be a Offring and a Sacrifice to God the Father Reason And it must needs be so my brethren for being God there was no greater power then his to master him and overcome him A man is never forced to any thing against his will unless some outward violence prevail against him which he is no way able to resist Now this was not the state and the condition of our Saviour his death was not inflicted on him by an excess of strength in those that gave him up to it His Father was not able to constrain him for he was God and therefore equally Almighty with the Father And men had infinitely less ability to overrule him and to force him to it and therefore it must needs be voluntary of himself and this he cleerly intimateth in that speech of his in the fore-alledged Scripture John 10.17 No man takes my life from me the meaning is no man can take my life from me and therefore it is added in the following words I have power to lay it down that is to lay it down of choice and free election so that I cannot be constrained to it and I have power to take it up again And certainly if he had power to take it up again when he had lost it then he had much more power to keep it when he had it and enjoyed it So that you see he was not neither could he be inforced to die but of his own accord he willingly and freely gave himself to it Use 1 Is it so that Jesus Christ did willingly and freely set himself a part to be an Offering and Sacrifice to God the Father The greater and the more unsearchable was the exceeding riches of his love to us and the greater cause have we to magnifie it and admire it Had he done it by constraint and had be been enforced to it there had been no such matter in it so no such cause of Admiration and Thanksgiving The praise had then been due to him that forced him and not to him that was inforced But this was love as the Apostle John speaks love in the height and with a witness this was unparalleld and matchless love that Christ should willingly and freely lay down his life for us Had his life been taken from him for our sakes this had been no great love but that himself should lay it down freely of his own accord here was love and here was mercy to be spoken of and to be wondred at in all ages What that he should abase himself that he should not be made obedient by another but that he should himself become obedient to the death yea to that shamefull and accursed death that he should willingly expose himself to such abasures to such indignities reproaches scorns and to such unsufferable tortures to such a heavy and intolerable burthen of his Fathers wrath and all for those that were not undeserving only but even ill deserving too that were not friends but enemies Oh let us stand astonished at such a mercy We need not wonder that he whose love and kindness was so full of wonder should be called wonderfull Isa 9.6 Is it so that Jesus Christ did willingly and freely set himself apart to be Use 2 an Offring and Sacrifice to God the Father Then let us learn of him my brethren as willingly if it be possible to offer up our selves our persons our estates our names or lives and all to him to suffer any thing for him again What my beloved did he suffer willingly for us and shall we suffer grudgingly and unwillingly for him did he consecrate himself to be an offering and sacrifice for us and shall not we on our parts consecrate our selves to be an offering and sacrifice for him if he shall call us thereunto did he give himself for us and shall not we as readily give our selves for him again did he take up his Cross and go before and shall not we take up our Crosses too and follow him I do not say we should draw Crosses and afflictions on our selves but if they come upon us for our Saviours sake we should not take them as inforced upon us but we should freely set our shoulders to them and cheerfully submit our selves to bear them And thus far of the first conclusion mentioned The second followeth DOCTRINE 2. Christ did not set himself apart to be an Offring and a Sacrifice to God the Father for his own sake but for his peoples sakes and that to this end that they might be sanctified by this means Not that they might be justified only but that they might be sanctified also He did not do it for his own sake for there was no sin in him and so in that respect he need not to be made a Sacrifice for sin There was no transgression in him and why then should there be an expiation for him But it was for his peoples sake To say the truth all that he did all that he suffered was for their sakes For their sakes he became man for their sakes he became Mediator between God and man for their sakes he became a King a Prophet and a Priest And as a Priest so a sacrifice and offring to the Father for he offered up himself All was for their sakes And that to this end that they might be sanctified by this means Not only that they might be justified but that they might be sanctified also That which was the scope and aim of Gods election Ephes 1.4 He hath chosen us in him that is in Christ to this end that we might be holy and unblameable before him of Gods Vocation 1 Thess 4.7 he hath not called us to uncleanness but to holiness The same my brethren was the end of Christs redemption He sanctified himself that is he set himself apart to be a Sacrifice to God the Father for his peoples sakes that they also might be sanctified as you have it in the Text. He loved his Church and out of the abundance of this love of his he gave himself for her as the Apostle speaks Ephes 5.25 What that he might redeem and justifie her only No my beloved more then this that he might sanctifie and cleanse her too through the washing of Water by the word and that he might present her to himself a glorious Church not having any spot or wrinkle but being holy and without blemish He bare our sins in his own body on the Tree that we being dead to sin might henceforth live to righteousness as the Apostle Peter speaks 1 Pet. 2.24 he dyed for us that we which live should henceforth live no longer to our selves to our lusts and to our ends but to him who dyed for us He hath performed the mercyes promised he hath remembred his holy Covenant he hath saved us from our enemies and from the hands of those hate us Luke 1.74 What that from henceforth we might be our own Masters and live at liberty and walk according to our
an image and a pattern of that holiness which is originally and compleatly in the Lord who hath in this respect all beauty in him Yea it is called the glory of the Lord Rom. 3.23 All have sinned and are deprived of the glory of God which shined in us in the state of innocency Indeed my brethren he hath in him the Sum and the perfection of beauty He hath all in him that doth win and raise nothing that cools or deadens the affection all things to invite nothing to avert love Others there are my brethren who have some things beautiful and comely to invite and draw love but other things uncomely and unbeautiful to keep it off Something or other there is in them that is odd unpleasing and so a bar and hindrance to affection Brethren it is not so with God he is all beautiful and all alluring altogether lovely Others are so in some respects but he is so in all respects He is altogether lovely the allurement of all hearts And the desire of all Nations Hag. 2.7 So he is always in the merit although he be not always so in the event Object But if God be so beautiful what is the reason that men do not love him Answ Because his name in this respect is not made known to them All men are naturally blind you know and blind men cannot judge of beauty until their eyes be anointed with the Eye-salve Apoc. 3.18 to make them see such beauty as this is The beauty of holiness is a spiritual beauty and that is not discerned by a natural Eye There must be a spiritual eye to see and to discern a spiritual beauty And when you have such eyes as these to see the beauty of the Lord your hearts will be enamoured on him you will be in the case the Church was you will be sick of love and say Lord turn away thine eyes for they have overcome us We cannot bear the dazling rayes of such beauty as thine is The goodness of the Lord is a part of his name and goodness being manifested and discovered is a means to draw love Now herein God excels my brethren he is good beyond pattern and beyond measure He is essentially good good without goodness as Austin speaks because indeed he is goodness it self The creatures be good but not goodness Their nature is good but goodness is not their nature But now the nature and substance of God is goodness it self so that he is essentially good and then he is also causally good as Psal 119.68 Thou art good and dost good Thou art good in thy self and thou dost good to the creature so that the earth is full of thy goodness He is eminently good so that whatsoever goodness is to be found among the creatures is eminently and transcendently in God himself Now goodness is the object of love and consequently the allective of affection If we have cause to fear God for his goodness as Hos 3. ult then surely we have much more cause to love him especially since he is not only good in himself but good to us If this part of his name be manifested and made known to us we cannot choose but love him and delight in him That phrase of the Apostle Paul is notable and may be very well applyed to our purpose Rom. 5.7 For scarcely for a righteous man will one die but for a good man one would even dare to die Uprightness draws not love as goodness doth One man will hardly love another so much for his uprightness as to die for him but for his goodness manifested to himself on all occasions continually doing good to him he may come to love him so as even to lay down his life for him And even for this cause we shall love God and love him out of all measure so as even to die for him if this part of his name be fully manifested and made known to us The mercy of the Lord is a part of his name and this if it be manifested to us will beget love in us You know the Lord is said in Scripture to be merciful yea to be rich in mercy and that not only because the mercy that he hath is pretious but because there is abundance of this pretious mercy in him For both of these concur to riches there must be something that is pretious and there must be much of it and so it is with God in this case He hath a mass of mercy in him a bottomless and endless treasure such as the wants of all the world are never able to draw dry And as a rich man though he spend exceedingly yet because he hath a treasure the e is no failing no deficiency of his store so God though he communicate his mercy freely to the sons of men yet he cannot be exhausted no there is more behind still it is an infinite a bottomless an endless mercy A mercy that endures for ever Now this rich mercy God lays out as many other ways so chiefly in the pardon of our sins and hence we read of mercies and forgivenesses in God as Dan. 9.9 Mercies as the cause and fountain Forgivenesses as the effect and stream And both you see my brethren in the plural number to shew the over-flowing mercy of the Lord. Indeed my brethren there is mercy in all pardons but in the pardon and remission of the sins of Gods people there is admirable mercy And hence the Prophet wondred at it not knowing what to think or to say of it Who is a God like thee that pardoneth iniquity c. Mic. 7.18 The Prophet is transported and carryed out beyond himself in admiration And mark it well He doth not say There is no man like thee but there is no God like thee Indeed it goes beyond the mercy of any but the true living God to do this In which respect is that expression Hos 11.9 I will not execute the fierceness of my wrath for I am God and not man that speech of the Apostle Paul is full Ephes 1.7 We have remission of our sins according to the riches of his grace Now if this part of Gods name be made known to us it cannot choose but work love in us We love them who forgive us common debts especially if they be great we think that we can never do enough for them or manifest respect enough to them But we have cause to love him more who forgives us such debts as these are which if they should be rigorously exacted of us we were not able to discharge them but must be laid up under everlasting chains Oh my beloved how can this choose but draw out our affection to the Lord The woman in the Gospel had much forgiven her and what was the effect and issue of it Why she loved much Her love was answerable to her pardon Much was forgiven her and she loved much She was a great sinner and she had a large pardon and so accordingly she
not thou art our Father It is repeated twice you see and bound with an asseveration too to shew the strength and certainty of their assurance And in the same perswasion we find them praying in the following Chapter in Vers 8. But now Oh Lord thou art our Father we are the clay and thou the Potter we are the work of thy hands And in the same assurance also let us pray when we are making our addresses to the throne of grace let us apply our selves to God as to a Father The benefit and profit of it will be very great as I shall represent it to you in a few particulars which you may look upon as Motives to perswade This assurance will make us bold and confident in our approaches to the throne of grace it will make us come to God full of holy resolutions whereas if we be destitute of this perswasion when we are drawing nigh to God and know not whether we may call him father yea or no we shall be fearful to approach his presence we shall make but faint prayers And therefore the Apostle tells us that by faith in Christ in whom alone God is a Father to his children that is by this assurance that he is so to us in special we have boldness we have access with confidence to God Eph. 3.11 And this was that which heartened up the Prodigal and filled his languishing and fainting heart with resolution I will arise said he and go to my Father he had been long debating it should seem and ruminating on the business in his wavering thoughts His late miscarriages no question were a great disheartening to him so that he knew not what to do But at last he comes to this I will arise and go to my Father he is my Father and I am his own Son and there is pitty and compassion in a Father to a Son at least to a returning Son though an unworthy one as I have been And therefore let my faults and my discouragements be what they will I will arise and go to him And truly while we apprehend the Lord to be a Judge and not a Father or if a Father not to us but other men we find but small encouragement to come to him But when we look upon him as a Father yea as our Father in the Lord Christ this makes us come with boldness to him This causes us to delight in the Almighty and not to look divertedly but to lift up our face to God as Job speaks As this assurance will make us bold and confident so it will make us earnest and importunate with God It will enable us to pray and not to faint When we consider we are dealing with a Father we shall hang about him when he seems to throw us off we shall tug and wrestle with him we shall take no denyal from him Oh Lord thou art our Father we pray thee hear us pitty us relieve us for we are thine own children A man is never earnest and importunate with one of whose affections he hath no perswasion and they that have not this assurance present but cold and spiritless petitions and requests to God But they that look upon him as a Father as one that hath so near relation and such dear affection to them as one whose bowels of compassion yern towards them in their miseries and wants they will keep no silence they will give him no rest till he have answered them in mercy till he have given them the desire of their hearts This assurance will make us hopefull of audience and success with God Can a woman forget her child and not have compassion on the Son of her womb saith the Prophet Isa 99.65 Can she deny him when he begs and hangs about her It is possible she may there may be such a mother in the world but God is no such Father No he hath infinitely more compassion on his children Oh what a matchless and unconquerable ground of hope is here to those that have this sweet assurance that God is their Father What man is there who if his son asketh bread saith Christ will give him a stone or if he ask a fish will give him a Serpent though the poor child perhaps cannot distinguish the one from the other If ye then being evil know how to give good things unto your children how much more will your heavenly Father give good things to them that ask him And lastly this assurance will hold us up with matchless comfort respectively to the defects and imperfections of our prayers Suppose your little tender child should come to any of you that are Fathers with a lisping stammering tongue moaning for something that he longs to have would you look angrily upon him would you chide and rate him off and send the harmless infant crying from your presence Consult with your own hearts and bowels could you do it and is not God as pittiful to his as you are to your children Alas he is as tenderly affected to them that he sees not their defects so as to slight them and reject them or their weak endeavours for them No as a Father pitties his Children so the Lord pittieth them that fear him Psal 103.13 They are without blame before him in love Ephes 1.4 Though they have many failings yet he doth not blame them so great is his love to them when they look upon their prayers and find this fault and that fault as truly they have cause enough the comfort is that God finds no fault he saith that it is well done And thus he dealt with holy David as himself observeth Psalm 77.2 3. He was in such distress that he was troubled to remember God his very heart was overwhelmed within him a poor prayer you may think that any man could make in such a case as that was And yet that very prayer found acceptance with the Lord as he shews in that place I cried unto the Lord saith he in the first ver of that Psalm and mark what follows he gave ear to me And thus when we do bungle at his service the Lord is apt to take it in good part if we do but what we can and that because he is our Father which if it be considered cannot choose but be a very great encouragement and comfort to us But you will interpose and say perhaps here is encouragement indeed and pretious comfort if we can come to God in prayer with this assurance that he is our Father but how shall we attain to this assurance What are the evidences that we may relye upon in this particular which if we find them in our selves we may be confident to speak to God as to a father we may be bold to cry Abba Father to him I shall lay down a few and make them as distinguishing and clear as I am able to help you in this great business If God be your Father and you be his children you are very much like him
interest is so far from being weakned and abated 〈◊〉 that indeed it is strengthened and increased by this means Vse 1 Is it so that all the people of the Lord Christ are belonging to the Father Then certainly they are most excellent and pretious people for he will never own vile things It is a frequent thing in Scripture that admirable and eximious things are said to be the Lords The hill of Sion the hill of God because the excellentest of all other hills Psal 68.15 The trees of Lebanon the trees of the Lord because the excellentest of all other trees And so the Saints the people of the Lord because the excellentest of all other people and surely that must needs be excellent which he owns And therefore let us learn to value them aright and as the Lord in this respect hath made them high above others as he speaks of Israel Deut. 26.18.19 God hath avouched thee to be his own peculiar people to make thee high above all Nations So let us have an high esteem of them let us not slight and disrespect them as carnal men are apt to do because they have a meer outside but let us look upon them as the Fathers as that which he peculiarly owns and that not as his ordinary stuffe but as his Treasure and his Jewels as they are often stiled in the Scripture And though they may be trodden under foot awhile by wicked men we may be confident the time is coming when the Lord will make them up as it is said Mal. 3.17 When he will make up his Jewels when he will take them up out of the mire and wipe them clean from those abasures that have lain upon them to hide their beauty and obscure their lustre and shew them in their brightness and their splendor to the world Is it so that all the people of the Lord Christ do belong c. Then let Vse 2 it be their care and their endevour so to walk and so to carry and behave themselves as a people ought to do who have such near relation both to God and Christ both to the Father and to the Son And hence the people of the Lord are exhorted to be strict and to be holy in a peculiar manner on this very ground as you may see that place for instance Lev. 20.26 You shall be holy to me saith the Lord. And why so For I have severed you from other people that you should be mine And so say I to you my Brethren you are the Lords own people and he hath severed you from others to be his peculiar ones Oh see now that you walk as it becometh those to do who are the Lords and that upon these two grounds For 1. The sins of those who are his own reflect with more disparagement upon him then the sins of others do He suffers not so much in the exorbitancies of other men that appertain not to him as he doth in yours and therefore you should be the more wary Oh let not wicked men have any cause to say of you as the Heathen did sometimes of the people of the Jews the only people of the Lord at that time Ezek. 36.20 These are the people of the Lord and they are gone out of his Land They carried and demeaned themselves so ill that he could not bear with them but he was fain to cast them forth out of the Land which he had bestowed upon them So let not wicked wretches say of you These are the people of the Lord and yet they are proud covetous worldly wanton loose c. Let not his name I pray you be dishonored and blasphemed by your means but think when you are tempted and enticed to any sin Whether it be fit for those who are the Lords own people to do such wickedness and sin against their God 2. As your iniquities who are the Lords dishonour him more so he will chasten you if you miscarry sooner and quicker then he will do other men who are further off from him this should make you yet more cautious that known place is home and apposite to this purpose Amos 3.12 You only have I known of all the families of the earth therefore I will punish you For other families that are not mine as you are and that appertain not to me in such a special manner as you do I shall not be so quick to exercise my Discipline upon them But you are mine own houshold and therefore if you do amiss I will be sure to take a course with you If God see many Aliens to him doing any wickedness he may bear with them long for it concerns him not so much to deal against them but if he spy out any of his own amongst them doing as the rest do he will be sure to single him and call him out from all the rest and say You are my own you appertain especially to me and what will you do as these vile abominable wretches do will you run out with them to the same excess of riot Come I must order you though I let the rest alone I must not suffer you in such courses Is it so that all people of the Lord Christ do belong c. Here then is pretious comfort for the Saints arising from the property and interest that God the Father hath in them For it they be his own and that in such a special and peculiar way as we have shewed we may be confident he will do very much for them and that in divers cases I will name a few of them 1. If they be his own the Father certainly will hear the Son for them he will be easily entreated for those that have such near relation to him If they were only Christs and not his this were enough to make him facile to the Intercession that his own Son makes for them because they appertain to one that is so infinitely dear to him But seeing they are Christs and his too this carries all before it and this is that our Saviour urges in my Text That those for whom he prayed and interceded did aswell belong to his Father as himself so that his Father was as much engaged to hear as he was to pray for them I pray for them whom thou hast given me for they are thine q. d. I hope thou wilt not put me off with a denyal For they are thine as well as mine whom I intercede for 2. If they belong to God the Father we may depend upon it he doth love them and love them very dearly too as those that are so near to him Property and interest is one special ground of love we use to love our own you know yea many times to dote upon them out of measure though there be nothing lovely in them And certainly the Lord hath very dear affections to his own too though they be black yet they are comely in his eyes His love towards them is so great that it covers many faults
