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
have a day to live And thus far of the end of the authority of Jesus Christ for which he is invested with it by his Father considered in the lump and in the gross Proceed we now to take it into parts It is in general as you have heard that he may be enabled to dispence to his people that which is for their everlasting welfare and salvation that he may give eternal life to as many as God hath given him Particularly we have here to be considered First the thing it self to be dispenced by vertue of this power and this authority of Jesus Christ and that is life yea life eternal Secondly the manner or the way of dispensation it is to be dispenced as a gift in the nature of a gift in a way of free donation that he should give eternal life Thirdly the objects of this dispensation or the persons to whom this life here mentioned is to be dispenced and that is not to all men but to as many as the Father hath bestowed on Jesus Christ As thou hast given him power over all flesh that he should give eternal life to as many as thou hast given him Begin we with the thing it self to be dispenced by vertue of this power and this authority of Jesus Christ And here let us take notice of the nature of it and of the adjunct of it First of the nature of it it is life Then of the adjunct of it it is life eternal As for the first of these my Brethren you must know that naturally and originally we are all dead men We are all dead born we came into the world my Brethren in a state of death and condemnation And in this sad condition we continue of our selves we are not able to put life into our selves No we can no more raise our selves to the life of grace then a dead man can raise himself to the life of nature And therefore God because he would have such a number quickened as he hath resolved upon hath given power to Jesus Christ to this end and to this purpose that he may give life to those who of themselves are utterly void of it and no way able to attain it And that his mercy may be full he hath appointed him to give them such a life as is uncapable of dissolution The life that Adam in the state of innocency enjoyed the life of righteousness and the life of holiness you know was perishable in it self and so accordingly was left of God His state in this condition was mutable and accordingly he fell from it from a state of grace and life to a state of sin and death But now God hath invested Jesus Christ with power to give his people such a life as shall be durable as shall in this respect transcend the life that Adam had even in the state of innocency it self that he may give eternal life to as many as God hath given him The points to be observed are two First They that are Christs have life from Christ and secondly The life which they have from him is eternal DOCTRINE They that are Christs have life from Christ He giveth life to as many as God hath given him The life which they enjoy they have from him they have it not originally in themselves he is the author and the fountain of it And therefore he is said to be a quickning Spirit 1 Cor. 15.45 because he quickneth and enliveneth all his members And he is called our life very often in the Scripture I am the way the truth and the life saith our Saviour of himself John 14.6 When Christ who is our life saith the Apostle shall appear then shall we appear with him in glory Col. 3.4 When Christ who is our life that is the author the efficient of our life And hence saith the Evangelist he that hath the Son hath life 1 John 5.20 This may serve to prove the point They that are Christs have life from Christ Now to open it a little before we come to application there is a two-fold life which all Christs people have from Christ according to the two-fold death which they are under out of Christ For as there is a two-fold death in sin The death in sin with relation to the raign and dominion of it the death in sin with relation to the guilt and obligation of it to damnation So on the other side there is a two-fold life of grace opposed to these the life of grace inherent and the life of grace imputed The life of holiness and the life of righteousness The life of Sanctification and the life of Justification And both of these they that are Christs receive from him he gives his people both these First Christs people have from him the life of holiness or the life of Sanctification which is opposed to the dominion and the raign of sin before they are revived by him they are under this dominion and so in that respect are dead as the Apostle Paul intimates to the Romans Rom. 6.12 ye are alive to God saith he through Jesus Christ our Lord. And what doth he infer upon it Let not sin raign in your mortal bodies by which he intimates expresly that while sin raigns in any man so that he voluntarily resigns and yields himself up to the rule and the dominion of it as Subjects to their Soveraign and annointed Prince he is not alive to God he is indeed a dead man he hath no life of holiness or grace in him But when the raign of sin is once abolished and dissolved within him so that he doth no longer willingly obey it in the lusts thereof but yieldeth up himself to God then he is alive to God then he lives the life of God the life of holiness and grace And this life he hath from Christ And therefore it is added presently ye are alive to God through Jesus Christ our Lord And of this life it is that the Apostle speaks Gal. 2.20 and makes Christ the Fountain of it I live saith he that is I live the life of grace and yet not I but Christ liveth in me and this life which I live I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved c. Secondly Christs people have from him the life of righteousness or the life of Justification which stands in opposition to the death in sin with relation to the guilt While the guilt of sin remains upon a man so long that person is a dead man so long he is dead in Law as we express it commonly he is bound over to eternal death and condemnation And thus it is with every man while he continues in the state of nature He is condemned to die and so in that respect is dead in the sentence of the Law although the sentence be not executed on him as our Saviour speaks John 3.18 He that believes not is condemned already But when a man is justified absolved and acquitted from the guilt
of all his sins he is no longer dead in Law but as a Malefactor that is pardoned his life is given him as we use to say And therefore it is stiled in Scripture the justification of life because it brings life to the person justified viz. that life that is opposed to condemnation the sentence or the doom of death For of that speaks the Apostle Rom. 5.18 the free gift came upon all to justification of life And this is made the gift of Christ and he is said to be the author and the fountain of this life in that place As by the offence of one that is of Adam judgement came upon all men to condemnation so by the righteousness of one that is of Christ the second Adam the free gift came upon all to justification of life Now is it so my Brethren that they that are Christs have life from Use 1 Christ here then examine in the first place whether you be Christs or no. If you belong to him I mean by real calling and incorporation you have received life from him You hear he hath received power from God the Father to this very end that he may give eternal life to as many as God hath given him And out of question he is not unfaithful in the administration of this power and the discharge of this trust Well then if you be his he hath given you this life he hath quickened you and raised you with himself you are partakers of his resurrection And therefore I beseech you search a little whether it be thus with you or no. It is a thing which may be known in some degree if you be diligent for the Apostle knew that the Ephesians and the Romans were alive that they were quickned from the death of sin And this he did by outward evidence and by the signs of life which he observed in them And we may much more know our own Condition and estate in this respect if we be not very wanting to our selves And therefore prove your selves my brethren whether you have the life of Christ in you and you may do it by these symptoms following First if you have received life from Christ you are strangely altered men some little alteration there may be in some respects and yet a man may scarcely note it or observe it in himself But when so great a change as this shall pass upon him it is impossible almost but he should feel it There be many alterations that may happen to a man in the passage of his life as custom and experience make a change and honour and preferment make a change a great change in some men especially in weak spirits and age and time and place and many other things do make a change But this infusion of the life of Christ into a person that was dead before is the greatest change of all It makes a man a new creature and that in all respects too which is a very great matter Old things are done away all things are become new 2 Cor. 5.17 He hath new thoughts and new affections new pleasures and delights studies desires ends purposes companions and acquaintance So that he is not now the same man that he was before When his old lusts his old temptations his old companions and acquaintance come to call upon him and think to find him as they did in former times he may answer them and say You are deceived for I am altered I am another man another creature I am not in the temper nor of the disposition that I was before Secondly If you have received life from Christ you have within you sharp desires after the food by which this life is nourished and preserved The word of God my brethren is the milk that feeds it which every child of God delights to suck 1 Pet. 2.2 And have you quick and stirring appetites to this milk do you as new born babes desire it do you thirst and long for it do you hunger after it so that you cannot be content without it is it pleasing to your palate delicious to your taste to feed upon it is an evidence of life But if there be no stomack to this kind of food if you be well content without it if you be never hungry if you find no taste at all in the good word of God but say of this as Israel of the Manna once Our souls loaths this light bread there is no weight no substance in it it is a sign you have not yet this light of Christ in you Thirdly If you have received life from Christ you are moved you are acted by the principles of that life Every kind of life my brethren hath principles agreeable to it inclining it to turn to that which suites with it and on the other side to turn from that which is destructive and contrary to it So hath the vegetative life the life of plants so hath the sensitive the life of beasts so hath the reasonable life the life of men and so hath the life of Christ the life of Saints Now this life of Christ my brethren hath principles exceedingly above the principles of any of those other sorts of life And so accordingly they that have this life from Christ do live by higher principles I will not say then those of plants or those of beasts but then those of men too those who are meerly men and no more who are not holy sanctified men Some men there are you know who live like beasts who melt away in sensual and voluptuous pleasures and delights who eat and drink and sleep and lust and satisfie their lusts and there is all And therefore they are said in Scripture to be brutish because the brute part in them over-powers the rational because they live and walk by brutish principles by the principles of beasts They do just as beasts do and many of them worse too as if they were to have the same end that beasts have And some of late have vented such doctrine as if the souls of men did perish with their bodies as the souls of beasts do Others there are who live like men indeed but it is like meer men as the Apostle speaks of the Corinthians 1 Cor. 3.3 Are ye not carnal and walk as men They live at best no higher then the principles of reason carry them and that is but a litt e way They bring them at the very utmost no further then the young man which our Saviour speaks of to be not far from the Kingdom of heaven or not so far as many others are but they can never bring them home But they that have received life from Christ my brethren live by nobler and diviner principles then these are such as are full of light and beauty such as carry on the soul to supernatural and spiritual things for the attaining and enjoying of the highest good They know what it is to live above the principles of beasts above the principles of men
