other and now they are delivered and believe lyes It is a lie and a delusion but it is a strong delusion so that you cannot stir them from it Do what you can and bring what arguments you will it is in vain the deceit is strong upon them And some are also given up to vile affections and to those burning lusts which the Apostle speaks of in the cited places This is the formidable judgement of the Lord on those who know God and do not walk according to their knowledge And therefore as we own the true God let us serve and let us worship him as such a one let us live and act for him let us be taken up with him let us make this our work to please him let us in every thing so carry and demean our selves as they should do who have the Lord for their God JOHN 17.3 Thee the only true God IS it so that God the Father Son c. is the only true God Then Use 3 let us have no other God but him only Let us be able confidently to challenge any man in the words of holy David Whom have we in heaven but him and whom have we in earth but him Is there any in the world whom we set up to our selves as a God but him only Let us be alwaies mindfull of the first and great Commandment of the Law of God which is indeed the very basis and foundation of the rest Thou shalt have no other God before me Thou shalt have a God and thou shalt have me for thy God and thou shalt have none but me for thy God And that which is annexed is very much to be observed If thou hast any God besides me it will be before me If we could go behind his back and take another god there were the less iniquity and there were the more safety it were not such a hainous thing it were not such a dangerous thing But to go and take another god before his face as if a wife should go and take another Lover and commit uncleanness with him even before her husbands face what an horrid impudence what an unsufferable provocation What saith the Lord as once Ahasuerus in the case of Haman will he commit adultery before my face for so idolatry is spiritual adultery will he do it in my presence and while I am looking on Ah desperate wretch nay then I see there is no hope of him take him away and carry him to execution And therefore let us be extreamly cautious that we have no other God but him alone who is the only true God But you will ask me now perhaps what I intend when I exhort you to have no other God but him only Truly my Brethren it involveth many things but I shall draw them to a few heads When I perswade you to have the Lord and none but him for your God my meaning is that you should serve him and none but him that you should fear him and none but him that you should trust in him and none but him Then since he is the only true God serve him and none but him Serve the Lord so as to serve no other with him So is his own express injunction Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God and him only shalt thou serve Matth. 4.10 And here to be a little more distinct serve the Lord and not Idols serve the Lord and not Times serve the Lord and not Lusts First serve the Lord and not Idols they are all false gods he is the only true God and therefore see you serve him and not them It is a sin the Scripture very much disswades from and makes the worst of all corruptions and most abominable to the Lord. And therefore this is often called the sin in Scripture by way of eminence above the rest because it is a sin of the most infamous and odious rank And Jeroboams drawing Israel to the worship of the calves is frequently set forth by this expression he made Israel to sin He made them to commit the sinning sin the sin which is abundantly and out of measure sinfull And God himself disswading from it speaketh of it as that on which his very heart did rise which he abhorred to name on which he could not think without extremity of detestation O do not that abominable thing which I hate Jer. 44.4 And otherwise indeed it cannot be For it is the choosing of another god that is the Holy Ghosts expression of it saith he they chose new gods Judges 5.8 by which they made it to appear that they were weary of the old as if they had discovered some iniquity in God as he expostulateth with the Jews upon the like occasion Jer. 2.5 as if the Lord were found upon experience to be such a god or were not worth the keeping any longer This is a thing from which the very heathen are abhorrent and averse the Nations will not change their gods Jer. 2.11 though they be but false gods and consequently no gods as it is added there in that place Oh what an odious thing is this that the Church should change hers who hath the true and everlasting Lord of heaven and earth for her God They will not change their false gods for the true and shall we change the true God for a false Oh what an horrible indignity is this what an unsufferable provocation And therefore God is exceedingly incensed at this iniquity it is a sin that kindles anger great anger yea the heat of great anger Deut. 24.44 What means the heat of this great anger And in the following verses it is shewed to be because they went and served other gods Indeed Idolatry stirs up the jealousie of God and therefore this is added as the reason of the prohibition of it because he is a jealous God And even as jealousie in man is as the wise man notes the rage of man so jealousie in God my Brethren is the rage of God To see his Wife the Church forsake him and run a whoring after Idols is such a thing as blows and kindles up the flames of his hottest indignation In what a fearfull rage was God on this occasion behold and tremble at it Exod. 32.9 when Moses hung about him and besought him for the people he flung him off Let me alone saith God that so my anger may wax hot against them and that I may consume them in a moment And if you search the Scripture you shall find that God hath executed and inflicted the heaviest of his plagues and judgements on those that have been guilty of this sin Look on the monuments of his severest and most direfull vengeance and you shall find that as the wrath of God hath been revealed from heaven against all unrighteousness of men so especially against this hideous sin And as a man transported with a jealous spirit is apt to take unmercifull revenge in which respect the wise man saith He will not spare in the
are bound to watch for as those for whom they are to give up an account when the day of reckoning comes And this appeareth evidently by the Apostles protestation to the Elders of Ephesus Act. 20.26 I take you to record this day that I am pure from the blood of all men How so For I have not shunned to declare unto you all the Counsel of God not some but all his Counsel They that hide any are not pure from blood no not from the blood of souls which is a formidable thing The blood of bodies hath a voyce and cryes aloud for wrath and vengeance upon them that shed it The blood of souls speaks worse things and cryeth louder then that of Abel 2. If they suppress c. they do in the desert deprive themselves of any share in the mercy of the Lord. It is a dreadful sentence against such which God himself doth not seem to speak so much as to thunder out against them Apoc. 22.19 If any man shall take away saith he from the words of this book Well if he do what then the Lord shall take away his part out of the Book of life and out of the holy City and from the things that are written in this Book If there be any happiness to be enjoyed in Heaven and in the new Jerusalem which is above if there be any mercy mentioned in the Book of God in all the pretious promises from the beginning of it to the end if there be any priviledge to have a part in the blessed Book of life the man that takes away one word out of the Book of God that so doth and so continues is utterly cut off from all these He that is able to diminish blessings and to bring them down so low that nothing of them shall remain will recompense them who diminish his word and pay them home in the same kind wherein they sin 3. If they suppress c. they expose themselves to ignominy and contempt with men They think perhaps to gratifie and please and to be loved and honoured and esteemed by this means viz. by hiding and concealing that which they imagine will not rellish with the people But God will meet with such in this preposterous way of theirs and cross them so that this shall make them despicable in the eyes of all men I have made you saith the Lord to the unfaithful Priests of Israel contemptible and base before all the people And why so because you have not kept my ways but have been partial in the Law Some of it you have delivered and some of it you have concealed according as your hearers and the times would bear you have dealt partially with it And thus you thought perhaps to get your selves esteem and love among the people But it is fallen out quite contrary clean against your expectation For all men look upon you now as self-seekers men-pleasers and time-servers and so you are become contemptible and base by this means And if you look on those at this day who are partial in the Law and who apply it only against one side who reprove and threaten none but those that are not of their own party you shall find them of no great esteem among the people 4. If they suppress c. as they expose themselves to shame so to wrong from men too They lay themselves by their unfaithfulness the more open to abuses and injuries and molestations from the people Whereas if they be faithful they are under Gods protection I have made thee saith the Lord encouraging the Prophet a defenced City and an Iron pillar and brazen walls against the whole Land against the Princes thereof against the Preists thereof and against the whole land and they shall fight against thee but they shall not prevail and what of this Therefore gird up thy loins and speak unto them all that I command thee Jer. 1.17 with-hold not any thing for fear that I would have thee to deliver be bold and confident in my protection Be not dismaid at their faces least I confound thee before them The Lord hath always taken special care of them who have been trusty in the delivery of his message And hence the Prophet David having said he suffered no man to do them wrong but reproved even Kings for their sakes discovers in the words immediately annexed who they were that had this special interest in Gods protection Touch not mine anointed and do my Prophets no harm Psal 105.15 And that Prophetical Petition of Moses in behalf of Levi is notable to this purpose Deut. 33.11 Strike through the loyns of them that rise against him and of them that hate him that they rise no more Now if you ask me how it comes to pass that notwithstanding th assurances in the Name of God himself ungodly men have risen and prâ—vailed against the faithful Messengers of Jesus Christ sometimes to their utter extirpation To this I answer in a word It was not that the Lord was careless of their peace and welfare but it was because they had dispatched the work which God had given them to do they had finished their testimony as the expression is Apoc. 11.7 Or else because the Lord fore-saw he should receive more honour by their suffering then their peace Phil. 1.12 And thus far of our Saviours faithfulness in the delivering of his Message from his Father to his people The issue and event of this fidelity of his comes now in order to be handled and that as I have shewed in two respects First with relation to the Message which he brought they have received them saith he that is the words that I delivered to them in thy Name Secondly then with relation to himself the Messenger they have known surely that I came from thee and have believed that thou didst send me So that here is their good reception of the Message and their good perswasion of the Messenger delivered in such plain expressions that they will need no Explication The only seeming difficulty lies in this how Christ as Man and Mediator may be said to have come out from God since in that Nature he was never with him in regard of his immediate presence in the heavens Truly my Brethren he came not from him locally but he came from him Ministerially he came not from him in respect of place but he came from him in respect of mission because he came of his Message and of his Errand and so our Saviour Christ explains himself by an Exegesis in the succeeding parcel of the verse They have known surely that I came out from thee that is they have believed that thou didst send me Now both of these particulars importing the good carriage and behaviour of the Apostles and Disciples of our Saviour both with relation to his message and to himself the Messenger may be considered two ways Either in a joynt dependance of both of them on that which goes before Or else in a
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
