure lovely The greatest beauty in the world is holiness so it is often called as 1 Chron. 16.19 Psal 29.2 To shew that holiness hath beauty in it yea it is called Beauties in the plural number The beauties of holiness Psal 110.3 to intimate that holiness is full of beauty and that it over-matches all the beauties in the world if all of them were put together And therefore this is made in Scripture the greatest beauty of the creature as Sin is the deformity so Grace and Holiness is the beauty of the Soul it adorns the inner man And therefore the Apostle Peter exhorteth Christian women to adorn the hidden man of the heart with this 1 Pet. 3.4 Even with the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit which is of great price in the sight of God And hence it is that holiness is likened to the fairest things to Robes and Gems and Crowns and Gold and Jewels and the like Now God is matchless in this kind of beauty He is holiness it self yea he is infinitely holy And therefore holiness is called the Image of God The holiness that is in men is but
The Father loves believers as he doth Christ Reas For he loves them 1. In Christ 2. Through Christ 1. Vse Depend on him 1. Without doubting 2. By real love 3. Vse Comfort to all true believers In that 1. He will uphold them as he did Christ 2. Assist us in his service 3. Reward his own work in us 4. Hear us 5. Provide for us 3. Doctr. Christs will is even a Law with the Father Reas 1. Being the only Son 2. The Beloved 3. Never asks amiss 4. Sueth for nothing but what he deserver p. 491. Vse How to make Christ our Advocate Ver. 24 Direct 1. To prepare their hearts they must be 1. Purged 2. Humbled 3. Fixed 4. Awakened Then 2. For Matter of prayer search the promises p. 496. Manner Pray without wrath 2. Doubting 3. With much zeal 2. If we pray acted by Christs Spirit 1. There will be zeal 2. Desires spiritual 3. For spiritual things chiefly Not to be spent on lusts 4. We shall pray constantly 2. Doct. It is Christs will that they who are given him should be in heaven Reas He loves them with a love 1. Of benevolence 2. Of Complacency 3. To see his glory 3. Doct. God hath loved Christ from all Eternity Reas Being like him both as God and Man Vse Wo to them that hate Christ They hate Christ 1. Who willingly obey sin 2. Who love and hate that which Christ doth not 3. Who are friends to the Enemies of Christ Contra p. 513. 2. Vse God therefore loveth them that love Christ Christ is amiable and worthy of our love 1. In respect of his perfections p. 515. 2. In respect of our Interest and propriety in him 3. Of his great love to us 4. Of that he hath done for us 3. Vse Admire that he should so use him as he did for our sakes 1. Giving him up to the hands of sinful men and to his own wrath 2. So using him for such as we are p. 517. 4. Vse Comforts to those that belong to Christ that they are loved from everlasting 4. Doct. God is a very just and righteous God Confirmed 1. From the largeness of his Jurisdiction 2. The Immensity of his presence 3. From his inward propensity and disposition 1. Vse This should settle our minds amidst the confusions and disorders of the world 2. Vse Comfort to those that are abused and oppressed 3. Vse Come into him and become his subjects 4. Vse Terror to the ungodly 5. Vse Comfort to the righteous even in Gods Justice 6. Vse Admonition to Magistrates Perswasions to execute Justice 1. It will settle the land 2. Be amiable to God 3. Beneficial to your selves p. 526 7. Vse Meditate on Gods righteousness It will 1. help us against sin 2. Strengthen our faith in prayer p. 528. Ver. 25 Doct. Unbelievers and unsanctified persons know not God in such manner as they ought p. 531. 1. Know him not so as to delight in him 2. Nor so as to serve and obey him 3. Nor so as to know him in Christ Reason 1. Unbelieving Heathens want the means of knowledge 2. Unbelieving Christians want the Spirit to unveil 1. The understanding 2. The Gospel 3. In every unbeliever there 's something 1. Redundant to repell divine Truth 2. Wanting to receive it viz. The Spirit of God 4. They are unwilling to know God p. 535. 1. Vse The misery of unsanctified unbelievers 2. Vse Admire Gods mercy in vouchsafing us the means of knowledge p 537. 2. Doct. That Christ alone knows God immediately and others by his means p. 539. Vse None saved by his own natural knowledge 3. Doct. The most saving knowledge hath defects and imperfections standing in need of farther declaration p. 541. Reason Christ doth not shew them all at once 1. Because they are not capable 2. That he may keep them humble 1. Vse Be not proud of your knowledge 2. Vse Comforts to the humble 1. A sign that thy knowledge is right and sound 2. It 's the measure which Christ hath alloted thee 3. The time is coming when these thy defects shall be supplyed 4. We shall be rewarded according to our practice not our knowledge Ver. 26 Doct. Christ will be making farther declarations of his Fathers Name to the worlds end p. 546. 1. By his written Word and Ministers in all ages 2. By his holy Spirit p. 548. 1. Vse Believe what he hath spoken 2. Expect the execution of his promise 3. Thereunto strive with Christ in prayer p. 549. 2. Doct. The Love which is in true believers comes from God Reason For it cannot be Originally in of or from our selves yet not without means Vse If we want it have recourse to God Love is the chiefest thing 1. That comes from God p. 554. 2. That conformeth us to God p. 554. 3. Doct. Declaration of the Fathers Name is a special means to work love in them Reason 1. Beauty is a part of his Name 2. Goodness 3. Mercy 4. Love p. 557. 4. Doct. Where Love is there Christ is Reason 1. For where Love there the Spirit 2. Faith 3. God is p. 560. 1. Vse Misery of those that love not God and his children 2. Comforts to those that have love in them They have Christ and therefore 1. Have intimate Communion with him 2. Have free access to him 3. Have the confluence of all Accommodations 4. Are secure 2. Let Christ live quiet in your hearts Excellency of Christs prayer An Alphabetical Table of the Chief Heads contained In this TREATISE A ADopted children page 15 Admire the love of God and of Christ page 20 98 146 161 361 455 537 Affections of the heart testified by outward gesture page 11 Affliction should not dismay us See Tribulation page 104 195 290 291 367 Abilities of Christ page 145 Active Obedience of Christ page 157 Our Advancement in Christ page 174 The Apostle and Messenger of God is Christ 142 149 234 235 other Apostles page 407 our Affections are to keep Christs word page 204 213 Apostates from Christ page 41 210 Application of Christ page 158 441 Assurance Means and benefit thereof page 22 our Active and Passive obedience page 203 Authority grace and power of Christs words page 7. 473 Authority of Christ over all men 52 144. for the benefit and Salvation of his people page 72 73 Agreement with God and Christ necessary page 465 Agreement See Unity The benefits thereof page 303 304 All things revealed by Christ in what sense page 236 Aimiableness of Christ page 514 515 Adding to the work of Christ page 168 word of Christ page 241 Absence of Christ from the Father page 265 Ascension of Christ 266. End fruit and benefits thereof page 267 B PArtial Believers page 208 â—99 Belief See Faith Wrought by the Gospel page 443 444 Believers not free from the Law page 61 62 Believe the Trinity page 130 132 the Scriptures page 133 399 in Christ page 149 150 441 Christs word 204. 559
by seven Honourable Ladies and three Noble Gentlemen preserved to posterity by the renowned Iohn Boccacio the first refiner of the Italian prose A Pattern of patience in â—he example of holy Iob being a Paraphrase on the whole Book as an expedient to sweeten the miseries of these never enough to be lamented times The Abridgement of Christian Divinity By Wolleb Englished and enlarged by Alexander Ross The Vanity of the Creature By Edward Reinolds In small twelves A Call to the unconverted to turn and live and to accept of Mercy whilst mercy may be had as ever they will finde mercy in the day of their extremity from the living God By Rich. Baxter Saints solace The sum of all By Chibbal Helvius Colloquies The Protestants practice or the Compleat Christian being the true and perfect way to the Celestial Canaan necessary for the bringing up of Youth and establishing the Old Christians in the faith of the Gospel By a reverend Father of the Church of England A method and instruction for the Art of Divine Meditation together with instances of the several kinds of solemn meditation By Tho White The Church-sleeper awakened in two Sermons By Ios Eyres of Cork in Ireland There is now in the Press a Practical Treatise of Mr. Iohn Brinsly of Yarmouth Entituled The drinking of the Bitter Cup or the Hardest Lesson in Christs School learned and taught by himself viz. Passive Obedience wherein besides divers Doctrinal Truths of great Importance many practical truths are held forth for the Teaching of Christians how to submit to their heavenly Father in suffering his Will both in Life and Death patiently obediently and willingly in octavo AN EXPOSITION WITH NOTES Vnfolded and Applyed On IOHN 17. JOHN 17.1 These words spake Jesus c THE Words of such a friend who is likely to continue take not so deep impression as his who is dying or departing The last farewell of such a one as is dear in our affections is most observed and best remembred A secret winning and commanding power accompanies such parting passages and hence our Saviour Christ was frequent in them when he was ready to be offered up and to be finally withdrawn from his disciples They who left all for him must needs be very much dejected to be left by him And therefore he was wise and merciful to give them Comfort while he was among them and to dispatch them down a Comforter from heaven when he was departed from them Upon the first of these he spends no less then four chapters all tending to confirm and fortifie their hearts against the bitter trials and afflictions which they were to meet withall when he was gone And this he doth by speaking to them and by speaking for them Both wayes he seeks to strengthen them by speaking to them in a way of consolation by speaking for them in a way of supplication The first of these he ends with the foregoing chapter the latter he pursues in this which I intend with Gods assistance to go through withall as I shall have ability and opportunity And therefore in the entrance of this chapter it is said with reference to those which go before These words spake Jesus These words he spake to his disciples in a way of consolation And then immediately is added what he spake for his Disciples in a way of supplication These words spake Jesus and lifed up his eyes to heaven and said Father the hour is come c. So that this Chapter which I am to handle is the Lords prayer From the beginning of it to the end nothing but the Lords prayer Not the Lords prayer which he taught us but the Lords prayer which he made for us Not that which he propounded to us as our pattern but that which he presented for us as our priviledge Whether this were the very prayer which he uttered in the garden when he was in an Agony is much disputed Some think it was the very same for substance and that it is set down more largely here by John then by the rest of the Evangelists because none of them were present when Christ made that prayer but he took Peter James and John with him as you may see Mark 14.33 But this is but a meer fancy For in the first verse of the following chapter it is manifest that Christ went not to the garden till he had ended this prayer Iohn 18.1 When he had spoken these words that is the very prayer we are entering on He went forth with his Disciples over the brook Cedron where was a garden into which he entered Nor is it probable that our Evangelist if he had given us the sum of that prayer would wholly have omitted that which was the main petition in it and which is so exactly mentioned by all the rest of the Evangelists Father if it be possible let this Cup pass from me Of which we have not the least hint in this Chapter Besides it is to be observed that our Saviour made that prayer in the garden lying prostrate upon the earth as you may see Mat. 26.39 He fell upon his face and prayed Whereas the prayer we are now about to handle was made with face and eyes erect and lifted up to Heaven These words spake Iesus and lift up his eyes to Heaven and said Father the hour is come c. So that this prayer of our Saviour was evidently and unquestionably made before his coming to the garden of Gethsemane just as he was about to go thither He had been swan-like singing out his dying song in the ears of his Disciples for the space of three Chapters and speaking many things to comfort them being at the point to leave them And having finisht what he had to say he shuts up all with this prayer These words spake Iesus and lifted up his eyes to Heaven and said which having ended immediately away he goes and is betrayed As you may see in the beginning of the following chapter You see then what a Subject we have now to handle A prayer and a prayer made by Christ the great High-priest the Advocate and Intercessor of his people and the last publike Solemn prayer that he made with his Apostles and Disciples just as he was about to suffer He took his last farewell of them in this prayer and therefore you must think it was a Spiritfull a zealous and a pithy one When he was going to be crucified he took his leave in a long oration to them which having done he prayed among them and so left them And truly such a prayer made by such a one as Jesus Christ at such a time and on such an occasion and among such a company must needs be heavenly and ravishing and therefore will deserve our best intention both in handling and in hearing Christ was in heaven in his thoughts and his affections when he made it These things spake Iesus and lifted up his eyes to heaven and said The Lord in
us that there should be consideration had not only of the matter but even of the circumstances c. What then it may be you will ask me do our gestures or doth the manner of presenting our requests to God the outward manner with the voice or otherwise fall under the command of God Are we expresly bound to pray in such a posture in such a way or manner of expression Do these external circumstances appertain to Gods worship I answer No in no case the difference is wide between the bodily exercise and the Spiritual service We are not under any ceremonial Law that binds us to an outward circumstance to a place or to a posture as the Jews of old were And yet there should be due consideration had not only of the matter but even of the circumstances c. and that especially upon these two grounds For These outward circumstances may in case promote the spiritual service Reason 1 The very gesture or the utterance of a prayer may help sometimes to raise and quicken the affection which is the life and Soul of prayer Our hearts are naturally dead and stupid and prophane and stand in need of all good outward helps to stir up zeal and reverence and devotion in them And to this end they have been used by the Saints in Scripture and that not only in their publike but even in their private and their secret prayers when their submiss and humble gestures could have no influence upon other men And consequently had no other use but to help their own hearts As Daniel was exact in this even in his chamber and it is carefully recorded Dan. 6.10 He kneeled upon his knees three times a day and prayed He prayed three times a day and still he was in this posture And it is noted of our Saviour that he kneeled down and prayed Luke 22.10 and this was in Private too So that he did it not with reference to others and therefore a most eminent and worthy man observeth that undoubtedly he saw he needed it himself And if that be admitted assuredly we need such helps and furtherances much more These outward circumstances if they do not further yet they express Reason 2 the spiritual service They testifie the sorrow the humility the affection and the devotion of the heart and the reverence of the soul As in my text our Saviours lifting up his eyes to heaven discovered where his heart was And therefore humble gestures are especially required in publike worship because God will be honoured in the sight of others yea they are sometimes put for all his service Rom. 14.11 As I live saith the Lord every knee shall bow to me And seeing