and many blemishes and spots in them and the cause of all is this the near and special interest he hath in them this makes his love without measure and without end Joh. 13.1 Having loved his own to the end he loves them 3. If they belong to God the Father he will be very tender of their wrongs and this he will discover one of those two ways either he will defend them or avenge them First if he see it fit he will defend them and protect them from the wrongs of those that seek to be abusive and injurious to them They are his own and therefore he will certainly take care of them Beloved these are times of some danger and it is good to have a sure and safe keeper And verily they that belong to God are in a very good condition what ever alterations come upon the world how ever matters go he will be careful of his own he will not be so ill a Master to abandon them to ruine when they have most need of him Or Secondly if he defend them not from wrong as he may leave his own sometimes in the hands of wicked men for causes which he best knows certainly he will avenge them The property and interest he hath in them will engage him to appear on their side to take their quarrel into his hands and to render wrath to those that are abusive and injurious to them Especially if they make complaint to him and if they cry because of the oppression they are so near and dear to him that he cannot choose but right them Will he not avenge his own when they cry day and night to him Luk. 18.7 As who should say Do you make a question of it it is impossible but he should do it 4. If they belong to God he will provide for them Will he not find his people meat and drink and clothes and other things that are expedient for them Doth he keep so ill an house to let his Family lack bread Oh do not so dishonour him to have such poor and low thoughts of him it 's that which troubles many that belong to God of the meaner sort of people they are afraid that they shall want their charge encreases and their Trade decays and poverty begins to come upon them like an armed man and now their hearts are quite down they doubt their Master will not find them bread Oh you of little faith wherefore do you doubt Why do you so distrust God The earth is the Lords and the fulness thereof You are his who is the Lord of all the Earth and all the fulness of provision that is in it He feeds his enemies and will he see his own want Truly my Brethren if you have not such provision as you would desire it is because he sees it best to dyet you and knows that fulness and plenty of external things would not in any case be best for you 5. If they belong to God he will not lose them what do you think the Lord will be so wretchless that he will not keep his own No no he bought them at so dear a rate that he will know how he forgoes them His they are and he will keep them and however sin and Satan and the world are alwayes plucking at them to get them if it might be possible away from God he will hold them fast enough that none shall pluck them out of his hand JOHN 17.10 And I am glorified in them AND thus far of the first consideration that induced our Saviour to become a Suitor for his Apostles and Disciples to his Father The joynt relation which they had to himself and to his Father Before he pass on to the next consideration he addes a consectary that depends on this and flows from this the neer relation which they had to him to Christ himself All mine are thine saith our Saviour to his Father and thine are mine And what follows Since they are mine I am glorified in them And this addes strength to the Consideration upon which it is inferred and hath something in it farther to move our Saviour to be mindful of his Apostles and Disciples in his prayers because as they were his own so he was glorified in them Many times we are dishonoured in those that are our own and that have near relation to us more then we are yea more then we can be in those that are further off from us Christ is not so in those that appertain to him no he is glorified in them The more inclinable he is to tender them in his petitions to his Father I pray for them I pray not for the world but for them whom thou hast given me for they are thine and mine are thine and thine are mine and I am glorified in them And here the phrase our Saviour uses deserves our careful and attentive observation He doth not say I am glorified by them but I am glorified in them not by them in an active way but in them in a passive way q. d. any thing that is commendable and praise worthy in them tends to advance my praise and to set forth my glory I have the honor of any worth or excellency that is in them any way and that by reason of the near relation which I have to them and the interest I have in them They are mine and I am glorified in them So that the point to be observed is this DOCTRINE That Jesus Christ is glorified in all those that belong to him If they be his he is glorified in them even as the Teacher is glorified in the Scholar as the Master is glorified in the servant or as the head is glorified in the members so Christ is glorified in his people he is the great Prophet the great Teacher of his Church and if his people learn well if they thrive and grow in knowledge it is a Commendation to their Teacher he is the Lord and Master of his people and if his servants do well it is an honour to their Master He is the head of his Church which is his body and if his members thrive well if they have any beauty in them it is a commendation to their Head Indeed my Brethren if they were the Scholars of another Master the servants of another Lord the members of another head their proficiency and tractability and beauty were nothing to the Lord Christ But seeing they belong to him he hath the honour of any thing that is commendable in them To clear the point a little more distinctly to you Jesus Christ is glorified in all those that belong to him either in the present life or in that which is to come First in the present life he is glorified in their grace Then in the life to come he is glorified in their glory 1. In the present life he is glorified in the grace of all those that belong to him Their grace is his glory When they abound in faith and
place must needs be sweet It was a high expression of an holy man that he had rather be in hell with Christ if it were possible then anywhere besides without him But to be in heaven with Christ this is excellent indeed To be in such a glorious place as heaven is the blessedness of which no tongue of men or Angels is sufficient to express and to be with Christ there To behold his glory there and to partake with him of the same glory This is such happiness as neither eye hath seen nor ear hath heard nor can it enter into the heart of man to conceive But who shall partake of it who shall be raised to this high felicity why they that are Christs own people as you have it in the point It is the will of Christ that all that are his own shall be in heaven where himself is So that if you be Christs people if God have given you to Christ and put you into him as members of his body you are the men that shall be with him where he is When other men are cast out when they are punished with eternal perdition from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his power you shall be admitted into nearest fellowship with Jesus Christ when he saith to other men Avaunt be gone in the sad day of separation Depart ye cursed into everlasting fire there to enjoy no better company then the Devil and his Angels he will say to you Draw neer come you are company for me you must dwell with me for ever Come ye blessed of my Father sit down with me in my Kingdom Ah my beloved this is a sweet and comfortable thing indeed And thus far of the matter of our Saviours prayer or the thing which he desires in the behalf of true believers that they may be with him where he is Together with the reason of it why he would have them to be with him that they may behold his glory which we have handled also with relation to the point In the remainder of the verse you have a reason of a reason Our Saviour having spoken of the glory bestowed upon him by his Father which he would have believers to behold it might be questioned how he came by this glory or what induced the Father to bestow it on the Son Why saith our Saviour he gave it me because he loved me from Eternity Father I will that they c. that they may behold the glory which thou hast given me For thou hast loved me mark it thou hast loved me and therefore thou hast given me this glory That they may behold my glory which thou hast given me for thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world There is no difficulty in the words unless it be in that expression before the foundation of the world a phrase of speech very usual in the Scripture and applyed to many things as I might give you instances enough But it will be sufficient to observe that it denotes Eternity wheresoever it is used And that before or from the foundation of the world for we meet with both expressions is as much in Scripture language as to say from everlasting For whatsoever was before the world was made my brethren was eternal so that when our Saviour saith to God the Father Thou hast loved me before the foundation of the world It is as much as if he should have said Thou hast loved me from Eternity from Everlasting And so accordingly the point shall be DOCTRINE That God the Father hath dearly loved Jesus Christ from all Eternity There are two things in the point which I shall orderly pursue First God the Father hath dearly loved Jesus Christ Secondly he hath done so from all Eternity Before the foundation of the world was laid As for the first of these That God the Father loveth Jesus Christ you see it is the clear express assertion of our Saviour in my Text. And therefore if you mark him you shall find that he is often speaking of his Fathers love to him as Joh. 15.9 and in the 23. verse of this Chapter And on the other side the Father he professes his transcendent love to Christ and that out of heaven it self Mat. 3.17 This is my beloved Son I have some other children that I love well but this is my beloved Son above the rest take notice of him this is he This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased I shall not stand to prove so clear a truth That God the Father dearly loveth Jesus Christ But you will ask me Why doth God the Father love him Truly my Brethren there is cause enough why he should love him Reason and love him out of all measure There are two things my Brethren that qualifie an object and that make it meet for love Proportion and Propriety and both of these must meet together Now both of these concurre in Christ so that he is compleatly fitted for his Fathers love For There is Proportion He is very like the Father and that both as God and Man 1. As God he is extreamly like the Father he is the very picture of him as we use to say The express Image of his Fathers Person not of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Heb. 1.3 Indeed he representeth and resembleth him in every thing The Father is Almighty so is he the Father is Eternal so is he the Father is Immutable and Omnipresent c. so is he He is his express Image Nay shall I go a little further The Father as a Person distinguished from the Son hath nothing proper and peculiar to himself but is in some respect expressed and declared in the Son His act of generation or begetting is shewed forth in the begotten so that unless he were the Father it is impossible he should be nearer to the Father or better like the Father then he is And if he were the Father he could not be the Fathers Image he could not be like the Father for Nullum simile est idem Thus Christ as God you see my Brethren is the most absolute and perfect Character of God the Father like him in every thing in all respects as one face answereth another in a glass Having no other inward difference between them save only this that by their relative properties they are distinguished the one from the other 2. As man our Saviour is extreamly like the Father too He is the Image of the invisible God Col. 1.15 As he hath assumed our flesh he is the very Image of the Father And therefore the Apostle saith not simply who is the Image of God but of the invisible God In which there is a close Antithesis q. d. Having assumed our Nature he is now become the visible Image of the invisible God That God who is invisible is made visible in him And this is that which is suggested in that speech of John the
they could never side with those that are professed adversaries to the Lord Jesus and who endeavour to subvert and overthrow his worship and religion and destroy his people And certainly Christ cannot choose but take them for his enemies and use them like his enemies while they incorporate themselves with those that live in open opposition and hostility against him And as the friends unto the enemies of Christ even so the enemies unto the friends of Christ are enemies to Christ himself They that are adversaries to the Saints who are as it is said of Abraham the friends of God the friends of Christ must needs be adversaries to the Lord Jesus There is a Covenant and a League of love between the Lord and them and the league is not defensive only but offensive too he that toucheth them saith Christ toucheth the Apple of mine eye touch them touch me Zac. 2.8 Nay they are not alone in Covenant with him but more then so my brethren they are one with him And therefore they are called Christ 1 Cor. 12.12 For as the body is one and hath many members and all the members are but one body so also is Christ conceive it Christ in aggregate comprizing all the Church with him for caput corpus unus est Christus as Austin speaks the head and the body is but one Christ and that which is the name of Christ Jer. 23.6 This is his name by which he shall be called The Lord our Righteousness is the Churchss name too Jer. 33.16 This is the name wherewith she shall be called The Lord our Righteousness Indeed his people are the members of his body and he can never be a friend unto the head who is an adversary to the members Now if on triall by the former evidences you find that you hate Christ believe it God hates you The dearer his affection to his Son Christ is the greater is his hatred of the enemies of Christ The union is so neer and the love so infinite between the Father and the Son that God may truly say to Jesus Christ Do not I hate them that hate thee I hate them with a perfect hatred as though they were mine enemies And I will surely take a course with them I will bring them low enough Sit thou at my right hand there sit thou still unmoved and undisturbed till I have made thine enemies thy footstool JOHN 17.24 For thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world IS it so that God the Father dearly loveth Jesus Christ hence then it Vse 2 follows that as he hates them that hate Christ so on the other side he loveth them that love Christ The dear affection that he bears to Christ draws out his very heart to all those that love Christ And this is that which Jesus Christ himself teacheth John 14.21 He that loveth me saith Christ shall be loved of my Father Let him be what he will of what condition or estate he will never so poor and mean and despicable in the world if he do really and truly love me my Father loves that man and loves him dearly for my sake Nay saith the Father this man is my Sons friend he bears a very great affection to my Son Christ and therefore I must needs esteem and love him for my Sons sake I have alwayes loved my Son even from all eternity and that out of all measure and upon this account my love and my affection overflows to all those that love him Oh how should this prevail with every one of us to love Christ and love him dearly since God the Father will requite us to the utmost for all the love we shew to him all the love that we lay out on Jesus Christ he will pay us back again and pay us in the same coin We may depend upon it that we shall have love for love If we love Christ the Father he will love us And is the Fathers love worth nothing Ah my beloved it bringeth with it all the happiness and mercy that a poor soul is capable of And therefore I beseech you let us love Christ let Christ have our love that we may have the Fathers love And here to warm your hearts a little and to draw them out to Christ take notice of these few things 1. View him in himself behold him in the choiceness and excellency of his own beauty There is no spot nor imperfection in him in the very least degree He is fairer then the children of men Psal 45.2 then any of them all let them be what they will for they have blemishes but he hath none All the perfections in the world do meet in him so that there can be nothing added to him Indeed my brethren he is altogether lovely All others have their imperfections and defects something there is unlovely in them but he is altogether lovely And this is that which makes the Church so far in love with him She is taken with his beauty and the delicious savour of his ointments the sweetness of the graces that are in him Cant. 1.3 How is she ravisht in the contemplation of him Cant. 5.8 What is thy beloved more then another beloved say the daughters to her there What is he more saith she me thinks she is an end with that word Why have you no eyes to see He is transcendent incomparable and so describeth him from top to toe and then concludes This is my beloved O ye daughters look upon him this is he As who should say now judge you whether I have cause to love him yea or no. And therefore I am not ashamed to own it and if you meet with my beloved you may tell him that I love him yea that I am sick of love 2. Consider in the next place what he is to you what interest and propriety you have in him Why my beloved he is yours I speak this to believers only And this the Church and Spouse of Christ professeth often I am my beloveds and my beloved is mine and yields this as the reason of the high and dear affection that she bears him A woman you will say hath cause to love her own husband Now Jesus Christ is the husband of the Church she is his wife his spouse his second self she is called by his name We are thine say the people of the Lord the heathen are not so nor are they called by thy name So that the Saints in this respect are infinitely more obliged to love him then these that are without the pale because they have not such relation to him 3. Let the exceeding love of Christ to you draw out your love to him again Amor they say is Câ—s amoris And so let his love be a whet to you Consider he hath loved you and therefore you have reason to love him again This reason doth not hold on both sides we cannot say that we have loved Christ and therefore he hath cause to love us
For we never loved him till he loved us first the love began on his side But we may truly say that Jesus Christ hath loved us and therefore we have cause to love him For he prevented us with mercy and with loving kindness as the Prophet speaks and this should win our hearts to him We love him saith the Apostle in the name of all the faithfull 1 John 4.19 Why so what is the cause of this love you have it in the following words because he loved us first Our love is not the cause of his but his love is the cause of ours 4. Survey what Christ hath done for you and see if it deserve not at the least a return of love from you He hath made you that is little in comparison I mean all things were created by him Col. 1.16 but more then this he hath redeemed you from sin from death from hell it self You had been utterly undone and lost for ever had it not been for Jesus Christ But he hath saved that which was lost He hath raised you from nothing to a Kingdom from poverty to matchless riches yea from death to life it self we were dead but are alive all this is Christs doing We use to love them who have saved our lives and surely we have cause to love Christ for he hath saved our lives and that not from a temporal but from eternal death Not from the first alone but from the second death where the worm never dies and the fire is never quenched And therefore he is called our life that is the cause and fountain of it Col. 3.4 When Christ who is our life shall appear So that we may truly call him in the Prophets words the God of our life And therefore we have cause to make him the object of our love and wholly to bestow our hearts upon him to love him by whom we live the life of grace and look to live the life of glory Is it so that God the Father dearly loveth Jesus Christ The more Vse 3 it is to be admired and wondred at that he should use him as he did for our sakes That he should be angry with him that he should hide his face from him and forsake him in a sence that he should load him with such a burthen of his wrath as made him weep and cry and sweat and faint Ah my beloved what an admirable thing is this who can reach the utmost of it in his thoughts had he not cared for Jesus Christ had he born no affection to him it had not been so strange that God the Father should deal with him in this manner But that he should be so extreamly harsh to him in whom his very soul delights that he should handle him so roughly whom he loves so dearly whom he hath ever loved from all eternity this is an admirable thing indeed And that you may the better see the wonder of it the miracle of mercy that is in it let us consider a little more particularly and distinctly how the Father used him and for whose sake he used him so who was so infinitely dear c. 1. Consider how the Father used him who is so infinitely dear to him he gave him up into the hands of sinfull men to deal with him as they pleased There take the darling of my bosome saith the Father revile him mock him beat him spit upon him scourge him pierce him nail him stretch his limbs upon the Cross crucifie him kill him shed his blood take away his life from him wreak all your malice on him to the utmost and though he cry and roar I will not save him I will be far from helping him and from the words of his roaring as the expression is Psal 22.1 Though God doth love him infinitely he left him in the hands of vile men to use him at their own pleasure and they used him bad enough as you may see if you survey the Gospel story Oh the indignities reproaches and contempts that sinfull wretches poured out upon the Lord of glory In which respect the Prophet saith he was despised and rejected and men hid their faces from him as if they were ashamed of him Isa 53.3 I am a reproach of men saith holy David as a type of Christ Psal 22.6 and despised of the people all that see me laugh me to scorn Oh the abasures that he suffered from persons viler then the earth they trod upon and God the Father who so dearly loved him stood by and made as if he saw nothing Nay more then so he suffered much even from his Fathers own hands q He made him sin that is a sacrifice for sin and he made him a curse for us that there was nothing visible upon him for a season but the severest and feircest wrath of a revenging Judge as if he had been utterly accursed from his Father He scourged him most bitterly even till he blead and roared and sunk away under his hand Thus it pleased the Father to bruise him He spared not his own Son Rom. 8.22 Though he were his own Son he laid on and did not spare him He remitted not to Christ the least jot of those exquisite unsufferable tortures that were in justice due to our transgressions He drank off at his Fathers hands the cup of fury he drank the very dreggs and wrung them out All this the Father did to Jesus Christ and more then I am able to express and yet he loved him infinitely all this while and did from eternity and therein lies the great wonder 2. But secondly if we consider for whose sake the Father used him so who is infinitely dear to him the wonder will be yet greater It had not been so admirable had it been for friends but it was for enemies This raises and commends the Love of God saith the Apostle Rom. 8.10 that we being sinners yea being enemies he reconciled us to him by his Son He used a means by giving up his Son to shame to make up all the breaches between us and him and herein lies the quintessence of this business the sparkle in the jewel of the grace of God That he should prefer the good the glory the salvation of his enemies who lived in open opposition and hostility against him before the ease refreshment safety life of his own Son whom he so dearly loved from all eternity That he should rather choose that one whom he loved so exceedingly should die then they should be made a curse then they should undergo the tortures and the pains of hell then they justice resolves they must be undergone either by his beloved Son or his hatefull enemies It must and will be satisfied either by the one or by the other Well then if it must be so his dearest Son shall suffer and his enemies go free yea he shall suffer to the very death rather then they shall be punished saith the Father There go my poor harmless Lamb to