fail Luk. 16.17 that is to miss of execution and accomplishment Fail it may in the Letter and Paper of it but not in the fulfilling of it No saith our Saviour Heaven and Earth shall pass away but my Word shall not pass away Mat. 24 35. Heaven and Earth are more inconstant and variable then my Word is and therefore the Apostle Peter speaking of the Prophesies of Scripture saith that they are sure 2 Pet. 1.19 We have saith he a more sure Word of Prophesie whereunto ye do weâ—â—â—hat ye take heed Not as if the Prophets words or writings were in thâ—â—selves more sure then the Apostles but to the Jews they were more sure For they received the Prophets words and writings but they rejected the Apostles Well sure the writings and predictions of the Prophets are you see we may rest safely upon them and conclude That whatsoever is foretold c. And it must needs be so my Brethren For The Author of the Prophesies is unchangeable and true and consesequently whatsoever he foretels or any Messenger of his from him must surely be accomplished and fulfilled 1. The Author of the Prophesies as well as other parts of Scripture is unchangeable He is the Lord that changeth not Mal. 3.6 He is yesterday to day the same for ever Heb. 13.8 And therefore what be saith must come to pass men say sometimes that they will do a thing to day which yet they alter and revoke again to morrow But if God say a thing to day he will stand to it firm to morrow he will not change his resolution He is not as man that he should lye and as the son of man that he should repent But he hath seemed to repent Object and to change his resolution in many things foretold in Scripture For instance he foretold by Jonah that Nineveh should be destroyed at the end of forty days Jonah 3.4 yet when they were expired he did not as he had foretold so that he altered in appearance yea it is said expressly that he repented of his Commination so that he brought it not to execution God repented of the evil which he had said that he would do unto them and he did it not Jonah 3.10 For clearing this Sol. you may remember that universal rule which God lays down for the better understanding of all Prophetical Praedictions in a way of Commination Jer. 18.7 The sum is this that they have all of them annexed to them or implyed at least if not an exprest condition And so had this against the Ninivites Yet forty days and Niniveh shall be destroyed conceive it if they be not humbled that was the reserved condition But they were humbled repented though they were preserved God did not otherwise then he determined and yet indeed he is said to have repented because he did so that he seemed to repent For as a man if he have threatned that thus and thus he is resolved to do and after do not so if he have power is said to change his mind and to repent of what he said Even so the Lord when he had threatned Niniveh and had concealed the condition because he spared it afterwards and did not just according the letter of the Commination is said to have repented because he seemed to do that which in a man would have discovered change and alteration of his resolution And even as anger is ascribed to the Lord Non per affectum sed per effectum as the Schoolmen say The passion or affection of it is not properly attributed to God but the effect and fruit is Vengeance is mine and I will repay it Even so repentance is not in the nature of the Lord but the effect and issue of it is usually ascribed to him The recalling or undoing of a thing which as far as we could judge by his words or by his works or our deserts or any other evidence that was before us seemed unto us to have been his intent and purpose to have done 2. And as the Author of the Prophesies as well as other parts of Scripture is unchangeable so he is true Yea He is the God of Truth as the Prophet David stiles him Psal 31.5 And therefore that which he foretells must be accomplished and fulfilled Observe it well my Brethren the Prophet doth not say He is the true God in himself and in his nature but he is the God of Truth in his discoveries and in his revelation of himself to men All that comes from him is truth He is the faithful and the true witness Apoc. 3.14 Not only true and faithful as a God but true and faithful as a witness In all the testimonies that he gives of himself or of his Son or of his works already done or intended to be done there is nothing else but truth He cannot be the Author of a falsehood it is impossible as the Apostle tells you Heb. 6.18 It is impossible that he should lye He can assoon deny himself put off his Deity cease to be God as father an untruth and therefore that which he foretels must be accomplished in his season And as the Author of the Prophesies is unchangeable and true so the Word of God it self of which the Prophesies are part is so also The Word of God is unchangeable and true even as God himself is and therefore all the Prophesies and the Praedictions of it must be accomplished and fulfilled 1. The Word of God is an unchangeable an unalterable Word when he hath said a thing and said it absolutely that must stand there is no revocation of it in the sense that he hath said it Thy Word O Lord saith holy David is setled in heaven Psal 119.89 It is an Established thing never to be removed again And therefore it is said to be setled in heaven There are great changes here below continually but there is none above in heaven and there the Word of God is setled above the reach of any alteration All flesh is grass saith the Apostle 1 Pet. 1.24 all the glory of man as the flower of grass the grass withereth and the flower thereof fadeth away but the Word of the Lord endureth for ever 2. And as it is unchangeable so it is true yea it is the Word of Truth It is an Epithite that is imposed upon it often Thy Word is true from the beginning saith the Psalmist to the Lord Psal 119.160 And so it shall be to the end And therefore it is added presently The judgements of the Lord endure for ever not in their being only but their truth You know the Scripture is often called a testimony or a witness Either it is a testimony that the Father gives us of the Son or that the Son gives us of the Father either it is a witness to us of things that have been done or else which is a little stronger it is a witness to us of things that shall be done Now this is a condition absolutely
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
Will savingly declared to them have yet defects and imperfections in their knowledge of him so that they stand in need of further Declaration The Name of God was so far manifested and declared to these Apostles and Disciples as was necessary to salvation So far our Saviour had fully and compleatly made it known to them he had concealed nothing from them of his Fathers Name in the ignorance of which whosoever dies must perish For they were in the state of grace and of salvation when he spake those words I have declared unto them thy Name And yet he addeth presently you see I will declare it I will make further declarations and discoveries of thy Name to them And so accordingly he did assoon as he was risen from the dead He shewed himself alive to them being seen of them forty days together Act. 1.3 And what did he in that time Why he instructed them in things concerning God and his Kingdom as you may see in that place And when he was ascended into Heaven he was mindful of his promise which he had often made to them and so accordingly dispatched the Holy Spirit down among them to lead them further onward in the knowledge of the Father Indeed the best are Novices in this regard they have not yet attained to a perfect man in point of holy and divine knowledge as Ephes 4.13 It is true there is a great deal of variety among the Saints aswell in this as other graces according to the measure of the gift of Christ Ephes 4.7 But in the best it is a measure and no more it is not fulness and perfection He that hath most of God revealed to him yet knows him but in part and he that hath the clearest sight of him sees him but darkly in a glass as 1 Cor. 13.12 And therefore this is called the seeing of the back parts of the Lord as when we see the back parts of a man we know him but by guess only we know him not so perfectly and so distinctly as when we come to see his face Such a sight of God it is that we attain in this world And therefore the Apostle Paul who in this point of holy and divine knowledge was not behind the very chiefest Apostles who had his Raptures and his Extasies and who was taken up into the third Heaven and had such things revealed to him as were not to be uttered by the tongue of man professeth notwithstanding that he had not yet attained nor was he yet perfect But saith he I follow after that I may apprehend Phil. 3.12 So that he was Viator and not Comprehensor he was in the condition that the people were Hos 6.3 he followed on to know the Lord. The people of Coloss were eminent for grace and knowledge and yet for them it is the Apostle prays That they might increase in the knowledg of God Col. 1.10 So that the point is plain as you see They that have the Name of God his Nature and his Will savingly c. Object But you will interpose and say perhaps That it should seem by some expressions in the Scriptures that God hath been revealed fully to some certain men in this life as to Jacob for an instance Gen. 32.30 and to Moses Numb 12.8 With him will I speak saith God mouth to mouth even apparently not in dark speeches and the similitude of the Lord shall he behold Sol. But this my Brethren must be understood comparatively of the more clear and full discovery of the Lord to Jacob and to Moses then to many other men but as for the perfect sight and knowledge of him this was not imparted neither to Jacob nor to Moses and for the latter God himself affirms expresly Thou shalt not see my face saith he to Moses Exod. 33.10 that is the fulness of my glory for none shall see my face and live That is reserved to the state of glory when we shall see God face to face as the Scripture phrase is when we shall know as we are known And this is that which Schoolmen call the beatifical vision wherein consists the main of our beatitude hereafter as Matth. 5.8 Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God He doth not say they do see him but they shall see God which the Apostle makes the great ingredient in the happiness and glory prepared for the Saints at the time of Christs appearing 1 Joh. 3.2 We know that when we shall appear he shall be like him and we shall see him as he is Now we see him as we may then we shall see him as he is But why have they who have the Name of God savingly declared to them defects and imperfections in their knowledge Why doth not Jesus Christ in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge and that for the accommodation of his members furnish and supply them Why doth he not assoon as he begins to teach them declare all his Fathers Name to them but keeps back something still for further discovery There are two special reasons of it to name no more at this time Christ doth not shew them all at once because they are not capable of it A scholar is not capable of all he is to learn at first dash He cannot take in all at once even in his first lesson and hence his Master leads him onward by degrees first gives him easier and after brings him on to harder Lessons Even so doth Jesus Christ with his scholars he goes along with every one as he can learn as he is able to receive it in He doth not shew them all his Fathers glory at a clap for that he knows would dazle them and over-whelm them but le ts in now a little light upon them and then a little more as he perceives their senses to be exercised Instils into their minds and understandings the knowledge of his Father by degrees and as by learning their capacities are widened so he goes on to further discoveries This course he took with the Apostles what they were able to receive he taught them out of hand but reserved other things as you may see Joh. 16.12 I have many things to say unto you but you cannot bear them now I am to say them but you cannot bear them now and therefore I will take some other time to reveal those things to you Christ doth not shew them all at once that he may keep his Saints humble As long as there is flesh and nature in us as there will be while we remain in this world high measures and degrees of knowledge may exalt us and lift us up above our selves And therefore Jesus Christ in love and wisdom uses to bestow upon his people so much knowledge as he sees fit for them A little more it may be would undo them They would set their hearts it may be as the heart of God himself They would be as Gods knowing good and evil Shrewd fellows