hypocrites in matter of the worship and the service of the Lord are alwayes ready to pretend they have as good hearts as the very best Therefore the Lord is wont to call so often and so earnestly for the external Service of the body and that in the new Testament as well as in the old as you may see that place for instance 1 Cor. 6.20 Glorifie God saith the Apostle there and that not in your Spirit only but in your body also which is Gods Use 1 Now is it so that there should be consideration had not only of the matter but even of the circumstances c. Then First it serves to let them see their error and mistake who utterly neglect such things as these are who take no notice of their outward carriage in such holy duties but rather look upon it as a thing below the observation of a Christian who should be wholly and entirely taken up with their spiritual service And yet as you have heard the Holy-Ghost takes notice of a gesture a cast of the eye in Prayer and sets it down in white and black we need not doubt for our information I must confess the great defect is on the other side men are imployed so much about the form the surface and the outside of religious duties many times that they neglect the main business Their thoughts are exercised so far about the gesture of their body the composure of their words the framing of their voices and the like especially in publike prayer that they have no regard at all to the inward and spiritual service The outward work is infinitely more easie and there is much more ostentation in it And hence it is that the greater part of men are wholly taken up with that which they themselves can do and being done procure them most applause from other men But yet their placing all in forms and outsides and minding nothing else in holy duties doth not justifie at all our running off to the Extream upon the other side No it is possible that even as hypocrites and rotten-hearted wretches may be so intent upon the outside that they have no regard unto the inside So on the other side the holiest and sincerest Christians may be so intent upon the inside that they have no regard at all unto the outside They may so far look after the affection and the zeal and the devotion of the heart which is indeed the main thing to be looked to that they may have no thought at all of the External circumstances of their prayers the gesture or the manner of their utterance which are Considerable notwithstanding as I have made it plain enough and therefore to be wholly careless of them is a failing yea though it should be in the best of Gods people Use 2 And therefore in the second place let me perswade you to think such outward circumstances worthy of your thoughts the very gesture and the utterance of your prayers Let there be due consideration had of such things as these are I would by no means hinder you from having your especial eye on that whereon the eye of God is most when you are making your approaches and addresses to him I mean the carriage of the soul and spirit the inward fervor and humility affection and devotion of the heart without which all the rest is worth nothing But yet let not the gesture of your bodies the utterance of your voice in prayer be utterly neglected by you concerning both of which because I find them in my Text I shall give you some directions As for the gesture of your bodies I shall commend these few things We are not bound to all the self-same gestures which were in use among the people of the Lord of old we read that Joshua and the Elders when they were routed at the Siege of Ai and came before the Ark of God to pray they rent their cloaths and put dust upon their heads Joshua 7.16 And Hezekiah when he came into the house of God to pray at the time when Senacherib besieged Jerusalem he rent his cloaths and put on Sack-cloath Isa 37.1 And this they did not that these fashions were appropriated to the worship of the Lord but because they were in use in those times and
for us saith the Apostle Paul Tit. 2.14 that was the purchase that he made a very dear one you will say He gave himself for us to what end that he might reedeem us from all iniquity from the dominion and power of sin And what now are we masterless And are the reins upon our own necks Now mark what follows presently And purifie us a peculiar people himself a people to himself to serve him and to do his work and to be very earnest in it too and purifie to himself a peculiar people Zealous of good works And so being free from sin we are not left at large my Brethren but we became the servants of Christ Rom. 6 22. This was the End that he intended and propounded to himself in our Redemption he dyed for us that we which live should henceforth live no longer to our selves but to him that dyed for us 2 Cor. 5.15 He hath performed the mercy promised he hath remembred c. he hath saved us from c. Luke 1.74 What that we might from henceforth be our own men and live at liberty and walk according to our own wills Oh no my Brethren but on the other side that we might serve him who hath saved us in holiness and righteousness all the daies of our lives The third is an Engagement of Covenant-obligation we are his Covenant servants and therefore we are bound to serve him if we run away from him we are Covenant-breakers with him Indeed we that are born of those that are in Covenant with him are born his Covenant-servants in a sense For such as the condition of the Parent is Beloved such is the condition of the child as to outward priviledge and as to outward duty too And hence it is perhaps that David saith to God Psalm 116.16 O Lord saith he I am thy servant My servant might the Lord reply Why how so why saith the Psalmist I am the son of thy hand-maid So we whose parents were within the Covenant were born to Christ in some respect for we were born within his family and so to outward view and cognizance belong to his houshold But this is but an outward thing some of us have gone further yet and made a Covenant with the Lord to serve him we were in Covenant all of us with sin by nature and so with death and hell we were at an agreement too But some of us have utterly dissolved that Covenant and entred into Covenant with the Lord Christ We are bound let us obey now we have made this Covenant with him we are the more engaged to serve him and the greater is our sin if we run away from him Use 3 Is God the Father of our Lord Christ The greater is his love to us that he should give Christ for us If he had given but a servant or a friend it had been much that he should part with either of them for an enemy but that he should give us his son his own begotten son to shame to punishment to death for us here is love and here is mercy with a witness The Evangelist me thinks knows not which way to express it and therefore leaves it to the largest heart and the vastest understanding to guess at it John 3.16 God so loved the world So how I cannot tell you it swallows up my apprehensions and expressions And therefore I must leave it to your selves to think of it and reach after it And truly my Beloved did we weigh it well in our advised and deliberate thoughts we should be carried out beyond our selves in an Extasie of wonder What my Beloved that when the Father had but one begotten Son by nature and one that was so well like him the very picture of his Father c. one whom he loved dearly in whom his very soul delighted that he should give him forth out of his bosom for such wretches as we are That he could not spare his Son that he might spare his Enemies behold what love the Father hath declared in this Here is love to be spoken of and to be wondred at in all ages And thus far of the uses of the former member of the point Proceed we now to make some application of the latter Use 1 Is it so my Brethren that as God is the Father of the Lord Christ So Christ did apprehend him as a Father and look upon him as a Father when c. Then let us also apprehend him so and look upon him so who are the sons of God in Christ when we come to God in prayer Let us present our supplications to him under the notion of a Father as Christ did Christ is in this respect our Pattern and Example whom we ought to follow We are required you know to be followers of Christ viz. in all his imitable actions and this is one of those actions We ought to walk as he walked and to pray as he prayed And therefore as his manner was to pray to God himself in this language to come to God as to a Father So he hath taught us also so to pray in the very same language to come to God as to a Father as he did Mat. 6.9 After this manner pray ye Our Father which art in heaven So that we have in this you see the Precept and Example of the Lord Christ his Precept in the cited place and his Example in my Text. And therefore let us learn this lesson of him since he is pleased to teach us both waies both by Precept and Example When we are making our addresses to the Lord in prayer let us endeavour to apply unto our selves the love and father-hood of God in Jesus Christ Let us not satisfie our selves with a general perswasion that he is a gracious Father to all his sons and daughters in the Lord Christ But let us strive for a distinct and a particular assurance that he is our own Father that he is so to us in special and that we are among the number of his children That we may look upon him so and confidently call him so when we are pouring out our prayers to him and so expect the love and mercy of a Father from him And to this very End as the Apostle tells us The Spirit of the Son is sent abroad into our hearts To what End Why to make us cry Abba Father Gal. 4.6 That is to make us pray to God as to a Father while others come to God as to a stranger with whom they have no acquaintance and to whom they have no relation So that you see we have not only the Precept of Christ and the Example of Christ but we have also the Spirit of Christ that we may pray in this manner And therefore in this Faith and confidence the Saints of God have prayed in Scripture So did the Church as you may see Isa 63.16 Doubtless say they thou art our Father though Abraham be ignorant of us and Israel acknowledge us
First you have here the nature of it suggested in the name our Saviour gives it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 power And then you have the measure and extent of it it is not over some but over all flesh As thou hast given him power over all flesh As for the first of these my Brethren you must know that there are two sorts of power There is either 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 either potentia or potestas Or to be plain either power of ability or power of authority Power of ability by which he that enjoys it is enabled to do things de facto Power of authority by which he that enjoys it is enabled to do things de jure This latter is apparently intended in my Text As thou hast given him saith our Saviour not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Our last Translation reads it power it would have been more clear and easie if they had rendred it authority as thou hast given him authority over all flesh Now this authority you see is of a very large extent it is over all flesh You must conceive it over all mankinde It is a usual form of speech as I might give you divers instances out of the Scripture God looked and behold all flesh had corrupted his way Gen. 6.12 The corruption there is sinfull of which no other flesh is capable but that of mankinde only So Luke 3.6 All flesh shall see the salvation of God And in this sense you are to apprehend the same expression in my Text Father glorifie thy Son as thou hast given him power over all flesh over all humane flesh or the whole race of Mankinde And this authority you must conceive him to enjoy and exercise as he is Man and Mediator of the Church for that Authority which he enjoys as God he had from all eternity as co-equal with the Father He had it not made over to him by the Father no it was his own original and primitive and native right together with the Father Whereas the power intended in my Text is that which he received by way of dispensation and donation from the Father As thou hast given him power over all flesh You see the meaning of the Words the Point is clear DOCTRINE That all mankinde is under the authority of Jesus Christ as he is Man and Mediator of the Church His Jurisdiction as you see is of a very large extent no creature is exempted from it he ruleth over all as David speaks Psal 103.19 And he is king of all the earth Psal 47.7 He hath dominion from sea to sea and from the river to the ends of the earth Psal 72.8 His Father the Apostle tels us hath set him over the works of his hands Heb. 2.7 You must conceive it over all without exception and hath put all things in subjection to him as it is added presently So that you see my Brethren there is nothing left that is not under his dominion He hath advanced him far above all principality and power and might and every name not only in the present world but in that which is to come and hath put all things under his feet Eph. 1.22 And in another place His Father loves him and hath put all things into his hands Joh. 3.35 These two may seem to clash and interfere he hath put all things into his hand and he hath put all things under his feet But the fence and meaning is he hath put all things of one sort into his hands conceive it all his people and his friends concerning whom our Saviour saith No man can pluck them out of my hand He hath put all things of another sort under his feet conceive it all his enemies concerning whom the Father saith unto the Son Sit thou at my right hand untill I make thy enemies thy foot stool So that you see apparently Christ hath an universal Jurisdiction he hath all things in his power under his dominion some things in his hand to honour them and some things under foot to shame them Some things in his hand to keep them and some things under feet to tread upon them and to ruine them for ever If any were without the verge of the authority of Jesus Christ the Kings and Princes of the earth might seem to have the strongest plea for this exemption But God hath made him his first-born higher then the kings of the earth as you may see Ps 89 27. Not higher in regard of dignity of nature only for so the Angels as you know are higher then the greatest earthly Princes but higher in regard of Jurisdiction too and hence he hath that name upon his vesture written in great Capitals Apoc. 19.16 King of Kings and Lord of Lords So that the point you see is fully proved That all mankinde c. Now to unfold the point a little to you that you may see it in the latitude and in the full dimension of it There is a twofold power of Jurisdiction or Authority which Jesus Christ as Man and Mediator of the Church is vested with and exerciseth over all flesh A Legislative power and a Judiciary power A Legislative power to give Laws and a Judiciary power to execute the Laws that he hath given First then Christ hath an universal Legislative power a power of giving Laws to all flesh And hence it is that the Apostle stiles him the Law-giver Jam. 4.12 and that exclusively he tels us that here is but one and that is Christ There is one such and no more the universal Legislative power is in himself alone and not in any other either with him or besides him It is his own prerogative it is a flower of the Imperial Crown of heaven which he communicateth not to any other to give Law to all flesh And hence the Law is said in Scripture to come out of Zion as you may see that place fore-instanced Isa 2.3 for out of Zion shall go forth the Law which is the Seat of Christs Kingdom It is not said to be imposed on Zion only to be restrained to Zion only but out of Zion to go forth to all flesh Because our Saviour though he be King of all the earth yet he keeps his Court in Zion in the Church there is his place of residence and thence he dates and sendeth forth his Royal Proclamations and Edicts Witness our self at Zion Now Christ by vertue of this Legislative power of his gives Laws both to the outward and the inward man Both to the members and the conscience and that without restraint of all flesh Christ hath an universal Legislative power a power of giving Laws to all mankinde so as to binde their members and their outward man And hence the Moral Law which is an universal Law which no man is exempted from which takes hold on all flesh which all men shall be judged by as the Apostle tels us is called the Law of Christ Gal.
