necessary to a testimony or a witness that it declare the truth and nothing else Or else how shall it be depended and relyed upon and so how shall the Scripture be the Word of Faith as it is called unless it be the Word of Truth How shall this testimony challenge faith from us unless it utter truth to us How shall it be believed if it be not wholly true and therefore truth is frequently ascribed to it as a witness The testimonies of the Lord are sure saith David Psal 19.7 That which they tell hath been and that which they foretell shall surely be accomplished and fulfilled Vse 1 And this by way of use and application may serve for terror in the first place unto those against whom there is any thing foretold in Scripture in a way of Commination for it shall surely be accomplished and fulfilled How should they tremble for fear of God and how should they be afraid of his judgements though only hanging in the threatning How should their hearts dissolve within them when they hear his threatning words denounc't against them How should the Adulterer tremble when he hears that flaming Commination Whoremongers and adulterers God will judge how should the drunkard tremble when he hears those dreadful woes that are denounced to drunkards up and down the Prophets everywhere How should the wretched worldling tremble when he hears that dreadfull threatning that no covetous person hath any inheritance in the Kingdom of Christ and of God How should the lier and the dogg that barks and snarls and snaps at holiness and the unclean wretch tremble when they hear that such shall have their everlasting portion in the lake that burns with fire and brimstone And so for other sinners against whom there are heavy things foretold in Scripture how should they shake and quiver when they read and hear them But alas there are abundance who steel and fortifie their hearts against them who give no credit to the threatnings of the word as if they were but bruta fulmina but empty cracks who when they hear them thundred out against them say with Israel Jer. 5.12 It is not he neither shall evil come upon us nor shall we see sword or famine Oh my beloved do not belye the Lord in this fashion do not delude your own souls Believe it Judgement is towards you as the Expression is Hosea 5.1 although it be not actually upon you The wrath of God commeth it is a comming still and in the end depend upon it it will come home What do you think that if you do such things you shall escape the vengeance of God No be assured that if you persevere without repentance you shall feel it with a witness There is not any thing denounced against you in the Scripture but shall be fulfilled upon you to the utmost And Secondly it serves for sweet and pretious comfort to the Vse 2 Church since all the good that is foretold in Scripture shall surely be accomplished and fulfilled You that are members of the Church look over all the Book of God collect together all the promises contained in it from the beginning of it to the end consider all the choice and pretious mercies that are contained in those promises and satisfie your souls with a certain expectation of them all There is not one of all those promises shall fall unaccomplished to the ground or fail of execution in the Lords time And therefore look on all the good things promised there as sure mercies so they are called the sure mercies of David which shall not fail you when the season comes And when you meet with any thing that specially concerns you in such a case or such a condition that might be a support and comfort to you in affliction and the like Oh give not way to one unbelieving thought do not forsake your own mercies Remember it is the word of the Lord which as the Angel said shall be fulfilled in its season And so for any good thing that is foretold in Scripture to the Church as there are glorious things you know foretold concerning it in after times that God will raise it to an admirable state of glory and felicity which while the world continues shall not be overthrown again Let us not make any question but they shall absolutely and compleatly be accomplished and fulfilled And therefore let us strengthen and confirm our hearts in the assured expectation of it and let us put those promises in suit in our Petitions as Isaiah in the same case Chap. 62.1 And let us stand upon our watch-towers waiting for the execution of them Let us account it our especial happiness that we live under promises that shall surely be accomplished though they should be never fulfilled in our time Let us embrace them as the Fathers did yea though they be afar off Oh let us hugg them and take especial joy and comfort in them And though the Lord should take us hence before he bring them into act and execution yet let us cheer our hearts with the apprehension of the happiness and glory that shall be upon the Church after we are dead and gone And so dye with our arms full of promises and our hearts full of faith and our souls full of comfort Vse 3 To pass on to a third use Since this is so that whatsoever is foretold in Scripture shall surely be accomplished and fulfilled whatsoever is foretold in a way of Commination or in a way of Consolation by way of threatning or by way of promise Let us endeavour to believe both and act our faith upon them Let us work up our hearts to give a firm and full assent to all the threatnings and to all the promises though that which is delivered in the Scripture either way be never so improbable never so much against corrupt reason never so impossible to a humane apprehension Let us depend upon it that the word of God shall be fulfilled to the very utmost Let us imitate the faith of the antient Saints of God as I shall give you some examples of it in reference to both of these both to the threatnings and the promises of Scripture As for the threatnings That which the Lord denounced to Noah that he might publish it to all the world that he would utterly destroy all flesh from off the earth and by a flood of water too was as improbable as any thing almost could be as like to be derided by the wise men of the world Yet Noah being warned of God believed it and so accordingly prepared the Ark as you may see Heb. 11.7 And so that Commination by the Prophet Jonah was almost incredible that Nineveh so flourishing so glorious and so great a City should be destroyed in forty dayes and yet it is observed to the praise of Nineveh that they believed God that is the word of God his threatning message sent them by the Prophet Jonah 3.5 So for the promises of
shall live so long on earth till he be full of days even as the stomack that is full of meat till he desire to live no longer till nature be spun out to the uttermost extent and after I will shew him my salvation I will bring him to the place where he shall live for evermore And hence it is because continuance here is properly and in it self a blessing as on the other side the contrary thereto the rooting out of the land of the living is properly and in it self a curse that holyest Saints have deprecated taking hence They have been so far from praying that God would take them out of the world that they have rather prayed against it Lord take me not away in the midst of my days Psal 102.24 How did they plead sometimes for their indangered lives as a prisoner at the bar and when the Lord was pleased to leave them in the world a little longer they were exceedingly affected and enlarged to thankfulness As Hezekiah was you know who penned a Psalm of praise on this occasion and this was the burthen of it The living the living they shall praise thee as I do this day Object But you will interpose and say perhaps Some of the choicest Saints of God have prayed expresly to be taken hence and therefore it should seem to be the proper subject matter of Petition Answ 1. To this I answer such as prayed aright did not make their removal hence by death the proper subject matter of their prayers They did not seek it simply and abstractly by and for it self but in relation to some other thing which they could not have without it It 's true indeed that the Apostle Paul desired to be dissolved and to be with Christ he could not be with Christ he knew unless he were dissolved first and therefore that he might injoy him he was contented to be dissolved for that end Or otherwise he would have been far enough from desiring dissolution And therefore in another place he speaks clearly We would not be unclothed saith he viz. of life and of the body 2 Cor. 5.4 that is not properly the thing that we desire But we would be clothed upon with immortality in heaven If it might be possible we would be clothed upon with that without the putting off of this Indeed he saith before in the Name of all the Saints We that are in this Tabernacle do groan being burthened But yet it was not life considered in it self that was their burthen but with its evil adjuncts and associates which do continually cleave to it and which cannot be severed from it in this world So that if you take life you must take that which comes with it In this respect indeed it is a burthen to the holyest Saints because it is accompanyed with such a burthen of corruption as makes them groan and faint under it But if it be considered simply and abstractly in it self it is not a burthen from which the Saints do groan to be delivered no it is a blessing rather of which they groan to be deprived 2. Most of the Saints who have desired God to take them hence have failed and sinned in those desires of theirs It was their weakness and infirmity they did it out of fear and despondency of Spirit out of passion and impatience And thus it seems Eliah did when he fled from Jezabel 1 King 19.4 And thus it is extreamly probable that Moses did Num. 11.10 15. For it is said he was displeased and in that angry fit he said to God Wherefore hast thou afflicted me If thou deal thus with me kill me I pray thee out of hand and do not let me see my wretchedness And thus it is apparent Jonas did who being crost in a punctilio in a point of honor out of a pettish foolish childish humour will go die forsooth God must take away his life These imperfections of the Saints are left upon record in Scripture not as marks to be aimed at but as rocks to be declined Vse Now to proceed to make some Application of the point My Brethren is it so that removal out of this world is not the proper subject matter of Petition Then let not any of us make it so when we are putting up our supplications and requests to God When we consider how the world hates us how it pours contempt upon us how it follows us with troubles persecutions and afflictions so that we see but little hope that we should ever live contentedly and quietly and freely here it may be we are weary of it and ever ready to desire the Lord that he would remove us from it To wish with Israel in a pang of discontent Numb 11.1 Would God we were dead And with Eliah It is enough Lord take away our lives 1 King 14.4 It 's that which many of us are too apt to do when we are over-loaden with the cares and troubles of this world to reach after deliverance and redress and ease by this means And therefore when we find our hearts are running out in such a way as this is let us call them in again let us correct our selves and say as our Saviour in my Text O Lord we pray not that thou wouldst take us out of the world we are far from such impatience we are content to wait thy leisure to tarry till thy time come And here to keep you from such extravagancies and irregular desires I shall present you with a few things It is a special mercy of the Lord to give us life and to continue us in this world though in a comfortless and sad condition David was in a sorry case afflicted persecuted and oppressed when he put up that prayer to the Lord Deal bountifully with thy servant or be beneficial to thy servant that I may live and keep thy Word Psal 119.17 He counted it a benefit to live how troublesome soever his condition were It 's that which even Nature teaches us to reach after Skin for skin and all that a man hath will he give for his life And yet a life with nothing else some will count worth nothing You know my Brethren all that God himself did promise to some very gratious men in times of common trouble and calamity was only this they should have their lives for a prey and that was all for great things were not to be looked for Jer. 39.38 and 45.5 And yet that was a great mercy If we be not taken hence perhaps we may enjoy the mercy to out-live troubles It is mercy to live in them but it is greater mercy to live beyond them and this if we be quiet and content and patient for ought we know may be our portion And this was that which David promised to himself when he was almost over-come and over-whelmed with his afflictions and distresses I shall not die but live saith he and declare the works of the Lord Psal 118.17 Me thinks he gathers up
1.9 Receiving the end saith he Conceive it the perfection or the reward of your faith even the salvation of your souls Salvation then you see my brethren is the end Christ is the object of our faith Use 1 Is Christ the Object of a true believers faith Then do not satisfie your selves my brethren with a general assent to sacred Revelation neither do you rest in this that you believe the word of God in gross Alas how many men that have been throughly convinced of the truth of all the Scripture are notwithstanding under everlasting Chains and darkness the Devils themselves believe and tremble They believe the word historically you must understand it and because it makes against them the greater their faith is the greater is their fear As therefore you desire to be absolved and acquitted from the guilt of all your sins which else will sink you down into the pit of Hell for ever to be invested with the righteousness of Christ without which you can never have admittance to the marriage of the Lamb nor to those joyes and pleasures at the Lords right hand for evermore lay hold on Jesus Christ and clasp the arms of faith about him Men and brethren to you is this salvation sent and we declare unto you glad tydings preaching through Christ the forgiveness of sins and that by him all that believe are justified from all things from which they could not have been justified by the Law of Moses We offer and exhibit Christ unto you and we beseech you to accept him that you may be saved We stand and cry Ho every one that thirsteth came to this water Now as you tender the salvation of your pretious souls let faith make out to Jesus Christ that comes towards her let her fasten on her object And that you may the better know what I perswade you to I shall shew you very briefly that there are four acts of the soul in reference to Jesus Christ wherein the essence and the being of justifying faith consists Whereof the former two are of the understanding and the two latter of the will I shall but only touch at them 1. Well then the first thing you are to do you must endeavour to know Christ aright distinct explicite knowledge of him in a measure is necessary to the being of this justifying faith And therefore knowledge is sometimes put for faith in Scripture by his knowledge or the knowledge of himself shall my righteous servant justifie many saith the Father of the Son Isa 53.11 And here to be a little more distinct you must know that Christ is a compleat and al-sufficient Saviour to free you from the wrath of God and to bring you to eternal life That he is offered by the Lord to you as well as any other for so the messengers of God have their Commission to make an universal tender of him to all to whom they preach without exception Go preach the Gospel to every creature Mark 16.15 And what is it to preach the Gospel to them but to say as the Angel to the Shepherds Luke 2.10 11. I bring you good tydings of great joy which shall be to all people for unto you is born this day in the City of David a Saviour which is Christ the Lord And as Peter to the Jews Acts 2.39 The promise is to you and to your children yea and to all that are afar off as many as the Lord our God shall call Yea you must know that Christ is offered to you so that you are peremptorily commanded and required to believe in him Come to me saith our Saviour Mat. 11.28 i. e. Believe in me for so himself expounds the phrase as you may see John 6.35 all you that labour and are heavy-laden and I will give you rest This is the first thing requisite to justifying faith of which Christ is the proper Object 2. The second act is the Assent and Credit of the mind to this that Christ is such a one indeed and that God offers him indeed in such a way as hath been said And that in this his gracious offer he intendeth as he saith That Christ and all his merits will be yours if you accept him This you must consent to you must say with the Apostle 1 Tim. 1.15 This is a faithfull saying and in relation to this act it is that faith is called believing John 3.36 and elsewhere often in the Scripture 3. The third act is the yeelding of the Will to this external exhibition of the Son of God this blessed offer of him in the Gospel not only for the certain truth but the incomparable excellency of it when the heart accepteth of it and embraceth it and saith with the Apostle in the fore-alledged Scripture 1 Tim. 1.15 This saying as it is a faithfull one so it is worthy of all acceptation It is a faithfull saying saith the Understanding and therefore I will give assent to it It is a saying worthy of all acceptation saith the will and therefore I will close with it So the faith of the Fathers is described Heb. 11.13 in which all the three acts which we have mentioned are wrapt up together They saw the promises conceive it with the understandings eye they knew them and they understood them They were perswaded of them they gave assent to them and they received them and embraced them for both these terms are there used not the words and surface of them but Christ in them In which respect this act of faith is sometimes called receiving of Christ as see John 1.12 To as many as received him c. So that believing and receiving are all one this is the third act 4. The fourth and last act is a resting a relying and recumbency on Christ for mercy and salvation this is the great act of the soul in faith A roling of it self on Jesus Christ expecting life and happiness no other way and by no other mean but him only And this is that which is so often called believing in the Son of God believing in his name trusting in him as the Apostle Pauls expression is Ephes 1.12 or trusting to him for all the good that we expect or look for These are the four great acts of faith and Christ you see is the immediate and proper object of them all So that you easily perceive what I intend when I perswade you and exhort you to fasten on this object and to believe in Jesus Christ Object But you will say perhaps as that is now a great Objection the Creature is not able to believe it is an impotent and dead thing what can the Creature do And why do you perswade it to believe Sol. True my beloved it can do nothing and you would have it to do nothing by this Rule Keep away the means from it and when will it attain the end It hath no faith it is not able to believe but faith comes by this means by the perswasions and intreaties
