Lord Jesus hath here been under hatches and the wicked have seemed to carry the day against him This is your hour But Christ wil have his day and then ye will have yours As David encouraged himself in the simplicity of his heart I shall be had in account of those Maid Servants So here USE 2. Of Exhortation To perswade the Saints that they should labor to know this Love that so they may know their own honor and happiness It 's part of their Priviledg their Propriety a note of Christs Sheep They know me and are known of me If the Lord wil have the wicked acknowledg thee who only see it how much more doth it concern them that have it It they who are but Spectators much more they who are the Possessors and do enjoy the same how would this support in al wants It 's but to diet and physick us not to hurt us it 's out of Love How would it sweeten al our Sorrows and Corrections even the sharpest It 's out of love to purge us and to fit us for himself nay solace our souls in Death it's out of Love it 's to take down our Bodies not to destroy them to take out of the World because he loves us to take us neerer to himself How should this settle us and establish us in al Change There is an end of al things and an end of al Perfections but whom God loves he loves to the end He loved our Savior when he brought him to the Grave that he might bring him to Glory And so with us when we are parted from al things when we shal be separated one from another Wife from the Husband Child from the Father nay our Bodies separated from our Souls so that they are not or if they were they cannot live There is an end of al those Relations no marrying in Heaven no trading in Heaven yet nothing shal be able to separate us from the Love of God in Christ Verse 24. Father I will that those whom thou hast given me be with me where I am that they may behold my Glory which thou hast given me for thou loved'st me before the Foundation of the World IN this Prayer of our Savior two things were especially attended 1. He prayeth for himself to verse 6. 2. The for his Children from thence to the end And that Either especially for his Apostles because the greatness of the Work now under their hand their pressures and difficulties that would necessarily attend them therein the large measure of Grace and Abilities that might suit them to so weighty and Spiritual employment together with the need of more than an ordinary presence and assistance of the Lord without which they would not only be unfitted for a business of that worth but wholly discouraged in it Therefore the Lord Jesus laies in for a larger measure of Spiritual supply and relief for them in the first place and here he is marvelous importunate to verse 20. Or else for al the Faithful that ever did or for the future should beleeve in him unto the end of the World whose case he commends from Verse 20. and the things he begs are partly such which might concern their Spirittual good in an especial manner in this Life and because that was the Root and Treasury of al the rest of their good things in which they were contained and from whence they might be received he propounds and pursues with much instancy of desire That they might be one as the Father and Son were one Partly such as did concern their everlasting welfare in the world to come and this our Savior as though he would carry them to Heaven being presently to ascend himself seeks to the Father for here in the closure of his Prayer that so nothing might be wanting that either they did need or could desire but that they might be fully furnished with a sufficiency of supply for whatsoever concerned either Grace or Glory the present comfort of this or the happiness of a better life Thus the Lord laies in Provision and that in a plentiful manner 1. That which might fit them for their way and Voyage while they are travelling towards their home 2. That which might give them sweet welcome when they came at the end of their Hopes Our Savior is not satisfied until he see them in the Haven safely arrived in Heaven with himself beyond al the rage of Devils and malice of Men dangers of Sin or the sorrows of the Grave and Death In this 24. Verse and Prayer of our Savior we may attend Four Things 1. A Description of the Parties for whom Christ praies from that Spiritual respect and relation they had to him Those that thou hast given me together with the cause of it his Father gave them 2. The thing he desires That they might be where he is namely That they might enjoy a likeness Condition with our Savior in regard of the glory and security of the place and mutual society of each others presence or else a Parity if we look at the kind That they who had been in the same Storms might be in the same Haven enjoy the same ease and honorable safety share in the Society of that glorious and safe Condition when their hearts shal be ravished with the remembrance of the wonderful Salvation and Deliverances that have been wrought for them the surpassing excellency of Grace and Glory that hath been purchased and bestowed upon them so unworthy Swallowed up with the admiration of the sight and presence of our Savior who hath suffered ascended sits at the right hand of the Father and hath taken possession of al Glory that they may be possessed of the same by him and with him And the also solacing himself with the sight and presence of those whom he hath so loved so redeemed so graced so advanced as himself as though he could not have been in Heaven unless they might come to Heaven 3. The End why he begs this That they might be with him that they might see the Glory of Christ which hath been given him of the Father Not that they might have any Glory in themselves or see or satisfie themselves with their own glory but that they might gaze upon the Glory of the Lord Jesus through al Worlds and that 's al they have to do in Heaven 4. We have the first Fountain whence this Glory proceeds to wit hence Because the Father hath loved him before the Foundation of the World was laid In the General from the Scope of the whol observe It 's the care of our Savior to seek and provide for the welfare of his Servants even till they come to the fulness of their perfection See here in the words of the Text the inlarged tenderness of the heart of the Lord Jesus he doth not content himself to look to his disciples and so beleevers while they were but in the shel Babes in Christianity nor satisfies himself that he
130 1 The ground whence this In-being proceeds ibid. 2 The ready way to apprehend the Nature of it rightly ib. 3 How it may be attended in our Savior as God and Man ibid. The first expressed in two Conclusions ibid. The second made good in four Particulars Page 131 Three things for Explication of the third Page 134 This manner of existing appears in the Humane Nature in a three-fold regard Viz. Of Vnion Mission Operation ib. The In-being of the Father in the Son is the first rise whence the Vnity of the faithful with the Father and the Son is perfected Page 137 The Doctrine opened ibid. 1 Recal what this oneness is Page 139 2 How it 's perfected ibid. This Imperfection lies in three things Page 140 1 In the unsoundness of our spirit ibid. 2 Crossness to the power of the Spirit Page 141 3 When the soul will joyn anything with Christ Page 142 Use 1. For Comfort Page 143 Use 2. For Exhortation Page 144 Ver. 23. That the world may know that thou hast sent me and loved them as thou lovest me Page 145 The words contain a double end of this Dispensation ib. 1 That the world may know thou lovest me ibid. 2 That thou lovest them as thou lovest me ibid. Three Particulars to open Page 146 The first opened as chiefly intended Page 147 That passage of John 3.35 The Father loveth the Son is 1 Opened 2 The Reasons given 3 The Vses propounded ibid. Christs Love shews it self in three Particulars ibid. Reasons upon which Love grows are three Page 151 1 Neerness 2 Likenest 3 Suitableness of worth ibid. Use 1. Of Reprehension Page 152 Use 2. Of Tryal Page 154 Use 3. Of Exhortation Page 155 DOCT. God the Father loveth the Faithful as he loveth Jesus Christ Page 156 Two things opened Page 158 1 Wherein the love of the Father to the Saints shews it self ibid. 2 That it is like to that wherewith he loved his Son ibid. The first appears by three things ibid. 1 Love of Vnion 2 Complacence 3 Benevolence ibid. Quest oâ— 2 Thes 1.12 Is there any Name higher than the Name of Christ Page 163 Answered by expounding the place ibid. Use 1. Comfort to the Saints because God loves them Page 164 Use 2. Terror to those that hate them ibid. Use 3. They are worthy our Love Page 165 The Father loves the Saints as he loves his Son proved in each particular ibid. I. Instruction The sins of the faithful are more grievous to God than the sins of other persons Page 170 Instance in two Evils unto which the Saints are usually subject Page 172 1 To question Gods love ibid. 2 To undervalue it ibid. Object Though God loves me yet my grounds are weak Page 174 Answ Gods love is above all Graces thou canst desire ib. 2. Instruction Gods love to the Sainrs is unchangeable Page 176 Use Study to answer Gods love in manner and measure Page 178 That the world may know thou hast loved them as thou lovst me Page 180 A double end mentioned by our Savior ibid. The first End ibid. Two things noted from hence Page 181 1 It is lawful to pray often for the same thing ibid. 2 We ought to pray earnestly that the power of our Savior might be expressed Page 182 The Second End Page 183 Two Points in the words ib. Quest 1. How wicked men can be truly said to know the love of God to Beleevers which is a thing so secret that is not oftentimes made known to the Saints themselves Page 185 Answ three-fold ibid. Quest 2. Why do not the world know this in this life Page 188 Answ For a two-fold Reason ibid. Use 1. Of Patience Page 191 Use 2. Of Exhortation Page 192 Verse 24. Father I wil that those whom thou hast given me be with me c. Page 194 Two things especially attended in this Prayer ibid. We may attend four things in this Prayer Page 195 The General Observation It 's the care of our Savior to seek for the welfare of his servants Page 197 Use 1. For Consolation Page 201 Use 2. For Instruction Page 203 Use 3. For Direction Page 204 The particular Scope Page 205 DOCT. All Beleevers are given to Christ by God the Father Page 205 Two Questions for Explication of this Doctrine answered Page 206 Reason 1. ibid. Reason 2. Page 211 Use 1. For Information Page 213 The second Particular Page 214 Three Points observed especially in it ibid. Use 1. Of Instruction Page 221 Use 2. Of Assurance Page 222 Use 3. To make us willing to die Page 323 Use 4. To see the hainousness of rebellion against Christ in Glory Page 324 The words opened in four particulars Page 325 Use 1. Of Terror Page 332 Use 2. For Direction Page 333 Use 3. For Comfort Page 334 The particulars of it 1 It cures all fears Page 335 2 Supplies al wants 3 Rescues from Enemies 4 Removes guilt of sin 5 Strengthens all Graces 6 Quickens all Duties 7 Gives Eternal Life All proved severally Use 4. For Instruction Page 342 The eternal Glory of Christ is a gift of the eternal love of the Father Page 344 Two things opened 1 What is meant by this love Page 345 2 How this love is the cause of Glory ibid. Reason 1 Page 348 Use 1. For Tryal Page 350 Use 2. For Comfort Page 353 Use 3. Of Direction ibid. Doctrine from the Second Particular Our Savior doth desire to have the faithful in Heaven with himself Page 354 Three Reasons Page 356 Use 1. Of Instruction Page 358 Use 2. Of Reprehension Page 359 Use 3. Of spiritual Comfort Page 360 Use 4. Of Exhortation Page 362 1 What hinders Page 363 2 What helps this Vnion Hindrances are three ib. Helps are three Page 364 The third Particular is That they might see his Glory Page 365 DOCT. The happiness of our being in Heaven to see Christs Glory Page 366 Three things to be enquired 1 What this Glory is Page 368 2 What it is to see it ibid. 3 How the sight of this glory brings happiness ibid. For the second Enquiry consider 1 What his beholding implies Page 370 2 The manner how it is done ibid. This manner appears in three things Page 371 To the third Particular a double Reason propounded Page 376 Use 1. Of Instruction Page 379 Use 2. To Examine Page 380 Use 3. Of Direction Page 381 Means are three ibid. Verse 25 26. The Verse contains the close of our Saviors Prayer Page 383. 1 A description of the Person to whom be praies Page 384 2 The Prayer it self wherein are four Particulars ibid. Two Points considerable 1 We must look unto Gods excellency whence we may receive what we pray for Page 388 2 God in faithfulness dispenseth his fatherly Love to us Page 390 Two things opened 1 Wherein Gods faithfulness consists ibid. 2 The reason why be thus dispenseth his love ibid. Use 1. For Instruction Page 392 Use 2. Consolation Page 393 Use
with the cast of the eye of the Spouse Cant. 4.9 That cast of the eye of Faith that looks only to God in Christ takes al from him holds out nothing else 3. Love of Benevolence God wisheth wel unto the Faithful and studies to advance them and their happiness with the advancing of Christ 2 Thes 1.12 That the Name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you and you in him according to the Grace of God and the Lord Jesus Christ Quest Why you wil say Is there any Name higher than the Name of Christ or Glory due to any beyond and after Christ Why is it added That Christ may be glorified and you in him Answ The meaning may thus be conceived The Apostle having prayed in the fore-going verse That God would count them worthy of their Calling worthy of the Glory unto which they were called and so fulfil al the good pleasure of his goodness that is fully bestow al that Spiritual good which is the ful purpose of his good pleasure he intended to them and that he would bring the Work of Faith to perfection by his mighty Power Now the end of al that glory and fulness of al that Spiritual good he praies for and they should partake by vertue of his Prayer is That the Name of Christ that is Christ as he is made known in the Gospel in his Offices and Execution of the great Work of Redemption may be made glorious in you who from the Father hath given al to you you also may be glorified not in your selves but in your reference and oneness with Christ As God was made glorious in receiving al so also in returning al to the Father by him And therefore it 's added According to the Grace of God and our Lord Jesus Christ God the Father through Grace in Christ gives himself and Christ to you so they are glorified in you receiving you also through Grace give up your selves to Christ and through him to God and return al to God in Christ Thus he is said to the admired in them that beleeve So John 3.27 The Father loves the Son and hath given al things into his hands and in Christ also he hath given al unto them for all things are yours and you Christs yea he hath advanced them and set them in Heavenly places with Christ their Bodies made Spiritual which Adams could not be and therefore it 's taken down to be glorified as Christ's is Thou fool unless the Seed fall it riseth not again The Saints die not because of sin for Christ hath freed them from the second Death and so from the first but they die to be like Christ and so to be glorified with him and then both Bodies and Souls to sit at Gods right hand in Heaven It 's a proper Prerogative appertaining to our Savior to ascend and sit and therefore to al from him not from Adam USE 1. Comfort and Contentation to the Saints in the meanest and lowest Condition though the World hate and the Wicked pursue Saran tempt Ungodly undermine they al conspire to cast reproaches upon your Persons and disgrace upon your Religion and shame upon your Faces when they curse God wil bless If they hate and God love you you need not fear you should not care In Love is no lack If thou hast Gods Love thou hast himself art sure to speed when thou seekeft sure to obtain when thou askest So Martha for Lazarus He whom thou lovest is sick he whom thou lovest is troubled is tempted persecuted discouraged What price dost thou put upon thy Health if sick upon Wealth if poor on Life if at the point of dying If thou hadst these for thy succor al was wel Behold Gods loving kindness better than Life it self 2. If God love the Saints what are they who hate them This is a certain evidence of a Son of the Devil 1 John 3.11 He that hates his Brother is a Man-slayer c. Therefore they are worthy our love This second particular I shal further open as follows Viz. That the Farthers love to the Saints is like to that wherewith he loved his Son The Father loves the faithful as he loves Jesus Christ This Love carried to them carries a lively expression or is as a picture wherein the love of the Father to the Son is discovered in fresh colors in an especial manner This love to the faithful however it is impossible it could not was it reasonable or suitable to the wisedom or goodness of the Lord it should equal the love of God to his Son in the measure or largeness of it Because that was infinite unconceivable incomprehensible and therefore there is no equality of measure or greatness which is beyond al measure yet it comes up to it as neer as may be in the proportion and likeness thereof in like resemblance and answerableness thereunto it s not to be found in any creature nor in the whol creation beside As it is in the Parelion It s like the Sun in appearance and resemblance yet in no wise equal either for bigness or greatness or the vertues thereof So it is with this love of God to the Saints it lively resembles not fully equals the love of the Father to the Lord Jesus We shal further follow the several particulars 1. The Father loves us with the like love of union as he did Jesus Christ The Father wholly and alone gives being to Jesus Christ and that thus appears The Father stands in relation to the Son looks only towards him his Eye is ever upon him The Son as he receives so he returnes his being as a Son to the Father As Relations refer each to other only and heâ—ce the Father is said to be in the Son the Son in the Father Verse 22. As I told you before my hand closing and closed are one in another both with the hand The Father looks to the Son in giving The Son to the Father in returning his being They are perfect in this wholly give wholly take Thus they wholly delighted in each other mutually glorified each other Verse 2. Now as God in Christ thus begets and gives being of Sonship So Christ as Son and second person he so assumes for had he assumed as God all had assumed But he assumes person and to say that any person assumes but the Son is Haeresie Therefore its peculiar to the Son and that as Son then as begotten and as such he assumes and becomes the Head of the covenant and so he begets and gives being of Adopted Sons to the faithful sending his Spirit immutably to set their hearts for God and to hold the bent thereof towards him Thus receiving this impression from Christ and so from God the Father through Christ The faithful receiving this impression as from the Father by Christ they return it wholly and perfectly to the Father in and through Christ Namely The whol man under their impression of the begetting Spirit of the