find it in his story that as man he was extreamly troubled at the unbelief and hardness of the peoples hearts He wept over Jerusalem with many tears Why you will say perhaps what needed this he might have wrought upon them and put the life of Grace into them No my Beloved he could not work on many of them he could not raise them to the life of Grace they were not given him by his Father and yet as man he pittied and lamented their condition as we should do in such a case he being in all things like unto us sin only excepted And this methinks should melt the hearts of Reprobates themselves to Christ and make them to relent towards him Alas he pitties you and mourns over you his very bowels yearn towards you He delights not in your ruin and destruction No it is troublesome and grievous to him But why then doth he not relieve and help us you will say Why if you be not given him by the Father it is not in his power to do it It s said indeed that he gives life unto the world as it is in his own expression Iohn 6.33 But that is but in opposition to the Jews not to the Jews alone but to the world to men of all conditions and of all Nations in the world But to the world in general he doth not nay he cannot give it So that the fault is not in him if any of you perish and that you have not life from him you see he is confined and bound up by his Father to a certain number to give this life but to as many as the Father gives him JOHN 17.3 And this is Life Eternal AND thus we have at length dispatched the End for which our Saviour is invested with so large and ample Power over all flesh That he may give Eternal Life to as many as God hath given him But what is Eternal Life what is there comprehended under that expression As when our Saviour once discoursed of Truth he had this question put to him what is Truth So having spoken here of Life Eternal if any of you now should put the question what is life Eternal you have the resolution in the following verse which I am now to enter on And this is life Eternal if you desire to understand it this it is to know the only true God and Jesus Christ whom he hath sent So that these words you see are an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an Explication of that which is delivered in the former verse in which our Saviour shews expresly what he intendeth by Eternal Life and wherein it consists in the Knowledge of the Father and the Son or of the Father in the Son And here I shall take notice only of these two Particulars viz. the thing explained and the way of Explication The thing explained is life Eternal As for the way of Explication he doth not shew you quare sit why this life Eternal is he doth not open and unfold it by the Causes of it I say he doth not here though he doth in other places but he shews you quid sit what this Eternal life is This saith he is Life Eternal life This is it what is it why it consists you see in holy Knowledge which is set forth both by the Act and Object of it The Act that they might know The Object of it God the Father the only true God and Christ the Son Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent This is life Eternal that they might know thee c. What then Doth there go nothing else to life Eternal but the knowledge of the Father and the Son Doth it consist in this and this only This is a scruple that is very variously resolved by those that write upon the Text. Some think that knowledge here is put for faith by which we live the life of Grace which is Eternal as the Apostle speaks The life which I live I live by the faith of the Son of God And so it is as if our Saviour Christ had said this is Eternal life so to know as to believe in thee the only true God and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent Others conceive that life Eternal here importeth nothing else but the way to Eternal life the ready path that leads to it And that our Saviour shews us here how he brings those to life Eternal who are bestowed upon him by his Father viz. by giving them the saving Knowledge of his Father and himself That he should give Eternal life to as many as thou hast given him And this is life Eternal this is the way to it that they might know thee the only true God and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent As far as I can apprehend the scruple might be cleared best by a distinction Eternal life is either Inchoate or consummate Eternal life Consummate consists especially in the compleat and perfect knowledge of God which Schoolmen all Beatifical vision And hence our Saviour Christ himself sets forth our happiness of which we shall be made partakers in the world to come by this that there we shall see God Mat. 5.8 Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God that is we shall know God as knowledge ordinarily is set forth by the sense of seeing in the Scripture Yea we shall know him clearly and distinctly we shall see him face to face And this is that which the Apostle makes the main of the Beatitude and glory prepared for the Saints at the time of Christs appearing 1 Iohn 3.2 We shall see him as he is now we see him as we can then we shall see him as he is we shall know him as we are known viz. of God 1 Cor. 13.12 We shall know God even as God knows us As we are known of God distinctly clearly perfectly so we shall know God He knows us perfectly according to his nature now and we shall know him perfectly according to our nature then as far as our created nature is capable of So we shall know as we are known for as there is a note of Similitude and not of Equality And this shall be our happiness in Heaven and our glorious life there that we shall see the very face of God and not his back parts only as we have done in this world That we shall have him fully and compleatly So that this is Eternal life you see consummate in the Heavens to know the only true God and Jesus Christ whom he hath sent But as I take it the life Eternal mentioned in my Text is that of which the Saints are made partakers in this present life and which our Saviour gives them here in this world As in another place he tells us My sheep hear my voice saith he and I give unto them Eternal life He doth not say I will give them Eternal life hereafter but I give it them for present and therefore it is added in the words immediatly annexed neither shall
complain as Rebecca sometimes did when she had parlies in her womb and when the twins were struggling there If it be so with me why am I thus Is it so that our God is the only true God Then let us see our happiness Use 5 in this regard that we have chosen him for our God and that we have not taken any other The most part of the world my Brethren are mistaken in their god they serve them who by nature are no gods as Gal. 4.8 And what mistake is like this Oh what an happiness is this that we have not been left to this errour Now therefore let us say as David Psalm 34.2 My soul shall make her boast in the Lord. Let us boast of our God and let us glory over other men in this regard that while they have false gods we have the only true God for our God So that we are not to be equalled for a God by any people in the world besides which is indeed the highest priviledge that any creature is capable of It is no sin to vaunt and pride our selves in this prerogative to make comparisons with others as the Psalmist doth Psalm 113.5 Who is like the Lord our God there are other gods abroad but what god is like ours who can compare with us in this regard who can shew us such a God as we have If we be miserable and unhappy as we apprehend in other things Oh let our happiness in this which is transcendent and incomparable quiet all and make us still We have the greatest happiness imaginable and attainable in that we have such a God Happy are the people that are in such a case saith David that have outward peace and plenty But infinitely happy are they who have the Lord for their God And thus far of the Attribute of God the firmer object of the knowledge wherein Eternal life consists the only true God The Attribute of Jesus Christ the second object of it mentioned here comes now in order to be handled sent of God This is the Eternal life to know thee the only true God and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent The word in the Original importeth such an one as is dispatched upon the errand of another upon the business that another sends him in The theame from which it comes is that from which Apostle comes So that as the Apostles were to Christ so was Christ to God the Father Jesus Christ was Gods Apostle as the twelve were his Apostles God the Father sent him even as he sent them And this is that which he expresses clearly to them when he reneweth their Commission immediately upon his resurrection Joh. 20.21 As my Father hath sent me so send I you By this you may a little guess at the intention of the phrase I shall open it more fully when I come to Explication In the mean time the point is this DOCTRINE That Jesus Christ is Gods Apostle he is a Messenger sent forth from God So is his own expression of himself to his Father in my Text This is Eternal Life to know thee the only true God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent or whom thou hast made thy Apostle And therefore it is usuall with him when he hath occasion to make mention of his Father to call him nothing else but him that sent him He that receiveth me saith Christ receiveth him that sent me and you know who that is Luke 9.48 so to his own Apostles and Disciples It is my meat and drink to do the will of him that sent me or that hath made me his Apostle And having done his will and business in the world and dispatched the errand he employed him in I go my way saith he to him that sent me John 16.5 And God upon the other side speaking of Jesus Christ uses to call him Him whom he hath sent his Angel and his Messenger you may see that place for instance Mal. 3.1 there are two Messengers in that text the first is John the Baptist the Messenger of Christ Behold I send my Messenger that shall prepare my way before me the next is Christ himself the Messenger of God The Lord whom ye seek shall suddenly come even the Messenger of the Covenant whom ye delight in I might load you with quotations but I shall add no more for confirmation of the point that Jesus Christ is Gods Apostle he is a Messenger c. Indeed it needs not proof so much as Explication Now that you may the better understand the drift and the intention of it there are some Queries to be answered First whence it is that Jesus Christ is sent the terminus a quo of this mission Then in the next place whether he is sent the terminus ad quem Thirdly what errand and what business he is sent about Fourthly how he is qualified for the delivery of this errand and the dispatch of this business As for the first of these the terminus a quo whence it is that Christ is sent To this I answer he is sent from the bosom of the Father as that is the expression John 1.18 he comes out of the Ivory Palace Psalm 45.8 In plainer terms my Brethren he is sent from heaven and therefore he is called the Lord from heaven 1 Cor. 15.47 Not the Lord in heaven only but the Lord from heaven too and that not only with relation to his second but also to his first coming No man hath ascended up to heaven saith our Saviour Christ himself John 3.13 but he that came down from heaven And who is that even the Son of man who is in heaven So then when he was incarnate he came down from heaven in a sense for of this our Saviour speaks in that place And to this speech of Christ it is that the Apostle Paul alludeth when speaking of our Saviour Christs Ascention Eph. 4.8 he addeth presently by way of Explication Now that he ascended what is it but that he also first descended into the lower parts of the earth He that descended is the same also that ascended far above all heavens that he might fill all things So then descend he did at first from heaven as after he ascended up again to heaven But you will ask me How could Christ be sent from heaven Object and how could he descend from heaven It could not be with relation to his manhood for so when he came down he had never been in heaven his body had not been there A man would think it could not be with relation to his Godhead for that is everywhere it filleth heaven and earth as the Prophets phrase is The infiniteness and immensity of the divinity admits not motion it cannot stir from place to place because it is in all places and so there is no other place into which it may remove Well then the Essence of the Godhead is immovable neither is that the meaning when the Scripture saith that
Christ descended that he was sent down from heaven And that of Christ in the forecited place is very notable to this purpose John 3.13 No man hath ascended up to heaven but he that came down from heaven even the son of man which is in heaven He was then come down from heaven he was then upon the earth when he spake these words and yet he addeth he was then in heaven too even the son of man who is in heaven He speaks not of his manhood or his humane nature that was not come down from heaven for it had never been there at that time And therefore he intends it manifestly of his Godhead in which he was come down from heaven and yet he was in heaven too at the very same time But how was he come down if he were there that is the great scruple Not really but in regard of declaration Answ He seemed to descend from heaven when he took our nature on him assumed a despicable and a low condition and walked up and down upon the earth like other men It looked as if he had forsaken heaven and was come down to dwell with men as John 1.14 The word saith he was made flesh and dwelt amongst us For there the Godhead is in Scripture said to be where it appears where it is manifested and declared to be And therefore seeing Christ appeared in the flesh and was God manifested in the flesh who was till then in heaven and did not shew himself on earth in such a manner and in such a way he is said to have descended to be sent down from heaven to earth And so as Bernard speaks acutely Non venit qui aberat sed apparuit qui latebat He came not who was absent but appeared who was hid And this prevents the answer to the second Querie whither it was that Christ was sent what was the terminus ad quem of this Mission His Father sent him down in the sense before expressed into this lower world And hence he calls himself him whom the Father sanctified and sent into the world John 10.36 And the Apostle Paul accordingly affirms that he descended into the lower parts of the earth Ephes 4.9 That is as Beza and some others understand it he took up his abode and residence upon the earth which is the lowest of the elements the lowest part of this world The great enquiry is What errand and what business Jesus Christ is sent into the world about with reference to which he is stiled in my Text Jesus Christ whom God hath sent And this to say it in a word my Brethren he was sent to be a Mediator and a Reconciler between God and man to make up all the breaches and all the differences between his Father and his people So that you see he was dispatched upon a sweet errand And here he had a double business and a double work to do To make Peace and to preach Peace First he was sent to make Peace to do and suffer all that was necessary to compose the business between God and man To satisfie his Father and to pacifie his Father and so to make him friends with his people And therefore God is said by him to reconcile even all things to himself all things reconcilable Col. 1.20 And he is said in the very same verse to have made peace by the blood of his Cross This is the errand that he came upon In this respect he is stiled our peace the Author and procurer of it And he is called the Messenger the Angel of the Covenant Mal. 3.1 to shew us that the Message that his Father sent him in was to bring men into a Covenant and agreement with himself And this he did while he took all the matter of the Controversie between him and them out of the way paid all the debts of his people cancelled all the bonds and bills that were against them and nailed them to his Cross in the view of men and Angels Col. 2.14 That all the world might know that all the matters in debate between God and them were ended and that he had no more against them And when he had done this he cryed out Consummatum est The business which my Father sent me in and which I came into the world about is finished Secondly he was sent to preach Peace As to procure and purchase it so to reveal and publish it to his people And truly if he had not done the latter the former would have been to no purpose And hence the Father hath dispatched him down into the world to do both as to make Peace as a Priest so to preach Peace as a Prophet To let his people know there is a Peace obtained or else how should it profit them if they should never hear of it God hath annointed me to preach saith Christ himself Luke 4.17 To preach what To preach the Gospel which is the doctrine of attonement to heal the broken-hearted to preach deliverance to the captives as it is added there in that place Indeed he was appointed and designed to be the great Prophet the great Preacher and Revealer of the will of God to men And therefore the Apostle tells us That God who in former times spake to the Fathers by the Prophets hath in the last daies spoken to us by the Son He was designed you see to be the Fathers spokes-man to the world to tell them what his mind is to preach the Gospel the word of reconciliation to them This was a great part of the errand which his Father sent him in and therefore he is said to speak by him And Christ himself acknowledges in this respect My doctrine is not mine saith he but his that sent me John 6.0 And when he had dispatched this part of his Embassie too he told his Father I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do And what was that work you have it in verse 6. I have revealed thy name saith he unto the men which thou hast given me out of the world I have made known thy mercy to the Church how ready and inclinable thou art to pardon them and to be at peace with them And now I have done this the business thou hast sent me in is ended I have no more to do in this world And thus you see what business and what errand Christ is sent about Now for the last thing how he is qualified for the dispatch of this business and the delivery of this errand you must know that he is fully qualified every way And you will easily conceive that God would never send his Son into the world upon a business which he could not manage and which he was not able to go through withall And therefore as he hath sent forth his Son so he hath qualified him absolutely for the business he hath sent him in both with authority and with ability He hath qualified him with authority as his Embassadors and Messengers
