as they did in the Parable we have born thy name and we have been called Christians and have been accounted thine and wilt thou not acknowledge us and own us now And Christ shall answer them depart from me I know you not go get you over on the other side among the Goats I tell you you are none of mine Ah my beloved this will be a cooling and a killing word indeed Is it so that Jesus Christ is glorified in all those that belong to him Vse 2 Both in their grace and holiness in this world and in their glory in the world to come This then should be a motive and inducement to us to strive and labour after both these both after grace in this world and glory in the world to come both to be holy here and happy hereafter 1. This should quicken us and stirr us up to labour after holiness and grace that Jesus Christ may be glorified in us If grace were only advantagious to our selves and honorable to our selves as to be really and truly gracious is indeed the greatest honour in the world there were no such reason then why we should labour to attain it and abound with it For then you know we could have no higher aim then only to set up a poor Creature But seeing Jesus Christ is honoured in the grace and holiness and the obedience of his people Oh how should this enflame us with restless and unsatisfied desires of these things How should we covet and covet earnestly the best gifts and labour that we may excell in inward grace and outward obedience that we may set up Jesus Christ the more and that his honour may be the more advanced by us When we are seeking to the Lord for holiness and grace that he would give it out to us and give it more abundantly how should we press and quicken our petitions with this prevailing argument that Jesus Christ will be advanced by it and his glory more enlarged Lord give us more faith love hope patience zeal power against corruption strength to new obedience that Christ may have the more glory We seek not these things to promote our own esteem and reputation and that we may be some body among the Saints but that Christ Jesus may be all in all It is thy great design to glorifie thy Son Christ and this is the ready way to accomplish the design on which thy very heart is set if thou give us more holiness and more grace he will have more glory Thou wilt not honour us so much but Jesus Christ thine own beloved Son will be glorified in us And therefore we beseech thee set thy Treasure open to us and give us out a large share In such a manner the Apostle deals with God in his petitions in that memorable place to this purpose 2 Thes 1.11 12. We pray continually for you saith the Apostle there that God would count you worthy of this calling and fulfill all the good pleasure of his goodness and the work of faith with power That he would carry on that work of grace upon your souls till he hath brought it to perfection And why so to what end That the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you not that you may be honoured but that Christ may be glorified in you 2. And as this should stirr us up to labour after grace in this world so after glory in the world to come Since Christ is glorified as in the grace so much more in the glory of his people For glory is compleat grace and therefore Christ is glorified in that to admiration as we have shewed you formerly in explication of the point The Apostle speaks of some who seek glory Rom. 2.7 he means the glory of the other world as it is very evident by that which is joyned with it glory and honour and immortality and Eternal life And truly it is not unlawfull for every one of us to seek glory I mean our own eternal glory in the heavens because while we seek that we seek the glory of Christ in it It s that which troubles many of the Saints they think that they are scarce upright because they have so great an eye upon their own glory They doubt their own sincerity meerly upon this ground Indeed my brethren if your own glory and salvation went single and alone it were a greater cause of scruple But since the glory of the Lord Christ is comprehended and involved in it why should you not desire and seek it as subservient to the great and high end And therefore I beseech you my beloved under this notion have respect to it and draw encouragement and sweetness from it amidst the many heavy labours and bitter sufferings of this present life Look up man to the glory that is set before thee press hard towards it be diligent and patient in the expectation of it strive and labour to obtain it while thou considerest with thy self that when thou art glorified Christ will be glorified in thee And so in aiming at thy own glory do thou intend and seek the glory of Christ And this is that which thou maist do yea this is that which thou must do And therefore go on cheerfully embrace the promise that is yet afar of reach at the Crown of glory that is hung out to tempt thee and to toll thee on And let this animate thee most of all that when thou hast attained it Christ will be glorified and admired in thee He whom thy very soul loveth will have one monument the more of his own praise and glory unto all eternity And thus far of the first Consideration that induced our Saviour to become a Suitor for his Apostles and Disciples to his Father viz. the neer relation which they had to his Father and himself by means of which it came to pass that he was glorified in them The second follows now in order to be handled viz. the sad condition they were likely to be in by reason of the near approach of his departure from them to the Father and leaving them behind in an unquiet and malitious world And now I am no more in the world but these are in the world and I come to thee A dolefull and heart-killing word you must conceive it was to his Apostles and Disciples and now I am no more in the world They who left all for him must needs be very much dejected to be left by him And to be left alone in such a wilderness in such a troublesome unpleasing and a vexatious place as the world hath alwayes been to Christs Disciples As long as he was with them he was a very great support encouragement and comfort to them in all conditions and in all cases And therefore now he is about to leave them he thinks it necessary to commend them to the especial care and mercy and protection of his Father There are two things suggested in this dying Song this last
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
bound to the obedience of it so as to be justified and saved by this obedience They are not bound to the obedience of it so as the condition of a Covenant of works But they are bound to the obedience of it so as to testifie their faith and love and thankfulness and service to the Lord Christ who hath imposed this Law upon all flesh so that all men yea even believers are under the commanding power of this Law Yea but it will be said by some that Jesus Christ hath made us free Object that he hath purchased liberty for all his members which liberty they are commanded to maintain Gal. 5.1 And this they think and teach to be even from the obligation of the Moral Law True Christ hath made us free indeed but from the servitude of sin Sol. not from the service of himself and from the Law of sin as the Apostle calls it Rom. 7.23 not from his own Law Why should we think that Christ hath shed his blood to free his people from the obligation of his own Law Indeed my Brethren if the Moral Law the Law of love the Law of works were not the Law of Christ as the Apostle calls it Gal. 6.2 I should be easily perswaded to believe his people are exempted from the binding power of it It seemeth reasonable that his members should be freed from any Law but that which he himself gives But the commandment of the Moral Law which is fulfilled in love is his Commandment John 15.12 strengthened with his authority delivered in his hand and name to men and who can think that he should not impose his own Law upon his own people Mark that of the Evangelist Luke 1.74 75. He hath saved us from our enemies and from the hands of all that hate us that we might serve him who hath saved us in holiness to God and in righteousness to man which is indeed the summ and substance of the Moral Law So that the liberty which Christ hath purchased for his people is liberty to keep not liberty to break the Law and that is liberty indeed as David thinks Psal 119.32 I will run the wayes of thy Commadments when thou hast set my heart at liberty To say it in a word my Brethren there is a twofold liberty a twofold freedom the one enjoyed under sin and the other under Christ Under sin we are free to do any thing but good under Christ we are free to do any thing but evil Of the first sort of freedom speaks the Apostle Paul Rom. 6.20 When you were the servants of sin ye were free from righteousness and of the second faith the same Apostle in ver 22. of that Chapter Being the servants of God ye are free from sin Well then our Saviour Christ hath brought us from the former to the latter sort of freedom so that we are at liberty from sin and not at liberty to sin We are at liberty to serve him and obey him and to keep his Law Object But it is objected further out of these words of the Apostle to the believing Romans Rom. 6.19 where he tells them ye are not under the Law but under Grace And if believers are not under it why then how are they subject to the obligation of it Sol. To this I answer that believers are not under it respectively to the coaction of it for they willingly obey it They are not under it respectively to the severe exaction of it for they are delivered from it it comes to them with Evangelical allay and Gospel mitigation They are not under it respectively to the malediction and the condemnation of it for they are not accursed they shall not be condemned by it But they are under the commanding and the binding power the obligation of it notwithstanding because from this they are not neither can they be delivered For if you look upon the substance of the Moral Law it is an everlasting an eternal Law as David calls it Psal 19.7 It sheweth what is good and what is evil in it self and in its nature So that the things that are commanded there are not good because they are commanded but are commanded because they are good And so the things that are forbidden they are not evil because they are forbidden but are forbidden because they are evil And hence this Law is never charged as the Law of the forbidden