hath accomplished that great work of our redemption and that unto the ful That the ignorant who never knew him the stubborn and rebellious amongst whom he lived and preached yet would not receive him yea the flinty hearted Jews that scorned and despised the meanness of his person and the power of his dispensation Al these at last should be constrained to acknowledg that he is the true and only Messias set a part and sent to that work This is the Son of God saies the Heathen of whom we have heard but never laboured to know him This is the Son of God saies the prophane whom we in his word have opposed and hated in his servants This is the Son of God sent to save us and we have blasphemed his name and flame and crucified his person despised his government saies the Jew See the lively expression of this Rev. 6.13 This I say wil certainly come to pass for our Savior hath prayed for it yea pursued it with re-doubled desires propounded in the 21. Verse repeated in verse 23. And he is alwaies heard in what he begged Hence we have two things 1. It s lawful to begg the same thing several times in the same prayer We have here a pattern before us beyond al compare a practise beyond al exception nay in truth beyond al question or doubt He cannot do but wel who could not erre in what he did where he hath gone before us in his example in things imitable we may without either feare or hazard safely go after him As it was said of his speaking and it s as true of his praying he prayed as never man did And there do not many sentences pass between but ye have the very same petition expressed What our Savior did its lawful for us upon the like occasion and like grounds for us to do to put up the same petition several times the same prayer If we find we have greater need of that we ask than any other or if there be special worth in it or that our hearts grow warmer in the work and increase into the strength of our affection towards the thing we ask For then there is no vain babling or empty repetition but the expressions though the same have new strength of fresh apprehensions and affections put upon them Therefore David again unto the place striks the same string often which made best melody in that musick and song of his Oh that men would therefore praise the Lord for his goodness and declare the wonders he doth for the Children of men 2. We ought to pray most earnestly that the power of our Savior might be expressed that his right appointment to the work of Redemption might be acknowledged by the world It s that which our Savior doubles his desires for the attainement of as that wherein the great weight of the work lay and which he counted worthy such importunate seeking for at the hands of his Father And this carriage should be a Copy and Sampler to conform our prayers unto This is that which God the Father is so Zealous of Hebr. 1. When he brings his first begotten into the world he saies Worship him all ye Angels of God And to this purpose was the eight Psalm penned and is to be understood touching our Savior as having the preheminence above al creatures in Heaven and Earth as Mediator So the Apostle to the Hebrews seems to expound it Hebr. 2.20 Learned Junius judgeth and therefore here the Psalmist dwels and delights to descant on this strain Psal 8.1 O Lord our God how excellent is thy Name in al the world That 's most worthy our desires upon which our Savior spent his This only from the repetition The point it self we spake unto on verse 21. So much of the first end The second End is this Our Savior prayes that they might be perfect in one that so the world also might know that the Father hath loved them as he loved him This is for the honor and excellency of beleevers in the acknowledgment of the world That howsoever while they are wildering here in this vale of teares they become the scorn of the wicked the scrapings of men as the Apostle hath it and the Off-scouring of the world in the misguided apprehension of the wicked of the world who know not how to judg aright of things and persons and therefore account them Out-casts of Heaven and Earth yet our Savior prayes that they may proceed on to that perfection of Oneness with the Father and himself unto which one day they shal attain in Heaven That the world may be constrained to see and say that indeed they are Gods precious ones to whom his Soul is exceedingly indeared in surpassing love even like unto that wherewith he hath loved the Lord Jesus his only Son This our Savior Christ prayes for as a means to this end and therefore it wil undoubtedly attain it There be two points in the worlds 1. The world shal know that the Father hath loved the faithful as he loved Jesus Christ 2. This shall then be known when they come to be perfectly one with the Father and Son in Heaven But we shal handle them both together because they border so neer each upon other and the explication of either wil add to the discovery and so to the confirmation of both Point Then shall the world know that the Father hath loved the Faithful as his Son when they come to be perfected in Oneness with the Father and the Son These two the Apostle joynes together also in his prayer 2. Thess 1.11 12. Wherefore we pray alwaies for you that our God would count you worthy of this calling And fulfil al the good pleasure of his goodness and the work of faith with power That the name of our Lord Jesus Christ may be glorified in you that is the first that Christ may be acknowledged as he that hath been sent for that work and hath done it Secondly That ye might be glorified in him according to the Grace of God at aâ—d â—uâ— Lord Jesus Christ Next under the Advancement of his own Name the Lord provides and the Apostle praies for the Advancement of his Servants ' Matth. 13.41.43 when the Lord shal gather out of his Church whatever doth offend whatever persons that are wicked and whatever things even aâ—oâ—gst the godly that offend Then shal the righteous sâ—ine as the Sun in the Kingdom of my Father They have been here undeâ— hatches cooped up in Duâ—gâ—â—ns there they shal be in their Kingdom and that in the Kingdom of their Father Here they lie among the ports al dinâ—â—ed â—eâ—coâ—ed with the shame and disgrace that hath been cast upon them as the scum of the world and the scorn of Heaven and Earth This is Zion whom to Man regarded There they shal shine and that as the Sun which every man wil see because he cannot look ofâ— the light of it and wil be dazelled with the
the Children that thou hast given me then he shall deliver up the Kingdom to God even the Father The Rule and Government of our Savior in al these outward Dispensations shal be at an end The end and scope of the Death and Obedience Ascention and Redemption wrought out by Christ that he must affectionately desire But this is so Therefore 2. By this means the perfection of his Body mystical and himself as mystical Christ is accomplished without this somthing would be wanting to make up the fulness thereof Eph. 1. last It 's said of the Church and is true of each Member for their measure It is the fulness of him who filleth all in all the hearts of al his Saints with al saving Graces If at the last day of that great assembling of the first-born there should be but the poorest Saint wanting and out of the way the mystical Body of Christ would so far want it's fulness if a finger or a joynt be lacking the Body would lack somthing of its ful integrity And therefore Eph. 4.13 God never leaves sending Officers they never leave gathering and perfecting the Body of Christ until we all arrive and meet at the unity of Faith and the acknowledgment of the Son of God The Head and Members should in reason be present one with another The Husband and Wife in comliness should co-habit in the same place and dwel together Christ is the Head his Faithful his Members Christ the Husband is gone into his own out of fair Countrey and therefore he cannot but affectionately desire the coming of his Bride unto him Nay rather than fail as we heard he wil come down from Heaven and fetch her John 14. I will take you to my self that where I am ye may be also 3. The compleat happiness of the Saints can only by this means be fully procured The Lord redeems not only from guilt and punishment and power of our sins and miseries but even from the presence of them And we cannot be wholly freed from the presence of the evil of the world before we be taken out of the World And therefore as the Lord hath advanced our Savior far above Principalities and Powers beyond the gun-shot of Satans temptations and the evils of this vale of Tears So the Lord Jesus provides that we may triumph with him as we have suffered with him Matth. 13.41 Therefore in the Parable while we live in the Field of the World and the Church is here Militant there wil be Tares which wil annoy and trouble But when the Lord shal send his Angels to gather out of his Kingdom al things that offend and them which do iniquity Then shal his Saints be translated into the Kingdom of the Father That which is the end of Christs Redemption the perfection of his Body the compleat happiness of his People that he must affectionately desire For the end ever carries and commands the affection of the Agent who works by Counsel and Reason USE 1. Of Instruction Hence al that are given to Christ must be raised from the dead and be in an immortal condition and in everlasting happiness As our Savior reasoned against the Sadduces God is the God of Abraham Isaac Jacob God is a God in Covenant with the Living Therefore Abraham Isaac and Jacob must live and that in Bodies and Souls because he is the God of both So those that must ever be with Christ they must have a Being and be raised out of the dust nor matters it though they were returned to the dust and that scattered into the four corners of the World into the Sea where they have been drowned into the Earth where they have been buried into the Fire where they have been burned The Lord wil send his Angels and he wil gather his Elect The Sea shal give up her dead the Fire and Earth their dead They shal be made immortal that so they may be ever with the Lord. USE 2. Of Reprehension It condemns both the Spirits and Practices of such who cannot abide the presence much less prize the communion and company of the Saints Christ is not at rest in Heaven without them and they are in a Hell count themselves in a Prison while the are in the place and the presence where they be Certainly Christ is deceived or thou art justly to be condemned as one who hast not the heart of Christ the Grace and Spirit of Christ in thee and that one day thou shalt find They shal ever be with Christ and thou that canst not indure their society in the Kingdom of Grace thou shalt never have their company in the Kingdom of Glory Such is the exquisite Constitution and Soveraign temper of the Irish Mold that there poysonous Vermin Toads and Spiders and such like they die presently if confined to the compass of the Earth and therefore they forthwith leave the Mold lest they lose their lives So here if thou countest it a kind of death to be confined to the holy Society and gracious and Spiritual communion of the Saints it 's certain Thou hast the poyson of a prophane and a graceless heart within thee They went out from us saies the Apostle because they were not of us had they been of us had they grown upon the same root the Lord Jesus knit one to another by the same Spirit They would never have departed from us When loos-hearted and wicked Hypocrites are hemmed in by the Communion of the Faithful at unawares they stand upon coals and sit upon Thorns like Fish out of their Element their hearts faint and die away presently as professedly contrary to the Spirit of our Savior as Light to Drakness Christs Wil is They should be where he is and their wil is To be any where else but where they are USE 3. Of Spiritual Comfort Hereby we may learn to support our selves in several occasions that would prejudice us in our Christian Course Hence we may fetch supply to bear up our hearts in al over-bearing pressures Comfort against al Opposition of our Spiritual Adversaries which may hinder our Happiness Against contempt of the World that would disparage our persons and Professions Against our own weaknesses and feebleness that might discourage us in a Christian Course The former Doctrine affords Spiritual refreshing against al these Against the fiercest of al opposition which al the Enemies of our Salvation can make against our progress and success in a Christian Course The Prayer of our Savior is above the Power of Hel and Devils though they rage above their malice and policy though they undermine above the corruption of mine own heart which would betray and deliver me as a prey into the hands of Devils and their Instruments This Prayer of our Savior shal carry the Cause against them all and thee to Heaven in despight of al. This Request wil not be denied this Wil of Christ nothing can resist The grant of the Father to our Savior none in
have and settle upon our own sufficiency and think we can make a shift and therefore lay aside the care of a Christ becauss that dale is mown that danger is over and fal hand-pat to other things The ful Soul despiseth the Hony-Comb Wind and raw Humors cloy the Stomach As Bears wil live many months and suck the moisture of their Claws Helps are Three The First Help Make sure of our interest in Christ And maintain it I go to your God and my God your Father and my Father Joh. 20.17 No man will leave the poorest cottage the meanest provision where he is for the uncertain Hopes of a palace when he knows not whether ever he shal injoy it Ye know the place and the way Joh. 14. And therefore they desire not to stir He that knows he hath a Father to go to he goes freely The Second Help See the dayly use and need of a Savior and that wil maintain a dayly desire as men of an useful helpful companion Him we must needs have sales one I pray you cal him him we cannot want I pray you intreat him We can do nothing without him by any means prevail with him So they say Truly without Christ we can do nothing Joh. 15.4 He saith it we find it Each man desires to maintain his life Such is Christ to us Col. 3.4 When Christ who is our life c. Therefore Paul saw more of himself and his life in Christ than in himself 2 Cor. 5.8 And therefore desired to be absent from the Body that he might be present with Christ And that he was a Stranger while he was in the Body The Third Help There is nothing desireable but the Lord Jesus We have done with the second particular The Third and last comes now to be considered and that is The scope of our Savior in this his petition and the maine good and benefit for which our Savior makes this request for them Namely That they might see his Glory Not that they might have any glory in themselves see or satisfie themselves with their own glory but that they might gaze upon the Glory Which the Father hath given to his Son and be swallowed up with the admiration thereof and that through al Eternity q. d. That is the staple commodity for which they trade in Heaven and the only business about which they ought to be imployed and beâ—â—ow themselves through al worlds And about this our present inquiry wil be spent for this time The happiness of our being in Heaven is to behold the glory of the Lord Jesus Doct. which he hath received by gift from God the Father I say they happiness of our being in Heaven lies in this for this is the end at which our Savior aimes in this Prayer This is the end of that Priviledg and blessing for which he Prayes For it is not the place of Heaven though the lustre and beauty of it is beyond compare and indeed unconceivable nor yet our being in Heaven barely and nakedly considered could satisfie either our desires or wants and answer the Expectation of the Soul If Christ were not there or we might no injoy his presence and â—ee his face though we were shut up in a corner of Heaven certainly Heaven would be no Heaven our happiness no happiness if we had no Christ As he said What availes mâ— if I may not see the Kings face And therefore the dregs of the vengeance of Hell is discovered in this that they shal be destroyed from his presence and from the glory of his power The End we say is better than the Meanes as that which adds beauty and amâ—bility to them The End of our being in Heaven is better than Heaven it self and that is to see the glory of Jesus and hence it is This spiritual and special communion betwixt Christ and the Soul is ever implied in such expressions as intimate the happiness of our being in Heaven So when the Apostle would by a more than ordinary Cordial fetch up the fainting hearts of the Saints here he lands al desires Hopes indeavours and expectation 1 â—hess 4. and last The trump shal blow the dead shal rise we shal meet him and be taken up into the Clouds and â—â—ere we shal over be with the Lord. Not be in Heaven but be with Christ there that makes the feast and have glorious communion with him and injoyment of him Els Gods frowns and displeasure in Heaven would make it a Hell to the Soul and that indeed insufferable Hence the Prophet makes this the highest pitch of al the Hopes and desires he had and the having of that was enough and did satisfie fully Psal 17.15 Having spoken of the Pomp and prosperity of the ungodly they had what they would and did what they would in this world he reposeth his spirit upon this As for me I wil behold thy Face in righteousness and when I awake I shal be satisfied with thy likeness When he awakes at the day of resurrection The sight of Gods glory gives ful satisfaction Whom have I in Heaven but thee It s not Heaven but God in Christ in Heaven that makes it desirable All desires of al the hearts of the Saints empty themselves and end here Their desires are to thy Name And the remembrance of thee The Soul in Heaven desires the union of the Body and the perfection and accomplishment of the number of their fellow brethren But when Body and Soul are raised and the Saints completed then al desires are to Gods Name and to the remembrance of him There is the remembrance of nothing else The things and relations of this life are like prints left in Sâ—nd there is not the least appearance or remembrance of them The King remembers not his Crown the Husband the Wife Father the Child nothing that we had that had any worth and desirableness in it It s forgotten only the Name of God in Christ that is so far and so much as he hath manifested himself in his Christ to the Soul thâ—â—s now in their Eye and aime that only comes into remembrance This is the top and highest pinnacle of perfection which the Apostle hath in his Eye 1 Joh. 3.1 2. We are now the Sons of God but it doth not appear what we shal be Why what is that excellency that then may be expected Answ We shall be like him for we shall see him as he is The Sight of his Glory is the highest step and stair of ours Here we shal enquire three Things 1. What this Glory is 2. What it is to see it 3. How the sight of this Glory brings in our End and happiness of our being in Heaven and that will be the Reason of the Point 1. What Glory is Answ There be Two Things in it 1. One is supposed and that is the worth and excellency of such Graces and Perfections which are in Christ for al Glory presumes some worth as the Basis