duty you do to him can be accepted 4. You can hope for no pardon of sin 5. Cannot come to God with boldness 124. What meant by the only true God p. 126. viz. the whole Essence of the Godhead 3. Doctr. That the Father Son and Holy Ghost is the only true God p. 128. Reason For he only hath being of himself 2. He is the living God 3. None can do that which he doth 4. He only is Eternal 1. Vse Be stirred up to confirm your faith of this Motives 1. For then the more and better we shall walk with him 2. Serve and obey him p. 130. Direct 1. Give full assent to the Scriptures 2. Know him to be above all other Gods 3. Be resolved not doubtful of this point 4. Pray for faith in this particular p. 133. 2. Vse Obey serve and honour him as the true God p. 134. 3. Vse Let us have no other God but him only p. 135. Serve the Lord and not Idols p. 136. Times p 138. Lusts neither your own nor that of others p. 139. 2. Fear none but him 3. Trust in him alone p. 140. 4. Vse Learn from hence to be at unity among our selves 5. Learn to see our happiness of having chosen him for our God p. 141. 4. Doctr. That Christ is the Apostle or Messenger of God p. 142. Explication 1. Sent from God and from heaven How possible p. 143. 2. Into the world 3. The errand on which he was sent viz. to make peace preach peace 4. Therefore fitly qualified with 1. Authority 2. Ability Fulness of Merit to make peace p. 145. Spirit to preach peace p. 145. 1. Vse Admire the mercy of the sender 2. Of him that would be sent Void of fear and constraint p. 147 2. Be all intreated to receive and entertain him For 1. His errand is your business 2. It 's for your good and advantage 3. The Father expects you should honour his Embassadour and Son 4. He will avenge the refusers of him 5. This Messenger can prevail with God for you p. 149. Direction 1. Receive him so as to hearken to him 2. To believe in him 3. To obey him p. 150. 5. Doct. Whoever wil be glorified with God in heaven must glorifie him first on earth p. 152 Reason It is the everlasting counsel and decree of God Vse 1. Against vain expecters of future glory p. 153. 2. Vse Learn to glorifie God here 1. By a vocal declaration 2. By a real representation in what you 1. are p. 154. 2. do p. 154. Gods glory how to be our aim in all Ver. 4 1. Doctr. That Christ was ordered by his Father in the work he did in this world p. 156. Expl. Christ was so ordered in his works of Satisfaction His obedience Active p. 157. Passive p. 158. Application p. 158. As by the 1. Promulgation of the Word 2. Internal operation of the Spirit p. 159. Reas 1. Christ was the Fathers creature 2. The Fathers servant p. 160. 1. Vse Admire the humble condescension of Christ 2. Learn to be humbled in like manner and to suffer willingly p. 161. 3. Vse Some do the good others the evil which God hath not given them to do p. 162. Danger of neglecting Gods order p. 164. How Christ had finished the work before his Passion p. 165. 2. Doct. Christ did not do his work by halves but went through with it p. 166. Sufferings of Christs body Natural Mystical 1. Vse Who guilty of adding to the works of Christ 2. Let us persevere in our work and finish it Five Motives hereunto p. 169. Ver. 5 What glory Christ prayed for Doct. Christ as Man in some measure partaker of the divine glory 1. By the grace of union 2. By the grace of dispensation from the Father p. 173. 1. Vse Know the advancement of our nature in the Person of Christ 2. Their personal advancement that belong to Christ partly in 1. Fruition 2. Assured expectation 3. This should make us despise the shame of this world 2. So to walk as not to be a shame to Christ p. 174. Ver. 6 How Christ had manifested Gods Name Doct. Christ made an absolute and compleat discovery of his Father to the people 1. By his Personal appearance in the flesh 2. By his Word and Gospel 3. By his Spirit p. 178. 2. Q. Why Christ only makes this discovery R. 1. None but he is able 2. None but he is fit to make this discovery p. 180. 3. Q. Why the discovery he makes is so full and absolute R. 1. As being the faithful Prophet of his Church 2. That the discovery may be effectual 1. Vse The ignorant inexcusable 2. Learn to bless his Name for this discovery 3. Grow up in the knowledge of this Name made known p. 182. 4. Vse Be satisfied with the discovery which Christ hath made search not beyond it Pride Sin Danger vanity thereof p. 184. 5. Vse Walk worthy of this discovery i. e. Despair not under sin or misery p. 185. 2. Doct. Some the Father giveth to Christ out of the world 2. A certain number of them 3. Being once the Lords they are no longer of the world Confirm 1. The actual members of Christ are dead with Christ and of another world as are their kindred and alliance p. 190. 3. Their habitation is spiritual so is their action and traffique 1. Vse Therefore the world storms and rageth at mens being given up to Christ 2. Examin Are we given up to Christ p. 192. Marks 1. They are not conformable to this present world 2. They speak the language of another world p. 193. 3. They dearly affect their Countreymen 3. Vse Think not strange of ill usage in the world p. 194. 4. Vse Regard not the things of this world 5. Follow not a multitude to sin It s safe and honorable to be retired 6. Be not troubled at worldly troubles 3. Doct. All Christs people were first belonging to the Father p. 197. 1. The Father essentially taken 2. All belonged to God 1. By Creation 2. By Election 3. Christs people not so his as not the Fathers 1 Vse Christ will tenderly keep those that are so given him Word of God Inward and Essential p. 202. Outward and Declaratory p. 202. 4. Doct. They whom the Father gives to Christ keep his word p. 203. Christs Word is kept In the memory by retaining In the heart by believing In the affections by loving In the life by obeying with obedience Active Passive Vse Exam. Are we so given up to Christ that we keep his Word p. 205. 2. Vse Direct For helping memory 1. Be intent and fix your mind on the Word 2. Get a good understanding 3. Value the Word 4. Strengthen the memory by meditation repetition conference 5. Set instantly to practice the truth you hear 6. Pray for the Spirit to do his Office 3. Vse of Examination Do we keep Christs word by Faith Some believe none of it 2. Some but part of it
p. 208. 3. Some believe not the threatnings Marks They that believe the threatnings quake and tremble at them 2. Take some course to avert them 4. Some believe not the promises 1. The sad and fearful 2. They that are troubled with doubts cares distractions 3. The wavering and inconstant 4. They that will suffer nothing for it Cautions 1. You are not to believe all that is presented under the title of Gods Word 2. It 's no sign of Infidelity to move questions 3. Nor to have some doubtful thoughts concerning clear truth p. 212. 3. Exam. Have we kept the Word in our affections by loving it p. 213. Marks 1. Lovers of the Word desire on all occasions to converse with it 2. Hear as often as they may 3. Exercise themselves in the reading and meditation of it 4. Endeavour to be inwardly acquainted with it 5. Will not easily quarrel with and disobey it 6. Will hardly part with it p. 216. 4. Motives to love the Word As being 1. the means of conversion 2. A light of direction 3. A Teacher to inform you 4. Means to confirm you 5. To comfort 6. To save you p. 218. 5. You must keep the word by obeying it 1. Not by partial but by a total obedience p. 220. 2. With a cordial obedience 3. Constantly to the end Directions 1. Pray God to teach you 2. Find out and mortifie the lusts that hinder you p. 223. 5. Doctr. To entertain the Word as we ought we must know for certain that it is the Word of God p. 224. Reason 1. Then we shall receive it with holy fear 2. That we may give it full credit and belief 3. That we may yield full resignation and submission 4. That we may allow it absolute and universal obedience 1. Vse See the cause of mens slighting and disobeying the Word p. 229. 2. Vse Learn how to entertain the Word aright viz. By believing that it is Gods Scriptures proved to be the Word of God 1. By the evident accomplishment of promises 2. By the joynt testimony of the Church 3. By consent of the Writers 4. By the effectual and mighty working of it on mens hearts and souls 5. By the blood of many Martyrs sealing it with their lives p. 231. 2. The Spirit of God assures us that the Scripture is Gods Word 1. By removing impediments 2. By giving grace fitting us to receive Ver. 7 Doctr. Christ hath approved himself a faithful Prophet and Messenger to his Church p. 234. Confirm 1. As having added nothing to his message 2. That he hath taken nothing from it How Christ did and did not tell them all p. 236. 1. Vse Diligently observe and hear this Prophet 2. Trust him 3. Try other Prophets p. 237. 4. Vse Not a word of his must be nelected or slighted 5. Seek no further for direction in matters of Salvation p. 239. 6. Let Ministers learn to be so faithful 1. Adding nothing as doth 1. the superstitious 2. Sceptick 3. vain-glorious Teacher p. 241. 2. Not mincing or diminishing the Word 1. Otherwise they are guilty of the blood of souls 2. Diminish their own mercy 3. Expose themselves to the ignominy and contempt of men 4. To the injuries of men Q Why ungodly men have prevailed p. 243. Ver. 8 2. Doctr. The faithfulness of Gods Messenger availeth much to commend him and his message to the people p. 244. Vse Hence so many Ministers slighted because unfaithful 2. A Minister shews himself faithful 1. In the right delivery of his message 2. To a right end Not satisfying their own passions nor aiming at their own respects 3. In a passive way 3. Doctr. The good reception of the message depends upon the peoples good opinion of the Messenger p. 247. Vse Do not rashly judge of Gods Messengers You may judge of him 1. by his entrance 2 By his ability 3. By his readiness to love Ver. 9 1. Doctr. Christ intercedes for none but his own people p. 250. Reas He is a Priest and Mediator only for them 1. Vse Christ died not for all without limitation 2. Vse The sad condition of those without the Church 3. Vse Happiness of those that belong to Christ Having union with him that is so near to God 2. Son near to you 3. That can never dye p. 253. This gives us boldness in address 2. Supports us in the sense of our imperfections 3. Assures the success of our Petitions 4. Keeps from despair under sin 2. Doctr. That all Christs people belong to God the Father Confirm As being more his by being Christs 1. For he hath none to share with him but Christ 2. His title to them being strengthned and enlarged 3. By unity 1. Vse Therefore Christs people excellent and precious 2. Walk worthy of such a relation For 1. your sins dishonour him more 2. They are sharply and sooner chastised for their sins p. 257. 2. Vse The Saints comfort 1. They shall be the more surely heard 2. God doth more dearly love them 3. God will tender their wrong either 1. Defending Or 2. Avenging them 4. God will provide for them 5. He will not lose them p. 257. Ver. 10 1. Doctr. Christ is glorified in all that belong to him Confirm For the present life he is glorified in their Grace p. 261. future he is glorified in their Glory p. 261. 1. Vse They who live to Christs dishonour are none of his 2. It should quicken and stir us up to labour 1. For grace and holiness here 2. After glory hereafter p. 263. How Christ absent from the Father p. 265. 2. Doctr. Christ as Man is gone out of this world to the immediate presence of his Father p. 266. Reas 1. That his humiliation might be recompensed with honour 2. Because he hath no more to do here 3. Hath much to do there 1. He was to triumph there over his enemies and ours 2. That he might send down his Spirit to his people 3. Intercede for them 4. To prepare a place and make heaven ready for us 5. Christ is gone that he may now virtually draw us after him 1. Vse Expect him not here till he return from heaven 2. Make much of his spiritual presence among us Therefore 1. take heed of grieving his Spirit Either by unkinde slighting or stubborn resistance 2. Take singular and mighty comfort in his Spirit 3. Receive and entertain the graces of this Spirit p. 271. 3. Vse Follow Christ in our spirits As 1. by our thoughts and meditations 2. By our affections 3. By our desires and anhelations of the Spirit p. 273. 3. Doct. The world alwayes an uncomfortable place to Christs Disciples p. 274. 1. Here they are continually exposed to many tryals and troubles 2. Vexed with the sins of others but chiefly their own 3. Banished from Christ p 273. 1. Vse Look not for joy and quietness from the world but provide for evil 2. Think it not strange 3. Love not the world nor to continue
