been among them Together with the reason which he interposes why he made this Petition for them in the world Proceed we to the second argument with which he backs it and it is taken from the place in which he was about to leave them wherein he was assured they would stand in need of special preservation from his Father And therefore he desireth him to keep them through his own Name because our Saviour for his own part was even ready to depart from them and to abandon them in such a place where they would be in danger every day and every hour as being hated and maligned upon all hands and that for the truths sake I have given them thy Word and the world hath hated them because they are not of the world even as I am not of the world So that the words have in them a discovery of the condition and estate of Christs Disciples in the world together with the causes of it First the condition and estate of Christs Disciples in the world is mentioned here although not in the first place and it is such as cannot but be grievous and uncomfortable to them For they are very ill beloved yea they are hated universally almost the world hath hated them saith Christ And then the causes of it are annexed by what means it comes to pass that they are so maligned in the world and this is not for any evill that is in them or done by them But either first because they receive the Word of God not into their knowledge only but into their practice and obedience too I have given them thy Word and the world hath hated them So that it hates them for the Word and for the Truths sake And secondly 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 because they are not of the world even as I am not of the world They like them much the worse because they are in this respect like me At this time let us look into the condition and estate of Christs Disciples in the world the world hates them The world is taken divers ways I think more differently then any other phrase almost in Scripture Sometimes we find it used for elect and sanctified sometimes for reprobate and unsanctified persons Sometimes for the elect and sanctified as you may see that place for instance Joh. 4.42 This is the Christ the Saviour of the world that is of all the chosen and elect of God not limited to Jewry only but wheresoever scattered over all the world God was in Christ saith the Apostle reconciling the world to himself 2 Cor. 5.19 Not all the world at large but all his chosen people whatsoever or wheresoever living in the world Sometimes the world is taken for reprobate and unsanctified men So that The world lies in wickedness 1 Joh. 5.19 as Austin intimateth the distinction there is mundus mundus mundus inmundus Indeed it is so differently taken that sometimes they that are hated are the world and sometimes they that hate them are the world And in this latter sense you are to understand it in my Text The world that is the reprobate and wicked of the world hath hated them saith our Saviour to his Father Theâ— whom why them whom thou hast given me as you may see if you look a little back on the foregoing verses Them whom thou hast bestowed upon me and whom I have received and entertained for my Disciples them hath the world hated So that you see DOCTRINE It is the manner of the world to hate them that are Christs Disciples They that belong to Jesus Christ are usually but ill-beloved among ungodly and unsanctified men The world is generally set against them to malign them and oppose them and do them all the spite and mischief that they can So it was in Christs time and so it will be to the worlds end And therefore it is made the Epithite of wicked men that they are such as hate the righteous you may see that place for instance Psal 34.21 They are not only angry with them but they hate them and that to the very death They desire their extirpatation and destruction that they may have no more a being no nor so much as the memorial of a being if it might be possible that their name may be no mere remembred Psal 83.4 And therefore you shall find the Saints complaining often of the hatred of the world and of the rage and malice of ungodly men against them And Christ fore-warning his Disciples what they must expect in this world You shall be hated saith our Saviour of all Nations Mat. 24.9 That seems to be very much yet in another place he goes further You shall be hated of all men you must conceive it of all worldly wicked men Mat. 10.22 I shall add no more for proof you see it is the manner of the wicked world c. But what should be the reason why they hate them so It may be you will ask as David once What hath the righteous done what evil hath he wrought what have Christs Disciples done that they are so maligned in the world Why truly my Beloved if you would know the reason of it it is not for any evil they have done that they are so railed at and that they have so much ill will on all hands there is no just and real cause of all this hatred which they suffer from the world No my Beloved as they hated Christ himself without a cause as David once complained as his Type Psal 35.19 so they hate Christs Disciples too those that belong to Christ without a cause without any just cause So that you see here is a Doctrine of which no man in the world can give you one good reason It is the manner of the wicked world to hate them that are Christs Disciples but it is without reason without any good reason However they have reasons to themselves such as they are of this hatred And I might give you many such reasons more then a good many For though there be not any reasons why they should yet there are many reasons why they do hate Christs Disciples and I might be large upon them But I shall confine my self to those which Christ hath mentioned in the Text it self The wicked world hates Christs Disciples because they entertain the Word of God because they love it and obey it and conform their lives to it and this is the account our Saviour gives his Father of the business I have given them thy Word and the world hath hated them as if he should have said for that cause I have so given them thy Word that they have entertained it as thy Word in their faith and love and practice and obedience and hence it is that they are so maligned and despitefully entreated in the world And so it is at this
condition the Lord notwithstanding will be mercifull to them But as you tender the salvation of your pretious souls I beseech you to observe that Gods own word is peremptory and express for this that none that know not God shall have any share in the mercy of God or in the glory of the world to come Oh continue thy loving kindness to them that know thee to them and none but them saith David Psal 36.10 It is a people of no understanding saith the Prophet of the Jews Isa 27.11 And what follows Therefore he that made them will have no mercy upon them It is the common apprehension of vulgar and ignorant people that he that made them will save them too No saith the Prophet if they be ignorant of God he that made them will not have mercy upon them They have not known my wayes saith God unto whom I sware in my wrath that they should never enter into my rest But you will ask me then Quest By what means shall we come to know God Truly there is but one way of coming to the knowledge of him Answ and that way is Jesus Christ No man hath seen God at any time 1 John 18. What then is he not to be seen or known at all by any means Yes though he be not to be seen or known immediately in himself yet mediately in and by the Son he may be known For he hath manifested and revealed him to us No man hath seen God at any time the only begotten Son that came out of the bosome of the Father he hath declared him Indeed it was the business for which our Saviour came into this lower world to bring God down to us that we might be acquainted with him And if ever you see or know God you must have light from Jesus Christ I am the light saith he John 8.12 He that follows me shall have the light of life And therefore if you would have this light follow Jesus Christ for it How you must follow him so as to fetch this light from him I have directed you before on the third verse of this Chapter Is it so that unbelievers and unsanctified persons know not God Vse 2 What cause have true believers then to admire and adore the special mercy of the Lord to them that they should be acquainted with him That he should give them the preferment in such a blessed and glorious priviledge as this is That now they can say to God as our Saviour in my text Oh Righteous Father the world hath not known thee but we have known thee O Lord whence is this to us how is it Lord that thou dost manifest thy self to us and not unto the world as the Disciples said John 14.22 How comes this to pass Lord Truly this is