condition the Lord notwithstanding will be mercifull to them But as you tender the salvation of your pretious souls I beseech you to observe that Gods own word is peremptory and express for this that none that know not God shall have any share in the mercy of God or in the glory of the world to come Oh continue thy loving kindness to them that know thee to them and none but them saith David Psal 36.10 It is a people of no understanding saith the Prophet of the Jews Isa 27.11 And what follows Therefore he that made them will have no mercy upon them It is the common apprehension of vulgar and ignorant people that he that made them will save them too No saith the Prophet if they be ignorant of God he that made them will not have mercy upon them They have not known my wayes saith God unto whom I sware in my wrath that they should never enter into my rest But you will ask me then Quest By what means shall we come to know God Truly there is but one way of coming to the knowledge of him Answ and that way is Jesus Christ No man hath seen God at any time 1 John 18. What then is he not to be seen or known at all by any means Yes though he be not to be seen or known immediately in himself yet mediately in and by the Son he may be known For he hath manifested and revealed him to us No man hath seen God at any time the only begotten Son that came out of the bosome of the Father he hath declared him Indeed it was the business for which our Saviour came into this lower world to bring God down to us that we might be acquainted with him And if ever you see or know God you must have light from Jesus Christ I am the light saith he John 8.12 He that follows me shall have the light of life And therefore if you would have this light follow Jesus Christ for it How you must follow him so as to fetch this light from him I have directed you before on the third verse of this Chapter Is it so that unbelievers and unsanctified persons know not God Vse 2 What cause have true believers then to admire and adore the special mercy of the Lord to them that they should be acquainted with him That he should give them the preferment in such a blessed and glorious priviledge as this is That now they can say to God as our Saviour in my text Oh Righteous Father the world hath not known thee but we have known thee O Lord whence is this to us how is it Lord that thou dost manifest thy self to us and not unto the world as the Disciples said John 14.22 How comes this to pass Lord Truly this is free-grace and free-free-mercy mercy to be admired and wondred at Oh let our souls and all that is within us bless the Lord Let us take up our Saviours words Father we thank thee that thou hast hid thy self from a world of wise and prudent men and hast revealed thy self to such babes as we are We bless thy name for this mercy And truly we have cause to bless him for this knowledge is our life keep it for it is thy life saith Solomon Prov. 4.13 and life is a pretious thing If we had still remained in the condition that the world is in we had never known God we must have died to all eternity we had been punished with eternal perdition we could never have enjoyed him who is the God of our life But now we know him so as to love him we shall be sure to live with him and that for ever Nay this is life yea life eternal in regard of the beginning such a life as is above the power of death and dissolution as our Saviour Christ assures us John 17.3 This is life eternal to know thee the only true God and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent JOHN 17.25 But I have known thee and these have known c. AND thus of what our Saviour speaks against the world Oh Righteous Father the world hath not known thee Proceed we to know what he speaks for himself and true believers But I have known thee and these have known that thou hast sent me There is no difficulty in the terms requiring any tedious explication I have known thee saith our Saviour to the Father though the world be strangers to thee yet I am very well acquainted with thee I know thee inwardly And my Disciples here have known that thou hast sent me They have been throughly perswaded that I am a messenger sent forth from thee to manifest thy nature and thy will to them which I have done accordingly I have declared to them thy name So they have known thee by my means So that the special thing to be observed here my brethren is the order in which the knowledge of the Father is dispensed First Christ the Mediator knows him he is acquainted with him in the first place I know thee saith our Saviour here And then Believers are acquainted with him by the means of Christ And these have known that thou hast sent me and I have declared unto them thy name The Observation then is this DOCTRINE That Jesus Christ and he alone knows God immediately and others know him by the means of Christ All saving knowledge of the Father comes out by Jesus Christ to his people Christ knows him first and then we know him in the second place by him No man hath seen God at any time John 1.18 What then is he not to be seen or known at all by any means Yes though he be not to be seen or known by us immediately in himself yet mediately in and by the Son he may be known for he hath manifested and revealed him to us No man hath seen God at any time The only begotten Son which is in the bosome of the Father he hath declared him Indeed it was the business for which our Saviour came into this lower world to bring God down to us that we might be acquainted with him Ye neither know me nor my Father saith our Saviour to the Jews John 8.19 If ye had known me ye should have known my Father also q. d. I would have brought you to the knowledge of my Father And as the Book in Apoc. 5.9 had still remained a sealed Book unless the Lamb had opened it so God had still remained a concealed God he had never been discovered and manifested to us in a saving way unless the Son himself had done it So that the Point is plain you see That Jesus Christ and he alone knows God immediately and others know him by the means of Christ And therefore in the first place this may serve for information to let Vse 1 us see that no man can be saved by his own innate knowledge nor by the light that is naturally in him let him use it how he will or how
by seven Honourable Ladies and three Noble Gentlemen preserved to posterity by the renowned Iohn Boccacio the first refiner of the Italian prose A Pattern of patience in â—he example of holy Iob being a Paraphrase on the whole Book as an expedient to sweeten the miseries of these never enough to be lamented times The Abridgement of Christian Divinity By Wolleb Englished and enlarged by Alexander Ross The Vanity of the Creature By Edward Reinolds In small twelves A Call to the unconverted to turn and live and to accept of Mercy whilst mercy may be had as ever they will finde mercy in the day of their extremity from the living God By Rich. Baxter Saints solace The sum of all By Chibbal Helvius Colloquies The Protestants practice or the Compleat Christian being the true and perfect way to the Celestial Canaan necessary for the bringing up of Youth and establishing the Old Christians in the faith of the Gospel By a reverend Father of the Church of England A method and instruction for the Art of Divine Meditation together with instances of the several kinds of solemn meditation By Tho White The Church-sleeper awakened in two Sermons By Ios Eyres of Cork in Ireland There is now in the Press a Practical Treatise of Mr. Iohn Brinsly of Yarmouth Entituled The drinking of the Bitter Cup or the Hardest Lesson in Christs School learned and taught by himself viz. Passive Obedience wherein besides divers Doctrinal Truths of great Importance many practical truths are held forth for the Teaching of Christians how to submit to their heavenly Father in suffering his Will both in Life and Death patiently obediently and willingly in octavo AN EXPOSITION WITH NOTES Vnfolded and Applyed On IOHN 17. JOHN 17.1 These words spake Jesus c THE Words of such a friend who is likely to continue take not so deep impression as his who is dying or departing The last farewell of such a one as is dear in our affections is most observed and best remembred A secret winning and commanding power accompanies such parting passages and hence our Saviour Christ was frequent in them when he was ready to be offered up and to be finally withdrawn from his disciples They who left all for him must needs be very much dejected to be left by him And therefore he was wise and merciful to give them Comfort while he was among them and to dispatch them down a Comforter from heaven when he was departed from them Upon the first of these he spends no less then four chapters all tending to confirm and fortifie their hearts against the bitter trials and afflictions which they were to meet withall when he was gone And this he doth by speaking to them and by speaking for them Both wayes he seeks to strengthen them by speaking to them in a way of consolation by speaking for them in a way of supplication The first of these he ends with the foregoing chapter the latter he pursues in this which I intend with Gods assistance to go through withall as I shall have ability and opportunity And therefore in the entrance of this chapter it is said with reference to those which go before These words spake Jesus These words he spake to his disciples in a way of consolation And then immediately is added what he spake for his Disciples in a way of supplication These words spake Jesus and lifed up his eyes to heaven and said Father the hour is come c. So that this Chapter which I am to handle is the Lords prayer From the beginning of it to the end nothing but the Lords prayer Not the Lords prayer which he taught us but the Lords prayer which he made for us Not that which he propounded to us as our pattern but that which he presented for us as our priviledge Whether this were the very prayer which he uttered in the garden when he was in an Agony is much disputed Some think it was the very same for substance and that it is set down more largely here by John then by the rest of the Evangelists because none of them were present when Christ made that prayer but he took Peter James and John with him as you may see Mark 14.33 But this is but a meer fancy For in the first verse of the following chapter it is manifest that Christ went not to the garden till he had ended this prayer Iohn 18.1 When he had spoken these words that is the very prayer we are entering on He went forth with his Disciples over the brook Cedron where was a garden into which he entered Nor is it probable that our Evangelist if he had given us the sum of that prayer would wholly have omitted that which was the main petition in it and which is so exactly mentioned by all the rest of the Evangelists Father if it be possible let this Cup pass from me Of which we have not the least hint in this Chapter Besides it is to be observed that our Saviour made that prayer in the garden lying prostrate upon the earth as you may see Mat. 26.39 He fell upon his face and prayed Whereas the prayer we are now about to handle was made with face and eyes erect and lifted up to Heaven These words spake Iesus and lift up his eyes to Heaven and said Father the hour is come c. So that this prayer of our Saviour was evidently and unquestionably made before his coming to the garden of Gethsemane just as he was about to go thither He had been swan-like singing out his dying song in the ears of his Disciples for the space of three Chapters and speaking many things to comfort them being at the point to leave them And having finisht what he had to say he shuts up all with this prayer These words spake Iesus and lifted up his eyes to Heaven and said which having ended immediately away he goes and is betrayed As you may see in the beginning of the following chapter You see then what a Subject we have now to handle A prayer and a prayer made by Christ the great High-priest the Advocate and Intercessor of his people and the last publike Solemn prayer that he made with his Apostles and Disciples just as he was about to suffer He took his last farewell of them in this prayer and therefore you must think it was a Spiritfull a zealous and a pithy one When he was going to be crucified he took his leave in a long oration to them which having done he prayed among them and so left them And truly such a prayer made by such a one as Jesus Christ at such a time and on such an occasion and among such a company must needs be heavenly and ravishing and therefore will deserve our best intention both in handling and in hearing Christ was in heaven in his thoughts and his affections when he made it These things spake Iesus and lifted up his eyes to heaven and said The Lord in
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