fruit and as the Ceremonial and Judaical Laws no it is stedfast as the Apostle Paul speaks Heb. 2.2 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the word that was spoken by Angels that is the Moral Law that was delivered by their Ministry is stedfast Indeed this Law the Law of nature was written in the heart of Adam in the state of innocency and Christ intendeth not to blot out any thing that was engraven there but promises to write it out again more fairly for it was much obliterated by the fall in the hearts of his people So runs the tenor of the New Covenant Ier. 31.33 The last Objection that I shall insist upon Object is taken from those words of the Apostle 1 Tim. 1.9 The Law saith the Apostle there is not given to the Righteous And if it be not given to them why then it seems that it belongs not to them any way To this I answer that the Apostles purpose is not that the righteous are not under the command and obligation of the Law for mark it Sol. Adam was exactly righteous and yet it was a Law to him even in the state of innocency it self But this is that which the Apostle means the Law is not given to the righteous so as to force him to obedience so as to be against a righteous man It is not given for his hurt and condemnation He doth not say 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Lex non est lata but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Lex non est posita which intimates an action or a plea against a man So that the Moral Law is not the action or the plea of God against a righteous man to bring him under judgement and to oblige and bind him over to damnation And so it is the same in sense with that which is delivered by the same Apostle in another place speaking of such as are guided by the spirit and express the fruits of it in their lives and conversations Gal. 5.23 He doth not say to such a one but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 against such there is no Law Indeed the Moral Law so far as it is against believers is not imposed but removed by Christ He hath blotted out the hand writing of Ordinances that was against us that was contrary to us and took it out of the way nayling it to his Cross Col. 2.14 even the hand writing of Moral ordinances so far as it is against us and contrary to us Christ hath taken out of the way It is against us in the rigor and in the curse and malediction of it and
is the Gospel the Ministry of life 2 Cor. 3.7 in opposition to the Law which is the Ministry of death and condemnation And which way doth the Gospel work life but by instilling knowledge into men by making them to understand that which they never knew before that they are naturally dead in trespasses and sins that they are in a state of death and condemnation that there is life enough in Jesus Christ that he is ready to dispense and give it out to all that come to him for it And so convincing them that it is necessary for them to go to him that they may have Life Till they come to know this there is no life of Grace in them And it is by Gospel-Teaching that this life is infused into them It will appear unto you that the life of Grace is begun in holy Knowledge if you consider with what part the Lord begins when he puts this Life into us He begins not with the members he begins not with the will but he begins with the mind and understanding by Illuminating that and by endewing that with saving knowledge And therefore we are said to be transformed or to be changed from the state or life of nature to the state or life of Grace by the renewing of the mind Rom. 12.2 No doubt the will and members are renewed too for the change is universal But there the work begins my Brethren in the mind and understanding we are renewed first in the spirit of the mind Eph. 4.23 and from that it goes on to the inferiour faculties and to the outward conversation And consequently it begins in knowledge of which the mind is capable which is the proper object of it And therefore saith our Saviour sanctifie them with thy Truth Renew them make them holy work the life of Grace in them by revealing Truth to them It is apparent that the life of Grace begins in Knowledge because all other grace is brought into the soul by it and therefore this must be the first Grace The first I mean in order and in course of nature not of time As long as there is no knowledge there is no grace at all and so no Life in such a person But when knowledge once comes in I speak of sanctified Knowledge it brings all saving Grace with it This is the prime work of Grace and the Foundation of the rest The New man is renewed in Knowledge Col. 3.10 why so it is in Faith and Love and other graces But it is first renewed in knowledge there is the rise the original of all And even as in the first the old Creation the Lord began with natural Light Gen 1.3 so in the second or the New Creation he begins with spiritual Light with super-natural and saving Knowledge and gives us other graces by this means To which effect is the Apostles prayer 2 Pet. 1.2 3. Grace be multiplyed upon you through the knowledge of God and after more expresly to our purpose As he hath given us all things that pertain to life and godliness through the knowledge of him So that we have this Life the life of holiness and grace through knowledge without it we have no Grace but with it all Grace It is the seed from whence all other graces grow it is the means by which they are begotten in the soul Holy Knowledge will bring forth heavenly Affections and desires If a man know God and know Christ his will shall close with him and his affections shall be carried out to him it will effectually restrain a man from sin and reform the Conversation They shall not hurt neither destroy in all my holy Mountain saith the Lord Isa 11.9 And why so for the earth shall be full of the Knowledge of the Lord. If you have been taught by him as the Truth is in Jesus why then you will put off the old man It will draw a man to practice and obedience if it be sound and saving Knowledge as holy David intimates in that request of his Psalm 119.34 Give me understanding saith he And what then why I shall keep thy Law yea I shall observe it with my whole heart So that you see all holiness and Grace is brought into the soul by Knowledge and therefore certainly the life of Grace begins in it Use 1 Now is it so that life Eternal or the life of Grace which is Eternal is begun in holy Knowledge This then may serve to teach us in the first place how to value Knowledge and what account and estimate to put upon it Why truly as we value life yea everlasting Life so we ought to value Knowledge at the very same rate For this is life Eternal to know the only true God and Jesus Christ whom he hath sent We all of us do make a very great account even of our temporary Lives which yet when all is done must perish and decay and come ro nothing we are ready to Redeem them if there be no other way with the loss of all things else Though yet even then when all is done we know we can enjoy them but a few years and are not certain to enjoy them one hour How is it then that we despise and undervalue holy Knowledge in which Eternal life consists which if we can attain we have Eternal life abiding in us a life which is above the power of death and dissolution Alas how miserably is it slighted by the greater part of men yea by the greater part of Christians Christians I mean in name and in profession Though it be offered them they will not take it but say in effect to God Depart from us for we will not have the knowledge of thy wayes When light is tendered them they even shut their eyes against it that they may not see So that it may be said of such as God complains of some in Israel their eyes have they closed lest they should see with their eyes and understand with their hearts and be converted and be healed And the Apostle Peters charge must needs fall home upon them they are wilfully ignorant They enjoy the means of Knowledge but they will not wait upon them they take no care at all to profit by them They need not to ascend up into heaven to bring Christ down from above nor to descend into the deep to bring up Christ again from the dead as the Apostle speaks Rom. 10.6 that they may be acquainted with him the word is nigh them as it is added there in that place The Word that manifesteth and revealeth God and Christ is nigh to them They need not to go far to hear it and to hear of God in it But many will not spend an hour they will not step without their doors to meet with God and to be acquainted with him as if the Knowledge of the Lord were worth nothing as if it were of no value Ah my Beloved do you know what it is that you despise and
love and hope and patience and obedience this is an honour to the Lord Christ that he hath such people so qualified and so imployed when they believe in difficult and hard cases they glorifie him in believing as it is said of Abraham Rom. 4.20 He was strong in Faith giving glory to God when they are fruitful in the works of righteousness these are also to the praise of his glory Herein is he glorified if they bring forth much fruit For Jesus Christ is looked upon as the Original of all the good the Fountain and the Spring of all the holiness that is in his people And hence the praise of all returns to him as the Apostle Paul insinuates Rom. 11. ult For of him are all things And what follows To him be glory for ever Amen If any of his people have a special gift of knowledge they have learned it all of Christ if they excel in other grace they receive it all from Christ If they have any choice ability to any holy and religious duty it is Christ that makes them able and it is Christ that strengthens them They that have judgements exercised and are able to discern assoon as they discover any excellency in any kind in any of the Saints they ascribe it all to Christ because they know they had it all from him See what Jesus Christ can do in and for and by those that have Originally nothing that is good in them If any of them shine the beams that make them glister come from Christ and they dart back to Christ again He shines upon them and he shines in them as the Prophet insinuates Isai 60.1 Arise and shine for thy light is come and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee It is a glory to the Lord Christ that he hath such a beautiful and glorious people And thus you see my Brethren he is glorified in the grace of those that