an image and a pattern of that holiness which is originally and compleatly in the Lord who hath in this respect all beauty in him Yea it is called the glory of the Lord Rom. 3.23 All have sinned and are deprived of the glory of God which shined in us in the state of innocency Indeed my brethren he hath in him the Sum and the perfection of beauty He hath all in him that doth win and raise nothing that cools or deadens the affection all things to invite nothing to avert love Others there are my brethren who have some things beautiful and comely to invite and draw love but other things uncomely and unbeautiful to keep it off Something or other there is in them that is odd unpleasing and so a bar and hindrance to affection Brethren it is not so with God he is all beautiful and all alluring altogether lovely Others are so in some respects but he is so in all respects He is altogether lovely the allurement of all hearts And the desire of all Nations Hag. 2.7 So he is always in the merit although he be not always so in the event Object But if God be so beautiful what is the reason that men do not love him Answ Because his name in this respect is not made known to them All men are naturally blind you know and blind men cannot judge of beauty until their eyes be anointed with the Eye-salve Apoc. 3.18 to make them see such beauty as this is The beauty of holiness is a spiritual beauty and that is not discerned by a natural Eye There must be a spiritual eye to see and to discern a spiritual beauty And when you have such eyes as these to see the beauty of the Lord your hearts will be enamoured on him you will be in the case the Church was you will be sick of love and say Lord turn away thine eyes for they have overcome us We cannot bear the dazling rayes of such beauty as thine is The goodness of the Lord is a part of his name and goodness being manifested and discovered is a means to draw love Now herein God excels my brethren he is good beyond pattern and beyond measure He is essentially good good without goodness as Austin speaks because indeed he is goodness it self The creatures be good but not goodness Their nature is good but goodness is not their nature But now the nature and substance of God is goodness it self so that he is essentially good and then he is also causally good as Psal 119.68 Thou art good and dost good Thou art good in thy self and thou dost good to the creature so that the earth is full of thy goodness He is eminently good so that whatsoever goodness is to be found among the creatures is eminently and transcendently in God himself Now goodness is the object of love and consequently the allective of affection If we have cause to fear God for his goodness as Hos 3. ult then surely we have much more cause to love him especially since he is not only good in himself but good to us If this part of his name be manifested and made known to us we cannot choose but love him and delight in him That phrase of the Apostle Paul is notable and may be very well applyed to our purpose Rom. 5.7 For scarcely for a righteous man will one die but for a good man one would even dare to die Uprightness draws not love as goodness doth One man will hardly love another so much for his uprightness as to die for him but for his goodness manifested to himself on all occasions continually doing good to him he may come to love him so as even to lay down his life for him And even for this cause we shall love God and love him out of all measure so as even to die for him if this part of his name be fully manifested and made known to us The mercy of the Lord is a part of his name and this if it be manifested to us will beget love in us You know the Lord is said in Scripture to be merciful yea to be rich in mercy and that not only because the mercy that he hath is pretious but because there is abundance of this pretious mercy in him For both of these concur to riches there must be something that is pretious and there must be much of it and so it is with God in this case He hath a mass of mercy in him a bottomless and endless treasure such as the wants of all the world are never able to draw dry And as a rich man though he spend exceedingly yet because he hath a treasure the e is no failing no deficiency of his store so God though he communicate his mercy freely to the sons of men yet he cannot be exhausted no there is more behind still it is an infinite a bottomless an endless mercy A mercy that endures for ever Now this rich mercy God lays out as many other ways so chiefly in the pardon of our sins and hence we read of mercies and forgivenesses in God as Dan. 9.9 Mercies as the cause and fountain Forgivenesses as the effect and stream And both you see my brethren in the plural number to shew the over-flowing mercy of the Lord. Indeed my brethren there is mercy in all pardons but in the pardon and remission of the sins of Gods people there is admirable mercy And hence the Prophet wondred at it not knowing what to think or to say of it Who is a God like thee that pardoneth iniquity c. Mic. 7.18 The Prophet is transported and carryed out beyond himself in admiration And mark it well He doth not say There is no man like thee but there is no God like thee Indeed it goes beyond the mercy of any but the true living God to do this In which respect is that expression Hos 11.9 I will not execute the fierceness of my wrath for I am God and not man that speech of the Apostle Paul is full Ephes 1.7 We have remission of our sins according to the riches of his grace Now if this part of Gods name be made known to us it cannot choose but work love in us We love them who forgive us common debts especially if they be great we think that we can never do enough for them or manifest respect enough to them But we have cause to love him more who forgives us such debts as these are which if they should be rigorously exacted of us we were not able to discharge them but must be laid up under everlasting chains Oh my beloved how can this choose but draw out our affection to the Lord The woman in the Gospel had much forgiven her and what was the effect and issue of it Why she loved much Her love was answerable to her pardon Much was forgiven her and she loved much She was a great sinner and she had a large pardon and so accordingly she
this respect And therefore the Apostle having spoken of his Legislative power before he comes to this judiciary Power James 4.12 There is one Law-giver saith he And what can he but give the Law yes he can execute the Law too and therefore it is added presently Who is able both to save and to destroy to save those that are acquitted by the Law and to destroy those that are condemned by the Law Sometimes he executeth his sentence partly here The works of some men go before to judgement as the Apostle Paul speaks 1 Tim. 5.24 Christ punisheth the wicked and rewards the Godly in this present world but the full retribution of them both he keepeth and reserveth to the day of his appearing when both of them shall have their full reward Behold I come quickly and my reward is with me saith our Saviour He sends not his reward before him he leaves not his reward behind him but brings it with him to dispense it when he comes And then he will discover it to all the world that he hath power over all flesh for he will then dispose eternally of all flesh either in heaven or in hell John 17.2 As thou hast given him power over all Flesh Vse 1 NOw is it so that all mankind is under the authority of Jesus Christ under his Legislative power so as to give Law to them Then first of all they are severely to be censured who submit not to the authority of Jesus Christ who do not yield obedience to the Law he gives them let him lay what commands he will upon them they are at a point for that they will not be obedient to them they break the bonds of Christ in sunder and cast away his cords from them Now the Delinquents here are twofold according to the twofold Law which the authority of Jesus Christ imposeth on his Subjects I say there is a twofold Law which the authority of Jesus Christ imposeth upon men the Law of Faith and the Law of Love We read of both these my Brethren in the Gospel and of both as his Laws And so accordingly there are two sorts of men who stoop not to the Legislative power of Jesus Christ I shall proceed with them in order The first of them are unbelievers they violate the Law of faith and so submit not to the power which God hath given him over all flesh You must know that Jesus Christ requireth all men to believe You believe in God saith he to his Disciples believe also in me John 14.1 And therefore the Apostle tels us of the Law of faith and setteth it in opposition to the Law of works the Moral Law as you may see Rom. 3.27 Now the great thing which this Law of faith requires is the receiving of the Son of God upon the terms that he is offered in the Gospel as you have been often shewed And it requires it on the greatest penalty even everlasting condemnation which is as certain to the unbelievers as if it had already past upon them He that believeth not is condemned already John 3 18. And yet alas how many are there who submit not to this Law of faith who though Christ be proposed and tendred to them in the Gospel though he be even forced and pressed upon them though Christ command them to believe yet they will not be obedient Indeed if he had no authority to impose this Law upon them they had reason to stand out but God hath given him power to do this yea he himself requires the very same thing This is his Commandment that we should believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ 1 Joh. 3.23 so that you see my Brethren this is the Commandment of the Father and this is the Commandment of the Son both joyn in this Law and therefore they are deeply to be censured who are refractory to so great a Law as this And that it may the better work and take upon them I shall shew them first the sin and secondly the danger of their disobedience That it is a sin not to believe in Jesus Christ is evident by that which hath been said because it is the violation of a Law the Law of faith But more then so it is a very great sin It is a sin of no ordinary size no my beloved it is a sinning sin it is abundantly and out of measure sinfull It is a sin indeed to violate the Law of works which the Apostle stileth Moses Law because it was delivered by the hand of Moses But it is a greater sin to violate the Law of faith and that both with relation to the Father and the Son First for the Father it is an horrible indignity to him it is the basest undervaluing and despising of his love that can be he gives his Son out of his bosom to suffer shame and death for poor Creatures and having done it he sends his Messengers to mind men of the danger they are in without Christ and to exhibite and propose him to them as the means the only means of their salvation and as endeavouring to overcome men with his goodness he doth in love and pity beg them and beseech them to accept of it And what is the event of this why my beloved when he hath abased himself so low and stooped so much below himself as to become a suitor to them to receive his Son they carry matters so as if he stood in need of them as if he came to make a motion to them for his own advantage as if he knew not what to do if they should refuse his Son Is not this good usage that when he hath descended so in ways of mercy they should shake him off and tell him in effect that his profered wares stink and that they do not need him nor his Son neither he may go offer him to them that have a mind to him Oh what abuse of love is this Oh what an high indignity what an unsufferable provocation even to incense the Lord so far as to cause him to resolve that he will never stoop so low again that he will never prostitute his Son again to the disdain and the refusal of a company of base unthankful men that he will make them rue the time that ever they contemned this mercy to them Then for the Son my Brethren in the second place it is an high affront to him and so in that respect a great sin It cost him dear to purchase and obtain remission and salvation for a company of lost creatures indeed his dearest life his dearest blood And is it not an horrible indignity to slight and to despise so great salvation to trample under foot the son of God to scorn such rich and precious mercy yet this all unbelievers do if not in their intention yet in the issue and event Truly their sin in this respect is greater then the sin of Devils whose nature Christ hath not assumed he took not on him
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
present nor our future happiness 1. Our present happiness consisteth in the title that we have to Christ the interest we have in him and the Communion we have with him Can the hatred of the world put an end to this Communion No saith the Apostle Paul Rom. 3.35 Who shall separate us from the Love of Christ shall tribulation or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or peril or sword as it is written for thy sake are we killed all the day long Nay in all these things we are more then Conquerours through him that loves as For I am verily perswaded that neither death nor life nor Angels nor principalities nor powers nor things present nor things to come nor heigth not depth nor any other creature shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Nay to say truth Christ loves us most and hath most communion with us when the world is most against us Then he is specially present with us as he was with Paul Acts 18.9 and with the Martyrs in the Dungeon in the Stocks in the flames And it is certain that Christ doth then reveal himself most sweetly to his people when the world discovers most malignity and rage against them So that it is not all their hatred can keep a Christian from the love and fellowship of Jesus Christ and so by Consequence it cannot keep him from his present happiness 2. And for our happiness to come it cannot hinder that neither It doth not lie so loose my brethren that all the world can take it from us No it is in Gods keeping he openeth and no man shutteth he shutteth and no man openeth He opened Heaven upon Stephen when the world was shewing the utmost of its rage against him And verily a Christian is as near the complement and the perfection of his happiness when he suffers all the wrong and ignominy and contempt that the world can pour upon him and sometimes nearer then he is at other times for that may be the way to it And hence saith Christ in the fore-alledged text Mat. 5.11 Blessed are ye when men revile you Rejoyce and be exceeding glad And why so For great is your reward in heaven JOHN 17.15 I pray not that thou shouldst take them out of the world c. AND thus far of the second Argument with which our Saviour presseth and enforceth his Petition to his Father in behalf of his Apostles and Disciples that he would keep them through his own name viz. because our Saviour for his own part was even ready to depart from them and to abandon them in such a place where they were hated universally almost the world hath hated them saith Christ Why then a man would think the only way were to remove them out of such a place where they are so ill beloved and so maligned upon all hands If the world hate them because they are not of the world what should they do there any longer the best way were to take them thence and to translate them to a place where they are likely to have more quiet No saith our Saviour I disown that that is not the intent and drift of my Petition I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world c. So that these words my brethren are an Explication of that which is delivered in the former verse that it might not be mistaken Not that our Saviour was afraid his Father would mistake his meaning but he knew they might mistake him who heard him speaking to his Father And therefore as a learned Writer notes upon the text he speaks unto his Father as a man for mens sake because he speaks in their hearing He tells them plainly and expresly what he doth not pray for I pray not that thou shouldst take them out of the world And then he tels him clearly what he doth pray for but that thou shouldst keep them from the evil Begin we with the first part of the explication in which our Saviour tells his Father plainly and expresly what he doth not pray for I do not pray that thou should take them out of the world So that the point to be observed hence is this DOCTRINE Removal out of this world is not the proper subject matter of Petition You see our Saviour Christ disowns it clearly in my text he would by no means have it thought that he desires his Father to remove his Disciples hence by death to take them out of the world No saith our Saviour that is not the thing I pray for I pray not that thou shouldst take them out of the world And even as he disowns it in his prayer so should we for we must walk in every imitable thing as we have him for an example And out of doubt he speaks not this for the direction of his Father that he might not be mistaken as I noted even now but on the other side for the instruction of his Apostles and Disciples who were by and heard him pray That they might learn not to exceed their bounds in their petitions And when they seriously consider how they are hated and maligned and abused in the world they might not yet desire the Lord on this account that he would take them hence but rather that he would preserve and keep them here as you have it in my Text I pray not that thou shouldst take them out of the world but that thou shouldst keep them from the evil And the ground is evident Reason Removal out of this world is not the proper subject matter of Petition because it is not simply in it self a blessing Indeed by accident I must acknowledge death and departure hence is turned exceed ngly to the advantage of the Saints For by it they are freed from evils penal and from evils sinful from suffering and from sinning they are admitted to most near communion with him whom their soul loves and whom their hearts do even gasp after from whose immediate presence they are unavoidably debarred as long as they remain in this world But properly life and continuance in the body is the blessing and therefore it is properly to be desired We find it usually to be propounded in the promise as the reward of holiness and of obedience And in this form we have it in the fifth Commandment which is the first Commandment with promise the only one that hath a promise of the second Table the only one of all the ten that hath a distinct and particular promise And now you will expect I know there should be some transcendent mercy comprehended in such a singular and extraordinary promise as this is And yet it is but long life in this world that thy days may be long in the land c. That promise is a pregnant one to this effect Psal 91. ult with long life will I satisfie him and shew him my salvation First I will satisfie him with long life he
be not the same Person And in this sense it is impossible for Christs Disciples to be so one in God and Christ as God and Christ the Father and the Son are the one of them in the other Well then our Saviour speaks here of the oneness which is between his Father and himself as he is the Mediator and as he is the Head of his Church For so they are both one as Jesus Christ himself speaks Joh. 10.30 And in another place he uses the very same expression in my Text and tells us that he is in the Father and the Father in him Joh. 14.10 Now the Father is in Christ as he is Mediator of the Church and Christ is in the Father in the same respect that is they are both one especially three ways 1. By Hypostatical union of the Manhood to the Godhead in the Person of our Saviour for the Manhood being joyned to the Godhead in the Person of the Son it must be mediately joyned also to the Father to whom the Son as God is joyned in the nearest tye that can be We have no higher phrase you know my Brethren to express the closest union then to affirm of two that they are one they two are are one and we cannot say more There is a union between faithful friends for there is one heart in two bodies as the Philosopher expresses it There is a nearer union between man and wife for they two are one flesh as the Apostle Paul speaks Ephes 5.31 and therefore they have one name But there is the nearest union between the Father and the Son for they two have one Essence one Nature one Name And so the Godhead being joined to the Manhood in the Person of our Saviour that Manhood by and through that God-head must needs be neerly and indissolubly joyned to God the Father 2. God the Father and the Son are one by dear affection Thus they are in one another and they live in one another as it were by inexpressible and tender love which they bear to one another How doth the Father love the Son beyond expression and that as he is Mediator for under that capacity he speaks of him Isa 42.1 and he seems to glory in it Behold my servant mine Elect in whom my soul delighteth and in another place he gives this attestation out of heaven to him Mat. 3 17. This is my Beloved Son in whom I am well pleased q. d. 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 And hence he lays him in his bosome next his heart Joh. 1.18 acquaints him with his counsels tells his secrets to him entrusts him with the revelation of them sets him in the highest place next to himself advances him above yea far above all principalities and mights and Dominions and puts more honour on him then he doth on all the creatures And hence the Son is often speaking of the Fathers love to him and on the other side professes his affection to the Father and he would have the world to know it too Joh. 14.31 That the world may know that I love the Father so do I. So that you see here is union of dear love 3. The Father and the Son are one by unexpressable agreement and consent together Though they be divers yet they never differ No they continually mind the same things they will and nill the same things love and hate the same things and this agreement is between the Father and the Son not only as the Son is God but as the Son is Man and Mediator too The will of Jesus Christ as he is Man in all respects accordeth and consenteth with the will of God the Father Or if it were not so it must be sinful and irregular and therefore he submitted still yea even in those things which were against the Nature that he had assumed Not my will but thine be done And thus you see how the Father is in Christ as he is Man and Mediaator and how Christ as Mediator is in God the Father how they are both one viz. by hypostatical union by dear affection by unexpressable agreement and consent together Now we shall easily discover how he would have his Apostles to be one in his Father and himself which is the second thing to be unfolded in the point It is the will of Jesus Christ that his Disciples should not only be one among themselves but that they also should be one in God in the Father and the Son This is the special thing for which he prays That they may all be one as thou Father art in me and I in thee that they also may be one in us 1. Then as the Father is in Christ as Mediator and Christ as Mediator in the Father by the Hypostatical union so Christ would have his Disciples to be in both of them by the mystical union That as the Manhood of the Son is mediately in God the Father in being joyned to the Godhead of the Son which is one with God the Father so we should also be mediately in the Father in being joyned to the Godhead and the Manhood in the Person of Christ That we should be in the Father by and through Jesus Christ And so indeed are all the members of the body mystical by reason of their union with the Lord Christ Christ is one with God the Father and we are one with Jesus Christ and therefore in a sense we are one with God the Father Jesus Christ is in the Father and we are in Jesus Christ Ephes 1.10 We all are gathered into one in him and therefore we are also mediately in the Father And hence it is that all the Saints are said not only to be one among themselves and to be one in Christ but also to be one in God the Father as in my Text you see I pray for them saith Christ that shall believe on me that they may all be one as thou Father art in me and I in thee that they also may be one in us not one among themselves but one in us Not in me only but in thee too Not one in me but one in us So that you see believers all of them are in the Father by the Son 2. As God the Father and the Son are one by dear affection so Christ would have all his Disciples to be one both with the Father and himself in the very same manner He would not have them only to be one among themselves by love but he would have them also to be one in God by love He would have their hearts to live in his Father and himself by unexpressible and choice affection That they should find no rest no quiet anywhere but in God and Christ only To be so closely and indissolubly joyned to the Father and himself that nothing in the world should be able to divide them to separate them from the love
A wicked wretch may touch another man indeed and yet never touch God because he is without God there is no union between God and him But whosoever touches him that is in God must touch God in touching him And hence saith the Lord himself Zac. 2.8 He that toucheth you toucheth the apple of mine eye In touching you he toucheth me and that in the most tender place the very apple of mine eye And do you think that God will ever suffer such audacious boldness as this is That he will quietly sit still and let ungodly wretches thrust their fingers into his eyes and pluck the very apples of his eyes out of his head Take this and take all If true believers be in God you then that are out of God endeavour Vse 3 to keep in with them In any case make them your friends and keep them so and do not fall at any difference or odds with them You know not what you lose when you lose their love and their friendship A friend in place they say is worth something And certainly they are in place that are in God the best place that can be And therefore it is good for those that are without and live abroad to have some friends in this place you may fare the better for them and they may do you a good turn and a good office there when time serves Wicked men have had advantage oftentimes by the friendship of believers Moses did a good turn for Pharaoh more then once when he knew not what to do and when he could not help himself Alas poor miserable man he was an alien he lived without God in the world and therefore sends for Moses still who was in God to speak a word for him and he was ready to sollicite hard in his behalf and divers times prevailed for mercy till in the end his heart was hardned to his utter ruine And therefore if you love your selves make much of such friends as these are And thus far of the application of the first branch of the Explication of the point I shall be briefer on the other two Is it the will of Jesus Christ that true believers should be one in God Vse in the Father and himself by dear affection You then that are believers let your hearts be knit to God and Jesus Christ by this indissoluble bond Let love make you all one And as the Father and the Son are one among themselves so be you one in them by love Let your affections to them be so high as to unite you to the Father and the Son And even as dear affection joyns you to your fellow-Saints that you are knit in love as the Apostle Pauls expression is so let it joyn you much more to the Father and the Son for they are infinitely more to be beloved Oh let your hearts no longer live in creature comforts and in creature satisfactions which do so often fail you and deceive you but let them live in God by inexpressable and choice love There live and there rest and there dwell and there nestle as it were in the bosome of the Father and the Son Mark that expression of the Apostle John 1.4.16 God is love and he that dwelleth in Love dewelleth in God and God in him God is love essentially for whatsoever is attributed to God is God And he is the Original and fountain of the love that is Communicated to the Creature All the Love with which we love him or the Creature regularly comes from him It is a ray of the divinity a beam of God a part of the divine nature And seeing God is love in the sence before expressed essentially originally it follows thence as the Apostle John infers that he that dwells in love must dwell in God He that dwells that is continues and abides in love to fellow Saints and fellow-members dwels in God But he that dwells in love to God himself dwells in God much more And therefore I beseech you let your hearts set up their rest in love to God and Jesus Christ there let them fix and dwell let not your love be scattered up and down among the creatures as it is but let it be united all in God and let it joyn and unite you all to God that nothing in the world may ever separate you or divide you from him Brethren you may be the losers by Love of other things or other friends For after your affections and your hearts are set upon them they may forsake you and be unfaithfull and unkind to you And besides you must bestow some pains and travail and expence on those who are indeed beloved by you Or else it is but a dissembling feigned love for love where it is sound and real is very bountiful and very active And hence it is my brethren that there is so little true affection in the world The love of men is for the greater part in complement in shew and in appearance only they will do nothing they will part with nothing for those whom they are pleased to call their friends as they must do if they love in deed and truth But now in loving God my brethren though I acknowledge you must part with all for him yet you shall be no losers by it Though you forgo your friends your houses and estates and all for him you shall have him instead of all Yea you shall not have him only but you shall be in him by this means And therefore I beseech you my beloved grow up into this uniting grace in these divided and distracted times which will not only make you one among your selves but one in God But you will ask me how may this be done I will give you some directions 1. Let prayer struggle for it at the throne of grace It cannot choose but be a pleasing lovely suit indeed to be importunate with God to make us love him and to draw up our hearts to him A man would think that such a sweet request as this should not be turned off with a denial It s true that prayer is the great Catholicon and universal means in all cases But yet it is expedient in a special manner to the attainment and enlargement of this grace of love which is a special gift of the spirit It is the great work of the spirit of God to make us love God and to endear our hearts to him I know that Hope and Patience c. are graces of the Spirit but Love is a prime grace It is a grace of the first magnitude and therefore placed first by the Apostle in that Catalogue of his Gal. 5.22 The Love of God is shed abroad into our hearts saith the Apostle Rom. 5.5 how so by the Holy Ghost that he hath given us And in another place he tells the Saints Ye are taught of God saith he to love one another 1 Thes 4.1 None in the world can teach you this but God only And if none but he