my Text Father the hour is come now glorifie thy Son now shew mercy to thy Church now execute thy wrath upon the persecutors and oppressors of the Church No he must do it presently whether his time be come or no they have not so much patience and humility to wait upon him and leave him to his own time they cannot tarry for him one hour This was the Mistake of Mary she would needs direct our Saviour when to work his Miracles before his hour or time was come John 2.4 And we poor Creatures are so sawcy and so bold sometimes to tell the Lord when he must shew us such a favour when he must give us such a mercy if he delay and if he linger beyond the time that we appoint him we are gone we cannot wait upon him any longer We send for his assistance as it were by Post and prescribe the Lord a day as the Bethulians And so upon the other side we appoint him when to deal against the enemies and persecutors of his people We set him down a time and we order him a season to wreake his vengeance and his wrath upon them But what saith God to me belongeth vengeance and recompence This is a business that belongs to me it appertaineth not to you to meddle with it Their feet shall slide in due time for the day of their calamity is at hand and the things that shall come upon them make haste We are so earnest many times that we would have him strike them presently and tread down all his enemies that rise against him and his cause and people and take an order with them out of hand But God is of another mind he designs another time and we do very ill to go about to turn him from it It is a bold intrusion on the property of God on that which appertaineth and belongeth to him in the fore-alledged text A snatching of the times and seasons out of his hands And it is a high presumption for while we carry matters thus we do at least imply that we are wiser then the Lord that we can choose out fitter seasons for the accomplishment of his designs then he doth which is a Blasphemy to be abhorred and trembled at by every Christian Vse 2 And therefore in the second place my brethren since God hath his time to do his actions in it and should not be desired to do them any other time Let us be hence instructed how to regulate our prayers and desires in this regard Let us subscribe to him for the accomplishment of all his purposes of wrath against the wicked of mercy to his own people And let us freely leave him to his own time If the prefixed and the constituted time be manifest and revealed to us as to our Saviour in my Text then let us pray as he the hour is come If it be hid then let us pray Father when the hour is come do this or that against thy Enemies do this or that for thy people but still let us comply with his time for the performance of any thing that we desire of him And this because in many cases it may seem to linger and we may be apt to faint I shall briefly set before you two or three Considerations to uphold your hearts till your fathers hour comes Consider that the Father waites for the good hour as well as you Do you wait to receive mercy He waites to shew mercy Do you wait that he may be gracious He waiteth that he may be gracious too Isa 30.18 Why are you so impatient then Why should not you be well contentted and pleased to wait as well as he Shall all the waiting be on his side none of yours see if this be good reason Consider that till the Fathers hour of mercy come he is preparing you for mercy and preparing mercy for you He is not slack as men count slackness he hastens such a work of mercy as he seemeth to defer Many times the work is great and there are many wheels that turn in it and they must move about in time too quick a motion would disorder all The Lord hath many things to bring about in such a business and therefore he goes onward with it slowly by degrees and so at length he brings it to perfection He means to make a goodly structure and therefore he is laying the foundation deep and low that he may raise the frame of mercy and salvation which he means to build upon it high and firm that it may never be removed again Let us consider if the hour of mercy linger that the fault is in our selves Alas God labours hard about us but we are knotty peices we will not suddenly be brought to any frame We are not qualified for a cure and extraordinary mercy by and by Oh what a task God hath to humble us to make us sensible of undeservingness to qualifie us so that we may prize the mercy and use the mercy as we ought to do So the while he is moulding us and fitting us he may complain of us as once he did of Israel Will you never be made fit when will it once be We have such strong Corruptions in us that they will not be subdued we have such proud and stubborn hearts that they will not be brought down So that if God be long about us and if he keep us under hand we have cause to thank our selves and the perversness of our own hearts Let us consider that the fathers hour will come in which he will shew us mercy He will arise and have mercy on Sion The needy shall not alwayes be forgotten nor the expectation of the poor fail for ever Psal 9.18 Though he hide himself yet he will be a Saviour notwithstanding And therefore this let us depend and settle on let us keep our hearts to this with the poor afflicted Church Isa 25.9 Loe this is our God we have waited for him and he will save us we will be glad in his salvation You see how confident she is she stands not upon Ifs and Ands. It is not peradventure or it may be or the like but he will save us and we will be glad c. The more the fathers hour lingers the greater mercy it will bring with it the more will it abound with multiplyed overflowing comfort when it comes Gods manner is to measure and proportion comforts to afflictions to cherish and revive his people according to the daies in which he hath afflicted them and according to the times in which their souls have seen sorrow Psal 90.15 That Proclamation is remarkeable Isa 40.1 Comfort c. comfort ye my people It is repeated twice you see And why so The reason is annexed she hath received at the Lords hand double for her sins she hath had double sorrow and therefore now she shall have double comfort And thus far of the rise of that part of our Saviours prayer which concerns himself the
on Gods part not on his And so if Christ should leave us in a state of death till we sue to him for life we should die eternally But he preventeth us with mercy and with loving kindness And he commands the blessing even life for evermore as the Prophet David speaks Psal 133.3 They do not beg it and entreate it but he commands it So that you see Christ freely gives this life to his people in this respect that it is by them unsought And as it is by them unbought and unsought so it is by them unthought They are so far from seeking it that they do not once so much as think upon it It comes not once into their heads that they are dead in trespasses and sins That there is life in Jesus Christ that he is ready to bestow it and to give it out to lost creatures When he breaths this life of grace into any of his people it is as much unthought of to them as Sauls Crown was to him when he sought his Fathers Asses What can a dead man plod and study of a resurrection Doth he lie in his grave expecting when he shall be quickened and looking when he shall be raised up What did the Disciples think of their Conversion till Christ called them Matthew was in the midst of his Extortion Peter was busie at his trade when Christ inspired the quickning life of grace into them Little did either of them think that life and mercy was so near to them And thus he deals in this respect with all his people So that which way soever we consider it or look upon it Jesus Christ doth freely give Eternal life to his people they have it from him c. Vse 1 Now to descend to Application Is it so that Jesus Christ doth freely give c. This then may be a great encouragement for every one of us to come to Jesus Christ for life It is confessed that he hath enough in him but yet if he were loth to spare it if he did very hardly part from it if he did not give but sell it and sell it at a dear rate it could not but exceeingly dishearten those that want it and have no means to get it nor any thing to give for it But now consider for your comfort and support that Jesus Christ is appointed by his Father and inclined of himself to give Eternal life to his people He doth not deal with it as a commodity which he means to gain by but as a favour which he is willing graciously to bestow upon a company of lost creatures He stands and cries He every one that thirsteth come and drink of the water of life freely I ask you not a penny for it come and buy without money and without price Now I beseech you my Beloved set your hearts to this business consider seriously what you have to do I say to you as Iacob to his sons when they were about to starve when they were about to die with famine Gen. 42.1 Why do you look one upon another Why do you die and perish in your sins when there is life enough in Jesus Christ and where it is so easily to be obtained from him Oh you will say we are unworthy to have life from Christ who are we that Christ should look upon such dead dogs as we are Ah but remember he doth not bargain for it he doth not sell it but bestows it freely He gives it out to those sometimes who least deserve it he looks for nothing in or from you but the receiving of it at his hands Why then will you stand off when he calls Why will you refuse life when Christ offers and when he offers it so freely Why will you give the Lord of life occasion to complain as Iohn 5.40 You will not come to me that you may have life you will not come when you may have it for the fetching Why you will say perhaps you cannot come True I confess you cannot in your natural estate but yet the greatest matter is you will not come And this appears because you do not many of you what you can and what is in your power to do You do not wait upon the word of life the word by which he worketh life in his people but shamefully neglect it many of you when the word is nigh you when it is just without your doors Christ speaks in life unto the souls of men the words that he speaks are life as 't is hiw own expression and you will not hearken to them that your souls may live Iohn 6.63 you do not yield your selves up to the operation of the words of Christ When he begins to stir you you resist the work of it When it begins to quicken you and raise you up you close your eyes and lie down in your graves of sin again Now I beseech you Brethren when you feel a little stirring a little quickning by the word O let this word of life have a perfect work upon you When life is offered in the Gospel do not put it from you and judge your selves unworthy of Eternal life least Christ say to you in displeasure Nay if you will not live then die for me and die for ever And if you will not rise out of your graves there lye and rott and stink for me till you be raised to receive your last doom and to be cast into the Lake that burns with fire and brimstone which is the second death Is it so that Iesus Christ doth freely give c. This then may serve us Vse 2 as an Antidote against the fear of losing the life which we receive from Christ and that upon a double ground For First if Jesus Christ give it he himself will not withdraw it but continue and increase it He doth not use to give a thing and take a thing no my Beloved his gifts and callings are without repentance It s true that the duration of this life depends upon continual animation and supply from Christ If once the vital influence which we have from him be interrupted and with-held we are surely dead men But wherefore should we doubt that he will fail to animate us or that he will with-hold the influences of this life from us Nothing without himself did induce him first to give it And therefore on the self-same ground he will uphold it and maintain it He gave it freely and therefore certainly he will continue it as freely too Yea he will be so far from lessening and extinguishing this life of his in any of his Saints that he will encrease it still As it shall be a lasting and enduring so it shall be a growing and encreasing life This was the end of his coming as his own expression is Ioh. 10.10 I am come that they might have life and that they might have it more abundantly If they have a little more they shall not have less but more Christ gives his people the
must have or else they are not capable of medling with the affairs and the negotiations of their master And therefore God hath furnished Jesus Christ with powers with ample and compleat authority for the Embassage he hath sent him in All power is given to him without any limitation You see he hath a large Commission and consequently what he doth concerning what he hath received in Commission is as valid and effectuall to all intents and purposes as if God the Father did it He hath not only set his seal to Christs Commission but he hath sealed Christ himself Him hath God the Father sealed Iohn 6.27 So that he came into the world with the stamp and with the seal of God upon him that all men might receive him as sent forth from him As God hath qualified him with authority so he hath qualified him with ability for the effecting of the business and the delivery of the errand which he sent him in He hath made him fully able to go through with it and to that end hath furnished him with a fulness of Merit and a fulness of Spirit A fulness of Merit to make Peace and a fulness of Spirit to preach Peace First as God hath sent him so he hath furnished him with a fulness of Merit to make Peace Made him able to the utmost to satisfie his justice and to obtain his pardon for his people For he is God as well as man in him dwelleth the fulness of the Godhead bodily God that his Merits might be valuable for us Man that his merits might be applicable to us Secondly as he hath furnished him with a fulness of Merit to make Peace so of Spirit to preach Peace The Spirit of the Lord is upon me saith our Saviour Luke 4.18 and by this Spirit he hath anointed me to preach the Gospel as it is added there in that place As he hath sent and appointed me to preach so annointed me to preach And therefore grace is said to be poured into the lips of Jesus Christ Psal 45.2 so that he spake as never man did Iohn 7.46 That some were astonied at his doctrine and all men bore him witness and wondered Luke 4.22 JOHN 17.3 And Iesus Christ whom thou hast sent Use 1 NOW is it so that Jesus Christ is Gods Apostle a Messenger sent c. This then may teach us in the first place to admire the mercy of the Lord both of the Father and of the Son in this business The mercy of the Father in sending Jesus Christ and the mercy of the Son in that he would be sent by him In both of these the grace of God is eminent to admiration Let us here observe and wonder at the mercy of the Sender There was rich grace in this that God the Father sent his Son into the world for our sakes He is his Son his only begotten Son a Son that is extreamly like him the very picture of his Father the express image of his person a Son that never did displease him a Son that he dearly loves in whom his very soul delights in which respect he layes him in his bosom next his heart as a choice and precious thing And yet this Son of his he is content to part withall in some respect that he and we might come together To send him out of his bosom and to dispatch him down into this lower world there to continue for a while that when he returned again he might bring us up with him Had God any need of us that he should send his Son for us Ah my Beloved he is self-sufficient there is enough in him to make him happy everlastingly without us But we must be for ever miserable without him And therefore it was nothing else but free mercy that made him send down his beloved Son to us Herein is love saith the Evangelist 1 Iohn 4.10 not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son Here is love and here is mercy to be spoken of and to be wondered at in all ages Let us here take notice of the mercy of the Son in that he would submit himself so far as to become the Fathers Messenger in this business Though he be man he is the Fathers fellow notwithstanding so he stiles him Zach. 13.7 Awake O sword against the man that is my fellow saith the Lord of hosts Though he be found in fashion as a man he thinks it no robbery to be equall with God every way as good as God Philip. 3.6 And was it not an admirable condescention that when the Father had a Message to dispatch into the world for the recovery of lost creatures Jesus Christ should say to him as once the Prophet in another case Here I am send me I am very well content to be sent of this errand Especially if we consider where and whither he was sent from heaven to earth yea to the lowest parts of the earth as the expression is Ephes 4.9 In a sense to hell it self From the bosom of the Father if not into the place into the state and the condition of the damned In which respect he saith Thou shalt not leave my soul in hell Psal 16.10 He was sent to make peace to reconcile us to his Father as you heard before in Explication of the point and this he was to do by the blood of his Cross as the Apostle shews us Col. 1.20 By his extream and bitter Passion by suffering death it self yea such a shamefull and accursed death upon the Cross accompanied with such ingredients as made him roar and sweat and faint under it And was it not a miracle of mercy that Jesus Christ should yield himself to be sent on such an errand as this is That he should willingly submit himself to be the Fathers Messenger in such a business We need not wonder that he whose love and kindness was so full of wonder should be called wonderfull Isa 9.6 But you will say perhaps Object that this indeed was rare and admirable mercy if Jesus Christ had willingly exposed himself to this for us But it seems he was constrained it was against his will For he was afraid of it Heb. 5.7 Yea more then so he prayed against it Mat. 26.39 Father if it be possible saith he let this cup pass from me To this I answer my Beloved Answ that Christ must be considered in a double notion and respect either as a private man or as a Mediator and a surety for his people Take him as a private man who had assumed a nature to which death was an enemy especially so bitter and so sharp a death as he was now about to undergo and so he justly feared it and declined it Take him as a publick Surety and a mercifull high-Priest and so he willingly submitted to it And this his willingness by reason of his Office was the greater because his will by reason of his nature could not choose but shrink from