in it p 277. Ver. 11 1. Doctr. God holy in himself and so looked on by Christ p. 280. 1. Vse We are so to apprehend God in our prayers as Christ did that he is holy For 1. It puts our heart into the best fame 2. It will make us come cleanest from sin 3. It will help to humble us in our Confessions p. 283. 4. Will encourage us in our Petitions for the cure of sin 5. Will make us more thanful for holiness p. 284. 2. Doctr. They that belong to Christ are kept by the Almighty power of God p 285. 1. By the power of God assisting and strengthning them against temptations 2. Guarding and defending them by his immediate or p. 287. mediate power p. 287. Reas 1. Only his power can keep them 2. His power is engaged 1. By his Sons Prayers 2. By his own promise 1. Vse We are strong not in our selves but in God 2. Vse That we cast not away our confidence in any condition be our danger Inward p. 290. Outward p. 291. 3. Vse In any distress have recourse to this Name Seek him 1. Early 2. Humbly 3. Heartily 4. Reformedly 5. Constantly p. 293. 3. Doctr. Christians unity a matter of greatest difficulty and concernment p. 295. 1. Because they have in them much fleshly corruption They are 1. Proud 2. Selfish 3. Of divers tempers and constitutions conditions Interests 2. Of high concernment 1. To their growth and thriving 2. To their comfort 3. To their peace with God 4. To their preservation 5. Furtherance of the Gospel p. 303. 1. Vse Let us labour and strive for unity 1. By mortifying inward lusts 2. Chasing away quarrelsom reasonings 3. Avoid quarrelsome persons 4. Be furnished with much wisdom from above 5. Let the vertue of peace rule in us 6. Be earnest in prayer for it p. 307 308. Ver. 12 Doct. Christ keeps them safe that are bestowed on him by the Father p. 311. 1. Some given to Christ by Election 2. By actual union How are they kept 1. Not from suffering 2. Not from all sin 3. But from perishing 1. Vse That Christ can lose any a doctrine prejudicial 1. To the honour of Christ 2. To the comfort of his people 2. Vse You that are Christs he will keep safe out of love and out of duty to the Father in reference to his Injunction p. 316. Intention and expectation p. 316. That this Doctrine doth not breed security and negligence p. 319. 3. Vse That Magistrates and Ministers be Shepherds like to Christ p. 320. 2. Doct. In the eternal Decree some designed to destruction Whether from fore-seen works Some arguments against Universal conditional Election Objections answered p. 328. 3. Doct. What ever is foretold in Scripture shall be accomplished p. 332 1. The Author of Prophesies unchangeable Threatnings have an implicit condition 2. The Author of all Scripture true 3. So the Word 1. Vse Terrour to threatned sinners 2. Comfort to the Church 3. Vse Believe both threatnings and promises p. 336. 4. Doct. Christ the Author and Original of his peoples joy p. 338 1. As he is their Prophet to instruct them 2. As their King to rule them 1. Subduing their enemies he gives them peace 2. His Spirit 3. Rewards 3. As he is their Priest 1. By his Sacrifice reconciling them to God 2. Interceding for them p. 340. 1. Vse They that are out of Christ have no true Joy 2. Hence let us fetch our Joy p. 341. Ver. 13 2. Doct. Christ would have his people to be full of holy Joy p. 342. For this end 1. He gives them the Gospel of Salvation and Consolation 2. Pretious promises 3. Glorious Ordinances 4. Clear discoveries and revelations of himself 5. Sends the Comforter unto them 6. Gives them deliverance 7. Purchased heaven for them Reason 1. Out of self-respect He shares in their comfort 2. To recompence their sorrows 3. That they may abound in duty p. 346. 1. Vse Wo to those that vex and grieve his people 2. It taxeth those that will abide in heaviness and discontent p. 347. Direct 1. Be conversant in the Word of Christ 2. Meditate on the Joys of heaven 3. Take heed that sin and Satan steal not away this Jewel Marks of spiritual Joy 1. It is chiefly moved with spiritual things 2. Proceeds from a good Conscience False Joy p. 351. 3. Doct. Knowledge of Christs Intercession a special means to fill us with Joy p. 352. 1. Comfort against outward and inward Enemies 2. Against Satans accusations 3. Against our weaknesses and imperfections in prayer 4. Against the defects of all our graces 5. Assures us of his love and care Vse Therefore study this point p. 356. Ver. 14 Doct. The world is wont to hate Christs Disciples Divers exceptations of the word World p. 359 They that entertain the Word cross the world 1. In their Judgments 2. In their Wills 3. In their lives and conversations p. 360 1. Vse The Disciples of Christ therefore commonly vilified 2. Admire the mercy and power of God that keeps them against so many enemies strong enemies bitter enemies 3. Vse Christians ought to be cautious how they walk in the midst of such apt to Misconstrue things doubtful p. 363. Aggravate the least offence p. 363. Blaspheme God and Religion p. 363. 4. Vse Think not strange to be so used in the world But think 1. That God and Christ love you 2. That Christ was in the same condition p. 364. 3. that the hatred of the world is no impediment to your blessedness i.e. Our Interest and Communion with Christ 2. Much less to that happiness to come Ver. 15 Doct. Removal out of this world is not the proper subject of Petition p. 366. Reason Because not simply and in it self a blessing Desire of death unlawful in the Saints Vse That we pray not to be rid of troubles by death 1. Being that life though in troubles is a mercy 2. We may have the mercy to outlive troubles 3. In the worst of times you may be serviceable to the Church of Christ 4. More instrumental to Gods glory then in better times p. 370. 2. Doct. God can and will preserve those that belong to Christ from all all evill p 371. 1. From the assault of temptation 2. From the prevalency thereof 3. From the hurt of the temptation So from the 1. Act. 2. Guilt 3. Hurt of Corruption 374 3. Keeps them from Affliction 1. That it touch them not 2. That it stay not too long with them 3. By way of preservation and delivery in it 4. From the hurt of it 4. Doth them good by Affliction 1. Thereby awakening them 2. Humbling them 3. Drawing them neerer to himself Vse Happiness of all in Christ 379 Ver. 16 Vain Repetitions Christs Disciples that they are of another world are in this like unto him p. 381. Christ living here was of another world 1. As coming from above 2. Because he lived in another world 3. Was going
those places to express their grief by So in the self-same place in Joshua they fell down to the ground upon their faces when they prayed And so did Jesus Christ himself as you may see Mat. 26.39 Not that this gesture was peculiar to this piece of service but it was taken from the civil usage of the Country because this was their way of shewing reverence to superiors as you may see Ruth 2.10 And therefore we do well and suitably to the directions and examples of the Scripture that we take up such gestures only in our prayers as are usual in our Country to express our sorrow and dejection or else our civil reverence and respect by Those reverend gestures which we use in prayer should be most observed in publike There may more liberty be taken in private and in secret then there may in publike and open prayer both in the use of outward gesture and in the forbearance of them Some gestures may be used in private prayer which would become us ill in publike in which we should not go remarkably beyond the rest of the Assembly for fear and danger of hypocrisie And gestures on the other side may be forborn in some case in private prayer which yet in publike ought not to be so For evermore in publike as far as it is possible our gesture must be such as may express some reverence and devotion that we may honour God before the People and that our outward posture may not carry in it an appearance of a sleight esteem of God and of his service whereas in private there is greater freedom because indeed there is no need of such Caution But thirdly this must be continually heeded both in publike and in private that the gestures which we use be such as that we do not hinder but rather further the spiritual service It were far better to abate of the reverence of our gesture then the affection of our heart It were far better for a man to stand in prayer then that by the disease and trouble of the other posture he should be distracted and consequently his devotion and his heart should fall That may be allowed the weak in this regard which would not be convenient in the strong The bodily exercise be it of what kind it will is but a means to the spiritual service The end is better then the means and must be more regarded then the means I must not use the means but for the end so far as they are serviceable to the end And much less must I use the means aganist the end We must be very wary that the outward gesture especially in publike prayer do not exceed the inward affection and that we make not shew of more without then there is indeed within for if we do there is hypochrisie Such duties are not done in truth when there is more in shew and in appearance then there is in substance If either of the two be lower then the other it were far better that the outward expression were lower then the inward affection then that the inward c. It were far better that the gesture came short of the heart then that the heart c. It is not good to compass God about with lies meer shews do never please in his service This for the gesture of your bodies when you pray A word or two for your direction touching the use or the omission of the voice in prayer c. And here the first thing that I offer is Those prayers that are publike whether in the family or the assembly wherein one is the mouth of many to the Lord must of necessity be vocall so was our Saviours in my text you see he prayed with his Apostles and Disciples and therefore did no only form a prayer in his heart but expressed it with his mouth he did not only think but speak that they might hear He lifted up his eyes to heaven and said The voice is not of absolute necessity in private prayer For however men who having bodies are endued with ears and senses know not our meaning otherwise then by our words yet God who is himself a spirit knows the meaning of our spirits Sighs may find audience and acceptance with him inward and mental supplications may be in some case more fit then vocal But yet if other circumstances will permit in which your Christian prudence must direct you use your voices We shall observe it to have been the usual practise of the Saints to speak in prayer yea in private prayer as our Saviour did Mark 10.39 God made the tongue aswel as other members of the body and therefore will be served with this as well as them And so the Prophet David praised God with the best member that he had which some expound to be his tongue And therewith bless we God saith the Apostle James 3.9 It is sometimes a quickning to the heart and stirreth up the dead affections to greater fervency and zeal which by continuing in a mental supplication would be apt to languish and decay It keepeth in the heart from wandring by binding it to give exact attendance on the tongue to furnish it with matter and expression whereas in mental prayer it is more apt to slide away and run a roving unobserved Howbeit here I shall not peremptorily prescribe in certain cases to omit the voice is more expedient and therefore I shall shut up all and leave it to your Christian prudence to direct you to pitch upon that way and method of presenting your requests to God which ye will find most to conduce to the affectionate spiritual and heavenly performance of the duty And thus of the transition to our Saviours supplication together with the manner of presenting it to God the Father both his gesture and expression Proceed we now to enter on the Prayer which he makes and here I shall take notice only of these two things the Object of it and the parts of it The Object of it or the Person whom he presents it to you see is God the Father or to come a little nearer God his Father so he stiles him in the entrance of his Prayer Father the hour is come c. and the same phrase he uses all along as you shall see if you survey it from the beginning of it to the end Indeed he gives him once the attribute of Holy and once the attribute of Righteous Father but this is still the appellation that he uses and from whence he never varies If he calls him any thing he calls him Father And in this notion he considers him while he is putting up his prayer to him and therefore this you see my brethren is the first word that he uses when he sets himself to pray Father the hour is come c. I make these addresses to thee as a Father I look upon thee as a Father still while I am pouring out my prayer to thee and therefore he reviews the