me This out of question is a truth in some sense or else he would not have the world to know it How it must be understood I shall shew you by and by In the mean time the point is this DOCTRINE That God the Father loves believers even as he loves Christ himself This is much I must acknowledge And yet you see it is the clear express assertion of the Text Thou hast loved them saith Christ even as thou hast loved me To make way to the opening of it this must be premised as a thing to be fore-known that Christ must here be looked upon as Man and Mediator of the Church so he hath been considered all along this prayer Now under this consideration the Father loves believers as he loves him But you will ask me How as he doth him what is the sense of that expression there lies the weight of all indeed and therefore I shall lay it open to you in a few particulars 1. God the Father loves believers as really and truly as he loves Christ as he hath loved Christ so he hath also loved them He hath not loved Christ and not them but he hath loved Christ and them The one of them as well that is as truly as the other And even as all the love which he declares to Jesus Christ is real and from the very heart-root if I might express it so so all the love which he discovers to believers is of the very same stamp It is a love without dissimulation in all respects as high and dear and cordial as it seems to be 2. God the Father loves believers everlastingly even as he loves Christ And everlastingly he loves them upon both hands à parte ante and à parte post from everlasting to everlasting First he loves believers from everlasting even as he loves Christ for as the time cannot be mentioned look back as far as you are able wherein the Father did not love the Son so neither can the time be mentioned wherein he did not love believers You know Election was from everlasting and therefore love must be from everlasting too which is indeed the Cause and Fountain of Election as Ephes 1.5 Having predestinated us to be his children in Christ Jesus according to the good pleasure of his will You see Election flows from the good pleasure of the will of God that is not only from that pleasure of his will which in it self is good for so doth Reprobation too but from the pleasure of his will which is good to us his creatures It issues from his love that is his free and undeserved favour So that you see he bears good will to true believers even in the instant of Election which is from all Eternity and so by consequence before they have a being in the world And this he doth in Christ as the Apostle shews Ephes 1.3 he chooses us in Christ In the first place he chooses Christ and then he chooses us in Christ He loves and chooses him first as Man and Mediator of the Church and then he loves and chooses us in him with the same love with which he loves him Secondly God the Father loves believers to everlasting even as he doth love Christ as he doth never cease to love Christ so he doth never cease to love them His love to them is like his love to Christ himself immutable he never alters it nor takes it off again The Mountains may depart and the Hills may be removed but his kindness shall not depart from his people neither shall the Covenant of my peace be removed saith the Lord that hath mercy upon thee Isa 54.10 No it is an everlasting kindness ver 8. an everlasting love Jer. 31.3 A mercy that endures for ever Psal 106. So that as he loveth Christ from the beginning to the end so he loves believers too He loveth them in this respect even as he loveth him But hath not God been very angry Object and displeased with those whom he hath seemed to love in former times have they not most bitterly complained of it as the Church Lament 5. ult where she concludeth her discourse though not her misery with this wofull Epilogue But thou hast utterly rejected us thou art very wrath against us And how then shall we take it for a truth that God doth never cease to love believers as he doth never cease to love Christ True it is the Lord is many times offended with believers Sol. as he was with Christ himself He was offended with our Saviour for believers sins he is offended with believers for their own sins Iniquity wheresoever he finds it whether by imputation or commission makes him angry But you must know my brethren that it is one thing to be angry with a person and another thing to hate him It s true indeed that hatred cannot stand with love for it desireth the not being of the object of it but anger may consist with it And even as we are angry many times with those we love best and who are infinitely dear to us so God was angry with his dearest Son and he is angry with his dearest Saints and with his best beloved people and yet his love is firm and constant and unalterable to them notwithstanding as will appear if you consider First the shortness Secondly the fruits of this anger First Gods anger with his people is no lasting anger There is so great a mixture of love and kindness and compassion in it that it is overcome again upon a suddain it is very quickly gone Indeed his anger to the wicked is an anger like his love to his people everlasting They are a people with whom the Lord is angry for ever But his anger to his people is but short It is but little and that little is nothing it is but for a moment Isa 54.8 and that is recompensed with everlasting kindness too In a little wrath have I hid my face from thee for a moment but with everlasting kindness will I have mercy en thee It s true that David said in his distress that God had cast him off and that his love and mercy was clean gone for ever But he corrects himself again in his advised and deliberate thoughts and ingenuously confesses that he spake the former in his haste Psal 31.22 and that the latter was his infirmity Psal 77.10 Secondly as for the second the effects of Gods anger are such as relish strongly of his love to his people They are not such as he is wont to shew on reprobates and vessels of wrath They are not rigorous punishments to satisfie his justice but loving chastisements to hinder and prevent the execution of it For when they are afflicted they are not punished in propriety of speech but chastned and that to this end that they may not be condemned 1 Cor. 11.32 They are not such as fit them for destruction and border on damnation as those which he inflicteth on the
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
posture she will be when Christ shall have declared his Fathers name to all the Nations under heaven when the Jews shall be converted and when the fulness of the Gentiles shall come in Oh my beloved that will be a joyfull time indeed It s true those times my brethren shall be very comfortable and full of gladness many wayes And this is not the least that people shall be brougbt in to the knowledge of the Lord out of all the quarters of the world and that by heaps and multitudes And when they come thâ—â— shall be brought with gladness and rejoycing as the Psalmist speaks Psal 45.15 With gladness and rejoycing shall they be brought And truly they that have the happiness to live in those dayes cannot but be extreamly taken with it when they behold the Fathers name declared to the people of the Jews and to such multitudes of Nations of the Gentiles so that they shall come thronging in so fast as if they were in haste to be acquainted with him and to know more of him Oh they will be an end at this and their hearts will leap within them There was never such a time since the foundation of the world nor shall be till that blessed season come and therefore let our souls rejoyce in the foresight of it though we never live to see it And thus far of our Saviour faithfullness in the delivery of his Fathers Errand in the discovery of his Fathers name to his people He hath been faithfull and will be faithfull in it In the remainder of the verse he shews the end and reason of it why he hath been so and will be so That the love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them and I in them It is a very great question whether believers be intended here to be the objects or the subjects of the love our Saviour mentions Whether the name of God be manifested to them to this end that they may be beloved by him or to this end that they may love him I must acknowledge all Interpreters almost that I have seen make them the objects not the subjects of this love That the love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them That is say they may reach to them or come to them their meaning is so as to lay hold upon them and embrace them In plainer terms that thou maist love them with the love wherewith thou hast loved me with the very same affection Against this Exposition there are two Exceptions to which I must confess I know not how to give a cleer Solution For First If this were the intention of our Saviour I have declared unto them thy name that thou maist love them he would have said in probability That thy love may be towards them or That thy love may be upon them rather then That thy love 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as here we have it may be in them This is a strange expression to say My love is in a man when my intention is I love him or I have set my love upon him But secondly if when our Saviour Saviour saith that thy love may be in them his meaning be That thou maist love them how shall this be the end of his forementioned delaration of his Fathers name as it is cleerly made in this place I have declared unto them thy name and will declare it that the love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them That thou maist love them with the love wherewith thou hast loved me Doth Christ declare his Fathers name to men his love his mercy to this end that he may love them Is this a proper means to that end for God to be made known to men that God may love them whom he is made known to Brethren God doth not love men because his name is manifested and declared to them but men love him upon that ground and for that reason the declaration of his name to them is a means to make them love him And therefore I must needs crave leave to think the latter Exposition probable by which believers are made the subjects of the love here mentioned I have declared unto them thy name and will declare it that the love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them as in the subjects of it That the love which is originally in thy self as in the fountain as all other graces are may be communicated and dispensed from thee to them and become inherent in them You know my Brethren we are said to be partakers of the divine nature 2 Pet. 1.4 not by participation of the essence but by communication of the properties of God when the communicable properties of God as holiness and love and wisdom are dispenst to us So here our Saviour prayes his Father that the love wherewith he hath loved Christ may be given down from him into the hearts of his people that they may have that very property in them also And to this end saith Christ I have declared thy name thy mercy goodness love to them that this love may be wrought in them That by this means their hearts may be enflamed and filled with the love of thee That they may have the love of thee in them as the Apostle hath the very Phrase 1 John 3.17 How dwelleth the love of God in him So here that the love wherewith thou hast loved me that very property may be in them by way of derivation from thee and that by the revealing of thy name to them If this be our Saviours meaning as I can see no other for the present the Observations will be two First The love which is in true believers comes from God The love wherewith true believers love is in a sense the same wherewith God himself loves Or the love wherewith God loves is in a sense in true believers Secondly The declaration of the Fathers name to them is the great means that begetteth love in them DOCTRINE The love which is in true Believers comes from God The love wherewith he loveth is in them saith our Saviour in my text viz. by way of dispensation from him Love is originally primitively and essentially in the Lord and from him it is given down into the hearts of true believers This is part of the divine nature which they are made partakers of as the Apostle speaks 2 Pet. 1.4 This is a print of his Image whereby they are conformed to God and made suitable to God when they love as he doth And consequently as he is such are they in this world So that when an enlightned eye looks first on God and sees that he doth love that he is love and then looks on the believer and sees this grace of love communicated and dispensed from God to him he finds that he is such a one as God is That he is like God in this world though he shall be better like him in the world that is to come This is a beam of his light as
other saving graces are it comes down from the Father of lights as the Apostle James speaks Chap. 1.17 And as the stars shine with a borrowed Luster even so do believers too If there be this or any other brightness in them it is a beam of the divinity a streak and ray of the divine glory They shine because their light is come viz. from God and the glory of the Lord is risen upon them Isa 60.1 And in a word this is a stream of his fountain which runs down from God to us All our fresh springs are in him as the Prophet David speaks Psal 87.7 and consequently all our streams of living waters are from him First the springs of our streams are in him and then the streams of his springs are in us The love wherewith he loveth is in us So that God doth not only teach us love as the Apostle saith ye are taught of God to love 1 Thes 4.9 but more then so he gives us love He doth not only teach it as a Master but he bestows it as a Donour and Dispenser Yea as a Donour of himself to us for when he gives us love he gives us down himself in some measure And therefore by this love he is said to dwell in us Mark that Expression of the Apostle John 1. Epist 4.10 God is love and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God and God in him God is love properly essentially for whatsoever is attributed to God is God and he is the Original and Fountain of that love that is communicated to the Creature and by this love he dwells in us So that whoever hath this love in him hath God in him God in the beam as we are wont to say The room that hath the beam in it hath the Sun in it That place of the Apostle John is full 1 Epist 4.7 Love is of God saith he and every one that loves is born of God while he participates in this of Gods nature even as the Son is made partaker of the nature of the Father The Point you see is fully proved The love which is in true believers comes from God Reason And it must needs be so because it is not neither can it be originally in or of or from our selves The heart of man is naturally averse yea even abhorrent from the Love of God And therefore in the state of nature men are said to hate God Rom. 1.30 as in divers other places of the Scripture Indeed it seems to be a little strange that men should naturally hate the chiefest good And true it is that nothing apprehended and presented under the notion reason and the name of goodness can be hated and abhorred But yet the chief good looked upon as evil either in it self or else to him that so conceives and apprehends it may under such a notion be so far from being loved as that indeed it may be hated And thus it is with all unsanctified men So that of our selves you see it is impossible to have the love of God in us But whence must we have it then if we be partakers of it The Apostle clearly shews us Jam. 1.17 Every good and perfect gift is from above From above what 's that why it cometh down from the Father of lights that is from God who is the fountain of it And if every gift be from him every good and perfect gift then surely love which is in some respect the choicest of all other guifts as the Apostle shewes at large is from him too The love which is in true believers comes from God But yet this Caution let me interpose before I come to application You must not apprehend the love which is in true believers to come immediately from God without the use of second means as some have seemed to infer from that place of the Apostle 1 Thess 4.9 As touching love you need not that I write to you for you your selves are taught of God to love As if his meaning were I need not teach it you at all I need not strive to work it and beget it in you by my preaching for you are taught immediately of God himself Whereas indeed he speaks comparatively not as though they had no need at all of his instruction but not such need as many other men who were not taught of God to love As such expressions are very usual in the Scripture which in shew are universal yet to be understood ex parte and in comparison as that for instance John 9.4 If ye were blind ye should have no sin saith Christ none in comparison not simply none But as for love that it is mediately wrought by means as by the preaching of the Gospel is very manifest by this that the Apostles Paul and John especially do so frequently and earnestly perswade and press to it which they need not to have done if God did work it in the hearts of his people immediately by the teaching of his spirit Indeed my brethren every saving grace flows clearly from the upper spring but yet there are some pipes that carry and convey it down to us as the Word and Ordinances and the like And he that lives above them lives above grace too And therefore in my text our Saviour makes his declaration of his Father name by himself and his Apostles and their Successors in the Church the means of working love in the hearts of his people I have declared unto them thy name and will declare it that the love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them Now is it so my brethren that the love which is in true believers comes Vse 1 from God Here then we are directed where to go and to whom to have recourse for this grace If any man lack wisdom saith the Apostle let him ask it of God And so say I in this case If any man want love to God or to his Brethren let him ask it of God Let him go to God the Fountain and the spring of it and beseech him earnestly to give it down to poor creatures If we find our hearts are cold and dull and flat if they be not inflamed with the love of God let us entreat him to kindle them at his fire Let us begg him that the love which is in him may be in us Let us pray with the Apostle The Lord direct our hearts unto the love of God 2 Thess 3.5 They cannot find the way themselves the way of peace and so the way of love they have not known Now the good Lord himself direct them and guide them into that way It cannot choose but be a pleasing and a lovely suit indeed to be importunate with God to make us love him and to endear our hearts to him A man would think that such a sweet request as this should not be turned off with a denial And that we may the rather struggle in it I shall propound two things 1. Love as it comes from
shewed great love O my Beloved if such mercy be discovered to us we cannot choose but do as she did if we survey our lives and find perhaps that we have been grievous sinners beyond the ordinary rate that we were over head and ears in debt to God that there were horrid crimes upon the bill against us scarlet sins and bloody sins and then the Fathers name is manifested to us that he hath been to us The Lord the Lord God merciful and gratious forgiving iniquity transgression and sin And that according to the multitude of his tender mercies he hath blotted out our transgressions how will our hearts come off to him how will they flame with love to God so that we shall cry out O how do we love the Lord we are not able to express it how infinitely dear is God to me The Love of God is a part of his name and this if it be manifest also will beget love in us When it shines forth from God upon our hearts it will reflect and so return to God again This flame will kindle our fire and make it burn that all the waters in the world will never quench it as Cant. 8.7 Many waters cannot quench love neither can the flouds drown it Amor est cos amoris love is the special thing that whets love and that makes it keen and sharp So it is with the love of man and so with the love of God If it be made known to us and if we have assurance of it it will exceedingly indear our hearts to him We love him saith the Evangelist John 1 Epist 4.19 Why so because he loved us first The declaration of his love to us works love in us to him again First he loves us and when we know it then we love him So that the point is fully proved The Declaration of the Fathers name to men is one great means to work the grace of love in them Vse 1 To make a little Application First is it so That the Discovery c. We see the reason then my brethren why a great part of the world have not the love of God in them Though he be altogether lovely yet they love him not at all because his loveliness is hidden from them His name is not declared to them they have no knwledge of his beauty goodness mercy love c. and hence it is that they bear no affection to him They are alienated from him strangers to him love him no more then they do a meer stranger But how comes this to pass by reason of the ignorance and blindness that is in them How many Heathen Nations in the world and Christians by profession are in this condition and so will certainly continue till Jesus Christ declare the Fathers name to them And therefore in the second place if you desire indeed to love God Vse 2 and to grow up in this love Labour to be acquainted with his name Wait on the discoveries of it that Jesus Christ is pleased to make both in publique and in private Wheresoever Christ declares his Fathers name there be you attending on him to see what he will further shew you of his beauty goodness mercy love to you in special and you shall find that as you know more of him your hearts will be accordingly endeared more to him when you are with other Christians discourse of this name of God the greatness of his beauty goodness mercy love and your hearts will burn within you with ardent flames of holy love to his blessed Majesty When you are single and alone study the name of God think of his attributes let them be often in your meditations as you shall see they were in Davids if you read the Book of Psalms and then you will cry out not much unlike as he O my God how do I love thee while I meditate of the beauty of thy glorious Majesty and thy marvailous works And thus far of the first end of our Saviours declaration of his Fathers name That the love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them The second follows in the last place to be handled And I in them that the love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them and I in them First that love may be in them and then that I may be in them The latter is adjoyned to the former by the connective particle and as that which out of all dispute will keep it company and dwell with it If love be in them I shall be in them too saith Christ I shall be where love is and therefore I have manifested and declared thy name to them in reference to both these That love being wrought in them I may be in them too by this means This I conceive to be the drift and purpose of our Saviour in the words The point suggested then is this DOCTRINE Where Love is there Christ is If love be in a man Jesus Christ is in him too that is out of all question He comes with love into the souls of true believers Brethren Christ is an utter stranger to every soul that hath not true love in it But if you knock at the door of any heart and enquire Is love within is love here If love be there you may conclude that Jesus Christ is there too You see my brethren they are knit together in my Text That the love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them and I in them Love in them and I in them Love and I. To shew that Jesus Christ and Love do always dwell together in the same heart they are not be separated or divided each from other but wheresoever one is there is the other also where love is there Christ is But then you must not understand it of love the passion or natural affection but of love the saving grace of that love which is wrought by the effectual revelation of the Fathers name to men Where this love is there Christ is as I shall make it evidently to appear to you For Where love the saving grace of love is there the spirit is and where the spirit is there Christ is First where love is there the spirit is whose special dwelling in believers is not by his Essence but his graces and chiefly by the grace of love And hence we read of the Spirit of love 2 Tim. 1.7 because the Spirit is the cause of love And hence we also read of the love of the spirit Rom. 15.30 because love is the fruit of the spirit so the Apostle stileth it expresly Gal. 5.22 Yea it is the prime fruit the chief fruit upon which all the rest follow as the Apostle makes it there The fruit of the Spirit is love and then joy peace meekness and so on Love is indeed the special grace by which the spirit of love dwells in us so that where love is there the spirit is Now where the spirit is there Christ is For his inhabitation in the soul
AN EXPOSITION WITH NOTES Unfolded and Applyed On JOHN 17 th Delivered in Sermons Preached Weekly on the LORDS-DAY to the Congregation in TAVNTON MAGDALENE By GEORGE NEWTON Minister of the Gospel there LONDON Printed by R. W. for Edward Brewster and are to be sold at the Crane in Pauls-Church-yard 1660. To the Honorable Colonel JOHN GORGES Governour of the City of London-Derry and the Castle of Cullmore in IRELAND My duly honoured and dearly beloved Brother SIR NOW you have wrested the following Lectures out of my hands I do but fairly leave them there whence I cannot recover them So that this which I prefix is not so properly a Dedication as an Abdication I must confess I never knew you guilty of Extortion but in this Act. I loath their Cunning who by debasing and disabling secretly design to raise the price of their own labours And do it this way 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Oratour speaks though somewhat in another case with much more Artifice then professed Hucksters do But verily these Sermons being preached by such an one as I do really account and know my self to be in my constant weekly course upon the Lords Day and indeed a great part of them twice a day when I had no Assistant with me having besides the Wednesdays Lecture on my weak shoulders and many other Ministerial Employments not without frequent Avocations and diversions which in so great a place are unavoidable will be adjudged by discerning men unfit to have appeared to the world in such a way as this is And herein I shall heartily agree with them Now seeing you alone are faulty here I Dedicate the Book and Blame to you And if the Sword of wounding tongues be bent at me as being troubled with the Epidemical distemper of the Times an itch of being seen in publick you ought in justice to step in between and say as Nisus in the Poet Virg. lib. 9. Aeneidâ—s Me me adsum qui feci in me convertite ferrum And I am confident you will be my Compurgatour in this that no Opinion of any thing in these poor labours worthy of the Press hath had any Influence on this Publication There is besides an apparent disadvantage which I am very sensible of Mr. Aâ—th Bâ—rges viz. That in this Tract I follow One of so great Accomplishments who being next the Light and of a far more perfect Stature then my self must needs cast back a shadow on me Unless I be so far behind him that his shadow will not reach me But if it do I shall as Ionah in another case rest very quietly in that shadow The Subject handled is a choice and precious One as any in the Book of God without Exception This Prayer being as it were a little piece that dropt off from the heart of Jesus Christ as once Eliahs Mantle from his body as he was taking leave of his Apostles and the World together When He was even going forth to suffer He Swan-like sung this dying Song and poured out this precious Prayer being about to pour forth his very blood and life with it And this he did not for his Apostles only then about him but for us also even for us who should in after-times believe through their words A man would think our blessed Saviour when He had such a Task to undergo and such a business to dispatch should have been wholly taken up with the preapprehension of his instant Death and Passion That this should have detained or diverted Him from other thoughts especially from taking care of such poor Worms as we are But that when he was drawing neer to such a Conflict with the Wrath of God and the Indignities and Wrongs of men He should have us in his heart That our dear Friend who loved us and gave Himself for us should think of us and pray for us and speak of us to God the Father with so high affection when his own Soul was heavy to the very Death Such a Prayer made by such a Mediatour at such a time as that was must needs be worthy of the choicest and exactest Observation of the Church in every Age to the end of the world Some Antiquaries tell us of the Diptyches Lindan Annot. in Liturg. S. Petri. pag. 39. much in use in the Primitive Church Which were two leaves or tables bound together on the one of which was a Commemoration of divers famous and renowned Worthies departed in the Faith of Christ and on the other a Commemoration of the like Personages yet alive Much Honoured Sir Joseph Vicecom Obfervat Ecclesiae Dae Missae Apparatu Tom. 4. lib. 7. cap. 17. I shall present you here with a new sort of Diptyches the Tables more exactly answering one another The one containing a Commemoration of a dying Christ and shewing how He pray'd on Earth In which you may also see what is contained in the other Table and how he prays for us in Heaven who ever liveth to make Intercession for us So that if you desire at any time to know how Christ persues the business and pleads the causes of his poor Church at the right hand of his Father you shall do well to have recourse to this Chapter which may be very fitly called a Counterpart of our Saviours Intercession And truly for my own part I must freely and ingenuously profess that I had never known so much of Christ and of his tender Care and Love of poor sinners had I not studyed these Emanations and Effluxes of his precious Soul had I not seen his Breast open in this Chapter and the Names of the twelve Tribes transcribed out of the Breast-plate of the Typical into the heart of the Typified High Priest Fox Act. Mon. ad Annum 1558. And as the Queen of England sometimes said That if they opened her when she was dead they should find Calais written on her heart So when I had the happiness to open Christ in this Prayer though with a most unskilful hand I found the Church engraven deeply on his Heart and saw such things as cannot be uttered The Lord give you and me to know more of that Love which passeth knowledge and to return more Love to Him who pray'd for us and dyed for us We may easily exceed in loving other things and persons We may love more then we are loved we may love more then we should love But here our hearts may take their full swing there is no fear of over-loving Jesus Christ For as Bernard sweetly speaks of our Love to God Bern. De diligendo Deo Modus Deum diligendi est sine modo diligere The same may I as truly say of our Love to Christ The measure of loving Christ is to love him out of measure So hath he loved us ☞ and so should we love him There are especially two great Boons which Jesus Christ begs of his Father for Believers in this
