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
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
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
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
For we never loved him till he loved us first the love began on his side But we may truly say that Jesus Christ hath loved us and therefore we have cause to love him For he prevented us with mercy and with loving kindness as the Prophet speaks and this should win our hearts to him We love him saith the Apostle in the name of all the faithfull 1 John 4.19 Why so what is the cause of this love you have it in the following words because he loved us first Our love is not the cause of his but his love is the cause of ours 4. Survey what Christ hath done for you and see if it deserve not at the least a return of love from you He hath made you that is little in comparison I mean all things were created by him Col. 1.16 but more then this he hath redeemed you from sin from death from hell it self You had been utterly undone and lost for ever had it not been for Jesus Christ But he hath saved that which was lost He hath raised you from nothing to a Kingdom from poverty to matchless riches yea from death to life it self we were dead but are alive all this is Christs doing We use to love them who have saved our lives and surely we have cause to love Christ for he hath saved our lives and that not from a temporal but from eternal death Not from the first alone but from the second death where the worm never dies and the fire is never quenched And therefore he is called our life that is the cause and fountain of it Col. 3.4 When Christ who is our life shall appear So that we may truly call him in the Prophets words the God of our life And therefore we have cause to make him the object of our love and wholly to bestow our hearts upon him to love him by whom we live the life of grace and look to live the life of glory Is it so that God the Father dearly loveth Jesus Christ The more Vse 3 it is to be admired and wondred at that he should use him as he did for our sakes That he should be angry with him that he should hide his face from him and forsake him in a sence that he should load him with such a burthen of his wrath as made him weep and cry and sweat and faint Ah my beloved what an admirable thing is this who can reach the utmost of it in his thoughts had he not cared for Jesus Christ had he born no affection to him it had not been so strange that God the Father should deal with him in this manner But that he should be so extreamly harsh to him in whom his very soul delights that he should handle him so roughly whom he loves so dearly whom he hath ever loved from all eternity this is an admirable thing indeed And that you may the better see the wonder of it the miracle of mercy that is in it let us consider a little more particularly and distinctly how the Father used him and for whose sake he used him so who was so infinitely dear c. 1. Consider how the Father used him who is so infinitely dear to him he gave him up into the hands of sinfull men to deal with him as they pleased There take the darling of my bosome saith the Father revile him mock him beat him spit upon him scourge him pierce him nail him stretch his limbs upon the Cross crucifie him kill him shed his blood take away his life from him wreak all your malice on him to the utmost and though he cry and roar I will not save him I will be far from helping him and from the words of his roaring as the expression is Psal 22.1 Though God doth love him infinitely he left him in the hands of vile men to use him at their own pleasure and they used him bad enough as you may see if you survey the Gospel story Oh the indignities reproaches and contempts that sinfull wretches poured out upon the Lord of glory In which respect the Prophet saith he was despised and rejected and men hid their faces from him as if they were ashamed of him Isa 53.3 I am a reproach of men saith holy David as a type of Christ Psal 22.6 and despised of the people all that see me laugh me to scorn Oh the abasures that he suffered from persons viler then the earth they trod upon and God the Father who so dearly loved him stood by and made as if he saw nothing Nay more then so he suffered much even from his Fathers own hands q He made him sin that is a sacrifice for sin and he made him a curse for us that there was nothing visible upon him for a season but the severest and feircest wrath of a revenging Judge as if he had been utterly accursed from his Father He scourged him most bitterly even till he blead and roared and sunk away under his hand Thus it pleased the Father to bruise him He spared not his own Son Rom. 8.22 Though he were his own Son he laid on and did not spare him He remitted not to Christ the least jot of those exquisite unsufferable tortures that were in justice due to our transgressions He drank off at his Fathers hands the cup of fury he drank the very dreggs and wrung them out All this the Father did to Jesus Christ and more then I am able to express and yet he loved him infinitely all this while and did from eternity and therein lies the great wonder 2. But secondly if we consider for whose sake the Father used him so who is infinitely dear to him the wonder will be yet greater It had not been so admirable had it been for friends but it was for enemies This raises and commends the Love of God saith the Apostle Rom. 8.10 that we being sinners yea being enemies he reconciled us to him by his Son He used a means by giving up his Son to shame to make up all the breaches between us and him and herein lies the quintessence of this business the sparkle in the jewel of the grace of God That he should prefer the good the glory the salvation of his enemies who lived in open opposition and hostility against him before the ease refreshment safety life of his own Son whom he so dearly loved from all eternity That he should rather choose that one whom he loved so exceedingly should die then they should be made a curse then they should undergo the tortures and the pains of hell then they justice resolves they must be undergone either by his beloved Son or his hatefull enemies It must and will be satisfied either by the one or by the other Well then if it must be so his dearest Son shall suffer and his enemies go free yea he shall suffer to the very death rather then they shall be punished saith the Father There go my poor harmless Lamb to
fathers own son But you will say wise fathers have very often weak children But Jesus Christ is so his fathers son that he partaketh with him of his wisdom it is poured out into him in abundance And therefore he is sometimes called the wisdom of the father in the abstract as see 1 Cor. 1.24 Iesus Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God And if he be so very wise you may be sure he spake wise words and wise words are worth the marking In him are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge Col. 2.3 And out of question what he bringeth forth is of the treasure that is hid in him 2. But in the next place if you look upon him downwards with Relation to the Church you will see further reason why the words that Jesus spake should be so exactly noted and so carefully observed As he is the fathers wisdom so he is made to us wisdom as the Apostle Paul speaks 1 Cor. 1.30 His father hath appointed him to be the great Prophet of of his Church The great preacher the greater revealer of his truth and will to men and therefore out of question he can speak well and his words are worth the marking You may be sure the father would not send out such a Prophet to the Church as were not worth the listening to No no God hath annointed me to preach faith Christ himself Luke 4.18 not appointed me to preach but annointed me to preach endued me with abilities and gifts for that office God who in former times saith the Apostle spake to the fathers by the Prophets hath in these latter dayes spoken to us by the Son He was designed you see to be the spoksman for the father to the world to tell them what