belong to him 2. As he is glorified in the grace so he is glorified and shall be glorified in the glory of those that belong to him especially in the great day when he shall come to be glorified in his Saints and to be admired in all them that believe as the Apostle Paul tells us 2 Thess 1.10 to be glorified in them to wonder and to admiration So that the world shall be astonished and amazed to see the matchless and unutterable glory that he shall adorn them with and in their glory glorifie himself This shall transport beholders into wonder it shall make them to admire them and to admire Christ in them It s true Christ shall be glorified wonderfully on that day in the damnation and destruction of the wicked that belong not to him The wrath of Jesus Christ shall be an admirable wrath the judgements and the vengeance that he shall inflict upon them shall be full of wonder that men shall be astonished and amazed to see that Jesus Christ the Lamb of God who in this life hath shewed himself so meek and patient and long-suffering to abominable sinners should be so out of measure wrath with them Ungodly men themselves will wonder at his fury The Saints will wonder at his glorious justice and adore the righteousness of his proceedings with all the wicked unbelievers of the world Yea their confusion and destruction in that great and dreadfull day will be one special part of that admirable glory whereby Christ will be wonderfull in the eyes of all his people Because for their sakes and the wrongs and injuries that wicked men have offered them shall their judgement be the heavier and the deeper and that to all eternity Oh what an admirable thing is this will the poor people of the Lord say that Jesus Christ should have such dear respect to us that he should be so angry with poor creatures and execute such heavy wrath upon them for our sakes But there will be incomparably greater cause of glorifying Jesus Christ and of wondering at his mercy in the salvation of his own people For alas the wicked shall have nothing else but their deserts in that day But this shall be the height of wonder that Jesus Christ should load his people with such an Hyperbolical and transcendent weight of glory without the least desert on their part yea when they have deserved the same extremity of vengeance that is inflicted on the wicked Oh what a glory must this be to Jesus Christ how shall this fill the mouths of all the Angels and triumphant Saints in heaven with his praises How shall his people wonder at their own glory and at the glory of their fellow-Saints and the transcendent love of Christ in it How shall the great ones of the earth that have contemned and trampled under foot the poor despised Servants of the Lord Christ stand amazed at their glory beyond all that they looked for Oh my beloved how wonderfull shall Jesus Christ be in that day to all the world in the incomparable glory which then he will bestow upon his poor contemned and despised people Vse 1 Now is it so that Jesus Christ is glorified in all those that belong to him What think we then of those and to whom do they belong in in whom he is not glorified at all who are perpetually a dishonour to him We may be bold to say of such who are so far from being to the praise of his glory that while they have a being they are a prejudice and shame to Christ that they belong not to the Lord Christ they are none of his people Methinks the thought of this should even break the hearts of the wicked and ungodly men you who lye in wickedness and wallow in uncleanness whose lives are full of nothing else but lewdness and prophaness who are conscious to your selves that Christ hath not a whit of honour by you unless ungodliness and sin will bring it to whom a man may truly say as the Apostle doth to some Rom. 2.24 The name of Christ is blasphemed by your means I beseech you seriously bethink your selves what condition you are in believe it for the present you are none of Christs Take notice of his own expression in my text they are mine and I am glorified in them And therefore if he be not glorified in you depend upon it you are none of his And is it nothing my beloved to be renounced by Jesus Christ as men whom he will not own Is it nothing for the Lord to shake a person off to say unto him in displeasure Sir tell me not of any interest you have in me for you belong not to me I will not acknowledge you I tell you plainly you are none of mine Truly my brethren however it may seem at present the day will come when this will be a sad sentence When men in the great day of separation shall strive to make a title to the Lord Christ when they shall tell him Lord we have been acquainted with thee heretofore
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
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
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 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
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
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
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
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
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
in it p 277. Ver. 11 1. Doctr. God holy in himself and so looked on by Christ p. 280. 1. Vse We are so to apprehend God in our prayers as Christ did that he is holy For 1. It puts our heart into the best fame 2. It will make us come cleanest from sin 3. It will help to humble us in our Confessions p. 283. 4. Will encourage us in our Petitions for the cure of sin 5. Will make us more thanful for holiness p. 284. 2. Doctr. They that belong to Christ are kept by the Almighty power of God p 285. 1. By the power of God assisting and strengthning them against temptations 2. Guarding and defending them by his immediate or p. 287. mediate power p. 287. Reas 1. Only his power can keep them 2. His power is engaged 1. By his Sons Prayers 2. By his own promise 1. Vse We are strong not in our selves but in God 2. Vse That we cast not away our confidence in any condition be our danger Inward p. 290. Outward p. 291. 3. Vse In any distress have recourse to this Name Seek him 1. Early 2. Humbly 3. Heartily 4. Reformedly 5. Constantly p. 293. 3. Doctr. Christians unity a matter of greatest difficulty and concernment p. 295. 1. Because they have in them much fleshly corruption They are 1. Proud 2. Selfish 3. Of divers tempers and constitutions conditions Interests 2. Of high concernment 1. To their growth and thriving 2. To their comfort 3. To their peace with God 4. To their preservation 5. Furtherance of the Gospel p. 303. 1. Vse Let us labour and strive for unity 1. By mortifying inward lusts 2. Chasing away quarrelsom reasonings 3. Avoid quarrelsome persons 4. Be furnished with much wisdom from above 5. Let the vertue of peace rule in us 6. Be earnest in prayer for it p. 307 308. Ver. 12 Doct. Christ keeps them safe that are bestowed on him by the Father p. 311. 1. Some given to Christ by Election 2. By actual union How are they kept 1. Not from suffering 2. Not from all sin 3. But from perishing 1. Vse That Christ can lose any a doctrine prejudicial 1. To the honour of Christ 2. To the comfort of his people 2. Vse You that are Christs he will keep safe out of love and out of duty to the Father in reference to his Injunction p. 316. Intention and expectation p. 316. That this Doctrine doth not breed security and negligence p. 319. 3. Vse That Magistrates and Ministers be Shepherds like to Christ p. 320. 2. Doct. In the eternal Decree some designed to destruction Whether from fore-seen works Some arguments against Universal conditional Election Objections answered p. 328. 3. Doct. What ever is foretold in Scripture shall be accomplished p. 332 1. The Author of Prophesies unchangeable Threatnings have an implicit condition 2. The Author of all Scripture true 3. So the Word 1. Vse Terrour to threatned sinners 2. Comfort to the Church 3. Vse Believe both threatnings and promises p. 336. 4. Doct. Christ the Author and Original of his peoples joy p. 338 1. As he is their Prophet to instruct them 2. As their King to rule them 1. Subduing their enemies he gives them peace 2. His Spirit 3. Rewards 3. As he is their Priest 1. By his Sacrifice reconciling them to God 2. Interceding for them p. 340. 1. Vse They that are out of Christ have no true Joy 2. Hence let us fetch our Joy p. 341. Ver. 13 2. Doct. Christ would have his people to be full of holy Joy p. 342. For this end 1. He gives them the Gospel of Salvation and Consolation 2. Pretious promises 3. Glorious Ordinances 4. Clear discoveries and revelations of himself 5. Sends the Comforter unto them 6. Gives them deliverance 7. Purchased heaven for them Reason 1. Out of self-respect He shares in their comfort 2. To recompence their sorrows 3. That they may abound in duty p. 346. 1. Vse Wo to those that vex and grieve his people 2. It taxeth those that will abide in heaviness and discontent p. 347. Direct 1. Be conversant in the Word of Christ 2. Meditate on the Joys of heaven 3. Take heed that sin and Satan steal not away this Jewel Marks of spiritual Joy 1. It is chiefly moved with spiritual things 2. Proceeds from a good Conscience False Joy p. 351. 3. Doct. Knowledge of Christs Intercession a special means to fill us with Joy p. 352. 1. Comfort against outward and inward Enemies 2. Against Satans accusations 3. Against our weaknesses and imperfections in prayer 4. Against the defects of all our graces 5. Assures us of his love and care Vse Therefore study this point p. 356. Ver. 14 Doct. The world is wont to hate Christs Disciples Divers exceptations of the word World p. 359 They that entertain the Word cross the world 1. In their Judgments 2. In their Wills 3. In their lives and conversations p. 360 1. Vse The Disciples of Christ therefore commonly vilified 2. Admire the mercy and power of God that keeps them against so many enemies strong enemies bitter enemies 3. Vse Christians ought to be cautious how they walk in the midst of such apt to Misconstrue things doubtful p. 363. Aggravate the least offence p. 363. Blaspheme God and Religion p. 363. 4. Vse Think not strange to be so used in the world But think 1. That God and Christ love you 2. That Christ was in the same condition p. 364. 3. that the hatred of the world is no impediment to your blessedness i.e. Our Interest and Communion with Christ 2. Much less to that happiness to come Ver. 15 Doct. Removal out of this world is not the proper subject of Petition p. 366. Reason Because not simply and in it self a blessing Desire of death unlawful in the Saints Vse That we pray not to be rid of troubles by death 1. Being that life though in troubles is a mercy 2. We may have the mercy to outlive troubles 3. In the worst of times you may be serviceable to the Church of Christ 4. More instrumental to Gods glory then in better times p. 370. 2. Doct. God can and will preserve those that belong to Christ from all all evill p 371. 1. From the assault of temptation 2. From the prevalency thereof 3. From the hurt of the temptation So from the 1. Act. 2. Guilt 3. Hurt of Corruption 374 3. Keeps them from Affliction 1. That it touch them not 2. That it stay not too long with them 3. By way of preservation and delivery in it 4. From the hurt of it 4. Doth them good by Affliction 1. Thereby awakening them 2. Humbling them 3. Drawing them neerer to himself Vse Happiness of all in Christ 379 Ver. 16 Vain Repetitions Christs Disciples that they are of another world are in this like unto him p. 381. Christ living here was of another world 1. As coming from above 2. Because he lived in another world 3. Was going