The Father loves believers as he doth Christ Reas For he loves them 1. In Christ 2. Through Christ 1. Vse Depend on him 1. Without doubting 2. By real love 3. Vse Comfort to all true believers In that 1. He will uphold them as he did Christ 2. Assist us in his service 3. Reward his own work in us 4. Hear us 5. Provide for us 3. Doctr. Christs will is even a Law with the Father Reas 1. Being the only Son 2. The Beloved 3. Never asks amiss 4. Sueth for nothing but what he deserver p. 491. Vse How to make Christ our Advocate Ver. 24 Direct 1. To prepare their hearts they must be 1. Purged 2. Humbled 3. Fixed 4. Awakened Then 2. For Matter of prayer search the promises p. 496. Manner Pray without wrath 2. Doubting 3. With much zeal 2. If we pray acted by Christs Spirit 1. There will be zeal 2. Desires spiritual 3. For spiritual things chiefly Not to be spent on lusts 4. We shall pray constantly 2. Doct. It is Christs will that they who are given him should be in heaven Reas He loves them with a love 1. Of benevolence 2. Of Complacency 3. To see his glory 3. Doct. God hath loved Christ from all Eternity Reas Being like him both as God and Man Vse Wo to them that hate Christ They hate Christ 1. Who willingly obey sin 2. Who love and hate that which Christ doth not 3. Who are friends to the Enemies of Christ Contra p. 513. 2. Vse God therefore loveth them that love Christ Christ is amiable and worthy of our love 1. In respect of his perfections p. 515. 2. In respect of our Interest and propriety in him 3. Of his great love to us 4. Of that he hath done for us 3. Vse Admire that he should so use him as he did for our sakes 1. Giving him up to the hands of sinful men and to his own wrath 2. So using him for such as we are p. 517. 4. Vse Comforts to those that belong to Christ that they are loved from everlasting 4. Doct. God is a very just and righteous God Confirmed 1. From the largeness of his Jurisdiction 2. The Immensity of his presence 3. From his inward propensity and disposition 1. Vse This should settle our minds amidst the confusions and disorders of the world 2. Vse Comfort to those that are abused and oppressed 3. Vse Come into him and become his subjects 4. Vse Terror to the ungodly 5. Vse Comfort to the righteous even in Gods Justice 6. Vse Admonition to Magistrates Perswasions to execute Justice 1. It will settle the land 2. Be amiable to God 3. Beneficial to your selves p. 526 7. Vse Meditate on Gods righteousness It will 1. help us against sin 2. Strengthen our faith in prayer p. 528. Ver. 25 Doct. Unbelievers and unsanctified persons know not God in such manner as they ought p. 531. 1. Know him not so as to delight in him 2. Nor so as to serve and obey him 3. Nor so as to know him in Christ Reason 1. Unbelieving Heathens want the means of knowledge 2. Unbelieving Christians want the Spirit to unveil 1. The understanding 2. The Gospel 3. In every unbeliever there 's something 1. Redundant to repell divine Truth 2. Wanting to receive it viz. The Spirit of God 4. They are unwilling to know God p. 535. 1. Vse The misery of unsanctified unbelievers 2. Vse Admire Gods mercy in vouchsafing us the means of knowledge p 537. 2. Doct. That Christ alone knows God immediately and others by his means p. 539. Vse None saved by his own natural knowledge 3. Doct. The most saving knowledge hath defects and imperfections standing in need of farther declaration p. 541. Reason Christ doth not shew them all at once 1. Because they are not capable 2. That he may keep them humble 1. Vse Be not proud of your knowledge 2. Vse Comforts to the humble 1. A sign that thy knowledge is right and sound 2. It 's the measure which Christ hath alloted thee 3. The time is coming when these thy defects shall be supplyed 4. We shall be rewarded according to our practice not our knowledge Ver. 26 Doct. Christ will be making farther declarations of his Fathers Name to the worlds end p. 546. 1. By his written Word and Ministers in all ages 2. By his holy Spirit p. 548. 1. Vse Believe what he hath spoken 2. Expect the execution of his promise 3. Thereunto strive with Christ in prayer p. 549. 2. Doct. The Love which is in true believers comes from God Reason For it cannot be Originally in of or from our selves yet not without means Vse If we want it have recourse to God Love is the chiefest thing 1. That comes from God p. 554. 2. That conformeth us to God p. 554. 3. Doct. Declaration of the Fathers Name is a special means to work love in them Reason 1. Beauty is a part of his Name 2. Goodness 3. Mercy 4. Love p. 557. 4. Doct. Where Love is there Christ is Reason 1. For where Love there the Spirit 2. Faith 3. God is p. 560. 1. Vse Misery of those that love not God and his children 2. Comforts to those that have love in them They have Christ and therefore 1. Have intimate Communion with him 2. Have free access to him 3. Have the confluence of all Accommodations 4. Are secure 2. Let Christ live quiet in your hearts Excellency of Christs prayer An Alphabetical Table of the Chief Heads contained In this TREATISE A ADopted children page 15 Admire the love of God and of Christ page 20 98 146 161 361 455 537 Affections of the heart testified by outward gesture page 11 Affliction should not dismay us See Tribulation page 104 195 290 291 367 Abilities of Christ page 145 Active Obedience of Christ page 157 Our Advancement in Christ page 174 The Apostle and Messenger of God is Christ 142 149 234 235 other Apostles page 407 our Affections are to keep Christs word page 204 213 Apostates from Christ page 41 210 Application of Christ page 158 441 Assurance Means and benefit thereof page 22 our Active and Passive obedience page 203 Authority grace and power of Christs words page 7. 473 Authority of Christ over all men 52 144. for the benefit and Salvation of his people page 72 73 Agreement with God and Christ necessary page 465 Agreement See Unity The benefits thereof page 303 304 All things revealed by Christ in what sense page 236 Aimiableness of Christ page 514 515 Adding to the work of Christ page 168 word of Christ page 241 Absence of Christ from the Father page 265 Ascension of Christ 266. End fruit and benefits thereof page 267 B PArtial Believers page 208 â—99 Belief See Faith Wrought by the Gospel page 443 444 Believers not free from the Law page 61 62 Believe the Trinity page 130 132 the Scriptures page 133 399 in Christ page 149 150 441 Christs word 204. 559
for us saith the Apostle Paul Tit. 2.14 that was the purchase that he made a very dear one you will say He gave himself for us to what end that he might reedeem us from all iniquity from the dominion and power of sin And what now are we masterless And are the reins upon our own necks Now mark what follows presently And purifie us a peculiar people himself a people to himself to serve him and to do his work and to be very earnest in it too and purifie to himself a peculiar people Zealous of good works And so being free from sin we are not left at large my Brethren but we became the servants of Christ Rom. 6 22. This was the End that he intended and propounded to himself in our Redemption he dyed for us that we which live should henceforth live no longer to our selves but to him that dyed for us 2 Cor. 5.15 He hath performed the mercy promised he hath remembred c. he hath saved us from c. Luke 1.74 What that we might from henceforth be our own men and live at liberty and walk according to our own wills Oh no my Brethren but on the other side that we might serve him who hath saved us in holiness and righteousness all the daies of our lives The third is an Engagement of Covenant-obligation we are his Covenant servants and therefore we are bound to serve him if we run away from him we are Covenant-breakers with him Indeed we that are born of those that are in Covenant with him are born his Covenant-servants in a sense For such as the condition of the Parent is Beloved such is the condition of the child as to outward priviledge and as to outward duty too And hence it is perhaps that David saith to God Psalm 116.16 O Lord saith he I am thy servant My servant might the Lord reply Why how so why saith the Psalmist I am the son of thy hand-maid So we whose parents were within the Covenant were born to Christ in some respect for we were born within his family and so to outward view and cognizance belong to his houshold But this is but an outward thing some of us have gone further yet and made a Covenant with the Lord to serve him we were in Covenant all of us with sin by nature and so with death and hell we were at an agreement too But some of us have utterly dissolved that Covenant and entred into Covenant with the Lord Christ We are bound let us obey now we have made this Covenant with him we are the more engaged to serve him and the greater is our sin if we run away from him Use 3 Is God the Father of our Lord Christ The greater is his love to us that he should give Christ for us If he had given but a servant or a friend it had been much that he should part with either of them for an enemy but that he should give us his son his own begotten son to shame to punishment to death for us here is love and here is mercy with a witness The Evangelist me thinks knows not which way to express it and therefore leaves it to the largest heart and the vastest understanding to guess at it John 3.16 God so loved the world So how I cannot tell you it swallows up my apprehensions and expressions And therefore I must leave it to your selves to think of it and reach after it And truly my Beloved did we weigh it well in our advised and deliberate thoughts we should be carried out beyond our selves in an Extasie of wonder What my Beloved that when the Father had but one begotten Son by nature and one that was so well like him the very picture of his Father c. one whom he loved dearly in whom his very soul delighted that he should give him forth out of his bosom for such wretches as we are That he could not spare his Son that he might spare his Enemies behold what love the Father hath declared in this Here is love to be spoken of and to be wondred at in all ages And thus far of the uses of the former member of the point Proceed we now to make some application of the latter Use 1 Is it so my Brethren that as God is the Father of the Lord Christ So Christ did apprehend him as a Father and look upon him as a Father when c. Then let us also apprehend him so and look upon him so who are the sons of God in Christ when we come to God in prayer Let us present our supplications to him under the notion of a Father as Christ did Christ is in this respect our Pattern and Example whom we ought to follow We are required you know to be followers of Christ viz. in all his imitable actions and this is one of those actions We ought to walk as he walked and to pray as he prayed And therefore as his manner was to pray to God himself in this language to come to God as to a Father So he hath taught us also so to pray in the very same language to come to God as to a Father as he did Mat. 6.9 After this manner pray ye Our Father which art in heaven So that we have in this you see the Precept and Example of the Lord Christ his Precept in the cited place and his Example in my Text. And therefore let us learn this lesson of him since he is pleased to teach us both waies both by Precept and Example When we are making our addresses to the Lord in prayer let us endeavour to apply unto our selves the love and father-hood of God in Jesus Christ Let us not satisfie our selves with a general perswasion that he is a gracious Father to all his sons and daughters in the Lord Christ But let us strive for a distinct and a particular assurance that he is our own Father that he is so to us in special and that we are among the number of his children That we may look upon him so and confidently call him so when we are pouring out our prayers to him and so expect the love and mercy of a Father from him And to this very End as the Apostle tells us The Spirit of the Son is sent abroad into our hearts To what End Why to make us cry Abba Father Gal. 4.6 That is to make us pray to God as to a Father while others come to God as to a stranger with whom they have no acquaintance and to whom they have no relation So that you see we have not only the Precept of Christ and the Example of Christ but we have also the Spirit of Christ that we may pray in this manner And therefore in this Faith and confidence the Saints of God have prayed in Scripture So did the Church as you may see Isa 63.16 Doubtless say they thou art our Father though Abraham be ignorant of us and Israel acknowledge us
6.2 Bear you one anothers burthen and so fulfill the Law of Christ that is the Law of love for that my Brethren is the Law of Christ A new Commandment give I unto you Novum quia renovatum A new Commandment give I unto you that you love one another And what is love but the fulfilling of the Moral Law as the Apostle speaks And yet this same Apostle speaking of this Law of love calls it not the Law of nature but the Law of Christ Bear ye one anothers burthen which is a special act of love and so fulfill the Law of Christ So that the Moral Law you see my Brethren is the Law of Christ and therefore he is pleased to own it and to call it his Commandment John 15.12 to fortifie it with his own authority as in the Sermon on the Mount and to impose the precept of it on the people And that this Moral Law is universal and extends to all flesh appears by this that it is not imposed alone upon the members of the Church but on the very heathen too upon the Kings and Princes of the earth as you may see Psal 2.2 The Kings and Princes of the earth set themselves and the Rulers take Counsel together against the Lord and his Christ saying Let us break their bondâ— asunder and cast away their cords from us that is the Precepts and Commandments not of the Gospel only but also of the Moral Law Which is the Law of nature and obliged not the Jews alone but all the Nations of the world So that no marvel though they both conspire together to rid themselves of these bonds The Heathen rage the people of the Jews imagine the Kings and Rulers not of Jews only but of all the earth stand up and say Let us break these bonds asunder and cast away these cords from us These bonds and cords which are imposed and laid upon us all with which we all of us do finde our selves restrained and bound that is the Precepts and Commandments of the Moral Law So that you see Christ by his Legislative power gives Law to all flesh as to the outward man and to the Members He gives Law to all flesh as to the inward man and to the conscience The Law of Jesus Christ is Spiritual as the Apostle Paul tels us Rom. 7.14 not only in the nature of it but also in the subjects of it It takes hold upon the souls the spirits and consciences of men It captivates their very thoughts 2 Cor. 10.5 And herein Jesus Christ is singular and manifesteth such authority as no one exerciseth but himself It s true that men do oftentimes give Laws unto the outward man and to the members in politick and civil things and then they do it too as Christs Vicegerents and his Deputies they do it under him and by authority from him But it is Christ and he alone that gives Laws unto the Conscience in holy and religious things He delegates the former power to Magistrates who in the same respect are stiled the Ministers of Christ But this authority he makes not over to any of the sons of men And yet he exercises this authority over all the sons of men so that there is not one of them exempted from his Power As Jesus Christ hath a Legislative power so a Judiciary power As he hath a Legislative power to give Laws so a Judiciary power to execute the Laws that he hath given And this is universal too my Brethren as the other is As he gives his Laws to all so he executes his Laws on all flesh And therefore he is called a Judge very often in the Scripture I need not give you instances for they are known yea he is stiled the Judge of all and not alone of all that are alive but even of those that are departed and deceased as you may see that place for instance Acts 10.42 where he is stiled the Judge of the quick and dead It s true that other Judges in the world can judge the quick they can deal well enough with those that are alive but if they die they are gone out of their hands for ever But Jesus Christ is Judge of all flesh quick flesh and dead flesh Judge of quick and dead too Death cannot rescue men out of his hands no my Beloved he can pursue them to eternity and follow them into another world and there can execute the rigour of his wrath upon them to the very utmost And as he is the Judge of all persons so he is Judge of all cases All judgement is committed to him not some but all judgement Job 5.22 whether the case be manifest and open or whether it be hid and secret all is one Christ is Judge of both these and this is singular to Jesus Christ Men can do nothing in a case that is absolutely secret If a murther be committed and nothing be discovered any way no not so much as by a circumstance or by some grounds of strong suspition what can an earthly Judge do He knows the Law is broken but yet he cannot execute the sentence of the Law because he is not able to discover the Offender Now Jesus Christ is not to seek in such Cases To him all things are naked and uncovered And therefore he brings every work to judgement and every secret thing Eccl. 12.14 And the Apostle tels us of a day when God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ according to his Gospel Rom. 2.16 So that you see no flesh can escape his judgement let the man be what he will and let the cause be what it will Now this Judiciary power of Christs consists of two things in passing sentence upon all flesh in executing the sentence after it is past A word or two of these in order Christ hath the power of passing sentence upon all flesh All mankinde is under his authority in this respect and they must all appear before the Judgement Seat of Christ as the Apostle Paul speaks 2 Cor. 5.10 there to receive their last doom either of absolution or condemnation Sometimes he passeth sentence on them in the Court of Conscience here he sealeth up mens condemnation to them and makes it to become a certain thing They are condemned already in themselves and there remaineth nothing to them but a certain looking for of judgment as the expression is Heb. 10.27 And on the other side he sealeth up mens absolution he sealeth Pardons to the conscience This he hath power to do and this he doth sometimes on earth Mat. 9 6. The Son of man hath power on earth to forgive sins At utmost in the last and dreadfull day all the dead both great and small appear before him and receive a sentence from him either the one way or the other as you may see Apoc. 20.12 And as he hath the power of Passing so the power of Executing Sentence upon all Flesh All mankinde is under his authority in
the nature of Angels but the seed of Abraham for whom he never suffered and to whom he was never offered They will have something to excuse themselves withall something to plead before the Lord in the great and dreadful day Alâ—s may Devils say there was no possibility of our recovery there was no Mediator between God and us to purchase and obtain our peace there was no pardon tendred to us but you had the eternal Son of God to dye for you for you mankind to shed his blood and to lay down his life for you and yet when all was done and when he came and brought a pardon to you sealed with his blood and besought you to accept of it you even shut him out of doors you would not look upon him nor receive him you baffled him and dodged with him Ah my beloved what heart if it be truly touched can hold from breaking under the sight and sense of such abominable and prodigious wickedness as this is And as the sin is great so in the second place the misery and condemnation will be great also There will be no avoiding of it for how shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation Heb. 2.3 There will be no enduring of it it will be infinitely heavy it will be easier for Turks and Pagans in the day of judgement then for such wretches Alas poor souls that as if their condemnation were not deep enough already the incarnation and the passion and the offer of a Saviour the richest mercies in themselves that ever were bestowed upon the Creature should accidentally encrease it That Christ should die and shed his blood to sink men deeper into hell then if he had not died at all for this is the event and issue of it this is a lamentable thing indeed The second sort of such as stoop not to the authority of Jesus Christ and to his Legislative power are such as violate the Law of Love I mean the Moral Law the decalogue the ten Commandments for that my Brethren is the Law of love And therefore the Apostle tels us that love is the fulfilling of the Law he means apparently the Moral Law Rom. 13.10 and he that loveth another hath fulfilled the Law see the eighth verse of that chapter in which respect our Saviour Christ himself divides the Law into these two Commandments Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and the neighbour as thy self what then it may be you will say Doth Christ by his authority impose the moral Law on men the ten Commandments of the Decalogue The Law of faith is his indeed but is the Law of works his too Yes the Law of works is his for he requireth works as well as faith And the faith which he bestows upon his members works by love And love is his own commandment so he cals it John 15.12 This is my Commandment that ye love one another Indeed he rules his Subjects by the Moral Law that is the precepts and commandments of it are the Statutes of his Kingdom It s true when it was first delivered to Adam in the state of innocency it came to him but in the hand of the Creator only But it comes to us my Brethren in the hands of the Redeemer and of the Mediator Jesus Christ who was typified by Moses at the delivery of the Law the second time upon Mount Sinai Gal. 3.19 And hence the precepts of it are stiled not the bonds of God only but the bonds of Christ too Psal 2.2 Let us break their bonds asunder and cast away their cords from us The Gospel all men yield is Christs he is in a peculiar way the author of the Gospel and therefore it is called the word of Christ Now the Commandments of the Law are all of them revived in the Gospel The whole of what the Law requires is for the manner and measure of obedience exacted also in the Gospel there is no duty which the Law enjoyns but it is taught us in the Gospel The Gospel teacheth to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts and to live soberly and righteously and godlily in this present world Titus 2.12 soberly towards our selves righteously towards our Brethren and piously towards our God And these Particulars apparently involve and comprehend all the Commandments of the Moral Law from the beginning of it to the end There being nothing in the Decalogue the Ten Commandments interdicted or required but may be reduced to one of these three heads So then you see my Brethren not the Law of faith only but the Law of works too is Christs Law or if it be not Christs Law it can be no Law at all The Father judgeth no man but hath committed all Judgement to the Son And consequently he that violates this Law of works resisteth the authority of Jesus Christ and the power with which he is invested by his Father to give Law to all flesh And yet alas how many are there who live in the resolved and the constant breach of all the precepts and commandments of the Law of Christ who in their practice daily break these bonds asunder and cast away these cords from them who are not subject to the Law of Christ nor indeed can they be If it be pressed home upon them to bind them to the good behaviour and to restrain them from their sinful and ungracious courses they are out of all patience If the commands of Christ be laid upon them to hold them fast to duty and obedience and to abridge them of their carnal liberty if they be told they must no take their old courses but they must hear and pray and fast and sanctifie Gods holy day and live strictly they will be very much incensed The Law of Christ is too severe and strict for them it curbeth and abridgeth them too much and therefore they will shake it off from them And as the Lunatick who was restored by our Saviour to his reason brake all the bonds and cords with which they bound him so these unreasonable Creatures deal with Christs Law nothing will hold them to obedience Let him lay what command he will upon them they will surely break it that they may live at liberty and walk according to their own humours Yea sin in such by the Commandment becomes exceeding sinful as the Apostle speaks Rom. 7.13 Not by way of declaration for that is not the purpose and intention of the place but by way of Irritation When the Commandment labours to lay hold on sin to bind him and to chain him up then sin begins to lay about him to struggle for his libertie and so by accident to be the more sinful When we press home the precepts of the Law and urge them hard on wicked men as there are some that yield themselves up to the binding power and to the obligation of it so there are others that stand out against the Law and they are much the worse for it
of his people He had not been a Mediator he had not been a King as man but for his people They are the end of his Kingdom and of his power and hence the Execution of it is carried wholly and throughout with relation to the Saints All the authority he exercises is for them and all the judgements that he executeth are for them That which he doth as King and as a Iudge against the world is for them If he rebuke the great ones of the world it is for them as you may see Psal 105.10 He suffered no man to do them wrong but reproved Kings for their sakes and therefore he is called the King of Saints Apoc 15.3 True he is King of all the world his power is over all flesh but this Authority of his relates especially to his people He is peculiarly the King of Saints yea when he walks in ways of wrath and judgement and revenge towards his Churches Enemies he doth this as the King of Saints with relation to the Saints And hence those Sinâ—ers in the fore-alledged Text behold him in that act of pouring out the vials of his wrath upon the Beast they look upon him as the King of Saints And therefore they applaud him by no other name but this they pick and cull out this to magnifie him by They might have said Just and true are thy wayes O Lord Iesus O Lord Christ O Emmanuel or the like But they make choice of this Expression just and true are thy wayes O thou King of Saints To intimate that he did execute those judgments upon Antichrist and his Adherents not as King of the world so much but as the King of his people and for the better government the greater ease and peace and quiet of his people His aim was not so much at the destruction of his Enemies as at the relaxation of his Church He did it not so much out of hatred to the wicked as out of love to his people I deerly love my Saints whose King I am and they are not to be preserved in tranquillity and peace they will be always vexed and troubled and diisturbed unless I take this rigid course with such incorrigible wretches as these are The authority of Iesus Christ with c. must needs be chiefly for the salvation of his own people and not so much for the destruction of the wicked because the wicked might have been destroyed though he had never been invested with this authority as man but his own people could not have been saved The reprobate would certainly have gone to hell though all mankind had not been under the authority of Christ as Man and Mediator but under the authority of God only But the Elect and chosen had not gone to heaven It could not have been so but I make the supposition if it had been so So that his Father need not to have given him this power that wicked wretches might be punished with Eternal death that would have been done of course but that his own might have Eternal Life which they could not have had without Christ That other End had freely been accomplished and attained if Christ had never been incarnate if he had never been invested with this power as man the wicked had been damned But it was absolutely necessary to this end that the Godly might be saved that their Head and Mediator should have power to give Eternal life to them All the world had been destroyed they had been plunged in Eternal death if Christ had not been thus authorized to deliver his and save his And therefore this authority is put upon him by his Father that some might have Eternal life that he might give eternal life to as many believe in him The authority of Jesus Christ c. must needs be chiefly for the good and the salvation of his own people and not so much for the destruction of the world because he is invested with it by his Father out of love to mankind and that which is done in Love must needs be for a good end God did not send his son into the world and put such power upon him out of hatred to it but out of pitty and compassion to his own chosen God so loved the world that he gave his own son John 3.16 he did it out of much love and the End is answerable that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have life everlasting as it is added in the next words This is annexed you see that suits with love whereas if he had done it that unbelievers might be ruined and destroyed if that had been his main intention it had proceeded from another principle a principle of wrath and anger But this he disavows in the succeeding verse God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world but that the world by him might be saved And that God did not send his Son and give him power over all flesh out of hatred and displeasure but out of favour and good will and so by consequence his aim must be especially and chiefly at the good of his people The authority c. must needs be chiefly c. because he exerciseth this authority so long and but so long as they have any good to reap by it and when it is no further useful to his people he in some sense resigns it up to him from whom he had it And therefore certainly it is for them and their profit As long as there is an Enemy to hinder the good and comfort and salvation of his people either within them or without them he keeps this power in his hands to curb them and to keep them down And so as the Apostle tels us He must reign till all those enemies be under foot 1 Cor. 15.25 till they be utterly subdued And then when this is done when there is none to trouble or molest his people any longer when he hath past the sentence of eternal condemnation on the wicked and sent them packing unto hell and seemed to say unto his Saints These Enemies which you have seen to day you shall see them again no more for ever when he hath cast out every thing that offendeth that is offensive to his people and made an everlasting separation between the wicked and the godly when he hath cast the wicked into the Lake that burns with fire and brimstone which is the second death and given eternal life to all his people when he hath done them all the good that they are capable of and when there is no further use of his authority for their advantage he even yields it up to him that gave him power over all flesh 1 Cor. 15.28 By which it is apparent that he took this power upon him principally for his peoples sake Is it so that the authority of Jesus Christ with c. is chiefly for the Use 1 benefit and the salvation of his people This then may be one great encouragement among the