his mind is and to preach the Gospel to them We that are ordinary preachers of the Gospel we that are underlings to Christ in this business must be enabled with some competent ability in this respect or else we are not fit for this work And therefore when our Saviour sent out his disciples he promised to give them wisdom and a mouth that is matter and expression Luke 21.15 wisdom within together with a mouth to utter and to bring forth that wisdom To shew that both of these must go together in a preacher of the Gospel I know there is a latitude to be admitted and allowed in this regard but yet a competent ability to speak so as the people may be edified by it is indisputably required And if the under-ministers of Christ must have such a faculty how great ability then must their Master have Who was designed to be the great Preacher the great Prophet and as the Apostle stiles him the chief Bishop of our Souls And if he had such a transcendent faculty to speak then certainly the words he spake are fit to be commended c. Then secondly if you consider as whose the words were so in the next place what the words were you will allow them to be worthy of our choicest observation What the words were that Jesus spake either for the matter of them or for the efficacy of them let us a little weigh them in their order and we shall see they both help to this business 1. The words of Jesus for the matter of them commonly were Gospel words Such were the words to which my text alludes in the three chapters next before full of nothing else my brethren but Gospel-sweetness Gospel-Promises and Gospel-consolation against approaching troubles and afflictions these were the words that Jesus spake Christ in a sense my brethren was the first and certainly the chiefest preacher of the Gospel this great Salvation at the first began to be spoken by the Lord and was confirmed afterwards by them that heard him Heb. 2.3 And hence the Gospel as you know is called Christs saying John 8.51 The Law was the fathers saying God spake these words The Gospel is the Sons saying This was spoken by the Son And hence saith Christ in the fore-alledged text if a man keep my saying he shall never see Death So that the sayings and the words of Jesus are very fit to be considered For his you see are Gospel-sayings and Gospel sayings are worthy of all acceptation as the Apostle tels you 1 Tim. 1.15 Indeed Law-Sayings are not so readily attended to and entertained You know my brethren on mount Sinai at the giving of the Law there were thunderings and lightnings and terrible voices and the event and issue was the people fled and would not hear they were not able to endure the noise But Gospel-sayings on the other side allure affection and invite attention Upon mount Tabor where our Saviour was transfigured there was a shining Sun a bright cloud a gentle and a pleasing voice and the Disciples said Edificemus Domine Let us build here c. 2. And as the words of Jesus for the matter of them were Gospel-words so for the efficacy of them they were saying words and so in that respect the words that Jesus spake are very fit to be commended c. The words that I speak saith our Saviour to the Jews are spirit and life John 6.63 they are so in their operation and effect they give Spirit and they work life And who would not attend unto and entertain such words as these are His saying if it be received and kept will surely save a man from death yea from eternal death We may depend upon it he binds it with a strong asseveration which he repeats twice for the more Surety Iohn 8.51 Verily verily I say unto you if a man keep my saying he shall never see death Death is not visible the meaning is he shall not be annoyed and hurted by it as you have the like Expression Jer. 5.12 We shall not see sword nor famine And should not such words be commended to the Church and embraced by the Church as save from death and bring eternal life with them The setting down of which upon Record in holy Scripture and leaving them to after-times hath been the life of many souls and will be yet of many more in every age even to the worlds end If you consider in the last place as whose the words were and what the words were that Jesus spake so the manner how he spake them you will see further reason yet why they should be commended c. For this you may depend upon Never man spake like him It is the attestation that is given him John 7.46 Which coming from his enemies the officers that went to take him is of the more validity Never spake man like this man Grace was poured into his lips as the expression is Psalm 45.2 to shew us that the grace there mentioned is a gift of utterance and a faculty of speech whereof the lips are instruments They are the lips that form the words we speak and bring them forth to those that hear them and hence this gift of
God hath given him who are comparatively but a small number What use hath this authority in reference to other flesh to whom he doth not give eternal life if this be all the end of it For clearing of this my Brethren you must know that this is not the only end but it is the chief end for it is very manifest in Scripture that the authority of Jesus Christ as it extends to all flesh so it is exercised one way or another upon all flesh It is bestowed upon him by his Father as well that he may give eternal death to some as eternal life to others And so accordingly he executes this power and this authority of his as well in passing sentence of condemnation upon unbelievers as of salvation upon believers In judging some and that the most of men to death as well as other some to life The Father saith our Saviour hath committed all judgment to the Son judgement as well of condemnation as of absolution So that the giving of eternal life to as many as God hath given him is not the only end of the authority of Iesus Christ but it is the main end the prime end the chief end This end is principally in the eye of God and Christ the other end is not considerable in regard of this And therefore that is not so much as hinted at you see but this is clearly and expresly mentioned As who should say This was the end indeed for which his Father gave him power over all flesh this was the thing he chiefly aimed at that he might give eternal life to as many as God had given him So that the Point to be observed is this DOCTRINE That the authority of Jesus Christ with which he is invested over all flesh is chiefly for the benefit and the salvation of his own People It hath another end indeed but this is the great end he hath it not so much for the hurt of wicked men and unbelievers as for the good of his Members Not so much to destroy them as to save these And hence his Father who gave him this authority gave him such a name withall as shews us why he took upon him this authority as man why he became a Priest a Prophet and a King as you may see Mat. 1.21 Saith the Angel there to Joseph speaking of the Virgin Mary She shall bring forth a Son and thou shalt call his name Jesus And why so to shew the end for which he came into the world for he shall save his people from their sins Not so much to destroy ungodly men as to save his own people In which respect his Father would not have him called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Destroyer the name imposed upon the King of Locusts mentioned Apoc. 9.11 though he be so to many men yea to the greatest part of men whom he will punish with everlasting destruction But Jesus a Saviour its true indeed that Christ is set as that is the Expression Luke 2.34 that he is appointed by his Father for the fall and rising again of many in Israel as for the rising of believers so for the fall of unbelievers But this is but by accident and besides the main intention either of God in sending or of Christ in coming He doth not cause the fall of such as perish directly as he doth the raising of such as are saved by him And this is not obscurely mentioned in that place which is parallel to this Isa 8.14 He shall be for a Sanctuary saith the Prophet there that is the main end which he serveth for to be a