with Christ hereafter but by suffering with him here and by suffering willingly as he did For if you do it of necessity and of constraint as the Apostle tells us in another case you have your reward But if you suffer willingly as he did then you shall reign as he doth And though you be not worthy yet you shall be counted worthy of the Kingdom for which you suffer as the Apostle Paul speaks 2 Thes 1.5 Vse 2 Is it so that Jesus Christ was ordered by his Father as in his work of Satisfaction so in his work of Application Did he apply the merit and the vertue of his satisfaction to none but those to whom the Father ordered him Let no man then find fault with Christ that no more are saved by him and that no more are made partakers of the benefit and profit of his passion Alas my Brethren Jesus Christ as Mediator is not to choose to whom he will apply the satisfaction which himself hath made no he must follow the direction and order of his Father in this business The work which his Father giveth him to do that he must do and no other If he bid him save a man and apply his merits to him he must do it If he bid him pass him by he must leave him in his sins to perish and be damned for ever I am come down from heaven saith our Saviour not to do my own will but the will of him that sent me And this is the Fathers will that of all which he hath given me I should lose nothing Joh. 6.39 I am precisely ordered to see that not a man of them perish As for the rest they may they must be lost for me it is not in my power to help them All that the Father gives him he can keep and save further then this his Commission doth not reach No doubt the will of Jesus Christ as he was Man would have carryed him to save those whom his Father had appointed to destruction But he must stoop in this to the will of him that sent him There is no question if he had been free in this regard he would have pitched upon his own Countreymen his own Allyes his own Kindred before others But the Evangelist observes he came to his own among them he began his Ministry but he did no good there his own received him not And therefore you shall find it in his story that as man he was extreamly troubled at the unbelief and hardness of the peoples hearts He wept over Jerusalem with many tears Why you will say what needed this he might have wrought upon them and converted them and saved them No my Beloved he could not do it he had no order for it from his Father This belonged not to the work which he had given him to do And yet as Man he pittied and lamented their condition as we should do in such a case he being in all things like unto us sin only excepted And certainly this pity over lost Creatures was no sin Now this me thinks should overcome and melt the hearts of Reprobates themselves to Jesus Christ and make them to relent towards him Alas he pitties you and mourns over you his very bowels yern towards you he delights not in your ruine and destruction No he hath such a tender heart though yours be hard that it is troublesome and grievous to him But why then doth he not relieve and help us you will say Why he hath no order for it His Father hath appointed him to whom and whom alone he shall apply the merits of his passion and you perhaps are none of that number So that it is not any of the business that he came into the world about to save you The work of your salvation is not given him to do and if it be not given him he cannot do it so that the fault is not in Jesus Christ if any of you perish and be lost for ever Neither is there any reason why you should be exasperated and incensed against him Is it so that Jesus Christ was ordered by his Father in the work c. Vse 1 And why then should not we be ordered by him too in all the work we do in this world Shall Jesus Christ be in subjection to the Father more then we Shall he be ordered by him more then we Shall he be at the Fathers pleasure and command in every thing and we be free What an unreasonable and incongruous thing were this Nay my Beloved should we not in imitation of our blessed Saviour stoop to God as he did and do the work which he hath given us to do and so walk as we have Christ for an Example But alas how do the greater number of us swerve from this pattern Either we do the good or else we do the evill which God hath not given us to do I shall speak a word to either First some do the good which God hath not given them to do the work is good but it is not their work It is given other men but yet it is not given them to do The work that Vzziah did was for the matter of it very good The incense which he meant to offer was such as was prescribed in the Law the place in which he meant to offer was the Temple the Altar upon which he meant to offer was consecrated to the Lord the God to whom he went to offer was the true God But he was not a person qualified and fit to offer he was not called to that service This good work was not given him to do And therefore God was very angry with him and he was stricken with a foul disease The like we see exemplified in Saul the error was not in the Sacrifice he offered nor in the object of his offering the person unto whom he offered but only in the person that did offer The work was good but it was not his work he had no order for the doing of it and therefore he was utterly ejected from the Kingdom 1 Sam. 13.13 There are some works that belong to some callings as proper and peculiar to them Some works that are peculiar to the Magistrate or else the Magistrate hath no distinct calling Some works that are peculiar to the Minister or else the Minister hath no distinct calling For that is no distinct calling that hath not some distinct work Some works there are which God hath given to the Magistrate as a Magistrate to do Some works there are which God hath given to the Minister as a Minister to do and these works they that are not called to them may not do Or if they do when they have ended them they cannot say to God as Christ doth I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do Secondly as some do the good which God hath not given them to do so some others do the evill which God hath given none to do They do that usually which God
same respect are called the Temples of God But in him dwels the God head bodily that is really united to the humane nature to the body of our Saviour And herein Christ hath no Peer It is an high and matchless honour which no other Creature is capable of By which our nature is advanced in him above all other things and persons in the world besides Vse 2 Is it so that even the Man-hood c. Then as we may take notice here of the advancement of the nature so of our personal advancement too as many of us as belong to Christ For all the Glory of the God-head with which the Man-hood shines is for us and our advantage If he sanctifie himself it is for our sakes as his own expression is And so if he glorifie himself it is for our sakes too It is for our sakes that he prayes And now O Father Glorifie me with thy self with the Glory c. For all his Mediatour-ship throughout is with some respect to us And so it is for our sakes that this unparalelled and matchless Glory is conferred upon him Why you will ask me what is our advantage by it I answer It is very great for we poor men if we be members of the Lord Christ do share in this incomparable Glory of the Man-hood of our Saviour and that partly in fruition and partly in assured expectation First Partly in Fruition for the present we share in this incomparable Glory of the Manhood of our Saviour For as the Man-hood of our Saviour shareth in the glory of the God-head so we my Brethren share in the Glory communicated from the God-head to the Man-hood of our Saviour by reason of our Union to them both in the person of Christ Jesus And even as we are punisht in that Christ is punisht and sanctified in that Christ is sanctified so we are glorified in that Christ is glorified We shine with the incomparable and dazling Lustre of the God-head in that Christ shines with it And as we sit in Christ in heavenly places Eph. 2.6 so we are glorified in Christ with the same glory which he had with God the Father before the world was because he is invested with it as our Head in our flesh on our behalf In him God having raised him up and glorified him he hath glorified us with the very same glory In him we took possession of it So near and so indissoluble is the union between Christ and us that the Divine and Godlike glory wherewithal he shines is truly ours The members cannot choose but share in the glory of the head Secondly we share in this incomparable glory of the Manhood of our Saviour by assured expectation For as his glory in answer to the Prayer of our Saviour is now already communicated to the Manhood so far as it is capable of it So we are certain that the glory of the Man-hood of our Saviour shall one day be communicated to us so far as we are able to receive it We know that when he shall appear we shall be like him And that these vile bodies shall be conformed to his glorious body Phil. 3.21 And this should have a double operation and effect upon us 1. First it should make us to despise the shame of this world though we be trampled under foot and made the dung and the off-scouring of the Earth as this is many times the portion of the Saints our spirits should not droop or sink within us No we should bear them up in spight of all the ignominy and contempt that men pour out upon us and all the venom that they spit against us We should endure the reproach and despise the shame while we think of this glory We should not reckon of a little undeserved shame with men while we consider that we shall shortly shine with the glory of God 2. Secondly it should cause us so to walk that we be not in any thing a shame to Christ whom God hath made so glorious and who will shortly make us so glorious In whom the humane nature is advanced to such honour as to partake of the glory of the Godhead Mark what the Apostle saith Shall I take the members of Christ and make them the members of an harlot So may I say on this occasion shall I take the nature of Christ the Nature which our Saviour in his Person hath so highly dignified and make it in my person the nature of a Devil Suppose a Prince should marry with a mean woman would he endure to see those of her nearest kindred her Brethren and her Sisters live like Scullions and like Strumpets in his own eye Now Christ my Brethren hath assumed our Nature into a nearer union with himself then that of marriage a union which death it self was not able to dissolve For when the soul was separated from the body the Godhead was not separated from the one or from the other It was the Lord that lay buryed in the grave and he that ascended into heaven was the same that came down from heaven And shall we then defile this nature by wantonness intemperance and vile affections which Jesus Christ hath so honoured to take into so neer a union with himself and to cause it to partake of the glory of the Godhead Especially if we expect hereafter in our persons to partake of this glory Oh let us learn to keep our vessels in all holiness and honour And as we look hereafter to be like him so in the mean time let us purifie our selves as he is pure JOHN 17.6 I have manifested thy Name unto the men which c. WE have been very long upon the first Part of our Saviours Prayer and now at length it is ended and dispatched Charity begins at home and so our Saviour Christ began with his Petitions for himself For that hath been the substance of his Prayer hitherto that as he hath been humbled and abased with men so now he might be glorified with his Father And this he urges very hard with many pressing arguments and so he ceases to solicite any further for himself Charity begins at home as I have said but it doth not end there Our Saviour is not satisfied to put up his Petitions to his Father for himself but in the next place he becomes a Suitor also for his Church And here he prayes for his Apostles and Disciples then about him the members of the present Church And then for those who were after to be called by their preaching the members of the Church to come In the first place he prayes for his Apostles and Disciples then about him the members of the present Church who were already called and sanctified whom God had given him out of the world I pray for them saith he I pray not for the world In the second place he prays for those who were after to be called by their preaching the members of the Church that was to come in vers
hearts are always running out to God and Christ and the happiness above and feeding upon such objects They are too large to be contained within the narrow limits of this lower world no as the Psalmist speaks they are continually with God With the woman Apoc. 12.1 They tread upon the Moon this variable and inconstant world they trample with an holy scorn upon these earthly things They are aspiring still to heaven walking and acting heaven-ward Indeed they live in some respect in this world but it is but as though they lived in the world as the Apostle Pauls expression is Col. 2.20 They use the world but yet it is as though they used it not as the same Apostle speaks 1 Cor. 7.29 They lay not out the strength of their affections and endeavours upon these things But on the matters of the other world there they are intent indeed there they are in good earnest there they act with full vigor 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 their Trading their Commerce their Dealing their Negotiation is in heaven Phil. 3.20 The word there used hath very much in it and can hardly be expressed Beza assaies in many wayes The manner of our living is in Heaven or which comes nearer yet we carry and demean our selves as Citizens of Heaven As if Heaven were a City and we as being free there do walk and act according to the Manners and the Customs and the Laws and Constitutions of the City we belong to So that the Saints you see do live as if they were in Heaven already as being now no more of this world Now is it so my Brethren That there are some certain men whom God Use 1 the Father gives to Jesus Christ out of the world Are they the worlds before they come to be the Lord Christs by the donation of the Father Here then you see the reason my beloved why there is such a stir sometimes when God is giving men to Jesus Christ and why the business meets with so much heat and opposition You cannot but take notice what a fray is often made when any one is about to leave the world and to close with Jesus Christ Carnal Parents Brethren Sisters Friends Acquaintance by and by are up as it were in arms against it When the Apostles were bringing men to Jesus Christ at Ephesus you know my Brethren it occasioned such an uproar in the City and such a mutiny among the Tradesmen and Mechanicks there as you can hardly parallel in any story You shall observe in the New Testament when Christ began to gather people to himself that wheresoever there were any numbers given to him by the Father some were exceedingly disquieted out of patience at it It galled the Pharisees and cut them to the very hearts that Jesus Christ had such an harvest among the people there why say they in a great passion the whole world runs after him And so it is to this day and will be to the worlds end when God is pleased to give in souls to Jesus Christ in any place some will fret and storm at it Nor is it any wonder that they should for they are given him out of the world And the world is loth to lose that which appertains to it and which is its own possession If God did give a people to his Son to which the world had no right and to which it could pretend no title the world would like it well enough it would never be against it But this is that which vexes it and troubles it that God must give away that which is his the worlds to Jesus Christ He cannot have a man but the world must be a loser who cannot keep his own for him what hath any one to do to meddle with that which is the worlds known right to fetch away that which hath many years perhaps belonged to him This is an injury as he conceives that puts him out of all patience and this is that which makes him strive and struggle as he doth Christ enters upon every soul that is bestowed upon him by his Father by dispossessing and disseazing him so that it is no marvel though he be extreamly startled and though he labour every way by promises and by preferments on the one side and by threatning and by persecutions on the other to keep that which he hath in his possession Use 2 Are there some certain men whom God the Father gives to Jesus Christ out of the world So that however they were once the worlds now they are the worlds no longer By this let us examine and resolve whether we be given up to Christ or no It is an admirable priviledge an high prerogative for any soul to belong to Jesus Christ to be bestowed upon him by the Father It carries in it all the happiness that is attainable by any Creature Now would you know whether the Father have actually given you to Christ or no Consider whether you be out of this world whether it may be truly said of you that you were once indeed of this world you lived here builded tabernacles here your hearts and your affections and your chief delights were here But now the case is altered with you you are no longer of this world but of another Now that you may be able to discover this I shall give you marks for tryal If you be out of the world you are not fashioned and conformed to this world in the unlawful waies and practices and courses of it You fashion not your selves according to this world as the Apostle speaks Rom. 12.2 not as this world doth As Turks and Spaniards are not like to English men they have another kind of visage another garb another habit and the like So they that are given up unto Christ out of the world they differ manifestly from the world There is a clear distinction to be made between them and other men by any man that eyes them well there are none like them in the earth their wayes are of another fashion Now my Beloved is it so with you do you differ from the world do you live soberly and righteously and godlily in this present evil world In a world of wickedness are you singular in goodness so that the same may be affirmed of you that is recorded to the everlasting praise of righteous Noah that he was just and perfect in his Generations Gen. 6.9 and they were wicked and corrupt enough Of holy Lot that he was so far from joyning with the vitious Sodomites in their vile abominations that his righteous soul was vexed at their filthy conversation 2 Pet. 2.8 This is a comfortable evidence that you are given up to Jesus Christ out of this world But if you walk according to the course and custom of the world as the expression is Ephes 2.2 if you have fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness if you run out with others to the same excess of riot if you be also led away