must have or else they are not capable of medling with the affairs and the negotiations of their master And therefore God hath furnished Jesus Christ with powers with ample and compleat authority for the Embassage he hath sent him in All power is given to him without any limitation You see he hath a large Commission and consequently what he doth concerning what he hath received in Commission is as valid and effectuall to all intents and purposes as if God the Father did it He hath not only set his seal to Christs Commission but he hath sealed Christ himself Him hath God the Father sealed Iohn 6.27 So that he came into the world with the stamp and with the seal of God upon him that all men might receive him as sent forth from him As God hath qualified him with authority so he hath qualified him with ability for the effecting of the business and the delivery of the errand which he sent him in He hath made him fully able to go through with it and to that end hath furnished him with a fulness of Merit and a fulness of Spirit A fulness of Merit to make Peace and a fulness of Spirit to preach Peace First as God hath sent him so he hath furnished him with a fulness of Merit to make Peace Made him able to the utmost to satisfie his justice and to obtain his pardon for his people For he is God as well as man in him dwelleth the fulness of the Godhead bodily God that his Merits might be valuable for us Man that his merits might be applicable to us Secondly as he hath furnished him with a fulness of Merit to make Peace so of Spirit to preach Peace The Spirit of the Lord is upon me saith our Saviour Luke 4.18 and by this Spirit he hath anointed me to preach the Gospel as it is added there in that place As he hath sent and appointed me to preach so annointed me to preach And therefore grace is said to be poured into the lips of Jesus Christ Psal 45.2 so that he spake as never man did Iohn 7.46 That some were astonied at his doctrine and all men bore him witness and wondered Luke 4.22 JOHN 17.3 And Iesus Christ whom thou hast sent Use 1 NOW is it so that Jesus Christ is Gods Apostle a Messenger sent c. This then may teach us in the first place to admire the mercy of the Lord both of the Father and of the Son in this business The mercy of the Father in sending Jesus Christ and the mercy of the Son in that he would be sent by him In both of these the grace of God is eminent to admiration Let us here observe and wonder at the mercy of the Sender There was rich grace in this that God the Father sent his Son into the world for our sakes He is his Son his only begotten Son a Son that is extreamly like him the very picture of his Father the express image of his person a Son that never did displease him a Son that he dearly loves in whom his very soul delights in which respect he layes him in his bosom next his heart as a choice and precious thing And yet this Son of his he is content to part withall in some respect that he and we might come together To send him out of his bosom and to dispatch him down into this lower world there to continue for a while that when he returned again he might bring us up with him Had God any need of us that he should send his Son for us Ah my Beloved he is self-sufficient there is enough in him to make him happy everlastingly without us But we must be for ever miserable without him And therefore it was nothing else but free mercy that made him send down his beloved Son to us Herein is love saith the Evangelist 1 Iohn 4.10 not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son Here is love and here is mercy to be spoken of and to be wondered at in all ages Let us here take notice of the mercy of the Son in that he would submit himself so far as to become the Fathers Messenger in this business Though he be man he is the Fathers fellow notwithstanding so he stiles him Zach. 13.7 Awake O sword against the man that is my fellow saith the Lord of hosts Though he be found in fashion as a man he thinks it no robbery to be equall with God every way as good as God Philip. 3.6 And was it not an admirable condescention that when the Father had a Message to dispatch into the world for the recovery of lost creatures Jesus Christ should say to him as once the Prophet in another case Here I am send me I am very well content to be sent of this errand Especially if we consider where and whither he was sent from heaven to earth yea to the lowest parts of the earth as the expression is Ephes 4.9 In a sense to hell it self From the bosom of the Father if not into the place into the state and the condition of the damned In which respect he saith Thou shalt not leave my soul in hell Psal 16.10 He was sent to make peace to reconcile us to his Father as you heard before in Explication of the point and this he was to do by the blood of his Cross as the Apostle shews us Col. 1.20 By his extream and bitter Passion by suffering death it self yea such a shamefull and accursed death upon the Cross accompanied with such ingredients as made him roar and sweat and faint under it And was it not a miracle of mercy that Jesus Christ should yield himself to be sent on such an errand as this is That he should willingly submit himself to be the Fathers Messenger in such a business We need not wonder that he whose love and kindness was so full of wonder should be called wonderfull Isa 9.6 But you will say perhaps Object that this indeed was rare and admirable mercy if Jesus Christ had willingly exposed himself to this for us But it seems he was constrained it was against his will For he was afraid of it Heb. 5.7 Yea more then so he prayed against it Mat. 26.39 Father if it be possible saith he let this cup pass from me To this I answer my Beloved Answ that Christ must be considered in a double notion and respect either as a private man or as a Mediator and a surety for his people Take him as a private man who had assumed a nature to which death was an enemy especially so bitter and so sharp a death as he was now about to undergo and so he justly feared it and declined it Take him as a publick Surety and a mercifull high-Priest and so he willingly submitted to it And this his willingness by reason of his Office was the greater because his will by reason of his nature could not choose but shrink from
it So that here was rich mercy Had he done it by constraint had he been enforced to it there had been no such matter in it I confess of admiration or thanksgiving The praise had then been due to him that forced him and not to him that was enforced But that he should go forth of such an errand willingly for our sakes that he should willingly expose himself to such a death for those who were not friends but enemies both to his Father and himself This was love as the Apostle Iohn speaks Love in the heighth and with a witness love to astonishment and admiration Is it so that Jesus Christ is Gods Apostle a Messenger c. Then be Use 2 you all entreated to receive him and to give him entertainment when he comes Do not reject and slight a Messenger that comes from such a one as God is you cannot but acknowledge that you owe so much to any one whom God sends as to give him fair quarter and to shew him all the kindness that you can Indeed the carriage of the world to Jesus Christ in this respect is very shamefull and unworthy The Evangelist observes it Iohn 1.10 11. that for the greater part he is neglected slighted and despised on all hands He came into the world saith he but they refused him they did not account him worth the looking after And why so the cause is evident they knew him not as it is added there in that place But yet the Jews a man would think who were his own of whom he came according to the flesh who knew the prophesies concerning him should have received and entertained him No for the greater number of them they were as bad and as averse as it was possible for men to be He came unto his own his own friends his own kindred his own acquaintance his own Nation the people of his own Countrey but though they were his own they would not own him nor embrace him He came unto his own and his own received him not Yea more then so it is observed with reference to them that God sent his Son among them and they cast him out and slew him Mat. 21.39 Now I beseech you my Beloved be not you like those men Since Jesus Christ is Gods Apostle and his Messenger since he is sent from God to you let him be received by you When he comes to your doors let him not stand knocking there till his head be full of dew and his locks with the drops of the night No open presently and let him in and entertain him with such honour and respect as is agreeable and suitable to him who comes immediately from God who is the Messenger and Embassador of the great God of heaven and earth And that you may the rather be prevailed withall I shall present you with a few considerations Consider Jesus Christ as he is sent forth from God so he is sent on your business The errand which he comes about concerns you and therefore you have cause to look after him If he were sent into the world about a matter that you had not to do withall and that concerns you not at all there were some colour that you should neglect him that you should leave him to be entertained by those whose business he is come about For what have you to do with him that comes upon a message to another man But sure the errand and the business which our Saviour comes into the world about is yours it is but reason that he should be entertained by you And as the business which he comes about concerns you so it concerns you for your good and your advantage It might be your business and yet it might be but a bad business such as you have no cause to hearken much after nor to give any welcome entertainment to him that is employed about it It might be for your hurt and for your ruine and your condemnation But Jesus Christ is not sent into the world at least he is not sent immediately and directly upon any such errand The Father disavows it and saith he did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world but that the world by him might be saved John 3.17 And so doth the Son too Iohn 12.47 I came not to judge the world but to save the world So that you see Christ is the Messenger of God for good to you He is not come to judge you and condemn you but to save you He comes not with a Writ of death but with a Pardon and a Pardon sealed with his own blood and therefore you have cause to bid him welcome He is sent to make Peace for you and to preach Peace to you as I have shewed you formerly The Spirit of the Lord is upon me saith our Saviour Isaiah 61.1 he hath annointed me to preach good tidings to the meek he hath sent me to bind up the broken hearted to proclaim liberty to the captives and the opening of the prison to them that are bound to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord. You see the errand he is sent upon is all sweetness the message which he brings is nothing else but glad tidings of good things And therefore let his very feet be beautifull let his reception and his entertainment be answerable to his business Consider that the Father who hath sent the Son into the world expects he should be well received and entertained by you He looks for this at your hands that you should honour his Embassador and use him with respect for his sake Especially since he is not his Embassador in ordinary as he hath many such among you every Minister is so No my Beloved Jesus Christ is more then so he is the Extraordinary Messenger and Embassador of God and therefore he will have him entertained with extraordinary honour and respect And this is that which he suggesteth in the parable Mat. 21.37 Last of all he sent his Son saying they will reverence my Son He had sent many other Messengers before and they despised and abused them as you may see in that place But last of all he sent his Son the greatest and the best Embassador he had to send and said though they have slighted other Messengers of mine yet surely they will reverence my Son Though they have abused my servants they will not deal so with my Son it is impossible they should be so unworthy to despise my Son So that you see my Brethren when God sends his Son to you he looks he should be well received and entertained by you Consider that if you deceive his expectation he will take deep revenge upon you If when he hath dispatched his own Son to you you will not give him entertainment but shut the doors against him as it were and turn him off with a refusall it will fall heavy on you in the end It is such a base affront and high indignity to God and Christ as he
in the first place that he may be faithful and in the next place that discovery which he makes may be effectual 1. He makes a full discovery that he may be faithful as the Prophet of his Church For if he should not shew his Father to us fully if he should hide any thing of God from us which it concerneth us to know how should he be a faithful Prophet to us And even as if he should not make compleat and perfect satisfaction for us he should not be a faithful Priest So if he should not give compleat instruction to us he should not be a faithful Prophet Indeed his Father hath appointed him my Brethren to make known his Name every letter of his Name to his people and hence he gives him this account when he is even about to leave the world I have manifested c. 2. He makes a full discovery of his Father to his people that the discovery which he makes may be effectual For if he should conceal the least particle the least iota of his Fathers Name which is required to be known necessitate medii to salvation all the rest that he revealeth would be in vain it would be to no purpose If he make not a full discovery in the sense that I have said it were as good that he made none at all And therefore that he may attain the end for which he came into the world for which he executes his Mediatorship in all the offices and branches of it even the Salvation of his people he makes his Father so far known to every one of his that nothing may be hidden from them in the ignorance of which whosoever dies must perish Now is it so that Jesus Christ hath made an absolute compleat and Vse 1 full c. The less are they to be excused and the more to be condemned who yet continue ignorant of God of his Nature and his Will notwithstanding this discovery Though Jesus Christ hath done so much to make his Father known to them yet they continue wholly unacquainted with him They are meer strangers to the Father they do not know so much as a Letter of his Name which Christ hath made so manifest And this is very evident because they do not love him they do not trust in him which they would be sure to do if they did know the Name of God They that know thy Name will put their trust in thee saith the Psalmist Psal 9.10 And so it may be said as well they that know thy Name will love thee and they that know thy Name will fear thee It is impossible but mens affections should be managed and moulded by their apprehensions and that the principles which they have rooted in their understandings should have some influence and operation on their hearts So that if men did but know the wrath of God it could not be but they would fear him if they did know the power of God and know it as engaged for them it could not be but they would trust him and depend upon him If they did know the love and mercy the beauty and the excellency of the Lord it could not be but they would love him But while they shew forth none of this it is apparent that the Fathers Name of which these are but divers Letters as it were is utterly unknown to them Now my Beloved when the Lord shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty Angels in flaming fire to render vengeance unto them that know not God what will become of those men Alas their unacquaintance with him now Christ hath shewed his Name so plainly will be void of all excuse If Jesus Christ had kept his Father close if he had hid his Name his Love his Power his Mercy and the like and had not manifested it to men they might have pleaded something when the day of reckoning comes They might have said alas it is no wonder that the Father is unknown to us for which way should we come to be acquainted with him He dwells in light that no man can approach unto whom no man hath seen or can see But then Christ Jesus will be ready to reply it was a great part of my errand and my business down into the world to help men to the sight of him to manifest his Name to men And I have done it fully and compleatly and therefore if you know him not your sin is wilful and your damnation must be heavy Is it so that Jesus Christ hath made an absolute c. then let us bless Vse 2 and magnifie the Lord Christ that he hath done this necessary work for us that he hath shewed his Father and made known his Name to us We are all of us by nature strangers to him and of our selves we have no means to be acquainted with him Indeed by nature we may come to have some knowledge of a God as the Apostle speaks at large Rom. 1. But the knowledge of the Father in reference to Jesus Christ and to his people is another thing To know God as a Father to his Son Christ and in and through Christ to us to know him by this Name of his is unattainable by any light but that which we receive from Christ himself So that unless he had discovered him we had never known the Father and so had perished everlastingly No man knoweth the Father but the Son and he to whom the Son will reveal him Matth. 11.27 And therefore we are infinitely bound to Jesus Christ that he hath revealed him to us that he hath made such an absolute and full discovery of his Father to his people which if he had not done they had continued strangers to him both in this world and in that which is to come Indeed we might have known him as an angry and a powerful God we might know him as a Judge and an avenger without any help from Christ But as a sweet and gracious Father we had never known him if Christ had not discovered him in such a way and under such a notion to us This Name of his none but Jesus Christ could teach us we could have learned to spell and understand it of no other Master in this world And therefore we are bound the more to Christ and his mercy is the greater that he hath undertaken to instruct us and make us perfect in this sweet Lesson which is indeed the first and greatest in the Primmer of Religion the Name of the Father Vse 3 Is it so That Jesus Christ hath made an absolute c. Then let us be perswaded to address our selves to the performance of that necessary duty which this so large so ample a discovery of the Father calls for viz. To grow up in the knowledge of him and not to rest till we be inwardly and throughly acquainted with him That as the revelation of him in it self is very full so it may be so to us too Beloved Jesus Christ hath done
did endure And so it will do any of us in the like case This is the victory that overcometh the world even our Faith 1 Joh. 5.4 And therefore when we are so quickly overcome and brought to choose sin rather then affliction it is a sign we want faith By this you see there are too many who do not keep the Word of God in their hearts by believing Now I beseech you my Beloved as you would have this assurance that you are of the number of those that belong to Christ by the donation of the Father keep his words if you observe your Faith to waver or to fail in any point abase and judge your selves for it And that you may the better know how far to judge and how far to acquit your selves in this particular I shall give you some Cautions 1. You are not bound to credit every thing that is presented to you under the name and title of the Word of God To give a suddain and inconsiderate assent to all that the best Minister delivers to you because he teaches it and you are well perswaded of the man You may nay more then so you ought to try before you trust in this case Prove every thing saith the Apostle 1 Thes 5.21 and then hold fast that which is good It is observed of the Bereans that they were not so servilly addicted and engaged to any Teachers how excellent soever their endowments were as to receive upon their credit any thing that they delivered No their manner was to search the Scriptures whether things were so Act. 17.11 And yet it is notable that they are said to have received the Word of God with all readiness of mind for all this The Lord requires no greater readiness of mind then this in entertaining or believing any thing that is delivered in his Name that is to take it upon some trial 2. It is no sign of infidelity to move some questions with an aym at satisfaction concerning things delivered either in or from the Word If it be done with holy reverence and with an humble and sincere desire of satisfaction and instruction it is a very good course So did the blessed Virgin make a question concerning what the Angel had delivered to her Luke 1.34 A question not of opposition but of inquisition How shall these things be This way of making doubts and questions it seems was used in the Jewish Church and Christ approved it by his Example Luk. 2.46 47. So it is said of the Apostle Paul that he reasoned with the Jews out of the Scriptures Act. 17.2 And if such reasonings were more in use not reasonings against the Word but out of the Word there would assuredly be more faith then there is at this day 3. Nay though it be a sign of weakness it is no sign of utter infidelity to have some doubtful thoughts arising in our hearts concerning the most clear and pregnant Truths that are revealed in the Word of God David had such thoughts as these and yet he was a good man though this indeed were no part of his goodness Psal 89.19 37 38. There you have first the Lords assurance that he will establish David and protect him And at last he comes to swear that he will not lye to David his Throne shall endure for ever c. And yet observe how David faileth in the very next words but thou hast cast off and abhorred thou hast made void the Covenant of thy servant This was his great infirmity and yet you see it was not incompatible with grace It may befall a Saint to have such unbelieving thoughts as these provided that he pray against them strive against them and be humbled for them As David was when he had motions to distrust the Providence of God to question this great truth of God as Psal 73. this did so trouble him that at vers 21. he saith his very heart was grieved and he was pricked in his reins because he was so foolish and so ignorant And while it is thus with us we need not thereupon to doubt our interest in Jesus Christ But if we entertain such thoughts as these and bid them welcome when they come c. if we never pray nor strive against our unbelief nor grow up into any certainty in matters of Religion If we resolvedly reject the Word of God either in part or in the whole this is a very sad case If I speak the truth saith Christ why do you not believe me Joh. 8.46 And mark what follows presently ye therefore hear me not that is believe me not because ye are not of my sheep as I said unto you So that it is a formidable thing you see not to believe the Word of Christ It shews that men are none of Christs And therefore let us give assent to the whole Word of God the precepts promises and threatnings that Christ may own us that he may say concerning us to God the Father Thine they were and thou gavest them to me And thus we have dispatched the first and second branch of the discovery Proceed we to the third Have you kept the Word of God in your affections by loving it it is somewhat to remember it it is more to give assent and credit to it but it is most of all to love and delight in it And yet unless you reach to this you can have no assurance that you belong to Jesus Christ and that you are bestowed upon him by the Father The very Devils know the Word of God and think upon it and believe it too they are convinced of the truth of it and yet they are so far from loving it or taking any pleasure in it that they tremble at it They perceive it is against them they look upon it as an Enemy that speaks sad things to them and so they are afraid of it They fear it with a slavish fear and slavish fear casteth out love To say the truth the more they credit it the less they love it and the more they tremble at it And so it is in some degree with wicked and ungodly men They give assent to the letter of the Scripture they believe it to be true but they have no affection to it because it is no friend to them and their courses It crosses them in every thing they have a mind to and therefore they are at enmity with it and their hearts rise up against it they receive the knowledge and in some sort the belief but they do not receive the love of the Truth But you my Brethren must go further yet if you will clear your interest in Jesus Christ you must go beyond Devils yea you must go beyond the best of carnal and unsanctified men you must not satisfie your selves with this that you know the Word of God that you have it in your mindes that you are able to discourse of it that you believe it to be true in all particulars But more then so your
Scripture and never leave till you know the heart of it And this is that which the Apostle Paul insinuates Col. 3.16 Let the Word of God dwell in you richly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Let it dwell let it be a houshold-guest let it rise and sit and walk dine and sup and lodge with you let it be familiar to you Be you as throughly acquainted with it as any man that dwells in your house with whom you have discourse and dealing every hour And truly if you strive not thus to be acquainted with the Word of God you do not love it as you ought to do 3. If you love the VVord of God you will not easily fall out with it when you find the meaning of it and perceive it is against you in something that is naturally dear to you you will not quarrel with it your hearts will not rise up in enmity against it No your dear affections to it will make you quietly and meekly to submit to it Indeed ungodly men cannot endure the VVord of God the Precepts and Commandements of it are like bonds and cords to them they lay restraint upon them they curb them and they hold them in and hence they are enraged against it They endeavour what they can to break the bonds of God asunder they are always contradicting and opposing and gainsaying and raising quarrels and disputes against the Word because they hate it But now the Saints upon the other side are very much in Love with it and hence it is that the Commandements of it are not grievous to them they agree with their spirits they are written in their hearts Or if at any time it cross them they are not angry with the Word but with themselves that their base hearts should not in every thing agree with it Yea when it is a little sharp and bitter though their stomachs rise at first yet in the issue they submit and say as Hezekiah to Isaiah Isa 39.8 Good is the Word of the Lord which thou hast spoken They find a sweet and pleasing savour even in the sowrest passage of the Word There goes a savour with their knowledge of it as the Apostle Pauls expression is 2 Cor. 2.14 Carnal men may know abundance of the Scripture more then a pretious Saint of God but here is the difference they find no savour in their knowledg of it at least no sweet and pleasing savour No it is distastful to them it doth not suit with their palates it doth not fit their humors A Drunkard knows it is a sin to be intemperate to drink himself down to a beast A wanton and lascivious person knows it is a sin to be unclean but this doctrine doth not please him and so it is in other cases whereas the Truth is sweet to those that are in Christ they look upon it as their friend and love it because it joyns with them against their lusts who are their greatest enemies whom they abhorre and whom they hate with a perfect hatred 4. If you love the VVord of God you will hardly part with it you will not let it go from you if you can keep it any way by any means And much less will you go from it I have not departed from thy judgements saith holy David to the Lord Psal 119.102 for thou hast taught me Brethren there are a sort of men who have a kind of knowledge of the Word of God but they have no love to it and hence it is that they are easily withdrawn from it as multitudes have been in these times while they that have it dear in their affections are rooted and established in the present truth as 2 Pet. 1.12 They are not carryed clean away with every new opinion and conceit as others are They cleave unto the Truths of God with full purpose of heart They are setled in their judgements and resolved in their minds This is undoubtedly the Truth of God I know it to be so I find it to be so by sensible experience in my soul and to this I mean to stick even to the loss of goods and life and all I am resolved that I will not relinquish it what ever hazard I may undergo to hold it whatever Sophisters and slie Seducers object against it 5. If you love the Word of God you will be extreamly troubled when it is slighted and abused it will vex you to the heart to see it undervalued and despised You will be ready to reply in such a case The VVord is a good friend of mine one whom I love dearly from whom I have received much comfort And I am no way able to endure it wounds me to the very soul to see it used in this fashion Beloved these are times in which the VVord of God hath suffered much from wicked and ungodly men It hath been strangely scorned and contemned and even trampled under foot It hath been usual in these days of ours for men to speak against those things that are delivered from the VVord contradicting and blaspheming Now my Beloved how have such things as these affected you and wrought upon you what tears have they drawn from you what sorrow have they wrought in you how often have they sent you over-loaden to your closets there to open all to God It is observed by the Holy Ghost that when Jehoiakim had cut the roll in pieces with a pen-knife which Jeremiah brought him from the Lord and burnt it in the fire upon the hearth they that stood by were not afraid neither did they rent their garments nor manifest their sorrrow Jer. 36.23 24. Beloved some of you have seen as high contempt as this offered to the word of God though not in the same kind And truly if you have not rent your hearts at least if you have not been inwardly afflicted in your spirits and done what you are able to the vindication of it you have shewed but little love to Gods word By these things you may try whether you have kept the word of God in your affections by loving it and so have made it to appear that you belong to Jesus Christ by the donation of the Father Now in the last place let me quicken you a little to the love of Gods word That if you love it not already you may come to love it Or if you love it you may go on to love it yet more And to this end I shall desire you to take notice of how great excellency and admirable use it is to you as I shall lay it open in a few particulars 1. Are you yet in your natural estate the word of God is the means to convert you The Law of the Lord is perfect converting the soul Psal 19.7 Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God Sanctifie them saith our Saviour How By thy truth thy word is truth Joh. 17.17 That speech of Paul is apposite and full God hath chosen you to salvation through sanctification