place of refuge to his people and therefore that which follows is added with a But as coming in upon the by besides his purpose He shall be for a Sanctuary but for a stone of stumbling and a rock of offence to the house of Israel and many among them shall stumble and fall and be broken Though he be in himself a Sanctuary yet this shall be the issue and event to some men Indeed he came into the world to save sinners as the Apostle Paul speaks 1 Tim. 1.15 not to destroy Sinners It s true that Sinners are destroyed by him but this was not the end of his coming God did not send his Son into the world saith the Evangelist Ioh. 3.17 to condemn the world but that the world by him might be saved And so our Saviour Christ himself professeth John 12.47 I came not to judge the world but to save the world And therefore if you look upon his story you shall find that he was frequently employed in works of mercy of helping and of saving people every way but when his hot Disciples would have the Samaritans destroyed by fire from heaven you know he would not hear of it You shall observe that he absolved and acquitted many in the dayes of his flesh Be of good cheer your sins are forgiven you But whom did he condemn or whose sins did he bind upon him No not the woman that was taken in adultery yea in the very act to shew how much this was besides his purpose And therefore when he delegated his Authority to his Apostles you may see the drift of it Mat. 28.19 20. It was to bring in his Elect to him that they might be saved by him having told them that all power was given to him both in heaven and in Earth Immediately by vertue of that power he gives them their Commission that they should go preach the Gospel and convert men to the faith and baptize them in his name He doth not say to them as God doth to the Prophet Ier. 1.10 I have set you over the Nations and over the Kingdoms to root out and to pull down and to destroy but I have sent you to the Nations to teach them and to save them Go teach all Nations baptizing them So that the point you see is fully proved That the authority of Jesus Christ with which he is invested over all flesh is chiefly for the benefit and the salvation of his own people And it must needs be so as I shall make it evidently and demonstratively to appear to you For First His very Mediatorship is chiefly for the benefit and salvation of his Reas 1 people and therefore the authority which he enjoys and which he is invested with as man and Mediator must needs be for the same End why was the Son of God incarnate why was he made the Mediator not for the hurt of wicked men but for the good of his chosen Not to bring them out or to keep them out but to bring these in not to make enmity or war for them but to make amity and peace for these And consequently his authority must have the same aim He took our nature on him he took upon him to be the Mediator between God and man and so accordingly assumed the Oeconomical and the dispensatory Kingdom too and the authority whereof we speak for the sake
of his people He had not been a Mediator he had not been a King as man but for his people They are the end of his Kingdom and of his power and hence the Execution of it is carried wholly and throughout with relation to the Saints All the authority he exercises is for them and all the judgements that he executeth are for them That which he doth as King and as a Iudge against the world is for them If he rebuke the great ones of the world it is for them as you may see Psal 105.10 He suffered no man to do them wrong but reproved Kings for their sakes and therefore he is called the King of Saints Apoc 15.3 True he is King of all the world his power is over all flesh but this Authority of his relates especially to his people He is peculiarly the King of Saints yea when he walks in ways of wrath and judgement and revenge towards his Churches Enemies he doth this as the King of Saints with relation to the Saints And hence those Sinâ—ers in the fore-alledged Text behold him in that act of pouring out the vials of his wrath upon the Beast they look upon him as the King of Saints And therefore they applaud him by no other name but this they pick and cull out this to magnifie him by They might have said Just and true are thy wayes O Lord Iesus O Lord Christ O Emmanuel or the like But they make choice of this Expression just and true are thy wayes O thou King of Saints To intimate that he did execute those judgments upon Antichrist and his Adherents not as King of the world so much but as the King of his people and for the better government the greater ease and peace and quiet of his people His aim was not so much at the destruction of his Enemies as at the relaxation of his Church He did it not so much out of hatred to the wicked as out of love to his people I deerly love my Saints whose King I am and they are not to be preserved in tranquillity and peace they will be always vexed and troubled and diisturbed unless I take this rigid course with such incorrigible wretches as these are The authority of Iesus Christ with c. must needs be chiefly for the salvation of his own people and not so much for the destruction of the wicked because the wicked might have been destroyed though he had never been invested with this authority as man but his own people could not have been saved The reprobate would certainly have gone to hell though all mankind had not been under the authority of Christ as Man and Mediator but under the authority of God only But the Elect and chosen had not gone to heaven It could not have been so but I make the supposition if it had been so So that his Father need not to have given him this power that wicked wretches might be punished with Eternal death that would have been done of course but that his own might have Eternal Life which they could not have had without Christ That other End had freely been accomplished and attained if Christ had never been incarnate if he had never been invested with this power as man the wicked had been damned But it was absolutely necessary to this end that the Godly might be saved that their Head and Mediator should have power to give Eternal life to them All the world had been destroyed they had been plunged in Eternal death if Christ had not been thus authorized to deliver his and save his And therefore this authority is put upon him by his Father that some might have Eternal life that he might give eternal life to as many believe in him The authority of Jesus Christ c. must needs be chiefly for the good and the salvation of his own people and not so much for the destruction of the world because he is invested with it by his Father out of love to mankind and that which is done in Love must needs be for a good end God did not send his son into the world and put such power upon him out of hatred to it but out of pitty and compassion to his own chosen God so loved the world that he gave his own son John 3.16 he did it out of much love and the End is answerable that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have life everlasting as it is added in the next words This is annexed you see that suits with love whereas if he had done it that unbelievers might be ruined and destroyed if that had been his main intention it had proceeded from another principle a principle of wrath and anger But this he disavows in the succeeding verse God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world but that the world by him might be saved And that God did not send his Son and give him power over all flesh out of hatred and displeasure but out of favour and good will and so by consequence his aim must be especially and chiefly at the good of his people The authority c. must needs be chiefly c. because he exerciseth this authority so long and but so long as they have any good to reap by it and when it is no further useful to his people he in some sense resigns it up to him from whom he had it And therefore certainly it is for them and their profit As long as there is an Enemy to hinder the good and comfort and salvation of his people either within