they live by principles of faith of spirituall men which are far more above the principles of reason then the principles of reason are above the principles of sense Fourthly if you have received life from Christ you live to Christ and therefore it is called the life of Christ because as it comes from Christ so on the other side it tends to Christ from whom it comes It causes us to live no longer to our selves but to him that died for us that is to Christ as the Apostle speaks 2 Cor. 5.15 All other men who have not this life in them live to themselves and not to Christ they have no higher end then self in all their actions They make themselves their pleasures or their profits or their honours the scope and center of their motions Yea in the very holy and religious duties they perform they look no further then their own ends And so in the performance of them they are but servants to their own Lusts But now they that have life from Christ they live no longer to themselves no they have nobler aims in all their wayes and while unsanctified men who live the life of nature only do make themselves their end even in their holy and religious duties the Saints who live the life of Christ do make the Lord their end even in their ordinary and their Common actions In every thing his glory is continually in their eye even in their worldly and their secular employments while in these they do not seek their own things but the things that are of Jesus Christ Use 2 Is it so that they that are Christs have life from Christ that the life which they enjoy they have from him if then you find upon examination that you have received this life from Christ the life of righteousness and the life of holiness consider with your selves what thanks you should return to him Ah my beloved what cause have we to magnifie and to admire the grace of Christ that he should give us this life That he should raise us from our graves of sin having loosed the powers of death that we might not beholden of them We think that we can never be sufficiently thankfull to one that hath saved our lives and rescued us out of the jaws of death Now Jesus Christ who is our life hath done this for us we were condemned persons we were dead in Law and he by virtue of the power and the authority with which he is invested by his father hath given us our lives he hath sealed a pardon to us So that now we may walk abroad at large and need not fear that the sentence of the Law the doom of death will be executed on us Ah my beloved what shall we return to Christ how shall we melt our souls into sufficient celebrations of his goodness to us We were dead but are alive we were lost but are found Oh let us say as Hezekiah did The living the living they shall praise thee as we do this day And let us do as the Apostle did Rom. 7.25 who having in the former verse cryed out Oh wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from this body of death had presently suggested to his thoughts that Christ had done it and then cries out in a way of gratulation as he had done before in a way of lamentation I thank my God through Jesus Christ our Lord. John 17.2 That he should give eternal life DOCTRINE The life which Jesus Christ bestows upon his people is eternal SO it is stiled in my text you see that he should give eternal life to as many as God hath given him Such is the life which Christ gives it is a Lasting and enduring life a life that is above the power of death that is uncapable of dissolution The life of nature as you know and see my brethren is a perishable life It is obnoxious to decay it may be cut off in the twinkling of an eye and we are gone But now this life of Christ the life of grace is the beginning of the life of glory and therefore is an endless life as the Apostles phrase is Heb. 7.16 And as the seed by which this life is generated in a man is incorruptible seed as you may see 1 Pet. 1.23 even so the life it self which is generated by it is incorruptible too It may be said of every Saint who hath received life from Christ and who is raised by him from the death of sin as it is said of Christ himself Rom. 6.9 Being raised from the dead he dies no more death hath no more dominion over him He hath eternal life abiding in him as our Saviour speaks John 6.54 He doth not say that he shall have it but that he hath it in him even in this present world a Life that is eternal and that is abiding in him So that the point is plain you see The life which Jesus Christ bestows upon his people is eternal To cleer it yet a little further to you my beloved no life can end in death or come to dissolution and destruction but one of these two ways viz. either by some inward principles of frailty in it self or else by some outward force that overcomes it and prevails against it If it be destroyed by death it must be either by a natural or a violent death Now the life of Jesus Christ which he bestows upon his people is utterly uncapable of dissolution either way and consequently is an everlasting life as I shall shew you briefly and in order First the life which Jesus Christ bestows upon his people hath no principles of frailty and dissolution in it self it hath no seeds of mortality in it It comes from Christ not only as the giver of it but also from him as the fountain of it with him is the fountain of Life as the Prophet David speaks Psal 33.9 And the Rivulets and streams are alwayes of the self same nature with the fountain And consequently if the life that is in Christ be lasting and enduring as it is the life that is from Christ is so too If it be not perishable in the spring assuredly it is not perishable in the stream This life of grace my brethren is communicated and derived from Christ the root to us the branches from him the head to us the members and if it fail not in the head and in the root how should it fail in the members and the Branches Indeed my brethren if the life of grace were radically and originally in our selves and from our selves it must have principles of dissolution in it For what that is in us and comes from us can be eternal in its own nature But our life is in Christ and comes from Christ it is hid with Christ in God as the Apostle Paul speaks Col. 3.4 and therefore certainly it is in this respect like him from whom it comes We stand not now upon our own bottoms as Adam did it
As a gift and not a purchase or if a purchase as his purchase not their own It is our Saviours own expression with reference to his people John 10.28 I give unto them eternal life and they shall never perish neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand And therefore it is called a Gift and Christ is made the next and the immediate Donor and Dispencer of it Rom. 6.23 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. And the Antithesis between this latter and the former parcell of the verse is very much to be observed as being pertinent to our purpose The wages of sin is death but the gift of God is eternal life As if in other words our Apostle should have said It s true indeed Death is the Consequent of sin and life Eternal is the Consequent of holiness and of obedience But mark it well not upon the same terms Death follows sin as the deserved stipend and the wages of it A man earneth death by sin as a work-man earns his wages by his labour But life Eternal doth not follow holiness in such a way it is not merited by our obedience as death is by our disobedience and therefore this is a gratuity a gift though that be wages The wages of sin is death but the gift of God is eternal life And in another place our last translation speaketh it a free gift Rom. 5.18 The free gift came upon all men all that are Christs members or upon all men universally if you respect the tender of it the free gift came upon all men to justification of life With which accordeth that which goes immediately before they which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall ragn in life by one and that is Christ I shall close up the proofs with our Saviours proclamation Apoc. 21.6 I am Alpha and Omega the beginning and the end and I will give to him that is athirst of the fountain of the water of life freely if any be athirst if he have vehement and strong desires he shall have life and he shall have it from the fountain I will bestow it on him and I will do it freely too I will give him of the water of life freely So that the point is plain you see That Jesus Christ doth freely give Eternal life Now that you may the better see the freeness of this gift of his and that it is bestowed upon his people without the least desert of theirs I shall lay it open to you in a few particulars Jesus Christ must needs be free in giving life to his members because on their parts it is first unbought and secondly unsought nay thirdly unthought They do not purchase it or buy it of him nay nor so much as seek it or desire it of him nay nor so much as think of having such a mercy from him And therefore it must needs be absolutely free in all respects it must come from him as a free gift First Jesus Christ must needs be free in giving life to his people because it is by them unbought Life is not their purchase and therefore it is his gift True it is bought by Christ for us but it is not bought of Christ by us For let us seriously consider with our selves What could we give or do to procure this life from Christ We are not able to redeem our natural life which yet is in comparison of no value nor pay a ransom to the Lord for it It is too