commandeth not at all neither comes it into his heart They look not what the Lord hath ordered them to do Their eyes are not upon him for direction any way but what they have themselves a mind to do that they are imployed in They are a rule unto themselves and walk according to their own counsels They follow the way of their own hearts and the sight of their own eyes They are not guided by the will of God but by the will of man and the will of the flesh as it is called 1 Joh. 13. which stands in opposition to the will of God God may order what he will and they will do what they please For tell me my Beloved when you swear and when you are unclean and when you run out to all excess of riot when you prophane the Sabbaths and the Ordinances of the Lord when you do things that are apparently and grosly evill which admit of no excuse Are these the works which God hath given you to do Can you look him in the face and tell him so When you lie and when you cozen and deceive do you these things by his order No my Beloved no such matter This is the will of God even your sanctification that as he who hath called you is holy so you should be holy in all manner of conversation And therefore while you wallow in your lusts while you defile your selves with every sin you do not follow Gods order you do not walk by his rule but are a rule unto your selves I wish that such would seriously consider but these two things First It is the fearfullest and the extreamest judgement that God can bring on any man in this life to give him so far over to himself to neglect his order the direction he is pleased to give him and to walk according to his own counsel who when he permits men as he did the Gentiles Act. 10.16 to wallow in their own ways the ways which of themselves they choose and follow This is a formidable thing indeed And therefore he is wont to execute this in the close of all as the heaviest of his judgements as having nothing left but this to shew the fierceness of his wrath and fury on a person or a people When he hath proved and tryed men every way and nothing will prevail with them this is the last the parting blow he gives them over to themselves and so he leaves them And this is certainly the worst that the Almighty God can do to them Secondly If you will not be ordered by the Lord in one way you shall be ordered by him in another If you will not be ordered by the precept you shall be ordered by the threatning If you will not do his will his will shall certainly be done upon you If you submit not here to his commanding will you shall be forced to submit to his condemning will hereafter Here you say you will not hear you will not do the Lord commands you this and that but you resist and stand it out and you will not be obedient But tell me Brethren are you able to out-stand the curse and vengeance of the Lord in the last and dreadful day when he shall be revealed from Heaven with his mighty Angels And when the Lord shall order you to go to Hell and say Depart you cursed into everlasting fire will you be able to resist and to disobey that order Will you be able to controle him and hinder him from executing the sentence of the Law upon you No no you break the bonds and cords of God here but then the Lord will bind you fast enough in everlasting chains of darkness break and rent them if you can The haughtiness of men shall be brought low and God alone shall be exalted in that day And therefore I beseech you my Beloved eye the Lord in all your ways and see what work it is that he giveth you to do Be sure he give it you before you do it And this indeed is to be men after Gods own heart when you do Gods will I have found David saith the Lord Psal 89.20 called Act. 13.22 A man after my own heart who will do all my wills And if you thus do God will own you in the latter day and liberally reward you too After you have done the will of God you shall receive the promise that is the happiness and mercy promised Heb. 10.36 In doing of your own will or the wills of other men perhaps you may attain some transitory riches pleasures honors poor fleeting things which in the end will perish with you But if you do the will of God this will perpetuate and Eternize you and make you to endure for evermore 1 Joh. 2.17 The world passeth away and the lusts thereof but he that doth the will of God abideth for ever JOHN 17.4 I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do AND thus far of the first Particular considered in the words what it was that Christ did the work which God had given him to do The Second follows now in order to be handled viz. The manner how he did it he did it absolutely and compleatly I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I have made an end of it Now a work is ended then when it is so dispatched that there is no remainder of it to be done When there is nothing left of it imperfect and unfinished So that there can be nothing added to it any way to make it more accomplished and compleat And this is that which Jesus Christ affirmeth of himself in relation to the work that was committed to him of his Father saith he I have gone through with it I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do or I have brought it to a full end But had he so compleated it and ended it indeed when he put up this supplication to his Father Was there no remainder of it to be done Why the great work of all was yet behind the offering of himself upon the Cross as an oblation and Sacrifice to God the Father He had not yet laid down his life for his people Yet this he was designed to do his Father had appointed him to tread the Wine-press of his wrath and to become an offering for sin In which respect the holy Ghost affirmeth of him that it behoved Christ to suffer There was a necesse in it because it was the Fathers pleasure that it should be so it was the work that he had given him to do and how then saith our Saviour here before his passion and before his suffering I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do To this Interpreters give various answers according to their various apprehensions of our Saviours meaning in the words Some think he speaks by way of prophesie and so makes mention of that which was indeed to come as if it had been past
entertained by us and we will not entertain him or if we do it is in such a careless and in such a slight way as if he were not worthy to be looked upon The evil spirit comes and he hath all the welcome that the house can make he finds it swept and garnished the Holy Spirit comes and he is set behind doors He offers holy motions to us he stirs us up to read to pray to humble and afflict our souls to meditate of holy things and we neglect them as if they were not worth the hearkning to He offers sweet and pretious comforts to us and we forsake our own mercy we hanker after other pleasures and delights the comforts of the Spirit will not rellish with us our souls loath this light bread we must have fleshly satisfactions and refreshments spiritual will not serve the turn Brethren this is no good usage the Holy Spirit grieves at this He thinks as well he may he hath deserved better at our hands then this is I have brought down Christ to them and so have comforted and cheered them thinks he and now they slight and grieve me 2. And as we deal unkindly with him when we slight him so we deal more unkindly with him when we oppose him and resist him when we set our selves against him I know the Spirit of grace is irresistible in some respect but yet ad luctam he may be resisted though he cannot ad victoriam and so he is sometimes even by the Lords own people Even they have flesh within them that lusts against this Spirit as the Apostle Paul speaks That doth not slight it and neglect it only but lust against it The Spirit will have this or that done no saith the flesh it shall not the Spirit shall not be obeyed the Spirit will have such a lust cast out that is always crossing him and thwarting with him No saith the flesh it shall not goe The Spirit would have us set about such or such a holy duty the flesh opposes and resists the motion and we are well content it may be at present that it should do so and so we sit still and let all alone say the Spirit what he will Brethren the Spirit takes it very ill to be thus used by us it makes him sad that these whom he hath done so much for should make him such a recompence and that he should be wounded thus in the house of his friends That they should keep and favour fellows there and make them houshold-guests that go to thrust him out of doors when he comes to lodge with them I beseech you think upon it and give him better entertainment that so he may take pleasure to be with you If you desire to make the most of the presence of your Saviour in the Spirit now he is absent from you in the body as you must not grieve him so you must take singular and extraordinary comfort in him for he is sent down as a Comforter you know in Christs absence and therefore this is the special use that you are to make of him It is sad that Christ is gone but it is comfortable that the Spirit is come down from heaven to supply his place and therefore let us see that we take comfort in it Ah my Beloved is not this a sweet and welcome Office of the Spirit to represent Christ to us and so pretious and so sweet a friend as Christ is when he comes in and tells us Christ is gone up indeed to heaven and he will fetch you after him ere it be long that where he is there may you be also And in the mean time he hath taken care of you and he hath sent me down of purpose to be instead of him to you and he would have you look upon me as if he himself were with you Ah my Beloved should not our hearts even leap within us at such news as this Doth not the Spirit comfort us should it not be a ravishing and a reviving thing to us when he comes in Christs stead and supplies Christs room and Christs place Doth not our Saviour Christ himself propound it oftentimes to his Apostles and Disciples for their comfort when they were in heaviness and when their hearts were even about to break within them come be not troubled that I am about to leave you I will send you another Comforter that shall abide with you for ever Joh. 14.16 I have been a comfort to you I confess but I will send you another Comforter one that shall comfort you as much as I have done and one that shall stick to you and shall not leave you as I am about to do but shall abide with you for ever I will not leave you comfortless as Christ adds in the 18. verse No which way will you help it might they say How can we but be comfortless when Christ is gone why this way I will help it might our Saviour say I will come to you and be with you by my Spirit And though the world can never see me while my body is withdrawn and I am only present with you by my Spirit yet you have eyes to see me present with you this way and while you have this presence with you I hope you have no reason to complain that you are left without comfort So that the Spirit is a comforter you see by representing Christ to us yea it is a greater comfort that the Spirit is with us then if Christ himself were with us It is a greater comfort that Christ is present with us by his Spirit then if he should be present with us by his body then the comfort were more narrow but now it is more large then the comfort were more outward but now it is more inward then the comfort were more fleshly but now it is more spiritual and therefore let us take in this comfort If you desire to make the most of the presence of your Saviour in the Spirit now he is absent from you in the body as you must take in the comforts so you must take in the graces of the Spirit for even as Christ is present with you by the comforts so he is present with you by the graces of the Spirit By these he dwells among us though he be in heaven in the body as the Psalmist intimates Psal 68.18 When he ascended up on high he received gifts for men the gifts and graces of the Spirit to bestow on men that the Lord God might dwell among them by those gifts and those graces And therefore the Apostle prays for the Ephesians that Christ might dwell in their hearts by faith one of the principal of those graces Ephes 3.17 Well then my Brethren when Jesus Christ makes tenders of himself to you by these graces let him come in and dwell with you Make the more of this way of his residence and habitation with you because you cannot have him in the other When he offers any
with God in prayer let us consider what a holy God he is and let us labour to be holy too Let us be separate from the remainder of the world as he himself advises us 2 Cor. 6 17. and touch no unclean thing and then we have his promise that he will receive us The meditation of the holiness of God as it will be very usefull to prepare us and to make us fit for prayer so it will be very helpfull to us in the parts of prayer and that both in confession and petition and thanksgiving 1. It will help to humble us in the confession of our sins While we consider that they are so filthy and unclean and God upon the other side whom we confess them to so holy This cannot choose if it be duely weighed but shame us wonderfully in the presence of the Lord that we have been and are so filthy before such an holy God Indeed we ought to be ashamed to commit iniquity being such an odious thing The Lord hath planted shame in man to be a bridle as it were to check him to curb him and to hold him in from sinfull courses But if we have not been ashamed in the commission we ought especially to be ashamed in the confession as God advises Israel Be ashamed and confounded for your own wayes Ezek. 36.2 To review our sins with shame and to cry out as Daniel doth Dan. 9.8 to us belongeth confusion c. And Ezra in his sad confession Ezra 9.6 Oh my God I blush saith he and am ashamed to lift up my face to thee We should remember our evil wayes and our doings that are not good and loath our selves for our abominations Ezek. 36.30 we should remember and be confounded and never open our mouths any more because of our shame We should cast ashes on our heads and rent our hearts and cry unclean unclean Lev. 13.45 And there is no one thing that will confound and shame us more then the consideration of the matchless purity and holiness of God whom by our sins we hâ—ve offended Oh this will make us wonder that he should endure such filthy persons in his presence 2. As it will humble us in the confession of our sins so it will encourage us in our petitions for the cure of sin As it will make us low in our confessions so it will make us high in our petitions For how is sin which is uncleanness removed and cured in any of us but by holiness And is it not a comfort to us when we are making our requests for holiness that we are praying to the Holy God who is holy in himself and who is the original of all the holiness that is communicated to the Creature who is the Sanctifier of his people Is it not comfortable that when we come to draw that we are at the Well-head If you observe it is the great petition that our Saviour hath to make in the behalf of his Apostles and Disciples verse 17. Sanctifie them with thy truth and this he prosecutes throughout And therefore he begins his prayer for them Holy Father 3. It will enlarge us in our thanksgivings to the Lord for holiness when we consider whence it came and by whom it was bestowed We shall see what cause we have to praise the Lord the Donor and Dispenser of it As David intimateth in that memorable place to this purpose Psal 97.12 Rejoice in the Lord ye righteous ye that are sanctified ye that are holy and give thanks at the remembrance of his Holiness And yet again Psal 30.4 Sing unto the Lord O ye Saints of his and give thanks at the remembrance of his holiness And thus far of the Object of our Saviours Prayer as he is mentioned by his title Father and his attribute Holy Holy Father Proceed we now to enter on the parts of it There are two things especially for which our Saviour is a suitor to his Father in the behalf of his Apostles and Disciples Preservation and Sanctification To these may be reduced and referred all that he desires for them preservation in my text and onward to ver 17. Sanctification in the rest that follow First he desireth preservation Keep them through thy own name And this desire of his he backs especially with two reasons and they are weighty and of great importance First he would have his Father keep them now because he himself had kept them and 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 but he who was designed to be lost And now I come to thee saith Christ I am to be no more among them and therefore I beseech thee now receive them into thy special care and tuition Here I resign them safe and whole and sound to thee I pray thee keep them henceforward as well as I have done to this time Secondly he would have his Father keep them because they were in such a dangerous place where they were in great peril every day and every hour where they were hated and maligned upon all hand and that for the truths sake I have given them thy word and the world hath hated them and so on And therefore I beseech thee Father look to them and keep them from the evil as it is added in the next verse The evil of fault and the evil of pain Some other things are interposed and touched incidentally which shall be handled in their places The thing desired is first in order to be handled before we pitch upon the Arguments and Reasons with which our Saviour presseth and enforceth this desire of his and this as we have heard is preservation And here we have to be considered two things First the means by which our Saviour here desires that his Apostles and Disciples might be kept and that is by or through his Fathers name Holy Father keep through thy own name those whom thou hast given me And Secondly the end for which he prayes they might be kept that they may be one as we are So that you see the supplication of our Saviour Christ is full he prayes both for the Means and End desireth that the end might be attained for them by the means Begin we with the means by which our Saviour here desires that his Apostles and Disciples might be kept and that is through his Fathers name Holy Father keep through thine own name those whom thou hast given me The name of God is generally taken for any thing that makes him known to men as one man is distinguished from another by his name Particularly it imports sometimes the attributes of God now one and then another of them Sometimes his attribute of mercy as that is called the name of God Exod. 34.5 6. The Lord descended in a Cloud and there proclaimed the name of God And what was that The Lord the Lord God mercifull and gratious and