the rest out of your practice and obedience No you must keep it all throughout without restraint or limitation if you will make it to appear that you belong to Jesus Christ Thou hast given them to me saith our Saviour in my Text and they have kept thy Word Observe it well he saith not They have kept some portion of thy Word or They have kept it in some certain things they have obeyed some rules and some directions of it but they have kept thy Word you must conceive it all thy Word without any reservation They have not willingly allowed themselves in any disobedience to the least iota of it And thus it is with those that are bestowed on Jesus Christ they are obedient to the Word in all things and so they make it to appear that they are men of proof indeed that they are tried Christians as the Apostle shews 2 Cor. 2.9 To this end did I write to you that I might have the proof of you and whether you would be obedient in all things They can say as David doth Psal 119.104 Through thy precepts I get understanding therefore every false way I utterly abhorre Assoon as I get so much understanding from thy Word and from thy Law to know that such a way is false and leads not to the happiness and comfort which it seems to promise I do not follow it and keep it as I did before no I decline it and abhorre it yea I abhorre it utterly I never touch more with it let it be what it will never so sweet so pleasing so delightful so accustomed to me Through thy Law I get understanding therefore every false way I utterly abhorre And is it so with you my Brethren Turn in upon your selves a little and consider how farre you are acquainted with the Word and Will of God how far the Lord hath shewed what is good and what he requires of you so that you are convinced of it and then examine whether you fall short in nothing whether you come fully up to the obedience and the practice of it whether you keep the Word entirely so that you do not fail in any thing advisedly and customarily of which your understandings are informed and which you know to be a duty Tell me Beloved is there no such thing is the Conscience quiet now doth it lay nothing to your charge no neglect of any thing you should have done doth it not tell you that in this and that particular you know the rule and yet you have not walked accordingly In such or such a thing you have gone quite and clean against it Brethren if your hearts accuse you God is greater then your hearts and knoweth all things Go home and judge your selves for it Commune with your hearts and say Herein I see I have been faulty I have not kept the Word of God my practice hath not been in every point according to the Rule no I have failed in this and that and the other thing But now I am resolved in good earnest by the grace of Jesus Christ to take another course as far as it is possible I will not swerve a whit nor vary in my conversation from the Word of God This I acknowledge I have done which I know well enough I ought not to have done This I confess I have neglected which I know I should have done but now it shall be so no more My aim shall be to keep the Word as far as humane weakness and infirmity will suffer wholly and entirely Thus you must do if you will make it to appear that Christ hath any share in you As you must keep the Word wholly so you must keep it cordially too As you must obey it all so you must obey it all with all the heart Your obedience to the Word must flow from principles of heartiness and love withâ—n and not from base respects and ends without And this is that which the Apostle testifies of the Romans Rom. 6.17 Ye have obeyed from the heart saith he the form of Doctrine that hath been delivered to you or whereto you were delivered as it is rendred in the margent you have obeyed it and you have obeyed it from the heart so that your obedience was voluntary free delightful you found complacencie and pleasure in it you needed nothing else to carry and incline you to it but the inward motion disposition and affection of the heart You had enough within you to quicken you and stir you up to the obedience of the Word of God And thus it is with those that are bestowed on Jesus Christ they obey it heartily while others do it meerly out of self-ends All their motives and inducements to the obedience which they yeild are from without either they are drawn by force or they are hired or they are frighted to it Their hearts meerly of themselves do nothing with them in the business Jehu was large enough in his obedience to the command and will of God as to the matter of the things he did with reference to Ahabs house To say the truth he did all every thing that God would have him But he failed in this particular he did nothing heartily nothing out of love to God but all for his own ends and therefore all he did was worth nothing See what an ample attestation he received from God himself 2 King 10.13 Thou hast executed that which was right in my eyes and hast done to the house of Ahab according to all that was in my heart He had not omitted any particular and yet because it was not cordially done for God but meerly for himself that he might bring about his own designs he met with a revenge instead of a reward as you may see Hos 1.4 How far doth Artaxerxes go Ezra 7.23 Whatsoever is commanded by the God of heaven let it be diligently done You see to what a pass this Heathen Prince is brought he will do any thing for God any thing that he requires let it be what it will he will obey But what is that which moves him to it is it a principle of love to God doth he do it heartily No it proceeds from noting else but fear of wrath and vengeance as it is apparent in the latter member of the verse for why should there be wrath upon the Realm of the King and of his Sons Now I beseech you try your selves in this particular you obey the Word of God yea and it may be you are large in your obedience as to the matter of the thing required But do you as it is observed of the Romans obey it from the heart or from some other principle if there is nothing else to move you would your hearts carry you to this obedience Have you that within you still that would hold you in from sin and stir you up to duty if there were no inducement from without Can you say as David doth Psal 10 8. Lord I delight to do
farewell of our Saviour in my Text his own departure and his Disciples stay behinde him His own departure and now I am no more in the world but I come to thee his Disciples stay behinde him but these are in the world and are to continue so for that is intimated in the words Christ must go and they must stay so that a dolefull separation is at hand If Christ had been to have remained among them here or if he would have taken them up with himself into the other world it had been well they had been together still But Christ is now about to go and they must not go with him Begin we with the first particular suggested in the words the departure of our Saviour and now I am no more in the world but I come to thee And here you have the terminus à quo the term from which he goes and that is from this lower World Now I am no more in the world And the terminus ad quem the term to which he goes to the presence of his Father but I come to thee I am no more in this world this lower world beneath Heaven He speaks of that which is approaching and at hand as if it were already acted and accomplished for it is evident he was in this world when he uttered these words And it is usual with the Holy Ghost in the Scripture to speak of instant things as done already And so our Saviour in my Text I am no more in this world q. d. I am as good as gone already the time of my departure is at hand Now this our Saviour doth not here affirm of himself as he is God for so he doth not neither can he go or come He filleth every place at once and consequently cannot move in that respect from place to place But he speaks it of himself as he is man and in relation to his bodily and fleshly presence So he is now to be no more in this world he is to leave it and depart from it But whether is he then to go if he do not tarry here Why to his Father as you have it in the following words I come to thee Why was he absent from his Father here Was there a distance between his Father and himself while he remained in this World Was not the Father present with him everywhere Yes he was in his Fathers presence every where but not in his immediate presence where he reveals and shews himself in the fulness of his glory that is confined to the heaven of the blessed And thither is our Saviour now about to go to the Immediate presence of his Father as accordingly he did in a short time after I am no more in the world but I come to thee So that the Point to be observed is this DOCTRINE That Jesus Christ as he is man is gone out of this lower world to the immediate presence of his Father Though he were once yet he is now no more in this world no he is gone up far above all heavens as the Apostle Paul speaks Eph. 4.10 above all that we see to the Heaven of the blessed And therefore David speaking in the person of our Saviour saith Thou shalt not leave my soul in hell neither shalt thou suffer thy holy one to see corruption but shalt shew me the path of life in thy presence is fulness of joy and at thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore Psal 16.10 11. Thither is our Saviour gone to the immediate presence and to the right hand of the Father And there are witnesses enough of this while they beheld saith the Evangelist Acts 1.9 that is the Apostles assembled together as you may see in the foregoing part of the Chapter While they beheld he was taken up and a cloud received him out of their sight And that must be as he was man in which respect alone he was in sight before he was withdrawn from them And after Stephen saw the heaven opened and the Son of man standing at the right hand of God Acts 7.56 He saw Jesus Christ there in his Humanity and as he is the Son of man And there he must continue in his humane Nature until he come again to Judgement as the Apostles were certified by the Angels as soon as he was taken from them Acts 1.11 Why stand ye gazing up into heaven this same Jesus which is taken up from you into heaven shall so come in like manner as you have seen him going into heaven And this is that which the Apostle intimateth in his Sermon to the Jews Acts 3.20 21. He shall send Jesus whom the heaven must receive until the time of restitution of all things Indeed my Brethren Christ was once manifested in the flesh appeared in his humane Nature in the World but now he is departed hence and received up to glory as the Apostle Paul speaks 1 Tim. 3.16 So that the point is plain you see That Jesus Christ as he is man is gone out of this lower c. But wherefore did he not continue here Why did he leave this lower World Let us see the reasons of it and they are many and of great importance some of them concern himself and some of them concern his Church we will survey them in their order Reason 1 Jesus Christ as he is man is gone c. because it was expedient for himself that he should be exalted after he had been abased and glorified after he had been dishonoured This World you know was the place of his abasure and humiliation in which he was to be emptied of his glory and to be made of no reputation And so accordingly he was despised and slighted and scornfully entreated here The other world my Brethren was the place in which he was to have his recompence for these abasures and to be glorified after all the shame and ignominy and contempt which the world had poured upon him And therefore when he had been throughly humbled here it was expedient for him to be received up to glory to be translated to the immediate presence of his Father where his transcendent exaltation was to be And this he intimates in his Petition John 17.5 And now O Father glorifie me with thy self q.d. I see there is no glory for me till I come to thee this is the place of my abasure and therefore I beseech thee take me to thy self that I may have glory with thee Reason 2 Jesus Christ as he is man is gone c. because he hath no more to do here He came into the world about business and that business he hath ended and dispatched and why then should he tarry in it any longer This world is not such a place in which one would be willing to continue longer then he hath work to do in it Indeed as long as Jesus Christ had any business to dispatch he was very well contented to stay here But assoon as that was ended he
was desirous to be gone and to return to him that sent him And therefore this he urgeth very hard when he enrreats his Father to receive him to him self I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do Joh. 17.4 q. d. If I had not done the work for which thou hast dispatched me down into this lower world I should be willing to continue here But I have gone through with it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I have made an end of it so that I have no more to do in this world and therefore I beseech thee let me come away to thee Jesus Christ as he is man is gone c. because as he hath no more to Reason 3 do here so he hath very much to do there and therefore is gone thither where his business lies He is called his Fathers servant very often in the Scripture And truly my Brethren he is a diligent and faithful one assoon as he hath done his work in one place away goes he unto another he doth not love to stay and idle there where he hath no work to do but where his business and employment is there is the place that he desires to be And hence it is my Brethren that he went away into the other world because he had much work to do there But you will ask me what that work was I answer 1. He was to triumph there over his Enemies and ours This was a necessary and important business and it was not to be done compleatly here in this world at least not till and in the very act of his departure and this is that which the Apostle pointeth at Ephes 4.8 When he ascended up on high he led Captivity captive He did it not before or after but in that article of time when he ascended when he returned to his own Countrey then he led his Captives with him Even as those Conquerers of old among the Romans when they returned back to Rome after some glorious victory were wont to bring their Captives with them which they had taken in the wars and to lead them by their Chariots in a victorious and triumphant way So Jesus Christ when he had conquered Sin and Death and Hell and was returning out of this world to the immediate presence of his Father to the Country whence he came he did it in a glorious and triumphant way He did not steal away out of the world as if he had ashamed of that which he had done or suffered there as if he had been overcome No he went away triumphing as one that having absolutely conquered and beaten all that stood against him brings along his prisoners with him 2. Jesus Christ is gone away c. that he might send down his Spirit to his people That was another work he had to do the Spirit was not to come down till he came up and therefore he ascended that the Spirit might descend abundantly upon his people And this is that of which he mindeth his Apostles and Disciples when he was about to leave them Joh. 16.7 It is expedient for you that I go away and why so For if I do not go away the Comforter the Holy Spirit will not come While I am with you in the flesh you are so taken up with carnal and fleshly apprehensions of me that you are made incapable of great degrees measures of the Spirit And therefore I must even go away from you that I may send the Spirit to you And so accordingly he did as the Prophet David takes notice Psal 68.18 He ascended upon high and he received gifts for men gifts to bestow on men that the Lord God might dwell among them A strange expression he ascended from them to this end that he might remain and dwell among them Yes he ascended from them in his body that he might dwell among them by his Spirit or by those gifts which he received for men in the preceding words Well then you see he is departed from us not to forsake us but to dwell among us He hath withdrawn the presence of his Body that he might dwell among us by the presence of his Spirit According to that sweet and pretious promise made to his Disciples when he was ready to depart from them Mat. 20.28 Behold I am with you always c. 3. Jesus Christ gone away c. that he might intercede for his people Why you will tell me so he might and so he did while he was resident in this world he offered up strong cries to God and that not for himself alone but for his Church and members too Yea the Chapter we are handling is the Prayer of our Saviour in the behalf of his people so that he might have interceded for them by vocal supplication had he remained still in this world and had he never gone hence Yea but he could not then have interceded for them by personal appearance as he doth now And therefore he is gone to heaven that he may appear in the presence of God for us Heb. 9.24 And is it not a comfort to us to consider that we have such a choise and pretious friend there That we have such an Advocate in Court continually at all times and in all causes That he is always by his Father in his Body and his humane Nature wherein he suffered for his people You know he bare our sins in his body on the tree and in that crucified body he appeareth in the presence of his Father So that he is at hand on all occasions to shew his Father all his wounds and all his scars all the prints and all the marks of his bitter bloody sufferings Oh Father may he say when there is any thing in agitation for his people any supplication for them or any accusation laid against them remember what I have endured for them in this flesh of mine what I have suffered for them in this body here before thee look upon these wounds and scars and for my sake be gratious to them do not deny them their Petitions do not reject them for their unallowed and bewailed imperfections 4. Jesus Christ is gone away c. to make heaven ready for us that so we may be presently admitted when we come And this our Saviour Christ himself who best knows yeelds as the reason of his departure from his Apostles and Disciples when he was about to leave them saith he I go to prepare a place for you Joh. 14.2 when our Saviour Christ entred heaven and passed into the immediate presence of his Father he took possession of it in our name and stead and left it open after him to all his Members He hath in this respect prepared it for us that he hath made it ready to receive us And when we are ready too he will come and receive us to himself that where he is there may we be also as it is added in the fore-alleadged place Joh. 14.3 5. Jesus Christ is gone away
shall live so long on earth till he be full of days even as the stomack that is full of meat till he desire to live no longer till nature be spun out to the uttermost extent and after I will shew him my salvation I will bring him to the place where he shall live for evermore And hence it is because continuance here is properly and in it self a blessing as on the other side the contrary thereto the rooting out of the land of the living is properly and in it self a curse that holyest Saints have deprecated taking hence They have been so far from praying that God would take them out of the world that they have rather prayed against it Lord take me not away in the midst of my days Psal 102.24 How did they plead sometimes for their indangered lives as a prisoner at the bar and when the Lord was pleased to leave them in the world a little longer they were exceedingly affected and enlarged to thankfulness As Hezekiah was you know who penned a Psalm of praise on this occasion and this was the burthen of it The living the living they shall praise thee as I do this day Object But you will interpose and say perhaps Some of the choicest Saints of God have prayed expresly to be taken hence and therefore it should seem to be the proper subject matter of Petition Answ 1. To this I answer such as prayed aright did not make their removal hence by death the proper subject matter of their prayers They did not seek it simply and abstractly by and for it self but in relation to some other thing which they could not have without it It 's true indeed that the Apostle Paul desired to be dissolved and to be with Christ he could not be with Christ he knew unless he were dissolved first and therefore that he might injoy him he was contented to be dissolved for that end Or otherwise he would have been far enough from desiring dissolution And therefore in another place he speaks clearly We would not be unclothed saith he viz. of life and of the body 2 Cor. 5.4 that is not properly the thing that we desire But we would be clothed upon with immortality in heaven If it might be possible we would be clothed upon with that without the putting off of this Indeed he saith before in the Name of all the Saints We that are in this Tabernacle do groan being burthened But yet it was not life considered in it self that was their burthen but with its evil adjuncts and associates which do continually cleave to it and which cannot be severed from it in this world So that if you take life you must take that which comes with it In this respect indeed it is a burthen to the holyest Saints because it is accompanyed with such a burthen of corruption as makes them groan and faint under it But if it be considered simply and abstractly in it self it is not a burthen from which the Saints do groan to be delivered no it is a blessing rather of which they groan to be deprived 2. Most of the Saints who have desired God to take them hence have failed and sinned in those desires of theirs It was their weakness and infirmity they did it out of fear and despondency of Spirit out of passion and impatience And thus it seems Eliah did when he fled from Jezabel 1 King 19.4 And thus it is extreamly probable that Moses did Num. 11.10 15. For it is said he was displeased and in that angry fit he said to God Wherefore hast thou afflicted me If thou deal thus with me kill me I pray thee out of hand and do not let me see my wretchedness And thus it is apparent Jonas did who being crost in a punctilio in a point of honor out of a pettish foolish childish humour will go die forsooth God must take away his life These imperfections of the Saints are left upon record in Scripture not as marks to be aimed at but as rocks to be declined Vse Now to proceed to make some Application of the point My Brethren is it so that removal out of this world is not the proper subject matter of Petition Then let not any of us make it so when we are putting up our supplications and requests to God When we consider how the world hates us how it pours contempt upon us how it follows us with troubles persecutions and afflictions so that we see but little hope that we should ever live contentedly and quietly and freely here it may be we are weary of it and ever ready to desire the Lord that he would remove us from it To wish with Israel in a pang of discontent Numb 11.1 Would God we were dead And with Eliah It is enough Lord take away our lives 1 King 14.4 It 's that which many of us are too apt to do when we are over-loaden with the cares and troubles of this world to reach after deliverance and redress and ease by this means And therefore when we find our hearts are running out in such a way as this is let us call them in again let us correct our selves and say as our Saviour in my Text O Lord we pray not that thou wouldst take us out of the world we are far from such impatience we are content to wait thy leisure to tarry till thy time come And here to keep you from such extravagancies and irregular desires I shall present you with a few things It is a special mercy of the Lord to give us life and to continue us in this world though in a comfortless and sad condition David was in a sorry case afflicted persecuted and oppressed when he put up that prayer to the Lord Deal bountifully with thy servant or be beneficial to thy servant that I may live and keep thy Word Psal 119.17 He counted it a benefit to live how troublesome soever his condition were It 's that which even Nature teaches us to reach after Skin for skin and all that a man hath will he give for his life And yet a life with nothing else some will count worth nothing You know my Brethren all that God himself did promise to some very gratious men in times of common trouble and calamity was only this they should have their lives for a prey and that was all for great things were not to be looked for Jer. 39.38 and 45.5 And yet that was a great mercy If we be not taken hence perhaps we may enjoy the mercy to out-live troubles It is mercy to live in them but it is greater mercy to live beyond them and this if we be quiet and content and patient for ought we know may be our portion And this was that which David promised to himself when he was almost over-come and over-whelmed with his afflictions and distresses I shall not die but live saith he and declare the works of the Lord Psal 118.17 Me thinks he gathers up