you resemble God your Father Jesus Christ his eldest son is the very picture of him as we are wont to say the express of his fathers person They are so like in all respects that he that knoweth one of them cannot but know the other too The resemblance is so perfect and so absolute in all respects that in seeing one of them you see the other And hence said Christ to Philip John 14 19. He that hath seen me hath seen the Father also And truly we that are the younger sons of God though we be not so like him yet we are very much like him And therefore we are said to be renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created us Col. 3.10 And the new man is said to be renewed after God in holiness Ephes 4.24 And are you thus conformed to God do you bear his Image so that every one that sees you and observes you may judge who is your father Are you holy as God is and are you mercifull as God is and are you perfect in desire and endeavour as your Father that is in Heaven is perfect do you love your enemies do you bless them that curse you and pray for them that despitefully use you that you may shew your selves to be the children of your Father who makes his Sun to shine his rain to fall upon the evil and the good Mat. 5.44 are you freely merciful lending and doing good to those where there is nothing to be hoped for but unkindness for your good will that you may make it to appear you are the children of the highest who is kind to the unthankfull and unkinde Luk. 6.35 These are good evidences of your interest in the Father-hood of God But if you be prophane and vicious and cruel and unmerciful as the greater number are I may say to such as you are as once our Saviour to the wicked Jews You are of your Father the Devil and his works you do If God be your Father as you bear your Fathers Image see you have your Fathers Spirit The Spirit of the Father is that which the Apostle calls the Spirit of Adoption whereby we cry Abba Father Rom. 8.15 So that if we be Sons we have this Spirit poured out upon us But you will say that every one almost pretendeth to the Spirit and it is evident that many are deceived in this particular How shall we know infallibly whether the spirit which we think we have be the spirit of the Father yea or no Why my beloved the Spirit of the Father iâ— an active Spirit where it is it leadeth men even where it will it carries them and guides them in its own way And as many as are led by this Spirit they are Sons of God Rom. 8.14 Well then thus far we are clear if we be the Sons of God as we have his spirit so we are led by his Spirit we walk not after the flesh but after the spirit The flesh calls and the spirit calls This is the way walk in it The flesh would have us follow it the spirit would have us follow it And the event is this if we be the Sons of God we leave the flesh and go after Gods Spirit We walk not after c. So then if you would know whether you be the Sons of God examine whether you be guided by his spirit yea or no And this may be discovered by the course you take and by the path in which you walk Gods Spirit guides and leads you always in the way of God which is prescribed and chalked out before you in the word of God And this is clearly and expresly taught us in that alledgement of the Covenant mentioned Exod. 36.27 I will put my Spirit upon you saith the Lord to his people And what shall this Spirit do it shall cause you to walk in my Statutes and to keep my Commandments and do them It shall not give you new directions it shall not shew you new ways and new paths other then those which are beaten out in Scripture but it shall cause you to walk in my Statutes If then you err and wander from the ways of Gods Statutes and walk on in your own ways as the Apostle speaketh of the Gentiles the way of your own hearts which of your selves you choose and follow your ways of drunkenness uncleanness prophanation of Gods holy day c. if you walk in the way of Cain a way of cruelty and malice and run greedily after the error of Balaam for a reward as Jude speaks ver 11. A way of covetousness and unlawfull gain you are not guided by the Spirit of the Father but by the spirit of the wicked one which ruleth in the children of disobedience But if you keep the ways of God the ways of truth and love and holiness and peace the way that is so evilly spoken of by lewd prophane and vitious men And are no sooner swerved from it in the least degree but you are crying to the Lord with Moses Lord shew us thy way with David I am gone astray Lord seek thy servant enquiring of your brethren to direct you and striving to get in again you are guided by the spirit of your father and may be confident that you are the sons of God If God be your Father and you be his children you are a company of singular and choice people As you are like your Father and consequently like your brethren too so you are unlike other men you dwell alone and are not like to other people And as the sons of Kings and Nobles differ from the sons of other men they have another kinde of garb and habit and behaviour Even so the Sons of God the King of Kings do manifestly differ from the children of the world The Lord hath singled them and drawn them out and put them in another way so that they are men of wonder in the world their ways are of another fashion And this declareth them to be the children of the High God he owns them only upon this condition as you may see 2 Cor. 6.17 18. Come out saith God and be ye separate and I will be a father to you and you shall be my sons and daughters saith the Lord God almighty Now my beloved are you thus come out and separated from the world which lies in wickedness as the Apostle speaks have you left your old haunts your old courses your old Companions and Associates with whom you ran out formerly to the same excess of riot are you accounted gazing stocks and wonders to the world because you are so different from them in all your ways And can you say in the uprightness of your hearts that this your singular and holy walking is not in shew and in hypocrisie but in sincerity and truth you may assure your selves you are the sons and daughters of the Lord God Almighty But if you walk according to the course and fashion of the world if
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
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
God in him and hence our Saviour said to Philip when he entreated him to shew him the Father he that hath seen me hath seen the Father also If we would know God vve must seek to know Christ and vve shall know God in him And therefore let us set our selves to this business to know God and Iesus Christ whom he hath sent yea to know God in Jesus Christ and to this I shall perswade vvith some Motives First till you know God in Jesus Christ you can have no assurance of any blessing from God either spiritual or temporal that any thing comes to you in a Covenant-way for all the Promises of God are made in Christ They are the Promises of God indeed as they are called 2 Cor. 1.20 but they are made in Jesus Christ they are in him Yea and in him Amen as it is added there in that place So that if you know God and not Christ you know him not as making any promise to you You may know him as a threatner this he doth with reference to Christ but you can never know him as a Promiser at least not as a Promiser to you in special You have no Promise of the Lord for any thing no Promise of the Lord will reach to you to profit you as long as you know not Christ the means of Conveyance Look over all the book of God consider all the precious Promises contained in it from the beginning of it to the End and this resolve if you know not God you have no right to in any one of them nor shall you ever if you so continue be a whit the better from them God hath made Jesus Christ his Steward he hath put all things into his hand as vve may see Mat. 11.27 All things are delivered unto me of my Father saith our Saviour so that they come not to us but through him they go all through his hands God hath made him heir of all things as the Apostle speaks Heb. 1.2 So that you see my Brethren all is his and Consequently we can have nothing but from and by and through him Till you know God in Jesus Christ the Blessings which you have from God you have them not in love and mercy So that indeed you can find no true and kindly relish in them For this is that vvhich sweetens all the Blessings of the Lord when a man can say as Iacob of his Children Gen. 33.5 These are the Children which God hath graciously given thy servant As David being rescued out of danger The Lord delivered me saith he because he delighted in me 2 Sam. 22.20 Then are his Blessings and Deliverances sweet indeed vvhen we can relish love in them vvhen vve can look upon them as the fruits of mercy Alas vve know God poureth out his Blessings abundantly on many men not in love but in displeasure He gave them their desire saith the Psalmist of the Jews that perished in the Wilderness but while the meat was in their mouthes the wrath of God went out against them and slew the fattest of them Psalm 78.31 they had the Blessing but they had it with a curse The Lord did curse their blessings to them and so he doth to all that know him not in Jesus Christ who is his first Beloved and in whom he loves others Christ is the only Way of Intercourse between God and our souls He is the Way from God to us He is the Channel and the Pipe in which the stream of Gods love runs down to us So that there is not one drop of Love from God to any soul but it is conveyed and carried to it in and by and through Christ Out of Christ we have no Love and consequently nothing in Love Till you know God in Jesus Christ as he gives nothing in Love to you so he takes nothing in Love from you Do what you will or what you can he is never pleased vvith you He accepts of no Duties no service you perform to him This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased Matth. 