interest is so far from being weakned and abated 〈◊〉 that indeed it is strengthened and increased by this means Vse 1 Is it so that all the people of the Lord Christ are belonging to the Father Then certainly they are most excellent and pretious people for he will never own vile things It is a frequent thing in Scripture that admirable and eximious things are said to be the Lords The hill of Sion the hill of God because the excellentest of all other hills Psal 68.15 The trees of Lebanon the trees of the Lord because the excellentest of all other trees And so the Saints the people of the Lord because the excellentest of all other people and surely that must needs be excellent which he owns And therefore let us learn to value them aright and as the Lord in this respect hath made them high above others as he speaks of Israel Deut. 26.18.19 God hath avouched thee to be his own peculiar people to make thee high above all Nations So let us have an high esteem of them let us not slight and disrespect them as carnal men are apt to do because they have a meer outside but let us look upon them as the Fathers as that which he peculiarly owns and that not as his ordinary stuffe but as his Treasure and his Jewels as they are often stiled in the Scripture And though they may be trodden under foot awhile by wicked men we may be confident the time is coming when the Lord will make them up as it is said Mal. 3.17 When he will make up his Jewels when he will take them up out of the mire and wipe them clean from those abasures that have lain upon them to hide their beauty and obscure their lustre and shew them in their brightness and their splendor to the world Is it so that all the people of the Lord Christ do belong c. Then let Vse 2 it be their care and their endevour so to walk and so to carry and behave themselves as a people ought to do who have such near relation both to God and Christ both to the Father and to the Son And hence the people of the Lord are exhorted to be strict and to be holy in a peculiar manner on this very ground as you may see that place for instance Lev. 20.26 You shall be holy to me saith the Lord. And why so For I have severed you from other people that you should be mine And so say I to you my Brethren you are the Lords own people and he hath severed you from others to be his peculiar ones Oh see now that you walk as it becometh those to do who are the Lords and that upon these two grounds For 1. The sins of those who are his own reflect with more disparagement upon him then the sins of others do He suffers not so much in the exorbitancies of other men that appertain not to him as he doth in yours and therefore you should be the more wary Oh let not wicked men have any cause to say of you as the Heathen did sometimes of the people of the Jews the only people of the Lord at that time Ezek. 36.20 These are the people of the Lord and they are gone out of his Land They carried and demeaned themselves so ill that he could not bear with them but he was fain to cast them forth out of the Land which he had bestowed upon them So let not wicked wretches say of you These are the people of the Lord and yet they are proud covetous worldly wanton loose c. Let not his name I pray you be dishonored and blasphemed by your means but think when you are tempted and enticed to any sin Whether it be fit for those who are the Lords own people to do such wickedness and sin against their God 2. As your iniquities who are the Lords dishonour him more so he will chasten you if you miscarry sooner and quicker then he will do other men who are further off from him this should make you yet more cautious that known place is home and apposite to this purpose Amos 3.12 You only have I known of all the families of the earth therefore I will punish you For other families that are not mine as you are and that appertain not to me in such a special manner as you do I shall not be so quick to exercise my Discipline upon them But you are mine own houshold and therefore if you do amiss I will be sure to take a course with you If God see many Aliens to him doing any wickedness he may bear with them long for it concerns him not so much to deal against them but if he spy out any of his own amongst them doing as the rest do he will be sure to single him and call him out from all the rest and say You are my own you appertain especially to me and what will you do as these vile abominable wretches do will you run out with them to the same excess of riot Come I must order you though I let the rest alone I must not suffer you in such courses Is it so that all people of the Lord Christ do belong c. Here then is pretious comfort for the Saints arising from the property and interest that God the Father hath in them For it they be his own and that in such a special and peculiar way as we have shewed we may be confident he will do very much for them and that in divers cases I will name a few of them 1. If they be his own the Father certainly will hear the Son for them he will be easily entreated for those that have such near relation to him If they were only Christs and not his this were enough to make him facile to the Intercession that his own Son makes for them because they appertain to one that is so infinitely dear to him But seeing they are Christs and his too this carries all before it and this is that our Saviour urges in my Text That those for whom he prayed and interceded did aswell belong to his Father as himself so that his Father was as much engaged to hear as he was to pray for them I pray for them whom thou hast given me for they are thine q. d. I hope thou wilt not put me off with a denyal For they are thine as well as mine whom I intercede for 2. If they belong to God the Father we may depend upon it he doth love them and love them very dearly too as those that are so near to him Property and interest is one special ground of love we use to love our own you know yea many times to dote upon them out of measure though there be nothing lovely in them And certainly the Lord hath very dear affections to his own too though they be black yet they are comely in his eyes His love towards them is so great that it covers many faults
and many blemishes and spots in them and the cause of all is this the near and special interest he hath in them this makes his love without measure and without end Joh. 13.1 Having loved his own to the end he loves them 3. If they belong to God the Father he will be very tender of their wrongs and this he will discover one of those two ways either he will defend them or avenge them First if he see it fit he will defend them and protect them from the wrongs of those that seek to be abusive and injurious to them They are his own and therefore he will certainly take care of them Beloved these are times of some danger and it is good to have a sure and safe keeper And verily they that belong to God are in a very good condition what ever alterations come upon the world how ever matters go he will be careful of his own he will not be so ill a Master to abandon them to ruine when they have most need of him Or Secondly if he defend them not from wrong as he may leave his own sometimes in the hands of wicked men for causes which he best knows certainly he will avenge them The property and interest he hath in them will engage him to appear on their side to take their quarrel into his hands and to render wrath to those that are abusive and injurious to them Especially if they make complaint to him and if they cry because of the oppression they are so near and dear to him that he cannot choose but right them Will he not avenge his own when they cry day and night to him Luk. 18.7 As who should say Do you make a question of it it is impossible but he should do it 4. If they belong to God he will provide for them Will he not find his people meat and drink and clothes and other things that are expedient for them Doth he keep so ill an house to let his Family lack bread Oh do not so dishonour him to have such poor and low thoughts of him it 's that which troubles many that belong to God of the meaner sort of people they are afraid that they shall want their charge encreases and their Trade decays and poverty begins to come upon them like an armed man and now their hearts are quite down they doubt their Master will not find them bread Oh you of little faith wherefore do you doubt Why do you so distrust God The earth is the Lords and the fulness thereof You are his who is the Lord of all the Earth and all the fulness of provision that is in it He feeds his enemies and will he see his own want Truly my Brethren if you have not such provision as you would desire it is because he sees it best to dyet you and knows that fulness and plenty of external things would not in any case be best for you 5. If they belong to God he will not lose them what do you think the Lord will be so wretchless that he will not keep his own No no he bought them at so dear a rate that he will know how he forgoes them His they are and he will keep them and however sin and Satan and the world are alwayes plucking at them to get them if it might be possible away from God he will hold them fast enough that none shall pluck them out of his hand JOHN 17.10 And I am glorified in them AND thus far of the first consideration that induced our Saviour to become a Suitor for his Apostles and Disciples to his Father The joynt relation which they had to himself and to his Father Before he pass on to the next consideration he addes a consectary that depends on this and flows from this the neer relation which they had to him to Christ himself All mine are thine saith our Saviour to his Father and thine are mine And what follows Since they are mine I am glorified in them And this addes strength to the Consideration upon which it is inferred and hath something in it farther to move our Saviour to be mindful of his Apostles and Disciples in his prayers because as they were his own so he was glorified in them Many times we are dishonoured in those that are our own and that have near relation to us more then we are yea more then we can be in those that are further off from us Christ is not so in those that appertain to him no he is glorified in them The more inclinable he is to tender them in his petitions to his Father I pray for them I pray not for the world but for them whom thou hast given me for they are thine and mine are thine and thine are mine and I am glorified in them And here the phrase our Saviour uses deserves our careful and attentive observation He doth not say I am glorified by them but I am glorified in them not by them in an active way but in them in a passive way q. d. any thing that is commendable and praise worthy in them tends to advance my praise and to set forth my glory I have the honor of any worth or excellency that is in them any way and that by reason of the near relation which I have to them and the interest I have in them They are mine and I am glorified in them So that the point to be observed is this DOCTRINE That Jesus Christ is glorified in all those that belong to him If they be his he is glorified in them even as the Teacher is glorified in the Scholar as the Master is glorified in the servant or as the head is glorified in the members so Christ is glorified in his people he is the great Prophet the great Teacher of his Church and if his people learn well if they thrive and grow in knowledge it is a Commendation to their Teacher he is the Lord and Master of his people and if his servants do well it is an honour to their Master He is the head of his Church which is his body and if his members thrive well if they have any beauty in them it is a commendation to their Head Indeed my Brethren if they were the Scholars of another Master the servants of another Lord the members of another head their proficiency and tractability and beauty were nothing to the Lord Christ But seeing they belong to him he hath the honour of any thing that is commendable in them To clear the point a little more distinctly to you Jesus Christ is glorified in all those that belong to him either in the present life or in that which is to come First in the present life he is glorified in their grace Then in the life to come he is glorified in their glory 1. In the present life he is glorified in the grace of all those that belong to him Their grace is his glory When they abound in faith and
in their judgements constantly agree they might be quickly brought if not wherein they err to change their minds yet to allay them so with humility and love that they should never break forth into bitterness against their brethren But while they have such a deal of pride among them while they are so alike in this regard it is impossible they should agree together 2. It is impossible even for the Saints to be in all respects at unity among themselves because as they are too proud so they are too selfish Herein they are too near alike easily to close together This is indeed the great make-bate it hath a special hand and is a violent eager stickler in all the quarrels that are driven to and fro among men From hence it is that men are so inflexible and so extremly stiff in their opinions that they will abate nothing nor yield to nothing for quietness and peace sake it is their love not to the truth but to themselves it is their self-self-love And so it is the selfishness of men that makes them so intent upon their own things that they will have the utmost in a business and urge extremity of right and will not part with any thing almost to purchase pretious peace It is because they love themselves too well and because there is so much of this even in the Saints this makes it wonderfully hard for them to be at unity among themselves I might name other things in which they are too much alike to close so nearly as they should but these shall serve for that branch It is a hard thing for the Saints to live at unity among themselves because as there are some things in which they are too much alike So there are other things in which they differ overmuch so close so nearly as they should together For differences make divisions many times even among Christs Disciples And that you may the better look into the business I will shew you many things in which they differ many times which render a conjunction and a perfect union infinitely hard to be made and kept among them 1. They are of divers tempers and of divers constitutions and those will hardly close together As divers strings unless they be of purpose tun'd alike will not be unisons they will not be of one sound They may be very sweet apart but if you strike them all together they will make a discord So it is in this case some of the Saints are of a melancholy sad and others of a sanguine cheerfull temper The melancholy doth not like the cheerfull the cheerfull doth not like the melancholy Saint Or if he like him in his judgement he cares not to converse with him or not so much at least as with another because he doth not suit his disposition One Saint by reason of his constitution which grace doth never wholly alter is very hot and very active Another Saint is very cold and very dull Those two being so unlike will continually be disliking one another and it may be censuring so that it will be very hard to bring them to so near a close as should be between Christs Disciples 2. They are of divers stations and conditions in the world and in the Church Some are high and some are low some are rich and some are poor The high are ready to despise the low the low are ready to envy the high The rich are ready to despise the poor the poor c. One of them will be apt on all occasions to be perking at the other And this will make a perfect union extremly difficult between them 3. They are of divers interests by reason of their callings judgements opinions habitations outward substance and estates and differences will arise and grow from all these So that it will be hard to keep them quiet and to hold them close together Meum and tuum is the rise of all dissentions it is this same thine and mine that setteth men yea the best men sometimes together by the Ears This is my right and that is thine this is my place and that is thine this is my opinion and that is thine If the interest were one they would be one but sure it cannot be avoided but it will be so different in this world there will be differences now and then even among the Saints themselves It was upon the point of interest that Abraham and Lot fell out though they were both good men And it is noted by the Holy Ghost himself as one especial reason of the strange consent and harmony that was among the primitive Saints because their interest was one Acts 4.32 The multitude of them that believed were of one heart and of one soul How so They had all things common neither said any of them that any of the things which he possessed were his own The state of those times my brethren both admitted and required it and we see the fruit of it It is not so and to say truth cannot be so in our dayes and therefore it is much the harder to keep perfect unity among the Saints When once they shall come all to be in one place in one condition of one opinion and to have one inheritance and so to have one common interest among them all when God shall be all in all there will be no more divisions but in the mean time it is impossible they should in every thing agree together 4. They are of divers qualifications There are diversities of gifts saith the Apostle 1 Cor. 12.4 Now these I must acknowledge are intended to beget union But yet by accident by reason of remainders of corruption in the Saints they cause divisions While some are of more judgement and other some of more affection while some are of greater and other some of meaner gifts here are occasions I say not causes but occasions of dissention while some are supercilious and the other envious As soon as the Apostle layes down the distinction between strong and weak Christians Rom. 14.1 there follows disputation and division presently The one despises and the other judges The strong Christian is ready upon all occasions to despise the weak The weak Christian is apt upon the other side to judge the strong The strong slights and the weak censures and so there is a wofull breach of unity and peace among them By these things it is evident my brethren that it is a matter of wondrous difficulty even for Christs Disciples to be at unity among themselves And truly if we seriously consider how like they are in regard of some corruptions and how different they are in Constitutions Stations Interests and Qualifications we will not wonder that the Almighty power of God is invocated by our Saviour to effect it JOHN 17.11 That they may be one as we are AND this for clearing of the former member of the point It is a matter of wondrous difficulty for Christs Disciples to be at nearest unity among
that of the Apostle in the same case Rom. 9.20 Nay but O man who art thou that replyest answerest again disputest against God! All the objections that are made almost against the point in hand are against God too against his mercy justice power c. If you have any thing to say for God it is worth the hearkning to otherwise you have your answer Who art thou that disputest against God do but consider who art thou Vse 2 Is it so that God in his Eternal c. How should this make us to admire at the transcendent riches of his grace and love to us whom he hath chosen to salvation Paul makes it an especial aim of God in his Decree of Reprobation To shew the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy Rom. 9.23 And if we weigh it well we shall easily discern that it doth strangely heighten the exceeding love of God Had he ordained all men to salvation even so his mercy had been out of measure great But that he hath ordained any of us to salvation when on the contrary he hath ordained so many millions to destruction whose state in Nature was no worse then ours whose strength in nature was as great as ours to exempt them from damnation whose care to be reconciled was no less then ours till God was pleased in mercy to prevent us how should this sweeten the favour of the Lord to us in this respect and even ravish us with admiration of his free grace The Lord delights to amplifie his love by this He took not Angels but the seed of Abraham Heb. 2.16 Was not Esau Jacobs brother saith the Lord Yet I loved Jacob and I hated Esau Mal. 1.2 3. Whose soul that hath tasted of it can choose but be amazed at it Hath God preferred me before Angels before so many thousands in the world Oh the unsearchable depth of his love to me How doth it pass all knowledge JOHN 17.12 That the Scripture might be fulfilled AND thus of our Saviours general assertion that he had safely and entirely kept all those that were bestowed upon him by his Father While I was with them in the world I kept them in thy Name those thou gavest me I kept and none of them lost And likewise of his particular exception of Judas who here is called the son of perdition None of them is lost but the son of perdition Now in the following words that none might be offended at the loss of Judas or stumble at his ruine and destruction our Saviour Christ goes on to shew that as it was designed and fore-appointed in the eternal Councel and Decree of God so it was fore-told in Scripture It was not only fore-ordained but it was fore-shewed too So that in his destruction there fell out nothing otherwise then as it was expresly and apparently declared before in Scripture The Scripture was not crost and contradicted in it but verified and fulfilled None of them is lost but the son of perdition that the Scripture might be fulfilled But you will ask me what Scripture where did the Word of God foretel the ruine and destruction of this wretched man I answer David prophesied clearly and expresly of it many hundred years before Psal 109.8 Let Satan stand at his right hand When he shall be judged let him be condemned and let his prayer become sin Let his days be few and let another take his office Judas you know was self-condemned and self-executed too and so his days were few by that means And when he had destroyed himself his place and Office of Apostleship was supplyed by another But you will say perhaps Judas is not named by David in the fore-alleadged Psalm And therefore though the prophesie seem to agree to him and his condition yet how are we assured that he is aimed at in particular in that prediction Why my Beloved though the Prophet David do not name him the Apostle Peter doth apply that Scripture to him Act. 1.20 For having said in the fore-going verses This Scripture must have been fulfilled which the Holy Ghost by David spake before concerning Judas He comes at length to this in the alledged verse For it is written in the Book of Psalms Let his habitation be desolate and let no man dwell therein and his Bishoprick or Charge or Office 〈◊〉 another take so that when he was lost and fell from his Apostleship yâ—â— see that Scripture was fulfilled And yet you must not apprehend the loss of Iudas to be caused by that praediction as if the Prophesie concerning him did really contribute any thing by way of active operation and efficiencie to his destruction Though I acknowledge the expression of my Text may seem to look a little that way None of them is lost but the son of perdition And he is lost that the Scripture might be fulfilled But you must know my Brethren that he had been lost though his destruction had never been foretold in Scripture He was not lost the rather because his loss was prophesied but it was prophesied because he was before from all eternity appointed to perdition And being prophesied when the event fell out accordingly it looked as if the prophesie had been the cause of his destruction So that the particle that as a very learned man observes upon the Text Iudas was lost that the Scripture might be fulfilled denoteth not the true but the appearing cause only Yet thus much it suggests withall which shall be our observation DOCTRINE That whatsoever is foretold in Scripture shall surely be accomplished and fulfilled The issue and event shall answer the prediction every way in all respects And therefore it is often noted not in my Text alone but elsewhere frequently that such and such things came to pass that the Scripture might be fulfilled as you may see that place for instance Mat. 2.14 15. Joseph arose and took the child and departed into Egypt That it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the Prophet saying Out of Egypt have I called my Son And after in the following verse Herod sent forth and slew the children from two years old and under Then was fulfilled that which was spoken by the Prophet saying In Rama was a voyce heard Lamentation and weeping and great mourning Rachel weeping for her children and would not be comforted because they are not And so in many other places the Apostles very carefully observe the punctual and exact accomplishment of the antient Prophesies and speak sometimes in such a manner as if things came to pass for no other cause but this because they were foretold in Scripture and that the Scripture might be fulfilled Whereas indeed they had been done though they had never been foretold because they were fore-determined only they would have us know that whatsoever is foretold shal certainly be done in Gods time It is easier saith our Saviour for Heaven and Earth to pass away then for one title of the Word of God to
be a Offring and a Sacrifice to God the Father Reason And it must needs be so my brethren for being God there was no greater power then his to master him and overcome him A man is never forced to any thing against his will unless some outward violence prevail against him which he is no way able to resist Now this was not the state and the condition of our Saviour his death was not inflicted on him by an excess of strength in those that gave him up to it His Father was not able to constrain him for he was God and therefore equally Almighty with the Father And men had infinitely less ability to overrule him and to force him to it and therefore it must needs be voluntary of himself and this he cleerly intimateth in that speech of his in the fore-alledged Scripture John 10.17 No man takes my life from me the meaning is no man can take my life from me and therefore it is added in the following words I have power to lay it down that is to lay it down of choice and free election so that I cannot be constrained to it and I have power to take it up again And certainly if he had power to take it up again when he had lost it then he had much more power to keep it when he had it and enjoyed it So that you see he was not neither could he be inforced to die but of his own accord he willingly and freely gave himself to it Use 1 Is it so that Jesus Christ did willingly and freely set himself a part to be an Offering and Sacrifice to God the Father The greater and the more unsearchable was the exceeding riches of his love to us and the greater cause have we to magnifie it and admire it Had he done it by constraint and had be been enforced to it there had been no such matter in it so no such cause of Admiration and Thanksgiving The praise had then been due to him that forced him and not to him that was inforced But this was love as the Apostle John speaks love in the height and with a witness this was unparalleld and matchless love that Christ should willingly and freely lay down his life for us Had his life been taken from him for our sakes this had been no great love but that himself should lay it down freely of his own accord here was love and here was mercy to be spoken of and to be wondred at in all ages What that he should abase himself that he should not be made obedient by another but that he should himself become obedient to the death yea to that shamefull and accursed death that he should willingly expose himself to such abasures to such indignities reproaches scorns and to such unsufferable tortures to such a heavy and intolerable burthen of his Fathers wrath and all for those that were not undeserving only but even ill deserving too that were not friends but enemies Oh let us stand astonished at such a mercy We need not wonder that he whose love and kindness was so full of wonder should be called wonderfull Isa 9.6 Is it so that Jesus Christ did willingly and freely set himself apart to be Use 2 an Offring and Sacrifice to God the Father Then let us learn of him my brethren as willingly if it be possible to offer up our selves our persons our estates our names or lives and all to him to suffer any thing for him again What my beloved did he suffer willingly for us and shall we suffer grudgingly and unwillingly for him did he consecrate himself to be an offering and sacrifice for us and shall not we on our parts consecrate our selves to be an offering and sacrifice for him if he shall call us thereunto did he give himself for us and shall not we as readily give our selves for him again did he take up his Cross and go before and shall not we take up our Crosses too and follow him I do not say we should draw Crosses and afflictions on our selves but if they come upon us for our Saviours sake we should not take them as inforced upon us but we should freely set our shoulders to them and cheerfully submit our selves to bear them And thus far of the first conclusion mentioned The second followeth DOCTRINE 2. Christ did not set himself apart to be an Offring and a Sacrifice to God the Father for his own sake but for his peoples sakes and that to this end that they might be sanctified by this means Not that they might be justified only but that they might be sanctified also He did not do it for his own sake for there was no sin in him and so in that respect he need not to be made a Sacrifice for sin There was no transgression in him and why then should there be an expiation for him But it was for his peoples sake To say the truth all that he did all that he suffered was for their sakes For their sakes he became man for their sakes he became Mediator between God and man for their sakes he became a King a Prophet and a Priest And as a Priest so a sacrifice and offring to the Father for he offered up himself All was for their sakes And that to this end that they might be sanctified by this means Not only that they might be justified but that they might be sanctified also That which was the scope and aim of Gods election Ephes 1.4 He hath chosen us in him that is in Christ to this end that we might be holy and unblameable before him of Gods Vocation 1 Thess 4.7 he hath not called us to uncleanness but to holiness The same my brethren was the end of Christs redemption He sanctified himself that is he set himself apart to be a Sacrifice to God the Father for his peoples sakes that they also might be sanctified as you have it in the Text. He loved his Church and out of the abundance of this love of his he gave himself for her as the Apostle speaks Ephes 5.25 What that he might redeem and justifie her only No my beloved more then this that he might sanctifie and cleanse her too through the washing of Water by the word and that he might present her to himself a glorious Church not having any spot or wrinkle but being holy and without blemish He bare our sins in his own body on the Tree that we being dead to sin might henceforth live to righteousness as the Apostle Peter speaks 1 Pet. 2.24 he dyed for us that we which live should henceforth live no longer to our selves to our lusts and to our ends but to him who dyed for us He hath performed the mercyes promised he hath remembred his holy Covenant he hath saved us from our enemies and from the hands of those hate us Luke 1.74 What that from henceforth we might be our own Masters and live at liberty and walk according to our