free-grace and free-mercy mercy to be admired and wondred at Oh let our souls and all that is within us bless the Lord Let us take up our Saviours words Father we thank thee that thou hast hid thy self from a world of wise and prudent men and hast revealed thy self to such babes as we are We bless thy name for this mercy And truly we have cause to bless him for this knowledge is our life keep it for it is thy life saith Solomon Prov. 4.13 and life is a pretious thing If we had still remained in the condition that the world is in we had never known God we must have died to all eternity we had been punished with eternal perdition we could never have enjoyed him who is the God of our life But now we know him so as to love him we shall be sure to live with him and that for ever Nay this is life yea life eternal in regard of the beginning such a life as is above the power of death and dissolution as our Saviour Christ assures us John 17.3 This is life eternal to know thee the only true God and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent JOHN 17.25 But I have known thee and these have known c. AND thus of what our Saviour speaks against the world Oh Righteous Father the world hath not known thee Proceed we to know what he speaks for himself and true believers But I have known thee and these have known that thou hast sent me There is no difficulty in the terms requiring any tedious explication I have known thee saith our Saviour to the Father though the world be strangers to thee yet I am very well acquainted with thee I know thee inwardly And my Disciples here have known that thou hast sent me They have been throughly perswaded that I am a messenger sent forth from thee to manifest thy nature and thy will to them which I have done accordingly I have declared to them thy name So they have known thee by my means So that the special thing to be observed here my brethren is the order in which the knowledge of the Father is dispensed First Christ the Mediator knows him he is acquainted with him in the first place I know thee saith our Saviour here And then Believers are acquainted with him by the means of Christ And these have known that thou hast sent me and I have declared unto them thy name The Observation then is this DOCTRINE That Jesus Christ and he alone knows God immediately and others know him by the means of Christ All saving knowledge of the Father comes out by Jesus Christ to his people Christ knows him first and then we know him in the second place by him No man hath seen God at any time John 1.18 What then is he not to be seen or known at all by any means Yes though he be not to be seen or known by us immediately in himself yet mediately in and by the Son he may be known for he hath manifested and revealed him to us No man hath seen God at any time The only begotten Son which is in the bosome of the Father he hath declared him Indeed it was the business for which our Saviour came into this lower world to bring God down to us that we might be acquainted with him Ye neither know me nor my Father saith our Saviour to the Jews John 8.19 If ye had known me ye should have known my Father also q. d. I would have brought you to the knowledge of my Father And as the Book in Apoc. 5.9 had still remained a sealed Book unless the Lamb had opened it so God had still remained a concealed God he had never been discovered and manifested to us in a saving way unless the Son himself had done it So that the Point is plain you see That Jesus Christ and he alone knows God immediately and others know him by the means of Christ And therefore in the first place this may serve for information to let Vse 1 us see that no man can be saved by his own innate knowledge nor by the light that is naturally in him let him use it how he will or how
not all that is so called page 211 Believers priviledges page 256 379 450 451. 479 480 561 Their sins more hainous page 257 Have many enemies and why page 360 363 458 Object of Believers faith Christ page 439 The Word God Heaven and Salvation page 440 Believers loved as Christ page 478 479 Body of Christ Natural and Mystical page 167 Bodily outward worship not to be neglected page 12 Rules and directions for it page 13 C Certainty of salvation page 80 314 315 Christ the Fathers Son and Wisdom page 5 16 Our great Prophet and Preacher ib. 339 Glorified by the Father page 32 Author of all good to the Church page 34. 72 123 124 To be glorified by us and how page 42 44 One with the Father page 48 Came not to quicken and save all men page 105 Must be known page 119 120 123 Comforts to the sons of God in Christ page 17 22 Comforts to the godly page 17 22 70 253 257 342 452 518 Against injuries of the world page 194 258 352 To the distressed page 290 291 365 524 Our Conscience and Faith not subject to men page 65 Conference page 206 Sons by Creation page 15 19 By Creation all the world is the Fathers page 98 199 Knowledge of our Creation page 119 Christ the Fathers Creature page 160 Curiosity condemned page 183 445 Sinfulness thereof page 184 D. DEath not to be prayed for page 366 c. Believers Dead to the world page 190 Comforts against Death page 89 93 387 Desire good things page 49 Dishonourers of Christ page 38 39 c. 262 Disobedient condemned page 59 70 162 164. 404 Despair not of those that are dead in sin page 103 185 255 438 Disorderly walkers page 162 163 Divine glory communicated to Christ page 173 Discovery of the Father See Manifestation Doubtful are unbelievers page 210 212 Disobedience to the word whence it proceeds page 229 Discord the causes thereof page 296 Evils and inconveniencies thereof page 467 E. WHo the Elect page 192 197 Elect cannot perish page 99 312 End of all is Gods glory page 43 154 Eternal God 129. Eternal love of God page 509 Eternal life from Christ page 86 What it is page 87 To be sought after and how page 90 Christs free gift page 90 Unbought unsought untaught page 92 93 How it consists in knowledge and begun therein page 108 Enemies outward and inward page 353 360 363 Evil. How Christ preserveth from all Evil page 371 372 c. Excellency of Christs people above others page 257 Of the Gospel above other Truths page 397 F FAith page 90 120 129 133 See Belief Father God to be apprehended under that notion page 15 21 The Father glorified by Christ page 46 Fears of failing page 88 185 God must be feared page 117 140 Fearful are unbelievers page 211 Father essentially taken page 198 Free love and mercy of God and Christ page 91 92 147 Faithfulness of Christ and his Ministers 244 246. Signs page 247 Christs word to be kept by Faith page 207 208 226 To be heard with Fear page 225 G. GIft of Christ wonderful page 98 516 517 Some given to Christ in special manner page 97 189 Outward fitting Gestures in prayers requisite page 12 13 Gifts of Christ 35. See Qualification page 412 413 Glory of Christ page 32 33 170 472 Gospel the subject of Christs words page 6 8 To be attended 90. 114. The Instrument of life page 109 398 Means to Sanctification page 389 The Truth page 396 God not slack page 30 Glorifieth Christ page 32 Only true God page 126 Godhead of the Trinity page 128 They that have made choice of God happy page 141 They must glorifie God here who will be glorified hereafter page 152 Vain expecters of future Glory page 153 How God is to be glorified here page 154 The Glory that Christ prayed for page 170 171 Christ Glorified in those that are his page 261 472 H. HAters of Christ page 512 513 Hearers how they may profit by the Word page 395 396 Hearing necessary page 392 445 Heathen people in dangerous state page 121 251 534 Heavenly conversation alliance kindred 190 191. Marks thereof page 385 Honour of God to be aimed at page 49 50 154 Honour from honouring Christ page 44 Hour of God page 28 29 30 Hope of Heaven page 174 Hinderances to obedience page 223 We must be Humble as Christ was page 162 Humiliation of Christ page 161 Hypocritical gestures in prayer page 13 Humility commended page 542 543 Holiness of God page 280 Knowledge thereof very profitable page 281 282 Holiness to be laboured for page 435 I. IDols not to be served 136. Causes of Ignorance page 531 533 Ignorance an impediment to life page 109 Ignorant persons sad condition 113 444 inexcusable page 182 533 534 For the Instruction of others page 115 122 Incarnation of Christ page 178 Impatient are unbelievers page 209 210 Intercession of Christ page 250 252 253 267 340 352 438 Judging and censuring others unlawful page 65. 