ground James 4.12 There is one Law-giver saith he that is able both to save and to destroy And what of that Who art thou that judgest another What authority hast thou to pass sentence on thy brother you are both under the power and the authority of Jesus Christ and therefore let him judge you both and do not you judge one another Why you will say may not one man judge another without any derogation from the authority of Christ yes if he do it by authority from Christ and according to the rules prescribed by Christ So one man may judge another and condemn another too having received power from Christ in the Church and Common-wealth But if one man judge another of himself without any Lawfull power and without any real ground if one man judge another in or about such things as are reserved to the authority of Christ as secret things and the final state of men and such like it is a prejudice to the authority of Christ and to the power which God hath given him over all flesh And yet how usual is it with men to judge and censure one another when they are not called to it when they have no right to do it when they have no sufficient ground for it They will judge the hearts of men they will judge the ends of men which are known to none but God having neither evidence nor warrant for these censures If they be out with any man presently he is an Hypocrite a rotten-hearted wretch and what not if he do any doubtful action they will be sure to construe it the worst way if he do any action clearly good then he hath ill ends in it nothing can scape their hard censures Nay some will pass their doom upon the final state of men which none but Christ himself can judge of Now I beseech you my beloved consider whose authority you violate in this and whose office you assume Remember Christ hath power over all flesh he is the Law-giver who is able both to save and to destroy who knows whom he will save and whom he will destroy let him judge all and do not you judge one another John 17.2 As thou hast given him power over all flesh Vse 5 IS it so that all mankind is under the authority of Jesus Christ Then let them not avenge themselves in any case but let them have recourse to Jesus Christ for right when any wrong or injury is done to them Whoever doth it he is under the authority of Jesus Christ he is within the verge compass of his Jurisdiction his Father hath invested him with a power over all flesh so that let the wrong doer be of what condition or estate or place he will let the wrong be what it will it fals within his cognizance and he can right it if he please and he will right it in his own time Indeed if there were none to seek unto when we are injured and abused if there were none to do us justice there were some colour then why we should avenge our selves If there were none but the servants in a Family if such a thing might be supposed and there were no Common Master over all it could not be avoided but they would brawl among themselves For every one in such a case would look to be his own Judge there being none superior to him and his fellow to decide the quarrell But when they have a Master to complain to who hath power to take an order with any of them that offend it were a great indignity to him and his authority for any of them to correct their fellow-servants Beloved we have all one Master we are all under the power and the authority of Jesus Christ and therefore if our fellow-servants wrong us let us not undertake to right our selves but let us patiently commit our cause to him that judgeth righteously I say as the Apostle Romans 12.19 Dearly beloved avenge not your selves Take heed that you be neither overcome of evil in your passions Romans 12. ult nor render evil for it in your actions 1 Thes 5.15 There are not many sins to which we are so mightily inclined as we are to this nor which we are so hardly able to resist And truly I am much afraid that in the prosecution of the great affairs of this time there is in many too much of the private grudge and self-revenge who make the publique cause a cover for their own malice Now I beseech you my beloved let us not study to avenge our selves on any man but let us lay aside all self-respects If we have been abused and wronged by any let us forgive them and forbear them as the Apostle Paul exhorts Col. 3.13 Forgiving one another and forbearing one another if any man have a quarrel against any There is much in that Text forgiving one another in regard of inward malice and forbearing one another in regard of outward revenge And that not only in conceited and imaginary but in true and real wrongs For so the Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 rendred quarrell or complaint imports Not a quarrell pickt or raised upon no ground at all but justa conquerendi causa as Zanchius reads it a just occasion of complaint So that when we are injured so as the abuse is evident and clear it is our duty to forgive and to forbear And that who ever offer the abuse to us let him be what he will if any man have a quarrel against any of what condition or degree soever none exempted yet we must forgive still and we must forbear still And this because it hath a world of difficulties in it I shall set on with a few Considerations Consider you entrench on Jesus Christ in self-revenge invade his proper and peculiar right you do that which belongs to him which is a very high presumption And this the Psalmist intimates in his petition Psal 94 1. O God to whom vengeance belongeth O God to whom vengeance belongeth shew thy self he speaks it there exclusively vengeance belongs to him and none but him To none but him originally primitively though he make over power to execute it to his Deputies and Vicegerents who though they cannot do it of themselves and by their own authority yet they may do it as the Ministers of Christ as the Apostle Paul intimates speaking of the Magistrate Rom. 13.4 He is the Minister of God saith he and an avenger A Minister of God and by that means by vertue of his deputation a revenger to execute wrath on him that doth evil So that when our abuses are unsufferable and when they wound the name or the estate so deep that they are not to be born if we go to the Magistrate to right us and avenge us we go to Jesus Christ in him because he hath appointed him and set him up for that purpose But if we avenge our selves we wrest the sword out of the hands of Jesus Christ and
it So that here was rich mercy Had he done it by constraint had he been enforced to it there had been no such matter in it I confess of admiration or thanksgiving The praise had then been due to him that forced him and not to him that was enforced But that he should go forth of such an errand willingly for our sakes that he should willingly expose himself to such a death for those who were not friends but enemies both to his Father and himself This was love as the Apostle Iohn speaks Love in the heighth and with a witness love to astonishment and admiration Is it so that Jesus Christ is Gods Apostle a Messenger c. Then be Use 2 you all entreated to receive him and to give him entertainment when he comes Do not reject and slight a Messenger that comes from such a one as God is you cannot but acknowledge that you owe so much to any one whom God sends as to give him fair quarter and to shew him all the kindness that you can Indeed the carriage of the world to Jesus Christ in this respect is very shamefull and unworthy The Evangelist observes it Iohn 1.10 11. that for the greater part he is neglected slighted and despised on all hands He came into the world saith he but they refused him they did not account him worth the looking after And why so the cause is evident they knew him not as it is added there in that place But yet the Jews a man would think who were his own of whom he came according to the flesh who knew the prophesies concerning him should have received and entertained him No for the greater number of them they were as bad and as averse as it was possible for men to be He came unto his own his own friends his own kindred his own acquaintance his own Nation the people of his own Countrey but though they were his own they would not own him nor embrace him He came unto his own and his own received him not Yea more then so it is observed with reference to them that God sent his Son among them and they cast him out and slew him Mat. 21.39 Now I beseech you my Beloved be not you like those men Since Jesus Christ is Gods Apostle and his Messenger since he is sent from God to you let him be received by you When he comes to your doors let him not stand knocking there till his head be full of dew and his locks with the drops of the night No open presently and let him in and entertain him with such honour and respect as is agreeable and suitable to him who comes immediately from God who is the Messenger and Embassador of the great God of heaven and earth And that you may the rather be prevailed withall I shall present you with a few considerations Consider Jesus Christ as he is sent forth from God so he is sent on your business The errand which he comes about concerns you and therefore you have cause to look after him If he were sent into the world about a matter that you had not to do withall and that concerns you not at all there were some colour that you should neglect him that you should leave him to be entertained by those whose business he is come about For what have you to do with him that comes upon a message to another man But sure the errand and the business which our Saviour comes into the world about is yours it is but reason that he should be entertained by you And as the business which he comes about concerns you so it concerns you for your good and your advantage It might be your business and yet it might be but a bad business such as you have no cause to hearken much after nor to give any welcome entertainment to him that is employed about it It might be for your hurt and for your ruine and your condemnation But Jesus Christ is not sent into the world at least he is not sent immediately and directly upon any such errand The Father disavows it and saith he did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world but that the world by him might be saved John 3.17 And so doth the Son too Iohn 12.47 I came not to judge the world but to save the world So that you see Christ is the Messenger of God for good to you He is not come to judge you and condemn you but to save you He comes not with a Writ of death but with a Pardon and a Pardon sealed with his own blood and therefore you have cause to bid him welcome He is sent to make Peace for you and to preach Peace to you as I have shewed you formerly The Spirit of the Lord is upon me saith our Saviour Isaiah 61.1 he hath annointed me to preach good tidings to the meek he hath sent me to bind up the broken hearted to proclaim liberty to the captives and the opening of the prison to them that are bound to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord. You see the errand he is sent upon is all sweetness the message which he brings is nothing else but glad tidings of good things And therefore let his very feet be beautifull let his reception and his entertainment be answerable to his business Consider that the Father who hath sent the Son into the world expects he should be well received and entertained by you He looks for this at your hands that you should honour his Embassador and use him with respect for his sake Especially since he is not his Embassador in ordinary as he hath many such among you every Minister is so No my Beloved Jesus Christ is more then so he is the Extraordinary Messenger and Embassador of God and therefore he will have him entertained with extraordinary honour and respect And this is that which he suggesteth in the parable Mat. 21.37 Last of all he sent his Son saying they will reverence my Son He had sent many other Messengers before and they despised and abused them as you may see in that place But last of all he sent his Son the greatest and the best Embassador he had to send and said though they have slighted other Messengers of mine yet surely they will reverence my Son Though they have abused my servants they will not deal so with my Son it is impossible they should be so unworthy to despise my Son So that you see my Brethren when God sends his Son to you he looks he should be well received and entertained by you Consider that if you deceive his expectation he will take deep revenge upon you If when he hath dispatched his own Son to you you will not give him entertainment but shut the doors against him as it were and turn him off with a refusall it will fall heavy on you in the end It is such a base affront and high indignity to God and Christ as he
of the Spirit and belief of the truth whereto that is to which sanctification and belief he hath called you by our Gospel 2 Thes 2.13 14. 2. Are you wandering from the way as who hath not his deviations The word of God is a light to guide you it is a Lanthorn to your feet as David speaks Thou shalt guide me with thy Counsel Psal 73.14 q. d. although thou do not lead me by the pillar of a cloud and fire as once thou didst thy people in the Desert although thou goest not with me in a visible appearance yet thou hast left me such exact directions such wholesome Counsel in thy word that if I follow that exactly it is impossible I should miscarry 3. Are you ignorant the word of God is a teacher to inform you It giveth understanding to the simple Psal 119.130 And makes them wise unto Salvation 2 Tim. 3.15 There is no knowledge indispensably required to salvation nothing of necessary faith or practice either to be believed or done but is abundantly revealed in the Scripture 4. Are you infirm and weak in grace The word of God is a means to confirm you This was the Instrument by which the Apostles confirmed the Churches Act. 15.4 And as it is the usual means by which the grace of God is begotten in the heart in which respect we find it stiled The word of grace because it works it Acts 20.32 so it is the instrument by which it is confirmed and encreased We grow by sucking the sincere milk of the word 1 Pet. 2.2 And we are built up by it to Salvation 5. Are you in any deep distress The word of God is the means to comfort you Through-comfort of the Scriptures we have hope Rom. 15.4 And David to the same purpose Vnless thy Law had been my delight I should then have perished in my affliction Psal 119.92 And in another place cries out Remember thy word unto thy servant upon which thou hast caused me to hope this is my comfort in my affliction for thy Word hath quickned me Psal 119.49 50. 6. Are you lost as we are all of us by nature The word of God is the means to save you this is the saving doctrine Act. 11.14 The word of life Phil. 2.16 the word that brings men to life and glory The Gentiles saith the Apostle Paul to the Ephesians Ephes 3.6 came to be fellow-heirs and partakers of the promise by the Gospel To sum up all we have cause to love the word to have it dear in our affections for it is the word that guides us it is the word that informs us it is the word that confirms us it is the word that comforts us it is the word that saves us that is the power of God unto salvation with which agrees the Apostles valediction to the Elders of Ephesus Act 20.32 wherewith I take my leave of you at this time I commend you to God and to the word of his grace which is able to build you up and to give you an inheritance among them that are sanctified JOHN 17.6 And they have kept thy Word WE have been long upon this use of trial and discovery whether we be given up to Christ or no by the donation of the Father Three branches of it we have now dispatcht and are arrived at the fourth and last which God assisting we shall finish at this time Have we kept the word of God as in our minds by remembring and in our hearts by believing and in our affections by loving so in our lives by obeying For all of these as you have heard are comprehended under this expression And this indeed my Brethren as it is the last so it is the heigth the upshot and the sum of all to keep the word of God in the life by obeying Many there are that remember much of it that give assent and credit to it yea that pretend a great deal of affection to the word of God and are indeed much taken with many things that are delivered in it and yet they fail in this which is the main business they do not give themselves up to the practice and obedience of it They leave the rule of God and are a way and rule unto themselves And this was Herods temper right he heard the word of God gladly he took some kind of pleasure in it and therefore out of doubt had some affection to it but when it came to practice and obedience there he failed He did but many things at most he did not all that was delivered to him from the word of God and this was that which marred all and made all the rest worth nothing And so the second ground the stony places in the parable Matth. 13.20 they received the Word of God and that with joy and there must be some love where there is delight and joy and yet no fruit at all follows as you may see in that place And truly there are many such among us who find some taste in the good Word of God as the Apostle speaks Heb. 6.5 There is a pleasing relish in it which they are delighted with as there is something in the Word that may content a palate that is meerly carnal but they make it not their rule in their lives and conversation They sit before the Preacher as the people sits and listen with affection to his words perhaps they are a pleasant sound to them but their hearts are far from stooping to the obedience of the Word no they are for their covetousness their uncleanness and their lusts still Now I beseech you my Beloved see how it is with you in this regard If you will have this sweet assurance in your selves that you are given up to Jesus Christ by the donation of the Father you must keep the Word of God in your lives by obeying it you must not rest in this that you have as you conceive some love to it and that you take some kind of pleasure and delight in it for this a carnal wretch a reprobate may do but you must yeild obedience to it you must be ruled and ordered by it in your ways the Word of God must be a guide to you When you have any thing to do you must not think what is agreeable to your wills humors interests ends and so act accordingly But you must seriously consider with your selves what is agreeable to the direction of the Word of God and to the rule which he hath there prescribed to you and to that you must conform how unsutable soever it may be to your desires or to your aims Thus you must keep the Word of God if you will clear your interest in Jesus Christ in your lives by obeying it And here that you may not be mistaken and deceive your selves I shall desire you to take notice of a few things You must keep it wholly and entirely you must not keep some parts and parcels of the Word of God and leave
Father if you have eyes to see the worth of it And that you may the better know your happiness in this regard I shall lay it open to you in a few particulars Your happiness is great that you have Christ to be your Intercessor in this respect that he is so near to God and that he hath such interest in God An interest of near union for he is one with God the Father an interest of dear affection he is his Son his Son that is extreamly like him his Son that never did offend him in whom his very soul delights so that he can deny him nothing it is but ask and have ask of me and I will give thee And is it not a priviledge to have such as he to speak for us One that can do so much with God that hath his ear and heart too One that can surely carry any business for us in the Court of Heaven for his Father hears him always Joh. 11.4 and never puts him off with a denyal An Advocate that is not favoured may speak much and plead hard and yet he may prevail but little But Jesus Christ is sure to speed in any suit in any business that he undertakes Oh the blessedness of those who are within the compass of this glorious priviledge and who have such a powerful Advocate as Christ is Your happiness is very great that you have Christ to be your Intercessor in this respect that he is near to you As he is near to God so he is near to you also and so by consequence he is the fitter to be an Advocate to God for you It is a very great advantage to us that he that is to plead our case with God the Father is our near kinsman He is Immanuel God with us God one of us who took not on him Angels but the seed of Abraham who is of our own flesh and blood and bone and therefore he will certainly be tender of us and compassionate towards us And therefore the Apostle Paul observes that we are very happy in a High Priest He being such a one as cannot but be touched with our infirmities as being of the self same nature with us and having had himself experience of them for he was in all things like unto us sin only excepted and therefore cannot but be very much affected with our sorrows and our sufferings and very sensible when he is pleading for us to the Father Our happiness is great c. in this respect that he is not like to dye and so to leave the business that he undertakes imperfect It is the case of other Advocates sometimes they drop away in the middle of a business they follow it and plead it very well a while but dye before they finish it before they bring it to a Judgement and then the Clyent knows not what to do nor to whom to have recourse for no man understands his business he must go back again to the beginning There is no fear of this in Jesus Christ our Advocate and Intercessor we may depend upon it he will go through with our business he will not leave it till he have brought it to perfection He will save us to the utmost as the Apostle Paul speaks Heb. 7.25 and why so because he ever lives to make intercession for us as it is added there in that place So you see our happiness is great it is a blessed priviledge that we have Christ to be our Intercessor and it may yeeld us singular encouragement and pretious comfort divers ways As 1. It may encourage us and comfort us in our addresses to the Majesty of God Now we may go with boldness to the Throne of grace having so good a friend with God as Christ is If we were to goe alone and of our selves if we had none to make our way for us it could not choose but be a great disheartning to us But when we seriously consider that our Advocate is there our friend is there who will be ready upon all occasions to second us to put in a good word for us to help out us in any business this is a ground of choice comfort 2. It may support us in the sense of our many imperfections However our petitions are put up in much infirmity and fear and weakness yet if they be according to the will of God we may remember still that they are seconded by Christ in heaven That he puts in on our behalf and demands the same things that he excuses what is wanting in our prayers and supplies it in his own We are flat but he is quick we are dull but he is lively we are short but he is full 3. It may assure us of success in our Petitions since we have Christ to intercede for us We might stand begging long enough our selves and never speed But if we be among the number of those for whom our Saviour undertakes to plead if he will put in but a word for us all is ended presently and we have a gratious answer out of hand God may deny us while we are speaking for our selves but if Christ speak for us he can never be denyed his Father always lets him have his own asking 4. This may keep us from despair and sinking under the weight of all our sins If we sin we have an Advocate to plead for us to answer all the accusations of the Law and of the Conscience It is his Office to interpose between his Father and his people to plead the causes of our souls before him And this we may take special comfort in that be our matters never so soul never so inexcuseable as considered in themselves his very undertaking of them clears all and sets us right even at the bar of Gods justice True their iniquities are black and heynous saith our Advocate but are they greater then my merits are if so let them be condemned if not let them be absolved If all that I have done and suffered will acquit them let them be acquitted What cause have we to cheer our hearts and bless our God that we have such an Advocate as Christ is And thus far of our Saviours Declaration Proceed we now to the Considerations that induce him to become a Suitor for them to his Father Whereof the first is taken from the relation which they had not to himself alone but to his Father I pray for them I pray not for the world but for them which thou hast given me for they are thine and all mine are thine So that the words indeed contain a reason of congruity why our Saviour should commend the case of his Disciples and Apostles in his Petitions to his Father because as they were his so they were his Fathers too and it concerned him to take care of those that were his own that appertained and belonged to him As if our Saviour should have said If they are mine and not thine I had no such great inducement or no