3.17 Observe it well for it is very notable He doth not say with whom I am well pleased but in whom I am well pleased In whom I am well pleased with all with vvhom I am well pleased with all that are in him and with no man out of him If you know God in Christ you may know him as a God vvell pleased vvith you otherwise you cannot He hath made us accepted in the Beloved saith the Apostle Eph. 1.6 First Christ is the Beloved of the Father and then vve are beloved and accepted in him Till you know God in Jesus Christ you know him not as one that pardons and forgives you but as one that charges all your sins upon you In him we have Redemption through his blood saith the Apostle even the forgiveness of our sins Eph. 1.7 We have not pardon but in him Him hath the Lord set forth as a propitiation through faith in his blood saith the Apostle Rom. 3.25 God hath made him the Mercy-seat the seat of Mercy from vvhich Mercy is dispensed And whereas formerly the Mercy-seat under the Law vvas placed within the Vail and so vvas hidden both from the people and the Priests the High-Priest only had access to it and that but once a year neither The Lord hath now set forth this Mercy-seat to the view of all men that all may have access to it And as the High-Priest came not to the Mercy-seat without blood Levit. 16.14 even so may no man hope to have mercy from the Lord in the forgiveness of his sins but through the blood of Jesus Christ if he know not God in him he can expect no pardoning mercies from him Till you know God in Jesus Christ you cannot come to God with any boldness or with any confidence No man cometh to the Father but by me saith Jesus Christ John 14.6 He must make our way to God In him saith the Apostle we have boldness and access with confidence Ephes 3.12 so that we can hold up our heads with courage and lift up our faces to him as the expression is Job 22.26 But if we know not Jesus Christ how can we be but flat and faint in our approaches to the throne of Grace It is in his name that we must desire the blessings that we seek for at the hands of God and whatsoever we ask the Father in his name he will give it us John 16.23 It is in his name that we must return the praise for blessings that we have received giving thanks to God the Father by him Col. 3.17 If we draw blessings down from God we must do it through Christ If we send praises up to God we must do it through Christ If we have no acquaintance with the Lord Christ how shall we come to God with prayers how shall we come to God with praises with what heart or encouragement shall we draw nigh to God either to
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
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
we thrive apace in knowledge then we grow to perfectness then the Church of Christ goes up But till the stones be joined close together there will be no edifying that is in English no building It is of great concernment to the entertainment of Christ Jesus in the world that his Disciples be at nearest c. If they be alwayes wrangling and contending others will not come among them No they will stand off from them and from the Master which they serve if he be owned and followed by none but by a company of quarrelsome contentious people And hence is that Petition of our Saviour in behalf of his Apostles and Disciples at ver 23. of this Chapter In my text he prayes the Father that they may be one even as the Father and himself were one And in the cited verse he renews the same petition that they may all be one as thou Father art in me and I in thee that they may be one in us And why so That the world may believe that thou hast sent me q. d. If my disciples be not one among themselves if they be rent asunder by a spirit of division the world will not believe that I came forth from thee who art the God of love and peace that thou hast sent me down into the world to be a Mediator and a Peace-maker to make up all the breaches and the differences between thee and thy people They will look strangely upon me and I shall never bring them to believe that I am come on such an errand as this is And therefore I beseech thee Father that I may be entertained under the Notion of a Mediator that the world may believe that thou hast sent me on this business do thou take care that my Disciples may be at unity among themselves It is of great concernment to the happiness of Christs Disciples that they be at neerest c. Among the eight beatitudes the third in order falleth to the meek and peaceable Mat. 5.5 And if the meek and peaceable be blessed then certainly the fierce and furious are accursed It is a pretty observation of Ludolphus out of Bede on that place Heaven is promised to the pure blessed are the pure in spirit for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven Earth is promised to the meek Blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the earth So there remaineth nothing else but hell for the contentious and impure spirit Ah my beloved would we avoid the curse and would we be partakers of the blessing would we have heaven and earth to be our portion Let us be pure and peaceable let us make and keep peace and so the blessing of the God of peace will be upon us And therefore David having broken out into a passionate and pithy commendation of the unity of brethren behold how good and pleasant a thing it is for brethren to dwell together in unity it is like pretious oyntment c. Psal 133.2 he shuts up all with this conclusion There the Lord commanded the blessing and life for evermore There where brethren live in unity and love there the Lord commands blessing it cannot choose but come upon them for the Lord himself commands it And this blessing it is life and this life it is eternal There the Lord commanded the blessing and life for evevermore Vse 1 Now to proceed to application Is it so my brethren that it is a matter of wondrous difficulty and of great concernment for Christs Disciples to be at neerest unity among themselves Then let this quicken us and stirr us up who would be taken to be Christs Disciples to labour after this oneness and to endeavour to the utmost of our power to get and keep the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace You hear it is a matter of great concernment and therefore it is worth the striving for It is a matter of wondrous difficulty and therefore is not to be had without striving Now I beseech you my beloved let us set our selves to this business There was never greater need them now when God hath suffered such a spirit of division to possess his own people And when the members of the body mysticall of Christ are of so many minds and draw so many wayes and have sometimes such vehement and hot contentions and disputes among themselves So that the Church had never greater reason to cry out as Rebecca sometimes did when she had parties in her womb If it be so why am I thus and therefore we had need to put some spirit into this perswasion and you had need to put some spirit into your endeavours and if the Lord will put his spirit of unity and peace into us it may subdue and overcome the spirit of division which reigns too much abroad in these times But you will ask me How may we attain this and what are we to do that we may come to be at neerest unity among our selves Though it be very difficult as you have heard it may be compassed notwithstanding by the blessing of the Lord upon the use of these directions You must endeavour to the utmost of your power to mortifie those lusts and those corruptions that incline you to dissentions I shewed you formerly in explication of the point that the cause of our divisions is within and not without us They do not come so much from outward provocations as inward corruptions If there were no lusts within there would be no wars without as the Apostle James insinuates And verily if our corruptions as pride and passion and self-love were throughly mortified within those outward provocations would never cause such wofull rents and such implacable contentions as they do And therefore let us set our selves effectually and throughly to subdue these lusts of ours though they be naturally as dear and near as the members of our bodies let us persue them to the very death as the Apostle Paul advises Col. 3.5 Mortifie therefore your members which are upon the earth Let nothing satisfie us till we have the life of them Let us not wound them only but destroy them that ought to be the Christians aim as the Apostle shews Rom. 6.6 that the body of sin may be destroyed Our lusts seek our life either they must dye or we And they seek Gods life Omne peccatum est Deicidium And they have sought Christs life and brought him to a shamefull and accursed death And therefore let us seek their lives too and never satisfie our selves till we have the blood of them Let it be far from any of us to nourish or to cherish our corruptions to favour them or to deal kindly with them any way No let us dash this Babylonish brood against the stones let us shew them no mercy And when they are once destroyed our differences and debates will end with them As we must mortifie our carnal lusts so we must chase away out of our hearts our carnal reasonings that foment