Pride and Peevishness Wearishness sluggishness c. and they are with us in our Prayers Duties Hearing Conferences Whence it is we crowd Christ into a narrow corner not an Ear to hear a Mind to attend our Prayers few and faint c. We are mated and molested with Friends miseries wants necessities families occasions they are calling and crowding But then the Coast wil be cleer we shal only be with Christ Thus the Apostle speaking concerning fasting and Prayer enjoyns the Man and Wife to part mutual Company and Society and forsake their Contentments in their mutual fellowship 1 Cor. 7.5 that they might give themselves to Prayer While we live here we give away some Love bestow some delight spend some thoughts and affections take some content in these therefore he would have them al laid aside that we might give our selves c. Now this shal be done at that day nay not only and alone bound for Christ But now it 's the whol imployment of the Soul to attend upon him the Soul hath none other to see nothing else to do Rev. 14.4 They follow the Lamb where ever be goes see no Wife nor Child nor Friend nor Honor Pleasure but Christ only Old things are passed Have none to love to desire to delight in to be satisfied with but Christ alone Now we send our thoughts and affections upon other Errands If a man knew nothing loved nothing needed nothing but one thing how would that carry him command him prevail with him 3. How this brings in this Happiness Answ Upon a double Ground and here we have a double Reason of the Point 1. Because men come to receive more of God and that in the most intimate and inward manner and this is one end of the great Works of God in our Creation and Redemption of our being men and Christians that he might leave the impressions and manifestations of himself and his Divine perfections upon us whom he would have to be Monuments of those everlasting Mercies and glorious Attributes through al Eternity For God cannot but work for his own Glory and because there can be no addition made to himself who is infinite in al his Excellencies therefore there must be only a manifestation of these and this is the aim of al Gods Counsels He wil shew forth and make Editions of his glorious Grace and Mercy which may be seen and read and acknowledged therefore a world therefore a man and he a Vessel of glorious Grace When they partake most of his glorious Mercy and are tunn'd top ful of glory and there is nothing els Then the Lord attains the end of the work of his Grace For it s not Heaven the place nor the freedom from evil or the presence and confluence of al pleasure or our being there that makes us happy But the injoyment of God in al his perfections and should he withdraw himself Heaven were a Hel and we as miserable as Devils We then attain our supream happiness when we attain our end and our good is to have more of God Whom have I in Heaven but thee That Christ may be glorified in life and death It s part of the scope of Gods proceeding at the day of judgment 2. Thess 1.10 He wil be glorious in his Saints but admired in al those that beleeve He wil be glorious in the Eyes of al standers by Angels and Devils for the Grace that then shal be expressed in the Saints But that by faith they have received Christ and come to be one with God through him and receive al by him this dazels the Eyes of Angels and amazeth the hearts of Devils Yea it s a work beyond admiration implies some thing unexpected such as we cannot tel the reason of that is matter of admiration is not in comprehension The Devils have seen men holy and innocent and unblamable as Adam in Paradise But when the Devils shal see such as were haters of Christ and God to receive Christ and to be made one with God through him to have God to be al in al when they were without God in the world this wil make Angels to be swallowed up in admiration This is an especial part of that reward that God hath promised unto his not to have freedom from annoyance nay the presence of evil but to have himself God communicating himself in al the fulness of perfections fully to the Soul as it is capable of God is the Objective happiness to the Soul in himself and so its equal to al but God communicating himself in his fulness as far as a sinner is capable is part of that special reward we have in Heaven Gen. 15.1 Lament 3.24 2. Reas More of our Souls are for God For now the strength of the whole man is wholly spent and exercised in the injoying of God and him only and immediately God without means God instead of al means God only and no means Now some love and joy and desire c. Is spent upon the choice ordinances But then none of al these are in the Eye and desire but al the faculties of the Soul are fully taken up with God This is the errand of our lives and the end why we came into the world This is intimated in 2. Thess 1.11 12. Wherefore I pray alwaies for you that God would make you worthy of your Calling and fulfil al the good pleasure of his goodness and the work of faith with power That the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ may be glorified in you and you in him according to the Grace of God and our Lord Jesus Christ The meaning is That God would Count them worthy of their calling That is the glory unto which they were called and so Fulfil al the good pleasure of his goodness that is fully bestow al that special good which in the purpose of his good pleasure he intended to them and the work of Faith with power that is bring the work of faith to perfection Now the end of al that glory and fulness of al perfection and spiritual good he prayes for is 1. That the Name of Christ That is Christ as made known in his word Offices and the great work of Redemption Might be made glorious in you in receiving this and the impression of this that is that it may be said See what the Lord Christ hath done 2. And you al may be made glorious and glorified not in you selves but as you are in him As he made glorious in you by receiving So you may be glorified in him by returning al to him while you Put forth the exercise of all upon Christ and through him upon God You by receiving of Grace become to have his image by the exercise of Grace you become to be like him and suck out the sweet of that infinite good that is in him For herein lies the beatifical Vision of God If truly glorious and efficatious brings in the fruition of him and his goodness
for Beleevers Ver. 21 That they all may be one c. page 35 The Exordium ibid. The things Christ praies for referred to two Heads page 36 1 Concerning their spiritual welfare here ibid. 2 For the top of their Glory in another World ibid. That which Christ begs for is that they may be all one Page 37 This is first propounded Secondly amplified by four several Circumstances ibid. DOCT. The chief priviledg of the Saints is from Christs prayer that they may be all one Page 38 Enquiry 1 Of what kind of Vnity our Savior speaks ibid. 2 What that Vnity is ibid. Answ 1. Negatively 2. Affirmatively Vnity of Love is not the chief aim of the Text proved negatively by two Reasons Page 39 40 2 Affirmatively Here is meant the unity of that spiritual Relation which they have to Christ and in him to God ibid. Two things to be unfolded to shew wherein this Vnity consists Page 41 1 How the Son is one with the Father ibid. 2 How the Saints must be one in them ibid. Four short Conclusions to express them by Page 41 42 43. The Sum of all that hath been said Page 44 The Reasons Reas 1. Our Vnion with God the Father was the next end intended by Christ in the great work of Redemption Page 45 46. Reas 2. This work being savingly made good upon the soul makes way for the enlarged expression of the fruits of Holiness Page 49 Use 1. Of Instruction Page 50 Use 2. Of Comfort Page 51 Use 3. Of Exhortation Page 54 Vers 21. That the world may beleeve that thou hast sent me Page 56 The words opened ibid. Two particulars in the words Page 57 1 Christ is sent by God the Father ibid. 2 God will have this beleeved by the Vngodly ibid. Three things to open the phrase 58 1 What the weight of the phrase carrieth ibid. 2 In what regard our Savior is said to be sent ibid. 3 Wherein this sending lies ibid. Use 1. Matter of wonderment Page 64 Use 2. For Comfort Page 65 Use 3. For Direction ibid. Three things to be done Page 66 For Explication enquire 1 What is meant by the world Page 67 2 How they are said to beleeve ibid. 3 What they beleeve in the sending of Christ ibid. Wicked men are called the World from three things 1 Because the god of this world ruleth in them ibid. 2 They are acted by the spirit of the world Page 68 3 They take contentment in the things of the world ibid. Use To discover our own condition Page 69 Quest What is this Faith Page 72 Answ It includes two things mainly ibid. 1 It is a humane faith that grows from force of argument ibid. 2 The evidence of this truth carrieth a control with it ib. Quest 3. What the World shal thus beleeve concerning Christs sending Page 73 Answ Our Savior looks at three things ibid. Three Reasons of this Page 74 Use Of Exhortation Page 76 Verse 22. And the glory which thou hast given me I have given them c. Page 77 Three things to be attended here 1 What it is our Savior hath received ibid. 2 What it is he doth communicate ibid. 3 The End why ibid. Two words opened touching the former ibid. 1 What is meant by Glory 2 How Christ is said to receive it ibid. 1 Glory signifies Gods incommunicable propertie Page 78 2 Glory is taken for Grace ib. Hence we learn 1 How to judg of true Glory Page 79 2 We see the way to walk if we desire to be glorious Page 80 Quest 2. How our Savior receives this Page 82 Answ As man by gift ibid 1 It is given by Grace of personal Vnion ibid. 2 It is given by way of Covenant Page 83 1 Our Savior received all most glorious Grace in a most eminent manner Page 84 2 He hath it out of measure ibid. 3 Without alteration Page 85 Use 1. Of Examination Page 86 Use 2. Of Comfort to the Saints Page 87 Use 3. For Direction ibid. II. What Christ gives to the Saints ibid. 1 The Saints share in a like glorious Grace ibid. 2 They have it by gift from our Savior ibid. The first Truth made good by four Particulars Page 88 1 This Grace is inward and spiritual ibid. 2 This impression of Grace is universal ibid. 3 They partake of all perfections of these kinds Page 90 4 They share in the immutability of Grace ibid. 2. They receive this by Gift Page 91 For the Saints in Adam forfeited 1 This Glory ibid. 2 They have nothing of worth to purchase it Page 91 3 They cannnot receive it otherwise than by gift Page 92 Object Our Savior is bound to do this by Covenant ibid. Answ affirmatively He is so bound ibid. Quest Put why did the Lord so engage himself ibid. Answ Of his free Grace ibid. The Reasons of both Particulars together ibid. 1 Taken from the proportion between the first and second Adam Page 93 2 Christs Humane Nature received this Grace for that end ibid. Use This gives heavy evidence against wicked men Page 94 1 Against all Hypocrites Page 95 2 Against those that please themselves with the apprehension of some Grace Page 96 Use 2. Of Instruction ibid. Use 3. Matter of Thankfulness Page 97 Use 4. Exhortation ibid. The way lies to Christ in four things ibid. DOCT. The End why the Saints receive all glorious Grace from Christ is this That they may be one as the Father and Son are one Page 99 Two Questions answered Page 99 100 For the opening do three things Page 102 1 Recal what this oneness is ibid. 2 How this oneness and glorious Grace differ ibid. 3 The Reasons of the Point ibid. The choicest of all Graces ought in special manner to be improved Page 105 106 Use 1. Of Reprehension Page 107 Use 2. Matter of great Comfort ibid. Verse 23. I in them and thou in me c. 109 The words opened ibid. DOCT. Christ in special manner by his spiritual Presence is in the Faithful Page 111 Three things here opened 1 In what respect Christ is said to be in his Page 111 2 What kind of presence this is ibid. 3 After what manner communicated ibid. Use 1. Caution to all especially to the wicked Page 117 Use 2. To desire the fellowship of the Faithful Page 118 Use 3. Tryal of our selves ib. Use 4. Shews the excellency of the Saints in their meanest condition Page 122 Use 5. Matter of Comfort Page 124 Use 6. Of Humiliation Page 125 Use 7. Of Admiration Page 126 Use 8. Of Exhortation ibid. 1 To be affected with the presence of such a Guest ibid. 2 To entertain him suitably Page 127 This is performed in four things ibid. Thou in me 1 The Father is in the Son Page 129 2 The subsistance of the Father in the Son is the original whence the Saints come to be one with the Son and the Father ibid. The Nature of this is opened in three things Page
is ever heard and therefore the Saints shal alwaies be assisted supported inabled to be faithful to the end and in the end If Christ may not be heard then thou maiest not be helped and if he wil loose his prayer then thou maiest loose thy comfort and grace But that is incredible this is impossible Besides how dishonorable is this Doctrine of falling away unto the Lord Jesus and the work of his Mediation which in the Issue advanceth the power of our sin and the policy of Satan above the vertue of the death of Christ and the power of the prayer of Christ For it saith thus much That the policy of Satan is more able to undermine us than his prayer to preserve us His temptation to destroy us than the Intercession of Christ to save us No Be the assaults never so fierce the allurements never so subtil corruptions never so strong Nay let all the power of Darkness do the worst The prayer of Christ wil yet shore up the meanest Saint in the greatest safety Luk. 22.32 Satan hath desired to winnow he would have winnowed all the Grace out of his Heart but our Savior he made provision for him and concludes but I have prayed that thy Faith fail not and there leaves it as though there was not then the least shadow or fear of any miscarriage For it might have been said may be Satan wil be too hard not only for my Grace but for thy prayer No our Savior leaves it beyond al question for it s so far from any appearance of probability that the thought of it is no less than blasphemy Use 2 for Direction To take heed how we deal injuriously or carry our selves offensively towards the meanest beleever Be his place never so low his condition never so base his abilityes never so feeble and despicable in thine Eye The prayer of Jesus is to preserve them from evil and therefore wil be against thee who intendest to do evil against them It was the Argument of our Savior Math. 18.10 Take heed that ye despise not one of these little ones for I tel you that in Heaven their Angels do alwaies behold the face of my Father which is in Heaven If this was a reason of force as no question it is that they should not despise those whose Guardians are the glorious Angels the Special Attendants at the Court of Heaven How much more that the Son of God doth pray dayly for them who is far above al principalities and powers and advanced at Gods right Hand Use 3. Consolation unspeakeable and glorious even to the meanest of the Saints when they are beset with greatest enemies and that in greatest necessities and most unable to succor themselves know there is support that will never fail thee Thy sins plead against thee 1 Joh. 2.1 2. Here is an Advocate who pleads for thee and wil undoubtedly carry the cause Thy conscience that accuseth Satan he condemnes But they al come too late There is one between them and home who intercedes and makes perfect satisfaction and also ful communication thereof therefore Paul flings the gantlet May be thy Heart and prayers and life and al seem to fail thee Here is one who lives alwaies and prayes alwaies and is heard alwaies and therefore able to save to the uttermost them that come Object True happy they who have a share in that Intercession but so sinful a creature so silly a wretch so loathsom an one as I unworthy that Christ should ever have me in his thoughts much less should ever pray for me Answ Yes for thee if thou hast but Faith as a grain of Mustard-seed not only for Peter for his Apostles but for thee silly Woman Ignorant Child c. Use 4. TERROR This is a thunderbolt to break the heart and Split the hopes of al worldlings under Heaven Doth then thy conversation witness doth thine own heart confess it That The day is yet to dawn the hour yet to come that ever God spake to thy Soul or plucked thee out of the world As thou were 't thou art of the Earth and speakest of the Earth in the old course and led aside with old lusts Know thou must Christ hath shut thee out of his Prayrs and thy Soul out of peace and self out of Heaven for ought any living can tel and I do not say how sleepest thou but how canst thou live and hear and know this thy condition That thou dost not sit down in silence and thy Soul sink and die away within thee in everlasting discouragement in the expectation of evil that hangs over thy Head and have thy life hang in doubt that when thou goest our thou shouldest never return and when thou liest down thou shouldest never rise up again Why there is nothing to hinder but the hand of Justice should plague and nothing to stay it Thy sins and Devils to make a prey and spoil of thee and nothing to hinder it Bear not up thy self with the Opinion of others or their approbation how their Hearts are to thee and how wel they speak of thee But know The Heart of Christ he hath discovered it and professed it He prays not for the world nor for thee if one of them Do not deceive thy self nor suffer Satan to delude thee with vain pretences That notwithstanding thy sins and deserts yet there is redemption wrought by Christ vertue and Salvation in the Blood of Jesus He died for sinners and his Death is able to redeem because Salvation is laid upon one that is mighty True that is thy misery There is enough to be had but he never suffered any thing did any thing intended any thing nay purposed to speak a good word for thee but to leave thee to shift for thy self to the hand of Justice to plague to the hand of Devils to torment to the hand of thy sins to rule damn thee And he professeth he would not spend his breath much less his Blood I think thou hast thy load though I could yet lay it heavier Hy thee for thy life out of the compass and company of the world if ever thou wouldest be within the power of the prayer of Christ to thine own knowledg Use 5 Exhortation to beleevers To have our hearts ravished and our thoughts swallowed up with everlasting admiration of this indeared love of the Lord Jesus to such poor creatures That he should provide and reserve the rarities of the Riches of his Grace for such miserable worthless Worms As Philip in the like case Why wilt thou shew thy self to us and not unto the world why pray for us speak intercede for us in Heaven and not for the world when there be so many wise Rich honorable that thou never intendest any good unto nor ever put test them within one sentence of thy prayer Lord who am I silly Woman Ignorant Child disobedient rebellious servant that yet thou shouldest cal me out of the world and make it
of affection but of divine operation of God upon the soul whereby the soul returns all unto God to do al and to receive all to do all for himself in man and to receive all to himself by man So that God alone doth all in this firstly upon man and then by man If this work was so much in the Eye of our Savior and that intended So chief also in the performance and that accomplished with care no wonder it had the next Room and remembrance in his prayer But so it was this was the main errand of our Savior when he was sent into the world and the very life of the kingdom of Grace and the covenant of Grace as it concerned them So the Lord professeth by the Prophet Esa 49 5 And now saith the Lord that formed me from the Womb to be his servant Our Savior appointed in Gods decree sanctified and overshadowed by the Holy Ghost in the womb and called to this end for this work To bring Jacob back again to him It was that which was plotted by the Head and policy of Satan and brought about by the fal and through the folly of our first parents To break off this unity and Oneness betwixt God and Adam For Satan had found it by woful experience in himself that by sin God would be estranged from him and he also from God neither to find his favour towards him nor the presence of his spirit of Grace to work upon him nor yet would Adam thus departed act for God nor return to him that praise he ought So that God and Adam are not one but at odds It s the meaning of that place Gal. 3.19 20. When the Apostle had shewed the weakness of the Law in the work of Justification and the promise only carried it He makes thig Objection wherefore then served the Law i.e. The giving of the Law Answer It was to discover transgression and therefore it was given by the Hand of a Mediator to-wit Moses who was between God and the people Now in that Moses was a Mediator it shews there was diverse parties differing and disagreeing one from another for a Mediator is not of one not of parties that are at unity and agreement but God is one ever like himself and the same Therefore the cause of difference was not on Gods part but by Reason of trangression which shews man to be other than he was by Nature ful of guilt and sin and that 's the reason God is at odds with him as he is departed from God Now the scope of our Saviors coming is to bring the Soul back again unto God by himself and to make it one with the Father and himself It was beyond the power of any created Grace to bring back a fallen Soul but the God-Head of Christ in the Nature of man assumed must bring the Nature of man to God again And where as it was found by proof in our first parents that the power of created Grace did not nay indeed could not hold the Soul unchangeably to him and so to act by and for him Herein lies the life and incomparable excellency of the covenant of Grace and the fulness of the sufficiency of the quickning power of the second Adam the Lord Jesus not only to procure unto acceptance and approbation with the Father but the lively communication of himself and the assistance of his spirit to keep our hearts and the gracious work thereof to him for ever So that though our Graces might and would fall us in Adam yet the spirit of Jesus upholds and holds us for ever towards him a fountain of living water Though the vertue and work thereof would wanse away and through not-attendance not put forth it self upon the rule and for the work as we see in Adam He attended not unto acted not upon a command but listened to the delusion and suggestion of the enemy Yet the spirit of Christ which dwelleth with us and shall be in us is there not only to keep with us and carry us to Christ but to quicken us by vertue from Christ according to the tenure of the Gospel Joh. 14.17 And this is indeed to be under the powerful impression of the covenant of Grace And this is the meaning of that place I live not but Christ lives in me Gal. 3.20 Christ by Faith brings me to God By his spirit keeps the bent of the heart towards him carryes it to himself acts it upon himself quickens it by influence of vertue the fountain whereof is in himself Adam might have said I live by a power and principle of Grace in which I was created and in which I have pleased God thereby and according to a covenant of works may challenge life and happiness But Paul in the person of al self-denying sinners professeth that I live not Christ hath called me brought me to himself gives me his spirit and keeps the Eye of my Soul upon himself That he may thereby Be all in all to me work all in me and by me It s the meaning also of that Col. 3.3 4. Our life is bid with Christ in God when Christ who is our life shall appeare God is in Christ is in us keeps us to himself and communicates al saving Graces of life here and will quicken and perfect all in the whol man at his resurrection Thus then we see The end of our Saviors coming and the life of the covenant of Grace both these our Savior would further by his prayer But this unity with the Father and the Son is the end of our Saviors coming and the life of the Covenant 2. Reason This work being savingly and effectually made good upon the soul it maks way for the inlarged expression of all the fruits and works of holiness which might further set forth the honor of God the kingdom of Christ our own comforts here and happiness in another world It s the meaning of that Joh. 15.5 He that abideth in me and I in him the same bringeth forth much fruit True it is done by faith but it is somthing other and somthing more than the bare coming to Christ or our Union with him It is the keeping the Eye of the soul and carrying the bent of the Heart upon the engagements of Gods dearest love and the unchangeable work of the spirit of Adoption to be acted by the quickning vertue thereof in Gods time and after Gods manner and answerable to our need and that condition and place we possess in the Body of Christ for so that phrase implieth Joh. 6.56 He that eateth my Flesh and drinketh my Blood that is done by beleeving He abideth in me and I in him That is another and a further work And it intimates a free and a ful intercourse of spiritual communion between God and the soul and a communication of his presence and spiritual influence upon the beleever As it is in the Body natural when the constitution is healthful and the