love and hope and patience and obedience this is an honour to the Lord Christ that he hath such people so qualified and so imployed when they believe in difficult and hard cases they glorifie him in believing as it is said of Abraham Rom. 4.20 He was strong in Faith giving glory to God when they are fruitful in the works of righteousness these are also to the praise of his glory Herein is he glorified if they bring forth much fruit For Jesus Christ is looked upon as the Original of all the good the Fountain and the Spring of all the holiness that is in his people And hence the praise of all returns to him as the Apostle Paul insinuates Rom. 11. ult For of him are all things And what follows To him be glory for ever Amen If any of his people have a special gift of knowledge they have learned it all of Christ if they excel in other grace they receive it all from Christ If they have any choice ability to any holy and religious duty it is Christ that makes them able and it is Christ that strengthens them They that have judgements exercised and are able to discern assoon as they discover any excellency in any kind in any of the Saints they ascribe it all to Christ because they know they had it all from him See what Jesus Christ can do in and for and by those that have Originally nothing that is good in them If any of them shine the beams that make them glister come from Christ and they dart back to Christ again He shines upon them and he shines in them as the Prophet insinuates Isai 60.1 Arise and shine for thy light is come and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee It is a glory to the Lord Christ that he hath such a beautiful and glorious people And thus you see my Brethren he is glorified in the grace of those that belong to him 2. As he is glorified in the grace so he is glorified and shall be glorified in the glory of those that belong to him especially in the great day when he shall come to be glorified in his Saints and to be admired in all them that believe as the Apostle Paul tells us 2 Thess 1.10 to be glorified in them to wonder and to admiration So that the world shall be astonished and amazed to see the matchless and unutterable glory that he shall adorn them with and in their glory glorifie himself This shall transport beholders into wonder it shall make them to admire them and to admire Christ in them It s true Christ shall be glorified wonderfully on that day in the damnation and destruction of the wicked that belong not to him The wrath of Jesus Christ shall be an admirable wrath the judgements and the vengeance that he shall inflict upon them shall be full of wonder that men shall be astonished and amazed to see that Jesus Christ the Lamb of God who in this life hath shewed himself so meek and patient and long-suffering to abominable sinners should be so out of measure wrath with them Ungodly men themselves will wonder at his fury The Saints will wonder at his glorious justice and adore the righteousness of his proceedings with all the wicked unbelievers of the world Yea their confusion and destruction in that great and dreadfull day will be one special part of that admirable glory whereby Christ will be wonderfull in the eyes of all his people Because for their sakes and the wrongs and injuries that wicked men have offered them shall their judgement be the heavier and the deeper and that to all eternity Oh what an admirable thing is this will the poor people of the Lord say that Jesus Christ should have such dear respect to us that he should be so angry with poor creatures and execute such heavy wrath upon them for our sakes But there will be incomparably greater cause of glorifying Jesus Christ and of wondering at his mercy in the salvation of his own people For alas the wicked shall have nothing else but their deserts in that day But this shall be the height of wonder that Jesus Christ should load his people with such an Hyperbolical and transcendent weight of glory without the least desert on their part yea when they have deserved the same extremity of vengeance that is inflicted on the wicked Oh what a glory must this be to Jesus Christ how shall this fill the mouths of all the Angels and triumphant Saints in heaven with his praises How shall his people wonder at their own glory and at the glory of their fellow-Saints and the transcendent love of Christ in it How shall the great ones of the earth that have contemned and trampled under foot the poor despised Servants of the Lord Christ stand amazed at their glory beyond all that they looked for Oh my beloved how wonderfull shall Jesus Christ be in that day to all the world in the incomparable glory which then he will bestow upon his poor contemned and despised people Vse 1 Now is it so that Jesus Christ is glorified in all those that belong to him What think we then of those and to whom do they belong in in whom he is not glorified at all who are perpetually a dishonour to him We may be bold to say of such who are so far from being to the praise of his glory that while they have a being they are a prejudice and shame to Christ that they belong not to the Lord Christ they are none of his people Methinks the thought of this should even break the hearts of the wicked and ungodly men you who lye in wickedness and wallow in uncleanness whose lives are full of nothing else but lewdness and prophaness who are conscious to your selves that Christ hath not a whit of honour by you unless ungodliness and sin will bring it to whom a man may truly say as the Apostle doth to some Rom. 2.24 The name of Christ is blasphemed by your means I beseech you seriously bethink your selves what condition you are in believe it for the present you are none of Christs Take notice of his own expression in my text they are mine and I am glorified in them And therefore if he be not glorified in you depend upon it you are none of his And is it nothing my beloved to be renounced by Jesus Christ as men whom he will not own Is it nothing for the Lord to shake a person off to say unto him in displeasure Sir tell me not of any interest you have in me for you belong not to me I will not acknowledge you I tell you plainly you are none of mine Truly my brethren however it may seem at present the day will come when this will be a sad sentence When men in the great day of separation shall strive to make a title to the Lord Christ when they shall tell him Lord we have been acquainted with thee heretofore
as they did in the Parable we have born thy name and we have been called Christians and have been accounted thine and wilt thou not acknowledge us and own us now And Christ shall answer them depart from me I know you not go get you over on the other side among the Goats I tell you you are none of mine Ah my beloved this will be a cooling and a killing word indeed Is it so that Jesus Christ is glorified in all those that belong to him Vse 2 Both in their grace and holiness in this world and in their glory in the world to come This then should be a motive and inducement to us to strive and labour after both these both after grace in this world and glory in the world to come both to be holy here and happy hereafter 1. This should quicken us and stirr us up to labour after holiness and grace that Jesus Christ may be glorified in us If grace were only advantagious to our selves and honorable to our selves as to be really and truly gracious is indeed the greatest honour in the world there were no such reason then why we should labour to attain it and abound with it For then you know we could have no higher aim then only to set up a poor Creature But seeing Jesus Christ is honoured in the grace and holiness and the obedience of his people Oh how should this enflame us with restless and unsatisfied desires of these things How should we covet and covet earnestly the best gifts and labour that we may excell in inward grace and outward obedience that we may set up Jesus Christ the more and that his honour may be the more advanced by us When we are seeking to the Lord for holiness and grace that he would give it out to us and give it more abundantly how should we press and quicken our petitions with this prevailing argument that Jesus Christ will be advanced by it and his glory more enlarged Lord give us more faith love hope patience zeal power against corruption strength to new obedience that Christ may have the more glory We seek not these things to promote our own esteem and reputation and that we may be some body among the Saints but that Christ Jesus may be all in all It is thy great design to glorifie thy Son Christ and this is the ready way to accomplish the design on which thy very heart is set if thou give us more holiness and more grace he will have more glory Thou wilt not honour us so much but Jesus Christ thine own beloved Son will be glorified in us And therefore we beseech thee set thy Treasure open to us and give us out a large share In such a manner the Apostle deals with God in his petitions in that memorable place to this purpose 2 Thes 1.11 12. We pray continually for you saith the Apostle there that God would count you worthy of this calling and fulfill all the good pleasure of his goodness and the work of faith with power That he would carry on that work of grace upon your souls till he hath brought it to perfection And why so to what end That the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you not that you may be honoured but that Christ may be glorified in you 2. And as this should stirr us up to labour after grace in this world so after glory in the world to come Since Christ is glorified as in the grace so much more in the glory of his people For glory is compleat grace and therefore Christ is glorified in that to admiration as we have shewed you formerly in explication of the point The Apostle speaks of some who seek glory Rom. 2.7 he means the glory of the other world as it is very evident by that which is joyned with it glory and honour and immortality and Eternal life And truly it is not unlawfull for every one of us to seek glory I mean our own eternal glory in the heavens because while we seek that we seek the glory of Christ in it It s that which troubles many of the Saints they think that they are scarce upright because they have so great an eye upon their own glory They doubt their own sincerity meerly upon this ground Indeed my brethren if your own glory and salvation went single and alone it were a greater cause of scruple But since the glory of the Lord Christ is comprehended and involved in it why should you not desire and seek it as subservient to the great and high end And therefore I beseech you my beloved under this notion have respect to it and draw encouragement and sweetness from it amidst the many heavy labours and bitter sufferings of this present life Look up man to the glory that is set before thee press hard towards it be diligent and patient in the expectation of it strive and labour to obtain it while thou considerest with thy self that when thou art glorified Christ will be glorified in thee And so in aiming at thy own glory do thou intend and seek the glory of Christ And this is that which thou maist do yea this is that which thou must do And therefore go on cheerfully embrace the promise that is yet afar of reach at the Crown of glory that is hung out to tempt thee and to toll thee on And let this animate thee most of all that when thou hast attained it Christ will be glorified and admired in thee He whom thy very soul loveth will have one monument the more of his own praise and glory unto all eternity And thus far of the first Consideration that induced our Saviour to become a Suitor for his Apostles and Disciples to his Father viz. the neer relation which they had to his Father and himself by means of which it came to pass that he was glorified in them The second follows now in order to be handled viz. the sad condition they were likely to be in by reason of the near approach of his departure from them to the Father and leaving them behind in an unquiet and malitious world And now I am no more in the world but these are in the world and I come to thee A dolefull and heart-killing word you must conceive it was to his Apostles and Disciples and now I am no more in the world They who left all for him must needs be very much dejected to be left by him And to be left alone in such a wilderness in such a troublesome unpleasing and a vexatious place as the world hath alwayes been to Christs Disciples As long as he was with them he was a very great support encouragement and comfort to them in all conditions and in all cases And therefore now he is about to leave them he thinks it necessary to commend them to the especial care and mercy and protection of his Father There are two things suggested in this dying Song this last
spirit That place of the Apostle Paul is cleer and full to this purpose Ephes 3.16 where he desireth God in the behalf of that people That he would grant them to be strengthened with all might in the inner man How so Why by his spirit as you may see in that place And thus you see both that and how they that belong to Jesus Christ are kept by the almighty power of God in them They that belong to Jesus Christ are also kept by the almighty power of God for them For even as God is strong in them so he is also strong for them And as he makes them strong so he shews himself strong in their behalf as the Expression is 2 Chron. 16 9. The eyes of the Lord run to and fro through the whole earth to shew himself strong in the behalf of those whose hearts are perfect with him And thus they are preserved and kept not only by the power of God strengthing and fortifying them within but also by the power of God protecting them and helping them without And therefore it is said the name of the Lord that is the power of the Lord is a strong Tower the righteous runneth to it and is safe Prov. 18.10 Now security of any person that runneth to a Tower for shelter consists not in his own strength but in the strength of the Tower he runs to A strong Tower will protect a weak man if he can get within it he is safe And such a stong Tower is the name the power of God for the safeguard of his people And thus you see he keeps us through his own name his own power according to our Saviours prayer in my text in a way of protection by giving outward help and succour when we are in great danger And this outward help he gives us two wayes First sometimes immediately by his own power he helpeth us himself by his own almighty arm without the use of second causes and then his arm is made bare He brings in succour to his people as he made the world of nothing and therefore he is said in Scripture to create it as you may see that place for instance Isa 65.18 Be ye glad and rejoice for ever in that which I create for behold I create Jerusalem a rejoycing and her people a joy And thus he kept his people in the fire and in the water and in the wilderness where there were no means at all of preservation he did it meerly by his own name Secondly Sometimes he helps and keeps his people mediately by his power communicated for that end to second causes He raises instruments of their delivery and makes them able to relieve his people as he did the Judges often And as it is observed of David when God was pleased to use him for the help of Israel in a time of great distress he furnished him with power sufficient to go through with the business which he had designed him to And therefore saith the Lord of that instrument of his Psal 89.19 20. I have laid help upon one that is mighty I have exalted one chosen out of the people I have found David my servant with my holy oil have I annointed him Mighty he is to help indeed but it is because I have made him so because I have laid help upon him And so he stirs up some continually to favour and relieve his people he makes the earth sometimes to help the woman men that have nothing else but earth in them but still the power by which they help them is from him Their power is his power and therefore when his people are preserved and kept by them they are kept by his name as you have it in my text and his name must have the glory This shall suffice for explication of the point they that belong to Jesus Christ are kept by the almighty power of God himself And there is pregnant reason for it For first of all no other power but his will keep them and his is every way sufficient And secondly his power is mightily engaged to keep them Reason 1 They that belong to Jesus Christ are kept c. because no other power but his will keep them Kept they must be and none but this alone will do it Alas the adversaries power that is against them is abundantly too strong for any power that can appear for them but that of the almighty God himself The power of all the world and all the strong temptations that are in it of pleasure profit honour which is bent against the Saints you will conceive to be a great matter Yet this is nothing in comparison this is the least part of their danger What think you of the power of all the lusts and the corruptions that are in them that are continually raging warring Who is able of himself to overpower and master these What think you of the power of Satan and his black confederates the power of darkness as it is stiled in the Scripture All the united strength of hell it self nothing but the power of heaven is able to out wrestle this and they that will struggle with it had need be strengthned by that glorious power And hence our Saviour places the security of his Disciples in this That they are kept by him that is greater then all John 10.29 That is of greater strength as I have shewed so that none can pluck them out of his hand Reason 2 They that belong to Jesus Christ are kept c. because as no other power can keep them so this is mightily engaged to be for them And that especially two wayes by the Sons prayer and the Fathers promise 1. By the Sons prayer and that must not be denyed For this we need to go no further then my text Holy Father keep them through thy own name It was one of the last requests he made when he was taking leave of this world and therefore certainly it was successfull Simon Simon saith our Saviour Satan hath desired to winnow thee as wheat But how is Peter kept now Why by our Saviours intercession I have prayed for thee that thy faith fail not 2. By the Fathers promise he hath engaged himself by promise to his people many times that his power shall be for them The Covenant is a Constellation and a heap of promises and he is a God in Covenant with them So that as he himself is theirs so all his attributes are theirs too His mercy to forgive them his justice to avenge them his power to keep them The Romans were in league with many people and if those people were in danger they were obliged in point of honour to defend them And so they did with as much diligence and care as they did their own City Even thus it is between the Lord and his people he is in League and Covenant with them and he hath undertaken their protection And therefore if they be in any streight he is bound
in their judgements constantly agree they might be quickly brought if not wherein they err to change their minds yet to allay them so with humility and love that they should never break forth into bitterness against their brethren But while they have such a deal of pride among them while they are so alike in this regard it is impossible they should agree together 2. It is impossible even for the Saints to be in all respects at unity among themselves because as they are too proud so they are too selfish Herein they are too near alike easily to close together This is indeed the great make-bate it hath a special hand and is a violent eager stickler in all the quarrels that are driven to and fro among men From hence it is that men are so inflexible and so extremly stiff in their opinions that they will abate nothing nor yield to nothing for quietness and peace sake it is their love not to the truth but to themselves it is their self-love And so it is the selfishness of men that makes them so intent upon their own things that they will have the utmost in a business and urge extremity of right and will not part with any thing almost to purchase pretious peace It is because they love themselves too well and because there is so much of this even in the Saints this makes it wonderfully hard for them to be at unity among themselves I might name other things in which they are too much alike to close so nearly as they should but these shall serve for that branch It is a hard thing for the Saints to live at unity among themselves because as there are some things in which they are too much alike So there are other things in which they differ overmuch so close so nearly as they should together For differences make divisions many times even among Christs Disciples And that you may the better look into the business I will shew you many things in which they differ many times which render a conjunction and a perfect union infinitely hard to be made and kept among them 1. They are of divers tempers and of divers constitutions and those will hardly close together As divers strings unless they be of purpose tun'd alike will not be unisons they will not be of one sound They may be very sweet apart but if you strike them all together they will make a discord So it is in this case some of the Saints are of a melancholy sad and others of a sanguine cheerfull temper The melancholy doth not like the cheerfull the cheerfull doth not like the melancholy Saint Or if he like him in his judgement he cares not to converse with him or not so much at least as with another because he doth not suit his disposition One Saint by reason of his constitution which grace doth never wholly alter is very hot and very active Another Saint is very cold and very dull Those two being so unlike will continually be disliking one another and it may be censuring so that it will be very hard to bring them to so near a close as should be between Christs Disciples 2. They are of divers stations and conditions in the world and in the Church Some are high and some are low some are rich and some are poor The high are ready to despise the low the low are ready to envy the high The rich are ready to despise the poor the poor c. One of them will be apt on all occasions to be perking at the other And this will make a perfect union extremly difficult between them 3. They are of divers interests by reason of their callings judgements opinions habitations outward substance and estates and differences will arise and grow from all these So that it will be hard to keep them quiet and to hold them close together Meum and tuum is the rise of all dissentions it is this same thine and mine that setteth men yea the best men sometimes together by the Ears This is my right and that is thine this is my place and that is thine this is my opinion and that is thine If the interest were one they would be one but sure it cannot be avoided but it will be so different in this world there will be differences now and then even among the Saints themselves It was upon the point of interest that Abraham and Lot fell out though they were both good men And it is noted by the Holy Ghost himself as one especial reason of the strange consent and harmony that was among the primitive Saints because their interest was one Acts 4.32 The multitude of them that believed were of one heart and of one soul How so They had all things common neither said any of them that any of the things which he possessed were his own The state of those times my brethren both admitted and required it and we see the fruit of it It is not so and to say truth cannot be so in our dayes and therefore it is much the harder to keep perfect unity among the Saints When once they shall come all to be in one place in one condition of one opinion and to have one inheritance and so to have one common interest among them all when God shall be all in all there will be no more divisions but in the mean time it is impossible they should in every thing agree together 4. They are of divers qualifications There are diversities of gifts saith the Apostle 1 Cor. 12.4 Now these I must acknowledge are intended to beget union But yet by accident by reason of remainders of corruption in the Saints they cause divisions While some are of more judgement and other some of more affection while some are of greater and other some of meaner gifts here are occasions I say not causes but occasions of dissention while some are supercilious and the other envious As soon as the Apostle layes down the distinction between strong and weak Christians Rom. 14.1 there follows disputation and division presently The one despises and the other judges The strong Christian is ready upon all occasions to despise the weak The weak Christian is apt upon the other side to judge the strong The strong slights and the weak censures and so there is a wofull breach of unity and peace among them By these things it is evident my brethren that it is a matter of wondrous difficulty even for Christs Disciples to be at unity among themselves And truly if we seriously consider how like they are in regard of some corruptions and how different they are in Constitutions Stations Interests and Qualifications we will not wonder that the Almighty power of God is invocated by our Saviour to effect it JOHN 17.11 That they may be one as we are AND this for clearing of the former member of the point It is a matter of wondrous difficulty for Christs Disciples to be at nearest unity among