248 Judgements sent not so much for the destruction of enemies as preservation of friends page 77 How to Judge of true Ministers page 248 249 411 412 Imperfections of the Saints page 296 374 441 541 Joy Christ the Author and Original page 338 None to those that are out of Christ page 341 Means and matter of Joy page 343 348 Marks of spiritual Joy page 350 False Joy page 351 Justification page 442 Justice commended page 526 Justice and righteousness of God page 519 520 to be meditated page 528 A comfort to the righteous page 523 524 K. CHrist Keepeth those that are given him page 201 Word of Christ how Kept in the memory heart page 204 Power of God Keepeth those that belong to Christ page 285 How they are Kept and why page 286 287 312 313 Knowledge to be laboured for page 90 108 109 to 114 The beginning of eternal life page 108 109 Knowledge of God and Christ too necessary page 116 536 537 Knowledge of the Father without the knowledge of Christ is but vain and insufficient page 117 118 The most perfect Knowledge here imperfect page 541 543 L. LAnguage suitable for Christians page 193 385 Law none free from it page 60 Believers under the binding power of the Law page 61 62 How given to the righteous page 63 Law-giver none but Christ page 64 Life from Christ page 82 Life of Sanctification and Justication page 83 Christ our Lord by Creation Redemption Covenant page 19 Life not be valued 89 93 a mercy page 367 Come to Christ for Life page 93 Love towards God how to get and increase it page 460 461 552 553 Love of God and Christ to be admired 20. See Admire Love unto the Word 213. Marks thereof page 214 216 Loveliness of Christ page 515 516 Lusts of our own or others not to be obeyed page 139 Where Love is there is Christ page 558 559 Misery of those that have no
any man pluck them out of my hands Iohn 10.27 28. And this I do this Eternal life I give them by teaching and instructing them and making them to hear my voyce as who should say by working knowledge in them My sheep hear my voyce and by this means I give unto them Eternal life And this Expression in my Text looks much the same way As thou hast given him power ever all flesh that he should give Eternal life to as many as thou hast given him And this is life Eternal to know thee the true God and so on This is the way to give them life Eternal by making them to know thee And this I have begun to do already as he addeth afterwards I have made known thy Name that is thy Nature and thy Attributes to the men which thou hast given me So that this life Eternal here is not or not so much that which is perfect and Consummate in the Heavens as that which is begun in this world and which the Saints are made partakers of while they are here for even here they have Eternal life abiding in them And this this inchoate Eternal life consists especially in saving knowledge This is Eternal life this is it in the beginning to know thee the only true God and Iesus Christ whom thou hast sent So that the Point to be observed is this DOCTRINE That Life Eternal or the life of Grace which is Eternal is begun in holy Knowledge Christ gives Eternal life to us at least in the beginning of it when as the Prophet of his Church he teaches us and causes us to know his Father and himself When he makes known his Fathers Name and his own Name to us he causes us to pass from death to life In him was life saith the Evangelist 1 John 4. and the life was the light of men This Life communicated to the sons of men was the Light of saving knowledge which he made to shine into them He gave them life in that he gave them light and knowledge who were before in darkness and so by Consequence in the shadow of death as the Scripture phrase is And hence saith the Apostle Awake and rise up from the dead and Christ shall give thee Light Eph. 5.14 Indeed as long as we are ignorant and in the dark we are all dead men we know not what the life of God means And therefore the Apostle speaking of the Gentiles saith That they were strangers from the life of God They live the life of men indeed but they were strangers from the life of God the life of Grace by reason of the Ignorance and blindness that was in them Eph. 4 18. The Grace of God is now made manifest by the appearing of our Saviour Jesus Christ saith the Apostle 2 Tim. 1.10 who hath abolished death But how hath he done this by bringing life and Immortality to light as it is added in the next words by bringing life and â—â—â—ortality The latter as I take it is the Explication of the former q. d. by bringing such a Life as is immortal as is above the power of Death as the life of Grace is By bringing this to men by shining on them with the bright and glorious light and lustre of the Gospel I might be very copious here but this may satisfie to clear the Point That life Eternal c. And this appeareth further divers wayes It will appear that life Eternal or the life of Grace which is Eternal is begun in holy knowledge if we consider what it is that is the great Impediment of Life and what it is that holds men and detains men in a state of Death It is apparently their want of knowledge the ignorance and errour that is in them How came sin and with it death into the world but by cozenage and deceit The woman being deceived was in the transgression as the Apostle Paul speaks 1 Tim. 2.14 She fell into it by a meer cheat And how are men continued in this state of sin and death They are corrupt according to deceitful lusts Eph. 4 22. Look as their lusts deceive them more or less so are they more or less corrupt And therefore they that sit in darkness are said to fit in the shadow of death And which way then shall life Eternal be begun in men but by dispelling this darkness by the light of holy Knowledge and by translating men out of the power of darkness as the Expression is Col. 1.14 Out of ignorance and darkness which hath such a power upon them to hold them under sin and death and to keep them still in a condition of estrangement from the life of God as the Apostle Paul insinuates in the cited place Eph. 4.18 If it be ignorance that keeps men from the life of Grace then surely it is holy Knowledge that begins it and that brings men to it It will appear that the life Eternal or the life of Grace which is Eternal is begun in holy Knowledge if you consider who it is that is the principal Efficient of it and the way which he works it The Principal Efficient of this Life is Jesus Christ and therefore he is called our Life very often in the Scripture And he is said to give it in the words which I have finished that he should give Eternal life And which way doth he give it to his people but by working knowledge in them And therefore it is added in my Text This is Eternal life this is the life which he gives to know thee the true God Indeed he gives it to us as a Prophet he purchases and gets it for us I acknowledge as a Priest by his Invaluable satisfaction But he begets and works it in us by his effectual Teaching and instruction as a Prophet And therefore he is said to speak in life to his people Iohn 6.63 The words that I speak unto you they are Life To shew us that he quickens us in a way of Information for to what End doth speaking tend but to make us understand Thou hast the words of eternal life saith Peter to our Saviour Christ Iohn 6.68 That is the words that work life and which way can they work it but by conveying knowledge to the mind of him that hears them So that you see that Jesus Christ is the Efficient Cause of the life of Grace in his people by teaching them by working saving knowledge in them by turning them from darkness to light He gets it for them as a Priest He gives it to them as a King He works it in them as a Prophet It will appear that life Eternal is begun in holy Knowledge Because the Instrumental means of Life is the means of knowledge to Yea it is the means of Life in that it is the means of Knowledge The Instrumental means of Life you know my Brethren is the Gospel And therefore it is called the word of Life Phil. 2.16 holding forth the word of Life that