shouldest be mindfull of him and the Son of man thou shouldest regard him So What is man so base so sinful so vile so miserable As Saul who ever found his enemy and slue him not but who ever found his enemy and sent his Son to him Use 2. Comfort to bear up the fainting hearts of the Saints amidst al the corruptions that annoy temptations that oppose feebleness and difficulties that discourage why yet Christ is sent for the work who is furnished with al sufficiency to do it He hath laid salvation upon one that is mighty Mighty pride mighty distempers to foil thee mighty temptations to assault thee mighty allurements in the world to intangle thee Why here is Salvation upon one that is mighty to save free and deliver thee Hither Paul retires and strengthens himself 2 Tim. 1.12 I know whom I have beleeved when I am not able to resist or vanquish Christ is able and nothing ever miscarried that was committed to his care All power in Heaven and Earth is committed into his had Use 3. Of Direction How to expect all from God How to go to God for all 1. Expect all from God in Christ Eph. 1.3 c. blesseth us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in him Adopts us in him makes us accepted in him God was in Christ reconciling the world 2. Go to God for al in Christ In the performances of al Duties in the use of al Ordinances go to Christ first and then to the Father As its true the Father judgeth no man so he comforts quickens sanctifies no man but hath committed al unto his Son Christ is the Fathers Almner and to him we must repaire if we desire to share in the bounty of the Father He is that Joseph Gen. 41.44 45. If the Son make you free ye shal be free indeed Joh. 8.30 If he comfort ye shal be comforted indeed Therefore do three things 1. Be Dexâ—rous in our apprehensions to see the footsteps of our Savior and be so wel acquainted with his passages that we may perceive his whispers and know him at a turn though we â—ee but his back parts 2. Use no meanes nor entertain any but such as come by his own appointment Because those that come not from him lead not to him Col. 2.10 We stand complete in him Math. 17.5 Hear him and none but him As the Prophet to the King of Judah Go not with the King of Israel for God is not with him So go not out in the use of such means for God is not in them 3. Look at him as sent on purpose for this work Joh. 6.26 This is the work of God that ye beleeve on him whom the Father hath sent This answers all If the Father appoint him who shal gainsay It the Son hath undertaken it how can it fail If al power be in his hand who shal hinder If all the execution be in his hand there wil be no miscarriage We have dispach't the first The second now follows Viz. That God will have this beleeved by the ungodly world And its possible they may when the Saint attain this unity Christ shall attain this glory even from the wicked that they shall acknowledg his call and commission and so execution of this work of our Redemption For the explication hereof we may inquire 1. What it meant by world 2. How they are said to beleeve 3. What do they beleeve in the sending of Christ for which our Savior so praise and at which he so aimes 1. WORLD here not to trouble with any thing Impertinent or superfluous iâ— is put for the WICKED of the world who have their hearts inheritance and happiness here therefore go no higher look of further So ye shall find the word used in this Chap. verse 9. I pray for them I pray not for the world where the opposition gives the true sense explication of the word they are here distinguished and differenced from those that were given to Christ and to whom he hath given his word and hearts to beleeve and to whom he gave eternal life The like ye have 1 Joh. 5.4 We know that we are of God and the whol world lieth in wickedness Where those two are put in opposition to be of God begotten of God called to be Saints out of the world But those that are not begotten of God they are made up as it were of worldly principles and they keep and take up their abode in wickedness they are brought to bed in it And thus wicked men are stiled from three grounds 1. Because the God of this world rules in them 2 Cor. 4.4 i.e. Satan whose abode and habitation is in this visible world for where the Devils are cast there is Hell but hither they are cast into the Air the prince of the Air. Eph. 2.2 He compasseth the Earth to and fro Job 1. And somtimes he hurries into the great deep God hath given him a commission in his Justice to exercise a Soverainty over the wicked and to use all these earthly and worldly things as baits to take them at his will and he never fails With honor he catcheth the ambitious with wealth the câ—veâ—cus And they acknowledg no God but Saâ—an in these carried and taken aside by his temptations and overpowred by his allurements when he wil. 2. They are acted by the Spirit of the world And therefore the Apostle puts these two in opposition 1 Cor. 2.12 We have not received the Spirit of the world but the Spirit of God As the â—ons of God are led by the Spirit of God who works mightily in them that beleeve So wicked men are acted by the Spirit of the world Now that which gives life and being to the world as it is in opposition to God is vanity and emptiness vanity and emptiness perverted inordinate or Exorbitant vanity running wry from the command of God and cross to the fear of God Emptiness and weakness of the creature captivating the Soul under its command and carrying of it according to its will It s the Spirit of the world 1 Joh. 2.16 The lust of the Eves carry all away Thus the Prophet Wine and Women take away the heart Hos 4.11 3. They take contentment in the things of the world and there they take up their stand set up their rest They are called the men of the Earth and lay up their treasures here on Earth Ps 17.14 Mind earthly things Philip. 3.19 Here they are in their Element like fish in the Water and some conceive and not improbably that the Psalmist aimed at some such thing The Heavens are the Lords but the Earth he hath given to the sons of men Psal 115.16 By Earth is meant all these visible things which they who live by sense set up as their Gods serve and worship them The heaven is Gods throne where no unclean thing comes but the Earth these visible things where wicked men have sinned and by their sins
have polluted they are now contented with them and they shal be plagued by them therefore it s said God filâ—s their Bellies with his hid Treasures the things of this world which are in Gods store-house and he hath a hidden dispensation of them These are the diet of wicked men they have not the hid manna spiritual food to refresh them If the God of the world rule them The Spirit of the world act them The things of the world content them Then are they truly said to be World USE Before we pass let us make some use of this That wicked men are worldly men and hence we may discover our condition and take a trial of our estate whether carnal or spiritual whether gracious or wicked look what it is that carries thee what it is that contents thee Are these worldly things great in thine Eye and in thy apprehension and approbation dost thou center thy self upon these satisfiest thou thy self with these beleeve it thou art of the world and shalt perish with the world So our Savior Joh. 3.31 He that is of the Earth is earthly and speaketh of the Earth It is his Nature and he doth his Nature his actions manifest his disposition we judg ever the Nature and quality of the thing by its motion place whither it tends Light things wil ascend and never stay tiâ— they come to the place their Nature desires heavy things descend downward and they wil not stay before they come thither See thou the poâ—se of thy spirit the motion and inclination of the heart whither it goes naturally and where it would be if it be there where it desires and where it rests if left unto it self If the weight of thy thoughts and desires carry thee freely and strongly after the lust of thine Eyes the lust of thy flesh and stop it doth not stay it would not before it be there Thy heart is on the Earth and thou art a Citizen on Earth and thou hast thy portion on this Earth thou hast no Heaven in thee to this day and thou shalt never come to Heaven It skills not that thou meeâ—est somtimes with the things of Grace and life thy speeches thy conference thy carriages and thy actions meddle now and then and converse with the things of Heaven and happiness because they be such as come in thy way and will keep thee company if not beyond thy expectation yet beyond thy desire The Traveiler passeth by many countries baits at many places but he takes not up his abode and rest before he come to his own Country and own home and there he stayes That shews he is that Country man Thou mayest in thy travel meddle with the heavenly ordinances of God take up holy duties in thy course and bait thy self in such performances as may maintain either quiet within or credit without amongst men Oh! but which is thy home wither thy heart and desires are going and wil not rest before they repair thither thou seekest God to serve thine own turn touchest at holy courses to take in fresh comfort incouragements c. But thy heart is not at home before it can satisfie it self in the pursuit and possession of worldly things The God of the world rules thee the spirit of the world leads thee the things of the world content thee when thou art there thou art in thy Element when drawn from thence thou art dragd like Fish out of the Water much a-do to live That is thy condition It s possible for a heavy thing by a strong hand to be held from descending downward but leave it to it self thou shalt easily see whether it be its place or suitable to its inclination it moves immediately downwards Your Sea-horses and Crocodils go somtimes ashore for their prey but because they retire and take up their abode in the Waters we therefore know they are Sea not Land-creatures So its possible to seek a prey i.e. For thine own ease or praise thou mayst put to the performances of holy duties or happily either company place persons the lawes or ordinances hold thee by strong hand and-force thee to a shew of zealous profession But when these poises are plucked away mark what thy Soul before desired inwardly what it now wil into of it self If to the world and the vanities thereof thou art a worldly man to this day Hence it is that many in these places drop away and fall hand-pat to the world after a long profession of a heavenly life These earthly heavy Souls would have been at their center long before but there were some impediments in their way that stopped their proceeding Wheras if the heart be heavenly it rests not before it come thither Psal 42. Oh when shall I appeare before the living God many say who will shew us any good but Lord lift thou up the light of thy countenance And the Apostle concludes it Coloss 3.1 If ye be risen with Christ seek the things that are above ye ought to do so and ye will do so The Apostle Issues both the parts with the grounds of them 1 Cor. 15. 48. The first Adam is from the Earth earthly the second Adam is the Lord from Heaven As we have born the image of the earthly so shal we bear the image of the Heavenly Yea our Savior concludes it They are not of this world as I am not of the world As he by the power of his God-Head took our Nature to himself by the power of the fame God-Head he takes our Souls to himself carries them to himself acts them upon himself keeps them with himself 2. How the world are said to beleeve Christs sending Answ It cannot be meant of saving Faith the faith of Gods Elect or that Faith by which we beleeve unto Salvation for that Faith which is here meant wicked men should and its certain sooner or later they shal attain for its that which the Father intends and aims at and our Savior Christ looked at as his scope in his prayer and we know that the Father never fails to accomplish what he intends nor our Savior to attain what he prayes for But this our Savior aimes at in his praier as one principal scope and end of it There is therefore in the second place a Faith which doth belong even to the wicked which is truly termed or called Faith in the language of the Scripture and the common speech of men I say truly called Faith though iâ— be not truly saving Joh. 12.42 43. Many beleeved on him but durst not confess him for they loved the praâ—e â—f men moâ—e than of God Theâ—e is saith then and men do also beleeve who love the praise of men more than of God but this no man can do and beleeve savingly Joh. 5.44 How can ye beleeve which receâ—ve honor one of another and seek not the honor that cometh from God only Joh. 2.23 24. Many beleeve in him But our Savior did not commit himself
Christ the Author of Grace the giver of all grace and peace He is the great Almner by whom God gives al As in another case it s said The Father judgeth no man but hath committed al judgment to his Son so he comforts quickens none but by his Son therefore in these of al ordinances priviledgeâ— performances look at them only either as those which lead to Christ or come from Christ What Christ hath received as man we have dispatched 2. What he gives now comes into consideration where there be two Doctrins 1. The Saints share in a like glorious grace with Christ 2. This glorious grace they receive by way of gift from our Savior To the First 2. Cor. 3.18 The Apostles Testimony is pregnant even to the letter of the doctrine We all with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord are changed into the same image from glory to glory c. i. e. while by Faith in the evidence of the gospel we behold the glorious grace of God imprinted upon the humane nature of our Savior we come to receive the like print and impression of glorious grace upon our own Souls 2. Tim. 2.1 My Son be strong in the Grace that is in Christ As it is with the beams of the Sun that be in the aire they have heat and light continued to them while they are continued to the body of the sun If once that be intercepted the other decayes and vanisheth away So it is with the grace that iâ— in us which hath its beauty and glorious strength from the daily influence and continuance we have and hold in our communion and sweet intercourse with the Lord Jesus as the fountain of al grace and glory See this truth made good in four particulars 1. This grace is Inward and spiritual not that which orders a mans carriage in regard of himself nor moralizes his behavior to walk civilly and inoffensively towards others but it leaves an impression upon the most inward motions of the soul as they meet with God in the most retired and refined actions thereof Psal 15. The Queen is al glorious within Truth in the inward parts in those contrivements which God alone is privy to Sound ones in Gods statutes 2. This impression of glorious Grace in VNIVERSAL Every faithful hath not some few or many but all the saving and sanctifiâ—ng Graces of the Spirit in al the kinds of them and is able and doth also put forth the operations thereof as occasions do invite and the Law and his own duty doth require at his hands Joh. 1.16 Of his fulness we al receive grace for grace i.e. for each grace in Christ there is the like and answerable Grace left in the heart of every beleever As it is with the seal and the Wax There is in the Wax letter for letter syllable for syllable word for word answerable to that which was in the Seal Every letter there instamped is for the kind and number imprinted upon the Wax So it is with the grace of our Savior that is like the seal our hearts like the wax We receive patience from his patience humility in him leaves a like impression of humility in us c. Holiness from his holiness courage from his courage Hence is that of the Apostle Galat. 4. 19. My little Children of whom I travail again until Christ be formed in you As it is with the parts of the Body of a Child naturally in an ordinary and common way of Providence There is not one or few or many members of a man but al the particulars are fashioned when the Child is conceived otherwise it is not a human creature but a monstrous birth If the hand should want some fingers or the Arm a hand or the Body an Arm But Nature in the course of generation intends al the parts and al the proportions of them unless her work be hindered and blemished So it is in our spiritual Regeneration when a Christan is born by the immortal Seed of the word in the Womb of the Church Whol Christ i.e. All the saving and gracious dispositions of soul whereby a man comes to be a perfect Christian and to carry the stamp of Christ his everlasting Father are left upon him otherwise he is not a new Creature but indeed a falâ— birth and Monster in Christianity And hence the Apostle wisheth they should comprehend c. And be filled with al bis Fulness Eph. 3.19 i.e. They should not be an empty crevis or corner no part of the Body but it should be sanctified to become a weapon of righteousness no faculty of the soul but it should be adorned with some glorious impression of the power of Grace wisedom and prudence in the mind holiness in the wil harmonious readiness in al the affections to attend the counsel of the Lord to be instruments of holiness 3. As they share in al the kinds of glorious Grace here while they are in their infancy and in the Bosom of the Church So also They do partake of all the PERFECTIONS of al these kinds When they shal arrive at the end of their hopes the Salvation of their souls Here the earnest there the ful bargain Here the first fruits there the whol harvest of holines and happiness 1. Joh. 3.2 We are now the sons of God but it doth not appear what we shal be but this is known that when Christ doth appear we shal be like him for we shal see him as he is Then we shall not see him darkly as he is revealed in his word dispensing himself in his Ordinances But we shall see him as he it He shall dart in those unconceiveable beames of the fulness of all holiness from himself immediately upon the Soul Then the Soul shall see nothing but a Christ and receive nothing but the impressions of the holiness happiness of a Christ This is called the Perfect Man that a perfect Christian when this glory is made Perfect when there shall be no weakness to enfeeble the strength of Grace no blemishes to darken the surpassing beauty of holiness This is the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ Eph. 4.13 4. They share in the CONSTANCY and immutability of al this glorious Grace When they shall be beyond all fears and changes above principalities and powers beyond the noise of temptations which may assauk and hinder the work of Grace without and beyond the sight and presence of sin which may any waies enfeeble it Called An excessive exceeding eternal weight of glory 2 Cor. 4.17 This is called the Crown of righteousness 2 Tim. 4.8 The Crown of life and glory Jam. 1.12 This is the Diamond in the Crown and glory of our glory when Grace is now setled in the Throne and Crowned with immutability and Eternity i.e. becomes victorious and enemies vanquished as admitting no alteration nay no opposition of any thing to hinder nay not the sight of any enemy more