and keep us one among our selves All other means that we can use will be of no avail at all unless the Lord himself strike in and interpose in this business He is the donor and dispenser of this rare and pretious blessing and therefore he is called the God of peace It is a name that he delighteth in and therefore it is often used and he is stiled the God of peace not only because he is formally so if this expression be allowable for Primum bonum summae Trinitatis est indivisio but because he is effectively so because he is the Author of peace as the Apostle speaks 1 Cor. 14.33 For God is not the Author of confusion but of peace And he makes wars to cease saith David Psal 46.11 he breaks the bow and cuts the spear asunder And therefore the Apostle begs this peace of God in such a manner as if it were to be obtained no where else and our Saviour of his Father in my Text Holy Father keep them through thy own Name that they may be one as we are Well then my Brethren let us go to him for this blessing let us not only strive for peace in the use of other means which have been formerly proposed but let us pray for peace so especially for the peace of Jerusalem Oh let us pray and pray hard for Church peace for peace among Christs Disciples among Gods own people for there he uses to bestow it My peace I leave with you saith our Saviour and God will give his people the blessing of peace Oh let us beg him now in these divided distracted times to give this blessing to his own people that though Jerusalem be not at unity neither can be at unity with those that are without yet she may be at unity with those that are within that she may be at unity within her self and to this end let us desire especially two things 1. That God himself would govern all his own people that he would rule them and command them so that they may not break the peace By nature we are all of us inclined to divisions destruction and unhappiness is in our ways and the way of peace we have not known And if the Lord himself should not appease those raging and tempestuous waves that are so apt to rise and swell if he should not extinguish and put out the fire that is so apt to kindle in the hearts of men yea of the best men the world would flame with nothing else but discords and dissentions And therefore let us earnestly beseech the Lord to do the work which none but he alone is able to perform To rule and over-rule the hearts at least of his own people and by his Kingly power to master and keep down those raging passions that are so apt to rise and swell to the disturbance of the Churches peace when his houshold are together by the ears when they are in a tumult and combustion let us entreat him to come in among them and he will quickly make them still as Lambs all will be husht and quiet presently It is his own most gratious promise and therefore we may urge it with the greater confidence that he will make the Wolf and Lamb to dwell together c. That he will quiet the tempestuous hearts of men and make them tame So that how furious and how fierce soever they were formerly by nature yet they shall be so meek and gentle now that they shall yeild to any admonition or perswasion yea a little child shall lead them Isa 11.6 How weak soever he may seem to be he shall prevail and over-rule them 2. That God himself would teach all his own people and the effect of this would be a strange agreement and a sweet accord among them even beyond imagination One cause why they that are professed and are it may be real Saints agree no better and why there are such breaches and such rents among them is because they are not all of them at least in all things taught of God Some of them in some particulars at least are taught of men and not of God and other some are taught of God And they that are taught of men will not agree with them that are taught of God and they that are taught of God cannot agree with them that are taught of men and so they are continually wrangling and contending and contradicting one another they can never fadge together But now when God shall come to teach them all in every thing then they shall think and speak the same things then they shall quarrel and contest no more but they shall all of them agree and live in unity and love together And therefore let us earnestly beseech the Lord to do this to leave his children now no longer out at School but speedily to fetch them home and to teach them all himself That being all of one School under one chief Master and some Ushers under him they may be all taught one way and so may all agree together We have the promise of the Lord for this too Isa 54.13 Oh let us urge it hard upon him in such times as these are All thy children shall be taught of God and mark what follows presently great shall be the peace of thy children Here is a time for such a promise to be put in suit and therefore let us press it home let us take no nay Let the Lord have no rest till he teach all his own children and then he will have a great School and we shall have great peace JOHN 17.12 While I was with them in the world I kept them in thy Name THE words now read are part of the Lords Prayer not of the Lords Prayer which he taught us but as I shewed in the beginning of the Lords Prayer which he made for us Not that which he propounded to us as our pattern but that which he presented for us as our priviledge at least for his Apostles and Disciples and in them for us also In which have been considered two things The matter of it and the reasons of it The things which Christ desires in the behalf of his Apostles and Disciples And then the arguments with which he presseth and enforceth his desire The matter of it or the thing which he desireth in the behalf of his Apostles and Disciples is preservation Holy Father keep them through thy own Name which we have fully ended and dispatched And now we are arrived at the reasons of the prayer the arguments with which our Saviour presseth and enforceth this desire of his Whereof the first is taken from his own effectual preservation of them during the time that he had been among them and therefore he would have his Father keep them now because he himself had kept them very safe till now While I was with them in the world saith he I kept them and none of them is lost but the son of perdition And now
sheep were not his own he might leave them as a prey to the devouring and ravening Wolf as he himself informs us in that same Similitude Joh. 10.12 The hireling flees and leaves the sheep because the sheep are not his own and cares not for the sheep and the Wolf catcheth and scattereth the sheep But Jesus Christ is not the Shepherd only but the owner of the sheep he keeps them not for wages but for love and for the property he hath in them and therefore certainly he will be careful of them to the utmost Those whom the Father gives him he will keep Indeed they are the Sons portion The Lords portion is his people Deut. 32.9 And what follows He kept them as the Apple of his Eye What do you think that Jesus Christ will lose his portion which his Father gives him That he will be so wretchless that he will not keep his own his own goods Nay more then so his own members the very apples of his Eye Will he suffer men or Devils to rent away his limbs from him to pluck his very eyes out of his head take this and take all We may be sure that Jesus Christ will keep us safe who are bestowed upon him by his Father as for his Fathers sake and for his own sake so for our sakes too And that upon a double reckoning or account For first of all we cost him dear and secondly we are very dear to him 1. We cost him dear he paid a great price for us and therefore he will know how he goes from us We cost him prayers he hath not one of us among the Gentiles without asking Ask of me and I will give thee the Heathen for thine inheritance saith the Father to the Son Psal 2.7 Otherwise I will not Christ is faign to beg for us before he gets us of the Father Nay more then so we did not cost him breath only but we cost him blood too He is the Lord that bought us as the Apostle Peter calls him and bought us not with gold and silver and such corruptible things but with his own most pretious blood 1 Pet. 1.19 And if he lose us in the end he hath a very ill bargain No my Beloved we may rest upon it that Jesus Christ will never suffer the purchase of his prayers the purchase of his blood to perish he never spent his breath and much less will he spend his blood in vain 2. And as we cost him dear so we are very dear to him His heart is infinitely set upon his Church and people he loves them out of all measure so that you may be sure he will be loth to see them perish He looks upon them as his Jewels Mal. 3.17 and as his own peculiar treasure Psal 135.4 And he will keep his Treasure and his Jewels safe take his trash who will And thus you have seen the grounds on which you may be confident that if the Father have bestowed you on the Son he will not lose you No you are safe enough depend upon it it is impossible that you should ever perish or miscarry But you will interpose and say perhaps Object This Doctrine serves to make men negligent and careless and secure For if they be preserved and kept so absolutely safe by Christ they need to take no care to keep themselves For answer let it be considered 1. Sol. That Christ doth keep men by themselves And hence saith the Apostle James This is Religion for a man to keep himself unspotted of the world James 1.27 And Paul advises Timothy to keep himself pure 1 Tim. 5.22 And 2. if any of you who belong to Christ remit your watch and grow secure and neglect to keep your selves though Christ will not lose you yet you may lose Christ as the Church did when she lay upon her bed and would not open Cant. 5.6 You may be wofully deserted by him both in regard of grace and peace And though you cannot fall away yet you may fall most fearfully to the dishonor of the Lord and of Religion and the irreparable wounding of your Names while you have a day to live Though you cannot wholly lose the inward habits of your graces yet you may lose the exercise of them And though you cannot lose the Essence yet you may lose the sense and comfort of all the graces that you have Though it be utterly impossible that you should perish in reality yet you may perish in your own conceit and apprehension you may be brought to such a sad condition that you may look upon your selves as reprobates and cast-aways and think your selves undone creatures And though Christ will not suffer you to go to hell yet he may make you cry in your heart and in your bones as David did and set you on the rack of such unutterable agonies and horrors and affrightments that you may feel a Hell in this world Now for a last use of the Point this may afford a seasonable admonition Vse 3 to all the Deputies and under-Officers of Jesus Christ If Christ who is the Fathers servant and the Fathers Shepherd do