his first coming No man hath ascended up to heaven saith our Saviour Christ himself Joh. 3.13 but he that came down from heaven So that when he was incarnate he came down from heaven in a sense for of this our Saviour speaks in that place And to this speech of Christ it is that the Apostle Paul alludeth when speaking of our Saviour Christs ascension Ephes 4.8 he addeth presently by way of Explication Now that he ascended what is it but that he also first descended into the lower parts of the earth So then descend he did at first from heaven as after he ascended up again to heaven And because he came from heaven he is more properly of heaven then of earth as the Apostle Paul insinuates very clearly when he calls him the Lord from heaven heavenly 1 Cor. 15.47 48. Because from heaven therefore heavenly not of this world but of another 2. Jesus Christ when he was here in this world yet he was not of this world but of another because he lived in another Here he breathed but there he lived he did not live the life of this world but the life of heaven and that not in expectation as we do but in fruition He lived the life of perfect righteousness and perfect holiness the life of Angels yea a life above Angels while he was here in this world That life which is to be attained by us nowhere but in heaven only Christ lived here in this world and this perhaps was partly aimed at by our Saviour in that speech of his Joh. 3.13 No man hath ascended up to heaven but he that came down from heaven even the Son of man which is in heaven He was then come down from heaven he was then upon the earth when he spake these words And yet he addeth he was then in heaven too even the Son of man which is in heaven And he was then in heaven not only as the Son of God but as the Son of man too Virtually he was there though he were not locally His life did relish infinitely more of heaven then of earth And therefore it is very notable that he disclaimed all medling with these earthly things he would not once so much as touch with them neither as a Judge or a divider as himself professeth Luk. 12.14 nor as possessor neither It 's true he was a King as he implicitely acknowledges to Pilate and he had a kind of Kingdom while he was here in this world but it was not of this world My Kingdom is not of this world saith Christ himself Joh. 18.36 And therefore he did nor erect it outwardly with any outward policy and splendour among men but he did only set it up in the hearts of a few despised people to whom he said My Kingdom is within you Luk. 17.21 And so in every thing my Brethren he avoided such a conversation as might intimate him to be one of this world 3. Jesus Christ when he was here in this world yet he was not of this world but of another because indeed he was but going to another world From another world he came as you have heard before and to another world he was about to go Only he tarried here a little about some weighty and important business which his Father sent him down into this lower world to do and as soon as that was ended he returned to heaven again So that you see brethren he conversed here but as a Messenger from God the Father whose errand he came down upon and to whom he was to go assoon as he had finished what he came for And therefore he avoided any kind of setlement in this world any way of making this his fixed habitation as he told the Scribe that was about to follow him Mat. 8.20 The Foxes have holes and the Birds of the air have nests but the Son of man hath not where to lay his head Yea he professed that he was not in the world while he was here because indeed he was not to continue here he was shortly to depart he was as good as gone already as in this Chapter I am handling ver 11. And now I am no more in the world but I come to thâ—e And this for cleering of the former member of the point that Christ himself is not of this world but of another Now for the second branch that Christs Disciples are in this respect like Christ himself this lies before you in the letter of the text They are not of the world even as I am not of the world And this our Saviour often minds them of as you may see that place for instance to name no more at this time John 15.19 Ye are not of the world saith he but I have chosen you out of the world Indeed as Christ is so they are in this world as the Apostle speaks 1 John 4.7 So in this world that they are not of the world And that in all the three respects wherein we have clearly shewed you that Christ is not of this world but of another 1. Christs Disciples came from another world and so in that respect they are not of the world as Christ is not of the world I say they came originally from another world although not as they are men yet as they are Saints and Christians So they are from above of God they are his off-spring as Paul said to the Athenians God is their Father for they are begotten of him 1 John 5.18 And God is their Mother too for they are born of him 1 Iohn 3.9 So that you see they are no less then a divine and heavenly generation And they are members of the New Jerusalem which John saw coming down from heaven Apoc. 21.2 They are only for a while let down from heaven in a sheet as the creatures were to Peter in a vision and so taken up again 2. As Christs Disciples came from another world so they live in another world and so in that respect they are not of the world as Christ is not of the world Their Conversation is in heaven as the Apostle speaks Phil. 3.20 With the woman Apoc. 12. they tread the Moon this variable and unconstant world under their feet Trample with a disdainfull and a holy scorn upon earth and earthly things Honors are too ignoble to command them riches too poor to buy them pleasures too fleeting to allure them Sometimes they are transported as it were rapt and taken up into heaven in sweet Soliloquies and in holy contemplations ravished beyond themselves with cleer and comfortable apprehensions of their Fathers love Indeed they get above the world they soare higher then the earth their treasure is in heaven and there are their hearts also Their life is Angel-like they live with men indeed but walk with God as Moses speaks of Enoch They have their eyes on him as Moses they see him who is invisible and they are taken up with him in all their wayes and
sent by Jesus Christ 1 Cor. 1.17 Christ sent me what to do not only no not chiefly to baptize but to preach the Gospel And as for ordinary Ministers I take the seventy Disciples to be such And of them it is observed in the story Luk. 10.1 c. After these things the Lord appointed other 70. also and sent them two and two before his face and addeth presently Behold I send you forth as Lambs among Wolves It is a rule that the Apostle Paul lays down Rom. 10.15 How shall they preach except they be sent He doth not say unless they be gifted but unless they be sent How shall they do the work and business of the Ministers of Christ unless they be sent by Christ so that the point is clear you see that the Apostles and the Ministers of Christ are sent by Christ But least I be mistaken here I must interpose a caution You must not understand that they are sent by Christ Exclusively that is by him and none but him Neither as to the sending of the Father and the holy Ghost the other Persons of the Godhead Nor yet as to the sending of the Church Neither of them is excluded when we say That the Apostles and Ministers of Jesus Christ are sent by him They are not sent by him Exclusively as to the sending of the other Persons of the Godhead the Father and the Holy Ghost The works of the Trinity without are undivided and certainly it is their work as well as his to send forth Ministers into the Church and hence it is not only said that Christ when he ascended up on high he gave some Apostles Prophets Evangelists and Teachers Eph. 4.11 Some extraordinary some ordinary Ministers in his Church But it is also said That God hath see some in the Church first Apostles secondarily Prophets thirdly Teachers c. 1 Cor. 12.28 God hath sent them and that not God the Son only but God the Father and Holy Ghost too Indeed the Scripture is express for this that all the three concurred in this business The Father thrusts forth Laborers into his Vineyard Mat. 9.38 The Son gives Ministers in the fore-cited Text Ephes 4.11 The Holy Ghost makes Over-seers Act. 20.28 Take heed to your selves saith the Apostle to the Elders of Ephesus and to all the flock over which the Holy Ghost hath made you Over-seers So that you see Christ sends not Ministers exclusively as to the sending of the Father and the Holy Ghost 2. Nor doth he send them in the second place exclusively as to the sending of the Church She also hath a hand my Brethren under Christ and by authority from Christ in this mission Election appertains to her according to the rule of Christ she chooses out fit men Act. 6.3 So Ordination appertains to her I mean she doth it by her Officers as Act. 14.23 And Ordination as it is a Designation to the Ministry so it is at least a virtual and implicite sending forth to the work of the Minstry And therefore Ministers are called the Messengers of the Churches 2 Cor. 8.23 Not the Messengers of Christ alone but of the Church of Christ too They are not only sent by him but they are sent by her also she is the Wife the Spouse of Jesus Christ and so he suffers her to have a hand in sending of her own servants For so are Ministers the Churches servants though in some respects the Rulers in other some the servants also the servants of the Wife and not the servants of the Husband only as the Apostle insinuates 2 Cor. 4.5 We preach not our selves but the Lord Jesus Christ and our selves your servants for Jesus's sake This shall suffice for clearing of the Observation by way of Application here are some things that concern the Ministers and some things that concern the people I shall proceed with them in order Vse 1 Is it so That the Apostles and Ministers of Jesus Christ are sent by him This then may serve to let them see their great mistake who take upon themselves the Office of the Ministers of Christ and yet are not sent by him Concerning whom he may complain as God complains of those in Israel Jer. 23.21 I did not send them yet they ran faster then a good pace They were forward of themselves but they were never sent by me Brethren men may not call themselves or send themselves because they think themselves sufficient No Jesus Christ will call and send whom he pleases For though he call not men immediately from heaven now as in the times of the Apostles he calls and sends them mediately still by the Churches suffrages as you may see Act. 6.3 and by the laying on of the hands of the Presbyters as the Apostles phrase is 1 Tim. 4.14 And as it was a rule to the Levitical Priesthood under the Law Heb. 5.4 No man takes this honour on him no man doth de jure take it but he that is called of God as was Aaron So to the Ministry under the Gospel no man takes this honour on him but he that is sent of Christ There may be many private Souldiers in an Army that may be fit to be Commanders every way it may be fitter then some of them that do command and yet they may not take upon them to be so without a regular and due admission There may be many in the Common-wealth that may be fitter to be Justices of Peace then some of them that bear that Office and yet they may not take upon them to be so until they have received a Commission Or if they should it were impossible that their sufficiency should advantage the Army or the Commonwealth so much as the ill president which they would give and the disorder and confusion they would make would do it hurt and so there may be many private Christians that may be fitter to be Rulers and Pastors of a Congregation then many that do rule and teach and yet they may not take upon them to be either until they be sent by Christ For if one may call himself and send himself a second may and so a third and then they may be all Teachers which is the thing that the Apostle implicitely at least forbiddeth 1 Cor. 12.19 And if all were one member where were the body as the same Apostle speaks And indeed if any man put himself into an office meerly upon this account because he thinks himself sufficient the weakest will be most forward and most conceited of their own sufficience and on the other side the ablest men most modest because they best know their own weakness And if you look on those who call themselves to be the Teachers of publick Congregations and who impose themselves upon them by force and by a strong hand as some have done in these times you shall not find them of the ablest and the most judicious sort of men No not of those who are it may of their own
them hasten him and fetch him by their prayers that he may say unto them as the Angel did to Daniel Dan. 10.12 From the first day that thou didst set thy self to understand thy words were heard and I am come for thy words And here to quicken you a little I shall present you with a few Considerations 1. The Lord expects you should be very earnest and importunate with him this business He hearkens after supplications and looks that men should ply him hard Thus saith the Lord the holy one of Israel and his maker Isa 45.11 Ask of me things to come concerning my Sons command you me q. d. There are great things to come that I am doing for my Church what is the reason that ye are so stil and that I hear of no Petitions from you touching these things You are alwayes plying me for present things but I delight to hear you pleading with me for those glorious things to come which I will surely do for my people Come put in your Petitions and requests concerning them and I will stoop so low to be commanded by your prayers Ask of me things to come concerning my Sons and concerning the work of my hands command ye me 2. Consider in the second place to quicken you in prayer that this is such a business as is worth your earnestness assure your selves you cannot lay out too much heat and zeal upon it When once the Lord hath gathered in a people to him over all the world the Church shall have perfection of beauty It is a very high expression but you shall see it is applied to Sion Psal 50.2 And it is meant apparently my bretren of the Gospel Sion of the Gospel Church for in the following parcell of the Psalm the Lord rejecteth Jewish worship Indeed the Churches happiness shall be so great in those dayes that it is called heaven very often in the Scripture And so the Saints who are to be the Members of that Church are said to dwell in heaven Apoc. 13.6 Indeed my brethren it shall be heaven upon earth 3. Consider that the bringing in of people over all the world to Christ will be an extraordinary honour to him the enlargement of his Kingdom is the enlargement of his glory It adds exceedingly you know my brethren to the Luster of a Kingdom when it hath many people under it and when the territories of it are amplified and enlarged It s no such glory my beloved to be the King but of a little City or a little Island or of a small and inconsiderable company of men But to be the King of many Nations and of many Kingdoms to have a multitude of people in subjection this is a glorious thing indeed In this respect the Empire of Christ Jesus in the latter times shall be unparalleld when once the Jews come in and bring the fulness of the Gentiles with them And therefore out of love to Jesus Christ and regard to his glory we should be intent upon it 4. Consider that the bringing in of people over all the world to Jesus Christ will be very beneficial and advantagious to our selves Perhaps we do not apprehend it to be so this Countrey is come in already to the profession of the Gospel we are come in already and what need we care so much for other Nations and for other people We are well enough our selves and why should we look after others Yes my beloved we have reason to look after others for till all others that belong to Christ of all the Nations of the world be gathered in we are not in so good a case as we shall be afterwards We are in Christ perhaps and that is well for us indeed but others of his people by election of many other Countreyes are as yet without and we without them cannot be made perfect as the Apostle shews Heb. 11. ult We without them are members in a sence of an imperfect body We without them have but imperfect grace nay though we were in heaven already we could have but imperfect glory Till all that appertain to Christ be gathered in of all Nations so long as there is but a man without there can be no day of judgement and so no full reward no complement of our beatitude And therefore we have reason to help on this glorious work to the utmost of our power because till it be accomplished it cannot be so well with us as it will be afterwards we without them cannot be made perfect Is it so that Iesus Christ sends forth his Ministers to gather Churches and to erect his Kingdom over all the world Here then is matter of rejoycing and thanksgiving for us the once rejected and neglected people of the Gentiles There was a time my brethren when we were set without the verge the reach of mercy When the poor Gentiles liv'd and we too liv'd without God without Christ without a promise without Gospel when Christ did never send to them to invite them to come in and when he had no Scepter but in Jewry no subjects in a manner but among that people Alas my brethren Christ was a King in those dayes to break the Gentiles by his power but he was not a King to rule them by his grace But now my brethren in these Gospel dayes there is no such respect of persons with him as the Apostle shews Acts 10.34 In every Nation and in every people he hath or shall have some to serve him and to be accepted with him And therefore whereas formerly he sent his messengers to none but to V se 3 the people of the Jewish Nation and gave them an express Injunction Goe not into the way of the Gentiles In which respect it was that Peter was scrupulous to preach the Gospel to Cornelius Now he sends forth his Ministers to all the world to all Nations now he enlargeth their Commission Go preach the Gospel to every Creature So that we Gentiles are included in it All Countreys People Callings Nations are alike to Christ in this respect the publication of the Gospel and the tender of Salvation belongeth to them all alike and if they entertain it and embrace it whether they be Jews or Gentiles whether they be Males or Females whether they be bond or free they shall have salvation by him How great a cause have we my brethren that are Gentiles of rejoycing and thanksgiving that Jesus Christ should send to us that the word is come to us as it is to all the world that we should have the Gospel published and revealed to us That we who formerly were utterly shut out from the enjoyment of the means of our salvation should have as full and free a title to them now as the very Iews themselves Nay that we should have the preferment of the Jew in that by the abundant blessing of the Lord upon the means the Churches of the Gentiles which were wholly desolate and barren heretofore should be more