great a price for us to pay and therefore it must cease for ever as the Psalmist speaks And how much less then are we able to redeem our spiritual life which is infinitely precious when we are under the Condemnatory sentence of the Law when we are dead in trespasses and sin both with relation to the raign and to the guilt when we are subject every moment to be cast into the lake that burns with fire and brimstone which is the second death what can we give now to obtain our pardon we cannot purchase it and therfore certainly we have it freely Indeed Christ buyes a pardon for us because we cannot buy it for our selves He gives his blood and life for us that he may give life to us And therefore he is called our life to shew that he is all in all in that business And when we first receive his quickning grace we are described to be in such a case that there is nothing upon our parts to procure it as you may see Ezek. 16.5 6. Cast out into the open fields to the loathing of our persons polluted in our own blood and weltering in our own gore And then yea then he gives life to us It is repeated twice in that place as a remarkable choice thing that we may take especial notice of it I said unto thee when thou wast in thy blood live yea I said unto thee when thou wast in thy blood live As if he should have thus expressed himself Observe it well I gave thee life at such a time when there was nothing in thee to deserve it at my hands when one would even have loathed to touch thee or to meedle with thee when thou hadst nothing else but blood and gore to give me then did I breath this life into thee So that you see Christ freely gives this life to his people in this respect that it is by them unbought And as it is by them unbought so it is by them unsought As they do not purchase it and buy it of him so neither do they seek it or desire it of him As they do not pay for it so neither do they pray for it We count a thing is very free if we have it for the asking If it be but ask and have it s a very cheap bargain The life of Christ is yet more free then this comes to to all his members he gives it them before they ask it He is found in this respect of them that seek him not and ask not for him as the Prophet speaks Isa 65.1 It is the disposition of us all by nature we will not come to Christ that we may have life from him as he himself complaineth John 5.40 and therefore he is fain to draw us Did Lazarus when he lay dead and stinking in his grave address himself to Christ beseeching him to raise him up No more do any that are dead in sin No Christ is fain to seek them out to come to the grave himself and there to call them to come forth and to put life into them that they may answer that call he is forced to do all Did the lost sheep seek the Shepherd Did the lost groat seek the Owner When Adam being falen had brought himself into a state of death and condemnation did he seek God or did God seek him Did he call God or did God call him You see the offer was
me And having gotten us he seems to glory in us and to be so tender of us as if we were some rich purchase as if we were of very great use to him as you may see in this Chapter all along Sometimes he shows the Father what a high esteem he hath of those whom he hath given him how carefully he teacheth them and showeth them all his Fathers name how tenderly he keeps them how dearly he affects them and how his heart is set upon them Sometimes he beggs his Father for them to preserve them to sanctifie them to make the world know that he loveth them even as he loveth Jesus Christ himself to make them one among themselves and one with him to bring them to the same place where Christ is as if he could not live in Heaven without them Ah my beloved did we follow on this mercy as far as we could reach it in our thoughts we should at length finding no end or bottom in it cry out as the Apostle Oh the depth of the riches c. Are there a certain company of men whom God the Father gives to Jesus Vse 2 Christ then surely they that have the happiness to be of this selected company are in a very good case It is impossible that they should perish and that upon a double ground For First If God the Father give them to his Son Christ you may be sure that Christ will have them the gift of God the Father shall not be in vain to him he will not lose his end in this business If he give them to his Son he will see his Son shall have them If he bestow them upon Christ to be his members he will see they shall in his appointed time be joyned to him and nothing in the world shall keep them off from him It may be many of them who belong to Christ in the eternal Counsel and decree of God are yet without but God will surely bring them in in his season Let them be as averse from Christ and from his wayes as it is possible for men to be let them stand never so far off the Father who hath given them to Christ will certainly take care that they shall come in to him or else his gift were nothing worth And this is that which Christ himself takes notice of Iohn 6.37 all that the Father giveth to me shall come to me Let them be never so unwilling of themselves by nature let them be never so entangled in the snare of Sathan so mightily withheld by him yet however they shall come But what if Christ should not receive them when they come then they may perish notwithstanding Yes if the Father give them and cause them thereupon to come Christ will certainly receive them All that the Father giveth me shall come to me And what follows And him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out Secondly If God the Father give them to his Son Christ as you may be confident that Christ will have them so may you depend upon it that he will keep them when he hath them What do you think that Christ will lose that which his Father gives him That he will not be chary of us for his sake that bestowed us on him We would not lose the gift of a friend especially if he be dear to us and much less would we lose a Fathers gift we would keep such a thing with all care especially if he bestow it on us with this Condition that we keep it for his sake If he tells us that his will and pleasure is we should not lose it we will be very wary how we part with it Now God hath given us to Christ on these terms as he himself acknowledges Iohn 6.39 This is the Fathers will saith he That of all which he hath given me I should lose nothing And he came down into this Lower world to do the will of him that sent him as he professeth very often and therefore certainly he will be carefull of this special charge of his he will observe it very strictly He will be infinitely wary that he lose not any of his Fathers things which he hath given him to keep So that if we be given to the Lord Christ however of our selves we are apt to fall away we may resolve that he will have us and keep as unto life eternal DOCTRINE That Jesus Christ as Mediator hath power to give eternal life to such and all such as are bestowed upon him by his Father but he hath no power at all to give this life to any other The point holds forth both the extent and limitation of the authority of Jesus Christ in this respect The former is expresly mentioned the latter is apparently insinuated in my text First you have here expresly mentioned the extent of the authority of Jesus Christ as Mediator of the Church It is that he may give Eternal life to as many as God hath given him Be they as many as they will be they more or be they less he hath power to quicken them to raise them from the death of sin to the life of grace and glory This he can do de facto as he is God and this he may do de jure as he is God and man as he is Mediator to as many as are bestowed upon him by his Father And then we have apparently suggested too the limitation of the authority of Jesus Christ in this respect For when it is affirmed here that Christ hath power to give Eternal life to as many as God hath given him it is implyed that he can give it to no more There are the bounds of his authority the restraint of his Commission So far it reaches and no further I shall endeavour to evince and clear them both in order First Jesus Christ as Mediator hath power to give eternal life to such to all such as are bestowed upon him by his Father He hath received commission from his Father to forgive their sins and heal their natures and to become the Prince of Life to them by giving them the life of Justification and the life of Sanctification and the life of Glorification He came into the world for this end as you may see Joh. 10.10 I am come that they might have life They Who why his sheep as he explains it both before and after I am the door of the sheep I am come that they may have life and at the 27th verse My sheep hear my voice and I give unto them Eternal life But how comes Christ by these sheep Why by his Fathers own gift And therefore it is added in the very next words My Father which gave them me is greater then all So that it is as if our Saviour Christ had said I am come down into the world to give life to the sheep my Father hath bestowed upon me To all them and no others The Father loves the Son saith John the Baptist
is the Gospel the Ministry of life 2 Cor. 3.7 in opposition to the Law which is the Ministry of death and condemnation And which way doth the Gospel work life but by instilling knowledge into men by making them to understand that which they never knew before that they are naturally dead in trespasses and sins that they are in a state of death and condemnation that there is life enough in Jesus Christ that he is ready to dispense and give it out to all that come to him for it And so convincing them that it is necessary for them to go to him that they may have Life Till they come to know this there is no life of Grace in them And it is by Gospel-Teaching that this life is infused into them It will appear unto you that the life of Grace is begun in holy Knowledge if you consider with what part the Lord begins when he puts this Life into us He begins not with the members he begins not with the will but he begins with the mind and understanding by Illuminating that and by endewing that with saving knowledge And therefore we are said to be transformed or to be changed from the state or life of nature to the state or life of Grace by the renewing of the mind Rom. 12.2 No doubt the will and members are renewed too for the change is universal But there the work begins my Brethren in the mind and understanding we are renewed first in the spirit of the mind Eph. 4.23 and from that it goes on to the inferiour faculties and to the outward conversation And consequently it begins in knowledge of which the mind is capable which is the proper object of it And therefore saith our Saviour sanctifie them with thy Truth Renew them make them holy work the life of Grace in them by revealing Truth to them It is apparent that the life of Grace begins in Knowledge because all other grace is brought into the soul by it and therefore this must be the first Grace The first I mean in order and in course of nature not of time