you resemble God your Father Jesus Christ his eldest son is the very picture of him as we are wont to say the express of his fathers person They are so like in all respects that he that knoweth one of them cannot but know the other too The resemblance is so perfect and so absolute in all respects that in seeing one of them you see the other And hence said Christ to Philip John 14 19. He that hath seen me hath seen the Father also And truly we that are the younger sons of God though we be not so like him yet we are very much like him And therefore we are said to be renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created us Col. 3.10 And the new man is said to be renewed after God in holiness Ephes 4.24 And are you thus conformed to God do you bear his Image so that every one that sees you and observes you may judge who is your father Are you holy as God is and are you mercifull as God is and are you perfect in desire and endeavour as your Father that is in Heaven is perfect do you love your enemies do you bless them that curse you and pray for them that despitefully use you that you may shew your selves to be the children of your Father who makes his Sun to shine his rain to fall upon the evil and the good Mat. 5.44 are you freely merciful lending and doing good to those where there is nothing to be hoped for but unkindness for your good will that you may make it to appear you are the children of the highest who is kind to the unthankfull and unkinde Luk. 6.35 These are good evidences of your interest in the Father-hood of God But if you be prophane and vicious and cruel and unmerciful as the greater number are I may say to such as you are as once our Saviour to the wicked Jews You are of your Father the Devil and his works you do If God be your Father as you bear your Fathers Image see you have your Fathers Spirit The Spirit of the Father is that which the Apostle calls the Spirit of Adoption whereby we cry Abba Father Rom. 8.15 So that if we be Sons we have this Spirit poured out upon us But you will say that every one almost pretendeth to the Spirit and it is evident that many are deceived in this particular How shall we know infallibly whether the spirit which we think we have be the spirit of the Father yea or no Why my beloved the Spirit of the Father iâ— an active Spirit where it is it leadeth men even where it will it carries them and guides them in its own way And as many as are led by this Spirit they are Sons of God Rom. 8.14 Well then thus far we are clear if we be the Sons of God as we have his spirit so we are led by his Spirit we walk not after the flesh but after the spirit The flesh calls and the spirit calls This is the way walk in it The flesh would have us follow it the spirit would have us follow it And the event is this if we be the Sons of God we leave the flesh and go after Gods Spirit We walk not after c. So then if you would know whether you be the Sons of God examine whether you be guided by his spirit yea or no And this may be discovered by the course you take and by the path in which you walk Gods Spirit guides and leads you always in the way of God which is prescribed and chalked out before you in the word of God And this is clearly and expresly taught us in that alledgement of the Covenant mentioned Exod. 36.27 I will put my Spirit upon you saith the Lord to his people And what shall this Spirit do it shall cause you to walk in my Statutes and to keep my Commandments and do them It shall not give you new directions it shall not shew you new ways and new paths other then those which are beaten out in Scripture but it shall cause you to walk in my Statutes If then you err and wander from the ways of Gods Statutes and walk on in your own ways as the Apostle speaketh of the Gentiles the way of your own hearts which of your selves you choose and follow your ways of drunkenness uncleanness prophanation of Gods holy day c. if you walk in the way of Cain a way of cruelty and malice and run greedily after the error of Balaam for a reward as Jude speaks ver 11. A way of covetousness and unlawfull gain you are not guided by the Spirit of the Father but by the spirit of the wicked one which ruleth in the children of disobedience But if you keep the ways of God the ways of truth and love and holiness and peace the way that is so evilly spoken of by lewd prophane and vitious men And are no sooner swerved from it in the least degree but you are crying to the Lord with Moses Lord shew us thy way with David I am gone astray Lord seek thy servant enquiring of your brethren to direct you and striving to get in again you are guided by the spirit of your father and may be confident that you are the sons of God If God be your Father and you be his children you are a company of singular and choice people As you are like your Father and consequently like your brethren too so you are unlike other men you dwell alone and are not like to other people And as the sons of Kings and Nobles differ from the sons of other men they have another kinde of garb and habit and behaviour Even so the Sons of God the King of Kings do manifestly differ from the children of the world The Lord hath singled them and drawn them out and put them in another way so that they are men of wonder in the world their ways are of another fashion And this declareth them to be the children of the High God he owns them only upon this condition as you may see 2 Cor. 6.17 18. Come out saith God and be ye separate and I will be a father to you and you shall be my sons and daughters saith the Lord God almighty Now my beloved are you thus come out and separated from the world which lies in wickedness as the Apostle speaks have you left your old haunts your old courses your old Companions and Associates with whom you ran out formerly to the same excess of riot are you accounted gazing stocks and wonders to the world because you are so different from them in all your ways And can you say in the uprightness of your hearts that this your singular and holy walking is not in shew and in hypocrisie but in sincerity and truth you may assure your selves you are the sons and daughters of the Lord God Almighty But if you walk according to the course and fashion of the world if
get from him or to bring to him Till you know God in Jesus Christ you can have no assurance to enjoy him neither in this life nor in that which is to come By nature we are all afar off we are without God in the world as the Apostle speaks Ephes 2.12 But now in Iesus Christ they who were far of are made nigh through his blood as it is added there in that place yea they are made one with God as Jesus Christ himself insinuates Iohn 17.21 I pray for them that they may all be one as thou Father art in me and I in thee so that they also may be one in us Well then you see my Brethren we are near to God in this world but it is in Christ We shall be nearer to him in the world to come and that shall be in Christ too We shall enter into the holiest into heaven into the place where God is whereof the holiest in the Temple was a figure but that shall be by the blood of Jesus as the Apostle shews Heb. 10.14 So that if we know not Christ we may know God at a distance as one that we shall never be partakers of He and we must keep asunder But if we know him in Christ we know him then as one who is our own and whom we shall enjoy for ever JOHN 17.3 That they might know thee the only true God AND thus far of the twofold object of the knowledge wherein Eternal life consisteth as they are both of them united and conjoyned by the connective particle And. Thee the only true God and Iesus Christ whom thou hast sent Proceed we now to handle each of them apart and distinctly by it self beginning with the first Thee the only true God God in opposition to the creature True God in opposition to the false Only true God in opposition to any other true God Others are creatures he is God Others are false Gods he is true And he is the only true all the rest let them be what they will are but pretenders There is no other true God but he only What then is Jesus Christ excepted here from being God Is this appropriated to the Father So it seems this saith our Saviour here is life Eternal to know thee the only true God and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent This place was the great Fortress of the Arrians heretofore it was sedes dogmatis from whence they peremptorily concluded that the Father only is the true God and so by consequence that Jesus Christ whom he hath sent is but a meer man a meer creature And because this wicked Tenent which overthrows the Divinity of Christ and with it the whole work of mans redemption hath been revived and set afoot in these times which seem to be the common sink whereunto all the errours and heresies of former ages empty out themselves there must the greater care and pains be taken in resolution of this great scruple The Fathers of the Church who lived in or near the days of Arrius perceiving how that errour spred it self for all the world became an Arrian as one of their own expressions is laboured exceedingly in this business And truly my Beloved if some of them had not been so over-busie the truth had not been so exceedingly entangled as it is But now it is become much like a piece of silk that hath been in many hands to be unravelled and every one almost hath left it in a worse condition then he found it I shall not trouble you with their perplexities but come as briefly as I can to that which I conceive to be the intention of the words Some have essaied to clear the doubt in such a way as this say they These words are so to be applyed to God the Father as to involve and comprehend the Son with him Thee the only true God and Jesus Christ So that the Son is not excluded here from being God but included with the Father And Chrysostom alledgeth such another manner of expression 1 Cor. 9 only I saith the Apostle there and Barnabas where Barnabas is not excluded but comprehended in the word only as if he should have said I and Barnabas and no other So in this speech of Christ to God the Father thee the only true God and Jesus Christ q.d. This is life Eternal to know the only true God thee and I and no other Or to make it yet more plain as if the words had run thus to know thee and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent to be the only true God This would do very well as to the God-head of the Son against the Arrians But then the self-same scruple will arise as to the God-head of the Holy Ghost which some others have denyed for he is evidently left out And there will be no help for that exception For if it be admitted that Christ is comprehended with the Father in the word only Thee and Christ the true God yea the only true God the Holy Ghost is plainly shut out By this account he is not God at all if this be the intention of the words that God and Christ the Father and the Son be the only true God We have maintained the God-head of the Son indeed but we have clearly yielded up the God-head of the Holy Ghost And therefore we must needs shake hands with this and look after some other Exposition And that as some have apprehended may be this That God the Father is not said to be the only true God in opposition to the Son or Holy Ghost but to the Idols of the heathen They are all false gods he only is the true God So that the meaning of our Saviour is but this as if he should have said this is Eternal Life to know thee who art the only true God and not the Idols of the heathen who are false gods To turn from all those vanities and to serve the living God And I confess if God essentially taken for the whole God-head as comprehending all the persons were said to be the only true God in opposition to the heathen Idols it would bear a clear construction Or if God personally taken for the Father only were said to be the true God in opposition to those heathen gods that would hold extreamly well and there would be no cause of scruple But how shall God the Father as distinct from the Son and Holy Ghost be the only true God If he be the true God this hinders not but that the Son may be the true God the Holy Ghost may be the true God Because though they be divers persons yet they are but one Essence But if the Father be the only true God how can the Son how can the Holy Ghost be true God If either of them be the true God then he which is another from them as he is another person though he be not another substance is not the only true God For that which is affirmed of him
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
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