keep them safe who are committed to him by the Father you then who are the Servants and the Shepherds and the Officers of Christ should learn of him to keep them safe as far as lies in you who are committed to your custody and care by Jesus Christ 1. Ministers are Christs Shepherds in the Church as Christ is the Fathers Shepherd and as the Father commits his people to the Son to keep so Christ commits them to his under-Officers and to his Ministers to keep and therefore it concerneth them to hearken to the advice of the Apostle to the Elders of Ephesus Act. 20.28 Take heed to your selves and to all the flock over which Jesus Christ hath made you Over-seers to feed the Church of Christ which he hath purchased with his own blood yea to the admonition of Jesus Christ himself to Peter Joh. 21.15 Simon son of Jonas lovest thou me dost thou love me dost thou indeed why if thou dost Keep my Lambs feed my Sheep If you have any love to Christ your Master see that none of his be lost by your default by want of any pains you could have taken wâ—th them in heat by day and cold by night for want of any admonition or instruction that you could have given them And be assured of thâ—s that if any of them perish by your carelesness and your neglect you will have a very sad account to make when the day of reckoning comes their blood will Jesus Christ require at your hands Oh let it not be said of you that you do not Custodire gregem sed perdere non pascere sed mactare Not keep the sheep but lose them not feed the flock but feed upon it Be sure that you be faithful to your great trust that you may give up your account with joy and that when Christ shall call
to God the Father for us and takes our Suites into his hands That he excuses what is wanting in our prayers and supplies it in his own That he is lively there where we are dull that he is quick where we are flat that he is full where we are short My Clyent saith our Advocate means this and this this is the meaning of the spirit in him He is not able to express himself as many others can but this is that which he intends and aims at His words are not so ready and so apt but he hath as sincere a heart as the most voluble and fluent of them all and he is one for whom I have laid down my life and shed my blood for whom I have deserved all the good that he can ask and stand in need of And therefore I beseech thee Father let him have what he desires give him a speedy and a gratious answer for my sake Ah my beloved is it not able to fill our hearts brimfull of joy when we remember that we have such an Advocate as this is The knowledge of our Saviours Intercession for his people is a means to comfort them in reference to the defects of all our graces For we come short in all of them there is not one of them compleat There is much lacking in our faith as the Apostle speaks 1 Thes 3.10 and so there is in all the rest which spring from faith For if there be a failing in the root there cannot choose but be a failing in the branches And this is that which makes us walk so heavily and sadly many times when we consider with our selves how slender the degrees and measures of our graces are so that we know not where to find comfort What shall we do in such a case to keep our spirits from despondency Why truly among many other wayes this is a very special one to fix our thoughts upon the intercession of our Saviour for us and to consider seriously with our selves that this is one great business that he urges to his Father that he would sanctifie his people That he would give them out more grace and more holiness This prayer of our Saviour in my text as I have hinted formerly is but a Counterpane of the perpetual intercession that he makes for his in heaven And it consists especially of two branches which comprehend the two main things that he desireth of his Father for his people Preservation and Sanctification The latter he is large upon sanctifie them with thy truth and so on They were sanctified before for they were not of the world and he desires they might be sanctified yet more That they might have larger measures of all the graces of the spirit And is not this an extraordinary comfort to those who are but meanly furnished and who have but a slender stock of grace that Jesus Christ is alwayes interceding to his Father in their behalf for a more full supply It was a suit that he begun on earth and he is still pursuing it in heaven to this day and will do to the worlds end he will never give it over so that we may be confident we shall have such degrees of holiness and grace bestowed upon us as are necessary for us The knowledge c. as it assures us of his dear love to us and his tender care of us What our Saviour doth in heaven in a way of Intercession if it were unknown to us though it might profit us and benefit us very much it could not comfort as at all But when we know that Jesus Christ hath such a singular regard to us and that his heart and his affections work towards us so sweetly and so strongly now he is in heaven at so great a distance from us I mean as he is man that he is always taking all advantages to further and promote our business with his Father and speaking to him upon all occasions for our good and in a word that he is so extremely kind and loving to us so infinitely tender of our welfare every way This cannot choose if it be duly weighed but fill our hearts up to the brim and make them over-flow with joy Vse 1 Now is it so my Brethren that the assured knowledge of our Saviours Intercession is one c. If then we would abound in this heavenly affection let us exactly study and throughly pâ—y into our Saviours Intercession that we may know as much of it as we are able to attain to We are here in an unquiet and unstable world in which we meet with many causes of discomfort from within and from without and many times they take extremely deep upon us so as almost to make our lives a burthen to us Now if we would be free from such distempers let us endeavour to look more into our Saviours Intercession And if we understand it well it will fill us full of comfort that will swell high exceedingly above all the afflictions of this present life Indeed the intercession of our Saviour is of it self a large volume too much for us to read over and that Volume sealed too shut up in heaven that we cannot open it or look into it But he hath given us a brief compendium and a short abridgement of it in the Prayer that he made for his Apostles and Disciples and in them for all the Church that is or shall be to the worlds end that we may read it and acquaint our selves with it He spake that prayer in the world that they might hear it from him and so might have his joy fulfilled in them And that we might hear it from them and so might have his joy fulfilled in us In which regard my Brethren it is left upon record in publique in the Church for ever that all his people might have recourse thereto on all occasions for their Comfort And therefore when we are in any trouble when sorrow seizes deep upon us let us study this prayer in all the parts and branches of it that from thence we may conjecture what he doth in our behalf now he is fitting at the right hand of his Father And this let us depend upon that if he spake one word in our behalf in any case while he was here upon earth he speaks a hundred for us now he is heaven And truly if this Counterpane of our Saviours Intercession were dived into and studied more there would be more holy joy among the Saints Their troubles and their sorrows would be less and they would be more full of comfort then they are JOHN 17.14 I have given them thy Word and the world hath hated them AND thus of the first argument with which our Saviour presseth and enforceth his Petition to his Father in behalf of his Apostles and Disciples that he himself would undertake the keeping of them Which hath been taken as you may remember from his own effectual preservation of them during the time that he had
of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. 3. As God the Father and the Son are one by will and by consent so Christ would have all his Disciples to be one with the Father and himself in the very same manner And as the Father and the Son agree in every thing and never differ in the least degree that which one wills the other wills So true believers should agree in every thing not among themselves only but with God and Christ too God and Jesus Christ and they should so accord in every thing that they should be as it were all one Look what God and Christ wills assoon as it is manifested and revealed to them they should will the very same yea though it be against them in their honours profits pleasures and delights They should conform their wills in all respects to the will of God and Christ And even as Christ said to the Father Not my will but thine be done So we should say to the Father and Son Not our wills but yours be done As you agree together so we agree in you and then indeed my Brethren we are like to agree among our selves when we agree in God and Christ and when our wills are suitable to their wills Or otherwise agreement without this is combination and not union And therefore Christ desiring that his Disciples should be one among themselves desireth also that they might be one in God in his Father and himself That they may all be one as thou Father art in me c. Now to descend to Application and therein to proceed with all the Use 1 branches of the Explication in their order First Is it the will of Jesus Christ that his Disciples should be one in God by the mystical union Here then you see the glorious priviledge of Christs Disciples of all that do indeed believe in him The Scripture makes it a great matter to be nigh to God and so it is indeed my Brethren a very blessed and a happy thing What is it then Beloved to be in him in the Father and the Son as they are in one another This is a priviledge to purpose and carries high and glorious things in it such as we are not able to conceive and much less are we able to express I shall endeavour according to the light I have to lay them open to you in a few particulars This being in the Father and the Son implies most intimate Communion with them both It is very much my Brethren to be with them to have fellowship with the Father and the Son 1 Joh. 1.3 All of us are far from God and far from Jesus Christ by nature we dwell a great way from them in a strange Countrey and