As long as there is no knowledge there is no grace at all and so no Life in such a person But when knowledge once comes in I speak of sanctified Knowledge it brings all saving Grace with it This is the prime work of Grace and the Foundation of the rest The New man is renewed in Knowledge Col. 3.10 why so it is in Faith and Love and other graces But it is first renewed in knowledge there is the rise the original of all And even as in the first the old Creation the Lord began with natural Light Gen 1.3 so in the second or the New Creation he begins with spiritual Light with super-natural and saving Knowledge and gives us other graces by this means To which effect is the Apostles prayer 2 Pet. 1.2 3. Grace be multiplyed upon you through the knowledge of God and after more expresly to our purpose As he hath given us all things that pertain to life and godliness through the knowledge of him So that we have this Life the life of holiness and grace through knowledge without it we have no Grace but with it all Grace It is the seed from whence all other graces grow it is the means by which they are begotten in the soul Holy Knowledge will bring forth heavenly Affections and desires If a man know God and know Christ his will shall close with him and his affections shall be carried out to him it will effectually restrain a man from sin and reform the Conversation They shall not hurt neither destroy in all my holy Mountain saith the Lord Isa 11.9 And why so for the earth shall be full of the Knowledge of the Lord. If you have been taught by him as the Truth is in Jesus why then you will put off the old man It will draw a man to practice and obedience if it be sound and saving Knowledge as holy David intimates in that request of his Psalm 119.34 Give me understanding saith he And what then why I shall keep thy Law yea I shall observe it with my whole heart So that you see all holiness and Grace is brought into the soul by Knowledge and therefore certainly the life of Grace begins in it Use 1 Now is it so that life Eternal or the life of Grace which is Eternal is begun in holy Knowledge This then may serve to teach us in the first place how to value Knowledge and what account and estimate to put upon it Why truly as we value life yea everlasting Life so we ought to value Knowledge at the very same rate For this is life Eternal to know the only true God and Jesus Christ whom he hath sent We all of us do make a very great account even of our temporary Lives which yet when all is done must perish and decay and come ro nothing we are ready to Redeem them if there be no other way with the loss of all things else Though yet even then when all is done we know we can enjoy them but a few years and are not certain to enjoy them one hour How is it then that we despise and undervalue holy Knowledge in which Eternal life consists which if we can attain we have Eternal life abiding in us a life which is above the power of death and dissolution Alas how miserably is it slighted by the greater part of men yea by the greater part of Christians Christians I mean in name and in profession Though it be offered them they will not take it but say in effect to God Depart from us for we will not have the knowledge of thy wayes When light is tendered them they even shut their eyes against it that they may not see So that it may be said of such as God complains of some in Israel their eyes have they closed lest they should see with their eyes and understand with their hearts and be converted and be healed And the Apostle Peters charge must needs fall home upon them they are wilfully ignorant They enjoy the means of Knowledge but they will not wait upon them they take no care at all to profit by them They need not to ascend up into heaven to bring Christ down from above nor to descend into the deep to bring up Christ again from the dead as the Apostle speaks Rom. 10.6 that they may be acquainted with him the word is nigh them as it is added there in that place The Word that manifesteth and revealeth God and Christ is nigh to them They need not to go far to hear it and to hear of God in it But many will not spend an hour they will not step without their doors to meet with God and to be acquainted with him as if the Knowledge of the Lord were worth nothing as if it were of no value Ah my Beloved do you know what it is that you despise and
his spirits when he was about to faint why yet saith he I shall not dye but live for all this as near as I am brought yea I shall live to glory and triumph in Gods works in that which he shall do for me to live in dangerous times and to get through them though but with an escape is mercy But to get through them with a conquest is far greater mercy To live in troubles though in the end they overcome us is an honor But to live in them so as in the end to overcome them to be as the Apostle was in deaths often and yet to live and to triumph this is happiness indeed Consider in the worst of times and in the midst of greatest troubles you may be serviceable to the Church of Christ Perhaps more serviceable then in better times because the Church may need you more This caused Paul who else had certainly desired dissolution to pitch upon continuance in the body For me saith he to die is gain it is best to be dissolved and to be with Christ But to abide in the flesh is more needful for you Phil. 1.24 And therefore that I shall resolve upon as David once I shall prefer the Church before my own joy yea before my chief joy And as you may be serviceable to the Church in the midst of greatest troubles so you may be instrumental to the glory of the Lord perhaps more instrumental then in better times It was the weakness of Eliah that God must take away his life when by his own confession there was none almost to stand up and appear for God and for his Truth against the great corruptions in those times but he only Then should he have desired to have lived when God had greatest need of him It 's true that death in such a case would be a benefit and ease to us yea but our life would be a glory to the Lord and this we should desire before the other This world is the proper place where we bring glory to the Lord in the world that is to come we are glorified by him Oh let us be so ingenuous to desire to be a while where we may bring God glory rather then where we may have glory from him Let us not be so eager for our wages for our rest till we have finished our work and served our generations and when we have done so then God will glorifie us with himself for ever And thus far of the first part of our Saviours Explication in which he tells his Father plainly and expresly what he doth not pray for I pray not that thou shouldst take them out of the world The second follows now in order to be handled in which he tells him what he doth pray for But that thou shouldst keep them from the evil There is no difficulty in the terms requiring any tedious Explication Some dispute indeed there is about the meaning of the word Evil from which our Saviour prays his Father to keep those that belong to him There want not some Expositors who understand this Evil here to be the world it self which indeed is very evill which lies in wickedness as the Apostle speaks 1 Joh. 5.19 As if our Saviour should have said I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world but that thou shouldst keep them from the world which is evil in it self and which will surely draw them into evil too by her temptations and her sugred baits unless thou keep a watchful eye upon them and take them into thy tuition Others take evil in the ordinary notion of it and so it comprehendeth and involveth in it all sin and all affliction according to the known distinction of it into the evil of fault and the evil of pain whereof the latter is the fruit and issue of the former So that our Saviour in their apprehension prays his Father that he would keep his Apostles and Disciples from all the evil in the world For all may be reduced to these two heads Not that he would remove them from it but that he would preserve them from the evill in it Others conceive the Evil mentioned in my Text to be the Devil For he is often called the evil one in Scripture as you may see that place for instance 1 Joh. 5.18 Beza is very resolute for this interpretation For 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as he conceives is rather taken for a person then a thing And besides the Article saith he which is adjoyned puts the matter out of question That thou wouldst keep them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is from the wicked one And so we find the same expression used by the Apostle 1 Joh. 2.13 I write unto you young men because you have overcome 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the wicked one that is the Devil As for my own part I see no reason to reject this or either of the other Expositions but to take our Saviours prayer in the largest and most comprehensive sense which will be most for the support and comfort of the Church And so accordingly the Observation shall be this DOCTRINE God can and will preserve those that belong to Jesus Christ from all evil as long as they remain in this world Whether the evil be the evil of corruption or the evil of affliction the evil of sin or the evil of punishment Whether the evil be the world as some conceive or the Devil as others think God can and will preserve those that belong to Jesus Christ from all these in such a sense as I shall open to you by and by Both these are manifest in this Petition of our Saviours here I pray saith he that thou wouldst keep them from the evil From what evil none is excepted and therefore out of doubt he means from all evil He prays that God would so preserve them that nothing that is really and truly evil not in it self and in its nature only but to them nothing that is so to them might come upon them And seeing Jesus Christ desires it of his Father it is very evident that he is able so to keep them or else it were a vain Prayer and it is as manifest that he will keep them so or else it were a fruitless and an ineffectual prayer God can and will preserve those that belong to Jesus Christ from all evil For clearing of the observation I shall shew you particularly and distinctly that God can and will preserve them from the evil of temptation and from the evil of corruption and from the evil of affliction And if he keep from these he keeps from all from the world and Devil too though neither of them be expresly mentioned for if the world or Devil hurt us it must be either by temptation or affliction God can and will preserve those that belong to Jesus Christ from the evil of temptation Whether you understand it of the temptation of the world or the temptation of the Devil
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