wrath no not so much as by determination and decree Paul need not have said he did it by his absolute and Soveraign power No if it had been so he might have said God did it not all he prepared them not at all ordained them not at all but they prepared themselves to wrath and to destruction But this he could not say for it were quite against the saying of the holy Ghost Iude 4. where he makes mention of some certain men who were before of old ordained to condemnation Not only fitted for it by themselves but preordained to it by another and that is God Yea the Apostle Paul doth clearly and expresly intimate that God appointeth some to wrath in that memorable place to this purpose 1 Thes 5.9 where stirring up the Thessalonians to exemplary holiness of life he quickens them with the consideration of the high preferment which he and they and others had in that which is indeed the richest and the choicest mercy of the Lord For God hath not appointed us to wrath Others he hath but this is our prerogative that God hath not appointed us to wrath as he hath done many others but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ So that the Point is plain you see that God in his Eternal Counsel and Decree hath appointed and designed c. To open this a little to you that so you may the more distinctly understand it you must know that there are two parts or acts of the decree of God in reference to these whom he appointeth to destruction viz. a negative and a positive act The first of these the negative act is nothing else but preterition non-election Passing by and not electing some particular and special men to that beatitude and glory which others are appointed to This is that will of God by which he hath determined not to save them but even to leave them in their lost condition that they may perish everlastingly Now this my brethren is expresly and apparently implyed and included in election For when God chooses some it follows evidently that there are other some remaining on which that act of choosing doth not pass When David went to fight against Goliah he chose him five smooth stones out of the brook Who doth not presently conceive that he refused other some If all be taken it is no election so that election carries in it the first act of reprobation preterition passing by When some are chosen there are other some refused when some are taken there are others left 2. But now there is another act of the decree of God in reference to those whom he appointeth to destruction which we have called a positive act For as God leaves men in the first place in their sins and in their lost condition and doth not choose them to salvation So in the second place he resolveth with himself to condemn them and to destroy them for the sin in which he leaves them and so to glorifie his Justice in them And this is that which some have stiled predamnation damnation in the purpose and decree of God For it is one thing to decree the condemnation of such as are not chosen to salvation and it is another thing actually to condemn them by executing the decree upon them Now of this second act of the decree of God it is that we speak in the conclusion we are handling That God in his Eternal Counsel and Decree hath appointed and designed some certain special persons to destruction But you will ask me Why hath God done so What is the reason of this Act of his What doth induce him to ordain men to destruction First I will shew you what is not the reason And in the next place I will shew you what it is The sins of men are not the reason why God ordains men to destruction they are the cause indeed why he destroyes them but not why he ordaines them to destruction It s true sin is considered in this second act of reprobation which we have stiled predamnation For as the Lord condemns men for their sins in the great and dreadful day so he accordingly decrees from everlasting to condemn them for their sins He doth in time as he decrees from all eternity Just so and no otherwise But mark it my beloved however sin be thought upon in the decree yet it is not the moving cause of the decree but only of the execution of it And as it is not the fore-sight of faith and holiness upon the one side that inclineth God to choose men so on the other side it is not the foresight of infidelity and disobedience that inclines him to reject them and appoint them to damnation Indeed God damns men for their sins yea he decrees to damn men for their sins but yet it is not for their sins that he decrees it Sin is the Cause and is considered as the cause of the accomplishment of the decree but not of the decree it self But if sin be not the reason then why God appoints men to destruction what is the reason then Truly there is no reason out of God no moving or impulsive cause of the decree out of his own bosome His 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is the only reason why he appointeth some to wrath and others to salvation the pleasure of his own will He hath mercy on whom he will and whom he will he hardneth as the Apostle speaks Rom. 9.18 And therefore the Apostle in that very Chapter concludeth the decree of God both of election and of reprobation to be absolutely free from any motive or inducement out of God himself because it passed upon the children Iacob and Esau being yet unborn having neither done good or evil as you may see at large Rom. 9.11 12 13. For the children being not yet born that the purpose of God according to election might stand not of works but of him that calleth it was said The elder shall serve the yonger c. As it is written Jacob have I loved that is to choose him and Esau have I hated to reject him And consequently neither election not rejection was of works not of any thing in them seeing it took hold upon them before they had a being in the world Yea but it will be said perhaps though they were yet unborn and though they had done neither good nor evil yet God fore-knew and God foresaw they would be born and that in time they would do good or evil and so accordingly he moulded his decree electing him whom he foresaw would do good rejecting him whom he foresaw would do evil But how then was it not of works if it were of works foreseen of the one side or the other will works foreseen stand better with the freeness of the purpose and decree of God then present works or works in being Not a whit And therefore this is cleerly and apparently the force of the Apostles reason The decree of God is free
and not of works it is not caused by any thing that man doth For it took hold of Iacob and of Esau being yet unborn before they had done either good or evil or were considered doing good or evil as a motive or inducement to prevail with God to choose the one or to refuse the other So then you see the reason of the point Some certain men God appointeth to perdition Why because he will because it is his pleasure so to do Object But you will say perhaps This is very hard measure that God should preordain men to destruction upon this account because he will Sol. And is it not as hard measure that the Creator should not be allowed to have his will upon his creature If you could make a thing of nothing you would look to have the free disposal of it at your own pleasure Nay my beloved to use the instance the Apostle gives the Potter looks to have the free disposal of his clay and of the self same Lump to make one Vessel to an honourable another to a sordid use Or if he please as soon as he hath finished them to dash the one to shivers and to save the other If any ask a reason of him it is enough for him to say that he doth this because he will because it is his pleasure so to do He made it and he may destroy it And yet he gives but form to what he makes he works on matter made before by God But God creates a thing of nothing he gives it form and matter too and why may not he dispose it as he will Why should not his authority and power be yielded and allowed to be as great upon the creature which he makes of nothing as the Potters on the clay which he could never make And yet what ever Gods decree concerning any man may be which he reserveth in his own breast and bosome he never damneth or destroyes a man till he deserve it The Potter breaks a vessell it may be for no fault at all but to satisfie his fancy or to manifest his power and to shew what he can do But God the great Creator of the world doth never so with any creature if he dash any man to pieces it is because he hath deserved it very justly by his sins If he condemn him there is a meritorious cause And he may truly say to such a person Thy destruction is of thy self But in the second place it will be said perhaps by some Object If this be so that God in his Eternal Counsel and Decree hath apointed and disigned some certain special persons to destruction it is in vain for such to hear and pray and use the means of attaining to salvation They were as good to fit still and do nothing for all will be to no purpose If they be reprobated they must be destroyed the Counsell of the Lord must stand If they be reprobated But who are reprobated can they tell Sol. Hast thou known the mind of the Lord Art thou assured that thou art reprobated and appointed to destruction If so indeed there were some colour for thee to neglect the means of attainment to salvation But know my brethren that it is impossible for any man to be infallibly assured of his reprobation without immediate revelation as perhaps Saul was It s true he may be sure of his election never of his reprobation The Scripture urges and perswades men to assure the one never to assure the other It giveth marks and evidences of the one it gives no evidences of the other Indeed the sin against the Holy Ghost where it is found follows after of reprobation but who is able to determine whether he be guilty of this sin against the Holy Ghost or no As for my own part I am confident that God hath ordered matters so that no man shall be able to determine that he is rejected by him And that to this intent that all men may be held in diligent attendance on the means of reconciliation and attonement with him not knowing what the issue and event may be And what then wilt thou take that to be certain which is very doubtfull and on so weak a ground as this neglect and slight the means which may for ought thou knowest be powerfull to the salvation of thy pretious soul for ever Wilt thou conclude thou art rejected and do as if this resolution were infallible when yet it is apparently a most uncertain thing of which thou canst not be assured When the decree concerning reprobation is a secret and a doubtfull thing and the command requiring thee to make thy calling and election sure is a plain and certain thing wilt thou neglect the precept and command that lies before thee and walk by the decree that is obscure and hidden from thee Shouldst thou not rather reason in the case in hand as Merchants and Adventurers in worldly things are wont to do Perhaps the Lord may have a blessing yet in store for me Once I am sure he hath required me to use the means and therefore though there be some hazard in it I will not be behind in my endeavour at his command I will let down the net Even so perhaps the Lord may have appointed me to life and glory once I am sure he hath commanded me to use the means of attaining to salvation And therefore though I know not what the issue and event may be I will attend upon them be carefull in the use and practice of them to the utmost of my power I know if I neglect them I must perish if I use them I may live eternally And therefore I will rather give all diligence to make my calling and election sure then thus adventure my immortal soul upon such hazzard and uncertainty as this And who can tell but that the Lord may yet be gracious that my soul may live Vse 1 Is it so that God in his eternal Counsel and Decree hath appointed and designed c. hence then it follows that all men are not chosen to salvation And consequently they are very much deceived who hold and teach that God in his Decree hath not perfectly precisely pitched on any special individual men appointing them to life and glory But that he hath elected all upon condition that they repent believe and persevere in holiness and grace unto the end And on the other side that he rejecteth no man absolutely from salvation but as their own expression is suspenso manet animo si forte resipiscant The Lord suspendeth his determination expecting their repentance that they may be saved A Doctrine evidently crossing with the truth which we have plentifully proved and confirmed from the Scripture that there is a particular and special reprobation and therefore cannot be an universal election Now that you may not be misled in this particular or drawn to think that God hath chosen all men to salvation on condition leaving it
wholly to themselves and to their own free wils either to ratifie it or infringe it so making his decree like a Noveriut universi If men believe not persevere not then the election must be void Otherwise if they believe and continue to the end it must remain in full power strength and vertue I say that this corrupt opinion which is so confidently vented now adayes may not take with any of you I shall lay down some arguments against it and answer others that are brought for it This universal and conditional election overthrows the end of God all which he aims in all his Counsels and Decrees and in all his dispensations viz. the glory of his free grace This was that which the Lord had in his eye when he appointed men to glory even that he might make known the riches of his own glory on those which he prepared to glory as you have it Rom. 9.22 Now how shall he attain this end by choosing all men to Salvation if they will themselves how is the glory of his mercy magnified and advanced where is the freeness of his grace more to one man then another since he doth alike for all electeth all alike to glory and salvation prepareth heaven no more for one man then another so that if any man be saved he may thank himself he may glory in himself and not in God And therefore it is very notable that the Apostle making this the end of the decree of God viz. the glory of his grace withall discovers that he electeth men to life not according to their wills as they will either choose it or refuse it but according to his own Eph. 1.5 6. Having predestinated us by Jesus Christ to the praise of the glory of his grace How so according to the pleasure of his will To shew that he works freely in the business without impulsion or provocation from external causes And so he must if he will atttain his end If it be to the glory of his grace it must be according to the pleasure of his will So afterwards ver 11 12. We are predestinated that we should be to the glory of his grace And to this end we are predestinated according to his purpose who worketh all things after the Counsel of his own will If he will glorifie his grace in this business we must be saved according to his will and pleasure and not according to our own His will must have the first and greatest stroke in this mercy This universal and conditional election as it overthrows Gods end Vse 2 so it hinders our duty It cannot choose but wonderfully cool and dead our hearts in rendring thankfulness to God when we consider with our selves that he hath done no more for us in this business of election and salvation then he hath for all the world Our Saviour Christ endeavouring to quicken his Disciples to thanskgiving shews them the priviledge and the preferment which they had in the mercy of the Lord Mat. 11.25 and 13.16 17. And the same course the Prophet David takes with Israel Psal 147.19 20. He shewed his word to Jacob his statutes and his judgements to Israel He dealt not so with other Nations and therefore you are specially engaged to praise the Lord. And certainly that soul shall find it self most quickned and enlarged to the praises of the Lord that sees his special and peculiar favour to it self which millions are rejected from Oh will the soul consider with it self in such a case Why hath God pitched on me neglecting others whence was it that he took me into his decree what did he see in me more then in those whom he laid by why he did choose me In our elections who are men beloved there is something still that carries and inclines us to a choice Some fitness in the object of it some relation to our selves some motive or inducement that prevails upon us But now my brethren we are all alike to God in the act of his election we lay together in the same corrupted Mass all weltring in the same blood and tumbling in the same gore and when he came to choose a little number in comparison of those he left Oh what a mercy was it that he should pitch on thee and me which if he had not done we had been lost for ever Truly my brethren did we sit down and weigh it well in our advised and deliberate thoughts it would transport and carry us beyond our selves It would make us to break out with the Apostle Eph. 1.3 4. Blessed be God who hath chosen us us who deserved no more then others who were no fitter for his choice then others And yet us when he hath rejected others Oh blessed be the Lord for this mercy But now my brethren none of this if all be chosen to salvation with this condition that they will accept it they may have it if they will The damned reprobate in hell by this account hath as much reason to be thankfull as the triumphant Saint in heaven Why may this wretched Catiffe say God did as much for me as him only indeed I did not so much for my self And may the glorified Saint in heaven say The Lord hath done as much for those in hell as ever he hath done for me He hath elected them as well as me and he hath assisted them as much as me for he is to all alike only they have not used their own free-wills as well as I have done and this is the only cause that they are damned and I am saved And therefore I wil ever thank my self and not God At least I have no greater cause to think him then the damned have If there be any difference between them and me it is not God that made it but my self God did for them and me alike And that they are not in the same condition with me the only reason is because we did not for ourselves alike And therefore they are every way as much obliged and bound to God as I am Vse 3 This universal and conditional election doth in some respect set up man above God God for his own part chooseth all men to salvation he would have all men to be saved How comes it then to pass whence is it that they are not saved Because they will not themselves God will and they will not who carries it in this business Their will takes place and not Gods The will of God you see by this opinion is ordered and disposed by the will of man He chooseth all men on condition but his final resolution and absolute determination is suspended upon the operation of the will of man He is at liberty to make it good or make it void at his pleasure If he will be saved he may if not he must be damned though God for his part have ordained him to salvation What is this but to make God in some respect an underling to man to make the will of
that of the Apostle in the same case Rom. 9.20 Nay but O man who art thou that replyest answerest again disputest against God! All the objections that are made almost against the point in hand are against God too against his mercy justice power c. If you have any thing to say for God it is worth the hearkning to otherwise you have your answer Who art thou that disputest against God do but consider who art thou Vse 2 Is it so that God in his Eternal c. How should this make us to admire at the transcendent riches of his grace and love to us whom he hath chosen to salvation Paul makes it an especial aim of God in his Decree of Reprobation To shew the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy Rom. 9.23 And if we weigh it well we shall easily discern that it doth strangely heighten the exceeding love of God Had he ordained all men to salvation even so his mercy had been out of measure great But that he hath ordained any of us to salvation when on the contrary he hath ordained so many millions to destruction whose state in Nature was no worse then ours whose strength in nature was as great as ours to exempt them from damnation whose care to be reconciled was no less then ours till God was pleased in mercy to prevent us how should this sweeten the favour of the Lord to us in this respect and even ravish us with admiration of his free grace The Lord delights to amplifie his love by this He took not Angels but the seed of Abraham Heb. 2.16 Was not Esau Jacobs brother saith the Lord Yet I loved Jacob and I hated Esau Mal. 1.2 3. Whose soul that hath tasted of it can choose but be amazed at it Hath God preferred me before Angels before so many thousands in the world Oh the unsearchable depth of his love to me How doth it pass all knowledge JOHN 17.12 That the Scripture might be fulfilled AND thus of our Saviours general assertion that he had safely and entirely kept all those that were bestowed upon him by his Father While I was with them in the world I kept them in thy Name those thou gavest me I kept and none of them lost And likewise of his particular exception of Judas who here is called the son of perdition None of them is lost but the son of perdition Now in the following words that none might be offended at the loss of Judas or stumble at his ruine and destruction our Saviour Christ goes on to shew that as it was designed and fore-appointed in the eternal Councel and Decree of God so it was fore-told in Scripture It was not only fore-ordained but it was fore-shewed too So that in his destruction there fell out nothing otherwise then as it was expresly and apparently declared before in Scripture The Scripture was not crost and contradicted in it but verified and fulfilled None of them is lost but the son of perdition that the Scripture might be fulfilled But you will ask me what Scripture where did the Word of God foretel the ruine and destruction of this wretched man I answer David prophesied clearly and expresly of it many hundred years before Psal 109.8 Let Satan stand at his right hand When he shall be judged let him be condemned and let his prayer become sin Let his days be few and let another take his office Judas you know was self-condemned and self-executed too and so his days were few by that means And when he had destroyed himself his place and Office of Apostleship was supplyed by another But you will say perhaps Judas is not named by David in the fore-alleadged Psalm And therefore though the prophesie seem to agree to him and his condition yet how are we assured that he is aimed at in particular in that prediction Why my Beloved though the Prophet David do not name him the Apostle Peter doth apply that Scripture to him Act. 1.20 For having said in the fore-going verses This Scripture must have been fulfilled which the Holy Ghost by David spake before concerning Judas He comes at length to this in the alledged verse For it is written in the Book of Psalms Let his habitation be desolate and let no man dwell therein and his Bishoprick or Charge or Office 〈◊〉 another take so that when he was lost and fell from his Apostleship yâ—â— see that Scripture was fulfilled And yet you must not apprehend the loss of Iudas to be caused by that praediction as if the Prophesie concerning him did really contribute any thing by way of active operation and efficiencie to his destruction Though I acknowledge the expression of my Text may seem to look a little that way None of them is lost but the son of perdition And he is lost that the Scripture might be fulfilled But you must know my Brethren that he had been lost though his destruction had never been foretold in Scripture He was not lost the rather because his loss was prophesied but it was prophesied because he was before from all eternity appointed to perdition And being prophesied when the event fell out accordingly it looked as if the prophesie had been the cause of his destruction So that the particle that as a very learned man observes upon the Text Iudas was lost that the Scripture might be fulfilled denoteth not the true but the appearing cause only Yet thus much it suggests withall which shall be our observation DOCTRINE That whatsoever is foretold in Scripture shall surely be accomplished and fulfilled The issue and event shall answer the prediction every way in all respects And therefore it is often noted not in my Text alone but elsewhere frequently that such and such things came to pass that the Scripture might be fulfilled as you may see that place for instance Mat. 2.14 15. Joseph arose and took the child and departed into Egypt That it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the Prophet saying Out of Egypt have I called my Son And after in the following verse Herod sent forth and slew the children from two years old and under Then was fulfilled that which was spoken by the Prophet saying In Rama was a voyce heard Lamentation and weeping and great mourning Rachel weeping for her children and would not be comforted because they are not And so in many other places the Apostles very carefully observe the punctual and exact accomplishment of the antient Prophesies and speak sometimes in such a manner as if things came to pass for no other cause but this because they were foretold in Scripture and that the Scripture might be fulfilled Whereas indeed they had been done though they had never been foretold because they were fore-determined only they would have us know that whatsoever is foretold shal certainly be done in Gods time It is easier saith our Saviour for Heaven and Earth to pass away then for one title of the Word of God to