exceeding abundantly above all that we can either ask or think according to the power that worketh in us He is able by that power whereby he hath sustained thee so long to strengthen and support thee still what ever further trial come upon thee beyond all that thou canst ask yea beyond all that thou canst think he is able to do more then thou art able to imagine If our danger be without from enemies that set against us with all their policy and power and have reduced us to great extremities and streights let us resolve we shall be kept by the Almighty power of God without us guarding and defending Let us say boldly as the Psalmist did in such a case The Lord is my helper I will not fear what man can do unto me I must confess that we are apt to cast away our confidence and to despair of succour and deliverance It was the Prophet Davids weakness as himself acknowledges Psal 77.10 But if we fail at any time with holy David let us come off as he did let us ingenuously confess that it is our infirmity and let us call to mind with him the right hand of the most High Oh let us think upon the great and the Almighty power of God for that is intimated by his right hand which commonly is stronger then the left and so let us uphold our fainting spirits when they are apt to sink within us As Luther did when one supposed that the Emperor with all his Forces would fall upon the Duke of Savoy who was the great Protector of the Protestants at that time And where saith he will Luther be then That holy man returned this suddain answer Aut in Coelo aut sub Coelo either in Heaven or under Heaven because he expected protection from Heaven as long as he lived and knew he should have possession of heaven when ever he died But may we rest upon it then that we shall have protection from the Name of God in all dangers That he will keep us through his own Name To this I answer if we belong to Jesus Christ we may be sure we shall be kept by it either one way or other either from the outward danger or else from the inward dammage either in a way of deliverance or if not so in a way of assistance The Prayer of our Intercessor in my text shall not be in all respects in vain for us It 's true the Lord may leave us sometimes in the outward danger and may not keep us by his power for us But then he will be sure to keep us by his power in us If he take not off our burthen he will give us strength to bear it And if he do not keep us from the evill he will keep us in the evil One way or other we shall have succour from his great Name If it be not a shield to cover us and protect us it shall be an arm to underprop us and support us underneath us shall be the everlasting arms as Moses speaks Deut. 33 27. So that here is comfort still in any trial or temptation If we be not delivered from it we shall be enabled to bear it And here lest any of you should look on this as cold comfort I must tell you that it is a richer mercy to be enabled by the power of God within to bear a trial then to be rescued and delivered from it by his power without this latter we desire most but out of doubt the first is best for us For do but weigh it my Beloved outward help and outward succor and deliverance by the power of God is but a common mercy of which the worst of men partake yea of which the beasts partake in this respect he saveth man and beast How often doth the Lord put forth his power to rescue the vilest of the sons of men from outward danger yea the vilest of the creatures But he supports and strengthens by his grace within none but his own people It is the proper and peculiar priviledge of those that are given up to Jesus Christ to be kept this way by the Name of God Paul was importunate you know to be delivered from the Messenger of Satan that was sent to buffet him For this thing besought the Lord thrice that is might depart from me 2 Cor. 12.8 He could not speed in that Petition he could not get deliverance but he got support which was abundantly the richest mercy And when did God ever say to an ungodly wretch in such a case as he doth there to the Apostle Paul My grace is sufficient for thee and my strength is perfected in weakness He hath very often given wicked men sufficient outward succour but he never gave them yet sufficient inward grace this is peculiar to his own people Vse 3 Is it so that they that belong to Jesus Christ are kept c. Then when you are in any danger or distress have recourse to this power Seek not so much to outward means and second helps but say as David Psal 68.11 Lord do thou give us help from trouble If you be kept it must be by the Name of God to which you are committed by your Saviour He saith not to the Father in my text Let them be kept by humane strength by worldly succours and accomodations But keep them through thy own Name And therefore when you know not what to do run to this Tower the Name of God Seek the Lord and seek his strength as the Psalmist counsels you Psal 105.4 For you must know my Brethren it is not enough to make us capable of having sure protection in the name and power of God that we belong to Jesus Christ No we may be so careless of our duty that we may be deserted for the present of the power of God and may not have it to relieve us and defend us And this is that which Ezra intimates Ezra 8.22 The hand that is the power of God is upon all them for good that seek him If we neglect him we may miss of favour from him as Asa did in such a case the Lord would not put forth his power to heal him because he sought not to the Lord but to Physitians And therefore when we are in danger any way from within or from without let us lift up our hearts and cry to God with the afflicted Church Psal 80.2 Stir up thy strength and come and save us and let us see that we do it in the way that God would have us and that we seek him in the due order as the expression is 1 Chron. 15.13 And to this end I shall give you some directions 1. Seek him early while he may be found of you you must not run through all your other holds and fly to all your other stays and when you find that you are disappointed in them all then go to hide your selves and not till then in this Name when you know not
we thrive apace in knowledge then we grow to perfectness then the Church of Christ goes up But till the stones be joined close together there will be no edifying that is in English no building It is of great concernment to the entertainment of Christ Jesus in the world that his Disciples be at nearest c. If they be alwayes wrangling and contending others will not come among them No they will stand off from them and from the Master which they serve if he be owned and followed by none but by a company of quarrelsome contentious people And hence is that Petition of our Saviour in behalf of his Apostles and Disciples at ver 23. of this Chapter In my text he prayes the Father that they may be one even as the Father and himself were one And in the cited verse he renews the same petition that they may all be one as thou Father art in me and I in thee that they may be one in us And why so That the world may believe that thou hast sent me q. d. If my disciples be not one among themselves if they be rent asunder by a spirit of division the world will not believe that I came forth from thee who art the God of love and peace that thou hast sent me down into the world to be a Mediator and a Peace-maker to make up all the breaches and the differences between thee and thy people They will look strangely upon me and I shall never bring them to believe that I am come on such an errand as this is And therefore I beseech thee Father that I may be entertained under the Notion of a Mediator that the world may believe that thou hast sent me on this business do thou take care that my Disciples may be at unity among themselves It is of great concernment to the happiness of Christs Disciples that they be at neerest c. Among the eight beatitudes the third in order falleth to the meek and peaceable Mat. 5.5 And if the meek and peaceable be blessed then certainly the fierce and furious are accursed It is a pretty observation of Ludolphus out of Bede on that place Heaven is promised to the pure blessed are the pure in spirit for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven Earth is promised to the meek Blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the earth So there remaineth nothing else but hell for the contentious and impure spirit Ah my beloved would we avoid the curse and would we be partakers of the blessing would we have heaven and earth to be our portion Let us be pure and peaceable let us make and keep peace and so the blessing of the God of peace will be upon us And therefore David having broken out into a passionate and pithy commendation of the unity of brethren behold how good and pleasant a thing it is for brethren to dwell together in unity it is like pretious oyntment c. Psal 133.2 he shuts up all with this conclusion There the Lord commanded the blessing and life for evermore There where brethren live in unity and love there the Lord commands blessing it cannot choose but come upon them for the Lord himself commands it And this blessing it is life and this life it is eternal There the Lord commanded the blessing and life for evevermore Vse 1 Now to proceed to application Is it so my brethren that it is a matter of wondrous difficulty and of great concernment for Christs Disciples to be at neerest unity among themselves Then let this quicken us and stirr us up who would be taken to be Christs Disciples to labour after this oneness and to endeavour to the utmost of our power to get and keep the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace You hear it is a matter of great concernment and therefore it is worth the striving for It is a matter of wondrous difficulty and therefore is not to be had without striving Now I beseech you my beloved let us set our selves to this business There was never greater need them now when God hath suffered such a spirit of division to possess his own people And when the members of the body mysticall of Christ are of so many minds and draw so many wayes and have sometimes such vehement and hot contentions and disputes among themselves So that the Church had never greater reason to cry out as Rebecca sometimes did when she had parties in her womb If it be so why am I thus and therefore we had need to put some spirit into this perswasion and you had need to put some spirit into your endeavours and if the Lord will put his spirit of unity and peace into us it may subdue and overcome the spirit of division which reigns too much abroad in these times But you will ask me How may we attain this and what are we to do that we may come to be at neerest unity among our selves Though it be very difficult as you have heard it may be compassed notwithstanding by the blessing of the Lord upon the use of these directions You must endeavour to the utmost of your power to mortifie those lusts and those corruptions that incline you to dissentions I shewed you formerly in explication of the point that the cause of our divisions is within and not without us They do not come so much from outward provocations as inward corruptions If there were no lusts within there would be no wars without as the Apostle James insinuates And verily if our corruptions as pride and passion and self-love were throughly mortified within those outward provocations would never cause such wofull rents and such implacable contentions as they do And therefore let us set our selves effectually and throughly to subdue these lusts of ours though they be naturally as dear and near as the members of our bodies let us persue them to the very death as the Apostle Paul advises Col. 3.5 Mortifie therefore your members which are upon the earth Let nothing satisfie us till we have the life of them Let us not wound them only but destroy them that ought to be the Christians aim as the Apostle shews Rom. 6.6 that the body of sin may be destroyed Our lusts seek our life either they must dye or we And they seek Gods life Omne peccatum est Deicidium And they have sought Christs life and brought him to a shamefull and accursed death And therefore let us seek their lives too and never satisfie our selves till we have the blood of them Let it be far from any of us to nourish or to cherish our corruptions to favour them or to deal kindly with them any way No let us dash this Babylonish brood against the stones let us shew them no mercy And when they are once destroyed our differences and debates will end with them As we must mortifie our carnal lusts so we must chase away out of our hearts our carnal reasonings that foment
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