them or without them he keeps this power in his hands to curb them and to keep them down And so as the Apostle tels us He must reign till all those enemies be under foot 1 Cor. 15.25 till they be utterly subdued And then when this is done when there is none to trouble or molest his people any longer when he hath past the sentence of eternal condemnation on the wicked and sent them packing unto hell and seemed to say unto his Saints These Enemies which you have seen to day you shall see them again no more for ever when he hath cast out every thing that offendeth that is offensive to his people and made an everlasting separation between the wicked and the godly when he hath cast the wicked into the Lake that burns with fire and brimstone which is the second death and given eternal life to all his people when he hath done them all the good that they are capable of and when there is no further use of his authority for their advantage he even yields it up to him that gave him power over all flesh 1 Cor. 15.28 By which it is apparent that he took this power upon him principally for his peoples sake Is it so that the authority of Jesus Christ with c. is chiefly for the Use 1 benefit and the salvation of his people This then may be one great encouragement among the
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
in Paradise no we are branches of such a Vine as never withers we are members of such a head as never dies So that undoubtedly the life of Jesus in us although it be not priviledged from abatements and temptations yet it hath nothing in it that tends to utter dissolution Secondly the life which Jesus Christ bestows upon his people as it hath no inward principles of dissolution in it self so neither is there any outward force that can prevail against it to destroy it Christ will preserve and maintain it in us in spite of any opposition The world may set upon us and endeavour to extinguish this life of holiness and grace in us she may assault us with her violent tentations every way with promises and sweet insinuations on the one side with threats and bloody persecutions on the other But this we may relie upon the world shall never overcome us for Christ hath overcome the world And we must know that Christ hath overcome the world not for himself alone but for his members And as he overcame it for us so he doth overcome it in us too by his grace as the Apostle intimates 1 John 5.5 This is the victory that overcomes the world even your faith The Devil is a far more subtile and pernitious adversary then the world but yet he cannot overthrow this life of grace in any of the Saints The gates of Hell cannot so far prevail against them The Serpent can but bruise the heel of Christ and those that appertain to Christ he cannot touch the head or breast he cannot wound us in the vital parts or take away our life from us The flesh is the worst enemy of all in this respect because it is an inward Enemy and a mortal enemy Either that must die or we as the Apostle Paul insinuates Rom. 8.13 But here 's our Comfort now the the flesh shall die and we shall live Christ will destroy the flesh in us and he will put the Spirit into us and maintain the Spirit in us And by this Spirit we shall live and this life shall be eternal We shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting Gal. 6.8 So that the point you see is fully cleered The life which Jesus Christ bestowes c. For first it hath no inward principles of frailty in it self And secondly there is no outward force that can prevail against it to destroy it But here it may be you will interpose those words of the Apostle Jude in the 12th v. of his Epistle where he speaks of some Revolters who were twice dead for that is his expression there they are trees whose fruit withereth Object twice dead plucked up by the roots And how were they twice dead They were not dead at all in regard of their outward and natural life for they were then alive and working mischief in the Church and therefore out of question his intention must be this First they were dead in trespasses and sins Then for a while in some respect or sence they lived the life of Grace And afterwards they died again and so they were twice dead and how then is the Doctrine true The life which Christ c. For resolution of the Scruple you must know my brethren that a man may live the life of grace either in deed and truth or else in shew and appearance only The Church of Sardis lived in shew she had a name Answ our Saviour tells her that she was alive but she was dead Rev. 3.1 There was but a name of life she had a name that she did live but there was the reality of Death she was dead Now they that live in name only who have the shew and the appearance of the life of Christ may die in shew and in appearance too And therefore the Apostle speaking according to the common apprehension and conceit of men saith they were twice dead Once indeed and really before they gave so much as any outward evidence of life And then again in shew and in appearance when they lost that life of grace which both to others and themselves they seemed to enjoy Now is it so that the life which Jesus Christ c. This then should stay Vse 1 us and support us against the fear of those tentations which threaten us with the destruction of the life of grace It is a great affliction to the Saints sometimes when they are mightily assaulted by Satan and their own corruptions and even ready to be overcome they cry out with relation to their spiritual as Job with respect to his natural life What is my strength that I should hope What grace have I that I should hold out against such violent Encounters as these are How should I hope to live when my life is thus assaulted with such fiery darts without with such distempers noxious humours and such lusts within Oh but remember my beloved Christ gives eternal life to his people a life that is not subject to destruction either by inward weakness or outward violence If ever once you have it from him you can never lose it He that once lives the life of Christ can never die death hath no more dominion over him Is it so my brethren that the life of c. This then may clear and Vse 2 comfort us against the frailty and dissolution of the life of nature It 's true my brethren that is subject to decay it is a perishable life but this is an eternal life That may and will be lost indeed but this endures to all eternity And why then are we so afraid of death why doth it terrifie us and affright us so when it hath done its utmost we shall live for ever Why are we grieved and troubled when they die the death of nature who have the life of Christ in them Truly my brethren we may say of such as our Saviour of the Damsell they are not dead As Christ to Martha when she bewailed the loss of her dear brother Lazarus John 11.26 Whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die He shall never die the death that overthrows the life of Christ the life of Grace for so you must conceive him there in that place q. d. Lazarus is a believer and therefore whatsoever thou maist apprehend he is not dead He is not dead in reference to that which is a Christians life indeed no true believer is capable of dying so whosoever liveth and believeth in me can never die It 's true my brethren such may lose the life of nature but that alas is but an image and a shadow and a shew of life The life of grace and holiness is life indeed he that liveth in sin is dead while he lives he that lives in holiness is alive when he dies and if the life of nature be not worth the name of life then certainly the death that overthrows no other but the life of nature deserveth not the name of death And hence the death of
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
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