salvation of a soul that it be chosen unless withal it be delivered up to Jesus Christ and made a real living member of his body And therefore God Electeth every soul in Christ he chooseth it in him as the Apostle speaks Eph. 1.4 That is he looks on it in Christ in the instant of Election designeth it in time to be a part of Christ And so accordingly when the appointed season comes he brings this Chosen one of his to Christ and gives it him yea puts it into him There take it to thy self saith he mine it hath been from everlasting by election and now I make it thine by actual union and incorporation I have done my part for it and now do thou do thine I have chosen it do thou save it This shall suffice for clearing of the observation I shall but add a word or two of application And is it so that all the people of the Lord Christ were first of all belonging Vse 1 to the Father then surely he will keep them for the Fathers sake Before he let them go he will consider with himself of whom he had them Brethren you may be confident that Jesus Christ will never lose his people but that he will be infinitely chary and extreamly tender of them because he had them of his Father How do we esteem a Ring a piece of Plate or some thing else that was our Fathers If any one desire it of us if he offer money for it no will such a person say I will not take an hundred times the value for it it was my Fathers and I will not part with it And do you think my Brethren that Jesus Christ doth not love his Father as well as we love ours And therefore when the Devil or the world do go about to get away his people from him when they bid fair for them when they pluck hard at them No saith our Saviour it is in vain I had these people these precious Jewels of my Father and therefore you may spare your labour His they were and he gave them to me and I will surely keep them for his sake that gave them me yea he gave them to me to this end that I should keep them So Christ himself acknowledges John 6.39 This is the Fathers will that of all which he hath given me I should lose nothing His Father gave them to him bequeathed them to him by his will And this was upon the Will that he should not lose them too O what a ground of confidence is here that Christ will keep us though we be apt to fall away though the Devil and the world pluck violently at us we may depend upon it they shall not get us out of Christs hands We were his Fathers and he gave us him by Will and that with this Condition that he should not lose us And therefore let us rest upon it he will be carefull of his Fathers Will and he will keep us for his Fathers sake And thus far of the first particular whereof our Saviour minds his Father by way of preparation to the prayer which he makes for his Apostles and Disciples that which he had done for them I have manifested thy name to the men which thou gavest me out of the world thine they were and thou gavest them to me The second follows now in order to be handled that which they themselves had done in reference to God the Father they have kept thy word And here you may take notice with me of these two things which shew themselves to any one that doth but look upon the words First the act of these Apostles and Disciples of our Saviour they have kept And then the object of this act of theirs the thing which he affirmeth they have kept the word of God They have kept thy word And this our Saviour mentions as he doth the rest by way of preparation to his prayer for them to shew what cause there was why they should be remembred in his prayers what did induce him to pray and to be confident that he should speed with God in prayer for them because they had been faithfull and obedient They had kept the word of God and therefore they shall have his word to God in prayer for them he makes no doubt they shall have a word from God by way of mercifull return and gracious answer to his prayer There is the inward and essential and there is the outward and declaratory word of God The inward word the word God The outward word the word of God or the word which comes from God Though not immediately from God to us yet mediately by his Prophets and Apostles and Jesus Christ himself as he was man whom he made his Scribes and Heralds and Embassadors and Mouth God spake in times past to the Fathers by the Prophets Heb. 1.1 he spake by the mouth of the holy Prophets Luke 1.10 The Prophecy came not in old time by the will of man but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost 2 Pet. 1.21 And so for the New Testament the Apostle tell us that in these last dayes God hath spoken to us by his Son Heb. 1.2 and that which God speaks is Gods word Now it is called the word of God in my Text and elsewhere often because it manifesteth and makes known the mind and will of God For as the word of man discovers to us what the man means what he conceiveth in his mind and heart within which else we were by no means able to imagine so the word of God my brethren shews us the heart and mind of God as far as he is pleased to express it and to make it known to us it shewes us what his will and pleasure is What he will have us to do and what he means to do with us And this word the Apostles and Disciples kept that is the term our Saviour uses in my text He made it known to them he shewed them what his Fathers mind and will was and they kept it I have manifested thy name unto the men which thou gavest me out of the world and they have kept thy word What is intended by that phrase of keeping shall be fully opened when I come to explication of the point in the mean time the observation shall be this DOCTRINE They whom the Father gives to Jesus Christ do keep his word You see it is the Character he gives of those that are bestowed upon him by his Father Thine they were and thou hast given them to me and they have kept thy word And after to the same effect they have received thy word It is usually set down as the property of those who belong to Jesus Christ that they keep his sayings John 14.23 if a man love me saith our Saviour there he will keep my words and his words and the Fathers words are all one And hence there is a blessing poured out on such Luke 11.28 Blessed
hearts must be carryed out in dear affection to it If this be wanting all the rest is worth nothing You may perish notwithstanding as pesons that are out of Christ and be damned in hell for ever unless you come to love the Word of God as you may see in that remarkable Example 2 Thes 2.10 They received not the love of the Truth saith the Apostle there and what follows that they might be saved No salvation unless the Word the Truth of God be kept in the affections by the loving it And therefore it is added presently for this cause God shall send them strong delusions that they might all be damned Oh then as you desire to have this sweet assurance in your souls that you belong to Jesus Christ and that you shall be saved by him examine whether you have kept the Word of God in this respect or no whether you have it dear in your affections And that you may the better try your selves in this regard I shall give you some discoveries If you love the Word of God you will desire on all occasions to converse with it Desire of union and communion is alwaies an effect and evidence of true affection You shall observe it in the Prophet David who was unparalleled in this respect for infinite affection to the Word of God It is a wonder to consider how his heart was set upon it And hence it was that when he was kept off from the enjoyment of the Word he had such vehement and enflamed desires to be partaker of it He panted and he gasped after it even as the Hart panteth after the water-brooks Oh when shall I appear before God Psal 42.2 when shall I be partaker of his Word and of his Ordinances once again when will it once be So in another place My soul longeth yea even fainteth for the Courts of the Lord where Ordinances were dispensed My heart and my flesh cryes out for the living God Psal 84.2 So that he envies the very Sparrows and the Swallows who were freer then himself to be near that place Yea his longing was so great that he was even heart-broken with it Psal 119.20 My soul breaketh for the longing that it hath to thy judgements at all times And have you such affections and such anhelations in you Let us examine it a little in these two particulars 1. Do you hear the Word of God as often as you may not only now and then when you have nothing else to do and when you have no other business to withdraw you but constantly on all occasions do you attend upon it as your main and chief business do you for the love you bear it neglect and set aside and under-value other things this is the Wisemans admonition Prov. 23.23 Buy the Truth and sell it not Sell it not for a little profit in the field or in the shop but rather buy it and redeem it with your loss of outward things Do you conceive that David of whose high affections you have heard would neglect any opportunity for being made partaker of the Word of God Oh how did he bewail the want of it How would he have struggled for it How eagerly would he have taken it with any outward disadvantage And this is that which Christ commendeth Mary for not for a work of supererogation as doing more then she was bound to do but for a regular account and estimation of the Word setting aside her houshold business that she might be partaker of it Luk. 10.42 Not only they that will not hear the Word of God at all but they that hear it seldom that suffer every worldly business to withdraw them from it will be found not to have loved it and esteemed it as they ought to do How shall we escape saith Paul Heb. 2.3 if we neglect so geeat salvation 2. Do you exercise your selves as in the hearing so in the reading and in the meditation of it Do you converse with the Word of God in private Doth it dwell with you