place must needs be sweet It was a high expression of an holy man that he had rather be in hell with Christ if it were possible then anywhere besides without him But to be in heaven with Christ this is excellent indeed To be in such a glorious place as heaven is the blessedness of which no tongue of men or Angels is sufficient to express and to be with Christ there To behold his glory there and to partake with him of the same glory This is such happiness as neither eye hath seen nor ear hath heard nor can it enter into the heart of man to conceive But who shall partake of it who shall be raised to this high felicity why they that are Christs own people as you have it in the point It is the will of Christ that all that are his own shall be in heaven where himself is So that if you be Christs people if God have given you to Christ and put you into him as members of his body you are the men that shall be with him where he is When other men are cast out when they are punished with eternal perdition from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his power you shall be admitted into nearest fellowship with Jesus Christ when he saith to other men Avaunt be gone in the sad day of separation Depart ye cursed into everlasting fire there to enjoy no better company then the Devil and his Angels he will say to you Draw neer come you are company for me you must dwell with me for ever Come ye blessed of my Father sit down with me in my Kingdom Ah my beloved this is a sweet and comfortable thing indeed And thus far of the matter of our Saviours prayer or the thing which he desires in the behalf of true believers that they may be with him where he is Together with the reason of it why he would have them to be with him that they may behold his glory which we have handled also with relation to the point In the remainder of the verse you have a reason of a reason Our Saviour having spoken of the glory bestowed upon him by his Father which he would have believers to behold it might be questioned how he came by this glory or what induced the Father to bestow it on the Son Why saith our Saviour he gave it me because he loved me from Eternity Father I will that they c. that they may behold the glory which thou hast given me For thou hast loved me mark it thou hast loved me and therefore thou hast given me this glory That they may behold my glory which thou hast given me for thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world There is no difficulty in the words unless it be in that expression before the foundation of the world a phrase of speech very usual in the Scripture and applyed to many things as I might give you instances enough But it will be sufficient to observe that it denotes Eternity wheresoever it is used And that before or from the foundation of the world for we meet with both expressions is as much in Scripture language as to say from everlasting For whatsoever was before the world was made my brethren was eternal so that when our Saviour saith to God the Father Thou hast loved me before the foundation of the world It is as much as if he should have said Thou hast loved me from Eternity from Everlasting And so accordingly the point shall be DOCTRINE That God the Father hath dearly loved Jesus Christ from all Eternity There are two things in the point which I shall orderly pursue First God the Father hath dearly loved Jesus Christ Secondly he hath done so from all Eternity Before the foundation of the world was laid As for the first of these That God the Father loveth Jesus Christ you see it is the clear express assertion of our Saviour in my Text. And therefore if you mark him you shall find that he is often speaking of his Fathers love to him as Joh. 15.9 and in the 23. verse of this Chapter And on the other side the Father he professes his transcendent love to Christ and that out of heaven it self Mat. 3.17 This is my beloved Son I have some other children that I love well but this is my beloved Son above the rest take notice of him this is he This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased I shall not stand to prove so clear a truth That God the Father dearly loveth Jesus Christ But you will ask me Why doth God the Father love him Truly my Brethren there is cause enough why he should love him Reason and love him out of all measure There are two things my Brethren that qualifie an object and that make it meet for love Proportion and Propriety and both of these must meet together Now both of these concurre in Christ so that he is compleatly fitted for his Fathers love For There is Proportion He is very like the Father and that both as God and Man 1. As God he is extreamly like the Father he is the very picture of him as we use to say The express Image of his Fathers Person not of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Heb. 1.3 Indeed he representeth and resembleth him in every thing The Father is Almighty so is he the Father is Eternal so is he the Father is Immutable and Omnipresent c. so is he He is his express Image Nay shall I go a little further The Father as a Person distinguished from the Son hath nothing proper and peculiar to himself but is in some respect expressed and declared in the Son His act of generation or begetting is shewed forth in the begotten so that unless he were the Father it is impossible he should be nearer to the Father or better like the Father then he is And if he were the Father he could not be the Fathers Image he could not be like the Father for Nullum simile est idem Thus Christ as God you see my Brethren is the most absolute and perfect Character of God the Father like him in every thing in all respects as one face answereth another in a glass Having no other inward difference between them save only this that by their relative properties they are distinguished the one from the other 2. As man our Saviour is extreamly like the Father too He is the Image of the invisible God Col. 1.15 As he hath assumed our flesh he is the very Image of the Father And therefore the Apostle saith not simply who is the Image of God but of the invisible God In which there is a close Antithesis q. d. Having assumed our Nature he is now become the visible Image of the invisible God That God who is invisible is made visible in him And this is that which is suggested in that speech of John the
themselves by nature so much as a receptivity or an immediate passive capability of saving knowledge For there is somewhat in them superfluous and there is somewhat in them defective somewhat too much and somewhat too little 1. In every unbeliever there is somewhat that repells divine knowledge and that keeps out the beams of truth And that is carnal reasoning and carnal wisdom 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rom. 8.7 The wondrous perspicuity and sharpness of conceit that is in any man that is but flesh is so far from helping him to know God that it doth but hinder him And the ground is evident for such a person leanes to his own wisdom he doth not yield himself up to be taught of God but weighs those things that are divine and supernatural in the ballance of his reason As far as that will reach he is content to go And where that faileth him as infinitely short it falls there he desists and what he is unable to perceive by this is foolishness to him as 1 Cor. 2.14 The natural man receiveth not the things of God for they are foolishness unto him They are not so indeed and in themselves they are but so to him He is too wise to take in such foolish things and therefore the Apostle saith not many wise 1 Cor. 1.16 and tells us plainly that if we ever mean to attain to saving knowledge we must be renewed in the spirit of our mind Eph. 1.24 that is in the highest purest and the most refined part of it As spirits are the quintessence of things that are most abstract from dross and that have least of earth in them Even these must be renewed or saving knowledge will not be received 2. In every unbeliever and unsanctified person as there is something redundant that repells divine knowledge so there is something wanting to receive it and that is the spirit of God Saving truths are often called the things of the spirit as 1 Cor. 2.14 Now my beloved the things of our own spirits carnal natural and worldly things our own spirits will take in but the things of Gods spirit Gods spirit only will take in Though they be brought home to our doors if Gods spirit be not there to take them in if he be not at home to entertain them and receive them it is all to no purpose And this is the case of the natural man he hath not the spirit of God and therefore he receiveth not the things of the spirit because he hath no principle within him that is agreeable and suitable unto them And this is that which the Apostle aims at when he saith we speak wisdom to them that are perfect 1 Cor. 2.6 That is to them that have all the parts of a spiritual man whereof the spirit is the principal the doctrine which we teach is accounted wisdom But 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the animal man the souly man the man that hath a soul indeed but no spirit I mean none of Gods spirit he perceives not these things nor can he know them And why so because they are spiritually discerned And he poor man hath not the spirit to discern them by And therefore though he hear the words of God and Christ he never knows the mind of God or Christ as it is added in the end of that Chapter I shall add but one reason more unbelievers and unsanctified persons know not God because as they are of themselves unable in the respects which have been mentioned so they are unwilling also to know God They will not understand Psal 82.5 They are wilfully ignorant as 2 Pet. 3.5 God comes and shews himself to them and they say to God Depart from us for we will not the knowledge of thy wayes Light is offered and they shut their eyes against it So that it may be said of such Their eyes have they closed lest they should see with their eyes They need not to ascend up into heaven to bring God down from thence that they may see him No the word that manifesteth and revealeth God is nigh to them Rom. 10.6 They need not to go far to hear it and to hear of God in it But many will not step out of their doors to meet with God and to be acquainted with him If any light break in upon them by which they have a glimpse of God they even thrust it out again They do as the Gentiles did Rom. 1.19 they liked not to retain God in their knowledge They had him there but they liked not to retain him they had no mind to keep him there feign they would put him out again the apprehension of a God called upon them for love and duty and obedience and was a curb and a restraint from many evils and therefore they were weary of such thoughts as those and sought to chase them from their minds To say the truth they did not like them and therefore would be rid of them And thus it is with many Christians These are the reasons why unbelieving and unsanctified persons know not God Vse 1 Now to descend to application In the first place here we see the misery of unbelieving and unsanctified persons For all that know not God are in an infinitely sad condition They are exposed to his fiercest wrath and most direfull indignation The ignorant of God as you may see Jer 10.28 are made the object of a fearfull imprecation yea the ignorant of God among the Heathen who are deprived of the means though not of all yet at the least of any saving knowledge of him and yet the Prophet prayes Pour out thy fury upon the heathen that have not known thee And what then will become of the ignorant of God among Christans If ignorance of God yea though it be invincible expose men to the vengeance of the Lord and damn them everlastingly because the knowledge of him is required necessitate medii to salvation what will it do if it be wilfull and affected If Jeremy desire the Lord to pour his fury on the heathen who yet have not so much as the outward means of knowledge What rivers and what floods of indignation think you will be poured out on them who have the means and will not learn nor be instructed by them what will they do when the day of judgement comes when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven c. rendring vengeance to them that know not God as 2 Thes 1.4.8 I beseech you think upon it and lay it seriously to heart you that have long enjoyed the means and yet know very little of the nature or the will of God Or if you know with a notional discoursive knowledge you know him not with an affective and effective knowledge You glorifie him not as God you do not walk according to your knowledge of him And so your knowledge is as good as no knowledge You may and many do delude themselves with this conceit that though they dye in this
this particular I shall in a word or two direct you how to judge of this business 1. You may judge a little by his entrance if he be sent of God he comes in by the door and not by the window The door which Christ sets open to him and not which he himself unlocks and opens with a false Key So that if any question grow in this particular he is able to appeal to all the people as the Apostle sometimes did 2 Thess 2.1 You know our entrance It was not in a clandestine and surreptitious way you of the Church you know it what it was whether it were according to the rule and as be seems a Minister of Christ I leave it to your selves to judge I appeal to your verdict You may discover somewhat whether a Minister be sent of God by his enablement to that Office Whom God sends he qualifies he sends not his message by the hand of a fool When Christ ascended up on high he gave gifts unto men for the work of the Ministry Ephes 4.12 God makes able Ministers of the New Testament 2 Cor. 3.6 As he makes them so he makes them able too indues them in a measure with ability of knowledge and utterance gives them wisdom and a mouth If they be competently able both ways it is an evidence that they are of Gods making and of Gods sending You may judge a little as by their ability so by their propensity to do the Office of a Minister And this is that which the Apostle calls a ready mind to feed the flock 1 Pet. 5.2 A good will to deal out to the people the Gospel of Christ 1 Thess 2.8 Indeed my Brethren when a Minister that hath a Competency both of knowledge and of utterance regardeth not at all to stir up the gift of of God that is in him or to use his abilities for the good of the Church but is idle and remiss prefers his pleasure and his ease before the good and the salvation of the peoples souls you have great reason to suspect him that he is not come from God But if he be content to spend himself and to be spent if he be like a burning and shining light as it is said of John the Baptist burning in his zealous Doctrine shining in his holy life and wasting while he shines to others if it be his meat and drink to do the work that God hath put into his hands such a Minister as this so coming in so qualified so employed beware how you suspect that he is not sent of God JOHN 17.9 I pray for them and I pray not for the world WE have not yet dispatched the Preface or the preparation to our Saviours Prayer in the behalf of his Apostles and Disciples some think indeed that he begins his Prayer for them in the following verse which we are now about to enter on I pray for them I pray not for the world But if you mark it there is nothing in it either of Confession or Petition or Thanksgiving only our Saviour Christ lays down some leading Considerations which induce him to present this Supplication for them to his Father And they are taken either from their relation or from their condition The first is drawn from their relation to his Father and himself I pray for them I pray not for the world but for them which thou hast given me for they are thine And all mine are thine and thine are mine by means whereof it comes to pass that I am glorified in them the next is drawn from the condition they were in and were likely to be in they were at present in the world and they were likely to be in it out of hand without Christ I mean without his visible and corporal and fleshly presence And now I am no more in the world but they are in the world and I come to thee as if he should have added and I must leave them behind me The greater need they had to be recommended by him in his prayers which were the last he was to make with them in this world These are the things that move him to become an earnest suitor to his Father for his Apostles and Disciples in a special manner as he hints in the beginning I pray for them I pray not for the world Now this he speaks exclusively you see as it is very manifest even in the letter of the Text. A man would think it might have been sufficient for our Saviour to have said I pray for them For had he said but so he had implyed that other men were not at all remembred by him in his prayers But he will be express and clear in such a business of such high importance he will shut out the world from having any share at all in this incomparable priviledge in down-right language and in plain terms from being once so much as mentioned in his prayers I pray for them I pray not for the world So that the point to be observed is plain DOCTRINE Christ is an Intercessor to his Father for none but his own people He prays for them and none but them the world are utterly excluded from having share at all in our Saviours Intercession He intercedes for none that are without the pale that he sets up in this Text he doth not speak one word to God for them I pray not for the world saith he I meddle not with them at all in that business But if he pray not for the world who are they for whom he prays I pray for them saith Christ For them for whom why for them whom thou hast given me So that they who are Christ's you see have a peculiar priviledge in this regard for all the Intercession of the Son of God the great High Priest is spent upon them If any sin we have an Advocate with God the Father saith the Evangelist 1 Joh. 2.1 He speaks it there exclusively we have and no others And therefore it is very much to be observed that he saith not If any sin he hath an Advocate for there are many sinners in the world that have no Advocate with God the Father But if any sin we have an Advocate we that believe have Christ to intercede for us And he may have an advocate if he believe if he be one of us let the man be what be will and let his sin be what it will Christ will be an Advocate and Intercessor to his Father for him He ever lives saith the Apostle speaking of our Saviour to make intercession for them Heb. 7.25 Them whom why them who come to God by him as you may see if you reflect upon the former parcel of the verse He is able to save them to the utmost who come to God by him seeing he ever lives to make intercession for them Still you see his intercession is confined to a selected company of men and not extended to the whole world He appears in Heaven