in election though yet they are not given to him by real union and incorporation And if they appertain to Jesus Christ though they be never so untoward and indisposed and averse depend upon it he hath power to give Eternal life to them I say to every one of you my brethren that hath such a wife or such a husband or such a child or such a friend as Christ to Martha when he had told her that he was the resurrection and the life that he could raise up any man though he were dead and make him live Iohn 11.26 Believest thou this It may be you will say as she Alas my Brother or my Father or my Child hath been dead so many dayes so many years he hath laid buried in his grave of sin a long while so that by this time he stinketh Why yet believe that Jesus Christ can raise him up and make him live the life of grace and glory He hath received power to give eternal life to all that are bestowed upon him If they belong to that number be they as dead as it is possible for men to be and as averse from being quickned the power of Jesus Christ shall master them and overcome them and raise them up out of their graves of sin that you shall say with admiration See what Iesus Christ can do upon a poor dead Creature And therefore when you look upon such souls as those and seem to have the question put you that the Prophet had when he saw the dry bones Ezek. 37.3 Can these dead souls live do you give the same answer O Lord God thou knowst If they belong to Iesus Christ he hath power enough to raise them and he will surely do it in his own time Use 2 Is it so that Iesus Christ hath power to give eternal life to all that c. This then should teach us two things First Not to be lifted up upon the contemplation of our high condition and Secondly Not to be cast down upon the contemplation of our low condition in the world You see the men who are to have this life from Christ are not described to be of such a quality of such a station or condition but only to be given to him by the Father So that let them be what they will in all considerations and respects besides if God have given them to Christ they shall assuredly have life from him He hath received power for this End that he should give c. So that it matters not in this respect whether we be high or low rich or poor bond or free we are not any whit the nearer to the life of Christ my brethren for the one nor any whit the further from it for the other Be not lifted up upon the contemplation of your high Condition in the world Admit that you be wealthy admit that you be noble learned honourable and the like admit that you be any way advanced and raised above your brethren you have no cause at all to swell with these prerogatives or to be proud of these things Indeed they have their use and worth and therefore are not utterly to be contemned but yet we must withal consider that be their excellency what it will they are of no avail at all to bring us to the life of grace and glory In that which is the point of highest consequence matter of life and death yea of eternal life and death they will not steed us in the least degree and therefore certainly there is no cause at all why they should be so magnified and admired as they are If outward wealth and pomp or dignity did further us if outward baseness did hinder us in this business how is it that the base things of this world and things that are despised are chosen and that the poor in purse as well as spirit do receive the word of life when yet not many mighty not many noble in the world are called 1 Cor. 1.25 If outward wisdom learning policy did further or weakness or unlearnedness did hinder us in point of having life from Christ how is it that the weak and foolish things are chosen many times and that the Law of God gives understanding to the simple that the unlearned rise and take the kingdom as it were by force that is with earnestness and with affection when yet not many wise not many learned men are called Why are we so exalted upon these outward priviledges and preferments in the world What is it that you stand upon What that which will promote or further you to life Eternal Alas they are of no avail in this respect All these prerogatives with which men swell even till they burst again are such as they may carry with them into Hell Let us not be cast down upon the contemplation of our low condition in the world You that are simple poor and mean that have not any outward thing to glory in no wealth no parts no honour or preferment any way be not dejected and disheartened for as external priviledges and advancements are of no avail to further you so outward means and abasure is of no avail to hinder you from receiving life from Christ He gives it to as many as God hath given him let them be of what condition or estate they will There is no other thing required in this respect but that they be bestowed upon him by the Father And he bestows upon him poor and weak men many times yea most times And therefore be not out of heart for hadst thou all the wealth and honour in the world thou wert not any whit the nearer to this life of Christ nor art thou any whit the further from it by thy low condition That will be no impediment but that he may give thee life the life of grace in this world and the life of glory in the world to come Is it so that Jesus Christ hath no authority to give Eternal life to any but those who are bestowed upon him by his Father They are mistaken then who Use 3 hold that he came into the world to give life to all men He came as you have heard to do his Fathers will and this is his Fathers will that he should give Eternal life to as many as he hath given him and not to a man more This he hath given him authority and power to do further then this his Commission doth not reach So that it is not in the power of Jesus Christ to quicken all and save all it is apparent that he cannot do it Indeed as God he can do all things but those that are impossible Either absolutely being such as are not to be done or else impossible upon condition by reason of a contrary Decree by which he hath confined-himself But as man and Mediator he can do no more then God will have him he can save no more then God hath given him and put into his hands to save And therefore you shall
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
set at nought in this fashion Is life worth any thing Is life Eternal worth any thing Why in contemning Knowledge you contemn no less then this for this as you have heard is life Eternal And how deservedly may you be left to perish in Eternal Death who put the means of knowiedge from you and judge your selves unworthy of Eternal life Is it so that life Eternal or the life of Grace which is Eternal is begun Use 2 in holy Knowledge See here the sad Condition and estate of those who are ignorant of God have no acquaintance with him who know him not the only true God and Jesus Christ whom he hath sent They are absolutely dead the life of holiness and Grace is not yet begun in them They have not yet the least Degree the least spark of this life No they are strangers to the life of God through the ignorance that is in them in the place so often cited They are so far from being quickened to this life of Grace that they are meer strangers to it They know not what this kind of life means And are there not a multitude of such among us who are almost as ignorant of God and Christ as the very beasts that perish Who besides some common names and notions of God and of a Jesus and Saviour and the like which it may be they can talk a little of because they hear them every day know nothing of the one or of the other Examine them and sift them well and you shall find that rhey have nothing but a form of words at utmost of which they can give no more account then if they were some strange Language And are not these men in a sad case Truly my Brethren they are but walking Ghosts and gastly shadows they have no true life in them no not so much as the beginning of it for life Eternal is begun in Knowledge I know it is a Common fancy that if a man profess the true Religion if he have been baptized and come to the Assemblies and hear and pray as others do he is in a good Condition but be assured of this if he be ignorant of God and Jesus Christ whom he hath sent he is no better then a dead man It is a cooling word my Brethren and that which one would think should astonish and