Christ And therefore it is called his joy because originally it is his and comes from him to them by way of dispensation and communication that they might have my joy fulfilled in themselves So in another place he tells his Apostles and Disciples that if they were obedient to him they should abide in his love And adds immediately these things have I spoken to you that my joy might remain in you that is to say the joy that I give you John 15.11 Indeed it is the fruit and the effect of Christs kingdom erected in the hearts of his people as the Apostle shews us Rom. 14.17 His Kingdom is not meat and drink but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost You shall be sorrowfull saith Christ to his Disciples but your sorrow shall be turned into joy John 16.20 And who can turn it into joy but Christ only But you will ask me how and in what respect is Christ the Author of the joy of his people Beloved I might instance in a multitude of things but I shall draw them all to three heads Christ is the Author of the joy of his people As he is their Prophet to instruct them The state of ignorance my brethren is a state of darkness so it is often stiled in Scripture And that is an uncomfortable state full of fear and full of sorrow But when Christ comes with light and information and instruction when he becomes a Prophet to them he gives them extraordinary comfort In that he gives them light he gives them joy for both of them are joyned together Psal 97.11 Light is sown for the righteous and joy for them that are upright in heart As he is their King to rule them you heard but now that his kingdom stands in joy And hence his subjects are exhorted to rejoyce in him Psal 149.2 Let the Children of Zion be joyful in their King Now as a King my brethren he is many wayes the author of the joy of his people I will name a few of them 1. As he subdues their enemies and gives them peace And this he doth my brethren for he is the King of Salem and the Prince of peace And when he doth it he is an extraordinary comfort to his people When he subdues their enemies within them and so gives them inward peace When he masters and brings under their stubborn and rebellious Lusts and strong corruptions which are such a daily trouble and vexation to them O what a joy is it to his people when according to his Covenant he saves them from those enemies then they serve him without fear Luke 1.75 and if without fear then certainly with great joy So when he saves them from their enemies without them and so gives them outward peace then he gives them joy too Such times have still been celebrated and observed with extraordinary gladness and rejoycing Especially when Babylon goes down the arch-enemy of his Church and his people then Christ hears many Halelujahs for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth Then they that stand upon the glassie sea are in a very chearie frame They sing the song of Moses and the song of the Lamb Just and true are thy wayes O thou King of Saints 2. As a King Christ is the Author of the joy of his people as he gives them his spirit For this he doth under the notion of a King and when he doth it then he fils them full of joy The Spirit is the Comforter that is his name so he is stiled very often to shew us what his Office work and business is And therefore joy is made a companion of the Spirit to shew us that they use to go together Act. 13.52 The Disciples saith the Text were filled with joy and with the Holy Ghost and the Apostle tells us that joy is one especial fruit of the Spirit Gal. 5.22 The fruit of the Spirit is live joy And hence the Holy Ghost is called the Oyl of gladness Isa 45.7 As it is the Oyl of gladness it makes glad the heart of man and it makes his face to shine And consequently when our King pours out this Oyl upon his people he pours out joy and gladness with it Then his joy is fulfilled in them because they have this oyl from him He is anointed with it above his fellows it flows down from him the head even to the lowest members of his body 3. As a King Christ is the Author of the joy of his people as he dispenses recompences and rewards to them For this he must do as a King too and when he doth it he makes them overflow with joy and therefore he will have them to be out of measure glad even in the expectation of it Luk. 6.23 Rejoyce and leap for joy saith he and why so for great is your reward in heaven And if they have such cause to be transported in the expectation how much more in the fruition When Christ shall say to every one of his as Mat. 25.21 Enter thou into the joy of thy Lord into the self-same joy which I thy Lord and Master entred first into and took possession of before thee Then indeed the joy of Christ shall be communicated to them Then they shall have his joy fulfilled in them to the very utmost Christ is the Author of the joy of his people as he is their Priest to sacrifice and intercede for them Both ways he is the Fountain of their comfort I shall a little touch them in their order 1. As he is their Priest to sacrifice he is the Author of their joy for by this means he satisfies the justice of his Father for them he frees them from the guilt of all their sins he reconcileth them to God And is he not in this respect the cause of extraordinary comfort to his people Is it not a sad thing for a person to live at enmity with God who made him and will judge him in the great day If peace with God be so infinitely sweet is not enmity with God full of fear and full of horror is it not a doleful thing for any person to be dead in Law bound over to the everlasting wrath and vengeance of the great God in danger every hour to be haled and dragged away to execution and to be cast into the lake that burns with fire and brimstone and is it not a joyful thing to be delivered out of such a state as this is Now this our Saviour as a Priest hath done for his people in a way of satisfaction and so hath given them cause of exceeding great joy as the Angel intimates when he informs the Shepherds where he was born and what he was to do Luk. 2.10 Behold I bring you good tidings of great joy 2. As Christ is his peoples Priest to intercede for them he is the Author of their joy It is an extraordinary comfort to them that Christ appears in heaven for them in all causes to offer up and to
prescribes there need to be no difference between them and other men and so there would be no dislike But now they are not neither can they be conformed and fashiond to the world Rom. 12.2 they cannot walk according to the course and custom of the world Ephes 2.2 The world runs out exceedingly into all licentious courses but they run not out with them They walk not as the Gentiles Ephes 4.17 they sleep not as do others 1 Thess 5.5 And this the world cannot abide them for because they are so singular and will not do as they do They that receive the Word of God as they do cross the world so they condemn and shame the world For while they walk exactly by the Rule their holy and unblemisht lives and conversations do make the vitious and licentious courses of ungodly men the more odious and bring the more contempt upon them And as the righteous is the more excellent because he dwelleth by a bad neighbour so on the other side the wicked is the more abominable because he dwelleth by a good neighbour his vile and wicked actions shew the worse because there are so good examples just by Thus we have seen the first reason of the point the wicked world hates Christs Disciples because they entertain the Word of God I have given them thy Word saith Christ c. There is a second also added in the Text It is the manner of the world Reason 2 to hate them that are Christs disciples because they are not of this world but of another Therefore the world is so envenomed and so malitiously bent against them The world hath hated them saith Christ because they are not of the world even as I am not of the world If they were of their own society and of their own Countrey they would love them well enough as Christ himself informeth his Disciples Joh. 15.19 If ye were of the world the world would love his own but because ye are not of the world but I have chosen you out of the world therefore the world hates you Use 1 Is it the manner of the wicked world c. Here then you see one especial reason why Christs Disciples are so vilified and abused in the world They dwell among a company of men that hate them and that to the very death And hence it is my brethren that they do them all the mischief that they can It is a wonder to us many times that all the world almost should be upon the skirts of the small number that belongs to Christ that they should be continually perking at them and raising scandalous reports upon them we know not what to make of it Why what 's the matter think we that they should be so ill-entreated and so unworthily and basely used on all hands Truly nothing else but this the world hates them and all these injuries and wrongs and molestations are the effects of that hatred Use 2 Is it the manner of the wicked c. the greater cause there is of admiration at the power and mercy of the Lord that keeps them and preserves them notwithstanding this hatred Though all the world be bitterly envenomed and enraged against them they cannot have their will upon them no they are safeguarded still as if a little Lamb were kept among a company of Wolves and Lions T is not for want of multitude or malice in the enemies of Christs Disciples that they have yet a being in the world but by the power and goodness of a gratious God upholding them and providing for their safety This is the Lords doing and it is marvelous in our eyes And we shall marvail at it and admire the Lord the more if we consider yet a little more distinctly but these two things 1. The disparity in number between Christs Disciples and them that bear such mortal hatred to them For Christs Disciples they are very few a little flock a small number a petty inconsiderable company of men But they that hate them and desire their ruine are the world a world of wicked and ungodly men So that you see there are enemies enough to eat up Christs people as David said they did in his time They eat up thy people as a man would eat bread to devour them and to bring them all to nothing in a moment And if you do compare them with the multitude that are against them and consider what a deadly and envenomed hatred they bear against them their preservation will appear to be a strange thing the greater and more admirable is the power that keeps them and upholds them in such a posture and condition as this is 2. And as there is a great disparity in number between Christs Disciples and them that bear such hatred to them so in disposition too which magnifies the power that keeps them yet more For Christs Disciples they are frequently compared to Sheep and Lambs poor harmless things that are so far from being able or desirous to offend hurt others that they are no wayes able to defend themselves And they that hate them on the otherside are compared to Dogs and Wolves and Bears and Lions How easie is it for such strong and cruel creatures to make a prey upon the silly Lambs So Christs Disciples are resembled to a Lilly for their tenderness and softness and they that hate them on the other side to Thorns for their injurious and offensive quality Cant. 2.2 They are sharp and rough and boistrous and these alas are sweet and harmless and how shall they subsist among them They are not like to hurt the world but the world is very like to hurt them Thorns you know are apt to prick and rent and scratch and on the other side the Lilly by reason of her tenderness is very lyable to wrong and very capable of such impressions The Greater cause there is of admiration at the power of God by which the Church of Christ is kept in such a dangerous condition and estate as this is Is it the manner of the wicked c. Then surely it concerneth Christs Use 3 Disciples to be very cautious how they walk in the midst of such men If they were among their friends there needed not such curious circumspection For friends will make the best of every thing and construe matters in the mildest and most favourable way But since they are amongst their enemies that hate them it stands them very much upon to look exactly to their words and wayes And that upon a few Considerations For First if there be any thing to be misconstrued they will be sure to make an ill interpretation of it they will mistake your words as David speaks and mistake your actions too and turn them all the wrong way Because they hate you they will lie upon the the catch that they may pick some matter of exception and reproach against you And if there be but any shew or colour for it they will glory out
of measure as you may see Michal for an instance when David danced before the Ark. And therefore David calls them his observers Psal 5.8 for so the Hebrew word imports and so you find it in the Margine And if they once get any matter by the end Oh with what Joy and exultation will they vent it Aha say they our eyes hath seen it our ear hath heard it And therefore we have need of wisdom yea the wisdom of an Angel to know how to demean our selves before such persons as these are Seconly And as by reason of their hatred of you they will be very busie and inquisitive to catch at any thing against you So if they find it in the least degree they will be sure to make the most of it They will be very carefull that it shall not lose a Jot by their means And therefore we have reason to be very wary of doing any thing that may be capable of misconstruction yea though we know it to be Lawfull And to avoid the appearance of evil That so these enemies of ours who watch and hope to take us tripping may be ashamed as the Apostle speaks Titus 2.8 as being disappointed of that which they expected and desired For shame you know is the fruit of disappointment that they may be ashamed having no evil thing to say of you If they can mis-interpret any thing you say or do they will not only wound your names with it but the name of God himself and the credit of religion So that it is not a sufficient Plea to say that we are very well perswaded that we have done no evil and therefore if they make an ill construction of it the fault is theirs and we must bear it we cannot help it we must endure their scandals and reproaches No my beloved this is not enough it ought to be our care as much as lyes in us to prevent those ill Constructions and to take away occasion from those that long and seek for it For these reproaches do not rest in us If we alone did bear them if they did reach no further then our persons it were well But God and his Religion and his Gospel are miserably wounded through our sides by this occasion and therefore we must see that we do nothing as far as it is possible from whence these enemies of ours may take advantage to wound such pretious things as these are And as they will take occasion if there be any colour for it to dishonour Gods name so to undo and damn their own souls If they find weaknesses and flaws â—n those who are Christs Disciples this sets them off the further from religion If they see them to fall short or take them tripping any way in any thing that falls within their compass to discover this strangely hardens them against profession I am perswaded there are many souls in hell who have been kept aloof from Christ and from Religion by the incircumspect and careless walking of those who have either been really or have been taken to be Christs Disciples And therefore let it be our care that while we go to heaven with our friends no enemies of ours may go to hell by our means Use 4 Is it the manner of the wicked c. Then let it not seem strange to Christs Disciples if they be hated in the world if they be wronged and injured and abused on all hands Let them not look upon it as a thing to be admired and wondred at if they be very coursely used and very ill intreated here If they be alwayes troubled and distressed if they be alwayes followed and persued with spightfull molestations and vexations let them not think much of it but let them look upon it as an ordinary thing and let them seriously consider that they could expect no other living in such a place and with such company as they do Only to stay them and support them in such a troublesome condition let them take notice of a few things 1. God and Jesus Christ love you and love you very dearly though the world hate you And whether do you think the love of God will do you most good or the hatred of the world will do you most hurt I beseech you my beloved set the one in opposition to the other and when you are disquieted at any time to think how you are hated and maligned and abused in the world consider on the other side how you are beloved of God how dear are you to Jesus Christ who loved you and gave himself for you And if you weigh the matter well you will find infinitely greater cause to cheer your hearts with his love then to deject them with the worlds hatred 2. Jesus Christ himself was in the same condition with you when he lived in the world You fare no worse then he did And this is that which he himself propounds to his Apostles and Disciples to the very same end John 15.18 If the world hate you saith Christ you know that it hated me before it hated you Are you hated in the world let not that seem strange to you you know your selves it hated me before you or else it hated me who am before you It hated me 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It hated me prius or it hated me priorem for it may be both wayes rendred It hated me before you in regard of time or me who am before you in regard of Dignity as Calvin very well observes upon the place And should not this Consideration quiet us and make us patient we are hated in the world why so was Jesus Christ himself Why should we look to be exempted from that to which our blessed Saviour was exposed yea he was hated in the first place and we are hated after him and in reference to him Though he were absolutely holy harmless separate from sinners he was hated notwithstanding Alas my brethren how unholy how faulty how injurious many times are we to others And then what wonder is it that they take offence at us Though Christ were far above us every way though he were our Lord and Master he was exceedingly maligned in the world And why should we expect in this regard to be above him to fare better then he did No let it be sufficient for us that we are no worse no nor so ill intreat-as our Lord and Master was 3. The hatred of the world is no impediment at all no barr no hindrance to your blessedness Indeed it fits you rather and qualifies you for it as Jesus Christ himself insinuates in his Sermon on the Mount Mat. 5.12 Blessed are ye when men revile you and persecute you and say all evil of you falsly And the Apostle Peter to the same effect 1 Pet. 4.14 saith he If you be reproached for the name of Christ happy are you So that malignity and injury and evil usage from the world are no way inconsistent with our happiness neither with our
them hasten him and fetch him by their prayers that he may say unto them as the Angel did to Daniel Dan. 10.12 From the first day that thou didst set thy self to understand thy words were heard and I am come for thy words And here to quicken you a little I shall present you with a few Considerations 1. The Lord expects you should be very earnest and importunate with him this business He hearkens after supplications and looks that men should ply him hard Thus saith the Lord the holy one of Israel and his maker Isa 45.11 Ask of me things to come concerning my Sons command you me q. d. There are great things to come that I am doing for my Church what is the reason that ye are so stil and that I hear of no Petitions from you touching these things You are alwayes plying me for present things but I delight to hear you pleading with me for those glorious things to come which I will surely do for my people Come put in your Petitions and requests concerning them and I will stoop so low to be commanded by your prayers Ask of me things to come concerning my Sons and concerning the work of my hands command ye me 2. Consider in the second place to quicken you in prayer that this is such a business as is worth your earnestness assure your selves you cannot lay out too much heat and zeal upon it When once the Lord hath gathered in a people to him over all the world the Church shall have perfection of beauty It is a very high expression but you shall see it is applied to Sion Psal 50.2 And it is meant apparently my bretren of the Gospel Sion of the Gospel Church for in the following parcell of the Psalm the Lord rejecteth Jewish worship Indeed the Churches happiness shall be so great in those dayes that it is called heaven very often in the Scripture And so the Saints who are to be the Members of that Church are said to dwell in heaven Apoc. 13.6 Indeed my brethren it shall be heaven upon earth 3. Consider that the bringing in of people over all the world to Christ will be an extraordinary honour to him the enlargement of his Kingdom is the enlargement of his glory It adds exceedingly you know my brethren to the Luster of a Kingdom when it hath many people under it and when the territories of it are amplified and enlarged It s no such glory my beloved to be the King but of a little City or a little Island or of a small and inconsiderable company of men But to be the King of many Nations and of many Kingdoms to have a multitude of people in subjection this is a glorious thing indeed In this respect the Empire of Christ Jesus in the latter times shall be unparalleld when once the Jews come in and bring the fulness of the Gentiles with them And therefore out of love to Jesus Christ and regard to his glory we should be intent upon it 4. Consider that the bringing in of people over all the world to Jesus Christ will be very beneficial and advantagious to our selves Perhaps we do not apprehend it to be so this Countrey is come in already to the profession of the Gospel we are come in already and what need we care so much for other Nations and for other people We are well enough our selves and why should we look after others Yes my beloved we have reason to look after others for till all others that belong to Christ of all the Nations of the world be gathered in we are not in so good a case as we shall be afterwards We are in Christ perhaps and that is well for us indeed but others of his people by election of many other Countreyes are as yet without and we without them cannot be made perfect as the Apostle shews Heb. 11. ult We without them are members in a sence of an imperfect body We without them have but imperfect grace nay though we were in heaven already we could have but imperfect glory Till all that appertain to Christ be gathered in of all Nations so long as there is but a man without there can be no day of judgement and so no full reward no complement of our beatitude And therefore we have reason to help on this glorious work to the utmost of our power because till it be accomplished it cannot be so well with us as it will be afterwards we without them cannot be made perfect Is it so that Iesus Christ sends forth his Ministers to gather Churches and to erect his Kingdom over all the world Here then is matter of rejoycing and thanksgiving for us the once rejected and neglected people of the Gentiles There was a time my brethren when we were set without the verge the reach of mercy When the poor Gentiles liv'd and we too liv'd without God without Christ without a promise without Gospel when Christ did never send to them to invite them to come in and when he had no Scepter but in Jewry no subjects in a manner but among that people Alas my brethren Christ was a King in those dayes to break the Gentiles by his power but he was not a King to rule them by his grace But now my brethren in these Gospel dayes there is no such respect of persons with him as the Apostle shews Acts 10.34 In every Nation and in every people he hath or shall have some to serve him and to be accepted with him And therefore whereas formerly he sent his messengers to none but to V se 3 the people of the Jewish Nation and gave them an express Injunction Goe not into the way of the Gentiles In which respect it was that Peter was scrupulous to preach the Gospel to Cornelius Now he sends forth his Ministers to all the world to all Nations now he enlargeth their Commission Go preach the Gospel to every Creature So that we Gentiles are included in it All Countreys People Callings Nations are alike to Christ in this respect the publication of the Gospel and the tender of Salvation belongeth to them all alike and if they entertain it and embrace it whether they be Jews or Gentiles whether they be Males or Females whether they be bond or free they shall have salvation by him How great a cause have we my brethren that are Gentiles of rejoycing and thanksgiving that Jesus Christ should send to us that the word is come to us as it is to all the world that we should have the Gospel published and revealed to us That we who formerly were utterly shut out from the enjoyment of the means of our salvation should have as full and free a title to them now as the very Iews themselves Nay that we should have the preferment of the Jew in that by the abundant blessing of the Lord upon the means the Churches of the Gentiles which were wholly desolate and barren heretofore should be more