what to do for then perhaps the Lord will shut the doors against you and leave you helpless in your troubles And truly it is just with God that they that seek not to him till they be driven out of all their shifts should be neglected by him when they come 2. Humbly or else the Name of God will not be a refuge to you You may come to him for shelter but he will not receive you into his protection No he will resist the proud he will keep them out of doors he will leave them succourless in their distresses They were so proud and their stomachs were so high in prosperous times that they looked not after God God was not in all their thoughts Psal 10.4 And therefore now when they come running to him because they know not how to live without him the Lord will look as little after them let them do what they will for God But on the other side my Brethren there are many sweet and pretious promises of mercy protection to the humble person 3. Heartily with all the heart and all the soul for so is the direction Deut. 4.29 you must not seek him feignedly with half a heart with a divided spirit for if you do you may expect such entertainment as is threatned to those dissembling wretches mentioned Prov. 1.28 They shall call upon me but I will not answer they shall seek me early but they shall not find me and you may look to speed as hollow-hearted Israel did Hos 5.6 They shall go with their flocks and with their herds to seek the Lord and shall not find him 4. Reformedly in a way of Reformation and amendment It is in vain for a prophane and filthy person so continuing to run to the name of God in his distresses He must not look for any shelter there he shall not come neer God for God will be sanctified in all that come near him He that cannot endure to look upon prophaness with his eye will not shrowd it with his wing But to the Saints to holy persons the Lord will be a sure refuge The Name of the Lord is a strong Tower Prov. 18.10 the righteous runneth into it and is safe 5. Constantly we must hold out in seeking God and that not only in the act but also in the power and vigor of it And as the Spouse though she were long delaid and though she met with many difficulties and disheartnings yet she continued seeking still She followed Christ through every lane and every street and never left till she had found him So we must follow God my Brethren through all the Ordinances all the means all the wayes that lead to him and though he fly away and hide himself we must not faint and languish but continue and hold out till we have found him Vse 4 Is it so that they that belong to Christ are kept c. If then we have been kept in any dangers or distresses let us look up to this Name let us not rest in the external means and secondary causes of our succour or deliverance but let us look beyond them and above them to the name of God Let us see this Name of his engraven and enstampt upon them as the Prophet counsels Mich. 6.9 The man of wisdom shall see thy Name and when we see it let us acknowledge it to be the fountain of our help the cause of all our succour and deliverance Let us confess that God according to our Saviours Prayer in my Text hath kept us through his own Name And let his Name have all the glory And thus far of the means by which our Saviour here desires that his Disciples and Apostles might be kept his Fathers Name Holy Father keep through thy own Name those whom thou hast given me The End for which he prays they might be kept comes now in order to be handled That they may be one as we are A strange expression if we look upon it with a superficial view That the Disciples of our Saviour may be one in some respects is very easie to imagine But how they should be one as God the Father and the Son are one who are so one that they are the very same the same essence for so the union is identical though they be not the same person this is hard to be conceived yet this is the expression of our Saviour to his Father in my Text That they be one as we are Which that you may the better understand my Brethren you must know that as in Scripture is many times a note of similitude and not of equality It intimates the truth and the reality of that wherein the likeness stands and not the measure and degree I might give many instances wherein that particle is so taken you may see that place for instance Luk. 6.36 Be you merciful as your Father also is merciful It is impossible for any man to be merciful as God if you look to the degree For as the Heavens are higher then the Earth so are his ways and thoughts above ours in reference to mercy and forgiveness But yet we may be merciful as God is really and truly so although not so in such a measure We may be merciful as he though not as merciful as he So in my Text our Saviour prays in the behalf of his Apostles and Disciples to his Father that they may be one saith he as we are as thee and I are The meaning is not that they may be one as neerly that is impossible but that they may be one as truly as we are Not that they may be one by a substantial and identical but by a real union as we are Not that they many be one in all respects but that they may be one in some respects as we are But you will ask me then what those respects are I will shew you in a Word God and Christ the Father and the Son are two persons And yet though they be two persons they agree in every thing Though they be divers yet they never differ No they do continually minde the same things they will and nill the same things they love and hate the same things There is an unexpressible agreement and consent between them every way even so it is exceedingly to be desired that the Disciples of our Saviour though they be many persons yet they may be of one mind and one heart and one affection That they may agree in all things that there may be no difference no divisions no jars no strifes no rents among them but that they may in this respect be one even as the Father and Son are And this you see is the great thing for which our Saviour is a suitor to his Father in behalf of his Apostles and Disciples that they might be at unity among themselves This is the end for which he prays they may be kept by the Almighty power of God himself that as far as it is possible for men
themselves Proceed we to the clearing of the second It is a matter of high concernment for Christs disciples to be at nearest unity among themselves As of wondrous difficulty so of very great concernment It is the first thing that our Saviour begs in the behalf of his Apostles and Disciples that they might be one And prayes his Father to effect it by his own almighty power Holy Father keep them through thy own name that they may be one as we are By which he shews that as it is a hard thing so it is a choise thing a thing of special consequence worthy the putting forth of the almighty power of God about it And therefore the Apostle Paul would have us strain our selves to get it and preserve it to do as much as lies in us even to the utmost as much as it is possible for men to do to set all our abilities and all our faculties a work to procure and keep peace Rom. 12.18 And to this end having perswaded the Colossians to adorn themselves with mercy kindness humbleness of mind and with the habits and the acts of meekness and long-suffering as with glorious robes he perswadeth them at length to put on love which is an uniting grace a bond of perfectness the uppermost garment as it were and so the largest fairest richest and most pretious piece of the new cloathing of a Christian And therefore puts a special Emphasis upon his exhortation to it Above all these things put on charity which is the bond of perfectness which will unite and join you perfectly together They are not graces of the meanest rank that Paul commends to the Colossians in the former verses Yet having run through all of them and being come at length to this uniting grace as to the top and chief of all he sets the finger of a hand against it to point it out as supereminent Above all these things put on charity which is the bond of perfectness How is the Prophet David carried out beyond himself and even ravished in the contemplation of this pretious unity among the Saints and therefore calleth others to join in admiration with him Psal 133.1 Behold how good and pleasant a thing it is for brethren to dwell together in unity The admirable and surpassing excellency of it is represented to us in the Scripture many wayes If God will promise any special mercy to the Church it shall be this Isa 11.6 The Wolf and Lamb shall dwell together the Leopard shall lye down with the Kid and the Lyon with the Calf and a little Child shall lead them And great shall be the peace of thy Children Isa 54.13 If he will give them any choice blessing The Lord will bless his people with peace Psal 29.11 If we will pray for any favour worth striving for it must be for Church-peace and unity among the Saints Pray ye for the peace of Jerusalem Psalm 112.7 that it may be like a City that is at unity within it self And therefore the Apostle is so earnest for it as it were for life and death The God of peace give you peace alwayes and by all means By which he intimateth that as it is a thing of wondrous difficulty so of great concernment for Christs Disciples to be at unity among themselves And this I shall lay open to you in a few paaticulars It is of great concernment to the growth of Christs Disciples and to their thriving in their spiritual estate It is observed of the Church Acts 4.32 that they were of one heart and one soul And that which follows presently is this great grace was upon them all It seems they were in the increasing and the thriving hand by this means Where there is great peace among the Saints there is great grace too Much union brings forth much communion and much Communion brings forth much holiness and much grace When Christians walk on in a sweet and amicable way they cannot choose but grow exceedingly But when dissentions make them to reserve themselves this is extremely prejudicial to the increase in holiness which otherwise would be among them That place of the Apostle is very notable to this purpose Col. 2 19. And not holding the head from which all the body by joints and bands having nourishment ministred and knit together encreaseth with the increase of God being knit together it maketh increase It is of great concernment as to the growth of Christs Disciples so also to their comfort that they be at nearest unity among themselves it is a notable expression of the Apostle Paul to this purpose Col. 2.2 That their hearts might be comforted being knit together in love There is the mercy wished them that their hearts might be comforted and then the requisite condition and qualification to make them capable of this comfort being knit together in love Much union much comfort little union little comfort no union no comfort Indeed it is a pleasant thing for Brethren to live together in unity but it is a bitter thing to live in discord and dissention it eats out all the joy and comfort of a man and fills his spirit with vexation When men are over head and ears in Controversies and Contentions especially Saints with Saints it makes their lives unquiet and uncomfortable to them You shall observe how restless such men are who are embroyled in troubles and who are deep in Controversies and Contentions they cannot eat they cannot sleep they cannot talk they can do nothing cheerfully and freely they are so clogged and cumbred with their own impatient and perplexed thoughts Listen to them and you shall hear them ever and anon complaining that every one is vexing them and troubling and molesting them so that they cannot live in peace Their wives their children and their servants cannot be at quiet for them they are in such a pelting humor upon every light occasion Their families are like the middle Region of the air continually rent and torn with storms and thunders and tempestuous stirs which rise at first of a thing of nothing a thin invisible fume drawn up from the earth And all this comes to pass by the dissentions that they have with others which takes away the meekness of their spirits and with that their quiet too And therefore you shall find a meek and quiet spirit joyned together and made the chief adorning of a Christian 1 Pet. 2.4 Whose adorning let it be that of the hidden man of the heart even the adorning of a meek and quiet spirit It it be meek it will be quiet if enraged it will be troubled it will be like the Sea that cannot rest whose waters cast up mire and dirt It is of so great concernment as to the growth and comfort of Christs Disciples that they be at unity c. so also to their keeping in with God himself they must have peace among themselves if they will have peace with God if they be angry one with another God
and nourish discords and dissentions For these if we will give them entertainment will set our hearts on fire of hell And therefore when our thoughts begin to work apace in any injury or provocation that is offered to us and to tell us strange things that it is not to be born and that it may not be endured let us smother and suppress them let us not give place to them no not for an hour no not for a moment It is observed of Abraham that when the fowls came down upon his sacrifice he drove them away Gen. 15.11 so when such foul and noisome thoughts as these offer to pitch upon our heart let them have no footing there no let us watch them narrowly that we may suddenly chase them away And let us follow the advice of the Apostle Heb. 10.24 Let us consider one another to provoke to love Let us consider that and think on that which may stir us up to love let our imaginations work and dwell upon such thoughts as these and not those which lead on to Contestation and Dissention As we should chase away the thoughts so we should avoid the persons that make and nourish breaches and divisions It is the Apostles Counsel that we should mark them that cause divisions and offences and avoid them Rom. 16.17 Mark them not to join with them but to decline them and avoid them Brethren you shall observe that there are some of all hands whose work it is to make peace and to compose breaches And there are others on the other side who are as busie as it is possible for men to be to make rents and separations and divisions And it is our unhappiness that these dividers work goes onward faster then the others Indeed it is an easie thing for one to rip faster then two or three can sow Alas how many are there in these wrangling times who are continually medling and who make this their work and business to see how they can set men one against another how they can blow the coals of discord and kindle them into a flame how they can heighten the contention and the animosity that is too high already among those who are in name at least and in profession Christs Disciples Now I beseech you my beloved as the Apostle doth the Romans in the fore-alledged Scripture Mark these men let them be of what side they will if they be of this spirit do you set a mark upon them that you may know them another time and that you decline them and avoid them It is a bitter imprecation of the Apostle Pauls Gal. 2.12 I wish they were cut off that trouble you Truly I wish that they who are the troublers of our Sions peace the main and unwearied sticklers in our Church-divisions who would not have things come to an accord and a friendly composition for ends which they best know I wish they were cut off from all communion with the Saints That all the people of the Lord on all sides would look aloof upon them and avoid them as the pests of this Nation And certainly if all men would avoid them and keep off from them they would have the less work and we should have the less trouble If we would be at nearest unity among our selves we must be furnished with abundance of that wisdom which cometh from above as the Apostle cals it James 3.17 For that is gentle peaceable easie to be be entreated full of mercy and good fruits Contentious persons may applaud their own wits and think themselves extreamly wise and subtil in making good the quarrels which they undertake But what saith the Apostle ver 14. if you have bitter strife and envy in your hearts glory not lye not against the truth This wisdom descendeth not from above And if it come not from above from heaven it cometh from beneath from earth from hell it is earthly sensual devilish What ever mens abilities or parts or reaches are if they be alwayes quarrelling and falling out as many are it is apparent that they want this blessed wisdom To say the truth my brethren it is want of wit that is much of the cause of all this Anger resteth in the bosom of fools and so the wise man tells us that every fool will be medling Prov. 20.3 It is an honor for a man to cease from strife but every fool will be medling It is the property of every fool to do so You have a sort of men my Brethren that will be at the end of every quarrel If there be any difference or strife near them they will be sure to have a finger in the pie they will never sit out Now would you know what kind of men these are They are a company of fools a company of busie medling fools and were it not for such Idiots we might have much more peace then we have at this day If men were ballasted with wisdom they would not be a tempering and a making variance as they do And if indignities and wrongs were offered to them they would easily digest them and possess their souls in patience and therefore let us labour after this wisdom and let us follow the advise and counsel of our Saviour Mar. 9 50. Have salt in your selves and have peace one with another First let us have the salt of wisedom in our selves and then we shall have unity and peace with others If we would be one and if we would have peace the blessing we must be under the commanding and the ruling power of peace the vertue It must sit upon the throne in our hearts as the Apostle Paul exhorts Col. 3.15 Let the peace of God rule in your hearts Brethren when you are any way exasperated or provoked so that your passions rise or swell and are ready to break out into intemperate words or actions when you are hardly able to contain your selves then let the ruling power of peace appear by stilling and composing all again And let this holy disposition be so strong within you that neither pride nor wrath nor malice nor any other lust may be able to controll it There is a story that the Swevians had a Law among them that in a fray where swords were drawn if a woman or a child did cry but peace a great way of they were bound to end the quarrel or else he died that struck the next stroke after peace was named So if your passions be at war within you to use the Apostles phrase if they be up in arms and you do but think of peace or any friend perswade to peace let all be husht and quiet presently and let that passion die let it be crucified that dares to stir when peace is mentioned So let the peace of God rule in our hearts let it triumph in all and over all our provocations that we may bear them all with an unmoved and undisturbed spirit Let us be earnest with the Lord in prayer that he would make