amaze you Suppose a Messenger should come to any of you from them that have the power of life and death and with a serious and composed look should tell him that he is a dead man how would it strike him to the heart how would his colour come and go how would the powers of his soul tremble Now we are Messengers dispatched from him who hath the Keyes of Hell and Death to tell you who are ignorant of God and Christ that you are in a state of death and condemnation and that you are in danger every hour of being cast into the lake that burns with fire and brimstone which is the second Death It may be you will take no notice of it but chase away the meditation of it from your thoughts You will as many do delude your selves with this conceit that though you die in this condition yet God notwithstanding will be merciful to you But as you tender the salvation of your precious souls I beseech you to observe that Gods own Word is peremptory and express for this That none that is devoid of knowledge and continues so shall have any share in the mercy of God or in the glory of the world to come Oh continue thy loving kindness to them that know thee to them and none but them saith David Psalm 36.10 It is a people of no understanding saith the Prophet of the Jews Isa 27.11 And what follows Therefore he that made them will not have mercy upon them It is the common apprehension of the vulgar sort that he that made them cannot chuse but save them too No saith the Prophet there if they be grosly ignorant Then God that made them will have no mercy upon them They have not known my wayes saith God unto whom I swore in my wrath that they should never enter into my rest The time is coming when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from Heaven with his mighty Angels in flaming fire rendring vengeance unto them that know not God And therefore I beseech you do not slight it but lay it seriously to heart while yet the pardon may be gotten while the condemnatory sentence which the Law hath put against you may be yet revoked Use 3 Is it so that life Eternal is begun in holy Knowledge You see then what you are to do and what course you are to take if you would live Eternally Originally we are all dead men we are in a condition and a state of death And if you yet continue as you came into the world this is surely your case Now my Beloved are you sensible of this would you come out of this condition do you desire to live and live for ever Labour after holy Knowledge And this is life eternal to know the only true God and Jesus Christ whom he hath sent Though this as I have shewed you be not all that goes to life Eternal yet this is the beginning of it and therefore if you mean to live Eternally this is the first thing that you are to do this is the first step that you are to make Till saving knowledge be attained in some degree the soul continues in a state of death as soon as this comes once into the soul Eternal life comes in with it The Exhortation of the Wise man seems to go far Prov. 2 4. Seek for knowledge as for silver and search for her as for hidden treasure But we must go a great deal further seek for it as for life yea as for Eternal Life Struggle for knowledge as it were for life and death But you will ask me which way shall we come to know God and know Christ To this I answer that you cannot know him by innate and in-bred light by any self-ability let it be what it will it is incompetent and insufficient to reveal God to you though much of him be manifested in the Book of the Creation his Wisdom his eternal power and God-head and though there be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 something to be known of God as the Apostle speaks by studying in this Book you cannot know him savingly by this means No neither can you know him so by studying in the Book of Scriptures neither though there he be revealed more fully then he is in the book of Creatures unless some other help go with it Nay more then so you cannot know him fully and compleatly any way by any means in this life As he is in himself he is not to be known of any but himself And hence tâ—â— Scripture tells us that no man hath seen God at any time John 1.18 It is very full you see no man at
any time But though he doth not yet he may No saith the Apostle Paul 1 Tim. 6.16 He dwells in light that no man can approach unto whom no man hath seen nor can see Indeed we see him darkly here as the Apostle speaks 1 Cor. 13.12 And therefore this is called the seeing of the back-parts of the Lord. As when we see the back-parts of a man we know him but by guess only we know him not so perfectly and distinctly as when we come to see his face Such a sight of God is that which we attain in this life And however it may seem by some expression in the Scripture that God hath fully manifested and made known himself to some here as to Jacob Gen. 32.30 and to Moses Num. 12.8 To him will I speak saith God by vision not in darkness and he shall see the similitude of God This must be understood comparatively of the Lords more clear and full revealing of himself to Jacob and to Moses then to other men But as for perfect light and knowledge of the Lord my Brethren this was not imparted neither to Jacob nor to Moses Thou shalt not see my face saith God to Moses Exod. 33.10 That is the fulness of my glory for none shall see my face and live But which way may we come to know him so far as he is to be known in this life Truly there is but one way of coming to the knowledge of him and this way is Jesus Christ No man hath seen God at any time saith the Evangelist Ioh. 1.18 What then is he not to be seen not to be known at all by any means Yes though he be not to be seen or known immediately in himself yet mediately in and by the Son he may be known for he hath manifested and revealed him to us No man hath seen God at any time the only begotten Son which is in the bosom of the Father he hath declared him And therefore when our Saviour was Incarnate it is said that God was manifested in the flesh 1 Tim. 3.16 In which respect it is that when Philip was so earnest to have the Father shewn him our Saviour bids him to behold himself and addeth presently he that hath seen me hath seen the Father also Indeed it was the business of our Saviour Christ into this Lower world to bring God down to us that we might be acquainted with him And therefore if you do indeed desire to know him go to Christ and use his help in this business If you ever see God and have that knowledge of him which is life Eternal you must have light from Jesus Christ to see him by I am the light of the world saith he Ioh 8.12 without me there is no light in all the world none but that which comes from me and which I am the Fountain of He that follows me shall have the light of Life that is the light which is life And therefore if you would have this light follow Jesus Christ for it and follow him three wayes or in the use especially of three Means follow him in a Gospel-Ordinance a Gospel grace a Gospel-duty Follow him in the Gospel-ordinance of preaching there it is that Christ shines that he gives out the light by which he shews his Father to his people It s true indeed that Moses shewed him in the Law as a Judge and an Avenger But it is Jesus Christ that shews him in the Gospel as a Father and a Saviour He is not manifest in a saving way anywhere but in the Gospel The Knowledge of him as he is discovered there and none but that is life eternal And therefore wait on that discovery if you mean to live for ever where there is any Gospel-preaching say Christ shews his Father there and follow him that so you may have life by this means I say as Solomon Prov. 4.13 Take fast hold of Instruction keep her for she is thy life Follow him in a Gospel-grace and that is faith by this it is that we come to see God and know God as by it we believe the Revelations and Discoveries that are made of God which other men may read and hear and yet because they have no faith to give belief and credit to them they get no sight no knowledge of the Lord by them It is by faith that we see him who