in your houses as the Apostles phrase is Col. 3.16 For this you must know my Brethren that though you should be ordinary hearers of the best Ministry beneath Heaven yet you must not rest in that but you must exercise your selves in reading of the Word of God in private It was the Lords Commandement to the King himself that though he might plead want of leisure more then many others and though he had the ordinary help of the Levites Priests and Prophets more then others as David had both Gad and Nathan yet he must have his Bible still and must be constant in the reading of it as you may see Deut. 47.49 And it was that which cheered and supported Job in his affliction Job 23.12 that he could say uprightly in the presence of the Lord I have esteemed the Word of his mouth more then my necessary and appointed food More duly then he kept his meals he tyed himself to read and meditate in Gods-Word Among the Jews under Antiochus it was made capital for any man to have the Book of God by him And in Queen Maries days you know the danger was not less and then how did they prize a little piece of Holy Writ how did they value a few Chapters of the Bible If a poor a man could get a leaf or two how safely would he keep them in his bosom next his heart as the most pretious things he had How would he wear them out with reading in them God hath dealt more gratiously with us there is now no danger to have a Bible and therefore if we be not constant in the reading and the meditation of it we shew not such affection to it as we ought to do That is the first thing then if you love the Word of God you will desire on all occasions to converse with it both in publique and in private 2. If you love the Word of God you will endeavour to be inwardly acquainted with it we converse with many men with whom we are not intimate And so there are abundance that hear and read the Word of God and yet know little of the meaning of it But if you love it as you ought to do you will not satisfie your selves with this that you read so many Chapters in a day that you attend on every Sermon that is preached unless you find that you do in a measure understand the mind of God and the mind of Jesus Christ in those things If I affect a man exceedingly I shall endeavour what I can to get within him as we use to say not to know his face and to hear his words only but to be inwardly acquainted with his disposition and the purpose of his heart And so if you affect the Word you will strive to get into the bosom of it You will not be contented with a formal superficial knowledge of the letter of it but you will dive into the very bowels of the
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
particular dependance of one of them upon the other If you consider them and look upon them in a joynt dependance upon that which goes before So they are both of them the fruit and the effect of the faithfulness of Christ He was exact in the delivery of his message to a word as he declares himself in the fore-going parcel of the verse which we have even now dispatched and the event was this That both his Message and himself were very well received and entertained among his hearers So that here I might lay down this observation DOCTRINE The faithfulness of the Messenger of God in the discharge and execution of his Office is of very great avail and efficacy to commend his Message and himself unto the people I shall but only touch at this because though it be a truth yet it is not a proper and a seasonable truth to be insisted on in this Assembly You see the issue of it in our Saviour here the chief Messenger of God he was absolutely faithful in the trust that was reposed in him by his Father and this was that which came of it and followed it among his hearers Their good reception of 〈◊〉 message they received his words Their good perswasion of himself the Messenger they knew for certain that be came from God And where did ever any Messenger of Christ that was faithful in his place miss altogether of success and good esteem among the people It 's true some will dislike him and oppose him and hate him for his faithfulness as Ahab did Micaiah But the wisest and the best will value him and love him and respect him for it There is a special blessing of the Lord on the fidelity of his Embassadors which is the cause and reason that they seldom fail of doing some good and of finding some fruit and of having some regard from those whom they are sent to And there is something in their faithfulness it self when it comes once to be observed by the people to gain their hearts and to win their good affections and submission to themselves and to their preaching When they are once perswaded and convinced that their Minister is faithful this hath a mighty operation on them if they be not very stupid and prophane to make them hear him and respect him and obey him So that to give you but a word of Application Vse this points us with the finger to the true and real cause why many that pretend themselves at least to be the Messengers of God and the Messengers of Christ do find no better entertainment with the people Their persons are despised their Ministry is slighted themselves and their words are not regarded What 's the reason the people find they are unfaithful and hence it is that they have no opinion of them no regard at all to them And therefore they that would be well esteemed among their hearers that would have their Ministry find some success and fruit and efficacy in them must shew all good fidelity in the discharge and execution of their Office But you will ask me How may this be done and wherein doth this consist I will shew you in a word and pass on to another point of Observation The Messenger of Jesus Christ if he will be well received and well-approved must shew his faithfulness especially two wayes 1. In an active way he must shew his faithfulness in two respects First in a right delivery of his Message as he receives it from his Master and secondly in a delivery of it too for a right end that is for his Masters end and not his own 1. He must shew it in a right delivery of his Message just as he receives it from his Master He must not alter it or change it in the least degree to make it suit with the genius of the times or the pleasure of Superiors or the corruption of the people For if they once perceive that he will scrue the word to any interest and make it to comply with any humor though they may like it well enough whose humors and corruptions he complies with yet they will never like him nor think the better of him but the worse No they will look upon him as a man of no fidelity of no conscience and so accordingly will suspect and undervalue any thing that he delivers Whereas if he deliver what he hath received without fear without favour and will not vary in the least degree to comply with any man they must take it as it comes they will say of him as Ahab of Micaiah 1 King 22.8 I hate him for he prophesies against me still but yet he is a Prophet of the Lord he crosses me and meets with me continually but yet I must confess he is an honest and a faithful man 2. As he must shew his faithfulness in a right and just delivery of his Message so in the second place in a delivery of it too for right ends conceive it for his Masters ends and not his own To advance Christs glory to build up Christs Church to save the souls of Christs people If we would be well received and entertained our hearers must have no occasion to distrust that that which we deliver though for the matter of it right and sound is to satisfie our own passion or to promote our own ends First not to satisfie our own passions They must not think that our seeming heat and zeal is for our selves and not for Christ and this we must be very wary of in the great differences that are on foot at this time Corruption will be apt enough if there were nothing else to make us sharp and bitter against those and their opinions who are it may be violent against us and if they apprehend us so we shall never do them good and therefore we should strive to carry matters so that we may satisfie them and convince them that we speak nothing out of spleen against them And to this end it would be prudence to forbear loose flings and bitter girds at them We must in no wise betray any truth of Jesus Christ by our neglecting to appear and shew our selves for it who ever set themselves against it But we should rather do it in a way of reason and solid conviction then in a way of passion and bitter opposition and in this way undoubtedly we shall do Christ and it most service Secondly our hearers must have no occasion to distrust that that which we deliver aimeth at our own respects That we seek our selves in it our own honour by vain ostentation of wisdom and eloquence and secular learning Our own advantage by insinuation and pleasing and flattery so making merchandize of those that hear us as the Apostles phrase is we must be able to appeal for this as the Apostle did 1 Thes 2.3 Our exhortation was not of deceit or guile but as we were allowed of God to be put in trust with the Gospel so