can teach us to love our brethren whom we see then much more none but he can teach us to love him whom we do not see and therefore let us earnestly beseech him to help us to take forth this Lesson 2. Let us endeavour to grow up in the knowledge of the Lord and as we know him better we shall love him more That which one affirms of Learning may be well applied to God Non habet inimicum nisi ignorantem He hath such matchless excellency and beauty in him that he that knows him cannot choose but love him Indeed while we are unacquainted with him the admirable worth and lustre that is in him doth not take a whit upon us The Philosopher will tell us that the judgement must be first of all convinced of the worth and value of a thing before the heart will close with it and the affections cleave to it Nec enim potes aut amare quem nescias aut habere quem non amaveris Thou canst not love him thou knowest not nor have him whom thou lovest not And hence it is that wicked and ungodly men love not God or Christ at all because they know him not at all Or if they know him any way it is not under such a notion as makes him beautifull and lovely to them Perhaps they know him as a Judge or an Avenger not as a Father and a Saviour And this is indeed the cause why the triumphant Saints in heaven love him more then the Saints militant on earth because they have a fuller clearer and distincter knowledge of him We see him darkly in a glass but they see him face to face And this is the reason also why we love not God so much on earth as we shall do in heaven viz. because we know him not so well here as we shall do in that place So that our love to God you see is answerable to our knowledge of him as we know him more or less so we love him more or less And therefore if we do desire indeed to love him more let us strive to know him more 3. Another means to grow up in the love of God is to have daily more communion and intimacy with him And this as I conceive it is a means distinct from that which goes before For it is one thing to know him and another to have communion and to be familiar with him We know abundance with whom we have no intimacy in the world No we know them too well perhaps to be familiar with them So we may have a speculative knowledge of the Father and the Son and yet may have no intimate acquaintance with them And this is very necessary to encrease love To kindle and enflame affection as the Philosopher observeth there must be Convictus crebra conversatio They must dine and supp together they must walk and talk together And wheresoever there is strangeness there can be no great love And therefore if we would abound in the love of God and Christ let us have more communion with them Beloved if we be not wanting to our selves we may be very much with God We may speak with him often in a day we may talk with him face to face in our addresses to his holy Majesty we may give him many visits he doth not interdict us but invite us to come and sup with him and be acquainted with him throughly once he is so pretious and so sweet a friend that we shall love him out of all measure 4. Endeavour to the utmost of your power to dispossess your hearts of the unlawful love of worldly things for this is incompatible inconsistent with the love of God If any man saith the Apostle love the world the love of the Father is not in him 1 Joh. 1.15 Let him be what he will my Brethren if he love the world he loves not God And therefore ler not any covetous and wretched worldling make shew of having any love to God For certainly it is not in him The friendship of the world saith the Apostle James 4.4 is emnity with God And therefore if we would be friends of God we must dissolve this friendship with the world Inordinate irregular unlawful love of worldly things must be expelled And as this love is cast out the love of God will come in 5. Be often in the company and fellowship of those that love God Converse with those who are most endeared to him and they will be continually speaking of him and seting forth his excellency beauty love and so will kindle and enflame your hearts towards him They who are full of sweet affections to the Lord if you be much among them will work you to the same temper You may observe it in Cant. 5.10 and the following verses that when those daughters of Jerusalem who at first despised Christ and wondred why the Church his Spouse should praise him so and make such a stir about him yet when they had a while conversed with the Church and heard her speak of Christ with such affection admiring and extolling him above the skies they also fall in love with him and they will go together with the Church to seek him out Whither is Beloved gone say they O thou fairest among women whither is thy Beloved turned aside that we may seek him with thee And thus you see my Brethren frequent intercourse and holy conference with those that love God is one effectual means to fill and to enflame our hearts with love to him 6. Labour to comprehend with all the Saints the greatness of the love of God to you and to assure it to your own souls It is not all the beauty and the excellency in the world that will allure us to the 〈◊〉 love one that we imagine doth not love us But if we see and be assured of the love of God to us this will kindle love to him and make our hearts to melt towards him When we consider with our selves what kindness he hath shewed to us what he hath done for us what matchless and unfathomed love he hath discovered to us this will raise our affections high to him again and make us even sick of love And therefore I beseech you strive to be more and more assured of this for at this flame you must kindle your fire Here you must fetch your little spark of love whereof the Saints are capable in this life from the love of God to you which being kindled in your hearts it will never leave aspiring and flying higher and higher still till it have joyned it self unto that infinite and endless flame from whence it issued and proceeded And indeed as Bernard very well observes we cannot answer God or Christ so well in any thing as love To say the truth we must not answer him in other things If he be angry or displeased with us we ought not be angry or displeased with him again If he condemn and censure us we
ought not to condemn and censure him again If he chide us we ought not to chide him again But if he love us we may we must love him again Yea he expecteth that we should return him love for love for he loves to be beloved Is it the will of Jesus Christ that true believers should be one in God Vse in the Father and the Son by sweet agreement and consent Then I beseech you my Beloved comply with Jesus Christ in this particular As God and Jesus Christ agree in every thing so do you agree with them Bring your mind to the mind of God and to the will of God that you may be of one mind and one will Have you no judgement of your own as different from Gods but judge of things as God doth Let his wisdom be your wisdom his reason your reason and his determination your determination Have you no wills of your own my Brethren but let the will of God be your will let it rule and order you Let your will be so melted and resolved into the will of God that as far as it is possible God and you may have but one will That he may never cross you and you may never cross him Consent to him in every thing if he say any thing true Lord if he do any thing good Lord Yea though it be against you in your ends and in your natural desires yet say as Hezekiah to the Prophet when he received a heavy threatning Good is the word of the Lord which he hath spoken Take heed there be no difference between God and you in any thing let not him say one thing and you another will one thing and you another But say you as God says and will you as God wills that so you may be swallowed up in God and that you may be one in him And to this end I propound three things 1. If God and you agree not every way in all respects you are out and not he And therefore it is best in all things to conform your minds and wills to his His mind and his will is always right and yours if they dissent are always crooked and oblique and therefore it is best to bring your mindes and wills to his and not to think to bring his to your own The Malon when he tries the wall that he hath builded by his rule and findes them not to suit together he doth not go and cut the rule and bring it to the wall but he goes and mends the wall till he have brought it to the rule So if your minds and wills do not agree with God's the fault is not in his but yours and therefore you must bend your minds and wills till you have brought them straight like his and not endeavour to make his crooked like your own 2. If God and you agree not every way as you are irregular so you are undutiful You are his servants and you are his creatures and therefore ought in all things to be ruled by him The Masters will must be the servants will in lawful things and therefore in the Civil Law the servant is accounted in the Master and not as a distinct person And much more the Creators will must be the creatures will He gives it being both the beginning and continuance of it and he that gives being may give Law to regulate the motions and the operations of the being that he gives and may not be contested with in any particular 3. If we agree not all in God our agreement and accord among our selves is worth nothing So far it is to be approved as it doth unite in God Then it is good and right indeed when as the Father and the Son agree together so we agree with both of them in the very same things If we be of one mind and heart in things wherein the Father and the Son are not of one mind with us it were better we did differ then unite for we unite not in a right center But if as we be one among our selves so we be one in the Father and the Son this is indeed a blessed union If Brethren so dwell together in unity that all of them do dwell together in this one God this is a happy and a heavenly conjunction And therefore I beseech you my Beloved let us look to this that as we all agree so we all agree in God and Jesus Christ Let us examin still whether our consent in any thing do meet and unite with theirs Let us see what their mind and will is and let us all accord in that together For though we be not one against another if God be against us all it is a very sad case The Apostle John makes mention of love in the truth 2 Joh. 15. Love in error is not to be accounted of but to be avoided rather but love in truth is very pretious consent in error is not to be rejoyced in but consent in truth my Brethren is a comfortable thing For this is consent in God who is so often called Truth in Scripture And if we so agree and so consent we may depend upon it we have Gods agreement and consent with us and therefore let this be our great care that Jesus Christ may have his will in this business according to his prayer in my Text That they may be one as thou Father art in me and I in thee that they also may be one in us JOHN 17.21 That the world may believe that thou hast sent me VVE are upon the matter of our Saviours Prayer for them who should believe in him by his Apostles word And there are two main things as I have noted formerly that he desires in their behalf First that they might be all one Then that they might be all in one place The first of these requests of his he propounds and prosecutes propounds it in the verse which we have even now insisted on That they all may be one c. And then he prosecutes it with divers arguments and reasons in this and the succeeding verses Whereof the first is taken from the furtherance that this neer unity of theirs would be to the acceptance of our Saviour in the world That the world may believe that thou hast sent me That they may all be one as c. Why so That the world may believe c. For Explication of the terms the difficulty lies especially in this viz. what sort of people our Saviour Christ intendeth by the world here For to say truth the world is taken divers ways I think more differently then any other phrase almost in Scripture Sometimes we find it used for elect and sanctified and sometimes for reprobate and unsanctified persons Sometimes we find it taken for believers and sometimes for unbelievers as I could give you instances of both these And when for unbelievers sometimes for those who believe not for the present but shall believe in after times sometimes for those who
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
wicked such as are given up to strong delusions and to vile affections and leaveing them to the hardness of their hearts to walk according to their own counsels but such as make them fit for the inheritance with Saints in light and work out for them a far more exceeding and transcendent weight of glory God the Father loves believers infinitely even as he doth love Christ his love is like himself nay indeed it is himself for whatsoever is affirmed of God is God And therefore the Apostle saith that God is love 1 John 4.16 so that if any ask Whether God love believers as much as he loves Christ I answer there are no degrees in that which is infinite He loves believers out of measure beyond measure and just so he loves Christ Indeed there are degrees in the effects and declaration of the love of God and this way it is certain God hath shewed more love to Christ then he doth to true believers and yet they share together with him in most of these expressions of his love to him They share together with him in his grace of his fulness they receive and grace for grace They share together with him in his glory as I shewed you very lately And as his glory is eternal so is theirs an exceeding and an eternall weight of glory God the Father loves believers under the same relations that he loves Christ and so in that respect it is the same love He loves them even as he loves Christ Doth he love Christ as his chosen and elect for so he calls him Isa 42.1 why so he loves believers too Doth he love Christ as his servant so he loves believers too Doth he love Christ as his Son so he loves believers too Nay to go beyond Relations doth he love Christ as himself because he is one with him so he loves bevers too for they are one with him in Christ So that you see it plain enough that God the Father loves believers even as c. And it must needs be so For Reason 1 He loves them in Christ Indeed my brethren did he love them as distant and separate from Christ then he might love them with another kind of love But since he loves them as in Christ and so loves Christ and them as one together not asunder but together both must have the same love As he that loves his friend cannot distinguish of the love he bears the head and the remainder of the body so Christ the head and Christ the body as the Church is called with Christ 1 Cor. 12.12 are both involved and wrapt up together in the same love He loves them not asunder but together and therefore certainly he doth not love them differently as to the kind of the affection but alike Christ is his beloved Son in whom he is well pleased not with whom he is well pleased but in whom he is well pleased with all that are in him and that are members of his body Whom he loves he loves in him and therefore whom he loves he loves as him even as he loveth him Reason 2 As God the Father loves believers in Christ so he loves them through Christ and therefore loves them as Christ His love goes through Christ to them in the first place he love Christ and then he loves them through Christ so that is the same for kind at least wherewithall he loves Christ He is the way from God to us the pipe the mean conveyance between God and us and that which he receieveth from the Father as Head and Mediator of the Church he conveyeth down to us The very same and no other The same grace which he receives from God the Father for himself and all his members he conveyeth down to them The same glory which he receives from God the Father he bestows on them as I have shewed you And so the same love which comes flowing from the Father into him he carries down to them too By which it is apparent that God loves believers even as he loves Christ JOHN 17.23 And thou hast loved them as thou hast loved me AND thus far we came on the last occasion by way of explication of the Point Proceed we now to the Application of it according to the branches of the explication in their order Is it so that God the Father loves believers as really and truly as he Vse 1 loves Christ This then should teach us in the first place to depend upon him in all cases and not to doubt him or distrust him who is true and reall to us It s that which we are very subject to when we are brought to streights and difficulties and distresses our hearts are shaken presently and our faith in God fails we are affraid that God will serve us as unfaithfull friends are wont to do when the time of tryal comes That he will leave us succourless in our distresses Oh my beloved I beseech you take heed how you wrong God how you give way to one suspicious thought of him who is so real in his love to you It is an injury of which he cannot choose but be infinitely tender and that the rather and the more because his heart is so unfeignedly endeared to us As friends who love us tenderly if we be alwayes jealous of them it troubles them exceedingly they know not how to take it at our hands so do but think how grievous it will be to God who loves us as he doth his own Son to be suspected still on all occasions and to have his love questioned And therefore seeing God is such a faithfull friend let us commit our selves and all our wayes to him and let us cast our selves upon him without fear in all cases Seeing he loves us really let us trust him perfectly And let us so behave our selves in all conditions that we may make it to appear that we rely upon him fully without the least suspition of his love to us Is it so that God the Father loves believers as really and truly as he Vse 2 loves Christ This then should teach us in the second place to love him truly and really again To be as far as it is possible as undissembled and sincere and cordial in our love to him as he is in his love to us Oh my beloved let us not answer true love with feigned love nor real with pretended love that would be an ill requital We all profess a great deal of affection to the Lord we say we love him but if he should examine us and sift us man by man as once our Saviour did Peter Lovest thou me dost thou love me dost thou indeed could we reply with him Oh Lord thou knowest that we love thee Thou knowest that our hearts are right to thee If God should ask us as Jehu did Jehonadab 2 Kings 10.25 Is thine heart right as my heart is with thy heart can you reply as he It is So you may think indeed and yet
you may decieve your own souls The Apostle speaks of some who love the Lord in sincerity Eph. 6.24 by which he intimates that there are some who do not so who love him hypocritically not sincerely whose love to God is like the love of many to their brethren in word and in shew not in deed and in truth and therefore it concerns us to examine whether the love we bear to God be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 without dissimulation yea or no as the Apostles phrase is Rom. 12.9 And thus far of the Application of the Point in reference to the first branch of the Explication of it Proceed we to the second Vse 2 Doth God the Father love believers everlastingly even as he loves Christ this then may cheer and comfort up the hearts of all believers who though they have had sweet experience of the love of God to them yet are inclinable to fear that it may be withdrawn again from them And surely there are many such who even waste and pine away themselves in such perplexed thoughts as these are Oh they shall never persevere and continue to the end they shall fall away at last from Gods favour and so they shall be lost for ever Now I beseech you quiet and secure your selves in this particular the Lord that hath begun to love you will persist to love you on to all eternity as he hath loved you from the beginning so he will surely love you to the end As he hath loved you from everlasting so he will love you to everlasting even as he loves Christ When he gives over loving Christ then and not till then my brethren he will give over loving you when he withdraws his heart from Christ the darling of his own bosome he will withdraw his heart from you too Believe it Jesus Christ and you must fare alike in this respect you must be hated or be loved together And therefore do not fear of falling from the love of God though you have many failings many imperfections in you do not doubt that they will cause the Lord to hate you No no the love of God is large enough to cover a multitude of them and none of them shall separate you from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord as the Apostle speaks Rom. 8.39 Observe it well it is a love in Jesus Christ he loveth us in loving Christ as being part of Christ we are involved and wrapt up together with him in the same love so that if our infirmities should separate us from the love of God they must separate Christ with us If God and we part God and Christ must part too Oh think on this my brethren when your fears of losing Gods favour are most prevailing with you and have greatest power upon you This take for all and rest upon it he can no sooner cease to love you then you can cease to love Christ Doth God the Father love believers infinitely even as he loves Christ Vse 3 Oh then what may you not expect from such love as this is A love that hath no bounds no measures What will not God do for you in all conditions and in all cases what will not God give you what will not God forgive you what can you want if God love you in this manner Let your hearts dwell upon the meditation of it especially when you are in trouble When penal miseries are desperate and extream when they are very sore upon you that you know not what to do Think with your selves Is it a likely thing that God will suffer you to perish or miscarry the God that loves you infinitely even as he loves Christ himself Indeed if he did love you only with an ordinary love you had some colour then to doubt that he might be regardless of you But since he loves you so unmeasurably as he doth how can you think that he will stand and see you sink away to ruine and not stretch out his hand to save you Suppose Christ were in your case if it were to be supposed that he were brought to such an exigent as you are how tender would the Father be of him how would his bowels yearn upon him how would he hasten to relieve him What is it thou saith God that are brought to such distress and art thou likely to be ruined and undone what thou my dear and pleasant child my own beloved son Alas I pitty thee I melt upon thee I will help thee presently I will not see thee to continue long in such misery as this is Why my beloved just as God would deal with Christ in such a case even so will he deal with you for he loves you even as he loveth him So when your sins lie heavy on you and you are even afraid that God will never pardon you your provocations are so many and so great you vex him every day and every hour without ceasing you do not give him any breathing time and therefore you are apt to think sometimes his patience will be out at last and you shall pay for all together Indeed my brethren if his love were but as the love of man you had ground enough to fear it For who is able alwayes to forgive injuries without number and without measure But since his love is infinite and there is no end of it it cannot be too narrow and too scant for you What may you not expect from an infinite love Oh my beloved I beseech you do not limit it do not set bounds to it do not think thus far the love of God may cause him to forbear us and forgive us but beyond this it will not go Ah my beloved if you be humble and believing souls it is a bottomless and boundless love to you it will go beyond all that you can think further then you are able to imagine And therefore do not cast away your confidence but roll your selves on this unmeasurable love of God in all cases Your sins are finite that is infinite your sins have limits that hath none Doth God the Father love believers under the same relations as he loves Vse 4 Christ doth he love them as his chosen as his servants as his children This then administers incomparable sweet pretious comfort to all that do in deed and truth believe in Christ The love of God to them is like to that he bears to Christ under all these three relations And this involveth blessed priviledges and carries high things in it as I shall shew you in their order Doth God the Father love believers as his chosen even as he loves Christ Then surely he will never cast them off again as he will never cast off Christ There are some whom God chooses out of a common love to common priviledges and advancements whom in the issue he rejects again he repents that he hath chosen them to such a dignity place and office and so he even casts them off again And
and the like and you receive them at the hands of God he gives you the desire of your hearts in these things Well now consider with your selves what use you put them to when you have gotten them and what bills you bring in What so much health and so much strength bestowed upon the prosecution of your worldly and ambitious projects and designs so much means and so much time upon riot and excess Item so much upon your pride and so much upon your lusts and so much upon the satisfaction of your malice and revenge so much upon Hawks and Hounds and Whores but nothing upon God his Cause or his poor distressed servants Are these the bills that you bring in to God and will you own them in the latter day Brethren by your layings out you may discover to what intent you have prayed for outward blessings whether to consume them on your Lusts or no And if that hath been your end the spirit hath not been your principle in these petitions If we act by Christs spirit we keep a constant course in prayer We do not pray by fits and starts as Job observeth of the Hyppocrite who hath not Christs spirit Job 27.10 Will he delight in the Almighty will be alwayes call on God No he will be on and off in this duty Our spirits are unconstant and unstable my beloved but Christs spirit is 〈◊〉 not so And hence it is that they that pray by their own spirits are so uncertain in the duty many times Sometimes their spirits stir them up to pray and sometimes they do not Though there be differences in this too for some mens spirits naturally are more ready and more fixed then others are And there may be other things as fear and strong conviction and the like that may hold some certain men almost to a continued practice of the outward duty yet it is very rare that he is constant who acts by his own spirit But now my brethren he that acts by Christs spirit is a steady man in prayer he can appeal to God as David doth Psal 40.9 I have not restrained my Lips Oh Lord thou knowest Christs spirit dwells in him he doth not sojourn in him for a time but he dwells in him as in his fixed and his setled habitation and he dwells in him as a spirit of supplication So the spirit of Christ is called Zech. 12.10 And hence it is that he is alwayes putting him upon the duty upon all occasions so that he is constant in it Christs spirit is at home still though ours be wandring many times even to the other end of all the earth And though Christs spirit seem to be given sometimes as a spirit of consolation yet then he will be present as a spirit of supplication He will set a Saint to prayer even when he seems most indisposed and averse he will not suffer him to lay it by and wholly to neglect the duty as is observable in David I said that I am cut off from before thine eyes saith he Psal 31.22 Nevertheless thou heardest the voice of my prayer Even then I prayed to thee when I was in that temper so in another place from the end of the earth will I cry unto thee even when my heart is overwhelmed Psal 61.2 And whence proceedeth this my brethren surely these prayers of all others flow from Christs spirit as the Apostle teacheth Rom. 8.20 The spirit helpeth our infirmities We know not what to pray for as we ought but then the spirit it self makes intercession for us with sighs and groans that cannot be exprest If we act by Christs spirit we come to God as to a Father we cry Abba Father to him as you have it Gal. 4.6 Because ye are Sons saith the Apostle God hath sent forth the spirit of his Son into your hearts And what doth that spirit there you have it in the next verse crying Abba Father So that Christs spirit if he act in us makes us address our selves to God as to a Father And that my brethren carries two things in it This spirit makes us come to God with the expectations of Children and with the affections of Children 1. If Christs spirit act in us he makes us come to God in prayer with Child-like expectations Expecting from him all the mercy pitty and compassion which a Child can look for from his own Father He makes us to approach the throne of grace with great assurance of audience and acceptance and success there commonly he doth this 2. But yet I must confess An hypocrite may sometimes have these expectations and a child of God may want them The Jews had Child-like expectations Jer. 3.4 they cryed to God Thou art my Father and wilt not thou that art my Father pitty me and help me sure thou wilt and yet they had no Child-like affections no care at all to please God and therefore it is added in the next words that they said and did as evill as they could But now my brethren he that acts by Christs spirit as he hath Child-like expectations so he hath Child-like affections or if at any time he want his Child-like expectations yet still he hath his Child-like affections Though he be in such a case that he is verily perswaded for the present that God will neither own him nor regard him nor look upon him as a Son yet he loves God still He hath a Childs heart to God even when he thinks that God hath not a Fathers heart to him Though he seem to frown upon him and to hide his face and to turn away his prayers yet he hath dear affections to the Lord notwithstanding all this And this appears by the trouble he is in at God displeasure it grieves him so that he is sick of love as the poor Church was Cant. 2.5 when Christ withdrew himself a while this was her grief I sought him whom my soul loveth I will go into the City and seek him whom my soul loveth I said unto the watchmen Did ye see him whom my soul loveth And so when God withdraws himself from such a one as is endued with his spirit the very soul of such a person loves him still when he is very much afraid that he shall never find God more that God will never shew him favour more when he hath lost his Child-like expectations yet still he maintains his Child-like affections JOHN 17.24 That they also whom thou hast given me be with me c. AND thus far of the manner of our Saviours prayer Proceed we to the matter of it And here we have the persons that he prayes for those whom thou hast given me And then the thing that he desires in the behalf of those persons that they also may be with me where I am As for the persons whom our Saviour prayes for you see they are described here by the Fathers giving them to Jesus Christ Let them be what they will in all considerations and