you to a reckoning you may say to him as he doth to his Father in my Text and say it truly Those whom thou gavest me to keep I kept and not one of them is lost by my means 2. So Magistrates are Christs servants his Shepherds in the Common-wealth as they are called 1 King 22.17 And they must learn to keep them safe who are committed to them to be kept as Christ doth They must be very careful of the sheep of Christ that none of them miscarry in their hands And to this end they must do two things 1. They must chase away the Wolves that seek to prey upon the sheep of Christ The Wolves that prey upon their persons or estates These you must either make to fly or break their jaws as Job did and pluck the prey out of their teeth The Wolves that prey upon their souls that bring in soul-destroying errors damnable heresies as the Apostle calls them 2 Pet. 2.1 There are some errors which whosoever holds them and continues in them suffers loss but he himself is saved as the Apostle speaks 1 Cor. 3.15 But there are others in which if any man continue he himself is lost for ever Now they that bring in those destroy the sheep of Christ and therefore they that keep his sheep must take course with such according to the power which the Law of God and Man hath put into their hands 2. They must be very tender of the sheep of Christ which he hath given them to keep as David was Alas those sheep what evil have they done And as Hezekiah was who as a Type of Christ is stiled a hiding place from winde and a covert from the Tempest Isa 32.2 where the poor sheep might fly for shelter in a storm and there find sure refuge Now I beseech you honorable and respected Preached at the Assizes who are the Ministers of Christ be you such to his people Let them have protection from you let them be kept safe by you Oh do not see them injured and undone if you can help them Oh do not see them lost if you can save them Keep them as you desire that Jesus Christ should keep you let those who will assuredly find favour at the last day at the bar of Jesus Christ find favour at your bar now I speak not this that you should boulster any out in any evil God forbid but that you should be very careful that those who appertain to Christ be not so far neglected by you as to be over-born unjustly and malitiously by those who are the enemies of Christ and them Oh be a covert and a hiding place to such Make them ashamed who report I hope untruly that many times an honest man finds less respect and countenance then an enemy of Christ And in a word in all your actings and administrations have a careful eye upon the little flock of Jesus Christ to fence it and to mound it and safe-guard it that no damage come to it that when the Stewardship is out and the counting time is come you may not be dejected and hang down your heads but may appear before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy that you may rejoyce in Christ and Christ may rejoyce in you to see how well and faithfully you have demeaned your selves in his service JOHN 17.12 But the Son of Perdition AND thus of our Saviours general profession that he had safely and entirely kept all those that were bestowed upon him by his Father Those whom thou gavest me I kept and none of them is lost Proceed we now to his particular exception of Judas but the son of perdition none of them is lost but the son of perdition How and upon what account Judas is excepted here from the rest of the Apostles you may remember I have shewed you fully heretofore And therefore I shall touch no more at the Exception But I shall fasten on the appellation that is given him who is excepted here The son of perdition Now he is called the son of perdition not only to imply that he was a lost creature as considered in himself but more then so that he was destinated and appointed to be lost in the eternal Counsel and Decree of God that he designed him to destruction A manner of Expression very usual with the Hebrews as Calvin and some others after him observe upon the Text. Now this our Saviour mentions not to lay the fault of the destruction of this wretched man on Gods Decree or to take it off from Judas But to make it to appear that though he were a lost creature yet the election of the Lord remained firm and stood unalterable notwithstanding For he was not elected but reprobated and appointed to perdition This being the intention of the phrase the Observation clearly offered to us here is this DOCTRINE That God in his Eternal Counsel and Decree hath appointed and designed some certain special persons to destruction This was the case of Judas in my Text he was Perditioni destinatus ac devotus destinated and devoted to perdition And therefore when he was destroyed and lost the Holy Ghost observeth of him that he went to his own place Act. 1.25 that is to Hell the place which was appointed for him from Eternity And therefore Bildad speaks of some whom God hath cast away Job 8.4 And Job of some who are reserved to destruction Job 21.31 The Wise man tells us that God hath made the wicked for the day of evil Prov. 16.4 The Lord made all things for himself his own glory yea even the wicked for the glory of his Justice to be declared and manifested on them in the evil day the day which is so to them That is the day of judgement and perdition of ungodly men as the Apostle Peter calls it 2 Epist 3.7 to which day they are reserved as the same Apostle speaks you must conceive it in the everlasting purpose and decree of God 1 Pet. 2.9 As there are vessels of mercy ordained to glory so there are vessels of wrath prepared to destruction Rom. 9.22 Not only by their own misdeeds but in some sence by the decree of God Meritoriously indeed and in desert they are prepared for it only by themselves and by their own sins But in design they are prepared for it also by the Counsel and the fore-appointment of the Lord. And this indeed is specially intended in the place Or else wherefore doth the Apostle for clearing of the Justice of the Lord in this particular fly to his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his absolute and soveraign power which he hath over all his creatures to bestow them at his pleasure either to wrath or to salvation Even as the Potter is at liberty to mould his clay to what shape and to what use he pleases either to honour or to dishonour The answer had been ready and at hand if God had had no finger in the business in preparing men to
God subservient to the will of man which is a most blasphemous derogation Indeed by this opinion the Lord doth not so much in the business of election and salvation as man doth God chooseth man upon condition if he do thus and thus but man is he that strikes the stroke and that makes it all sure So that he elects himself much more then God doth Whereas our Saviour saith to his Disciples you have not chosen me but I have chosen you John 15.6 Not you me by your deserts and the good use of your free will but I you of my free favour I shall add no other arguments against universal conditional election But proceed to answer such as the assertors of it bring for it Object They confidently urge that place of the Apostle 1 Tim. 2.4 God will have all men to be saved therefore he electeth all appointeth all men to salvation Sol. But what if we should understand it not of his will of Counsel and Decree but of his will of Precept and Command God will have all men to be saved that is he wlleth and commandeth all men to repent and to believe the Gospel that they may be saved Or if we understand it of his Will of Counsel and Decree that he appointeth all men to salvation the meaning is not singula generum but genera singulorum Not all men universally without exception but some of all sorts of all callings of all Nations some of all A manner of expression very usual as I might give you divers instances out of the Scripture It is said that all Judea went to John the Baptist and were baptized of him in Iordan that is some of all parts That Christ healed all diseases that is some of all kinds So in the place forealledged God will have all men to be saved that is some of all sorts And this was necessary to be urged in opposition to the Iews to check their folly and presumption who in a kind of envious pride restrained election and salvation to themselves alone as if no other people should be saved but they And in savour of the Gentiles over whom the Iews insulted as a rejected and a lost people forbad the Gospel to be preached to them would not endure to hear of turning to the Gentiles Therefore to check the one and cheer the other as the condition of the times required the Apostle tells them God will have all men to be saved as well the Gentiles as the Iews without exception 3. Or if he would have all men to be saved of all sorts and of all Nations How is it that they are not saved for who hath resisted his will Assuredly my Brethren if God would have all men to be saved all men universally it is because he cannot save them that they are not saved The only cause why any one doth not what he desires and wills to do is because there is a failing in his power and were it not for want of this there is no one in the world but would bring his will to pass And therefore to affirm that God desires and wills that all men should be saved without exception and that the reason why he doth not save them is the obstinacy and perverseness of their wills by which they finally resist the work of grace and hinder God from doing his desire and will upon them is to make God too weak for man who hath the better of him in the contestation which is blasphemous It is objected further If God elect not all men to salvation he is partial since Object 2 all were in the same condition To this I answer why should he not be partial if you will call it so Sol. in the disposal of a free gift preferring one before another Why should he not do with his own what he pleases this is not matter of debt or matter of justice but matter of mercy Suppose he choose a few what is he therefore bound to choose all Indeed he is not bound to choose any But if he choose a few only and leave the rest who are incomparably the Object 3 greater number to perish in eternal flames and torments though he be not partial it may be thought that he is cruel To this I answer Sol. That he is infinitely unutterably merciful that he chooses any soul out of the corrupted mass takes such a loathsome and polluted creature to himself And that he leaves the rest in that forlorn condition whereunto they brought themselves and from which he is no way bound to free them he is manifestly just and if he be but just he is not cruel Yea but he doth not only leave them in their sins but determines to condemn them for their sins in the pit of Hell for ever And is not this a piece of justice to condemn them for their sins Do not their sins deserve the Condemnation So that if you look one way he is merciful and if you look the other he is just and if you lay them both together mercy triumpheth over justice The Lord is infinitely gracious that any are appointed to salvation and he had been but righteous if all had been appointed to destruction True he rejecteth more then he electeth but mercy is more glorious in electing one then justice in rejecting all For justice doth but take them as it finds them but mercy makes them what it finds them not There is a cause of justice in the creature there is no cause at all of mercy When God rejecteth men he determines to condemn them for their sin disobedience but when he electeth them he determines not to save them for their grace and their obedience Somewhat moveth him to damn nothing without him moveth him to save so that if any be appointed to salvation if all be not appointed to destruction his mercy hath the hand upon his justice Object Yea but God hath received a ransom and a price for all So that if all be not designed by him to glory and salvation he must be unjust to take the price of their deliverance from destruction and all the while to appoint them to destruction How can this agree together Sol. To this I answer God hath received a price for all indeed a price of worth enough for all but not intended to be paid for all neither by him the giver nor by Christ the sufferer So that in property of speech the Lord hath not received a ransom for any reprobate Christ paid it not for any such he prays not for the world and much less doth he pay for them the Father took it not for any such but only for his own Elect who shall assuredly be made partakers of the glory purchased by is unto all Eternity There are many more objections but some are frivolous and some blasphemous the thoughts of men will work without measure and without end upon such points as these are But I must silence all of them with