is invisible as the expression is Heb. 11.27 There are some things that must be first believed before they can be fully understood if you believe them not you can never understand them And hence saith the Apostle in the third ver of the fore-cited Chapter by saith we understand the world to be created by the word of God A man would think he would have said by faith we credit and believe it and not by faith we understand it But the Creation is a thing that is above Philosophy and therefore is not to be fully understood unless it be believed first It is our faith that helps us to the perfect Knowledge of it and so by faith we see and know God because by faith we give assent to the discoveries that are made of God in Scripture and having once believed them we come to see and understand the nature of the Lord in them We see the Lord in his All-mightiness his All-sufficiency his Omni-presence c. which a man that hath not faith can neuer do we bring him near us by believing his Immensity and that he filleth all places as he is said to do in Scripture we look upon him now as just by us and so we have a clear and distinct sight of him Follow Christ in a Gospel-duty and that is Prayer beseech him to reveal God to you make your address to him as Philip doth Iohn 14.9 Shew us the Father we cannot see him of our selves Lord shew him to thy poor servants If Christ withdraw himself and step away go after him follow him and you shall have the light of Life If he stop his ears against you cry the louder as the Direction is Prov. 2.3 Cry after Knowledge lift up your voyce for Understanding and what then Then shall you understand the fear of the Lord and find the Knowledge of God Is it so that life Eternal c. If then you desire to save men from Eternal Use 4 death to bring men to Eternal Life instill the Knowledge of the Lord into them It may be you have Children it may be you have Friends or servants whom you look upon as dead they have no life of grace in them well Would you have them quickened Would you have them live for ever Do what you can by all the means that you can think upon to make them know God Instruct them bring them to the means of grace examine them how they thrive and profit by them Oh do not see them sink away to hell and die for ever for want of any help that you can yield them of any pains
that you can bestow upon them Have compassion upon them save them with fear pulling them out of the fire out of the fire of hell by this means Oh pitty such a Child or such a Friend or such a servant as you see Ignorant of God let your bowels earn upon him Ah poor dead soul And if you can be Instrumental to instill the Knowledge of the Lord into him you shall do a great work you shall save a soul from death yea from Eternal death you shall bring it to Eternal life JOHN 17.3 That they might know thee the only true God and Jesus Christ c. AND thus far of the thing Explained and that as you have heard is life Eternal together with the way of Explication our Saviour shews not quare sit but quid sit what this life Eternal is This saith he is life Eternal that they might know thee the only true God and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent So that as you have heard it consists in holy Knowledge Proceed we now to look a little more particularly and distinctly on the Knowledge in which Eternal life consists as it is here described by the Object of it God and Christ Thee the only true God and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent So that here is a double Object of the Knowledge mentioned and each of them is set forth by a Title and an Attribute The Title of the former God the Attribute the true God yea the only true God The Title of the latter Jesus Christ the Attribute whom God hath sent Thee the only true God and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent And here the first thing that I shall observe is the communication of this double Object of the Knowledge wherein Eternal life consists God and Christ You see my Brethren they are closely knit together by the conjunctive particle And to shew us that they may not be divided in this great business That it is not sufficient to salvation to believe in God unless we believe in Christ to To know God unless we know Christ too Our Saviour saith not this is life Eternal to know the only true God no he doth not stop there The knowledge which proceeds no further will never bring a man to life Eternal There is another Object of this saving Knowledge which must with all be jointly apprehended by us if we mean to live for ever and that is Jesus Christ whom God hath sent And then my Brethren if we take them both together we are right It is impossible that we should perish This is life Eternal to know thee the only true God and Iesus Christ whom thou hast sent Not thee alone but thee and Christ So that the Point to be observed is this DOCTRINE The Knowledge which is life Eternal in which Eternal life consists is the Knowledge both of God and Christ too not of the former only but the latter also You see my Brethren both of them are jointly made the Object of it in my Text. So that the Knowledge which neglecteth either of them is in-sufficient to salvation If it stay and rest on God and go not on to Jesus Christ it will never reach home This only this is life Eternal to know God and Jesus Christ not divided but together First it is true that it is absolutely necessary to Eternal life to know God The ignorant of him are made the Objects of a dreadful Imprecation Ier. 10.25 Yea more then so the ignorant among the heathen who were deprived of the means though not of all yet of the saving Knowledge of him and yet as you may see the Prophet prayes Pour out thy fury upon the heathen that know thee not Indeed the men that have their understandings darkened by reason of their ignorance of God whether they have means or none are alienated from the life of God Ephes 4.18 They do not live the life of Grace in this world nor shall they live the life of Glory in the world to come And the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from Heaven with his mighty Angels rendring vengeance unto them that know not God 2 Thes 1.7 So that without the knowledge of him there is no escaping everlasting wrath and vengeance There is no possibility of coming to enjoy him unless we be acquainted with him Nec cum potes aut amare quem nescias aut habere quem non amaveris thou canst not love him whom thou knowest not nor have him whom thou lovest not Nay let me go a little further that Knowledge of the Lord and only that is life Eternal which bringeth forth obedience to him You may see this evident in both the parts of godliness both in eschewing evil and in doing good As for the first hear what the Lord himself saith Job 28.28 The fear of the Lord that is Wisdom and to depart from evil is understanding To know him so to fear him to fear to disobey him and to sin against him this only is the right Knowledge As for the other part of godliness which consists in doing good see that of the Prophet David Psalm 111.10 A good understanding have they that do his Commandments They only understand and know the Lord effectually and savingly that obey the will of God Others may have understanding but it is no good understanding That alone is good and right which makes a man to do his Commandments and this the Lord himself observes of the knowledge of Iosiah Ier. 22.16 He judged the cause of the poor and needy was not this to know me saith the Lord q.d. This was knowledge to the purpose this was true and real knowledge of the Lord which made him strict and carefull in the practice of his duty And therefore because this is life Eternal God hath bound himself by Covenant to give them whom he means to save such a knowledge of himself His Covenant is to give them Understanding see the abridgement of it Ier. 31.34 They shall all know me saith God there But how shall they know God Why they shall know him so as to serve him and obey him And therefore it is said before I will put my Law in their inward parts and write it in their hearts They shall not have it only in their minds to know it but in their hearts to practice and obey it And so they shall all know me So that you see the Knowledge which is saving in which Eternal life consists hath God for the object of it Secondly but though it have him for the Object of it it hath him not for the sole and only Object if our knowledge go no further it will never reach home it will never bring us up to Life and Glory The Knowledge which is life Eternal you have heard in which Eternal life consists is the knowledge both of God and Christ too Not of the former only but of the latter also To know God without Christ is not to know him savingly as I shall shew