can teach us to love our brethren whom we see then much more none but he can teach us to love him whom we do not see and therefore let us earnestly beseech him to help us to take forth this Lesson 2. Let us endeavour to grow up in the knowledge of the Lord and as we know him better we shall love him more That which one affirms of Learning may be well applied to God Non habet inimicum nisi ignorantem He hath such matchless excellency and beauty in him that he that knows him cannot choose but love him Indeed while we are unacquainted with him the admirable worth and lustre that is in him doth not take a whit upon us The Philosopher will tell us that the judgement must be first of all convinced of the worth and value of a thing before the heart will close with it and the affections cleave to it Nec enim potes aut amare quem nescias aut habere quem non amaveris Thou canst not love him thou knowest not nor have him whom thou lovest not And hence it is that wicked and ungodly men love not God or Christ at all because they know him not at all Or if they know him any way it is not under such a notion as makes him beautifull and lovely to them Perhaps they know him as a Judge or an Avenger not as a Father and a Saviour And this is indeed the cause why the triumphant Saints in heaven love him more then the Saints militant on earth because they have a fuller clearer and distincter knowledge of him We see him darkly in a glass but they see him face to face And this is the reason also why we love not God so much on earth as we shall do in heaven viz. because we know him not so well here as we shall do in that place So that our love to God you see is answerable to our knowledge of him as we know him more or less so we love him more or less And therefore if we do desire indeed to love him more let us strive to know him more 3. Another means to grow up in the love of God is to have daily more communion and intimacy with him And this as I conceive it is a means distinct from that which goes before For it is one thing to know him and another to have communion and to be familiar with him We know abundance with whom we have no intimacy in the world No we know them too well perhaps to be familiar with them So we may have a speculative knowledge of the Father and the Son and yet may have no intimate acquaintance with them And this is very necessary to encrease love To kindle and enflame affection as the Philosopher observeth there must be Convictus crebra conversatio They must dine and supp together they must walk and talk together And wheresoever there is strangeness there can be no great love And therefore if we would abound in the love of God and Christ let us have more communion with them Beloved if we be not wanting to our selves we may be very much with God We may speak with him often in a day we may talk with him face to face in our addresses to his holy Majesty we may give him many visits he doth not interdict us but invite us to come and sup with him and be acquainted with him throughly once he is so pretious and so sweet a friend that we shall love him out of all measure 4. Endeavour to the utmost of your power to dispossess your hearts of the unlawful love of worldly things for this is incompatible inconsistent with the love of God If any man saith the Apostle love the world the love of the Father is not in him 1 Joh. 1.15 Let him be what he will my Brethren if he love the world he loves not God And therefore ler not any covetous and wretched worldling make shew of having any love to God For certainly it is not in him The friendship of the world saith the Apostle James 4.4 is emnity with God And therefore if we would be friends of God we must dissolve this friendship with the world Inordinate irregular unlawful love of worldly things must be expelled And as this love is cast out the love of God will come in 5. Be often in the company and fellowship of those that love God Converse with those who are most endeared to him and they will be continually speaking of him and seting forth his excellency beauty love and so will kindle and enflame your hearts towards him They who are full of sweet affections to the Lord if you be much among them will work you to the same temper You may observe it in Cant. 5.10 and the following verses that when those daughters of Jerusalem who at first despised Christ and wondred why the Church his Spouse should praise him so and make such a stir about him yet when they had a while conversed with the Church and heard her speak of Christ with such affection admiring and extolling him above the skies they also fall in love with him and they will go together with the Church to seek him out Whither is Beloved gone say they O thou fairest among women whither is thy Beloved turned aside that we may seek him with thee And thus you see my Brethren frequent intercourse and holy conference with those that love God is one effectual means to fill and to enflame our hearts with love to him 6. Labour to comprehend with all the Saints the greatness of the love of God to you and to assure it to your own souls It is not all the beauty and the excellency in the world that will allure us to the 〈◊〉 love one that we imagine doth not love us But if we see and be assured of the love of God to us this will kindle love to him and make our hearts to melt towards him When we consider with our selves what kindness he hath shewed to us what he hath done for us what matchless and unfathomed love he hath discovered to us this will raise our affections high to him again and make us even sick of love And therefore I beseech you strive to be more and more assured of this for at this flame you must kindle your fire Here you must fetch your little spark of love whereof the Saints are capable in this life from the love of God to you which being kindled in your hearts it will never leave aspiring and flying higher and higher still till it have joyned it self unto that infinite and endless flame from whence it issued and proceeded And indeed as Bernard very well observes we cannot answer God or Christ so well in any thing as love To say the truth we must not answer him in other things If he be angry or displeased with us we ought not be angry or displeased with him again If he condemn and censure us we
never close with him So that you see my brethren it exceedingly concerns the honour of our Saviour Jesus Christ and of the Gospel that they that appertain to him avoid dissentions with their brethren for they reflect with very great disparagement on him and it And therefore the Apostle is so sharp with the Corinthians because they shewed their malice and had their suits and controvesies each with other before unbelievers 1 Cor. 6.1 By which it seems they set them off the further both from Christ and from the Gospel This shall suffice for the cleering of the Observation proceed we to the application Now is it so my brethren that the unity of Christs Disciples is one Use 1 especial means to cause the world to have the better thoughts c. Here then we see the reason my beloved why Jesus Christ and religion and the Gospel are so despised and undervalued and neglected why they are so ill thought of in these times As certainly Christ and the Gospel had never less esteem and credit in the world then they have in these dayes And this is one great cause of it there is so little unity among Christians Nothing but disputes and quarrels and contests among them everywhere whither we look upon the Teachers or the Professors of Jesus Christ and of the Gospel If we look upon the Teachers how strangely do they differ each from other everywhere how do they cross and thwart with one another as if there were many Christs and many Faiths and many Gospels and more wayes then one to heaven In the Apostles times it was Paul and Silvanus and Timotheus they did harmoniously agree together But now Paul is of one mind and one way and Timotheus of a second and Silvanus of a third So that the people are distracted and in the end regard neither They that are yet without and to seek of their religion know not what to pitch upon but are the more estranged from Jesus Christ and from the Gospel If the Trumpet give an uncertain sound now here and now there now this way and now that how shall the confused people gather themselves into a body and come to be at one among themselves If this Pulpit sound with one thing another with that which is directly contrary to it a third with that which contradicts both where think you then shall poor unstable souls settle how is it possible but they that have not sences exercised to discern should be carried up and down and really adhere to nothing as it is at this day And thus our Gospel is exposed to contempt our Religion undervalued and Jesus Christ himself is slighted and despised 2. If we look on the professors of Jesus Christ and of the Gospel how are they rent asunder into factions Oh what a spirit of division is there up and down among them such as never was abroad till these times They are of so many minds and draw so many wayes and have such vehement and such hot contentions and disputes among themselves that they are no way to be pacified and appeased unless the God of peace himself appear and above all that we can think All that time and pains and heat and zeal and strength which was wont to be bestowed in private duties in prayer and examination and humiliation c. and to be set a work about their own hearts in mortifying and subduing the corruptions and the lusts that are there is now laid out in making and upholding parties and in maintaining controversies and disputes in doating about frothy frivolous and vain questions that tend to strife and variance and not one whit to edification And this is that which alienates and keeps off those that are without from closing with religion This takes away the beauty and the lustre of it that may invite them and allure them to it When carnal men see nothing else but rents and breaches among professors of religion the glory of it is extreamly darkned in their eyes and it is sure a stone of stumbling to them and such a rock of scandal and offence as they cannot get over When we shew all our weakness in our passion and in our violent and hot contentions before the watchfull eyes of scornfull enemies when we uncover our selves in the sight of the wicked as a fool uncovers himself they disdain us in their hearts and with us our profession too Nay if this be their Religion and profession to brawl to wrangle and to quarrell thus I am even at a point saith the prophane and graceless heart I will have none of it It is a choice and curious observation of the Holy Ghost if you observe it upon the difference that fell out between the servants of Abraham and the servants of Lot that at the very time when the contention grew the Canaanite and Perezite was in the Land Gen. 13.7 There was a strife between the Herdsmen of Abrahams Cattle and the Herdsmen of Lots Cattle and the Canaanite and Perezite dwelled then in the Land Their strife was much the more vile and the more disadvantagious to religion because it was before them Use 2 And therefore in the second place my brethren since the unity of Christs Disciples is one especial means to cause c. Let this prevail exceedingly with every one of us who are or would be taken to be Christs Disciples to strive and labour after this oneness There have been many Arguments and Reasons used heretofore often to stir us up to this endeavour but none like this that Jesus Christ will be the more respected and the better thought of in the world by this means Now for the honour of Christ Jesus leave your wrangling and contending and agree among your selves Do not so carry and demean your selves as to perswade the world that he was never sent of God He suffred shame and ignominy and contempt for you Oh do not cause him now to suffer ignominy and contempt from you You have seen the sad effects of breaches and divisions many wayes and this way among the rest in these times How much our blessed Saviour and the Gospel suffers by the hot contentions of those who call themselves Saints Ah my beloved if you have any love to Jesus Christ any regard at all to his esteem and credit in the world if you would have him in account and reputation make up your breaches and differences deny your selves for his sake See how he beggs his Father for it in my Text Let them be one saith he as thou c. that the world may believe c. that they that are without may not be so ill perswaded of me as they are And if Christ be so earnest for it if he begg for it of his Father with so much affection will you slight it and look upon it as a small matter Oh labour to help onward that which he is so intent upon that so without hypocrisie you may say Amen to this Prayer And
Baptist Joh. 1.18 No man hath seen God at any time conceive it with the outward eye The Son of man who is in the bosom of the Father he hath declared him He hath discovered him in some respect to that eye because he is so very like him So that if you see the Son you shall see the Father in him the resemblance is so great that in seeing one of them you see the other And hence saith Christ to Philip once Joh. 14.9 He that hath seen me hath seen the Father also So that our Saviour both as God and Man is like the Father and so in that respect is fitted for his Fathers love And as there is Proportion so Propriety as he is like the Father so he is the Fathers own and therefore meet to be beloved of him Indeed there is an interest on both hands God is Christs God God even thy God hath anointed thee saith David Psal 45.7 And Christ is Gods Christ Psal 2.2 The Kings of the earth set themselves and the Rulers take counsel together against the Lord and against his Christ Indeed he is the Fathers Chosen the Fathers servant the Fathers Son He is his Son as God by eternal generation as man by union He is his in all capacities and under all considerations take him which way you will he is the Fathers So that no marvail though the Father love him and love him dearly too We that are men are wont to love our own yea many times we dote upon them though they have little lovely in them But Christ who is his Fathers own is altogether lovely so that he hath cause to love him And this for clearing of the first branch that God the Father loveth Jesus Christ Now for the second branch that he hath loved him from everlasting This is expresly taught us also in the Text Thou hast loved me saith Christ before the foundation of the world that is before time was As the time will never be when God will not love Christ So the time never was when God did not love Christ That place is notable to this purpose Prov. 8.22 The Lord possessed me in the beginning c. I was set up from everlasting c. I was as one brought up with him and I was dayly his delight Observe it well I was dayly his delight I you will answer he was so as God But how was he so as man Object How could the Father love the Son as Man from everlasting since he was not from everlasting God is one pure act Answ he doth not that in time as to internal immanent acts which he did not from everlasting Though things are past present and to come with us yet they are not so with God All things are present with him at the same time as Jesus Christ in reference to God and his decree was slain so he was incarnate too before the foundation of the world and so he was beloved as man and as incarnate before the foundation of the world and under this consideration he speaks especially to his Father in my Text Thou hast loved me saith he viz. as Man and Mediator before the foundation of the world Now is it so That God the Father dearly loveth Jesus Christ Use then surely it is ill with them that hate him and it is well with them that love him If God love Jesus Christ so dearly certainly he hates them that hate Christ and he loves them that love Christ 1. If God love Jesus Christ so dearly he hates them that hate Christ and he will surely be avenged on them to the very utmost The love he bears to Jesus Christ will stir him up to execute his fiercest wrath and to take most severe revenge upon them Believe it brethren God will not spare them in the day of vengeance he will shew no bowels of compassion to them who hate his dear Son Christ to whom he bears such infinite affection The more he loves Christ the more he will hate them that hate him and the more sharply will he deal with them But you ask me Are there any such that hate Christ and if there be Quest which way may they be discovered Some there are that hate Christ Answ and that not in Hell only the Devil and the damned ghosts there but on earth among men yea in the very bosom of the Church it self He is not hated only of a company of men that are but forraigners and strangers to him as the Heathen are for that is no such admirable thing that they that know him not should hate him but of his Citizens who are acquainted with him and who are under his immediate Rule and Jurisdiction Luk. 19.14 He is refused not of the Heathen people only but of divers in the Church and some of them of greatest note authority and learning there to wit the builders of the Church He is the stone which they that would be counted Workmen Master-workmen stumble at and set aside Psal 118.22 There be that live in opposition and hostility against him even where his Kingdom is set up he ruleth in the midst of his enemies as his Father speaks of him Psal 110.2 Where our Saviour hath a Church there the Devil hath a Chappel yea it may be a Cathedral I know thy works and where thou dwellest saith our Saviour to the Church of Pergamus even where Satans seat is Apoc. 2.13 Observe it well where Satans seat is that is where he is Bishop where he keeps his residence where his Episcopal Cathedral and his chair is Christ can never want his enemies where Satan hath such interest and such authority as this is Indeed the greatest Enemie that Christ hath in the world conceit it among mortal men is in the Church and that is Antichrist a Bishop too who hath his name from being opposite to Christ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as who should say against Christ He sitteth in the Temple in the Church as the Apostle Paul speak 2 Thess 2.4 There were false brethren in the Church of the Philippians who notwithstanding all their glorious protestations were enemies to Christ as the Apostle tells them plainly Phil. 3.18 and he tells it them with tears he was so much affected with it And surely there are many everywhere and in every Congregation who pretend much worship and submission and Ceremony and respect to Christ And yet such is the damnable hypocrisie and falseness of the hearts of men they swell with inward ranck or rage and hate against him It is not every one that calls him Rabbi Master as the false Herodians did that kisses him and bows before him and salutes him with Hayl Master as deceitful Judas did that is indeed a friend to Christ No men may make a flourish and profess they love the Lord and say that he is infinitely dear unto them and yet may be as real enemies to him and to his Kingdom as Judas that betrayed him the Judge and Officers
and people that condemned and scourged and crucified the Lord of glory And now my brethren Will you say to me as the Disciples to our Saviour when he told them that one of them should betray him Will you ask me man by man Is it I and is it I No I expect to hear you say It is not I. What I an enemy to Christ I defie it and they that are his greatest enemies will be as bold and resolute in the denyal as any other And therefore as our Saviour gave a sign to the Disciples by which the Traytor might be known so I will give you certain signs out of Scripture by which the enemies of Christ may be discovered First they that are willing to submit to sin and are unwilling to submit to Christ they are enemies to Christ I will a little stand on either branch of this mark They that are willing to submit to sin they are enemies to Christ 'T is true indeed men may be taken captive by it as Saint Paul was they may be forc't to obey it in some certain acts notwithstanding all their striving by the power of a temptation which they are no way able to resist and yet may be the friends of Christ they may unfaignedly and dearly love the Lord Jesus But if they render up themselves to any lust if they make a Covenant with it as being willing and resolved to obey it if not content that they are sold by Adam they sell themselves to sin as Ahab did they are enemies to Christ No man can serve two Masters that are contrary as God and Mammon Christ and sin for saith our Saviour He will love the one and hate the other Mat. 6.24 So then if you be servants voluntarily engaged to any sin as being willing to obey it in the lusts thereof Whether it be drunkenness or swearing or uncleanness or the like If you resolve it is a sweet it is a profitable sin I will not strive nor pray against it because I mean not to forsake it you do indeed hate Christ It may be you do think that you may serve a lust and love the Lord Christ too But you deceive your own souls for the Truth of God hath said it that he that loves the one will hate the other As they that serve Christ hate sin so they that serve sin hate Christ And for the second branch of this mark as they that willingly obey sin so they that are unwilling to obey Christ they are enemies to Christ You are my friends saith Christ to his Disciples if you do whatsoever I command you Joh. 15.14 otherwise you are not And hence he styleth those his enemies who will not have him rule over them Luk. 19.27 Observe it well he saith not simply Those that will not have me raign but those mine enemies that will not have me raign over them bring them forth and slay them before me If then you will not stoop to Christ and to the Scepter of his Kingdom if you will not have him rule you if you will not do the things that he commands you but are resolved to walk according to your own humors and though you are informed what is good and what the Lord requireth of you yet you hate to be reformed and pluck away the shoulder as the Prophet speaks and say with those rebellious wretches Psal 2.3 Let us break his bonds asunder and cast away his cords from us that we may walk at liberty and that there may be no restraint from any thing that seemeth good in our own eyes be not deceived for you are Adversaries of the Lord Christ 2. They are enemies to Christ that love that which Christ hates and hate that which Christ loves It is the property of near and bosome friends to will and nill to love and hate the same things and enemies are just upon the other hand and so it is in this case They that are in love with sin which is the thing the only thing which Christ hates are surely out of love with Christ They that love the Lord hate evil Psal 97.10 and I may say as well They that love evil hate the Lord. It 's true that such as love him may commit it but yet they have a strange antipathy against it they hate it with a perfect hatred and every false way they utterly abhor And hence it is that they endeavour to destroy it to crucifie it every day to put it to the cruellest and basest death and if they had it in their power they would shew it no mercy You would not use a Turk a Toad as such a man would use sin But when a man shall cocker it and stroke it and delight in it when he shall not endure to have it striken with the hammer or wounded with the Sword of Gods Word but shall be ready to do violence to any man that offers it a blow or gives it but an ill word the heart of such a person is not right towards Christ And even as they are enemies to Christ who love that which Christ hates so also they who hate that which Christ loves and that is holiness and grace which he cannot choose but love because it is a beam of his own light a gift of his own spirit a stamp of his own Image a part of his own fulness for of his fulness have we all received and grace for grace But you will say Who hates this I answer they that persecute and scorn and vex their brethren for their strictness and preciseness because they follow that which good is because they fear an oath because they run not out with them to the same excess of riot they are the men that hate grace For it is holiness and grace you see that is the proper object and indeed the formal reason of their hatred And they that hate their brethren for their holiness and grace which they have received from Christ by which they are conformable and like to Christ would hate him so much more then them if he should come and live among them by how much he is holier then they are And therefore let not such as say they could affect and like of such a person well enough but that he is so pure and so precise he will not do as they do pretend any love to Christ For certainly the same affections of spite and malice and reproach which they discover against such men they would with so much greater bitterness express against the Lord Christ if he were conversant upon the earth by how much he exceedeth and transcendeth them in holiness and grace 3. They that are friends to the enemies of Christ and enemies to the friends of Christ are enemies to Christ himself Be they who they will that close with those that live in enmity against Christ and help them in their opposition to his truth and to his cause and to his glory they can never love Christ No if they did