respects besides it matters not in this of what Nation Condition Station Disposition or Conversation for the present if God have given them to him his will is that they be with him where he is But then we must distinguish as we have done before of the Fathers giving to the Son The Father gives men to the Son either for outward Ministration or inward union and incorporation Either to be his servants or to be his members In the first sence Judas was himself given to the Lord Christ to be his Minister and his Apostle as Christ himself acknowledges ver 12. Those whom thou gavest me I kept and none of of them is lost but the Son of perdition Now they who in this sence are given to the Lord Christ to be his Ministers and Servants only not his members are not the men for whom he prayes in this place that they also may be with him where he is because he knows they are appointed for another place Judas was so bestowed upon him and yet he was a lost Creature The Father gave him to the Son and he lost him as you may see in the forecited Text never to enjoy him more But now there are another sort whom God the Father gives to Christ for inward union whom he bestows upon him for to be members of his body And they must needs be with him who are in him And therefore out of question these are they for whom he prayes Father I will that they also whom thou hast given me be with me where I am But where was Christ when he spake these words Why he was upon the earth he was here in the world what then doth he desire that true believers might be with him here Is that the aim of his petition No it is a higher thing for which he is Suitor here their being with him in a higher and more glorious place Only you must conceive him here to speak as his usual manner is as if he were in heaven already As ver 11. of this Chapter And now I am no more in the world So in my Text Father I will that they whom thou hast given me be with me where I am That is in heaven where I am to be and whither I am now going So that it is as if I were already there it being such a certain near approaching instant thing and in that place I would have all those to be whom thou hast given me by election and whom in thine eternal Counsell and Decree thou hast appointed to be members of my body Father I will c. So that the Point to be observed is this DOCTRINE It is the will of Jesus Christ that all that are his own by the donation of the Father shall be in heaven where he is There are two things in the Doctrine which I might prove clear in order before I come to Application First that there are some certain men whom God the Father hath made over to the Son that belong to Jesus Christ and are his own by donation from the Father Secondly that it is the will of Christ that they who are so his own shall be in heaven where he is There are some certain men who belong to Jesus Christ who are his own by donation from the Father And he gives them to the Son by his Decree from everlasting and by the execution of the same Decree in time This I do but mention here because it hath been largely handled on ver 12. Now for the second branch that it is the will of Christ that they who are so his own shall be in heaven where himself is you see it is the Suit he makes to God the Father in my Text Father I will that they whom thou hast given me be with me where I am that is in heaven where I am to be In heaven where I am already in my Godhead and where I am to be very shortly in my Manhood there I will have them to be also And for this end our Saviour Christ is gone to heaven even to make heaven ready for his people that so they may be presently admitted when they come He yields it as one special cause of his departure from his Apostles and Disciples when he was about to leave them saith he I go to prepare a place for you Joh. 4.2 When he entred into heaven and passed in to the immediate presence of his Father he took possession of it in our name and stead and left it open after him to all his members He hath in this respect prepared it for them that he hath made it ready to receive them And when they are ready too he will come and receive them to himself that where he is there may they be also as it is added Joh 14.3 And upon this account it was that the Apostle Paul desired to be dissolved because he was assured that assoon as that was over he should be with Christ Phil. 1.23 and so he teaches us expresly in another place that all that sleep in Christ Jesus shall be for ever with the Lord 1 Thes 4.17 By which it is apparent that it is the will of Christ that all that are his own by the donation of the Father shall be in Heaven where himself is But you will ask me Why will he have them to be there To this I answer that a man would think it necessary by reason of the union between Christ and them that seeing they are one they should be in one place But you must know my brethren that the corporeal and local presence of the parties contributes nothing to the union that is made between Christ and his members which is a spiritual and invisible thing and which no neerness in regard of place can further no distance in regard of place can hinder So that Christs people may be in him though they be not with him in the sence wherein I speak I mean not with him in the same place Their being with him locally in heaven is no way necessary to their union with him Or were it so the Saints on earth were in a very ill case Well then this cannot be the reason why Christ would have his people to be in one place with him that they may be one with him They may be this without the other But there are divers other weighty reasons of the Point I shall name a few of them Reason 1 Christ would have his people be in heaven where himself is because he hath a dear affection to them his heart is carried out exceedingly in love to them And more particularly and distinctly he loves them with a love of benevolence and he loves them with a love of complacency 1. Christ would have his people be in heaven where himself is because he loves them with a love of benevolence With such a love as makes him with them all the good that they are possibly capable of Now my beloved what greater good can be
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
Baptist Joh. 1.18 No man hath seen God at any time conceive it with the outward eye The Son of man who is in the bosom of the Father he hath declared him He hath discovered him in some respect to that eye because he is so very like him So that if you see the Son you shall see the Father in him the resemblance is so great that in seeing one of them you see the other And hence saith Christ to Philip once Joh. 14.9 He that hath seen me hath seen the Father also So that our Saviour both as God and Man is like the Father and so in that respect is fitted for his Fathers love And as there is Proportion so Propriety as he is like the Father so he is the Fathers own and therefore meet to be beloved of him Indeed there is an interest on both hands God is Christs God God even thy God hath anointed thee saith David Psal 45.7 And Christ is Gods Christ Psal 2.2 The Kings of the earth set themselves and the Rulers take counsel together against the Lord and against his Christ Indeed he is the Fathers Chosen the Fathers servant the Fathers Son He is his Son as God by eternal generation as man by union He is his in all capacities and under all considerations take him which way you will he is the Fathers So that no marvail though the Father love him and love him dearly too We that are men are wont to love our own yea many times we dote upon them though they have little lovely in them But Christ who is his Fathers own is altogether lovely so that he hath cause to love him And this for clearing of the first branch that God the Father loveth Jesus Christ Now for the second branch that he hath loved him from everlasting This is expresly taught us also in the Text Thou hast loved me saith Christ before the foundation of the world that is before time was As the time will never be when God will not love Christ So the time never was when God did not love Christ That place is notable to this purpose Prov. 8.22 The Lord possessed me in the beginning c. I was set up from everlasting c. I was as one brought up with him and I was dayly his delight Observe it well I was dayly his delight I you will answer he was so as God But how was he so as man Object How could the Father love the Son as Man from everlasting since he was not from everlasting God is one pure act Answ he doth not that in time as to internal immanent acts which he did not from everlasting Though things are past present and to come with us yet they are not so with God All things are present with him at the same time as Jesus Christ in reference to God and his decree was slain so he was incarnate too before the foundation of the world and so he was beloved as man and as incarnate before the foundation of the world and under this consideration he speaks especially to his Father in my Text Thou hast loved me saith he viz. as Man and Mediator before the foundation of the world Now is it so That God the Father dearly loveth Jesus Christ Use then surely it is ill with them that hate him and it is well with them that love him If God love Jesus Christ so dearly certainly he hates them that hate Christ and he loves them that love Christ 1. If God love Jesus Christ so dearly he hates them that hate Christ and he will surely be avenged on them to the very utmost The love he bears to Jesus Christ will stir him up to execute his fiercest wrath and to take most severe revenge upon them Believe it brethren God will not spare them in the day of vengeance he will shew no bowels of compassion to them who hate his dear Son Christ to whom he bears such infinite affection The more he loves Christ the more he will hate them that hate him and the more sharply will he deal with them But you ask me Are there any such that hate Christ and if there be Quest which way may they be discovered Some there are that hate Christ Answ and that not in Hell only the Devil and the damned ghosts there but on earth among men yea in the very bosom of the Church it self He is not hated only of a company of men that are but forraigners and strangers to him as the Heathen are for that is no such admirable thing that they that know him not should hate him but of his Citizens who are acquainted with him and who are under his immediate Rule and Jurisdiction Luk. 19.14 He is refused not of the Heathen people only but of divers in the Church and some of them of greatest note authority and learning there to wit the builders of the Church He is the stone which they that would be counted Workmen Master-workmen stumble at and set aside Psal 118.22 There be that live in opposition and hostility against him even where his Kingdom is set up he ruleth in the midst of his enemies as his Father speaks of him Psal 110.2 Where our Saviour hath a Church there the Devil hath a Chappel yea it may be a Cathedral I know thy works and where thou dwellest saith our Saviour to the Church of Pergamus even where Satans seat is Apoc. 2.13 Observe it well where Satans seat is that is where he is Bishop where he keeps his residence where his Episcopal Cathedral and his chair is Christ can never want his enemies where Satan hath such interest and such authority as this is Indeed the greatest Enemie that Christ hath in the world conceit it among mortal men is in the Church and that is Antichrist a Bishop too who hath his name from being opposite to Christ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as who should say against Christ He sitteth in the Temple in the Church as the Apostle Paul speak 2 Thess 2.4 There were false brethren in the Church of the Philippians who notwithstanding all their glorious protestations were enemies to Christ as the Apostle tells them plainly Phil. 3.18 and he tells it them with tears he was so much affected with it And surely there are many everywhere and in every Congregation who pretend much worship and submission and Ceremony and respect to Christ And yet such is the damnable hypocrisie and falseness of the hearts of men they swell with inward ranck or rage and hate against him It is not every one that calls him Rabbi Master as the false Herodians did that kisses him and bows before him and salutes him with Hayl Master as deceitful Judas did that is indeed a friend to Christ No men may make a flourish and profess they love the Lord and say that he is infinitely dear unto them and yet may be as real enemies to him and to his Kingdom as Judas that betrayed him the Judge and Officers
and people that condemned and scourged and crucified the Lord of glory And now my brethren Will you say to me as the Disciples to our Saviour when he told them that one of them should betray him Will you ask me man by man Is it I and is it I No I expect to hear you say It is not I. What I an enemy to Christ I defie it and they that are his greatest enemies will be as bold and resolute in the denyal as any other And therefore as our Saviour gave a sign to the Disciples by which the Traytor might be known so I will give you certain signs out of Scripture by which the enemies of Christ may be discovered First they that are willing to submit to sin and are unwilling to submit to Christ they are enemies to Christ I will a little stand on either branch of this mark They that are willing to submit to sin they are enemies to Christ 'T is true indeed men may be taken captive by it as Saint Paul was they may be forc't to obey it in some certain acts notwithstanding all their striving by the power of a temptation which they are no way able to resist and yet may be the friends of Christ they may unfaignedly and dearly love the Lord Jesus But if they render up themselves to any lust if they make a Covenant with it as being willing and resolved to obey it if not content that they are sold by Adam they sell themselves to sin as Ahab did they are enemies to Christ No man can serve two Masters that are contrary as God and Mammon Christ and sin for saith our Saviour He will love the one and hate the other Mat. 6.24 So then if you be servants voluntarily engaged to any sin as being willing to obey it in the lusts thereof Whether it be drunkenness or swearing or uncleanness or the like If you resolve it is a sweet it is a profitable sin I will not strive nor pray against it because I mean not to forsake it you do indeed hate Christ It may be you do think that you may serve a lust and love the Lord Christ too But you deceive your own souls for the Truth of God hath said it that he that loves the one will hate the other As they that serve Christ hate sin so they that serve sin hate Christ And for the second branch of this mark as they that willingly obey sin so they that are unwilling to obey Christ they are enemies to Christ You are my friends saith Christ to his Disciples if you do whatsoever I command you Joh. 15.14 otherwise you are not And hence he styleth those his enemies who will not have him rule over them Luk. 19.27 Observe it well he saith not simply Those that will not have me raign but those mine enemies that will not have me raign over them bring them forth and slay them before me If then you will not stoop to Christ and to the Scepter of his Kingdom if you will not have him rule you if you will not do the things that he commands you but are resolved to walk according to your own humors and though you are informed what is good and what the Lord requireth of you yet you hate to be reformed and pluck away the shoulder as the Prophet speaks and say with those rebellious wretches Psal 2.3 Let us break his bonds asunder and cast away his cords from us that we may walk at liberty and that there may be no restraint from any thing that seemeth good in our own eyes be not deceived for you are Adversaries of the Lord Christ 2. They are enemies to Christ that love that which Christ hates and hate that which Christ loves It is the property of near and bosome friends to will and nill to love and hate the same things and enemies are just upon the other hand and so it is in this case They that are in love with sin which is the thing the only thing which Christ hates are surely out of love with Christ They that love the Lord hate evil Psal 97.10 and I may say as well They that love evil hate the Lord. It 's true that such as love him may commit it but yet they have a strange antipathy against it they hate it with a perfect hatred and every false way they utterly abhor And hence it is that they endeavour to destroy it to crucifie it every day to put it to the cruellest and basest death and if they had it in their power they would shew it no mercy You would not use a Turk a Toad as such a man would use sin But when a man shall cocker it and stroke it and delight in it when he shall not endure to have it striken with the hammer or wounded with the Sword of Gods Word but shall be ready to do violence to any man that offers it a blow or gives it but an ill word the heart of such a person is not right towards Christ And even as they are enemies to Christ who love that which Christ hates so also they who hate that which Christ loves and that is holiness and grace which he cannot choose but love because it is a beam of his own light a gift of his own spirit a stamp of his own Image a part of his own fulness for of his fulness have we all received and grace for grace But you will say Who hates this I answer they that persecute and scorn and vex their brethren for their strictness and preciseness because they follow that which good is because they fear an oath because they run not out with them to the same excess of riot they are the men that hate grace For it is holiness and grace you see that is the proper object and indeed the formal reason of their hatred And they that hate their brethren for their holiness and grace which they have received from Christ by which they are conformable and like to Christ would hate him so much more then them if he should come and live among them by how much he is holier then they are And therefore let not such as say they could affect and like of such a person well enough but that he is so pure and so precise he will not do as they do pretend any love to Christ For certainly the same affections of spite and malice and reproach which they discover against such men they would with so much greater bitterness express against the Lord Christ if he were conversant upon the earth by how much he exceedeth and transcendeth them in holiness and grace 3. They that are friends to the enemies of Christ and enemies to the friends of Christ are enemies to Christ himself Be they who they will that close with those that live in enmity against Christ and help them in their opposition to his truth and to his cause and to his glory they can never love Christ No if they did
they could never side with those that are professed adversaries to the Lord Jesus and who endeavour to subvert and overthrow his worship and religion and destroy his people And certainly Christ cannot choose but take them for his enemies and use them like his enemies while they incorporate themselves with those that live in open opposition and hostility against him And as the friends unto the enemies of Christ even so the enemies unto the friends of Christ are enemies to Christ himself They that are adversaries to the Saints who are as it is said of Abraham the friends of God the friends of Christ must needs be adversaries to the Lord Jesus There is a Covenant and a League of love between the Lord and them and the league is not defensive only but offensive too he that toucheth them saith Christ toucheth the Apple of mine eye touch them touch me Zac. 2.8 Nay they are not alone in Covenant with him but more then so my brethren they are one with him And therefore they are called Christ 1 Cor. 12.12 For as the body is one and hath many members and all the members are but one body so also is Christ conceive it Christ in aggregate comprizing all the Church with him for caput corpus unus est Christus as Austin speaks the head and the body is but one Christ and that which is the name of Christ Jer. 23.6 This is his name by which he shall be called The Lord our Righteousness is the Churchss name too Jer. 33.16 This is the name wherewith she shall be called The Lord our Righteousness Indeed his people are the members of his body and he can never be a friend unto the head who is an adversary to the members Now if on triall by the former evidences you find that you hate Christ believe it God hates you The dearer his affection to his Son Christ is the greater is his hatred of the enemies of Christ The union is so neer and the love so infinite between the Father and the Son that God may truly say to Jesus Christ Do not I hate them that hate thee I hate them with a perfect hatred as though they were mine enemies And I will surely take a course with them I will bring them low enough Sit thou at my right hand there sit thou still unmoved and undisturbed till I have made thine enemies thy footstool JOHN 17.24 For thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world IS it so that God the Father dearly loveth Jesus Christ hence then it Vse 2 follows that as he hates them that hate Christ so on the other side he loveth them that love Christ The dear affection that he bears to Christ draws out his very heart to all those that love Christ And this is that which Jesus Christ himself teacheth John 14.21 He that loveth me saith Christ shall be loved of my Father Let him be what he will of what condition or estate he will never so poor and mean and despicable in the world if he do really and truly love me my Father loves that man and loves him dearly for my sake Nay saith the Father this man is my Sons friend he bears a very great affection to my Son Christ and therefore I must needs esteem and love him for my Sons sake I have alwayes loved my Son even from all eternity and that out of all measure and upon this account my love and my affection overflows to all those that love him Oh how should this prevail with every one of us to love Christ and love him dearly since God the Father will requite us to the utmost for all the love we shew to him all the love that we lay out on Jesus Christ he will pay us back again and pay us in the same coin We may depend upon it that we shall have love for love If we love Christ the Father he will love us And is the Fathers love worth nothing Ah my beloved it bringeth with it all the happiness and mercy that a poor soul is capable of And therefore I beseech you let us love Christ let Christ have our love that we may have the Fathers love And here to warm your hearts a little and to draw them out to Christ take notice of these few things 1. View him in himself behold him in the choiceness and excellency of his own beauty There is no spot nor imperfection in him in the very least degree He is fairer then the children of men Psal 45.2 then any of them all let them be what they will for they have blemishes but he hath none All the perfections in the world do meet in him so that there can be nothing added to him Indeed my brethren he is altogether lovely All others have their imperfections and defects something there is unlovely in them but he is altogether lovely And this is that which makes the Church so far in love with him She is taken with his beauty and the delicious savour of his ointments the sweetness of the graces that are in him Cant. 1.3 How is she ravisht in the contemplation of him Cant. 5.8 What is thy beloved more then another beloved say the daughters to her there What is he more saith she me thinks she is an end with that word Why have you no eyes to see He is transcendent incomparable and so describeth him from top to toe and then concludes This is my beloved O ye daughters look upon him this is he As who should say now judge you whether I have cause to love him yea or no. And therefore I am not ashamed to own it and if you meet with my beloved you may tell him that I love him yea that I am sick of love 2. Consider in the next place what he is to you what interest and propriety you have in him Why my beloved he is yours I speak this to believers only And this the Church and Spouse of Christ professeth often I am my beloveds and my beloved is mine and yields this as the reason of the high and dear affection that she bears him A woman you will say hath cause to love her own husband Now Jesus Christ is the husband of the Church she is his wife his spouse his second self she is called by his name We are thine say the people of the Lord the heathen are not so nor are they called by thy name So that the Saints in this respect are infinitely more obliged to love him then these that are without the pale because they have not such relation to him 3. Let the exceeding love of Christ to you draw out your love to him again Amor they say is Câ—s amoris And so let his love be a whet to you Consider he hath loved you and therefore you have reason to love him again This reason doth not hold on both sides we cannot say that we have loved Christ and therefore he hath cause to love us
For we never loved him till he loved us first the love began on his side But we may truly say that Jesus Christ hath loved us and therefore we have cause to love him For he prevented us with mercy and with loving kindness as the Prophet speaks and this should win our hearts to him We love him saith the Apostle in the name of all the faithfull 1 John 4.19 Why so what is the cause of this love you have it in the following words because he loved us first Our love is not the cause of his but his love is the cause of ours 4. Survey what Christ hath done for you and see if it deserve not at the least a return of love from you He hath made you that is little in comparison I mean all things were created by him Col. 1.16 but more then this he hath redeemed you from sin from death from hell it self You had been utterly undone and lost for ever had it not been for Jesus Christ But he hath saved that which was lost He hath raised you from nothing to a Kingdom from poverty to matchless riches yea from death to life it self we were dead but are alive all this is Christs doing We use to love them who have saved our lives and surely we have cause to love Christ for he hath saved our lives and that not from a temporal but from eternal death Not from the first alone but from the second death where the worm never dies and the fire is never quenched And therefore he is called our life that is the cause and fountain of it Col. 3.4 When Christ who is our life shall appear So that we may truly call him in the Prophets words the God of our life And therefore we have cause to make him the object of our love and wholly to bestow our hearts upon him to love him by whom we live the life of grace and look to live the life of glory Is it so that God the Father dearly loveth Jesus Christ The more Vse 3 it is to be admired and wondred at that he should use him as he did for our sakes That he should be angry with him that he should hide his face from him and forsake him in a sence that he should load him with such a burthen of his wrath as made him weep and cry and sweat and faint Ah my beloved what an admirable thing is this who can reach the utmost of it in his thoughts had he not cared for Jesus Christ had he born no affection to him it had not been so strange that God the Father should deal with him in this manner But that he should be so extreamly harsh to him in whom his very soul delights that he should handle him so roughly whom he loves so dearly whom he hath ever loved from all eternity this is an admirable thing indeed And that you may the better see the wonder of it the miracle of mercy that is in it let us consider a little more particularly and distinctly how the Father used him and for whose sake he used him so who was so infinitely dear c. 1. Consider how the Father used him who is so infinitely dear to him he gave him up into the hands of sinfull men to deal with him as they pleased There take the darling of my bosome saith the Father revile him mock him beat him spit upon him scourge him pierce him nail him stretch his limbs upon the Cross crucifie him kill him shed his blood take away his life from him wreak all your malice on him to the utmost and though he cry and roar I will not save him I will be far from helping him and from the words of his roaring as the expression is Psal 22.1 Though God doth love him infinitely he left him in the hands of vile men to use him at their own pleasure and they used him bad enough as you may see if you survey the Gospel story Oh the indignities reproaches and contempts that sinfull wretches poured out upon the Lord of glory In which respect the Prophet saith he was despised and rejected and men hid their faces from him as if they were ashamed of him Isa 53.3 I am a reproach of men saith holy David as a type of Christ Psal 22.6 and despised of the people all that see me laugh me to scorn Oh the abasures that he suffered from persons viler then the earth they trod upon and God the Father who so dearly loved him stood by and made as if he saw nothing Nay more then so he suffered much even from his Fathers own hands q He made him sin that is a sacrifice for sin and he made him a curse for us that there was nothing visible upon him for a season but the severest and feircest wrath of a revenging Judge as if he had been utterly accursed from his Father He scourged him most bitterly even till he blead and roared and sunk away under his hand Thus it pleased the Father to bruise him He spared not his own Son Rom. 8.22 Though he were his own Son he laid on and did not spare him He remitted not to Christ the least jot of those exquisite unsufferable tortures that were in justice due to our transgressions He drank off at his Fathers hands the cup of fury he drank the very dreggs and wrung them out All this the Father did to Jesus Christ and more then I am able to express and yet he loved him infinitely all this while and did from eternity and therein lies the great wonder 2. But secondly if we consider for whose sake the Father used him so who is infinitely dear to him the wonder will be yet greater It had not been so admirable had it been for friends but it was for enemies This raises and commends the Love of God saith the Apostle Rom. 8.10 that we being sinners yea being enemies he reconciled us to him by his Son He used a means by giving up his Son to shame to make up all the breaches between us and him and herein lies the quintessence of this business the sparkle in the jewel of the grace of God That he should prefer the good the glory the salvation of his enemies who lived in open opposition and hostility against him before the ease refreshment safety life of his own Son whom he so dearly loved from all eternity That he should rather choose that one whom he loved so exceedingly should die then they should be made a curse then they should undergo the tortures and the pains of hell then they justice resolves they must be undergone either by his beloved Son or his hatefull enemies It must and will be satisfied either by the one or by the other Well then if it must be so his dearest Son shall suffer and his enemies go free yea he shall suffer to the very death rather then they shall be punished saith the Father There go my poor harmless Lamb to