for us saith the Apostle Heb. 9.24 Not for all without exception but for us whom he hath taken into his special and peculiar love and care who are comparatively but a small number So that the point is plain you see Christ is an Intercessor to his Father c. Reason And the reason is apparent because he is a Priest for none but them only and Intercession is a part of his Priesthood There are two branches as you may know my Brethren of the Priesthood of our Saviour Sacrifice and Intercession and they are both of them for his people He offers Sacrifice for none but them and so accordingly he intercedes for none but them neither for both the branches of his Priesthood of necessity must go together He is a Mediator for and only for his own people he makes peace for none but them And even as he is not a Mediator of redemption for the world so he is not a Mediator of Intercession for it neither Indeed my Brethren all that he is or doth as he is Man and Mediator is for his people Why was the Son of God incarnate but for them why did he take our Nature on him but for them why was he made a Mediator but for them He is a King to rule them a Prophet to instruct them a Priest to sacrifice and intercede for them He had never been a King as he is a Man he had never been a Prophet he had never been a Priest but for the sake of his people And hence it follows very clearly that whatsoever he doth in the administrations of these Offices of his he doth it next to his own glory for his Churches good He carries it throughout in reference to them and so accordingly the Execution of his Priestly Office in both the parts and branches of it is for them He is an Intercessor to his Father for none but for c. Is Christ an Intercessor c. this may serve to satisfie us in the point Vse 1 which some have vented in these latter times that Christ is the Redeemer of the whole world and that he dyed for all men universally without restraint or limitation What think you my Beloved is it a likely thing that Christ should dye for those for whom he will not pray That he should offer up himself a Sacrifice for those for whom he will not intercede That he should spend his blood for those for whom he will not spend his breath That he should give his life for those for whom he will not give his word will he do that which is abundantly the greater for them and then refuse to do the less You see he saith expresly in my Text I pray not for the world And might he not have said as well I dye not for the world and if our Saviours intercession now in heaven be not vocal as it is usually resolved but a real presentation of the merits of his death and the vertue of his passion to his Father That as the blood of Martyrs cries for vengeance to be executed upon those that shed it so on the other side the blood of Jesus Christ the Mediator cries for mercy to be shewed to them for whom he shed it It claims it out of right and justice in the behalf of those for whom he dyed Why then it follows that if he dyed for all he cannot choose but intercede for all too Or if he should be silent his blood would cry for mercy for them to whom it was intended and designed and consequently if he pray not for the world he dyed not for the world neither Is Christ an Intercessor c. Here then you see the sad condition of Vse 2 those who are without the pale that are not only in the world but of the world Christ never intercedes for them let their cause be what it will let their necessity be what it will Christ even leaves them to themselves and never interposes for them to his Father There you may cry and howl your selves when you are in any straight you may stand beging for your selves and all in vain for Jesus Christ will not speak a word for you nor any such as you are Beloved I beseech you think upon it there come in heavy things against you every day at the bar of Gods Justice Sin cryes and the Law cryes all the Commandements which you break continually come in with open mouth against you and importune Gods Justice for wrath and vengeance to be executed on you They cry How long Lord and sin cryes How long Lord and Christ who is the only Mediator to avert wrath and make peace he sitteth still and saith nothing Oh my Beloved what should hinder now but that the black decree for execution should go forth against you when there is none to interpose and stand between you and the wrath of God! when these complaints and cryes of all the sins that you have done of all the Oathes that you have sworn of all the lyes that you have made c. come in against you in the Court of heaven and the Father puts the question to the Son the only advocate in that Court What have you any thing to say for this man why judgement should not pass against him will you undertake for him and Christ shall answer no I have not a word to say for him I intercede not for the world Let Justice have its course against him let it be executed on him to the utmost I pray for my own people and I desire they may be spared as in right they ought to be for I have satisfied for them But for the rest I even leave them to the vengeance and the wrath they have deserved I will not hinder it or stop it in the least degree Let Justice pay them home in full weight and full measure Look how much they have sinned and how much wickedness they have committed so much torment and so much sorrow let it give them Oh what a flood of horrour and confusion think you will be poured out upon you when once the day of vengeance and of visitation comes when God comes forth against you as an Enemy with nothing else but war and death and blood and mine and destruction in his looks and there is none to pacifie and appease him none to speak a word for you but Christ the only Mediator leaves you to the utmost of his fury Oh consider this c. Vse 3 Is Christ an Intercessor to his Father for none c. here then you may behold the matchless happiness of those who belong to Jesus Christ In this respect they have a priviledge above the world that they have him to intercede for them to be their Advocate and to present their Supplications and requests to God Brethren I know not how you value it or what account you make of it but I assure you it is a rich Prerogative that you have such an Intercessor with the
other side dilates the heart it spreads it and it widens it and consequently doth not only make it fit for duty but it makes it large in duty It makes it to abound and to exceed in every service that is suitable to joy It carries it beyond the ordinary rate And therefore Jesus Christ would have his people to be full of joy that they may be full of fruit and that they may abound in his service Is it so that Jesus Christ would have his people full of holy Joy Vse 1 Then first it serves to censure those who seek to hinder the Joy of Christs people and to imbitter all their comfort with spitefull molestations and vexations who like the Cananites are thorns in their sides and daggers at their hearts Jesus Christ would have his people to rejoice yea to be full of Joy as their very hearts can hold but they will not suffer it but alwayes seek as much as lies in them to interrupt their comfort and to disturb their peace and joy They disturb them by their persecutions with the hand and with the tongue and which is worse they disturb them by their sins They rail at holiness and holy men blaspheme religion and the name of Christ of purpose to disquiet and to vex his people who cannot choose but mourn and weep for these things Just like the Sodomites of whom the Apostle speaks 2 Pet. 2.8 who vexed the righteous soul of Lot from day to day with their filthy conversation But yet this difference we may observe they did not their prodigious villanies of purpose to disquiet Lot for ought we find What think we shall their portion be my brethren then who pass the Sodomites in villany whose wicked deeds are yet set forth for an example suffering the vengeance of eternal fire Is it so that Jesus Christ would have his people full of holy Joy Vse 2 Then in the second place it taxeth such among the Lords people who waste away themselves in heaviness and discontent who are so far from promoting the design of Christ in this particular that they rather strive to cross him and even waste away their hearts in pleasing sadness and affected discontent and surely there are many such among Christs own people who even give themselves over to sorrow and wilfully thrust away this Joy from them Now I beseech you my beloved consider what the will of Christ is and let him have his will in this business use all means possible to have your hearts brim-full of holy Joy And to this end I shall prescibe you some directions Be conversant and studious in the word of Christ There is the fountain of living waters whence every may draw sufficient to refresh his fainting soul in all his troubles and afflictions The statutes of the Lord are right saith David rejoycing the heart Psal 19.8 Through comfort of the Scriptures we have hope saith Paul Rom. 15.4 Philosophers indeed have taught us many wayes to fence and fortifie our hearts against sorrow But when the Lord shall set afflictions home upon the soul and put a sting into them too there is nothing in the world that can cement and cheer us but the comfort that is fetched out of the Scriture We may run in our distress to other means as Saul when he was with a melancholy humor to the minstrel but we shall find that nothing goes the right way and that we grasp at nothing but some empty succors of contentment unless we comfort our selves with these words as the Apostle Paul speaks 1 Thess 4. ult David was cut short of nothing that the world could have afforded to revive his drooping spirit yet he professeth freely that he must have fainted unless he had been staid with better comfort Vnless thy Word had been my comfort I should have perished in my affliction Psal 119.92 And in another place he cries out Remember thy Word unto thy servant upon which then hast caused me to hope this is my comfort my only comfort in my trouble Psal 119.49 50. And therefore at this Fountain let us draw if we mean to have comfort but chiefly let us wait upon the publick preaching of the Word of God which is called the Ministry of reconciliation in which there are divulged glad tidings of good things which should carry something in the power and efficacy of it to work joy For God doth commonly dispense it rather by the way of hearing them by the way of reading the Scriptures And hence saith David Make me to hear of joy and gladness that so the bones that thou hast broken may rejoyce Psal 51.8 It is the Publique Ordinance it is the Publique Ordinance that is the Interpreter one of a thousand that comforts the dejected soul as you may see Job 33.23 Imploy your serious thoughts upon the meditation and survey of that delitious place where there is fulness of all joy and pleasures for evermore into which you that are Christs assoon as you are past through the veil of tears shall enter and there continue and abide for ever There is the place where you shall sigh and weep and mourn no more where all your tears will be wiped away from your eyes and surely did you think upon this joy with which you shall be filled there to over-flowing this would preserve you here from being swallowed up with over-much sorrow we rejoyce saith the Apostle How not in the fruition No in the hope of the glory of God Rom. 15.4 Indeed the Saints of God while they compass and carry their afflictions according to their present state are very pensive and disconsolate and so at once they do an injury to Christ who hath reserved such pretious comforts for them in the world to come And to themselves who have received good assurance that they shall certainly enjoy them in their season but did they walk by faith and not by sight did they not look so much upon the difficulties that they meet with in the way but on the things that are not seen the invisible pleasures of which they shall be made partakers in the end they should soon find cause enough of joy unspeakable and glorious yea even amidst the greatest tribulation of this present life you see how frolike the poor Worldling is if he have gotten a few thousand pounds and built a goodly house and bought a little earth about it and yet his title to it is so uncertain and unsound that the very following night for ought he knows the Lord may turn him out of all and take away his soul from him and make him roar in Hell before the morning But you who by the hand and seal and earnest of the Lord himself have a most certain title to that happiness and joy which neither tongue of men or Angels can express if you have but a wicked disobedient child a froward wife a sickly body or a low estate do waste away your lives in heaviness and discontent and so
you undervalue heaven and the incomparable riches of Christs mercy to your souls And whence proceedeth this but from the fleshiness of your corrupt hearts while you walk by sense only and therefore I beseech you take a little pains to make your selves conceive and understand your happiness and spend a little time upon the contemplation of the blessedness that is reserved for you in the heavens and this will draw and swallow up your present sorrows and afflictions Is it so that Jesus Christ would have his people full of holy joy you Vse 3 then who have your hearts replenished with it take heed that neither sin nor Satan steal away this Jewel from you which is the legacy that Christ bequeathed you when he was even about to leave this world But first before I press you any further in this kind this caution would be fitly interposed be sure the joy you have be Christs joy the joy which he works by his Spirit which he would have you to be full of and that you have his joy fulfilled in your selves for you must know my Brethren that as there is a kind of joy that is a fruit and effect of the Spirit as the Apostle Paul stiles it Gal. 5.22 so there is another kind that is a fruit and effect of the flesh there is a laughter that is madness a rejoycing that is not good as the Apostle hath it Jam. 4.16 And nulla est verior miseria quam falsa laetitia There is no truer misery then false joy and feigned felicity A very hypocrite may have his raptures and flashes of exceeding comfort The second ground you know received the Word of God with joy and those that followed John the Baptist rejoyced in his sight and such as after fall away may find a kind of taste and sweetness in the Word of God and in the powers of the world to come And therefore we had need to prove the joy and comfort that we have whether it be Christs joy the joy which he works in his people by his Spirit The marks to try it may be such as follow The joy of Christ which he works by his Spirit is chiefly moved with spiritual things It 's true there is a joy allowable for earthly blessings as when the Lord vouchsafes us rain and fruitful seasons and the like in doing so he fills our hearts with joy and gladness Act. 14.17 But this is as if we rejoyced not as the Apostle Paul speaks 1 Cor. 7.30 it is not worthy to be named with the joy that ariseth from the sense of the favour of God and spiritual blessings conferred on our souls Here then examine my Beloved when your joy is most when you are freed from some affliction or when you have obtained conquest over some corruption when inward grace or else when outward wealth when Corn and Wine and Oyl increaseth Alas how evidently do the greatest part of men discover the unfoundness of their joy who take abundantly more comfort in these outward things the thriving of their Trades their speeding of their pleasures and past-times then in the thriving of the means of grace or any other thing that most especially concerns Gods glory or the Churches good They make it to appear where lies the toot and Fountain of their joy and consequently of what kind it is which if they be deprived of their riches or honors their hearts like Nabal dye within them their joy is dashed and their comfort gone Whereas the Saint of Christ whose heart is filled with spiritual joy retains it in a measure in the loss of earthly things and professeth with the Prophet Habbakuk chap. 3.17 Though the fig-tree shall not blossom neither shall there be any fruit in the Vine if the labour of the Olive fail and the field yeild no meat if the Flock be cut off from the fold and there be no Herd in the stall yet I will rejoyce in the Lord yea I will joy in the God of my salvation The joy of Christ which he works by his Spirit proceeds from a conscience testifying good and not from a conscience testifying nothing For our rejoycing saith the Apostle is this the testimony of our conscience 2 Cor. 1.12 There is as Barnard stiles it Conscientia mala quieta an evill conscience that is quiet which being lulled asleep by Satan saith nothing to disquiet him that owns it and so he lives as jocund and as metry for a time as he whose heart most really acquitteth him from any thing that may disturb or interrupt his joy But yet this kind of comfort beause it comes from nothing else but a Vacation in the Court of Conscience if I may call it so a respit of the accusations there is most uncertain and unfound Assoon as term begins again when Satan as he seeth occasion shall set the sins of such a man before his face when conscience shall awaken and accuse that joy and comfort will be turned into sorrow yea into such tormenting pangs of horror that no tongue is able to express But if thy joy arise from a conscience testifying good that in simplicity and sincerity of heart thou hast had thy conversation in the world this is the joy that Christ would have fulfilled in thee The joy of Christ which he works by his Spirit hath its matter within and not without the person rejoycing There be many my Beloved That have nothing in themselves whereof they have a just occasion to rejoyce and therefore seek it up and down without And from this kind of joy the Apostle Paul disswadeth as unsound Gal. 6.4 Let every man prove his own work and he shall have rejoycing in himself alone and not in another Now men are said to rejoyce in another especially in two cases As first when they compare themselves with such as are extremely vitious and prophane and finding that themselves are not so bad as many others are they cheer and comfort up themselves with this as the Pharisee did I thank thee God saith he that I am no extortioner c. I am not as other men are nor as this Publican Luk. 18.11 and yet they may be bad enough for all this And secondly when men take comfort only in the good opinion that others have conceived of them and not in any good that hath a true and real being in themselves And this St. Paul suggesteth is a false deceitful joy and therefore presseth every man to prove his own work to sift and try his own actions and if on tryal they be good indeed then he hath ground and matter to rejoyce in himself and not in another And now my Brethren are there not too many such among us who when they look on drunkards whoremongers blasphemers and men of the most infamous and vitious lives that pass them and exceed them in prophaness take joy and comfort in themselves but never prove their own works their own lives And thus while they compare