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
will be angry with them all If he come in and find his family together by the ears he will be in a rage too Manasseh against Ephraim and Ephraim against Manasseh and both of them against Judah and all these you must know my Brethren were within the verge and compass of the Church There were rents and breaches there they were divided into parties they were up one against another And what follows For all this his anger is not turned away but his hand is stretched out still Isa 9.21 And is not this our case Are not the members of the body mystical of Christ divided into factions that struggle one against another like the twins in Rebecca's womb that bite and even devour one another And this I make no question is one cause among the rest why the wrath of the Lord is not turned away Our wrath is not turned away and therefore his wrath is not turned way neither Our hands are stretched out one against another still and therefore his hand is stretched out against us all We are not yet appeased one towards another and therefore he is not appeased towards us We are making and continuing breaches still among our selves and God is making and continuing breaches still among us He deals with us just as we deal with one another With the froward saith the Psalmist thou wilt shew thy self froward Psal 18.25 We are unjustly froward to our Brethren and he is justly froward towards us As we have done so God hath requited us Because that Edom hath dealt against the house of Judah saith the Lord by taking vengeance I will take vengeance upon Edom Ezek. 25.12 Edom and Judah you must know my Brethren came out of the same loyns And truly till we cease from taking our revenge as we have opportunitie upon our Brethren God will not cease from taking vengeance upon us It is of great concernment to the preservation of Christs Disciples that they be at neerest unity among themselves It is one special means to enable them to stand and to hold out against their common enemies both without them and within them It is an easie thing to break them and destroy them one by one but if they be united and bound up together as the Rods which the Roman gave his sons upon his death-bed they will not be so quickly broken they will find that their union is their strength and preservation If they stand fast in one spirit with one mind striving together for the faith of the Gospel they need to be in nothing terrified by their Adversaries as the Apostle shews Phil. 1.27 Indeed they will be terrible and dreadful to them When Gods Jerusalem is as a City that is compacted within it self when she is at unity then she is terrible as an Army of Banners Cant. 6.4 It 's true indeed that Christs Disciples as they have the best friends so they have the worst enemies But let them be as many and as mighty as they will if they could but hold together and if they were resolved as Joab and his brother Abishai If they be too strong for thee I will come and help thee and if they be too strong for me thou shalt come and help me If either of us be distressed the other shall come in with all his succour If thy corruptions or temptations or afflictions be too strong for thee I will come and help thee with my Councels with my Comforts with my Prayers and thou shalt deal accordingly with me If it were thus among the Saints they would be impregnable against all the Oppositions that Earth or Hell could make against them They are built up to a spiritual house and if they were cemented well together no storms would overthrow them That is worth our observation which Ferus writes of the Primitive Saints They were wont saith he to meet together very often and there to lay open their several temptations their means of resistance their gracious success and happy deliverance And so to councel and to comfort and to encourage and confirm and strengthen one another As for my own part I take very much comfort in the great unity that is to be observed among Gods people here in this place and in the frequent meetings which they have together It is a joyfull thing to see their love in the truth and I am confident they get much strength by it while others who reserve themselves refrain communion each with other withhold their Counsels Comforts Prayers are very weak by this means and easie to be overcome And therefore one observeth very well upon this prayer of our Saviour in my text that his Disciples are preserved and kept by unity Holy Father keep them through thy own name and to this end let them be one as we are As if the only way to keep them and preserve them were to make them one among themselves It is of great concernment to the furtherance of the Gospel that Christs Disciples c. The work of Jesus Christ is not to be carried on with much knocking As in the building of the old material Temple there were no Axes no Hammers nor any other Tool heard 1 Kings 6.7 so in the building of the Church of Christ and carrying on the business of the Gospel the less stir the less noise the more progress If there were not such knocking as we have heard too much of late this Church-work would go on the faster and come the sooner to perfection In the building of Babel you know there was a confusion c. so the work was wholly hindred and laid by Gen. 11.7 The workmen understood not one anothers language and so were forced to desist from that business And truly there is a confusion hapned in another sort of building in this land the building not of Babel but of Sion which is a very great impediment to that work The workmen understand not one another and by this means the time which should be spent in laying is spent in knocking of the stones and timber in making and upholding parties and in maintaining endless controversies and disputes which tend to strife and variance and not a whit to edification The Axe and Hammer is in use but the Trowell is laid by And verily my brethren while it so continues the work of Christ will never go forward Religion will not thrive among us as it should till all that appertain to Christ come to a nearer unity a more firm accord among themselves And therefore it is very notable that when our Saviour Christ ascended and meant to propagate the Gospel to amplifie and to enlarge the Church He gave some Apostles and so on for the perfecting of the Saints and for the edifying of the body of Christ till we all come in the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God unto a perfect man c. Mark my beloved when we come to unity then the work goes on amain then
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
day As long as men make no account and reckoning of the Word as long as they profess it only but are not very zealous for it nor very careful to walk in every thing exactly by it they may live pretty quiet with their neighbors But if they come once to contend and that with earnestness for every truth that is contained in the Word if they will not in any case by any means depart in any thing from that Rule the world will be about their ears upon a sodain and shew a great deal of malignity and rage against them But why should this exasperate the world against them you will ask me I cannot tell you why it should but I will tell you why it doth For by this means they cross the world and they condemn and shame the world And this is that which sets the world so much against them By this means they cross the world and this they are not able to endure it makes their very hearts to rise against them And they cross them three ways they cross them in their judgements and they cross them in their wills and they cross them in their lives and conversations 1. First by this means they cross them in their judgements and opinions Till men receive the Word of God they can in every thing conform their judgements and opinions to the world They can think as they do and they can speak as they do they can agree and hold with them in every point and so they walk on lovingly together there grows no difference or debate between them But when they come to entertain the Word to be their rule in every thing both in opinion and in conversation now they are forced to differ from the world to clash with them in many things to contradict and oppose them and gain-say them And this breeds disaffection and dislike yea enmity and hatred against them Nay they are forced sometimes if they will keep exactly to the Word of God to cross the world in those opinions which they are most intent upon and