and carried beyond al the abilities they have yea beyond al the power of al the grace they have That look as when we see a swadling Child left in his Cradle in a lower room come againe we find it laid in the highest loft or Chamber in the house each man easily concludes There was another power than that it had of it self that conveyed it thither So here when the poor and ignorant amongst men come to know and do the things that are spiritual Eph. 2.10 His workmanship They are inlightned and inabled beyond al they had or ever once apprehended or could come into their own thoughts there was a higher power even the presence and assistance of a God the Lord Jesus himself to help Math. 11.25 I thank thee O Father that thou hast revealed these things to babes and adds no man knowes the Father but the Son Therefore the Prophet begs that he might not be left to his spirit Psal 143.10 Teach me the way to thee thy Spirit is Good q. d. My spirit is naught 2. Where the presence of Christ is The soul at the lowest ebb and the greatest under that ever it comes unto it is yet ever panting after a Savior cannot â—est before it come to him Isa 26.8 The desires of our Souls are towards thy name and to the remembrance of thee In the greatest desertion that can befal them the greatest temptation that can assault by the one they are disinabled to do what they would by the other opposed and hindred from attaining that which they do indeavor Yet they set themselves that way Though they see they are like Captives and under the Tiranny of their distempers they find they do not yea may be at such an under and in a forlorne condition that they conclude they are past Hope and expectation never shal be recovered yet their hearts bless them that injoy that happy estate and Oh that they might That as it s said of the ungodly They set themselves in a way that is not good These contrariwise set themselves in the aime and bent of their heart Rom. 7. As the Pilot that hath the Helm in his hand though it may be the wind is too stiff and the stream too strong and al against him that he cannot make way forward nay it may be is turned back again by contrary stormes yet he tacks about and keeps her to that point stil So here when the Lord Christ takes the Helm of the heart of a beleever in his own hand though the wind and tyde of the most violent temptation for the while stop his course yet the bent of the heart is that way My Soul followeth hard after thee Psal 63.8 USE 4. This shews the excellency of the Saints even in the meanest and worst condition above the wicked and ungodly when they are in the greatest ruffe and Soveraignty that they can attain unto in this world The Saints are the Temple of the liveing God 2. Cor. 6.16 Their Souls are the throne where the Lord sits and shews the riches of the glory of his Grace and mercy the habitation where he dwels and takes up his abode the Kingdom where he rules by the power of his Grace the Guidance and Government of his blessed Spirit and the scepter of his word True he exerciseth the Soveraignty of his power and justice upon the wicked on Earth and the damned in Hel as amongst his Enemies and Out-laws whose rebellion he wil revenge and whose ruine he wil work according to the desert of their works But his Children and servants are his loyal and loving subjects amongst whom he sets up the Kingdom and exerciseth the government of his Grace and mercy and they in love and loyalty submit thereunto and advance the same The hearts of his are as I may say the Paradise of Gods pleasure in which he walks and takes his content So the Lord promiseth I will walk among them So the wise man professeth Wisedom delights in the habitable part of the world Prov. 8.31 This is my habitation for ever here I delight to dwel But it is not so with the wicked it s not so with them Those miserable Souls of theirs are the throne where Satan sits that Synagogue where he is worshipped and even where his throne is seated Rev. 2. The habitation and Hel where he abides Math. 12.45 Came and found the House swept and garnished The Kingdom of darkness in which he rules Eph. 2.2 He rules in the hearts of the Children of disobedience There he sports himself and there he finds and takes greatest contentment Because he hath such as will heare and entertain his suggestions and do his wil and lusts and therefore they are said to be Satans and of the Devil yea to be Devils Look therefore what difference there is between Heaven and Hell the Kingdome of light and the Kingdom of darkness the habitation of Devils and the temple of the Lord Such is the excellency of the Saints such is the miserable condition of the ungodly USE 5. Here is matter of marvelous and unspeakable COMFORT to al the Saints to cure us or al Fears and deliver us from al discouragements that ever we shal meet withal in this World The Lord Jesus is a Helper a strong Helper ready to save so the Apostle Phil. 4 infers The Lord is at hand Are Devils at hand to tempt thee are Enemies subtil and mighty at hand to persecute and oppose thee are thy fears and discouragements at hand to over-bear thee The Lord Jesus is at hand neer tâ—ee nay in thee to succor and supply add satisfie 1. Comfort in al thy Spiritual tryals when Satan grows most fel thy corruptions most strong and thy heart begins to fail thee in the apprehension of thine Infirmities as that thou shalt never be able to subdue to overcome nay not to resist Behold 1 John 4.4 be they never so great Greater is he that is in thee than be that is in the world Though thou beest never so weak and thine Enemies nevers so great Christ is greater than al Devils than al distempers than al the power of darkness and malice of the wicked Thou seest and findest a Law in they Members rebelling against the Law of thy Mind and carrying thee captive Behold the Law of the Spirit of Life in Christ shal free thee from the Law of Sin Rom 8.3 Here is Law against Law Spirit against Spirit Christ against thy Corruption That Spirit is in Christ and Christ is in thee Therefore our Saviour concludes None shall take them our of my hand neither head of Satan nor hand and power of Sin and Grave John 10.28 2. Comfort against WANTS and Necessities that may surprize and over-bear thee Thy Pressures and Calamities are present they pinch and sit sad The Lord Jesus is present to sweeten thy sorrows with the sense of his Love and to supply al with the fulness of his sufficient Grace It would refreshany in
To do al form himself in man not man to do it To receive all to himself by man not man to take it which was otherwise in the covenant of works The Lord Jesus having fitted the Soul for himself and united the Soul to himself and made the Soul acceptable to the Father in his Blood He sends the spirit of Adoption into the hearts of his sets their hearts for God and holds the bent of their heâ—rts towards him This is the gracious look of the Father The faithful the spiritual being of Sonship 1. Fasten to God in Christ as the fountain of life 2. Leave their hearts there and abide to be wholly acted by the influence and assistance of his Spirit 3. And to hold up the excellency thereof not I but Christ by the power of his might Mark that to be acted by the influence of the spirit not by a principle of Grace in our selves This is the Oneness to be carried beyond the covenant of works and the work of Grace or any principle thereof in our selves but to cling about God in Christ that he may act al in us and by us and we hold out him in al our works 2. How is this said to be perfected We shall better understand this if we a little consider the imperfection of this Oneness and wherein it appears the ful removal of those weaknesses wil be the perfecting of this priviledg in our Souls This imperfection lies in three things 1. In the feebleness and unsoundness of our spirit when we do not abide in the Lord we do out leave our selves under the power and stream of the Spirit of promise in and through which al spiritual vertue is dispensed and the influence of the Spirit is conveyed unto us But either we are crowded and thrust off by the strength and violence of temptation which as violent and boisterous winds and raging waves force the Vessel out of the Channel carries at upon the shore and shelves where it is set on ground if not split So Peter in the shock the assault came so fierce that it rowted his heart wholly and David in hast faid I shal one day perish c. Psal 16.11 Or Els We go aside willingly through the folly and deceiveable lusts of our carnal mind which catch at every Twigg hang upon every Hedg rawm and reach after re set by our own devices Will ye also go away Joh. 6.67 Jonah hath a fetch of his own and forlook his own mercies Jon. 2.8 Somtimes out of sinful discouragements the Soul like the Body in a fainting sit cannot see his way nor his Comfort nor can it help it self by holding that which is next at hand Like a man wildering in a dark night and out of the way he goes he knows not which way Isa 49.14 My God hath forsaken me This comes thus to be helped when God settles and stakes down the soul that it wil not go away nor be carried away O! intreat me nat to leave thee Ruth 1. Ashur shall not save us but with thee the fatherless finds mercy Hos 14.3 When we grow up in Christ as they I will wait upon him that hides his face from the house of Jacob and will look upward Isa 8.17 not inward outward downward backward when nothing from without moves us nothing from within stirs us or makes us turn back 1 Chron. 29. 18 as they Dan. 3.16.17 We care not to answer our God can and if he please he will however thither they look and thence they wil not go 2. As there is feebleness we abide not so there is crossness to the power of the Spirit which gives not way thereunto Though God through Christ let in some intimation to the soul and our Savior put his hand into the hole of the door and his fingers drop Mirrh leaves sweet insinuations of his favor present remembrances of himself Cant. 4.4 yet the soul is composing it self to a secure sluggish frame Psal 77.3 My soul refused comfort Ahaz will not ask a sign Isa 7.12 So Exod. 6.9 As Job in another case If God will speak kindly I could not beleeve it As Asa in a desperate pang refused to hear and receive Direction and Reproof from the Seen who would have brought him again to the Lord 2 Chron. 16. told him the eyes of the Lord run to and fro through the world to shew himself stronger He lost his strength and peace all his daies This hindrance is removed when this crossness of whatever kind it is that may â—op the passage and Influence of the Spirit is taken off and when it 's wholly removed then is it fully perfected I can do nothing against the Truth 2 Cor. 13.8 I came without gainsaying Acts 10.29 Pray without Dialogueing 1 Tim 2.8 Abraham considered noâ— Sarahs barren Womb Rom. 4.19 Live and walk in the Spirit Gal. 5.25 As the Soul when a obstructions are removed hath his ful intercourse in the Body so when this opposition is removed 3. When by feebleness we abide not by crossness we close not or come to be fully ingrafted into the Promise So lastly When the Soul will joyn any thing with Christ or expect any Principle or Power to quicken or carry our hearts or abilities to any Service beside Christ as sharing with him in any quickening vertue further than he appoints them goes with them works by them This is a desperate prejudice to the perfection of this Unity and returning al to God in Christ To lean upon Christ and our own Wisdom expect from Christ and our own Abilities Ordinances Offices c. I am Pauls and I am Christs 1. Cor. 1.12 this is to joyn a stone and staff together and so we hold neither in our hand This is perfected When we come to eye nothing but Christ to joyn nothing with him expect nothing but from him no strength but from a Savior but from Christ who hath appointed it sanctified and blessed it Paul is nothing Apollo is nothing Word Ordinances nothing but Christ in them they work nor further than Christ is in them prosper not further than Christ blesseth them A Sacrament may poyson thee as wel as nourish if thou discernest not there who is the Food of thy Soul The Word may be a savor of Death as wel as of Life if Christ breath not bless not Therefore al the Faculties should fasten upon God in Christ as Eagles upon their Prey or as so many lines about the Centre al meet him Hopes expect Grace from God in Christ and from nothing else Desires long for mercy from God in Christ and nothing else As they We will remember thy Name only Jehosaphat had al the Forces in Israel yet staies there There is no strength in us our eyes are towards thee When once it comes to that we shall see him as be is then we shall be like unto him 1 John 3.2 When we are setled so that we stir not yield so to al of Christ
thy waies and do likewife it s a mercy that he wil accept of our love and suffer us to love him 1. None more worthy than our Savior One of then thousand altogether pleasantnesses Wouldest thou love thy peace love Christ that procures it lovest thou thy Soul and salvation love Christ that purchased it 2. None deserves our love more whom wil ye love if ye love not Jusus ye wil love the world and it wil deceive you Ye wil love you friends and they wil forsake you Ye wil love your own conceits and those wil delude and ruin you No Christ hath bought our love dearly and us also He loved us more than Heaven He emptied himself of his glory He loved us more than his own life loved us more than the sense and feeling of his Fathers love which is better than life it self Therefore he that hath bought our love and us so dearly we should dearly love him Let our minds love him who hath inlightened them our hearts who hath comforted them our consciences because they have been pacified and refreshed by him 3. We cannot lay out our love better to better advantage and improvement for our own spiritual wellfare Joh. 14.21 If any man wil love me he shal be loved of my Father and my Father and I will come to him and Sup with him and manifest our selves to him Is there no drooping and distressed Spirit when thou breathest after the assurance of Gods love Oh but one smile of his countenance when thou sittest in darkness and in a disconsolate condition what wouldest thou now give to gain evidence of Gods favor that he should make known himself unto thy Soul and say unto thee I am thy Salvation Oh thou sayest part with any thing do any thing Why Love jesus Christ lay out thy affection upon him and its certain thou shal attain what thou desirest Prov. 4. Love Wisdom and she will keep thee exalt her and she will preserve thee she will bring thee to honor if thou wil embrace her Thus we have finished the first point of the three observed from the last end of our Savior's prayer Viz. The Father loved the Lord Jesus We are now to inquire of the second proposition that is plainly expressed and taken for granted as the main thing that is intended here by our Savior The point then is in the express words of the Text Viz. God the Father loveth the Faithful as he loveth Jesus Christ He loves the Saints as he doth our Savior he loveth his adopted Sons as he doth his natural Son the members as the Head I confess judicious Calvin â—asts another Construction upon the word and therefore interprets the Particle which carries a similitude with it causally thus That thou lovest them because thou lovest me But since this Translation which we read carries the proper signification of the Word with it and since that which he intends is not denied but included in it I therefore chuse rather to follow the Native and Natural signification of the word when there is no constraining Argument to the contrary nor any inconvenience doth accrew thereby to the Context and Scope of the place Only attend this that ye may not mistake the mind of our Savior nor the meaning It is but AS for the quality and likeness of this Love not so much as that it should be equal for the quantity and greatness of that Love which was extended to our Savior and to his Saints and Children For that were to derogate from the Wisdom and Goodness of the Father from the Honor and Excellency of our Savior and to lift up both the Persons and Priviledges of the Faithful more than were meet and due It sufficeth nay it 's unmatchable and incomparable Mercy and unconceivable goodness of the Lord that poor sinful Dust and Ashes may so far be advanced that they may be like to Christ which they deserve not though to be equal to him is unreasonable to expect as impossible to attain it The like Phrase we have again repeated in the last verse of this Chapter with which our Savior ends his Prayer leaving that as the last farewel in which such spiritual god things and those glorious Priviledges that ever were promised or could be expected or received were summed up even the marrow of al those loving kindnesses the Lord lets out unto his People the tast and rellish whereof if it were kept upon the Soul it would keep a satisfing and ravishing content upon the heart of a Christian in al Conditions yea carries him beyond al the fulness of Comforts that al created Nature can afford whether in Earth or Heaven being somthing above Heaven it self and al the beauties of all created Excellencies which the place can afford We shal open Two things 1. Wherein the Love of the Father to the Saints shews it self 2. That it is like to that wherewith he loved his Son 1. To discern wherein this Love appears we shal follow it in these Particulars by which Love is in a special manner made known as before Love of Vnion Complacence Benevolence Love Desires Union to the thing Rests contented with it Desires the good of the thing beloved 1. God loves his Saints with a Love of Vnion that 's thus conceived God the Father brings the Faithful into a neerer Vnion with himself and Christ than any Creature by any ability or excellency received by Creation could ever be capable of or could ever attain unto And this wil appear if we compare the surpassing excellency of this Union and the intimate neerness which every Beleever hath with God in the Covenant of Grace with that which Adam could attain unto by the Covenant of Works Had Adam stood and attained the utmost perfection it was possible for him to be made partaker of by the improvement of the Spiritual Stock of Grace bestowed upon him The utmost of al his happiness had been confined within this compass 1. A man by the Principle of Grate was fâ—â— to close with God and perform the Covenant made betwixt God and him But since the Fall of our first Parents and departure from God it was impossible for any Creature or any created Grace to bring back the soul to God therefore the God-head of Christ dwelling in the Nature of Man assumed bodily must bring the Nature of Man again unto God Man out of the mutability of his Grace departed from God but neither man nor Grace but the infinite Power of the God-head must bring man to God again and keep him with him So that the Second Person in the Glorious Trinity taking our Nature upon him did not only purchase by the power of the Deity all for us but by the same power enables us to receive the Work of his Spirit by which he carries us unto himself and the Father So that it is not any created Principle of Grace or gracious habit which either fits us for Christ or carries us to