so have no commerce with them and when we are converted we are said in Scripture to be made nigh to them Ephes 2.13 To have access by one Spirit to the Father and the Son vers 17 18. And this indeed importeth near and sweet Communion with them such as the world is not acquainted with But to be in them importeth yet more near and close Communion Indeed the nearest and the closest and most intimate that can be It is much to be with God with the Father and the Son there must be heavenly communion if it were but so But to be in them as they are in one another this must needs be much more This being in the Father and the Son importeth special interest in God The greatest interest that can be when we express the interest that any man hath in such or such a great man we use to say that he is in with him And truly it is much to say that we are in with God the Father and with Jesus Christ this is a very great matter It shews that we have much of their regard and love That God and Jesus Christ and we are great friends That while all the world are out with the Father and the Son we are the only people that are in with them This I confess is very much But what is it then to say that we in them That God and Jesus Christ and we are in a sense all one That as the Father is in Christ and Christ in him so we are one in both of them Here is interest indeed such as is impossible to be expressed This being in the Father and the Son importeth great acquaintance with them both They that are much with one another are acquainted each with other but they that are in one another must be acquainted much more They know not that which is without only that which every one knows but they know that which is within which is obscure and hid from other men They know God inwardly for they are in him They know the secrets of his heart Psal 25.14 and the mysterie of his will Ephes 1.9 And even as Christ is said to be in the bosome of the Father and so to be the only one that is acquainted with him fully and can reveal him to the world Joh. 1.18 No man hath seen God at any time the only begotten Son which is in the bosom of the Father he hath declared him So true believers are in the bosom both of God and Christ and so are infinitely more acquainted with them then any in the world besides And here to be a little more particular they know God more immediately and more distinctly then others do 1. They know God more immediately then others do they do not know him at a distance and at second hand but they know him by himself they have their knowledge of him at the Fountain head for they are in him Others hear of him by the hearing of the ear but they see him Job 12.5 and they taste him which sense requires the nearest application of the object 1 Pet. 2.3 They know him at first hand they are taught of God himself they do not only hear what others speak of God and so accordingly discourse of him as many do by memory but they speak with God himself God shews himself to them as his own phrase is and so accordingly are more immediately acquainted with him 2. And as they know him more immediately then others so they know him more distinctly then others they have not a confused knowledge of him only as we have of strangers or those whom we behold a far off as when we see a person at a great distance it may be we discover that it is a man or a woman in the general but are not able to distinguish whether it be such a man or such a woman whether it be such a friend or such a one of our acquaintance yea or no But they have a clear knowledge they see God evidently and distinctly in a measure for they are near enough to him they are in him so that they can distinguish God and Christ from any other that comes in his Name or that pretends that he is God or Christ And
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
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
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
thus he dealt you know with Saul and Judas But he chose Christ out of a special and peculiar love never to be reversed again And just so he chose us in and by and through Christ out of the very same love and with the very same intentions in reference to revocation that he chose Christ And what will God cast away his people whom he hath foreknown from everlasting whom he hath chosen in his Son Christ before the foundation of the world was laid as the Apostle speaks Eph. 1.4 No no his choice of us is as unalterable as his choice of Christ himself And when he casts away Christ then and not till then my brethren will he cast away us Doth God the Father love believers as his servants even as he loves Christ Then surely he will deal with us in this regard much as he dealt with Christ as I shall shew you in a few particulars 1. He will uphold us as he did uphold Christ A Master will uphold his servant in any business or employment that he setteth him about Especially a servant that he loves So did God uphold Christ and he seems to glory in it and to call us to observe it Isa 42.1 Behold my Servant whom I uphold I am resolved to bear him out meddle with him he that dare Indeed when the appointed time was come he gave him up to suffer what he had designed him to But in the interim he bore him out so that no projects no attempts could take against him they could not seize upon him they could not hurt him saith the Gospel story because his hour was not yet come Even so will God uphold us untill our hour be come too For we are servants whom he loves even as he loved Christ And as he is a loving so he is an al-sufficient and almighty Master as he said to Abraham when he took him to be a Covenant-servant to him Gen. 17.1 And therefore he will be not only a reward but a shield to his servants a shield and an exceeding great reward as his own expression is Gen. 15.1 A reward for their salvation and a shield for their protection 2. God will assist us in his service as he did assist Christ Christ had a piece of work you know in hand that was very difficult so that he sweat and that not ordinary sweat but drops of blood trickling down upon the earth Yea more then so he fainted while he was about it But God his Master that employed him took a special care of him and sent an Angel down from heaven of purpose to comfort him and strengthen him Luke 22.43 And when as man he feared how he should hold out and how he should go through with the business as to any self sufficiency as a Creature and so wept and cried to God he had a very sweet return as you may see Heb. 5.7 When in the dayes of his flesh he had offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears to him that was able to save him he was heard in that he feared Just so doth God support us in the work he calls us to for we are servants whom he loves even as he loved Christ If he perceive the service that we have in hand to be too difficult and hard for us then in comes God and puts his own hand to the work What canst thou not go through with it Come let me help thee saith the Lord. It is observed of the Levites that God helped them 1 Chron. 15.26 And the Apostle tells us that the spirit helpeth our infirmities Rom. 8.26 he stands against us and bears up the burthen with us So that the weakest servants of the Lord need not fear the hardest service or the heaviest burthen when he hath such a one to help him and when those everlasting arms are underneath him as the Prophet speaks Deut. 33.27 What said the Lord to Paul when he was hard bestead and when he was about to faint My grace is sufficient for thee And this made Paul to say I can do all things through Christ that strengthneth me Phil. 4.13 3. Out of this love God will reward us for the service that he enables us to do as he did reward Christ As soon as he had done his work he had his wages down upon the nail for he was heard in that prayer John 15.4 I have glorified thee upon earth I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do and now Oh Father glorifie me with thy self And so as soon as we have ended and dispatched the business that God hath put into our hands we shall receive our own reward according to our own labour Having had the fruit to holiness we shall receive the end eternal life If we be faithfull to the death we shall receive the Crown of life Apoc. 2.10 If we continue in the Vineyard to the Evening we shall have our penny If we hold out to the period of our lives when we shall come to dye we may conclude with God as Christ doth in the forealledged place We have glorified thee on earth we have finished the work which thou gavest us to do and now O Father glorifie us with thy self and we may sing our dying Song with the Apostle 1 Tim. 4.7 We have fought a good fight we have finished our Course henceforth there is laid up for us a Crown of righteousness which God the righteous Judge will give us Doth God the Father love believers as his Children even as he loves Christ doth he affect them under that relation too and that as he doth Christ Then surely he will shew him self a loving Father to them as he doth to Christ and that especially in two respects 1. He will hear them as he doth hear Christ You know it is but ask and have with Christ Thou art my Son saith God the Father to our Saviour Psa 2.6 this day I have begotten thee And what follows Ask of me and I will give thee And this is that which Christ himself acknowledges John 11.42 Father I thank thee because thou hast heard me Yea so he might in that particular and yet he might deny him in another But mark what followes presently and I know thou hearest me alwayes Thou art my Father and I am thy Son and hence it is that thou art so inclinable to hear me to let me have my own asking Even so will God hear us in every thing that we desire according to his will for we are Children also whom he loves even as he loves Christ And therefore as it was but ask and have with Christ just so it is with us too Ask and it shall be given you Mat. 7.7 And that because he is our loving Father as he is Christs Our heavenly Father will undoubtedly give good things to them that ask him 2. He will provide for us as he doth for Christ You know he hath provided well for Christ He is not his Son
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
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
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
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
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