you undervalue heaven and the incomparable riches of Christs mercy to your souls And whence proceedeth this but from the fleshiness of your corrupt hearts while you walk by sense only and therefore I beseech you take a little pains to make your selves conceive and understand your happiness and spend a little time upon the contemplation of the blessedness that is reserved for you in the heavens and this will draw and swallow up your present sorrows and afflictions Is it so that Jesus Christ would have his people full of holy joy you Vse 3 then who have your hearts replenished with it take heed that neither sin nor Satan steal away this Jewel from you which is the legacy that Christ bequeathed you when he was even about to leave this world But first before I press you any further in this kind this caution would be fitly interposed be sure the joy you have be Christs joy the joy which he works by his Spirit which he would have you to be full of and that you have his joy fulfilled in your selves for you must know my Brethren that as there is a kind of joy that is a fruit and effect of the Spirit as the Apostle Paul stiles it Gal. 5.22 so there is another kind that is a fruit and effect of the flesh there is a laughter that is madness a rejoycing that is not good as the Apostle hath it Jam. 4.16 And nulla est verior miseria quam falsa laetitia There is no truer misery then false joy and feigned felicity A very hypocrite may have his raptures and flashes of exceeding comfort The second ground you know received the Word of God with joy and those that followed John the Baptist rejoyced in his sight and such as after fall away may find a kind of taste and sweetness in the Word of God and in the powers of the world to come And therefore we had need to prove the joy and comfort that we have whether it be Christs joy the joy which he works in his people by his Spirit The marks to try it may be such as follow The joy of Christ which he works by his Spirit is chiefly moved with spiritual things It 's true there is a joy allowable for earthly blessings as when the Lord vouchsafes us rain and fruitful seasons and the like in doing so he fills our hearts with joy and gladness Act. 14.17 But this is as if we rejoyced not as the Apostle Paul speaks 1 Cor. 7.30 it is not worthy to be named with the joy that ariseth from the sense of the favour of God and spiritual blessings conferred on our souls Here then examine my Beloved when your joy is most when you are freed from some affliction or when you have obtained conquest over some corruption when inward grace or else when outward wealth when Corn and Wine and Oyl increaseth Alas how evidently do the greatest part of men discover the unfoundness of their joy who take abundantly more comfort in these outward things the thriving of their Trades their speeding of their pleasures and past-times then in the thriving of the means of grace or any other thing that most especially concerns Gods glory or the Churches good They make it to appear where lies the toot and Fountain of their joy and consequently of what kind it is which if they be deprived of their riches or honors their hearts like Nabal dye within them their joy is dashed and their comfort gone Whereas the Saint of Christ whose heart is filled with spiritual joy retains it in a measure in the loss of earthly things and professeth with the Prophet Habbakuk chap. 3.17 Though the fig-tree shall not blossom neither shall there be any fruit in the Vine if the labour of the Olive fail and the field yeild no meat if the Flock be cut off from the fold and there be no Herd in the stall yet I will rejoyce in the Lord yea I will joy in the God of my salvation The joy of Christ which he works by his Spirit proceeds from a conscience testifying good and not from a conscience testifying nothing For our rejoycing saith the Apostle is this the testimony of our conscience 2 Cor. 1.12 There is as Barnard stiles it Conscientia mala quieta an evill conscience that is quiet which being lulled asleep by Satan saith nothing to disquiet him that owns it and so he lives as jocund and as metry for a time as he whose heart most really acquitteth him from any thing that may disturb or interrupt his joy But yet this kind of comfort beause it comes from nothing else but a Vacation in the Court of Conscience if I may call it so a respit of the accusations there is most uncertain and unfound Assoon as term begins again when Satan as he seeth occasion shall set the sins of such a man before his face when conscience shall awaken and accuse that joy and comfort will be turned into sorrow yea into such tormenting pangs of horror that no tongue is able to express But if thy joy arise from a conscience testifying good that in simplicity and sincerity of heart thou hast had thy conversation in the world this is the joy that Christ would have fulfilled in thee The joy of Christ which he works by his Spirit hath its matter within and not without the person rejoycing There be many my Beloved That have nothing in themselves whereof they have a just occasion to rejoyce and therefore seek it up and down without And from this kind of joy the Apostle Paul disswadeth as unsound Gal. 6.4 Let every man prove his own work and he shall have rejoycing in himself alone and not in another Now men are said to rejoyce in another especially in two cases As first when they compare themselves with such as are extremely vitious and prophane and finding that themselves are not so bad as many others are they cheer and comfort up themselves with this as the Pharisee did I thank thee God saith he that I am no extortioner c. I am not as other men are nor as this Publican Luk. 18.11 and yet they may be bad enough for all this And secondly when men take comfort only in the good opinion that others have conceived of them and not in any good that hath a true and real being in themselves And this St. Paul suggesteth is a false deceitful joy and therefore presseth every man to prove his own work to sift and try his own actions and if on tryal they be good indeed then he hath ground and matter to rejoyce in himself and not in another And now my Brethren are there not too many such among us who when they look on drunkards whoremongers blasphemers and men of the most infamous and vitious lives that pass them and exceed them in prophaness take joy and comfort in themselves but never prove their own works their own lives And thus while they compare
especially in two things to name no more at this time 1. You must give them honour as those that come from Jesus Christ Yea double honour the honour of reverence and the honour of maintenance The Messengers and the Embassadors of Jesus Christ must be received and entertained with all respects by you Or if they be not he esteemeth their dishonour as his own He that despiseth you despiseth me saith Christ And verily if this be true he was never more despised then in these dayes Oh my beloved what floods of ignominy and contempt and scorn are poured out upon the Messengers of Jesus Christ those that are most faithfull to him so that abundance of them are hardly able to bear up against the venome that men spit upon them 2. You must give them audience as those that come from Jesus Christ considering that the message they deliver is Jesus Christs and not their own and therefore when at any time you are advised by them to come in and stoop to Christ Oh think that Christ himself doth counsell you and call upon you And when they offer peace and mercy and atonement and beseech you to accept it Oh think that Christ himself beseecheth and entreats you by them and therefore do not baffle him and slight him and put him off with a denial for if you do it is a most unsufferable provocation O think as often as you hear them speaking to you that you are hearing Christ himself from heaven and then consider how you dare to slight them For you despise not men but Christ as the Apostle speaks in this case 1 Thes 4.8 Is it so that the Apostles Ministers c. this then should teach you in Vse 6 the last place to bear with all their earnestness and plainess and not to stomack them and storm against them when they are free or sharp with you Considering that they are but servants and cannot but deliver the message of their Master it s that to which their place and calling and the trust which Christ hath put into their hands doth bind them which trust they must discharge and not betray be the hazard what it will and therefore be prevailed withall to take all in good part and not to think them injurious to you because they dare not to be unfaithfull to Christ JOHN 17.18 Even so have I also sent them into the world DOCTRINE 2. Christ doth not send his Ministers particularly or restrictively to any Countrey or to any Nation but their Commission leaves them free to all the world YOU see he doth not tell his Father I have sent them into Jewry only or into any other Region of the earth but I have sent them into the world That is the local object of their Mission the world at large without restraint or limitation all the world Indeed our Saviour once professed of himself I am not sent but to the lost sheep of the house of Israel Mat. 15.24 And so accordingly when first he sent forth his Apostles his express injunction was Go not into the way of the Gentiles but go ye rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel Mat. 10.5 At his ascention he appointed them to be his witnesses first in Judaa and Jerusalem Acts 1.8 This course and method the Apostles very carefully observed as you may see Acts 13 46. It was necessary say Paul and Barnabas unto the Jews that the word of God the Gospel should first of all be preached unto you But if you mark it well my brethren the final and the last Commission of our Saviour was Go ye into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature Mark 16.15 Go ye and teach all Nations Mat. 28.19 But you will say that this was a Commission proper to Apostles and doth not any whit concern succeeding ordinary Ministers and Pastors in the Church who are restrained to special places and fixed in special Congregations I grant indeed that many ordinary Ministers are restrained and fixed so but all are not so restrained neither are any so restrained but that they may in case remove to other places and to other Countreyes And in that any are restrained and fixed it is not meerly as they are Ministers of Christ but as they are the chosen Officers and Pastors of such a Congregation or of such a people Their Commission as from Christ doth not fix them anywhere but leaves them free as I have said to exercise their Ministry wheresoever they are called in all the world Indeed the Apostle tells us that God hath set some in the Church some Ministers of all sorts as you may see 1 Cor. 12.28 He hath placed and fixed them there But that is out of all dispute the universal Church which is not limited to any Countrey but is to be extended over all the world For if you mark it the Apostle saith not God hath set some in the Churches in the plural number but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Church and that in such a latitude as that it comprehendeth in it all gifts all members all officers of all sorts which cannot be intended of the Church of Corinth or any single Congregation but only of the universal Church of Christ on earth There Christ hath set his Ministers not his Apostles only but his ordinary teachers and if they be confined to narrower limits it is not properly by his Commission but by a call from men or by some other secundary means And as for that Commission mentioned even now Go ye and teach all Nations though it were given immediately to the Apostles it cannot be restrained to the Apostles being evidently meant in and with them of all the Ministers and Preaches of the Gospel that should succeed them in the Church to the end of the world And therefore it is added presently in the next verse Lo I am with you alwayes to the end of the world They were not to continue for their own parts by many hundred years so long and therefore it must also stretch to those who were to follow them in the office and work of Gospel-preaching till it be published universally to all Nations which was not done you know by the Apostles it was but begun by them and must be carried on till it be finished by other Ministers of Christ in ever age successively to the end of the world So that the point is clear you see Christ doth not send his Ministers particularly or restrictively to any Countrey or to any Nation but their Commission leaves them free to all the world And there are two great reasons of the Point viz. because his Kingdom Reason 1 is to be erected and his Church is to be planted over all the world in every Countrey and in every Nation under heaven And therefore Jesus Christ doth send his Ministers to all the world for this purpose for the erecting of the one and the planting of the other 1. His Kingdom is to be erected
his Priesthood must of necessity be co-extended and so for whomsoever he is a Priest to sacrifice for them also he is a Priest to intercede as he hath offered up himself for them so he hath offered up his prayers for them and will do to the worlds end Use And this to give you but a touch of Application may serve to hearten us exceedingly when we are are putting up our prayers for them who are as yet without the pale who have as yet no faith or grace at all in them It may be they are neer to us Parents Children Husbands Wives and we are often carried out in prayer for them that God would yet shew mercy to them that he would yet prevail upon them and cause them to come in to Jesus Christ That he would break their stubborn lusts and work unfeigned faith in them And while we are breathing out our souls to God in such a way as this is we are surpized with distrustful thoughts that we shall never speed in this request of ours God will never be entreated and so upon a sodain our affections cool our hearts grow dead and flat within us In such a case as this is it may be some encouragement and comfort to consider that Jesus Christ for ought we know hath prayed and may be praying to the Father for the very same person though for the present he believe not yet he may be such an one as shall believe as is appointed to believe in after-times And then he is as you have heard within the compass of our Saviours Intercession so that the prayers that we make for him are seconded by Christ in heaven While we are asking such a child or such a friend of God it may be Christ is asking him or her of God too according to the Covenant of the Father with the Son Ask of me and I will give thee And therefore let us not grow cold or faint in such a suit as this is but let us follow and pursue it to the utmost Let us not cease to pray for such a person let us not cast him out of our prayers whom Jesus Christ hath not cast out of his I pray saith he for such as shall believe and this for ought we know may be one of that number And thus far of the first particular by which our Saviour Christ describeth those for whom he prays viz. the time of their believing They are not such as did believe when Christ put up this supplication for them to the Father but such as should believe in after-times Proceed we to the second thing by which he sets them forth and that is by the Spirit of this faith of theirs they should believe in Jesus Christ Neither pray I for these alone saith Christ here but for them also which shall believe on me He doth not say for them which shall believe on God or for them which shall believe the Word of God but for them which shall believe on me so that the point to be observed is this DOCTRINE That true Believers do pitch their Faith on Jesus Christ and make him the object of it Christ is the object of a true beleiving faith So he is represented in my Text you see The faithful do beleive on him It 's true indeed that faith in general which even Reprobates and Devils have looks with an equal eye on all the Book of God assenteth to the truth of all in gross But justifying faith whith is the faith whereof we speak picks out this special object Jesus Christ which is imbraced and received By him saith the Apostle Paul that is by Christ and none but him all that believe are justified from all those things from which they could not have been justified by the Law of Moses Act. 13.39 The Law will never justifie us but condemn us No we are justified by faith in Christ and him alone who is revealed and manifested to us in the Gospel The Rightousness of God that is the righteousness which makes us righteous the righteousness of man will never do it No it must be the righteousness of God himself This is ours by faith in Christ as the Apostle shews Rom. 3.22 He that believeth in the Son hath life Joh. 3. ult Observe it well he saith not in the Father nor the Holy Ghost though certainly we must believe in both these But Christ is the immediate object of the faith which justifieth or of it as it justifieth He that believeth in the Son hath life the life of holiness and the life of righteousness for both of them are very clearly meant in that place Object But you will say perhaps Is not the Word of God and is not God himself and is not everlasting life the object of our faith how then is Christ as I have said and Christ alone the next and the immediate object of it Sol. To this because it is compounded as it were of divers things I must answer divers ways 1. For the Word of God that is not properly the object of the faith that justifieth but is so called by a figure because it holds forth and exhibits Christ who is indeed the proper object of this justifying faith Or secondly the Word of God although it may in some respects be called the object of faith that justifieth yet not qua justificat not as it justifieth as the School speaks It 's true that justifying faith believeth other things propounded in the Word of God But faith as it justifieth lays hold on Christ and him only not knowing any other thing here but Jesus Christ and him crucified 2. As for the second thing propounded in the Querie True it is that God the Father is the Object of our faith I mean the faith which justifyeth but not the next and the immediate Object of it Christ must be first laid hold upon and God in Christ Such trust have we through Christ in God saith the Apostle 2 Cor. 3.4 Even Turks and Jews and Arrians boast of faith in God you know amd yet because they apprehend not Jesus Christ they miserably lose their own souls He that denyeth and so by consequence believes not in the Son can never have the Father as you may see 1 John 2.23 He is like a man goes about to grasp a thing that is too big for him a large and smooth round-bodyed Cup it slips away out of his fingers whereas he might have held it by the handle The faith which justifies us my beloved apprehendeth Christ receiveth and layeth hold on him and then as it is added in the fore-alledged Scripture He that hath the Son hath the Father also 3. As for the third particular propounded whether salvation and eternal life be the object of our faith To say the truth salvation and eternal life is not so properly believed as hoped for Nor can it be so fitly called the object as the consequent and end of faith So the Apostle calls it 1 Pet.