slaughter in their stead there go his blood and life and all He shall bleed and bleed to death that they may be healed and live Oh the narrow hearts of men how far short do they fall of comprehending such a miracle of mercy Well may the Angels wonder at it and desire to peep into it Yea the blessed Lord himself whether as wondring at or willing to make us wonder at this admirable business hath called the nane of Christ Wonderfull Vse 4 Is it so that God the Father hath dearly loved Jesus Christ from all eternity This then may serve for sweet and pretious consolation to all them that belong to Christ for they may be hence assured that God hath loved them from all eternity even as he did Christ For if you mark it well our Saviour speaks here of the love the Father bare him as man and Mediator as the head of his Church and so he loved him not alone but he loved his members in him and he loved his members with him Indeed he loved him as Mediator in reference to those for whom he was to make peace and loved him as a head in reference to those who were to be members of his body and as he had not been a Mediator and a head but for the working of their salvation whom God appointed thereunto so neither had he been beloved in that capacity and under that consideration but upon the same account and consequently if he were beloved as man and Mediator and head of his Church from everlasting his people and his members were beloved from everlasting too without whom he was no head They were designed to be members by the same decree by which he was designed to be head And as they were elected in him so they were beloved in him before the foundation of the world But you will ask me Which way doth this yield you out such pretious comfort that you have been beloved of God from all eternity 1. It is a comfort to consider that the great and glorious God of heaven and earth should think of such poor worms as we from everlasting much more that he should set his love upon us The world it may be looks upon us as not worth the speaking of as not worth the thinking of much less as worthy of the least respect And this it may be troubles and dejects us now and then But this may cheer us and encourage us upon the other side that God himself did think upon us yea and dearly love us too from all eternity when we had not a being in the world save only in the Counsel and Decree of God he made more of us then these men do now we have a gratious being 2. It is a comfort to consider that God and we have been such old friends that he hath loved us from all eternity For it is like the love will hold that hath been of such standing We have a Proverb Change not an old friend for a new because the new is like to be more fickle God hath been an old friend time out of mind And therefore he is like to be the more constant From everlasting he hath loved us and therefore we may safely rest and rely on his love 3. If God have loved us from everlasting then he hath loved us all along since that time Before we had a being in the world and since we had a being before we had a gratious being when we were dead in trespasses and sins And if he loved us then assuredly he will not cease to love us now notwithstanding all our unallowed imperfections and defects He will continue and go on to love us still till he have lodged us with himself in glory Oh how should this revive the hearts of those among the Saints who are so apt to doubt the love of God because they sin so often and so much against him Why man God loved thee when thou didst sin against him more then now thou dost he loved thee when thou hatedst him and therefore certainly he will not hate thee now thou lovest him No he that loved thee from the beginning will love thee also to the end He that loved thee from everlasting will love thee to everlasting and nothing in the world shall separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. And thus we have at length dispatched the body of our Saviours prayer and are arrived at the close or the conclusion of it In which his drift and purpose is to render his Disciples for whom he hath petitioned all along before very acceptable and very gratious to his Father and so to leave them in his hands And that upon this account because they only had the true and saving and affective knowledge of him They only were acquainted with him when as all the world beside were strangers to him And it was reason he should rather do for them then do for strangers Oh righteous Father the world hath not known thee but I have known thee and these have known that thou hast sent me and I have declared unto them thy name q. d. And now to shut up all and to come to a conclusion I pray thee Father to consider this for close of all That the world for whom I have not said a word in all my prayer nay for whom I have professed not to pray I pray for these I pray not for the world yet they the world are wholly ignorant of thee and unacquainted with thee But I that have put up this prayer to thee know thee very well no one in the world better And they for whom I have put up this prayer know thee too by my means for I have manifested and declared thee to them And therefore I am confident that thou wilt hear and answer me in their behalf None know thee in the world but I and they I that pray and they for whom I pray Remember that and I have done I say no more but even leave thee to consider whether thou wilt hear and answer me for them or no Oh righteous c. the world c. In this conclusion of our Saviours prayer I shall consider but these two things To whom he speaks and What he speaks for close of all First to whom he speaks and that you see my brethren is to God whom he stileth righteous Father Secondly what he speaks in the remainder of the two verses which may be very well divided by the subjects of his speech the persons that he speaks of viz. the world himself and true believers as we shall see at large hereafter Begin we with the person that he speaks to and him he mentions by his title and his attribute His title here you see is Father his attribute is righteous righteous Father As for the first of these my brethren I have shewed you more then once that Father in this prayer of our Saviour is not personally taken for the first person of
righteousness as a mighty stream that violently bears down all before it and will not be diverted from the Channel which it ought to run in As there is no respect of persons with God let there be none with you let every one receive according to his cause and according to his deeds When parties struggle in the bowels of a Nation when there are factions up as there are at this time there is a great temptation to unrighteousness in this respect one must be favourd because he is of such a party another must be rigorously dealt withall because he is of such a party though the cause of both be like It ought to be the care of Magistrates that in the execution of their Office they be not byassed that they be not drawn aside by such low considerations They must not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with the Delphian Oracle they must not speak or act in their Administrations so as to comply with any party as if they were afraid of doing that which will displease the strongest side which will not rellish well with those who may do them a displeasure No they must 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 judge for Christ and act for God and do as near as it is possible as he would do if he were in their places they must be just as he is And to encourage you to this Consider First This is the ready way to settle and establish and confirm this totering Nation when it shakes and when it is about to fall Justice upholds the pillars of it It is Columna corona Reipublicae There are at this time many things in agitation and many ways and projects thought upon to settle Government among us But when we have run through them all we shall find in the conclusion that nothing in the world will do it like to righteousness Let the form and let the frame of Government be what it will the Throne must be establisht by righteousness Especially when it is first set up Justice is as necessary to confirm a new Government as Miracles to confirm a new Doctrine And if the people find not this if there be tyranny injustice and oppression still that which made the old unpleasing will have the same effect and operation on the new Secondly This Righteousness in your Administrations will make you aimable in the sight of God as God himself is righteous so he loveth righteousness as he acteth it himself so he affecteth it in others The righteous Lord saith holy David loveth righteousness his countenance doth behold the upright Psal 11.7 Righteous he is in all his actings and administrations he is the righteous Lord so righteous and so just that there is none in that respect like him and that out of a principle of love within the righteous Lord loveth righteousness yea he affecteth it and loves it so that he gives no man a good countenance or a good look so much that is not just and righteous too his countenance doth behold the upright the upright and none else But as for those that are unrighteous he abhors them all of them without exception he hateth all workers of iniquity Psal 5.5 Thirdly As it will make you amiable in the eyes of God so you will find it to be very beneficial to your selves They are precious promises that God makes and great rewards that he gives to those that love and do Justice That is a signal one Isa 33.15 He that walketh righteously and speaks uprightly he that despiseth the gain of oppression and shaketh his hands from holding of bribes so that it any put a bribe into his hand before he be aware he shakes it out again and doth not hold it he shall dwell on high his place of defence shall be the munition of the Rocks bread shall be given him his waters shall be sure He shall have honor he shall dwell on high he shall be lifted up above his brethren He shall have sure protection his defence shall be the munition of the Rocks high that the enemy can never reach him and high upon the Rock that he cannot undermine him And as he shall have honor and protection so he shall have provision too bread shall be given him and full provision he shall have bread and water too and this shall be sure to him Bread shall be given him his waters shall be sure And as there is much promised to so there hath been much done for those who have laid out themselves in doing justice You know how Jehu sped and yet he did it in hypocrisie The Kingdom was continued in his line to the fourth generation Phineas it seems was more upright and therefore he had a reward that lasted longer Numb 25.13 He shall have and his seed after him the Covenant of an everlasting Priesthhod because he was zealous for his God to wit in executing justice on that notorious pair of foul offenders Indeed the recompence of him that doth it in sincerity shall last for ever For he shall dwell upon Gods holy Mountain he shall receive an Euge when the great day of reckoning cometh And thus far of the first conclusion God is a very just and righteous God I shall speak very little to the second because indeed it is not large however I shall touch it in a word or two DOCTRINE That Jesus Christ came to him as a righteous God and looked upon him as a righteous God when he was making his petitions to him You see it evidently and demonstratively in the Text this is the appellation that he gives him Righteous Father His thoughts it seems are taken up more with the righteousness of God then any other attribute of his at this time I shall not undertake to shew why he did so he had his reasons in his own breast and bosom Only this is probable he did it that he might be an Example and President to us that we might learn of him to do as he did That when we are approaching to the Throne of grace we might be very much possest with deep and serious contemplations of the righteousness of God Use And therefore to make a little application of the point Let us learn of Jesus Christ how to behave ovr selves when we are making our addresses to the Majesty of God and pouring out our prayers to him We are exhorted very often in the Scripture to be followers of Christ and so to walk and act as we have him for an example in all his imitable ways and actions his practice ought to be a rule to us and therefore let us labour to conform our selves to Jesus Christ in this particular when we are drawing nigh to God in prayer let our thoughts be taken up with meditation of his righteousness let them work much upon this attribute of his It will be very useful to us as I shall shew you in a few particulars 1. The meditation of the righteousness of God will humble us for sin and stir
he can There hath been an opinion vented up and down of late that any man that walks according to his principles according to the imbred light he hath let this light be what it will and of what kind it will he may attain to happiness and glory in the end And so by consequence that Pagans and Mahometans and Infidels of any sort may be saved if they please All men have light enough say they if they improve and use it as they ought to do to bring them to be atitude whereas indeed no man hath light enough to bring him savingly to know God Jesus Christ and he alone knows God immediately and others know him by the means of Christ So that unless he shew the Father to us unless he undertake himself to teach us and instruct us we must continue ignorant of God and so there is no other way but we must perish and be lost for ever Is it so that Jesus Christ and he alone knows God immediately and Vse 2 others know him by the means of Christ You see my brethren then what course you are to take if you desire to know God to be acquainted with the Father You must go to Jesus Christ for information and use his help in this business If you ever see God if you ever come to have the saving knowledge of his name believe it Jesus Christ must manifest it and declare it to you If he conceal the Father from you nay if he do not shew him to you you can never come to know him All other means that you can use searching in the Book of the Creatures yea in the book of the Scriptures hearing reading meditation will be unavailable unless Christ strike in with them When you have done your utmost you will die in ignorance of God and so be lost to all eternity And therefore I beseech you my Beloved betake your selves to Jesus Christ the great Prophet of the Church be his Disciples learn of him Tell him that he knows the Father as he professeth in my Text and so beseech him earnestly to make him known to you that you may also be acquainted with him Pray him as Philip doth Joh. 14.8 Lord shew us the Father and it sufficeth us And thus far we have seen to whom our Saviour speaks and what he speaks In the first place against the world and in the second place for himself and true believers Oh righteous Father the world hath not known thee but I have known thee and these have known that thou hast sent me They have been throughly perswaded that I am a Messenger and an Embassador sent forth from thee to manifest thy Nature and thy Will to them Now in the following verse he comes to shew that he hath been and will be faithful in the delivery of the message which his Father sent him in together with the reason of it First he declares that he hath been and will be faithful in the delivery of the message which his Father sent him in I have declared unto them thy Name and will declare it Secondly he shews the reason of it why he hath been and will be so That the love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them and I in them Begin we with the first of these in which our Saviour shews First That he hath been faithful then that he will be faithful as the Messenger of God First that he hath been faithful I have declared unto them thy Name But this is for the sense and almost for the words the very same that he had said before in the 6. verse of this Chapter There it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and here it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and so accordingly there it is rendred I have manifested thy Name here I have declared thy Name The phrase is varyed but the sense is one And therefore I shall wholly wave it here and pass from that which Christ hath done to that which he will further do of which he makes no mention in the former verse I have declared unto them thy Name and will declare it Whether this resolution of our Saviour to make a further declaration of his Fathers Name relate to his Apostles and Disciples then about him only or else to such as should believe in after times to the end of the world is all the difficulty in the words whether his meaning be I have declared unto them thy Name to those Apostles and Disciples present with me and will declare it that is I will declare it further to them to the very same men Or whether it be rather this I have declared unto them thy Name to them that are now about me and will declare it unto others that in after ages shall come in to me I have declared it unto these by my own immediate voyce and will declare it unto others by them and their successors to the end of the world As for my own part I see no reason why either of these Expositions should be laid aside seeing both of them agree with the Analogy of Faith and with the scope and series of the Text. And since it is most consonant to the accomplishment and execution of the Prophetical office of Christ to be continually teaching those that are bestowed upon him by the Father in all Ages Teaching them further whom he hath begun to teach and teaching other men anew to the end of the world But you will interpose and ask me Quest How can this be meant of the Apostles and Disciples then about our Saviour in the sense before expressed I have declared unto them thy Name and will declare it further to them since we have understood the first words of a full discovery If when our Saviour saith I have declared unto them thy Name his meaning be I have declared it fully to them as I have formerly explained it how can he add I will declare it further to them Very well if things be rightly and distinctly understood Answ In the first place our Saviour saith I have declared thee fully and compleatly to them as to all things necessary to be known of thee necessitate medii to salvation And here he adds I will declare thee further to them as to many other things that are yet concealed from them I have declared thee fully to them as to the foundation or to the fundamental knowledge of thee I will declare thee further to them as to the superstructure upon that foundation I have declared thee fully to them as to what I am my self to teach them with my own immediate voyce before my passion I will declare thee further to them after my resurrection when he continued forty days discoursing with them and further after my Ascension when I will send down my Spirit to them to teach them all things and to lead them into all truth So then the point to be observed is this DOCTRINE They that have the Name of God his Nature and his
God so it is in some respect the chiefest thing that comes from God It is a grace of the first magnitude and therefore it is placed first by the Apostle in that Catalogue of his Gal. 5.22 The fruit of the spirit is love and then joy and other graces It is an excelling gift and therefore the Apostle Paul to shew the matchless worth and the surpassing value of it admits a kind of Solaecism in his discourse and makes it better then the best of gifts 1 Cor. 12. ult Covet saith he and covet earnestly the best gifts And then immediately annexeth a discourse of love and touching that he saith I shew unto you a more excellent way Indeed it is of greater latitude then other graces it runs through every precept of the Law of God For love is the fulfilling of the Law and that no other grace is It is of greater power then other graces for it sets them all on work And hence the acts of other graces are frequently ascribed to love as 1 Cor. 13.4 c she hopeth she believeth c. It is of greater permanency then other graces then faith or hope And other graces without love are nothing as the Apostle shews at large in that Chapter 2. And as love is the chiefest thing that comes from God so it is the chiefest thing that conformeth us to God It makes us like him more then other graces do God is not said in Scripture to be faith or hope or patience but he is said in Scripture to be Love If we believe God doth not so if we hope God doth not so if we suffer quietly God doth not so Indeed he suffer not at all either by way of passion or compassion But if we love my brethren so doth God In this we do as God himself doth And therefore we may pray for this my brethren in another way then we may pray for other graces according to the pattern in my Text. We cannot pray to God Lord grant us that the faith which is in thee may be in us Lord grant us that the hope which is in thee may be in us But we may pray Lord grant us that the love which is in thee may be in us That the love wherewith thou lovest may be given down to us Vse 2 Is it so that the love which is in true believers comes from God If then we have the love of God in us let us remember whence it came and to whom the glory of it ought to be returned We can hate God of our selves but we can never love him of our selves So that if there be any spark of the love of God in us we may be confident that it was kindled at his fire And therefore let it be continually working upward upward still yea let it never leave ascending till it have joyned it self unto that infinite and endless flame from which it issued and proceeded JOHN 17.26 That the love wherewith thou hast loved me may be c. DOCTRINE 2. The Declaration of the Fathers Name to men is one especial means to work the grace of love in them IT is to this end that our Saviour makes it known as you may see expresly in my Text I have declared unto them thy Name and will declare it Why so to what end That the love wherewith thou hast loved me that very property may be in them That as it is in thee it may be wrought in them also And out of doubt the means our Saviour pitches on are useful and available to his ends Indeed men come to know the Father by the discovery of his name to them for so his name is all that makes him known to men And that which worketh knowledge of him doth mediately work love to him So that if the discovery of his name do make men know him as that is very manifest it doth make them love him too That which one affirms of Learning may be applyed to God Non habet Inimicum nisi ignorantem Whosoever knows him clearly loves him truly Indeed while we are unacquainted with him the admirable worth and beauty and excellency that is in him every way doth not take a whit upon us The Philosopher will tell us that the mind must be informed and convinced of the goodness of a thing before the heart will cleave to it or the affections close with it And hence it is that carnal and unsanctified persons love not God because they know him not Or if they know him any way it is not under such a notion as renders him desirable or lovely to them Perhaps they know him as a Judge or an avenger they cannot know him as a Saviour and Redeemer And this is the real cause why the triumphant Saints in Heaven love him more then the Saints Militant on earth because they have a fuller clearer and distincter knowledge of him We see him darkly in a glass they face to face And this is the reason also why we love not God with such a high affection here as we shall do hereafter because we know him not so well we have not such distinct and full discoveries of his name as then we shall attain to So then you see in general that the discovery of the Fathers name to men is one especial means to work the grace of love in them To clear it yet a little further to you I shall shew you particularly and distinctly that there are divers things in Gods name which being manifested and declared unto men are means to win their hearts to him and so to work love in them As The beauty of the Lord is a part of his name and beauty being manifested and discovered is a means to win love It is a great attractive of affection Now herein God excells my brethren in this respect he is incomparably out of measure lovely The greatest beauty in the world is holiness so it is often called as 1 Chron. 16.19 Psal 29.2 To shew that holiness hath beauty in it yea it is called Beauties in the plural number The beauties of holiness Psal 110.3 to intimate that holiness is full of beauty and that it over-matches all the beauties in the world if all of them were put together And therefore this is made in Scripture the greatest beauty of the creature as Sin is the deformity so Grace and Holiness is the beauty of the Soul it adorns the inner man And therefore the Apostle Peter exhorteth Christian women to adorn the hidden man of the heart with this 1 Pet. 3.4 Even with the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit which is of great price in the sight of God And hence it is that holiness is likened to the fairest things to Robes and Gems and Crowns and Gold and Jewels and the like Now God is matchless in this kind of beauty He is holiness it self yea he is infinitely holy And therefore holiness is called the Image of God The holiness that is in men is but
is by the Spirit and so it is explained by all Expositors with one consent where Christ is said to dwell in and be in us as such expressions are very frequent in the Scripture He is with us by his Spirit and in us by his Spirit as we are the habitation of God so we are the habitation of Christ through the Spirit as it is in Ephes 2. ult And as the Spirit dwells in us by love so Christ dwells in us by the Spirit so that where love is there the Spirit is and where the Spirit is there Christ is That is the first thing Where love is there faith is and where faith is there Christ is Where love is there faith is And therefore you shall find them often knit together and made inseparable in the Scripture Faith and Love I need not give you instances Virtutes Christianae sunt connexae as a Father speaks All saving graces are united and conjoyned they are made up together in a chain so that if but one link be wanting all the rest are useless If all of them be not united not one of them is in sincerity But Faith and Love have a more near relation one to the other then the rest have Faith to Love hath the nature of a Cause Love to Faith the nature of an Evidence Faith worketh love love proveth faith Faith without Love is a dead Belief Love without Faith is a frozen Charity So that where love is there faith is Now beloved where faith is there Christ is Faith takes in Jesus Christ into the soul and makes him to inhabit there And therefore he is said expresly to dwell in the heart by faith Ephes 3.17 And he received gifts for men saith David Psal 68.18 Yea for the rebellious also that the Lord may dwell among them And if he dwell among and in us by his gifts then certainly by faith which is principal of those gifts So that where love is there faith is and where faith is there Christ is That is the second thing Where love is there the Father is and where the Father is there Jesus Christ the Son is where love is there the Father is God is love saith the Apostle 1 Joh. 4.8 he is Essentially so as I have shewed you and consequently God and love cannot be separated each from other He can no more be severed or divided from it then he can be divided from his Essence And therefore the Apostle adds in the aforesaid place that he that hath the grace of love in him dwells in God and God in him So that where love is God is Now my Beloved where God is there Chist is For he and the Father are one and consequently they must always be together You are not ignorant that Christ and God the Father are often said to be in one another as in that place which we have largely handled in the 21 verse of this Chapter That they may all be one as thou Father art in me and I in thee As Christ is God the Father and himself are one Essence In that consideration they are so in one another that they are the very same The same Essence for so the union is Identical though not the same Person As Christ is Man the Son is in the Father and the Father in the Son by the union of the Manhood to the Godhead in the person of our Saviour for the Manhood being joyned to the Godhead in the person of the Son it must be mediately joyned also to the Father with whom the Son as God is one So that in both considerations Christ is one with God the Father and if they be one they must be together they cannot be in all respects asunder who are one So that where love is God is and where God is Christ is That is the third thing By this time I suppose the point is clear where love is there Christ is For 1. where love is there the Spirit is 2. Where love is there faith is 3. Where love is there God is Now is it so my brethren That where love is there Christ is That Vse 1 he is there and only there where love is for so it must be understood exclusively Then in the first place what a sad condition are they in who have not this love in them who have not love to God nor to his children Nay who indeed are Enemies to both who hate God and hate his people and that with a perfect hatred as multitudes there are of such my Brethren and that not in Hell only among the Devils and the damned crew but on earth among men who taste continually of the goodness of the Lord yea in the very bosom of the Church it self There were false brethren in the Church of the Philippians who notwithstanding all their glorious protestations were Enemies to Christ as the Apostle tells them and that with tears Phil. 3.18 And surely there are many every where and in every Congregation who pretend much love to Christ and yet do really and truly hate him It is not every one that calls him Rabbi Master as false Judas did that kisses him and bows before him that hath indeed the love of Christ in him No men may make a flourish and a shew of love to Christ and yet may be as hearty enemies to him and to his members as Judas Pilate and the Jews were And truly multitudes of such there are among us and every place swarms with them Now my Beloved in what a sad and lamentable case are these men For they that have no love in them have no Christ in them neither they that are without love are without Christ too And so they are exposed to all those matchless miseries which follow being without Christ such as no tongue is sufficient to express as I have laid them open largely to you on Ephes 2.12 Is it so my brethren that where love is there Christ is They then Vse 2 that find upon undoubted evidences that they have this love in them may take incomparable comfort hence For they may be hence assured that they have Jesus Christ in them If love be in them Christ is in them as is apparently suggested in my Text That the love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them and I in them If that be in them I shall assuredly be in them too and therefore I have manifested and declared thy name to them that love and I may dwell in them Ah my Beloved what an admirable thing is this that Jesus Christ should live in you as the Apostles phrase is Gal. 2.20 that your hearts should be his house in which he dwells and walks and dines and sups and lodges every night so that he is at home in your hearts that while he is a meer stranger to the remainder of the world that while they are so far from having Jesus Christ in them that they have the Devil in them Christ is not in them but