him as we have heard But the same Spirit by the same power that raised Christ from the dead works it Eph. 1.20 No man comes unless the Father draw John 6.44 He that hath heard and learned of the Father comes verse 45. He it is that begets us again by the Word of Truth Jam. 1.18 2. Adams closing with God in the performance of this Covenant was in this That he did imitate the Lord in the manner of his Work for that was the excellency of his Image to work as God had wrought To do not what God requited only but to wil Gods Wil that is to meet with him and to concur with him in the Act of his Will As the Clock doth with the Sun at the point of such an hour when the Sun goes twelve it strikes twelve or as ye have heard somtimes two Clocks meet and melt into the same stroak at an instant To wil as he love as he delight as he Make my heart one with thee Psal 86.11 Acts 13.22 Col. 4.12 But every Saâ—â— of God that by his Spirit is carried to him he is made one with Christ in an unspeakable manner 1. The Soul is pitched immediately upon the Deity and so the Father Son and Holy Ghost and in the most intimate Union that can be imagined Not as the Branches to the Vine John 15.1 nor as the Members to the Head Eph. 1.22 but yet neerer they are bone of his bone and flâ—sh of his flesh and that is neerer than to be Members to a Head Eph. 5. and 30.32 yea are one Spirit â—ith him 1 Cor. 6.17 and this is beyond the compass of al that sufficiency and excellency God implaâ—ted in Adam The Spirit of the Lord Jesus that caâ—ried the Soul to the Father and Christ closeth the â—oul with the Spirit of the Father and Christ By the Spirit from the Father and Christ we close with the Spirit in Christ and the Father If the Spirit which raised Christ from the dead be in you Rom. 8.11 As by the same Spirit of the Lord 2 Cor. 3.18 Adam had Supernatural Grace but this â—s more than Supernatural for that was not able to incorporate the Soul into Christ The Lord by his Eternal Spirit plucks him from his sin carries him to himself and puâ—s him under the power of the Spirit of the Second Adam As the first Adam by natural Generation turns the Soul from God to Sin puts it under the right and rule of the perverted mutability or disobedience and curse of the first Adam Adam traded out of his own Stock and from those Principles of Grace he had received and the Lord had implanted in his Nature coming into the World gifted and qualified from the bounty goodness and faithfulness of the Lord And therefore it 's said He had wherein to rejoyce had he obeyed and performed the Covenant and wrought for his Life But beleevers are not in their own hands nor at their own finding but kept in the hand of Christ and live meerly and immediately upon dependance have all their Store and Stock in the hand of the Lord Jesus are brought and taken into fellowship with the Father and his Son and thence fetch al that dayly quickening and efficacious influence of the Favor and presence of the Lord to carry them out to al the Duties they do Thus the Apostle Gal. 2.20 I live not but Christ lives in me and that I do now live The Fountain of Life is not firstly in himself Adam might have said I live by the Power and Principle of Grace received and in which I was created and thereby I have pleased God and according to the Covenant of Works may challenge life and happiness But Paul in the Person of al beleeving sinners professeth that I live not Christ hath brought me to himself made me one with himself that he might be al in al to me and work al by me We are dead and our Life is hid with Christ in God Christ is the Keeper of our Life the Father the Author of it So that it is not any Power in Man or Principle of Grace whereby we come firstly to close with God but the Spiritual Union of the Faithful is of a higher or neerer Nature than that it can at the first readily be apprehended namely not by the Power of Man or Principle of Grace for al this is but a Creature never brought the Soul to God or kept it with him But the power of the Deity in Christ by his Spirit hath fitted me for himself and hath carried me to himself made me one Spirit with himself doth al for himself in me that he may receive al to himself from me and I might wholly have such a desire that al that we have may hold out his Excellency in al these his Dispensations and so have nothing of my self do nothing from my self which excludes Works wholly Here the Soul is compassed about with al the Power of Heaven nothing but with the power of God in Christ Whereas Adam who did somting of himself from a Principle he had so he might have taken somthing to himself he had whereof to rejoyce But God in this way and work he doth al from himself by man no man doth it He receives al to himself from Man Man must take nothing 2. Love of complacency that the Father takes content and solaceth himself in the enjoyment of his Faithful whom he hath thus chosen out of the World therfore termed his own Joh. 13.1 A little of our own say we gives to little content and rest to their owner A mans own house he delights to lodg in delights to converse with his own servants or little ones Thus the Lord is said to know the righteous not to know the way of the Vngodly Depart I know you not As a man is said to own such a person so educated As the sensible Creatures can own their Mates and their yong by the sence they scent the Nature of such and own somthing of themselves in them as generated of them So he that hath not the Spirit is none of Christs the Spirit which God the Father sent in Christs Name by that his are owned As somtime a Parent when the Child sent into a far Country and conceived to be lost and dead shall yet return there is some manner of his Speech some Natural guise in his Carriage some cast of his Look whereby the Parent wil own him and know him for his As there was a secret owning and yerning of Bowels in the true Mother to the Child when it could not be determined whose it was So God the Father who hath sent the Spirit of his Son into the hearts of his he cannot but know and acknowledg it and take complacency and contentment in it Rom. 8.27 he is said to know the meaning of his Spirit Hence they are called Gods precious ones Isai 43.4 his Jewels Mal. 3.17 yea Christ professeth he is ravished
beauty of it This shal be doâ—e to the man whom God hath now and wil then honor They shal sit wich the Lord Jesus in his throne and shal judg the twelve Tribes of Israel The wicked when they shal see the Saints next unto Christ and judging with Christ they cannot but acknowledg and that to the grief of Their hearts that they be highly honored and dearly beloved like unto the Lord Jesus That is the truth of the point before we can come to the Reason there must be two Questions answered which wil give in the light of explication to the several branches of the Doctrine Quest 1. How wicked men the world can be truly said to know the love of God to beleevers which is so special a secret that it is not many times made known to Gods own for many years together nay the Apostle professeth it exceedeth knowledg Eph. 3.19 At least this new name writ upon the White-stone no man knows but he that hath it And therefore this love seems to be beyond the reach of the world too far off for their blind Eyes to see yea the Apostle professeth they have not received the Spirit of the world but the Spirit of God that they might know the things that are graciously given them of God and is one if not the cheifest of al those good things given the surpassing indearedness of the Fathers affection to his How then can the world who have no other but the Spirit of the world be able to know this Answ I answer three things wherein the meaning of the places wil be opened and the weight of the Objection removed and taken away 1. To discern and judg of the spiritualness of the work of any saving Grace is wholly beyond the ability and reach of any natural man much more unable is he to know Gods love therein or to view the beauty and surpassing sweetness thereof These waies of Wisedom are too high for a Fool. He must have Gods Eye-salve that must be able to see the things of Gods Grace in himself much more in another All sanctifying works are peculiar to the Saints There is sanctifying work in the understanding to act it and inable it to close with its object as well as any sanctifying work upon any of the other faculties and this is proper to the Saints And the Scripture is plain and peremptory the world knows not the Father nor Christ Nor yet any that are begotten of Christ and so neither the love of the Father conveyed by Christ unto any 1 Joh. 3.2 Therefore the world knows us not because it knows not him And upon this ground it is they are called Gods hidden ones Though the world and wicked men cannot discern nor rightly understand what this love is nor the spiritual Nature of it which is done by a spiritual light yet they may know and then they shal-know that God the Father hath and doth affect them with a most peculiar love both glorious for the manner and incomparable for the measure of it even next unto the Lord Jesus and this shal be discovered by the fruits of this love and the amazing expressions of the riches of his mercy which then shal appeare upon the faithful in their deliverance from so great evils which is wrought for them the crowning of them with that Excessive Exceeding weight of glory with which they shal stand possessed and that unto the astonishment of the ungodly and the torment of their Souls with envy and indignation thereat No man knows the affection of a Father or Husband but those that are in that estate and condition because its a secret of Nature which is only to be seen in the impression of the work yet that a Father loves his Son above al other his dearest friends and neerest acquaintance That the Husband tenders his Spouse with an indeared affection above al mortal creatures This appeares by the expressions of his respect that all he hath is at her command al he can do is wholly improved for her content and comfort she lies in his Bosom and his heart trusts in her which forceth al to confess that the stream of his affection like a mighty current runs with ful Tide and strength Though what that affection is he doth not know yet this he knows The choicest affection is there So it was with Haman when the Question was by the King made What shal be done to the Man whom the King will Honor He expressed his opinion and was forced to put it also in practise He then knew who was most deep and dear in the Kings Royal affection Mal. 3.20 When God makes up his Jewels then men shal discern betwixt him that serveth the Lord and him that serveth him not how ever happily before they were al shuffled up together and then there was no differencing betwixt the most precious Jewel and the most reffuse Pebble 3. This knowledg in the ful extent of it as it is here to be attended and that which is appropriated to that time in peculiar it may be expressed in two particulars if we would lay out the limits and bounds thereof 1. They shal then stand perswaded of the love of God to beleevers by a setled and wel grounded conviction that cannot be removed I say setled conviction because for a time or turn for a present push and undeâ— pressure they may freely yield and confess and profess as much So many profane wretches in the horroâ— of their hearts they have then honored then advanceâ— the faithful as the most happy Oh Blessed such that ever they were Born Balaam-like Let my Soul die thâ— Death of the righteous and my latter end be like his But this is but a pang Now only setled conviction Seizeth upon the Souls of the worldly men 2. It is a grounded Acknowledgment from a sensible Experience of the contrary Condition which they have observed in their own Souls and therefore now it 's past gainsaying when their own sense gives in constant Evidence without alteration of which more afterward If Conviction be setled so as it cannot be removed their Experience undeniable which brings in Evidence that cannot be gain-sayed then it 's true The World may be said to know that there is such a Love of God to the Saints Quest 2. Why doth not the World come to know this in this Life Answ Upon a double Ground or for a two-fold Reason 1. Because the Life Spiritual of the Saints is hid and concealed while they wilder up and down in this Vale of Tears clouded partly with sorrows and miseries which attend them as a constant Companion in a Christian Course partly collied and bemited with corruptions of their hearts and lives so that neither the beauty of Gods Grace nor the tender expressions of Gods Love doth in any peculiar manner appear in them and go no further than the Judgment of Sense they are the most forlorn despicable Persons upon the face of the
under the Soveraignty and Authority thereof it was utterly impossible as being against the Principles of Reason and the Nature of Grace and the Covenant of Truth which the Lord hath left in his Word This ye shal find most plain in the very express words of our Savior when he discovers this Work John 17.6 I have manifested thy Name to the Men which thou gavest me out of the World He gets them out of the hand of the World from the lust of the eyes and lusts of the Flesh and the Pride of Life 1 John 2.16 For that is al which is in the World and from al these whether the vanity of the Creature with which our Eye and Sences are taken from without or the sensual filth and dunghil steams of noysom distempers which arise of our own Concupiscence or whether it be Pride and overweening Self-confidence which ariseth and issues out of al. this is al that is in the World and from al these the Father gains the Souls of those men he gives unto his Son For they had given away themselves unto these Lusts of the World and that must be repealed before this could be tendred afresh And here again by the way ye may observe That this Giving cannot be the Act of Electing for that is an eminent Act and remains in Gods Breast and Bosom and goes not out This is called a Transient Act is an Act which passeth upon the Creature That is without respect and consideration of Mans being much less the being of Sin as ye have fully heard But this supposeth a man in the World that is under the power of the Vanity thereof if he must be given out of the World 2. God the Father doth actually deliver up the Soul into the hand of Jesus commends it to his keeping to rule him in the Kingdom of Grace while here he remains in this World and to bring him to Glory hereafter He gives the Soul and our Savior takes it and undertakes for it as his Charge according to the terms of the Covenant and Agreement made between the Father and him The Expression of Calvin is pat and pleasant God the Father causeth the Soul to pass into the Care and Custody of the Lord Jesus leaves him in the power and possession of his Son Jesus as the Second Adam the Head of the Covenant of Grace that he may see him redeemed As the First Adam neglected the Covenant and destroyed himself and his Posterity There was a Parly and Consultation held between the Father and the Lord Jesus touching the Salvation of his Elect and the Agreement fully transacted and passed But now it comes to be put into Execution and he gives them into the hand of Christ The Soul comes into Christs presence and Christ comes to speech with it Behold the party I wil have redeemed and the Lord takes him as his Charge and provides for him both to bring him to himself and so to Life and Salvation which he hath purchased and possesseth and can communicate The Soul as yet consents not nor hath the powerful impression of Gods Grace come home to the heart God gives the Soul the Soul doth not yet give up it self but God giving to Christ as his charge put and passing under his care He undertakes to get the good wil of the Soul and to bring it to himself and through himself to Life and Glory 3. When the Father hath thus delivered the Soul unto the care of Christ he then gives Christ to the Soul reveals the Lord Jesus as the Surety and Savior that hath covenanted with the Father and hath purchased al from the Father for him so that there is nothing that can stand betwixt Mercy and him This Christ and Mercy so provided and intended for his good is now rendered and given to him Behold thy Savior who is the Head of the Covenant of Grace who hath purchased and procured by the Fathers Appointment al good for thee and can and wil communicate al good to thee This leaves a mighty impression of the sweet of the good upon the Soul Thus God tendring Christ and through him mercy as he that hath covenanted with the Father and undertaken for the soul commended to his care by the Father This tender of a Christ and of Mercy in him makes the Soul take it this offering of Christ as one to whom he was before given to save works the heart to receive Christ and that is beleeving which is thus wrought as ye see by the giving of the Soul to Christ Because Christ gave himself and Mercy to the Soul therefore the Soul comes to him But because the Soul was given to Christ and his care he gave himself and mercy to it Therefore the Soul was given to Christ therefore it comes and beleeves If God the Father had not given the Soul to Christ he ad never taken care of him never given himself to them they never received him nor good from him Hence Beleeving is said to be Receiving and receiving we know as a Co-relative is the cause of giving REASON 2. 1. Because they are the Fathers own and therefore he hath most right and reason to dispose of them and to give them away as he sees sit when it wil be most seasonable to procure the good and comfort therof This is the ground our Savior goes upon Thine they were and thou gavest c. Each man hath most to do with that which is his proper right Now the Father had set his heart upon them before the World and appointed them to be Vessels of Mercy in his everlasting purpose and therefore it 's but equal that he should order al things for the accomplishment of the Counsel of his own Will and the performance of his Soveraign good Pleasure without controul John 6. I came not to do mine own will but the will of him that sent me and this is the will of him that sent me That I should lose none that he hath given me It 's sit that God should do his own Will whose Will is the absolute First-Cause of all things that are done 2. As Gods own Right so their own proper and peculiar good is hereby especially if not only procured For had not God the Father given them to his Son he would not nay I may truly say he never could have given Grace and Mercy or Good to them in a righteous way preserving the Right and Honor of his Justice and so the Glory of himself For had not Christ taken the care and charge of us the Justice of God would never have suffered him to have shewed us Mercy we should never have been fitted nor enabled to receive Mercy For we having wronged his Justice and provoked his Anger by reason of our Transgressions his Justice would have stood offended and his Displeasure incensed against us by reason thereof Nay he did give a Commission to our sins under the hand of Divine Justice to take vengeance