true believers which strips them only of the life which stands in union of the body and the soul together and not of that which stands in union of them both to Christ is stiled a rest a sleep in Scripture not a death They only die indeed which go down quick to hell as the prophet David speaks who are cast into the lake of fire and brimstone which is the second death who after many pangs and tortures suffered in the separation of the body from the soul are separated everlastingly from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his power Is it so that the life which Jesus Christ c. Oh how doth it concern Vse 3 us then my brethren not to satisfie our selves with the frail life of nature which may expire upon a suddain and let us sink into Eternal death but to make out after the life of Jesus Christ the life of grace which is above the reach and power of death which will not fail us but endure for ever We all have sparks of immortality within us and we have thoughts aspiring to Eternity we would not die if we could choose Oh let us labour then my brethren for the life of grace and this is an eternal life The life of nature is a fading thing it may be gone upon a suddain And it is a sad and dreadfull thing for an eternal soul to have nothing else between it and eternal woe and torture but such a fickle and perishable life which the next minute may be done and let him drop away to hell for ever Oh how suddainly may such perish and come to a fearful End but if we live the life of Christ that is a lasting and abiding life And though the natural life decay and though the body die and rot and turn to dust and putrefaction yet this will flourish and grow stronger still till it be perfected and made consummate in the life of glory And why then are our labours and endeavours wholly spent to nourish and maintain this transitory life with things that perish in the using which yet when all is done will fail and come to dissolution but never strive for the attainment of that life which is eternal It is a lamentable thing my brethren that the divine intentions of eternal minds should be laid out on nothing else but perishable things Now that you may attain this lasting and enduring life of grace I shall but give you two or three directions First You must strive for saving knowledge and seek to get your minds enlightned with the beams of truth The life of holiness and grace consists in light And hence saith the Evangelist that light viz. the light of saving knowledge from the son of God revealed and manifested in the Gospel was the life of men Iohn 1.4 And in the words immediately adjoyned to my text that he may give eternal life c. and this is life eternal that they might know thee the only true God and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent It s true indeed there may be light of knowledge without any life of grace But there can never be the life of grace without the light of holy knowledge And therefore the Apostle speaking of the Gentiles saith they were strangers from the life of God they lived the life of men but they were strangers from the life of God the life of grace by reason of the ignorance and darkness that was in them And surely if we ever look to rise up from our graves of sin and stand up from the dead we must have light from Jesus Christ as the Apostle Paul insinuates Eph. 5.11 Secondly You must endeavour after faith which is the instrument and means of life by which it is conveyed from Christ to all his members And therefore we shall find that faith and life believing and living are joyned together the one as the fruit and effect of the other Whosoever liveth and believeth in me saith our Saviour Ioh. 11.26 id est Whosoever liveth by believing in me shall never die He that believeth in him that sent me hath eternal life saith Christ Iohn 5.24 and shall not come to condemnation but is passed from death to life These things are written that ye might believe that Iesus Christ is the Son of God and that believing ye might have life Joh. 20. ult I live saith the Apostle Paul and yet c. and the life which I live I live by the faith of the Son of God So that the grace of faith you see my brethren is the instrument of life it is the bond of union between Christ and all his members it is the Artery by which his Spirit is conveyed into us And therefore if you ever look to live you must labour after faith Thirdly that you may attain to saving knowledge and to justifying faith and consequently to this life of Christ you must attend upon the voice of Christ in the preaching of the Gospel For that is an effectuall means when God is pleased to concurr to raise men from the death of sin and to make them live to God And this is clearly intimated to us by our Saviour Christ himself John 5.25 The hour cometh saith Christ there when the dead the dead in sin shall hear the voice of the Son of God conceive it in the powerful preaching of the Gospel and they that hear it shall live And hence the word of Christ is called the word of life You see then what you are to do I say to you my Brethren as the Prophet to the Jews Isa 55.3 Hear with an obedient ear a flexible and yielding heart hear and your souls shall live And thus far of the thing to be dispenced by vertue of the power and the authority of Jesus Christ with which he is invested by the Father And this as you have heard is life yea it is Eternal life The manner or the way of dispensation comes next in order to be handled it is to be dispenced as a gift in the nature of a gift in a way of free donation that he should give Eternal life Not that he should communicate it or confer it only but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that he should give So that you see my Brethren all is free both on the Fathers side and on the Sons The Father he is free to him that he may be free to others The Father gives him power that he may give his people life As thou hast given him power over all flesh that he should give eternal life to as many as thou hast given him There is no difficulty in the terms the point is obvious DOCTRINE That Jesus Christ doth freely give eternal life to his people They have it from him as a free gift He doth not sell they do not buy it or if they do it is as his own offer is without money and without price They have it from him out of bounty and not out of merit or desert
the world the world would love its own but because ye are not of the world therefore the world hates you And hence it comes to pass that it persues them persecutes them casts them out creates them all the trouble and vexation that it can so that they are not like to have a quiet hour almost in this world Besides the evils and afflictions to which they are exposed by the necessity of nature as man is born to trouble as the sparks fly upwards Job 5.7 distempers and diseases in their bodies loss of their estates and friends and earthly comforts and the like ungodly men come in with their additions The Church of Christ while she is here is ill-seated she grows in an ill place as he himself affirmeth of her 2 Cant. 2. as the Lilly among thorns so is my Love among the daughters She is environed and begirt with them so that she is annoyed and hurt and pierct on every side She cannot stir but one or other of her thorny neighbours hath her by the sleeve She dwels in Mesech while she dwells in this world and hath her habitation in the Tents of Kedar in the midst of wicked men so that she is beleaguered as it were and hem'd about with those that hate her and desire her ruine This is the state and the condition of the Saints while they are here they are continually vexed and troubled So that no marvel though our Saviour tells his own Apostles In the world you shall have tribulation Iohn 16.33 That is your portion as long as you remain here The world hath alwayes been an evil and uncomfortable place to Christs Disciples in this respect that it is a place of sinning Indeed my brethren they are troubled with the sins of other men their righteous souls are vexed with their filthy conversations Rivers of waters run down their eyes because men keep not Gods Law But they are chiefly troubled with their own sins from which they are not to be wholly freed while they remain in this world As long as they continue here they are perpetually in Sathans danger who is the Prince of this world and whose authority and power is confined to this life There will never be an absolute and perfect cure of sin in any of the Saints till this corruption have put on incorruption And hence perhaps the corruptions of our natures are stiled worldly lusts Tit. 2.12 And our members that are upon the earth Col. 3.5 because we cannot possibly be rid of them while we are here upon the earth and while we live in this world The Apostle Paul compares himself and others of the Saints to earthen Vessels 2 Cor. 4.7 And earthen vessels when they were legally defiled could not be made clean again till they were broken all in pieces as you may see Lev. 11.33 So we my brethen are not to be fully cleansed till we be shivered all in pieces We are not to be wholly rescued from the bondage to corruption till death translate is to another world And then he that is dead saith the Apostle is free from sin Rom. 6.7 So that no marvel though the world be a place of such disquiet and discomfort to the Saints For how can they be fully comfortable here while they are alwayes sinning against God He that hath entred into rest indeed hath ceased from his own works as the Apostle speaks Heb. 4.10 Till then he cannot wholly cease from those that are most properly his own works but is in danger of offending God and falling into sin continually and so can have no rest here Nay my beloved no man knows how far the Lord may suffer him to fall in this world Though it be a certain truth that they that are elect can never wholly fall away from God yet they may sin exceedingly to the dishonour of the Lord the scandal of their brethren and the irreparable wounding of their name while they have a day to live And this they are in danger of I mean of falling fearfully so long as they remain here What deadly falls have many of Gods worthies taken in their latter times It is observable that Davids first wayes are commended 2 Chron. 17.3 By which the Holy Ghost insinuates that his last wayes were not answerable to them He speaking of Jehosaphat walked in the first wayes of his Father David Indeed the latter wayes of David were blemished with extremity of sin and scandal The like is also noted of Solomon 1 King 11.9 And Asa 2 Chron. 16.10 And Jehosaphat 2 Chron. 20.35 And how then can the world but but be a doleful and uncomfortable place to Christs Disciples where they are in such hazard How can they but complain as Rebecca sometimes did though in another case If I must still be troubled with my lusts and my corruptions if I must still be over-ruled by them thus what good will continuance in the world do me The world hath alwayes been and is an evil c. in this respect that it is a place of banishment from Jesus Christ from him in whom their very souls delight This makes it sad and grievous to them that they have not Christ with them And this is that at which our Saviour aimeth in my text I am no more in this world but these are in the world There is the dolefulness of their condition that they are to continue here without me Indeed we are debarred of the immediate presence of the Lord while we remain in this world And therefore it is said expresly 2 Cor. 5.6 That whilest we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord. And is not this a grievous thing to be kept from the enjoyment of such a one as Christ is Especially to him that knows him and is well acquainted with him and hath tasted of his sweetness can you blame him if he be weary of the world and if it be a trouble to him to continue here if be be willing to be absent from the body that so he may be present with the Lord What holy heart can choose but find a weariness in that place let it be otherwise as pleasant as it will which keeps Christ and him asunder and hinders him from the compleat fruition of his blessed Saviour Who would not gladly leave a place in which as long as he continues Christ and he must be asunder Vse 1 Now is it so my brethren that the world hath alwayes been and is an evil c. Then let it be a Caveat to us not to cast as we are very apt to do on too much joy and comfort here Our manner is when things look a little well and when we have some present quiet and content to promise great and extraodinary matters to our selves To sing a requiem to our souls with the rich man in the Gospel take thine ease eat drink and be merry It s true the men of this world may have some content and quietness and