Christ one with them Why they are against God and therefore certainly God is not with them but against them and that is a sad union The peace and friendship and confederacy of such is like the tempering of iron brass and clay together that will by no means soder or unite The knot will certainly untie at last the union will dissolve if God and Christ be not engaged in it And as the Hebrews note of the name of man and wife Ish and Ishah that if you take away the letters 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which make the Name of God there remains nothing else but Esh and that is fire the fire of discord and dissention So certainly if God be out of any union yea let it be as near as that of man and wife which is one of the nearest in the world there will be fire among the parties to it the fire of jealousie and rage that will devour them and destroy them in the end And it will prove like the unhappy combination between Abimelech and them of Shechem concerning which the Holy Ghost foreshewed Judg. 9.20 that fire should come out of Abimelech and devour the men of Shechem and the house of Millo And fire should come out from the men of Shechem and the house of Millo and devour Abimilech Use 2 Is it so that the perfection of the union of believers stands in this that even as they are one among themselves c. Then truly they have cause to bless the Lord that he is pleased to unite with them to be one with such worms as they are and so to make the union perfect Ah my Beloved if God did not joyn with you if he stood aloof from you what would your Union or Communion each with other profit you or comfort you what would it do without God But seeing God and Christ are in you seeing they are one with you this is indeed a perfect union all are joyned that should be joyned this is a happy and a heavenly Conjunction O my Beloved I beseech you labour so to walk that God and Christ may not withdraw from you It 's true I must confess he never really and totally and finally forsaketh those in whom he dwels but he forsakes them sensibly so that he seems to be no more with them and therefore let it be your study and endeavor to walk so humbly so holily that God and Christ may still delight to dwell with you and to dwell in you and to shew themselves to you that you may know that they are with you Be sure you never joyn in any business in which they will not joyn with you Be sure you never venture upon any action that will provoke them to withdraw from you Oh do no wicked no unclean thing that may offend the holy God Allow no evil in your hearts that may make his being in you uncomfortable and unpleasing to him Do not defile the Temple that he dwells in least you cause him to resolve as once he did in reference to Israel Hos 5. ult I will go and return to my place I will stay no longer with you And thus of the Second Argument with which our Saviour prosecutes his suit which hath been taken from the end at which he aimed in giving them the glory which he had received from God the Father And likewise of the third which hath been taken from the end of Christs inhabitation in believers and of the Fathers inhabitation in himself I in them and thou in me that they may be perfect in one A fourth is added in the following words That the world may know that thou hast sent me But that is but a repetition of the very same that hath been used in the 21. ver and in the very same words Only this difference there is in that knowing here is put for believing there For there it is that the world may believe and here it is that the world may know c. To shew that Christ intends not justifying faith in that expression but such a knowledge or acknowledgement of his being sent from God as the very world themselves who never did nor never shall believe are capable of And in that sense I handled it in that place I shall not here insist again upon it but pass to the fifth Argument with which our Saviour prosecutes the self same suit And it is taken from another fruit that it would have in worldly men It would convince them that believers are exceedingly beloved of God If they observed them to live in nearest unity and peace together they would be perswaded thence that they were very much in Gods favour That they may be perfect in one that the world may believe that thou hast sent me and that thou hast loved them as thou hast loved me So that here I might observe DOCTRINE That it is an apparent evidence of Gods love when true believers live in unity and peace together It is a sign he bears a singular regard to them when he makes and keeps them one among themselves yea it is such a sign of Gods love as worldly men who have but half an eye to see will mark and take special notice of Let them be one saith our Saviour in my Text why so That the world may know that thou hast loved them If they be knit together in holy indissoluble love the world will see and be satisfied thereby that they are much in thy affection and that thou hast a very dear regard to them And hereby you may see my Brethren Vse what a stumbling block it is to worldly men when there are such perpetual rents and breaches and discords and divisions between those who profess themselves to be believers when they observe them to be always wrangling and contending one against another Why they conclude from hence that certainly God doth not love them nor any such as they are Or if he did he would unite them and sweetly knit their hearts together he would not suffer them to live in such a bitter and uncomfortable and unquiet way No out of question saith the world this cannot be the company of men whom God loves and whom he bears such dear affection to above the rest what ever their pretences be and therefore we will never joyn with them Whereas if there were nothing else but heavenly and holy unity and peace among them the world would know that they are beloved of God and look upon them as the most desirable society of people under heaven But this I do but glance at in my passage by The thing that I intend to fasten and insist upon is the comparison our Saviour hints between his Fathers love to true believers and himself By which he intimates it to be much one For if you mark it well our Saviour saith not only That the world may know that thou hast loved them but that thou hast loved them as thou hast loved
God saith he my heart is fixed I will sing and give praise Psal 57.7 There hath been much talk of late concerning fixing arms but surely this of fixing hearts is the most necessary business 4. That our hearts may be prepared they must be awakened they are naturally dead and dull and sleepy especially at sometimes by means of some corporal or spiritual distemper They cannot watch to prayer one hour and though the spirit is ready yet the flesh is weak And therefore we must quicken them and rouse them up from drowsiness before we set about the duty and while we are in the performance of it we must call upon our hearts as Deborah Judg. 5.12 Awake awake Deborah awake awake utter a song And as David on his Harp Awake Harp so we awake heart I my self will awake early Psal 108.2 You see in brief the Rule of Christ in reference to preparation Now let us see what he prescribes both for the matter the manner and the end of prayer As for the matter of your prayers you must search the promises You are to pray for nothing but only what you have a promise for not what you have a mind to but what you have a promise for It is the business and the work of prayer to put the promises of God in suit not our desires but his promises And therefore we must study promises if we would know how to make prayers or how to judge of prayers after we have made them If they agree not with the promises they are but rash and inconsiderate desires they are the sacrifice of fools as they are called Eccles 5.1 And God will never look after them nor shew respect to them as Elibu teaches us Job 35.13 Surely God will not hear vanity neither will the Almighty regard it As for the manner of our prayers the rule of Christ is very large here and so accordingly directions might be copious both how to form our supplications which we are about to tender and having tendred them how to resolve whether they have been according to the will of Christ or no. I shall but touch upon the principal 1. It is in the will of Christ that we pray without wrath for so is the express direction 1 Tim. 2.8 I will therefore that men may pray every-where lifting up pure hands without wrath We must not come to God with hearts distracted and disturbed with passion but with composed meek and quiet spirits It was the fault of James and John who when a certain Town of the Samaritans repelled Christ and refused to receive him would in a fit of rage and anger have prayed for fire to come down from heaven to consume them Luk. 9.54 And so when the malitious enemies of Christ have done his cause or people any great mischief it may be we are ready in a heat to call for vengeance out of heaven upon them But if we pray in such a manner we may look for such a censure as James and John had in the fore-alleadged Text Ye know not what spirit ye are of You think it may be you are zealous but you are very much mistaken you are cholerick and angry you do know not the temper and disposition of your spirits Brethren we must not go to prayer in a fit of anger and a pang of discontent as it seems Eliah did 1 King 14.4 It is enough Lord take away my life for I am not better then my Fathers And as it seems Job did Job 6.8 Oh that I might have my request and that God would grant me the thing that I long for Even that it would please God to destroy me that he would let loose his hand and cut me off And as it is extreamly probable that Moses did when he conceived his burthen was too heavy for him Numb 11.10 15. For it is said he was displeased and in that angry mood he said to God Wherefore hast thou afflicted me You see he calls the Lord to coram to see how he can answer his proceedings Wherefore c. I am not able to bear all this alone And if thou deal thus with me kill me I pray thee out of the way and do not let me see my wretchedness And thus it is apparent Jonah did who being crost in a punctilio in a point of honour out of a pettish childish humor will go die God must take away his life We must not come to God in such a temper to empty and disgorge our choler and to vent our passions to him No Tempus mansuetudinis est tempus orationis The time of meekness is the time of prayer 2. It is the will of Christ that we pray without doubtings and this is also added in the Text before alledged 1 Tim. 2.8 Pray lifting up pure hands without wrath or doubting He would have us come to God with confidence and strong assurance as it beseemeth those to do who are indeed in Covenant with him You know a houshold servant that is in Covenant with his Master cals confidently for his break-fast and his dinner and his Supper whereas a beggar or a stranger doth not so So he that is in Covenant with the Lord should come with boldness to the Throne of Grace relying formerly on the promises of God as David did I cryed and I hoped in thy Word Psal 119.147 Lord I want faith give it me I want patience let me have it I find my heart is out of order joynt it mend it unite it to thy self It is for those that are without and that are strangers to the Lord that live on nothing else but common providence to come doubtfully to God when their distresses force them to his presence But if those that are his friends and that are in Covenant with him come in such a posture to him he may justly say to such Why what 's the matter that you are so strange and that you are not bold with me as you have wont to be you shall fare neer a whit the better for coming to me after such a manner And verily my Brethren unless we draw nigh to God in faith well grounded on the promises we can have no hopes to speed in our petitions He that would ask any thing of God saith the Apostle James chap. 1.6 7 let him come in faith nothing doubting Otherwise let him not think that he shall receive any thing of the Lord. 3. It is the will of Christ that we pray with much zeal that our Petitions be not formal cold and drowsie prayers but that there be some heat and fervour in them You know the prayers of Gods people are compared to Incense Psal 141.2 And Incense sends up no sweet savour till the fire come to it It is the fervent prayer only that is effectual with the Lord as the Apostle teaches us Jam. 5.16 The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much And hence saith David Hear me O Lord and why so I cry with my
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
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