spiritual and eternal welfare of al the faithful requires this of necessity to appertain to him that must procure our good So our Savior reasons to quiet the hearts of his disciples because of his departure Joh. 16.7 Nevertheless I tell you the truth it is expedient I should go away for if I go not away the comforter wil not come but if I depart I will send him unto you They could hardly beleeve it as that which carried the face and appearance of any propability with it that our Savior puts out of question know it of a truth which upon trial ye wil find to be certain Ye would conceive at the sudden push that there could be nothing more inconvenient and cross to the furtherance of their comfort But its expedient Hence those phrases The Spirit was not yet given because Christ was not yet ascended Al the gift of the Spirit was in vertue of that work and the further perfection of that in Christ the further communication of al from Christ Now our Savior is far above al principalities and powers beyond the power nay the opposing presence nay the least appearance of any hinderance that may be cast in the way by Satan to prejudice or stop the work of our Redemption by Christ for us or the work of Redemption from Christ in us Resurrection is the only proper cause and immediate spring of the Application of spiritual good and therefore had he not risen our Faith had been in vain for as his death purchased right unto al so did his resurrection make Application of it for by that he rescued himself and so us his members then in him from the power of darkness that though they pursued yea crucified Christ could not overcome him but he rose again But when he ascends he was then beyond the ascent of his enemies yea beyond the fight the shew the appearance of temptation Far above And so when we shal be made to ascend we shal be like to our Savior and he freed from the annoyance the shew or appearance of evil Hence observe the Apostle his Connexion He hath ascended on high he led Captivity captive Hell Sin and Death were like a miserable captived company that now were under the Spear durst not hush nor stir He then gives Gifts to men When Christ was crowned Emperor over al the Enemies then he sends his royal Gifts Coronation Mercies abroad 4. This is for the great Contentment and Advancement of our Savior John 14.28 If ye loved me ye would rejoyce because I said I go to my Father for my Father is greater than I. Any Preferment puts us into Places which are above our own ordinary Now there is none greater than Christ but the Father therefore to go with him and be with him is the highest Advancement USE 1. Of Instruction Therefore they who have made choyce of a Christ have no cause to be ashamed If he were a base Christ ye might have some color to seek another to make a change but it 's not so But though he went from the Cross to the Grave yet he went from thence to Heaven and there is now in the highest Honor. His suffering was but his entring into Glory nay the addition to his Glory therefore that should not so much discourage as content and cause us to bless God for our Portion A dead Savior was better to Joseph of Arimathea than his life his reproaches better than the riches of the World to Moses But now when he is exalted in Heaven attended by Angels received into Glory advanced to the right hand of his Father what madness is it now to think we could once have done better The Crown of Thorns which our Savior wore was to be chosen before the Credit of the World what should we judg of the Crown of Glory The Poverty of Christ is better than the Wealth of the World the Shame of Christ better than the Honor of the World the Contempt and Humiliation of a Christ better than the greatest Pomp and Advancement that the Earth can attain How much more should our hearts be comforted and satisfied now with the Honor Life Happiness and Heaven where our Savior now is upon whom ye have trusted and depended How good is your Choyce How great should be your Content USE 2. Here is invincible Assurance of the final safety and glory of the Saints out of all those pressures with which they seem not only to be assaulted but overwhelmed almost beyond strength If the Head be above Water the Body cannot be drowned though it be under Water Christ is in Heaven and he wil never leave his Members in Hell nor Grave So that a man may boldly and comfortably conclude He wil make this sick and weak Body like to his glorious Body this sinful Soul like unto his in al Holiness and happiness As Christ of himself thou mayest in Christ bear up thy self against the Gates of Hel. Behold I was dead and live for evermore and have the Keys of Hell and Death Rev. 1.18 Behold I was dead in my sins sunk in my distresses overborn with distempers and temptations but I shal be for ever comforted quickened delivered for evermore Nay ye have the Promise and Engagement of our Savior Because I live ye shall live John 14.19 He is far above all Principalities and Powers and we shal be as he is He hath not only promised what he wil do but he is gone on purpose to make way for us to prepare a place for us and to bring us thereunto So he chears the hearts of his Disciples John 14.2 3. He deals truly and faithfully and tenderly with us If it were not so he would have told us He is gone on purpose to make room and to see that al things be ready And if we know not the way nor can help our selves in it he professeth he will come again When we are and stands he wil again support us when we are foiled and overborn with Temptations he wil again deliver us and receive us to himself though cast out of Earth and Societies of men he wil receive us to himself shelter us under his wings put us into his own bosom cast up the reckoning that the Apostle doth Rom. 6.9 10 11. He dieth no more death hath no more Dominion over him c. Reckon ye also shal I yield to my Corruptions No distempers shal have no more Dominion over me Yea grow in upon greater and more glorious confidence Rom. 5. If justified by his death how much more shal we be saved by his life He hath abidden the shock of Satans assaults the source and power of darkness and when the Justice of God delivered him into their hand and they brought him to the death of the Cross yet he thence delivered himself and he lives for evermore to save to the uttermost them that come to him USE 3. Therefore be willing to die and to go to Christ The Members long to
serviceable to his Church 1 Cor. 3.18 All is yours and you Christs and Christ Gods This is the order Christ is Gods Servant and all your Servants through Christ 2. Hence he restores his Elect from the power of Darkness and translates them into the liberty of his own by an invincible and irresistable power breaks in upon the rebellious heart of a sinner and brings him home unto himself No man comes to the Father but by me Rev. 1.18 I was dead and I am alive and live for evermore and I have the Keyes of Hell and Death Joh. 10.16 I have other Sheep that are not of this fold and those I must bring He sends and succeeds al Officers and ordinances 3. Hence from this immediate dispensation of al power he sends his spirit the Comforter into the hearts of his that he may supply al their wants furnish them to al their works and fit them with fulness of power and spirit to each holy performance It s requisite I go because If I go not the Comforter wil not come but if I go I wil send him The glorification of our Savior makes way for the mission of the Spirit and observe what he adds Joh. 16.13 14. He shall take of mine and give it to you And what wil he give All things that the Father hath and mine therefore I said he shal take of mine They are al Christs for the immediate dispensation and it s from the vertue of a glorified Savior that the spirit takes them and conveies them 4. He gives unto his Eternal life Joh. 17.2 Thou hast given me al power over all flesh that I may give unto them eternal life And this as the second person in the former sence For as meer man he gives not eternal life This is the end and Errand And when this is done then he professeth He hath finished the work he gave him to do when he hath gathered and glorified his Saints he hath done al he hath to do in this world 2. His Human Nature is made glorious 1. Because it hath the ful source of al the influence of the divine operations and Graces thereunto as much as any creature is capable of 2. It hath liberty and authority to set on work or put forth any attribute for the good of the Saints It knows al the necessities of the Saints and can have resort and set on work al the sufficiency of God to yeeld supply Math. 28.18 USE 1. 1. TERROUR To the wicked the enemies to and opposers of the Lord Jesus and his Kingdom See whom ye have despised he is now advanced to al power and therefore wil use al his power for your ruin Upon this ground Peter shook the hearts of the Jews Act. 2.36 He now being exalted sheds abroad c. Let the House of Israel know assuredly that this Jesus whom ye have crucisied God hath raised and made him Lord and Christ Math. 25.31 When Christ-shal come at the day of Judgment c. He shal come with power and great glory thousands before him and ten thousand thousands ministring to him Dan. 7.10 Rev. 5.11 And they shal creep into holes and clefts of the rocks and corners of the Dungeons and not be able to behold the dreadful looks of Christ Rev. 6.15 16. But he shal fetch them thence dragg them out of their Dungeons draw them out of their holes When it shal be said they have feared and fled and hid themselves bring hither saies Christ mine enemies those who have been enemies to my Grace Gospel Children Glory bring them hither and slay them before my Face And however the Lord Jesus abates much of the dreadful expressions of his direful anger and almighty power Now they are terrified and then quieted Now in horror and then calmed Yet then he shal destroy them from the glory of his power that is from the expression of al his power and that unto the utmost for their ruin Christ wil do his best USE 2. DIRECTION It leads us by the hand the right way whither to go and shews us the ready means how to derive quickning power and inlivening vertue Do as Stephen in his greatest streight Act. 7.56 He looked and saw Christ standing at the right hand of God Hebr. 7.16 He is the Author of endless life and therefore without end look this way Hence do two things 1. Know that he stands possessed of al right of communication and hath the immediate execution of al efficacious power and dominion over al creatures Math. 28. This is the commission he hath and in vertue of this he sends quickens succeeds and therefore look at him as a glorious Savior When he ascended then was the time of his coronation gifts then he gave gifts As we say of men honest and able when we repaire to them for relief it s replied Alas they are out of commission So if we look at Christs Graces in his humiliation and in the daies of his suffering they are out of commission But when he comes to ascend he is then in commission and so carries al before him Being ascended he sheds abroad c. Say there is no power in me neither word nor ordinances but al power and all things are given to thy ministry therefore blessed Lord by thy power subdue our sins and quicken our Souls 2. Know that in vertue of this glory he is bound to do al for thee nay hath promised to dispence al unto thee Joh. 14.19 Because I live ye shal live also I am with you Eph. 2.4 He sets us in heavenly places with Christ USE 3. Comfort Here is matter of unspeakable and unmatchable comfort to refresh the fainting hearts of the servants of the Lord which have an interest in this Christ and are possessed of him who stands possessed of al that glory that Heaven and Earth hath or the God of Heaven and Earth can give The Chymists they dream of a Catholicon and Medicine of that excellent confection and composition and of that soveraign vertue and efficacy that it wil cure any Disease recover and remove any distemper They conceit that which they could never yet compass nor yet the skil and industry of al men could ever find out That which they dreamed and desired for the Body The Lord hath provided for the good and spiritual refreshing of the Souls of his Here is a Cordial that wil undoubtedly Cure thee of al discomforts whatever thy temptation thy condition thy miseries are can be shal be hast thou but a share in this Christ to whom the Father hath given this glory in Heaven It cannot but give thee content dost thou but know the value and vertue of the receipt and dost understand the right way to use it and art careful to take it for thine everlasting refreshing See the proof of it a little in the particulars following Have this glory of Christ in thine Eye and keep the savor of it in thy heart Thou canst not but have
Heaven and Hell can frustrate to make the Lord repeal his purpose This was the best support that shored up Peter when he was at the hardest shock Luke 22.31 32. Simon Simon Satan hath desired to winnow thee as Chaff but I have prayed that thy Faith fail not Thy Heart and Hope and Grace and al might have failed and would but I have prayed that it fail not Thou happily wilt say Satan is subtil indeed and the snares of the World secret but I find most harm from mine own heart a Wil that cannot submit and wil not come though I might be saved Look higher and further for help to the Prayer of our Savior now in Heaven and there thou mayest certainly find Christ saies Father I will that they be with me The Devil and men and thine own heart wil the contrary whether wil the Father grant and which of al these is like to prevail The wil of Christ shal stand certainly and he wil do whatever he wil do the wil of Devils shal not hinder it thine own wil shal not be able to resist 2. Comfort against all the contempt of the World when the wicked and the mighty despise the meanness of the persons disdain the presence of the poor Saints If thou beest rejected on Earth and received into Heaven if men disdain thy Company and Christ desire it nay the World desire it the more our Savior longs for it and thee Thou hast no cause to be discouraged nor discomfited Thus David fenceth himself against the reproach of Michal Oh how gloriously c. saies he It was before the Lord who chose me rather than thy Fathers house 2 Sam. 6.21 As Haman solaced himself in this as no ordinary favor in that the Queen had invited him alone to her Banquet Hesth 5.12 Yea Hesther the Queen let no man c. Much more here when the Lord Christ professeth I pray not for the World but for all that thou hast given me c. John 17.9 3. Comfort against those feeblenesses which attend upon us in our best Duties My Prayers are so poor my Desires so faint and feeble that I rather beg a denial than have any hope to attain what I desire nor like to see Heaven nor Christ there Nay somtimes not a heart to ask and somtimes so much deadness and heartlesness in asking that how can I think to come to Heaven when I have not a heart to desire it Be it thy heart and thy prayers fail thee yet the prayer of our Savior ever took place and found speeding acceptance in Heaven Joh. 11.41 42. Father I know that thou hearrest me alwaies He is alwaies soliciting and pleading our cause before the Father and he cannot but find acceptance Therefore alwaies preserved Keeps them in the world alwayes assisted alwaies quickned to al perseverance USE 4. Of Exhortation If Christ affectonately desire our presence let us long to be with him to be out of the Pest-House of the world where we have been infected out of this prison of our corrupt Nature where we have been deeply annoyed with the Body of death and the stench of this carcase of abominations we bear about with us Long we for the consummation of the marriage long for this day that our Savior so much desires Our Savior longs for our company worthless Wretched that we be though he have not need of us and was ever happy without us lies in the Bosom of his Father and hath been his delight from Eternity who hath millions of Angels to attend and serve him Yea so far longed for our company that he came down from Heaven and took our Nature that he might die for our sins in the daies of his humiliation that those may not hinder our beleeving and coming to him and he would come again from Heaven that he may take us to himself that death may not stop our passage Therefore we have more reason to long for him of whom we have so much need in whom we shal find so much happiness to sleep out our daies in the bosom of his love through al eternity If our Feofment and inheritance lay here he would be with us here but it is not but reserved for us in Heaven where he is and therefore he wil have us with himself So they Isa 26.8 The desire of our Souls is towards thy Name and the remembrance of thee This is the last of al desires where they are compleat and ended The Soul desires union to the Body in the Grave but Body and Soul desire union with Christ To follow the Lamb where ever he goes Why stand we gazing one upon another go we to Heaven When our Savior saies I will they be with me Answer and I wil be with thee Lord. Say so ye Fathers and Mothers in Israel ye are almost within sight of shore there is one step to Death that is the Wagon and then to Christ Say so ye Yong men and Maidens though ye may live long ye cannot better this is the marriage I wil go also I wil be with Christ also who hath loved me died for me and redeemed me And if any be yet in a demur let me ask them as Laban asked Rebecca Gen. 24.57 58. When Eleazar Abrahams servant came to fetch her Wilt thou go and she said I wil go So let me propound the wil of Christ He hath chosen it desires it prayes for it what say ye wil ye go to Jesus I wil go Truly let us go The time wil come ye would be glad to hear that voice Come ye blessed c. Where then are our hearts that your hearts should be thus affected either the Saints have lost their interest or their affections Either Christ hath few servants or they have lost their desires 1. What Hinders 2. What might help Hindrances are Three The First Hindrance When we surfet on these sinful pleasures and contents in the world those eat up our desires and take off the edge of our Affections As Lot neer Sodom then in Sodom then cannot be perswaded to leave Sodom 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hemammered Lime-twigged with the things of the world as Birds cannot find their Wing Gen. 19.16 As surfettings take off our Stomach Al men seek their own none the things of Christ Phil. 2.21 The Second Hindrance When through carelessness and guilt they loose their evidence and assurance of their interest in Christ and acceptance with him And therefore fear and so fly him as a Judg rather than rejoyce to be with him as a Savior Is it not that Christ whose Blood I have shed whose Name I have dishonored whose Spiri◠I have greeved They think to appear before Christ as Malefactors before a Judg. As though stubble should be with fire Who shal dwel with those Everlasting Burnings Hence David desires some respit Oh spare a little before I go hence Psal 39.13 The Third Hindrance When we please our selves with the certainty of what we
aprâ—â—d Your Souls refuse comfort peace and assurance unless it be granted on your manner and therefore God seals it not up in the Soul VERSE 25.26 Righteous Father the world doth not know thee but I have known thee and these know that thou hast sent me And I have declared c. THe verse containes the close of our Saviors prayer wherein he ascends in his thoughts and desires to the utmost top of that heavenly happiness that can be enjoyed or in truth begged for the Saints when they shal come to the end of their Hopes And herein he reserves the best until last leaves a sweet â—aâ—ewel and rellish that he might raise up his own heart and the hearts of his Disciples to the highest piâ—ch not only leads and presents them to the throne of glory puts them in the armes of his mercy but leaves them in the bosom yea lodgeth them in the heart-Blood of his Fatherly love and faithfulness which doth not only exceed the very expectation of a Creature as he came out of Gods hands and needs look no further than the perfection of Adam and Innocency would carry him into but swallows up the Soul in everlasting admiration that he should come so neer unto God and be received in that indeared affection of a Father that he is entertained with no less but the like love as Jesus Christ hath been beloved of God and the Father of love We are then come to the Pinnacle of the perfection of happiness it self and there seems to be somthing more one step higher than the glorious Grace of Heaven look we only to the glory of that Grace that shal be imprinted upon the Saints and perfected in them at that time Here we have the Diamond of the Crown of glory even the love of the Father whereby he hath loved Christ himself and which is better than life it self or sanctifying Grace it self when it is come to the greatest perfection as we shal indeavor to speak to it when we come to that place It s the last resolution of Pauls confidence and the top of the rock whereon the Soul rests It s beyond al gunshot I am peeswaded c. That neither Principalities nor powers c. Shal ever be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ It was before al these therefore it cannot be reached by any of these In the twenty fifth and twenty sixth Verses we have two things 1. A description of the person to whom the Prayer is made Righteous Father an expression not recorded in al the new Testament beside nor can I sodainly find it in al the Old As though it were reserved on purpose for this place And for this Prayer of our Savior 2. The Prayer it self wherein are four Particular 1. The thing our Savior eyes and desires in the last words That the love c. 2. The Party who intreats in their behalf 3. The persons for whom whose worth and excellency is here set forth by their effects and that special Communion and Communication or intercourse between them and the Father 1. I know thee 2. These also know that thou hast sent me 3. A dis-similitude and unlike Condition of the wicked The World doth not know thee 4. The Means here used and that which is resolved on to be improved for this end that it may be attained which is sought for with such earnestness I have manifested thy Name and will manifest it Begin we with the Description of the Person Righteous Father In the words our Savior looks at God and at that in God which might give him greatest encouragement to seek and greatest assurance to speed of that which he did desire from the hand of the Lord. Righteous This is attended in a double Consideration so far as suits the place and purpose in hand 1. Properly speaking according to our apprehension and the practice of the vertue in our ordinary converse betwixt man and man it 's that vertue whereby we give every one their due and that is either by way of distribution called distributive Justice in giving Honor to whom Honor belongs or of Commutation in our Contracts and Bargainings when we make payment according to the worth and price of things called Commutative Justice or else Corrective Justice when in Civil Judicature of Causes and Persons we respect no mans Person but the equity and right of the Cause and give to every Cause his ful due Some Needle-headed men who are sharp and Eagle-sighted in the search of Secrets they have conceived and concluded That this Commutative Justice cannot be attributed to God For they imagine it would cast some kind of disparagement and imperfection upon the Majesty of the Almighty 1. That God should be bound and become a Debtor to the Creature 2. Where Commutative Justice is there one may receive somthing from another as wel as give somthing to another With this I wil not now meddle because it is not the special intent of the place However I confess the subtilty of the Conceit wil not easily satisfie my Apprehension For I see no more disparagement put upon God to be bound by the Goodness of his Nature than to be bound by his free Promâ—e He is Debtor to his own wil in the one as to his Nature in the other Nor do Iâ—ee what prejudice is done to the Soveraignty of Gods Wil and absolute Dominion to say The goodness of his Will cannot go cross to his Justice then it cannot go cross to his infinite Wisdom and Prudence which all grant Besides Justice is exercised according to the Nature of that Commerce and Intercourse which is betwixt the Parties with whom it is exercised As the Justice of God may have wrong by the breach of a Rule so it may receive content and satisfaction equally by the full restoring of a Rule Though no intrinsecal hurt can be done to the Essence of God for in that there is no intercourse of Justice betwixt the Creature and Creator Yet there may be wrong done to the Covenant of God in which regard Justice only is to be attended as it is exercised betwixt God and the Creature If it were a disparagement to God to receive equal to wrong done how could the merits of Christ give equal satisfaction for our sins and that to the exact Justice of God wherein the Glory of Gods Justice is not prejudiced but advanced It Justice wil require the manifestation of his Goodness by the work of the Creature It 's but equal in case it be wronged in her Commands to glorifie his Severity in punishing By some proportion in case it be pleased and content it may reward the work by blessing Neither doth Justice deprive her self of the Dominion of that which she doth bestow but in what she bestows and they receive in al they are bound to serve and yield obedience unto Justice Besides by Justice thus to convey a change deprives God no more of the