to lose them for he is always answerable for them to the Father Now in this sense the Father gives men to the Son especially in two respects 1. In the first place he gives men to him by election and this he doth from everlasting He picks out such a certain company of men and bestows them upon Christ in regard of the decree There are a people for thee saith the Father to the Son So many thou shalt have among the Iews and if that be not sufficient thou shalt have as many more as thou wilt ask among the Gentiles Ask of me and I will give thee the Heathen for thine inheritance Psal 2.7 And therefore God is said to choose us in the Son Eph. 1.4 as in our Head and as by designation members of his body He doth not choose us first and then after choose Christ No he chooses Christ first he is his first and chief Elect and then he chooses as in him appoints us to belong to him It were unnatural the feet should first come out of the womb before the head and therefore God observes this method First Christ the Head comes forth out of the womb of his Decree and then the others follow First he electeth Christ to be the head of his Church and then he electeth us to be the members of his body And hence perhaps is that expression of our Saviours to the Father a body hast thou prepared me or fitted me as it is rendred in the Margent Heb. 10.5 viz. in thy Predestination Thou hast not only chosen me to be a Head but in and by the fame decree thou hast prepared a body for me Thou hast culled out a certain company of men whom thou hast preordained to belong to me whom thou hast chosen as it were in me and whom thou hast bestowed upon me to be members of my body 2. And as the Father gives men to the Son by the decree so more expresly by the execution and accomplishment of the decree as he bestows men on our Saviour by election so further yet by actual union and incorporation In the first he assigns them in the second he delivers them when he takes those very men whom he had preordained from everlasting and puts them into Jesus Christ There saith the Father are the members which I appointed for thee from Eternity So that now the Son receives them and hath them in his own possession And he may say to God the Father as the Prophet doth Here am I and the people which thou hast given me Thine they were saith Jesus Christ Joh. 17.6 They have been thine I must acknowledge but now the property is altered they are mine Why which way came you by them might the Father say The Son replies By thy donation by thy own free gift Thine they were and thou hast given them to me as it is added in the next words So then you see my Brethren that and how the Father gives men to the Son Now for the second thing proposed in what respects and how far forth the Son preserves and keeps them safe who are thus bestowed upon him by the Father This will need a little opening because indeed there is some difficulty in it And that you may the better understand it I shall shew you in the first place how far our Saviour doth not keep them who are thus bestowed upon him And in the second place how far he doth 1. He doth not keep them that they do not suffer Though Christ be with his own Disciples in the Ship there may be a storm upon it and a very dangerous one They may be under heavy tryals and afflictions both within them and without them Christ may expose them though they be his own to bitter persecutions in the world yea to the greatest miseries that humane cruelties can devise to inflict And when in the extremity of their distresses they run crying to him as they are about to sink Master save us we perish Christ may seem to be asleep to wink at all this misery of theirs to make as if he knew nothing and as if he did not dream of the intolerable pressures that lye upon his poor people 2. He doth not keep them that they do not sin and that most grievously sometimes with hideous circumstantial aggravations How fearfully have many fallen who have indeed belong'd to Jesus Christ We have very sad examples of it in the Scripture Peter was one of them concerning whom our Saviour tells his Father in my text those whom thou gavest me I kept And indeed he prayed for Peter in a special manner that his faith might never fail that it might not wholly fail so as to be quite lost and utterly extinct in him Yet after this you know he fearfully sinned notwithstanding so as in some respect to deny the Lord that bought him and that in a stupendious way with dreadfull Oaths yea more then so with bitter curses and direfull imprecations too What sin almost may not Christ leave a person to commit whom he hath taken into his tuition 3. But now my brethren in the third place though Christ do not keep them that they do not suffer and though he do not keep them that they do not sin who are bestowed upon him by his Father both by election and incorporation yet he doth keep them that they do not perish All that are so bestowed upon him he keeps so that they are not lost as you have it in my text Those whom thou gavest me I kept saith he and none of them is lost They may suffer grievously their sufferings may deprive them of the life of nature but they cannot deprive them of the life of grace They may be persecuted but they cannot be forsaken totally and finally They may be cast down but they cannot be destroyed as 2 Cor. 4.9 They may be destroyed as men but they can never be destroyed as Saints In this respect they are like Mount Sion that can never be removed The wind may 〈◊〉 drive away the chaff but all the storms of persecution shall never blow away one grain of good wheat So they may sin exceedingly but they can never sin to death Any sin they may commit if you respect the matter of it for of that I speak not of the manner of Commission but that against that Holy Ghost There is a sin to death saith the Apostle 1 John 5.16 to death not in the merit of it only for so is every sin to death if we look to the desert but to death in the event so that eternal death and condemnation is the infallible and unavoidable effect and issue of it And this Christ surely keeps his people from so that they never fall into it He gives his sheep eternal life and they do never perish as himself speaks John 10.28 And though they be not kept in all respects to preservation either from sinning or from suffering yet they are kept unto salvation
will preserve those that belong to Jesus Christ either from the act and guilt or hurt of corruption that is in them I shall a little touch upon them in their order In a qualified sence he keeps them from the act of their corruption so that they act it not at all as thus sometimes and in some certain things he keeps them and withholds them from or not at least as other men They also saith the Prophet David speaking of the Saints do no iniquity Psal 119.3 They sin not saith the Apostle 1 John 3.6 neither can they sin Conceive it not so freely and so remorselesly as others For the seed remaineth in them The spirit lusts against the flesh so that they cannot do the evil that they would at least not all the evil that they would Gal. 5.15 God keeps them by this means from much evil which else they would fall into as to instance in particulars He keeps them wholy from the great and unpardonable sin the sin against the Holy Ghost There is a sin to death saith the Apostle 1 John 5.16 to death not in the merit of it only for so is every sin to death if you look to the desert but in the issue and event And this God surely keeps them from that belong to Jesus Christ so that they never fall into it 2. He keeps them usually from the grosser acts of sin which the Apostle calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the defilements and pollutions of the world 2 Pet. 2.20 being the common mire and kennel in which the filthy Swine of this world wallow and which are termed by the Apostle Paul the works of the flesh which are manifest even to the the dimmest eye even to the light of nature it self Chap. 5.19 Such are adultery drunkenness perjury theft and such like Now from these foul and gross corruptions which cross the principles of common life and honesty in which the lewdest and prophanest wallow God usually keeps them that belong to Jesus Christ 3. He keeps them from committing any known sin resolvedly and with full consent of will Indeed there may be a velleity an incompleat and an imperfect will to sin in those that belong to Christ but a compleat and perfect will there cannot be For flesh and spirit being interwoven and commixt in every faculty and consequently in the will the will so farr as it is sanctified and renewed can never give allowance to the act of sin And whereas wicked and ungodly men are totally addicted and universaly devoted to it they act it wholly and with every part and power being nothing else but flesh It is not so with those that are renewed And hence saith Paul it is not I that do it Rom. 7.17 yet in the verse immediately before he said what I would not that do I. So that there is a double I in Paul I spiritual and I carnal I do it and I do it not Not I that am spiritual or in that part wherein I am spiritual but I that am carnal or in that part wherein I am carnal It is not I that do it but the flesh that dwelleth in me And thus God keeps them from the acts of sin Or if he do not alwayes keep them from the acts he alwayes frees them from the guilt of sin and so in that respect he keeps them from the evil of corruption and therefore he assures it to himself as his peculiar I even I am he that blotteth out thy sin It is God that justifies saith the Apostle Rom. 8.33 And with relation to this act of his he is called a deliverer Rom. 11.26 There shall come out of Zion