the devil is in them He keeps the house as Christ speaks While the strong man keeps the house He keeps house in the hearts of wicked men the Devil himself is the house-keeper there there he dwells and there he works as the Apostle speaks Ephes 2.2 he worketh in them they are the Devils house the Devils shop they are the house where he dwells and the shop where he works I say while it is thus with other men while others have the Devil in them they have Jesus Christ in them The strong man is bound and dispossessed of his habitation The Prince of this world is cast out and Jesus Christ the King of glory is come in Ah my Beloved what a happiness is this I wish that I were able to express it to you to set it off as it deserves How would it ravish and transport you and make you to sit down in admiration at your blessedness in this world That you may guess a little at it review the things that have been hinted at before If Christ be in you faith is in you yea all saving grace is in you You are blessed with all spiritual blessings in that you have him in you You have a magazine a treasure of the graces of his holy Spirit So that you are inestimably rich and this riches is Christ in you as the Apostle speaks Col. 1.27 Not Christ without us but Christ within us by his graces is our riches If Christ be in you the Holy Ghost himself is in you as a Spirit of Illumination and a Spirit of Sanctification and as a Spirit of Consolation If you be ignorant you have one within you to enlighten you If you be impure if you have dregs of sin and of corruption in you you have one within you to sanctifie you if you be sad and comfortless you have one within you to comfort you the fountain and the spring of Consolation is within you so that he is at hand in all cases you need not faint or swound away while they fetch a cordial for you If Christ be in you God is in you your hearts are his Temples and the great God of heaven himself is the light and glory of them O blessed hearts that have God to dwell in them But more particulary yet 1. If Christ be in you you have most intimate and near acquaintance and Communion with him It is very much my brethren for Christ Jesus to be with you It was a pretious promise that he made to his Apostles Behold I am with you But for Christ Jesus to be in you is much more This importeth yet more close and sweet Communion Indeed the closest and the sweetest that can be You cannot choose but know him inwardly if he be in you 2. If Christ be in you you have free access to him you need not travail far to speak with Christ he is at hand continually for he is in you so that you may on all occasions make your addresses to him when you please If you have any supplication to present any complaint to make to him do but open your own hearts and you shall find Christ there 3. If you have Christ Jesus in you you are partakers of a confluence of all accommodations comforts satisfactions and delights that the poor heart can reasonably long for or look after For Jesus Christ hath all in him and brings all with him where he comes Indeed my Brethren he himself is all as the Apostle tells us Jesus Christ is all in all Col. 3.11 In all in whom he is my brethren he is all So that in having him we have all There is more in him alone to make us really and fully happy then in all the world without him 4. If Christ be in you as you are happy so you are secure there is no fear of falling from your happiness if you fall Jesus Christ falls with you for he is in you And this is that which makes our happiness in all respects accomplisht that as it is compleat and full so it is permanent and indeficient too The more excellent it is if it were not firm and stable the greater were the fear the greater were the misery of deprivation Fuisse faelicem to have been happy is the greatest unhappiness But this felicity my brethren is enduring In whomsoever Christ is he dwells there he doth not sojourn but he dwells there never to depart again The heart of such a man is his setled habitation of which he saith Here is my resting place here will I dwell for ever So that if Christ be in you you are safe for he will never leave you nor depart from you and then it is impossible that you should perish Ah my Beloved can a man be damned with Christ in him cast into hell with Christ in him separated from the Lord with Christ in him Christ willl not cannot leave him that is once in Christ so that if such a man should go to hell Christ must go to hell in him And now to shut up all since Christ is in you Let me give you this caution let him live quiet in your hearts do not molest him and disturb him there Do not make him vex and fret let it not be a pennance to him to continue in you Let him not suffer by your sins who suffer'd for them But labour every way to please him and to give him satisfaction and content that so the house which he hath chosen meerly for your sakes for he hath heaven to dwell in may not be dark and doleful but delightful to him And thus at length we have dispatched this heavenly Prayer of our Great High Priest and Intercessor Jesus Christ He was even ready to go forth to suffer when he made it Me thinks I hear him saying to his Apostles and Disciples The time is now at hand that I must leave you and be taken from the earth Come let us pray before we part and there withall he lifted up his eyes to heaven and poured out these holy breathings of his Spirit for himself and them Oh what a blessed frame of heart O what a choice and raised temper think you was he in at that time O what a Prayer must that be that was made by such a person in such a company on such an occasion Christ was in heaven in his thoughts and his affections when he uttered it and we have seemed sometimes to be in heaven too while we have handled it and heard it Well it hath been a sweet and precious subject as ever we have dealt upon I shall desire you to review it often and let not any choice impressions that have been made upon you by it out again Let them not be like lines drawn upon the sand no sooner formed but defaced like water spilt upon the ground that is not to be gathered up again Here you have seen the heart of Jesus Christ opened and his affections plentifully flowing out to his people Our prayers shew our hearts to Christ his prayer shews his heart to us Here you have seen how our dear Friend our Head our Husband loved us and had us in his mind and thoughts before he dyed Us I say who now believe as well as them that did believe in former times How earnest and importunate he is with God the Father that we may be one here and that we may be in one place hereafter O let us search into the heart of Jesus Christ laid open to us in this Abridgement of his Intercession for us that we may know it and the workings of it continually more and more until at length this precious Prayer come to have its full effect and we be taken up to be for ever with the Lord that where he is there may we be also Amen FINIS
day of vengeance Prov. 6.34 even so the Lord when he is stirred to jealousie on this occasion is wont to measure out to such offendors an excess and overplus of wrath and vengeance as you may see a sad example of it in the Jews And therefore I shut up this Exhortation as John doth his Epistle Little children keep your selves from Idols Amen Serve the Lord and not Idols But you will say perhaps what needs this For who among us is inclinable to this sin Or which of us doth serve Idols To this I answer That there is not in man a stronger inclination to any sin then that of Idolatry as I could shew you very plentifully and very clearly from the Scripture And as for actual Idolatry you must know my Brethren that there is a gross and open and there is a more subtile and secret Idolatry The gross and open is the worshipping of heathen images and heathen gods or else of Popish Crucifixes and the like from this perhaps you may acquit your selves But now besides there is an inward and secret Idolatry and this is very rife and common in the world yea in the bosom of the Church it self Professed Christians many of them who have but one God in their mouthes have yet an hundred in their hearts For you must know my Brethren that this inward Idol-worship is not committed only by conceiving an Idol or a creature under the notion of God which was the errour of the heathen who thought that Jupiter and Mars were gods But also by ascribing that to any creature which is peculiar to the Lord. In doing so we deifie the creature and set it up in Gods stead and this is very usual among those that would be taken to be Christians some make Idols of themselves either their belly is their God as the Apostle speaks in his time whose end is destruction whose God is their belly Phil. 3.19 they take more care to please their appetites and fill their bellies then to please God Or else they make their policy and wit their God while they rely and rest upon it to bring their enterprizes and designs to pass and so accordingly attribute the effecting of them to their own skill and to their own ability These are the men that sacrifice to their own net and burn incense to their own dragg as the Prophet speaks Hab. 1.16 Others make Idols of their fellow Creatures while they lay out that fear and love and confidence upon them which belongs to God only In this respect the covetous and worldly wretch is stiled an Idolater Eph. 5.5 because he loves his riches more then God and trusteth in his riches more then God And the Apostle James speaking of such as love the world calls them adulterers and adulteresses Jam. 4.4 because they commit this inward Idolatry which is spiritual adultery with the things of this life The like may be affirmed of the ambitious man who loves his honours more then God and of the voluptuous man who loves his pleasures more then God So that you see my Brethren there is need of this advice even to professed Christians to serve the Lord and not Idols 2. Serve the Lord and not the times 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are words not very much unlike neither in the writing of them nor in the pronunciation of them there is but a letter odds And hence it is that some have put the latter for the former in that place of the Apostle Rom. 12.11 And in stead of reading it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 serving the Lord they read it by an easie change 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 serving the time And so we find it in some Greek Copies And truly there are many in these dayes of ours who seem to like extreamly well of this change who would have 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 put for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 still and who would rather serve the time then serve the Lord. These are the men who fashion and apply themselves continually to the present garb and to the present state of things Like weather Cocks they turn with every blast like Ships they set their sails to every wind Brethren this is an odious thing to mould our selves especially in points of Conscience and matters of Religion to the times Indeed it is observed of the men of Issachar that they were wise to understand the times and to know what Israel ought to do 1 Chron. 12.31 And so I must acknowledge it is wisdom so to observe the times to know our duty what it is and to perform it in the proper season But to observe them so to serve them is a very great evil We must not serve the times but serve the Lord. 3. Serve the Lord and not Lusts neither your own Lusts nor the Lusts of others First serve the Lord and not your own Lusts if he be the only true God he must be served and not them And yet how many are there who are slaves and vassals to their own Corruptions who are not subject and obedient to the will of God but to that which the Evangelist calls the will of the flesh 1 John 13. They are a rule unto themselves and walk according to their own counsels That which they have a will and a desire to do to which they are carried and swayed by their own inclinations and sensual affections they freely follow and pursue but for the will of God they neither care to know it nor obey it I wish that such would seriously consider what a fearfull thing it is for God to leave men to their own wills He never doth it but in extremity of wrath and vengeance When he will take severe revenge indeed then he picks out this judgement My people would not hearken to my voice saith God and Israel would none of me What must become of Israel now think you you may behold it in the following verse So I gave them up to their own lusts to walk according to their own counsels And certainly unless the Lord should send men quick to hell a heavier Judgement cannot come upon them Secondly serve the Lord and not the Lusts of other men that is the basest and unworthiest service in the world when men are not only subject to the regular and just commands of their superiours for so they are in duty bound to be but they are subject to their wicked humours They are not only serviceable and obedient to their lawfull wills but they are Bawds and Pandars to their Lusts They will do any thing rather then they shall be offended and displeased They will serve them in their sins and serve them in their base and wicked humours though conscience grumble and recoyl they will comply with them in every thing they will humour and applaud them and admire them for advantage as the Apostle Paul speaks They are resolved to please them whether God be pleased or no. Let such remember that God