inclined to it by his inward Disposition he hath a self propensity to righteous dealing The righteous Lord loveth righteousness Psal 11.7 his very heart is set upon it as he acteth without so he affecteth it within There are many in the world that do justice who yet do not love justice They execute it out of Politick respects and reasons only or out of affectation of applause with men not out of inward inclination and affection The Judge of whom our Saviour Christ makes mention Luk. 18.2 did the poor widdow justice and yet he calls him an unjust Judge because he did not execute it out of love to justice but himself To wit that he might quit himself and rid his hands of the unwearied importunities of such a sutor as would not give him rest till he had done it Because this widow troubleth me I will avenge her not because her cause is just His aim was not to do her right but obtain his own quiet But herein God excells he doth justice and that because he loves justice He doth not execute it by compulsion and constraint or out of by-sinister ends but out of the affection that he bears it and the dear regard he hath to it And this is that which he professeth of himself Isai 16.8 I the Lord love judgement Vse 1 Is God a very just and righteous God This then may serve to quiet us and calm our troublous and tumultuous thoughts about the great disorders and confusions that we discover in the world It may preserve us from repining against God and charging him foolishly What though the wicked prosper in the world what though their eyes stand out with fatness while the people of the Lord are troubled and afflicted and distressed Will you presume to question Gods Justice Rather conclude the Lord is righteous and where you cannot fathom his proceedings cry out with the Apostle Paul O the depth and the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgements and his ways past finding out Let Davids error be your caution I was envious at the foolish when I saw the prosperous state of wicked men Psal 73.3 They are not in trouble neither are they plagued like other men But as for me I have washt my hands in vain for all the day long I have been plagued and chastned every morning It was no fair and equal dealing as it seemed to him he knew not what to make of these proceedings And where was Jeremiah when reasoning with him of his judgements as he calls it Jer. 12.1 he thus expostulateth the case Wherefore doth the way of the wicked prosper wherefore are all they happy that deal very treacherously He could conceive no reason for it and therefore takes upon him to call the Lord to coram how he could warrant his proceedings If such blasphemous thoughts assault us my Beloved let us remember that of Austin The judgements of the Lord are aliquando aperta aliquando ecculta semper justa sometimes secret sometimes open always just yea just when they are secret when with the Prophet Jeremiah we cannot see the reason of his judgements And let us have it always in our thoughts that the time is drawing on when the justice of the Lord which in this present life is cover'd and obscur'd shall be revealed and made bare-fac't to the world to wit at the great day of retribution which is therefore called in Scripture The day of Revelation of the just judgement of God which here is hid in the prosperity of the wicked and the pressures of the righteous Is God a very just and righteous God Then let it comfort and encourage Vse 2 those who are abused and injured and opprest by them who are too strong and mighty for them so that they know not which way in the world to help themselves against them Consider with your selves you who are in this condition though others do you wrong yet God will surely do you right and he will do it readily for he takes delight in it He hath prepared his Throne for judgement and he shall judge the world in righteousness saith David Psal 9.8 And what doth he infer upon it He will be a refuge to the oppressed And therefore let all those that are oppressed fly to this refuge and let the righteousness of God support them and uphold them against the wicked and unrighteous dealing that they find from men He loveth righteousness and therefore he will surely do you right he hateth iniquity and therefore he will surely punish them that do you wrong And therefore go and cry to him tell him how you are used by those that over-power you in the world and that you have no friends nor means to help your selves and so beseech him earnestly to shew himself and to appear for you say as Hezekiah did Isa 38.14 O Lord I am opprest undertake for me and be confident of this that you cannot easily put any business into the hands of God that he takes more delight to do O it is a thing that pleaseth him exceedingly he loves it dearly to do them right that suffer wrong and to avenge the wrong they suffer upon those that do it He loveth righteousness and hateth iniquity yea the less able you are to relieve and help your selves the more he loves to do you justice And therefore takes upon himself the special care of those who are most destitute of earthly succour as the fatherless and widdows and the like A Father of the fatherless and a judge of the widdows is God in his holy habitation Psal 68.5 Vse 3 Is God a very just and righteous God This then may be a motive and inducement to us to stand no longer out against him but to come in to him and become his subjects It is a great advantage to the subject and a special benefit when he that is invested with Supream authority and power will not abuse it any way to the damage of his people Our earthly Governors are very seldom so upright but they will strain their power a little now and then and it may be not a little to incroach and to intrench upon the liberty upon the property upon the rights and priviledges of the Subject But God my Brethren is a righteous God yea he is so incomparably just that though he be Omnipotent and doth what pleaseth him in heaven and earth so that none can stay his hand nor say unto him What dost thou By means of which Almightiness of his he might oppress his subjects at his own pleasure and need not fear that they will rise against him to recover and resume their right from him Yet he doth nothing else but right to them he doth not injure them or wrong them any way Yea he ruleth righteously not out of politick respects and reasons only but out of inward inclination and affection O my Beloved who would not be subject to such a King as this is
righteousness as a mighty stream that violently bears down all before it and will not be diverted from the Channel which it ought to run in As there is no respect of persons with God let there be none with you let every one receive according to his cause and according to his deeds When parties struggle in the bowels of a Nation when there are factions up as there are at this time there is a great temptation to unrighteousness in this respect one must be favourd because he is of such a party another must be rigorously dealt withall because he is of such a party though the cause of both be like It ought to be the care of Magistrates that in the execution of their Office they be not byassed that they be not drawn aside by such low considerations They must not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with the Delphian Oracle they must not speak or act in their Administrations so as to comply with any party as if they were afraid of doing that which will displease the strongest side which will not rellish well with those who may do them a displeasure No they must 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 judge for Christ and act for God and do as near as it is possible as he would do if he were in their places they must be just as he is And to encourage you to this Consider First This is the ready way to settle and establish and confirm this totering Nation when it shakes and when it is about to fall Justice upholds the pillars of it It is Columna corona Reipublicae There are at this time many things in agitation and many ways and projects thought upon to settle Government among us But when we have run through them all we shall find in the conclusion that nothing in the world will do it like to righteousness Let the form and let the frame of Government be what it will the Throne must be establisht by righteousness Especially when it is first set up Justice is as necessary to confirm a new Government as Miracles to confirm a new Doctrine And if the people find not this if there be tyranny injustice and oppression still that which made the old unpleasing will have the same effect and operation on the new Secondly This Righteousness in your Administrations will make you aimable in the sight of God as God himself is righteous so he loveth righteousness as he acteth it himself so he affecteth it in others The righteous Lord saith holy David loveth righteousness his countenance doth behold the upright Psal 11.7 Righteous he is in all his actings and administrations he is the righteous Lord so righteous and so just that there is none in that respect like him and that out of a principle of love within the righteous Lord loveth righteousness yea he affecteth it and loves it so that he gives no man a good countenance or a good look so much that is not just and righteous too his countenance doth behold the upright the upright and none else But as for those that are unrighteous he abhors them all of them without exception he hateth all workers of iniquity Psal 5.5 Thirdly As it will make you amiable in the eyes of God so you will find it to be very beneficial to your selves They are precious promises that God makes and great rewards that he gives to those that love and do Justice That is a signal one Isa 33.15 He that walketh righteously and speaks uprightly he that despiseth the gain of oppression and shaketh his hands from holding of bribes so that it any put a bribe into his hand before he be aware he shakes it out again and doth not hold it he shall dwell on high his place of defence shall be the munition of the Rocks bread shall be given him his waters shall be sure He shall have honor he shall dwell on high he shall be lifted up above his brethren He shall have sure protection his defence shall be the munition of the Rocks high that the enemy can never reach him and high upon the Rock that he cannot undermine him And as he shall have honor and protection so he shall have provision too bread shall be given him and full provision he shall have bread and water too and this shall be sure to him Bread shall be given him his waters shall be sure And as there is much promised to so there hath been much done for those who have laid out themselves in doing justice You know how Jehu sped and yet he did it in hypocrisie The Kingdom was continued in his line to the fourth generation Phineas it seems was more upright and therefore he had a reward that lasted longer Numb 25.13 He shall have and his seed after him the Covenant of an everlasting Priesthhod because he was zealous for his God to wit in executing justice on that notorious pair of foul offenders Indeed the recompence of him that doth it in sincerity shall last for ever For he shall dwell upon Gods holy Mountain he shall receive an Euge when the great day of reckoning cometh And thus far of the first conclusion God is a very just and righteous God I shall speak very little to the second because indeed it is not large however I shall touch it in a word or two DOCTRINE That Jesus Christ came to him as a righteous God and looked upon him as a righteous God when he was making his petitions to him You see it evidently and demonstratively in the Text this is the appellation that he gives him Righteous Father His thoughts it seems are taken up more with the righteousness of God then any other attribute of his at this time I shall not undertake to shew why he did so he had his reasons in his own breast and bosom Only this is probable he did it that he might be an Example and President to us that we might learn of him to do as he did That when we are approaching to the Throne of grace we might be very much possest with deep and serious contemplations of the righteousness of God Use And therefore to make a little application of the point Let us learn of Jesus Christ how to behave ovr selves when we are making our addresses to the Majesty of God and pouring out our prayers to him We are exhorted very often in the Scripture to be followers of Christ and so to walk and act as we have him for an example in all his imitable ways and actions his practice ought to be a rule to us and therefore let us labour to conform our selves to Jesus Christ in this particular when we are drawing nigh to God in prayer let our thoughts be taken up with meditation of his righteousness let them work much upon this attribute of his It will be very useful to us as I shall shew you in a few particulars 1. The meditation of the righteousness of God will humble us for sin and stir
in their own conceits none to be compared with them In which respect he dealeth with us as God with Jacob he gave him a gift but left behind him a lameness withall that accompanyed the gift So Christ bestows upon us some degrees of knowledge but leaves withal some imperfections and defects that we may be kept humble and that we may not swell with self-attributions Now to descend to Application In the first place let it have the same Use 1 effect in every one of us who find our selves inclinable to be conceited of our knowledge and to despise our fellow brethren who are not as we apprehend so far enlightned as our selves Admit that we know more of God then many others do that we can fathom deeper into those holy mysteries what reason have we to be proud You hear that they who have the Name of God savingly c. Shall that we have received lift us up and shall not that in which we are defective cast us down Have we not far greater cause to be abased in the contemplation of the one then to be exalted in the contemplation of the other Indeed if we were absolute in this respect and if as the Apostle speaks we understood all mysteries and all knowledge there were some colour then though yet no just occasion to be proud But now it is the greatest folly in the world to strout and brave it in a back half naked and half covered with borrowed feathers Well then my Brethren let us do as the Apostle did in this case Let us forget the things that are behind and look on to the things that are before us Let us consider with our selves how short we fall and how far we are to seek in main things concerning God which we are bound to know How ignorant we are how ill we have improved our time and means and if this do not take us down how justly may we perish in our pride Use 2 And as this doctrine serves to humble and abase the proud so to revive and cheer the humble Alas saith the distressed Christian how ignorant am I of God his nature and his will How little do I understand of his name Though I have been a long time in the School of Christ and have had abundant means how little have I learned what small progress have I made how far short do I fall of many others Oh the blindness of my mind the darkness of my understanding to this day I am afraid that I am none of those whom Christ teaches Why thou hast heard that they that have the Name of God declared to them have yet defects and imperfections in their knowledge So that however thou art much to seek in many things and thou art exceedingly defective in thy knowledge thou mayst be savingly enlightned notwithstanding And to uphold thy heart in this particular consider It a sign the little knowledge which thou hast is right and sound because it humbles thee and makes thee sensible of thy defects This is the nature of the saving knowledge of the name of God it is an humbling and an abasing knowledg Indeed my brethren carnal knowledge puffeth up it makes men swell and strut and swagger and so accordingly to slight their meaner brethren Like the high-minded Pharisees This people which knoweth not the Law is accursed Alas they are a company of sots to us they know nothing But saving knowledge makes man humble more humble then he was before he had it They that are endued with it thought better of themselves before Conversion before they had one glimpse of this enlightning then now they do And hence you shall observe in Scripture that they that have excelled most in knowledge have had lowest apprehensions of themselves None have complained so much of their corruption blindness ignorance as they have done Agur was an exceeding wise and knowing man yet he professeth that he had not the knowledge of a man in him He doth not say that he had not the knowledge of a Saint in him but he had not the knowledge of a man in him he was a beast in regard of understanding And holy David though eminent in this regard yet was not puffed up Psal 131.1 No he bewayls his ignorance exceedingly and saith he was in this respect as a beast before God Psal 73.22 And most remarkable is that of Job Job 42.5 6. Heretofore I heard of thee by the hearing of the ear I have had in former times a dark remote confused knowledge of thee I saw thee at a distance as it were a great way off but now I have a clearer and distincter knowledge of thee and what was the event and issue of it Now I abhor my self in dust and ashes So that if the degrees of knowledge which thou hast be they great or be they small do humble thee and make thee little in thine own eyes it is a comfortable evidence that it is sound Whatsoever thy degrees of knowledge be consider they are such as Jesus Christ in love and wisdom hath allotted to thee To every one yea to him that hath the least is given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ Ephes 4.7 as he is pleased to distribute and proportion The body mystical is ordered so that every member hath a fit share To some he gives out greater measures and degrees of knowledge the eminency of their station calls for it to thee perhaps he hath communicated less because he sees that less will be sufficient for thee From whom the whole body according to the effectual working in the measure of every part maketh encrease Ephes 4.16 Observe it well my brethren every member hath his measure The leg the arm the little finger are not all alike but all according to their measure and so there is a decent and due proportion The time is drawing on a pace when these defects and imperfections in thy knowledge under which thou groanest shall be all supplyed when the darkness of thy mind the blindness of thy understanding shall be fully done away That which is perfect is to come though it be not yet come 1 Cor. 13.10 when we shall clearly understand those mysteries which Angels pryed into but could not fathom even when we shall be ravished from our selves in sweetest contemplations of the glorious Godhead when as our Saviour tells us we shall see God and see him face to face as the Apostle speaks Now we see him in a glass but then face to face 1 Cor. 13.12 now we know God in part only then we shall know as we are known Now we see his back parts only but then we shall behold as far as finite creatures may be capable the fulness of his glory Consider that the glorious recompence which is to be dispensed in the day of retribution shall be proportioned not to our knowledge but our practice and obedience God will not have respect so much to what you know of him as to
God so it is in some respect the chiefest thing that comes from God It is a grace of the first magnitude and therefore it is placed first by the Apostle in that Catalogue of his Gal. 5.22 The fruit of the spirit is love and then joy and other graces It is an excelling gift and therefore the Apostle Paul to shew the matchless worth and the surpassing value of it admits a kind of Solaecism in his discourse and makes it better then the best of gifts 1 Cor. 12. ult Covet saith he and covet earnestly the best gifts And then immediately annexeth a discourse of love and touching that he saith I shew unto you a more excellent way Indeed it is of greater latitude then other graces it runs through every precept of the Law of God For love is the fulfilling of the Law and that no other grace is It is of greater power then other graces for it sets them all on work And hence the acts of other graces are frequently ascribed to love as 1 Cor. 13.4 c she hopeth she believeth c. It is of greater permanency then other graces then faith or hope And other graces without love are nothing as the Apostle shews at large in that Chapter 2. And as love is the chiefest thing that comes from God so it is the chiefest thing that conformeth us to God It makes us like him more then other graces do God is not said in Scripture to be faith or hope or patience but he is said in Scripture to be Love If we believe God doth not so if we hope God doth not so if we suffer quietly God doth not so Indeed he suffer not at all either by way of passion or compassion But if we love my brethren so doth God In this we do as God himself doth And therefore we may pray for this my brethren in another way then we may pray for other graces according to the pattern in my Text. We cannot pray to God Lord grant us that the faith which is in thee may be in us Lord grant us that the hope which is in thee may be in us But we may pray Lord grant us that the love which is in thee may be in us That the love wherewith thou lovest may be given down to us Vse 2 Is it so that the love which is in true believers comes from God If then we have the love of God in us let us remember whence it came and to whom the glory of it ought to be returned We can hate God of our selves but we can never love him of our selves So that if there be any spark of the love of God in us we may be confident that it was kindled at his fire And therefore let it be continually working upward upward still yea let it never leave ascending till it have joyned it self unto that infinite and endless flame from which it issued and proceeded JOHN 17.26 That the love wherewith thou hast loved me may be c. DOCTRINE 2. The Declaration of the Fathers Name to men is one especial means to work the grace of love in them IT is to this end that our Saviour makes it known as you may see expresly in my Text I have declared unto them thy Name and will declare it Why so to what end That the love wherewith thou hast loved me that very property may be in them That as it is in thee it may be wrought in them also And out of doubt the means our Saviour pitches on are useful and available to his ends Indeed men come to know the Father by the discovery of his name to them for so his name is all that makes him known to men And that which worketh knowledge of him doth mediately work love to him So that if the discovery of his name do make men know him as that is very manifest it doth make them love him too That which one affirms of Learning may be applyed to God Non habet Inimicum nisi ignorantem Whosoever knows him clearly loves him truly Indeed while we are unacquainted with him the admirable worth and beauty and excellency that is in him every way doth not take a whit upon us The Philosopher will tell us that the mind must be informed and convinced of the goodness of a thing before the heart will cleave to it or the affections close with it And hence it is that carnal and unsanctified persons love not God because they know him not Or if they know him any way it is not under such a notion as renders him desirable or lovely to them Perhaps they know him as a Judge or an avenger they cannot know him as a Saviour and Redeemer And this is the real cause why the triumphant Saints in Heaven love him more then the Saints Militant on earth because they have a fuller clearer and distincter knowledge of him We see him darkly in a glass they face to face And this is the reason also why we love not God with such a high affection here as we shall do hereafter because we know him not so well we have not such distinct and full discoveries of his name as then we shall attain to So then you see in general that the discovery of the Fathers name to men is one especial means to work the grace of love in them To clear it yet a little further to you I shall shew you particularly and distinctly that there are divers things in Gods name which being manifested and declared unto men are means to win their hearts to him and so to work love in them As The beauty of the Lord is a part of his name and beauty being manifested and discovered is a means to win love It is a great attractive of affection Now herein God excells my brethren in this respect he is incomparably out of measure lovely The greatest beauty in the world is holiness so it is often called as 1 Chron. 16.19 Psal 29.2 To shew that holiness hath beauty in it yea it is called Beauties in the plural number The beauties of holiness Psal 110.3 to intimate that holiness is full of beauty and that it over-matches all the beauties in the world if all of them were put together And therefore this is made in Scripture the greatest beauty of the creature as Sin is the deformity so Grace and Holiness is the beauty of the Soul it adorns the inner man And therefore the Apostle Peter exhorteth Christian women to adorn the hidden man of the heart with this 1 Pet. 3.4 Even with the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit which is of great price in the sight of God And hence it is that holiness is likened to the fairest things to Robes and Gems and Crowns and Gold and Jewels and the like Now God is matchless in this kind of beauty He is holiness it self yea he is infinitely holy And therefore holiness is called the Image of God The holiness that is in men is but