the deliverer and he shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob. For this is my Covenant with them when I shall take away their sin God alwayes keeps them that belong to Jesus Christ from the hurt of the corruption that is in them he turns their very sins against their nature by accident to their advantage if all things then all these things work together for the best to them God doth them good even by their sins and by their falls he makes that to promote and further their salvation which seemeth most directly to hinder it and to oppose it Oh the riches of his mercy Blessings and Ordinances by accident do hurt to wicked men And even sins by accident do good to Gods people Thus we have shewed you that God can and will preserve those that belong to Jesus Christ from the evil of temptation and corruption And as God keeps those that belong to Jesus Christ from the evil of temptation and from the evil of corruption so from the evil of affliction I must confess he doth not keep them so that they are utterly exempt from all affliction They have their share and portion of it many times as well as any other men Many are the afflictions of the righteous saith the Psalmist Psal 34.19 not of the wicked only but the righteous too Yea their afflictions oftentimes are more and greater then the afflictions of the wicked are The Prophet David was too sensible of this so that his spirit fretted at it and he was envious at the foolish as himself confesseth Psal 73.3 when he saw the prosperity of wicked men Their strength is firm saith he there are no bands in their death They are not in trouble like other men nor are they plagued like other men no nor like better men Their eyes stand out with fatness they have more then heart can wish These are the wicked saith the Psalmist they prosper in the world But how fares it with David all this while why verily saith he I have cleansed my heart in vain and washed my bands in innocency for all the day long have I been plagued and chastned every morning And this is that which Christ forewarned his Disciples of that in the world they must have troubles there would be no avoiding of it But yet however God keeps them from the evil of affliction in the sence that I shall open to you in a few particulars 1. Sometimes when he sees it best he keeps them from affliction that it doth not touch them for a considerable time together He environs them with loving kindness round about so that no trouble or calamity can find a way to enter and to seize upon them according to that pretious promise Psal 5. ult For thou Lord wilt bless the righteous with favour wilt thou compass him as with a shield And thus he dealt a while with Job as Satan enviously suggested to the Lord Job 1.10 Hast thou not made a hedge about him and about all that he hath on every side thou hast blessed the work of his hands and his substance is increased in the Land So David though he were a man of many troubles and afflictions yet he had his Halcyon dayes There was a time when God had made his Mountain of prosperity so strong that he was verily perswaded he
keep them that belong to Jesus Christ from the hurt of their afflictions but more then so he doth them much good by them that they may say as David doth when all is ended It is good for me that I have been afflicted I give you but a taste of this and I have done with Explication 1. Sometimes he awakens them by their afflictions they are sleepy and secure and God jogges and startles them and rouzes them by this means When men are bound in fetters saith Elihu and held fast in the cords of their afflictions so that they are not able to unlooose themselves and get away what then why then he sheweth them their works and their transgressions that they have exceeded in q.d. At such a time his manner is to represent their sins to them with all their circumstantial aggravations See an example of it in the Lords own people Gen. 42.21 when Josephs Brethren saw themselves taken for spies in Egypt and so in present danger of their lives the sin they had committed many years ago came as fresh into their minds and lay as heavy on their Consciences as if it had been newly done I know that troubles and distresses and the approach of death it self hath not always this effect on all men the Lord hath poured on some the spirit of slumber but usually they have on Gods people 2. Sometimes God abates their pride by their afflictions There is not any sin that makes a man more odious to the Lord then pride doth or is a greater bar to his salvation All that are proud in heart are an abomination to him Prov. 16.5 neither is there are any man but hath some reliques of this leaven in him which puffeth up his heart and makes him swell beyond measure Yea the choicest of the Saints have mighty inclinations to it especially if all things go on their side As it is said of Hezekiah when he was put into a prosperous estate his heart was lifted up 2 Chron. 32.25 and therefore God exposes them to sharp afflictions that he may hide the pride of man as the expression is Joh 33.17 that he may lessen and abate and wear it out till it be not to be seen 3. Sometimes God draws his people nearer to himself by their afflictions In their affliction they will seek me early saith the Lord of his people Hos 5.15 It seems they had been wofully regardless of the Lord in former times of happiness and peace and comfort but saith the Lord In their affliction they will hasten to me they will be eager after me and never rest till they have found me And this you shall observe to be the disposition of the sons men yea of the best and holyest of them they look not after God so much at any time as when they are in greatest exigencies and distresses And as the sails though they be some addition to the burthen of the ship yet they help it on the faster to the Haven So crosses and afflictions though they be a burthen to us yet they hasten us to God and draw us on the faster to the port of happiness And therefore God relating divers judgements which he was resolved to bring upon his own people by which he meant to strip them naked of all outward comforts at length concludes that this should be the issue of it Isa 17.7 At that day shall they look unto their Maker and their eyes shall have respect unto the Holy One of Israel It is a miserable thing yet so it is as long as we have any thing on earth to rest upon we enquire not after God With Noahs Dove if we can find a twig to pitch upon we are regardless of the Ark and therefore God by heavy crosses and afflictions strips us of these outward helps and strikes away the earthly things by which we stand and when we know not what to do when we are driven out of all our holes then our eyes are upon God when we look on every hand and refuge fails us every way and no man careth for our souls then we address our selves to God and say to him Thou art our refuge Psal 142.4 It seems that David though he were a holy man was very apt while he was furnished with these outward favors to rely too much upon them so far as to neglect the Lord. But when the Lord by crosses and afflictions took them from him or made him see the vanity and insufficiency of them then he cryed out And now Lord what wait I for my hope is in thee now I have tryed how fickle and how vain the creature is now I perceive by sensible experience that no help is in it Now Lord what wait I for c. And thus I think I have sufficiently cleared the point God can and will preserve c. To add a word or two for Application Vse This serves to let us see the admirable and transcendent happiness of all that have an interest in Jesus Christ in this respect that they are safe from all evil God will withhold no good from them as the Prophet David speaks and then upon the other side he will keep all evil from them as you have it in my Text. Beloved we are here in an uncomfortable place a wicked world in which we are exposed as considered in our selves to all evil We are exempt from no temptation No not the blackest and the bloodlest to the very worst of sins We are secure from no affliction no not the sharpest and the most extream If there be any worse then other which we conceive would be most bitter and intolerable to us it is going in the world and it may seise on us as well as others Yea we are always bearing with us in our bosoms that which is infinitely worse then both the other viz. the evil of corruption so that we seem to be in a very sad condition But yet this comfort waits upon us still the Lord will surely keep us absolutely free from the evil of them all The worst of them may do us good but it shall never do us hurt as long as there is any vertue in our Saviours Intercession as long as he hath any interest in God the Father And therefore when we look upon the world and see it marching out against us with bloody persecutions and afflictions when we look upon the Devil and see him ready to assault us with his fiery darts and fierce tentations when we look inward to our own hearts and see such swarms of hellish lusts and base corruptions there and are ready to cry out in the anguish of our souls Oh miserable men that we are who shall deliver us let us look up to Jesus Christ and think upon his powerful Intercession with the Father that he hath prayed him to preserve and keep us from all the evil in the world and so let us be quiet and secure Let us say as David once Though I walk in
own humours O no but on the contrary that we might serve him who hath saved us in holiness and righteousness all the dayes of our lives By one offering of himself he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified saith the Apostle Heb. 10.14 Not them that are justified but them that are sanctified And hence the blood of Jesus which he shed when he was a made a sacrifice to God the Father hath not a pacifying only but a purging quality in it It hath not only a value to satisfie but a virtue to sanctifie The blood of Jesus cleanseth us from all sin 1 John 1.7 Compleatly from the guilt of all in justification and inchoatively from the filth of all in sanctification I might be copious in the proof but this may satisfie to clear the point Christ did not set himself apart to be an offring and a sacrifice to God the Father for his own sake but for his peoples sakes and that to this end that they might be sanctified by this means Reason 1 And the grounds are evident I shall but touch upon them only and hasten to Application For first his scope and purpose in this work of his was not only to preserve his people from destruction but to bring them to salvation not only to deliver them from hell but to obtain their entrance into heaven And truly had he not accomplished both of these he had not been a perfect Saviour he had not saved us to the utmost as the Apostle Paul speaks Now my beloved had he justified us only from the guilt of our transgressions he had done but one of these for guilt is nothing but the obligation or binding over of the sinner to damnation so that in quitting us of this he had but saved us from the wrath to come as the Apostle