for which they are most eager and this they can by no means bear from them As they that entertained Christ to be the Son of God and the Saviour of the world when he was conversant upon the Earth and in the times that followed next after his Incarnation Passion and Ascension they did exceedingly enrage the world against them The generality of men would not endure to heat of Christ or the Religion that embraced and worshipped him and therefore whosoever undertook to own him and profess him was sure to meet with all the violence and rage and malice that the world could pour upon him He might have crost the world in many other truths and not have found so ill measure but this drew out their rage and malice to the utmost And this is that as I conceive which our Saviour Christ aims particularly at in my text I have given them thy Word thy Gospel Word of that he speaks and they have entertained it and embraced it and therefore the world hates them And if you look into the stories of the Church you shall observe that whosoever closed with the Gospel in those early times and professed the faith of Christ from which the world was so exceedingly averse he was exposed thereby to all the misery that humane cruelty c. could devise to inflict But after when this Gospel-Truth came to be better setled and digested in the world so that they were content to hear of Christ and his Religion with a little patience then there rose up other things in which they would not be gain-said As to leap down to Luther time who ever stuck to him and to the doctrine which he taught against the Pope and his adherents got the world about his ears And so in every age there are some passages of holy Scripture and the truths delivered in them against which the world is violently bent and whosoever sticks to these the world hates him out of measure and doth him all the mischief that it can And therefore this is called the Word of Gods patience Apoc. 3.10 Thou hast kept the Word of my patience that is thou hast not only kept my Word in general but more particularly thou hast kept those portions of my Word and those parcels of my Truth which must have patience to the keeping of them A man may keep some Truths delivered in the Word without patience as being universally received by all opposed by none But there are others which if a man maintain and hold them he shall surely suffer he shall be persecuted for them And he that keeps these notwithstanding keeps the Word of Gods patience The patience which God works in his people 2. They that embrace the Word of God as they cross the wicked world in their opinions so they cross them in their wills They cannot do in every thing as the wicked world would have them they cannot yeild to every thing which they obtrude and force upon them and this is another reason why they are so exasperated and enraged against them Were it not for the Word of God to which they are resolved to yield obedience they might comply in every thing and so the world and they might be very good freinds But when the Word forbiddeth what the world requireth that most vehemently too perhaps they are forced to cross the world and and so the Word brings the world and them out These men say they are so precise and holy that they must have Scripture for every thing they say or do they will do nothing but what they have a warrant for out of the Word of God But we will make them stoop and yield and we will make them turn another leaf ere we have done and when they cannot have their wills because the other cannot bend or vary from the Word of God when they are crost in that which they are so resolved upon this heats the furnace of their wrath seven times hotter then ordinary and this the Prophet David found Psal 119.161 Princes have persecuted me without a cause but my heart standeth in awe of thy Word Either he must have them against him or the Word of God against him They threatned him if he obeyed the Word the Word upon the other side that threatned if he disobeyed it Whom did he fear most why saith the Psalmist My heart standeth in awe of thy Word I fear it more then I fear them And this was that which got him much hatred and bitter persecution too as you may see in that place 3. They that receive the Word of God as they cross the wicked world in their opinions and their wills so in their conversations too they do not live and walk as they do their ways are of another fashion and this is another reason why the world is so malitiously bent against them Were it not for the Word of God and the rules that it
too In that the Father sends the Son to save his people by his merit and his Spirit The Son sends his Ministers to save them by the application of his merit and his Spirit to them in the preaching of the Gospel The Father sends the Son to save them by dying for them the Son sends his Ministers to save them by preaching to them and so by crucifying Christ again before their eyes as Gal. 3.1 The Father sends his Son to save his people meritoriously and by way of effectual operation The Son sends his Ministers to save them Ministerially and by way of vocal Declaration so that Christ only is the proper Saviour and Ministers at most are but the Instrumental Saviours of his people Vse 1 Now is it so my Brethren That there is a great similitude between the Fathers sending c. Here then my Brethren is a perfect pattern for all the Minsters of Jesus Christ they must look on him that sent them and see what power he was endued withal what errand he was sent on and for what ends and so act accordingly As God invested him with power and sent him into the world to preach the Gospel and to save his people So Jesus Christ hath invested them with power to do the same thing for the same end So that they must not aim at the destruction and the hardning of the people No they must make this their business how they may bring about their conversion and salvation It 's true they must be sons of Thunder now and then as well as sons of Consolation they must preach the Law sometimes as well as the sweet comforts of the Gospel they must threaten men sometimes with wrath and hell and eternal condemnation But then they must not do it so as wishing that these things might come upon them but rather that they might avoid them They must threaten them with wrath that they may flee from the wrath to come and threaten with hell that they may escape the damnation of hell they must preach the Law with Gospel purposes and Evangelical intentions they must send out the avenger of blood to dog them at the heels that they may fly to the City of refuge They must use sharpness now and then it cannot be avoided But it must be for the same end that the Apostle speaks of 2 Cor. 13.10 where having minded the Corinthians that in case he must use sharpness according to the power the Lord had given him he had authority from Christ to do it but mark in the succeeding words to what end for edification and not for destruction according to the power the Lord hath given me for edification and not for destruction And therefore it is very notable that when our Saviour Christ had said to his Disciples All power is given to me both in heaven and in earth and having put a part of that power and authority of his on his Apostles having sent them as his Father sent him he doth not say to them as God doth to the Prophet Jer. 1.10 I have set you over the Nations and over the Kingdoms to root out and to destroy but I have sent you to the Nations to teach them and to baptize them that they may be saved He doth not make them rooters but planters he doth not bid them to go out and preach damnation to the people in the first place but go and preach the Gospel to them that they may be saved And the Apostle speaking of the execution of this Commission and authority in the Administration of the censures of the Church saith he would give a foul offendor up to Satan for no other end but this even for his good and his salvation 1 Cor. 5.34 I have already judged saith he concerning him that hath so done this deed with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ to deliver him to Satan for the destruction of the flesh the carnal part that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord So that when we threaten judgement when we retain the sins of men when we give them up to Satan either in preaching or in Church-censure our aim is that their corruption may be mortified and that their spirits may be saved by this means And all the Ministers of Christ ought to have this continually in their eye how they may reach this great end they must remember that Jesus Christ hath sent them as God the Father sent him and that was not to condemn the world but that the world by him might be saved And thus of the First Argument with which our Saviour presseth and enforceth