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
As a gift and not a purchase or if a purchase as his purchase not their own It is our Saviours own expression with reference to his people John 10.28 I give unto them eternal life and they shall never perish neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand And therefore it is called a Gift and Christ is made the next and the immediate Donor and Dispencer of it Rom. 6.23 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. And the Antithesis between this latter and the former parcell of the verse is very much to be observed as being pertinent to our purpose The wages of sin is death but the gift of God is eternal life As if in other words our Apostle should have said It s true indeed Death is the Consequent of sin and life Eternal is the Consequent of holiness and of obedience But mark it well not upon the same terms Death follows sin as the deserved stipend and the wages of it A man earneth death by sin as a work-man earns his wages by his labour But life Eternal doth not follow holiness in such a way it is not merited by our obedience as death is by our disobedience and therefore this is a gratuity a gift though that be wages The wages of sin is death but the gift of God is eternal life And in another place our last translation speaketh it a free gift Rom. 5.18 The free gift came upon all men all that are Christs members or upon all men universally if you respect the tender of it the free gift came upon all men to justification of life With which accordeth that which goes immediately before they which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall ragn in life by one and that is Christ I shall close up the proofs with our Saviours proclamation Apoc. 21.6 I am Alpha and Omega the beginning and the end and I will give to him that is athirst of the fountain of the water of life freely if any be athirst if he have vehement and strong desires he shall have life and he shall have it from the fountain I will bestow it on him and I will do it freely too I will give him of the water of life freely So that the point is plain you see That Jesus Christ doth freely give Eternal life Now that you may the better see the freeness of this gift of his and that it is bestowed upon his people without the least desert of theirs I shall lay it open to you in a few particulars Jesus Christ must needs be free in giving life to his members because on their parts it is first unbought and secondly unsought nay thirdly unthought They do not purchase it or buy it of him nay nor so much as seek it or desire it of him nay nor so much as think of having such a mercy from him And therefore it must needs be absolutely free in all respects it must come from him as a free gift First Jesus Christ must needs be free in giving life to his people because it is by them unbought Life is not their purchase and therefore it is his gift True it is bought by Christ for us but it is not bought of Christ by us For let us seriously consider with our selves What could we give or do to procure this life from Christ We are not able to redeem our natural life which yet is in comparison of no value nor pay a ransom to the Lord for it It is too great a price for us to pay and therefore it must cease for ever as the Psalmist speaks And how much less then are we able to redeem our spiritual life which is infinitely precious when we are under the Condemnatory sentence of the Law when we are dead in trespasses and sin both with relation to the raign and to the guilt when we are subject every moment to be cast into the lake that burns with fire and brimstone which is the second death what can we give now to obtain our pardon we cannot purchase it and therfore certainly we have it freely Indeed Christ buyes a pardon for us because we cannot buy it for our selves He gives his blood and life for us that he may give life to us And therefore he is called our life to shew that he is all in all in that business And when we first receive his quickning grace we are described to be in such a case that there is nothing upon our parts to procure it as you may see Ezek. 16.5 6. Cast out into the open fields to the loathing of our persons polluted in our own blood and weltering in our own gore And then yea then he gives life to us It is repeated twice in that place as a remarkable choice thing that we may take especial notice of it I said unto thee when thou wast in thy blood live yea I said unto thee when thou wast in thy blood live As if he should have thus expressed himself Observe it well I gave thee life at such a time when there was nothing in thee to deserve it at my hands when one would even have loathed to touch thee or to meedle with thee when thou hadst nothing else but blood and gore to give me then did I breath this life into thee So that you see Christ freely gives this life to his people in this respect that it is by them unbought And as it is by them unbought so it is by them unsought As they do not purchase it and buy it of him so neither do they seek it or desire it of him As they do not pay for it so neither do they pray for it We count a thing is very free if we have it for the asking If it be but ask and have it s a very cheap bargain The life of Christ is yet more free then this comes to to all his members he gives it them before they ask it He is found in this respect of them that seek him not and ask not for him as the Prophet speaks Isa 65.1 It is the disposition of us all by nature we will not come to Christ that we may have life from him as he himself complaineth John 5.40 and therefore he is fain to draw us Did Lazarus when he lay dead and stinking in his grave address himself to Christ beseeching him to raise him up No more do any that are dead in sin No Christ is fain to seek them out to come to the grave himself and there to call them to come forth and to put life into them that they may answer that call he is forced to do all Did the lost sheep seek the Shepherd Did the lost groat seek the Owner When Adam being falen had brought himself into a state of death and condemnation did he seek God or did God seek him Did he call God or did God call him You see the offer was
long-suffering and abundant in goodness and truth Keeping mercy for thousands forgiving iniquity transgression and sin Sometimes his attribute of Justice as that is also called his name in the very same place who will by no means clear the guilty visiting the iniquity of the Fathers upon the children and upon the childrens children unto the third and fourth generation Sometimes his attribute of Power is intimated by his name as you may see that place for instance Psal 20.1 The Lord hear thee in the day of trouble the name of the God of Jacob defend thee that is the power of God defend thee And this is that by which our Saviour prayes that his Apostles and Disciples might be kept keep them through thy own name that is through thy own power And so accordingly the point to be observed is this DOCTRINE They that belong to Jesus Christ as long at they remain in this world are kept by the Almighty power of God himself It is the prayer of our Saviour for them in my text you see Holy Father keep them through thy own name whom thou hast given me and therefore out of question they are kept by that name the almighty power of God For Jesus Christ is alwayes heard in every thing for which he is a Suitor to his Father So that his people are as safe as the power of God can make them They are committed by him to his Fathers Custody and he is able very well to keep that which is committed to him as the Apostle Paul speaks 2 Tim. 1.12 And this is clearly intimated in our Saviours speech John 10.29 with reference to his people My Father which gave them me is greater then all Greater in what regard greater in place and dignity No my beloved greater in power and in ability And therefore it is added presently and no man is able to pluck them out of my Fathers hand Many are willing but none is able because his power is infinitely greater then theirs is So in another place he shall be holden up Rom. 14.4 he that is weak shall be held up how so For God is able to make him stand And Jude to the same purpose he is able to keep us from falling verse 24. you see our preservation and support is still ascribed to the power and ability of God by which it is apparent what guards us that we are kept and kept safe by that power That of the Apostle Peter is express and full so that we need to add no more for confirmation we are kept by the power of God saith he through faith unto salvation 1 Pet. 1.5 The point is plain They that belong c. Now to open this a little because you do not see it in the full extent of it you must conceive that such as appertain to Jesus Christ are kept by the almighty power of God Especially two wayes Either by the power of God in them or by the power of God for them Either by the power of God assisting or by the power of God protecting Either by the power of God within them strengthening or by the power of God without them guarding and defending I shall speak to these in order They that belong to Jesus Christ are kept by the Almighty power of God in them assisting them and strengthning them and fortifying them to stand and to hold out both in temptations and afflictions Man is by nature 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a feeble and infirm thing So weakned and enfeebled with his fail that of himself he is able to do nothing And therefore God communicates his own transcendent power to such as he intends to keep and to preserve so far as they are capable of it And thus however they be weak in themselves yet they are strong in the Lord and in the power of his might as the Apostle speaks Eph. 6.10 He stands by and strengthens them 2 Tim. 4.17 And of this inward strengthning it is that the Apostle speaks Col. 1.11 Strengthned with all might according to his glorious power that is the power of God himself which he gives in to his people and so corroborates them makes them strong as Oaks to bear the burthen that is laid upon them For if you mark it the Apostle saith not the power of God bears our afflictions resists and overcomes our temptations for us but we are strengthened by his glorious power to both these And God is able saith the same Apostle to do abundantly according to his power that worketh in us Eph. 3.20 Observe it well not his power that worketh for us but his power that worketh in us and that makes us able So that you see my brethren it is an infused thing there goes forth power and vertue from the Lord to us and becomes inherent in us Not as one friend may help another that is weak with an external succour and support bearing his heavy burthen for him but giving him ability himself to bear it Even as a man that hath been much enfeebled with along sickness and being now recovered in a measure and his malignant humours purged away encreaseth every day in strength So we my Brethren having been enfeebled by the fall God makes us sound and strong again enables us to do and suffer what he cals us to So that it is an inward and habitual power that we partake infused into the soul by God And God in this respect is strong in us His power is perfected declared to be perfect in our weakness Now my beloved to follow this a little further this glorious power of his the Lord conveyeth into a Christians soul through Jesus Christ The Father hath annointed him with the Holy Ghost and with power as the Apostle Peter speaks Acts 10.38 And upon him the spirit of power doth rest as you have it in the Prophet Isa 11.2 That so from him it might be given out to all his people He is the Conduit-pipe through which the spirit and the graces of it run obtaining them by vertue of his meritorious intercession from his Father and so conveying them to every member as he by reason of his near communion with the manhood being more deeply touched with the feeling of their wants observeth their necessities to be And so to every one of us is given grace and what is grace but power to do and power to suffer power to stand out and not to faint or yield in temptations or afflictions Habitual grace is nothing but the inward strengthening of the soul To every one of us I say is given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ Eph. 4.2 that is as he is pleased to distribute And as this power proceeds originally from the Father by and through Jesus Christ so it is wrought immediatly by the Holy Ghost And hence the strength infused into a Christians soul is called the spirit of power as you may see 2 Tim. 1.7 Because indeed it is wrought in us by the