speaks he had not brought us to the happiness to come And therefore since he had a further aim that he might bring his whole intent about he hath not justified us only and so delivered us from death and condemnation but he hath sanctified us also and so prepared us for life and salvation For without holiness it is impossible to see the Lord To be admitted as inhabitants into that holy habitation concerning which the holy Ghost hath said There shall no unclean thing enter into it Rev 21.27 And therefore our Redeemer sanctified himself to be a Sacrifice for us not that we might be justified only and so delivered from Hell and utter darkness but that we might be sanctified also and so made meet to be partakers of the inheritance with the Saints in light Our Saviour sanctified himself to be a Sacrifice for us not only that Reason 2 we might be justified but that we might be sanctified also because he had a purpose and design not to glorifie us only but to glorifie himself in this business And more particularly and distinctly to glorifie himself in us and to glorifie himself by us 1. It was the project and design of Christ in this great work of his to glorifie himself in us and therefore it was necessary that he should not justifie us only but sanctifie us too For had he justified us only from the guilt of our transgressions his glory had appeared indeed upon us to wit the glory of his mercy but which way had his glory shewed it self in us But now by sanctifying us and by inriching us with all the saving graces of his holy Spirit which far exeeed the brightest and Orient Pearls both in lustre and in value his glory shineth forth in us Now he us glorified in his Saints as the Apostle Paul speaks The glory of his grace appeareth in them and sparkles forth with dazling lustre And as in the Creation of the world is seen his wisdom and his power and God-head and the like So in the renovation and the new creation of some certain persons in it is seen the riches of his grace He doth it that he might make known his glory as the Apostle tells us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that he may declare it in the vessels of his mercy prepared by him unto glory Rom. 9.23 And as the greatness and magnificence of any Prince is seen in the Revenues and the Titles and the Dignities of those whom he hath raised and advanced So in our present gracious priviledges and endowments preparing us for glory in the world to come are seen the unsearchable riches of Christ 2. It was the project and design of Christ in this great work of his to glorifie himself by us And therefore it was necessary that he should not justifie us only but sanctifie us too For had we not been sanctified we should have dishonoured Christ in our whole Conversation But being once regenerated and endowed with saving grace and purified as a peculiar people to himself then we glorifie our Saviour Then we shew forth the vertues and with them the praises of him that hath saved us We cause our works to shine before men and Jesus Christ who strengthneth us to shine in them Now is it so my Brethren that Christ did not set himself apart c. Vse 1 for his own sake but for his peoples sakes that so they might be sanctified by this means My Exhortation shall be somewhat sutable to that of the Apostle on the like occasion Gal. 5.13 Take heed you use not this incomparable grace and mercy of the Lord Christ as an occasion to the flesh by taking any kind of licence thence to give it satisfaction in the lusts thereof It is a dangerous desperate course of many men who apprehending that they are delivered by the death of Christ from all their sins and that the Justice of the Lord is satified and appeased for them are by this means imboldned and encouraged on in their evill ways And when they are reproved for their licentious courses they satisfie themselves with this that Christ hath satisfied for them and that not only for their past and present sins but for their sins to come also so that they need not be afraid to act them nor to be humbled for them after they have done them But I must tell them Christ hath not satisfied for them if he do not sanctifie them He hath not set himself apart to to be a sacrifice for them if he do not set them apart to be a holy and peculiar people to himself And unto such as turn this grace into licentiousness I say as Moses did sometime to Israel Do ye thus requite the Lord O foolish people and unwise Oh Hellish people and prophane yea I protest against them in the words of the Apostle Gal. 5.2 that Jesus Christ shall profit them nothing Vse 2 Is it so That Christ c. Oh how should this provoke and stir us up to strive and labour after holiness and to endeavour every way to clense our selves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit What motive more prevailing can be tendered
and people that condemned and scourged and crucified the Lord of glory And now my brethren Will you say to me as the Disciples to our Saviour when he told them that one of them should betray him Will you ask me man by man Is it I and is it I No I expect to hear you say It is not I. What I an enemy to Christ I defie it and they that are his greatest enemies will be as bold and resolute in the denyal as any other And therefore as our Saviour gave a sign to the Disciples by which the Traytor might be known so I will give you certain signs out of Scripture by which the enemies of Christ may be discovered First they that are willing to submit to sin and are unwilling to submit to Christ they are enemies to Christ I will a little stand on either branch of this mark They that are willing to submit to sin they are enemies to Christ 'T is true indeed men may be taken captive by it as Saint Paul was they may be forc't to obey it in some certain acts notwithstanding all their striving by the power of a temptation which they are no way able to resist and yet may be the friends of Christ they may unfaignedly and dearly love the Lord Jesus But if they render up themselves to any lust if they make a Covenant with it as being willing and resolved to obey it if not content that they are sold by Adam they sell themselves to sin as Ahab did they are enemies to Christ No man can serve two Masters that are contrary as God and Mammon Christ and sin for saith our Saviour He will love the one and hate the other Mat. 6.24 So then if you be servants voluntarily engaged to any sin as being willing to obey it in the lusts thereof Whether it be drunkenness or swearing or uncleanness or the like If you resolve it is a sweet it is a profitable sin I will not strive nor pray against it because I mean not to forsake it you do indeed hate Christ It may be you do think that you may serve a lust and love the Lord Christ too But you deceive your own souls for the Truth of God hath said it that he that loves the one will hate the other As they that serve Christ hate sin so they that serve sin hate Christ And for the second branch of this mark as they that willingly obey sin so they that are unwilling to obey Christ they are enemies to Christ You are my friends saith Christ to his Disciples if you do whatsoever I command you Joh. 15.14 otherwise you are not And hence he styleth those his enemies who will not have him rule over them Luk. 19.27 Observe it well he saith not simply Those that will not have me raign but those mine enemies that will not have me raign over them bring them forth and slay them before me If then you will not stoop to Christ and to the Scepter of his Kingdom if you will not have him rule you if you will not do the things that he commands you but are resolved to walk according to your own humors and though you are informed what is good and what the Lord requireth of you yet you hate to be reformed and pluck away the shoulder as the Prophet speaks and say with those rebellious wretches Psal 2.3 Let us break his bonds asunder and cast away his cords from us that we may walk at liberty and that there may be no restraint from any thing that seemeth good in our own eyes be not deceived for you are Adversaries of the Lord Christ 2. They are enemies to Christ that love that which Christ hates and hate that which Christ loves It is the property of near and bosome friends to will and nill to love and hate the same things and enemies are just upon the other hand and so it is in this case They that are in love with sin which is the thing the only thing which Christ hates are surely out of love with Christ They that love the Lord hate evil Psal 97.10 and I may say as well They that love evil hate the Lord. It 's true that such as love him may commit it but yet they have a strange antipathy against it they hate it with a perfect hatred and every false way they utterly abhor And hence it is that they endeavour to destroy it to crucifie it every day to put it to the cruellest and basest death and if they had it in their power they would shew it no mercy You would not use a Turk a Toad as such a man would use sin But when a man shall cocker it and stroke it and delight in it when he shall not endure to have it striken with the hammer or wounded with the Sword of Gods Word but shall be ready to do violence to any man that offers it a blow or gives it but an ill word the heart of such a person is not right towards Christ And even as they are enemies to Christ who love that which Christ hates so also they who hate that which Christ loves and that is holiness and grace which he cannot choose but love because it is a beam of his own light a gift of his own spirit a stamp of his own Image a part of his own fulness for of his fulness have we all received and grace for grace But you will say Who hates this I answer they that persecute and scorn and vex their brethren for their strictness and preciseness because they follow that which good is because they fear an oath because they run not out with them to the same excess of riot they are the men that hate grace For it is holiness and grace you see that is the proper object and indeed the formal reason of their hatred And they that hate their brethren for their holiness and grace which they have received from Christ by which they are conformable and like to Christ would hate him so much more then them if he should come and live among them by how much he is holier then they are And therefore let not such as say they could affect and like of such a person well enough but that he is so pure and so precise he will not do as they do pretend any love to Christ For certainly the same affections of spite and malice and reproach which they discover against such men they would with so much greater bitterness express against the Lord Christ if he were conversant upon the earth by how much he exceedeth and transcendeth them in holiness and grace 3. They that are friends to the enemies of Christ and enemies to the friends of Christ are enemies to Christ himself Be they who they will that close with those that live in enmity against Christ and help them in their opposition to his truth and to his cause and to his glory they can never love Christ No if they did