Father would keep them Joh. 17.11 3. To perfect that life of Grace in Glory Joh. 12.49 50. 1 Joh. 4.9 Joh. 6.40 I wil raise them up at the last day He is sent on this Errand that he shal see them safe arrived landed in Heaven USE 1. Matter of Admiration See and be swallowed up with the wonderment of Gods love to such worthless ones as we Had he sent his letters to comfort his Creatures to visite his Angels to administer it had been more than we worthless worms could have expected So the Apostle 1 Joh. 4.9 10. In this was manifested the love of God towards us in that he sent his Son If any man question his love or desire to see the discovery of love In this it s manifested undeniably infallibly Love unmatchable unconceivable that he should send his own Son from his own bosom to such worthless dust In this is Love herein is Love it 's here to be adored admired for ever Not that we loved him for that had been Love to have owned us and accepted of us But that he loved us and sent his Son to be a Propitiation for our sins Elizabeth is drawn to a wonderment at the coming of Mary How comes it that the Mother of my Lord cometh unto me Luke 1.43 But how cometh it that the Lord himself come It 's more than is usually observed or indeed can be expected that a man should send a choyce Pearl from his Closet a Diamond out of his Cabinet But that one should send his whol Treasure it 's more than can be imagined Or desired But it 's so here God hath sent his Son in whom al the Treasures of Wisdom and Knowledg are his and to us so vile so unthankful and unworthy Nay as God when he would convince Satan of Jobs Sincerity he impannels a Jury from Hel tels him that he had moved him to afflict Job without a Cause for yet he held his Innocency and the Devil could not deny it So consider here for thy shame if thy heart stir not with admiration we shal impannel a Jury from Hel which wil give in a Verdict 2 Thes 1.8 9. At the day of Judgment God shal be Glorious in all his Saints but admired in them that believe When al the wicked shal be gathered at the left hand of Christ the Devils and damned Spirits and al the rabble of those fulsom Goats shal see the poor Saints such as were opposite to Christ haters of him to be made one with him They who rejected nay may be persecuted Christ and the means of Grace to be now made partakers of Christ and Grace The Devils wil admire this mercy though they never share in it and shalt not thou admire it who art partaker of it 2. Comfort of never failing assurance of our safety and happiness It 's the wil of the Father and that must stand and Christ is sent to do his wil and he wil not fail of doing that for which he was appointed and therefore thou canst not fail of Heaven Christ professeth John 6.38 39. he came to do the Wil of the Father and this is his Wil That he should lose none but raise them up at the last day and he resolves he wil lose none but he wil raise them up verse 40. We have done with the Two former Things which were to be attended in the Explication 1. What it was to be sent 2. Why or for what End he was sent III. We are now to enquire touching the knowledge of this so far as it comes in an especial manner to be appropriated to the Saints And his is the third Particular to be opened for the discovery of the former Point are we shal only look at it in that peculiar respect as it is a proper Brand for Christs Sheep and a Livery of his Servants and Followers For so the Text intimates and our Savior speaks of it in that regard The World knows thee not they never attained this Learning nor were trained and taught up to it they are amongst the Petties and Punies of the world and may have some worldly wisdom These waies of wisdom they are above and too high for a Fool such as the wicked of the World are These who are promoted to the University of the Gospel and have learned of Christ these know such and such only know have a special knowledge of God the Father in Christ they know him as sent and therefore must needs know the Father who did send him Touching the Specialty of this Knowledg which is the Portion and Inheritance appropriated to the Saints as the wise man saies The Wicked meddle not with the Joy of the Righteous so it 's as true in this they reach not their Knowledg Of this we shal enquire 1. Wherein the Specialty of this Knowledg consists 2. How it comes to be communicated to them First The Specialty of this Knowledg consists in Four Things 1. In the Ability by which they know 2. In the thing known 3. The Manner of the discovery of that so known 4. The setling of the heart by that 1. This Knowledg is peculiar to the Saints in regard of that special Ability which they do receive from God in special manner by which their Judgments are cleered and their Understandings enabled to search and see into such mysterious depths and secret Dispensations of God unto the Souls of his in the Covenant of his Grace and the Conveyance of his Mercy which exceeds and over-flies the most Eagle-sighted Apprehensions of any Natural Man in the World They have the wisdom and enlightening Grace of the Spirit in their Minds and the concurrence and assistance of the Spirit to act and lead them out and thereby to lead them into al Truths and these must not be severed because God hath joined them together Zach. 4.2 3. There must not be Lamps only to burn in the Golden Candle-stick but there must be Olive Trees to feed those Lamps and to further their Light in their dayly burning As that is true in the Church of Christ it 's true also in the heart of every Member of the Church there is not only a Lamp of Knowledg burning in the Mind but there must be also a constant supply of the Oyl of the Spirit which must quicken and act out that Spiritual Wisdom for the right discerning of the things of our Peace And this is the Condition of al the Saints and the ordinary course of Gods Dispensation of himself in the way of the Gospel He hath given us a mind to know him saies the Apostle 1 John 5.20 he hath given his Spirit saies Paul whereby we may know the things that are graciously given us of God This is the end of giving both without which it cannot be So the words run 1 Cor. 2.11 12. We have not received the Spirit of the World but the Spirit which is of God that we might know the things that are graciously given us of
God q.d. There is no man of the world who only hath the Spirit of the world that can know such things None of the Princes of the World knew them verse 8. nay no Natural Man can know them verse 14. But the Spirit searcheth the deep things of God There be depths of the warmings of our minds and hearts and none but the Spirit of God can discover them deep things in the mind of God and whoever knew his mind No Creature ever did or could but Christ knew his mind and we have the mind of Christ and so come to know the mind of the Father verse 16. And hence our Savior surveys the differencing Reason why his Disciples might perceive others as Scribes and Pharisees had eyes and could not see To you it is given to know the things of the Kingdom but not to them and upon this ground our Savior adviseth the Church of Laodicea I counsel thee to buy of me Eye-salve to annoint thine Eyes that thou mayest see This Spiritual and special Super-natural Light is that Eye-salve which al the Disciples of our-Savior had and therefore they knew him As the Sun is seen by his own Light It must be the wisdom from above that must enable us to see the things that are above So John 14.17 The World hath not seen nor known the Comforter but ye know him that is by the Light of the Spirit ye come to see the Spirit 2. In the thing known there is a Specialty of Knowledg They look at it as an Ambassage of Love and Life which the Lord Christ now brings from the Father who intends their good in both and our Savior comes on purpose to work it 1. A message of love for the Soul of a sinner under the sight and sense of the guilt of his iniquity he doth and cannot but apprehend God as an angry God against him that there be many causes of quarrel and controversie that God hath lying by him and indeed the controversie lies between the Father and the sinner because his work was directly wronged and prejudiced And Hence its evident that the message must come from the Father touching the terms and purpose of peace if ever it be attained because it is the Wrath and Justice of the Lord that proclaims War against the sinner having justly deserved that his displeasure should break out against him The Lord Christ is the Prince of Peace who is our Peace and takes up the Quarrel between the Father and the Elect brings the glad tidings of Grace from God who not only tenders but desires reconciliation with the Soul through Jesus And therefore he must come as an Ambassador sent from the Father and that the Soul must know or else he could not attain his end take up the Controversie betwixt the Father and him So among al Nations it is a received course in Reason the Ambassador must come from the Prince offended that hath intended War and he must make known the Commission of his Ambassage as from him Authorized else Peace and Agreement wil never be accomplished nor received So 1 John 4.9 See also John 3.16 17. God so loved the World that he gave his Son c. How is that to be proved He answers For God sent his Son not that he might condemn the World for they condemn themselves but that the World might live through him These are Riddles to the wicked they may be talked of in the World the noise of such things may go up and down But to know and own the Ambassage as sent on purpose to him this is a Secret peculiar to the Saints As it was said My Message is to thee O Captain 2 Kings 9. The rest heard it but he came to the special understanding of it So it is here Therefore John 15.21 This they will do unto you because they know not him that sent me 2. A Message of Life For the sinner once seriously apprehensive of his many and constant departures from God his provocations are so haâ—â—ous that he cannot but see death in al his waies he can do nothing but he sins in al he doth and therefore the wages of sin being death he must die for what he hath done if God should proceed in severity against him and recompence his own waies upon his own Head Therefore having forfeited his Life into the hands of Divine Justice viz. of the Father whom he hath provoked Christ must come as an Ambassador from the Father and he must know he hath a Commission and a grant of Life under the Fathers hand else his Ambassage wil be in vain wil not accomplish the end intended by him and expected by the Faithful Party He hath sent his Son that we might live through him 1 John 4.9 This is the Record that God hath given us Eternal Life and this Life is in his Son Chap. 5.11 It 's the Fathers Gift it belongs to the same Power and place of Majesty to give pardon and so Life to a Malefactor or to take Life from him John 6.57 As the living hath sent me and I live by the Father so he that beleeveth in me even he shall live by me See the Order The Father is the Fountain of Life He as a living God sends Christ upon an Ambassage of Life Christ hath received power of Life from the Father and he as so sent gives to those that beleeve in him The Faithful know this Commission of Life and that it is come out on purpose and intended to them as he to Gideon Judg. 6.23 Peace be unto thee fear not thou shalt not die And they know and own Christ as so sent All which are Mysteries to the wicked they see no need of this or if so they neither own it in Christ nor would receive it from him They may hear the fame thereof and yet know nothing either of the Excellency of it or of Gods Intendment of any good to them in it 3. The Specialty of this Knowledg appears in the Manner of communicating this good to the Souls of the Faithful namely The astonishing Excellency of Power that brings the reality of these Ambassages of Love and Life to the Soul and the dazelling beauty of that Light that displaies them and laies them open to the Eye of the beleeving Saint Which things are concealed from the World and therefore they count them foolishness because they could never conceive or be perswaded of any such thing They think they cannot be because they cannot perceive how they should be As Nicodemus How can these things be We wil give a little Light to both 1. They find such a Power as puts them to astonishment For the Message of Love and Life are of such unconceivable worth in themselves and so far beyond the thoughts of a sinner that they should be sent from God who is offended with them and was and is happy without them and hath no need of them and that by no other hand but by
Breath and Being poor Diet of these perishing things here below of Profits Pleasures Honors and Applause Nay he cannot satisfie himself how he may give the choycest satisfying content to them And therefore he looks out not what Provision Earth or Heaven can afford but what the Bosom and Breast and Heart-blood Affection of God the Father can afford That Love wherewith thou hast loved me the first of al the greatest of al let out some of that Righteous Father unto the fainting Souls of my Faithful Ones This Holy Paul praies for as for the most precious Favor that could be obtained as that indeed wherein the rest issue begs it upon his Knees Eph. 3.14 I bow my Knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ that ye may be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inward man that Christ may dwel in your hearts by Faith that ye may be rooted and grounded in Love The end of al is That ye may be able to comprehend with all Saints what is the breadth and length and depth and height and to know the Love of Christ which passeth knowledg verse 19. The Height exceeds al Excellency al Apprehensions al Admiration The Length exceeds the limits of al Time from everlasting to everlasting The Breadth exceeds the Bounds of al Being none have received the impressions of such Love It is the Happiness of the Supreamest of the Angles to have but the Reflection and to come within the Shadow of this Love Their Work and Happiness is to attend upon those that God hath taken so neer unto Christ and himself in Christ As great Personages maintain their Gentlemen honorably to attend upon their Heir They keep them at Cambridg or some such like place because they will have their Son and Heir there They are ministring Spirits sent out for the good of those that shal inherit Salvation No Creature hath this nor indeed is capable of this Love but Man As I might demonstrate to you by the Course of Gods Dispensation The Depth being al the most inward intimate and enlarged working of al Creatures let al the Affections of al Creatures be put together let there be a Confluence and concurrence of al Fatherly Motherly Brotherly Friendly Natural Spiritual Affections put together This draws deeper than them al. David expressed Jonathans Love it was beyond the Love of Women which are most ardent and most vehement That was but as one Creature might love another but this is such a Love as God loves himself and his Son withal And to procure this Love the heart of our Savior was so strongly carried that he left Heaven and his Glory yea lost his Life yea was content to lose Gods Love that is the sence and sweetness thereof which was better than Life it self that we might enjoy it For he became a Curse that we might be blessed Gal. 3.13 He was willing to be forsaken My God my God why hast thou forsaken me that so we might be received and kept for ever safe in the Bosom of his Love Matth. 27.46 And hither Christ would bring and here leave us never to depart from hence And therefore he doth content himself that this Love was appointed provided prepared tendred to the Saints nay enfeoffed and bestowed upon them but that it might be with them and remain in them for ever Be in you that is That it might take up its Residence and abode in them for ever REASON 1. Love we know is an Affection of Vnion and by this the neerest Union betwixt Christ and his Saints is procured They are brought to lie both in the Arms of the Father nay to lodg in his Bowels and Bosom together And therefore as hath been mentioned before there is that proper Relation that peculiar Disposition to be found in the Second Person towards our Nature and the Saints by that means which is not to be found in the Father or in the Holy Ghost As the Second Person he is the Head of his Church which can be said of none of the Persons it 's an Heresie to maintain it This Union of our Nature is not only an impression in the Soul as a work upon the Creature For then it had been common to al the Persons For al the Operations which are created Expressions are indivisae undivided what one doth that al do This Union therefore being a real Union me non cogitante though no man in the World had a thought or apprehension of it therefore beside the impression that is left upon the Creature there is somwhat a peculiar operation issuing from the Second Person which belongs to him alone and by which it is he is said to be united and none else And therefore there is a peculiar kind of propriety and relation which the Second Person hath in this Union wherein he suits with our Nature which is not to be found in any of the other and that he must have as Second Person because it 's his Prayer Hence we are called Flesh of his Flesh and Bone of his Bone Neerer than Flesh and Bone as neer as one part of the Bone to the other one part of the Flesh to the other So our Savior John 6.57 As the living Father hath life in himself so I live by the Father and he that eateth my Flesh shall live in me Al the whol Aim of our Saviors Prayer is 1. To bring his Saints as nigh as may â—e I will that those that thou hast given me may be where I am that is not enough 2. That they may see my Glory nor yet that But 3. That they may gaze upon it Nay yet further not they only in Glory but 4. I in them and we both in the Cabinet as nigh to God as may be and as nigh one to another as can be in him 2. The greatest good together with the greatest safety of the Saints is provided for This shews the indeared Affection of the Love of Christ for Love ever desires the greatest good to the thing beloved So he praies 2 Thes 3.5 The Lord direct your hearts into the Love of God and the expectation of Christ So also he perswades Jude 21. Keep your selves in the Love of God If they be once here they are beyond either evil or danger they need fear nothing Nothing can separate from the Love of God in Christ Nothing ye can want John 16.26 27. I say not that I will pray the Father for you I need not that for the Father himself loveth you His Love sent me and set me on work his Love is the highest Fountain the first mover and therefore it wil set me on work If once God love his as his Christ nothing can alter or hinder If the same Love the same Happiness with Christ This Love hath al works al is before al over-rules al. 3. By this the Glory of the Father and Christ is most advanced This Love is the Treasury and Magazine of al that incomparable and