his Petition to his Father in behalf of his Apostles for Sanctification which hath been taken from the business and imployment that he is setting them about viz the very same in some respect which he himself hath hitherto sustained and undergone by the appointment of the Father Sanctifie them with thy Truth thy Word is Truth Why might the Father answer why so Cause enough saith Jesus Christ for as thou hast sent me into the world even so have I also sent them into the world and therefore thou hadst need to sanctifie them that so they may be fitted and enabled for such a service as this is JOHN 17.19 And for their sakes I sanctifie my self that they also might be sanctified through the truth PRoceed we to the Second Argument with which he backs the same Petition and it is taken from the end for which he sanctified himself And for their sakes I sanctifie my self that they also might be sanctified through the truth q. d. It was the very end at which I aimed in sanctifying of my self that they might be sanctified it was my scope and drift in that business and therefore I beseech thee Father let me not be disappointed of my purpose let not this great design of mine be frustrated but do thou sanctifie them with the truth because I sanctified my self for their sakes with this intent that they might also be sanctified through the truth Two things we have apparently presented to us in the words what our Saviour did and why he did it First what our Saviour did He sanctified himself Secondly then why he did it and this is in the first place generally exprest that it was for their sakes for his Apostles and Disciples sakes that he sanctified himself And then it is particularly and expresly specified in what regard it was for their sakes that they might also be sanctified through the truth The difficulty of the text lies especially in this how Christ is said to sanctifie himself and what he means by that expression for their sakes I sanctifie my self To sanctifie is properly to make holy now a person or a thing is made holy especially two wayes viz. by qualification when holiness and grace is put into it when a man is made partaker of the saving gifts and graces of the holy spirit then he is said in Scripture to
neither do believe nor shall believe Now all the question is which of these three sorts of people our Saviour Christ denoteth by the world in this place There is no colour to conceive that the world should here be taken for believers for such as did then believe when Christ spake these words the very next word that he adds doth evidently cross and dash that That the world may believe that thou hast sent me So then the world in this place apparently importeth unbelievers But whether such as beleived not for the present but should believe in after times Or such as neither did believe nor should believe Whether elected unbelievers or reprobated unbelievers will need a little briefly to be enquired and resolved Some of no small authority conceive that by the world is meant elected unbelievers such as did not then believe but should believe in after times conceive it with a saving and a justifying faith and that the rather for Christs Disciples unity among themselves And hence he prays That they may all be one as thou Father c. that the world may believe that thou sent me But if our Saviour had intended justifying faith in these words in probability he would have said that the world may believe in me They are but poor believers that come no further then barely to assent to this that Jesus Christ is sent of God the Father a reprobate may do this Besides which carries me exceedingly me thinks the world is here apparently opposed to such as did believe and should believe with a justifying faith Our Saviour mentions it as opposite to both these In the first place you know he prays for such as did believe when he made this prayer and then for such as should believe in after times Neither pray I for these only but for them also that shall believe on me that they may all be one c. That the world who neither do believe nor shall believe with a justifying faith may yet by this means be so far convinced as historically to assent to this That thou hast sent me q. d. This is that which I desire that they who shall in after times believe by my Apostles word may by their unity so far convince and work upon the world that never shall believe as that they may be brought to this at least to acknowledge that thou hast sent me For so believing here is nothing else but knowing or acknowledging and therefore in the 23. verse that word is used I in them and thou in me that they may be made perfect in one that the world may know that thou hast sent me You see the meaning of the words The point to be observed is this DOCTRINE The unity of Christs Disciples is one especial means to cause the world to have the better thoughts and apprehensions of their Master Though this will not convert the world and bring them to be true believers yet this will very much convince the world and make them look with a better eye on Christ and on the Doctrine of the Gospel when they that teach it and profess it harmoniously agree among themselves And hence is this Petition of our Saviour here that they may all be one c. that so the world although it be an enemy to me yet seeing the consent and love and unity of my Disciples of them that own me and profess me may be even forced to acknowledge and confess that I am sent of God that my Doctrine is of God and that I am not as the world is apt to think a seducer and impostor q.d. If my Disciples be not one among themselves if they be rent asunder by a spirit of division the world will never yield that I came forth from thee who art the God of love and peace That thou hast sent me down to be a Mediator and a Peace-maker to make up all the breaches and the differences between thee and thy people They will look strangely upon me and they will never be perswaded to acknowledge that I am come on such an Errand as this is And therefore I beseech thee Father that I may be entertained under the notion of a Mediator and that I may be looked upon as sent by thee do thou take care that my Disciples be at unity among themselves Now here I shall a little more distinctly shew you that the unity of Christs Disciples in Doctrine and Opinion and in Affection and in Conversation is one especial means to cause the world to have the better thoughts of Christ himself The unity of Christs Disciples in Doctrine and Opinion is one especial means c. If they maintain and hold the same things if they teach the same things they will the sooner gain the approbation and assent of those that are without But if they wrangle and contend this will make them more averse from Jesus Christ from the Gospel And truly no one thing almost hath kept men more aloof from Christ and the Doctrine of Salvation in and by through him then the perpetual hot and endless controversies and Disputes that have been among the Teachers of the Gospel Nay if they be not able to agree among themselves say they that are without even let them all alone we will carry till they do And therefore the Apostles still were very circumspect to manifest agreement and consent among themselves in that which they delivered to the people because they knew of how great consequence it was to further the success efficacy of their Doctrine It is observable that Paul joyns one or two together with himself in his Epistle sometimes Sylvanus sometimes Sylvanus and Timotheus who were not inspired men as it is probably conceived and so could not add a whit to the divine authority of his Epistle But yet he shews how they accorded all together for the better satisfaction of the people So the Apostles and the Elders and the Brethren go joyntly all together in the Resolutions of the Synod at Jerusalem Acts 15.23 that their decrees might find the readier entertainment among those to whom they sent them And though it be a certain and confessed truth that the agreement and consent of teachers neither doth nor can work saving faith in any The word it self my brethren as it is the Object so it is the instrumentall cause of faith yet it may prepare the heart and work it up to better thoughts and apprehensions both of Christ and of the Gospel The unity of Christs Disciples in affection and in conversation is one especial means c. If they live in unity and love and sweet accord together they that are Aliens to religion strangers to Jesus Christ and to his Gospel will think the better of them for their sakes But if they be continually brawling and opposing one another this keeps others off from Christ If he be owned and followed by none but by a company of wrangling quarrelsome contentious people they will
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