thus he dealt you know with Saul and Judas But he chose Christ out of a special and peculiar love never to be reversed again And just so he chose us in and by and through Christ out of the very same love and with the very same intentions in reference to revocation that he chose Christ And what will God cast away his people whom he hath foreknown from everlasting whom he hath chosen in his Son Christ before the foundation of the world was laid as the Apostle speaks Eph. 1.4 No no his choice of us is as unalterable as his choice of Christ himself And when he casts away Christ then and not till then my brethren will he cast away us Doth God the Father love believers as his servants even as he loves Christ Then surely he will deal with us in this regard much as he dealt with Christ as I shall shew you in a few particulars 1. He will uphold us as he did uphold Christ A Master will uphold his servant in any business or employment that he setteth him about Especially a servant that he loves So did God uphold Christ and he seems to glory in it and to call us to observe it Isa 42.1 Behold my Servant whom I uphold I am resolved to bear him out meddle with him he that dare Indeed when the appointed time was come he gave him up to suffer what he had designed him to But in the interim he bore him out so that no projects no attempts could take against him they could not seize upon him they could not hurt him saith the Gospel story because his hour was not yet come Even so will God uphold us untill our hour be come too For we are servants whom he loves even as he loved Christ And as he is a loving so he is an al-sufficient and almighty Master as he said to Abraham when he took him to be a Covenant-servant to him Gen. 17.1 And therefore he will be not only a reward but a shield to his servants a shield and an exceeding great reward as his own expression is Gen. 15.1 A reward for their salvation and a shield for their protection 2. God will assist us in his service as he did assist Christ Christ had a piece of work you know in hand that was very difficult so that he sweat and that not ordinary sweat but drops of blood trickling down upon the earth Yea more then so he fainted while he was about it But God his Master that employed him took a special care of him and sent an Angel down from heaven of purpose to comfort him and strengthen him Luke 22.43 And when as man he feared how he should hold out and how he should go through with the business as to any self sufficiency as a Creature and so wept and cried to God he had a very sweet return as you may see Heb. 5.7 When in the dayes of his flesh he had offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears to him that was able to save him he was heard in that he feared Just so doth God support us in the work he calls us to for we are servants whom he loves even as he loved Christ If he perceive the service that we have in hand to be too difficult and hard for us then in comes God and puts his own hand to the work What canst thou not go through with it Come let me help thee saith the Lord. It is observed of the Levites that God helped them 1 Chron. 15.26 And the Apostle tells us that the spirit helpeth our infirmities Rom. 8.26 he stands against us and bears up the burthen with us So that the weakest servants of the Lord need not fear the hardest service or the heaviest burthen when he hath such a one to help him and when those everlasting arms are underneath him as the Prophet speaks Deut. 33.27 What said the Lord to Paul when he was hard bestead and when he was about to faint My grace is sufficient for thee And this made Paul to say I can do all things through Christ that strengthneth me Phil. 4.13 3. Out of this love God will reward us for the service that he enables us to do as he did reward Christ As soon as he had done his work he had his wages down upon the nail for he was heard in that prayer John 15.4 I have glorified thee upon earth I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do and now Oh Father glorifie me with thy self And so as soon as we have ended and dispatched the business that God hath put into our hands we shall receive our own reward according to our own labour Having had the fruit to holiness we shall receive the end eternal life If we be faithfull to the death we shall receive the Crown of life Apoc. 2.10 If we continue in the Vineyard to the Evening we shall have our penny If we hold out to the period of our lives when we shall come to dye we may conclude with God as Christ doth in the forealledged place We have glorified thee on earth we have finished the work which thou gavest us to do and now O Father glorifie us with thy self and we may sing our dying Song with the Apostle 1 Tim. 4.7 We have fought a good fight we have finished our Course henceforth there is laid up for us a Crown of righteousness which God the righteous Judge will give us Doth God the Father love believers as his Children even as he loves Christ doth he affect them under that relation too and that as he doth Christ Then surely he will shew him self a loving Father to them as he doth to Christ and that especially in two respects 1. He will hear them as he doth hear Christ You know it is but ask and have with Christ Thou art my Son saith God the Father to our Saviour Psa 2.6 this day I have begotten thee And what follows Ask of me and I will give thee And this is that which Christ himself acknowledges John 11.42 Father I thank thee because thou hast heard me Yea so he might in that particular and yet he might deny him in another But mark what followes presently and I know thou hearest me alwayes Thou art my Father and I am thy Son and hence it is that thou art so inclinable to hear me to let me have my own asking Even so will God hear us in every thing that we desire according to his will for we are Children also whom he loves even as he loves Christ And therefore as it was but ask and have with Christ just so it is with us too Ask and it shall be given you Mat. 7.7 And that because he is our loving Father as he is Christs Our heavenly Father will undoubtedly give good things to them that ask him 2. He will provide for us as he doth for Christ You know he hath provided well for Christ He is not his Son
condition the Lord notwithstanding will be mercifull to them But as you tender the salvation of your pretious souls I beseech you to observe that Gods own word is peremptory and express for this that none that know not God shall have any share in the mercy of God or in the glory of the world to come Oh continue thy loving kindness to them that know thee to them and none but them saith David Psal 36.10 It is a people of no understanding saith the Prophet of the Jews Isa 27.11 And what follows Therefore he that made them will have no mercy upon them It is the common apprehension of vulgar and ignorant people that he that made them will save them too No saith the Prophet if they be ignorant of God he that made them will not have mercy upon them They have not known my wayes saith God unto whom I sware in my wrath that they should never enter into my rest But you will ask me then Quest By what means shall we come to know God Truly there is but one way of coming to the knowledge of him Answ and that way is Jesus Christ No man hath seen God at any time 1 John 18. What then is he not to be seen or known at all by any means Yes though he be not to be seen or known immediately in himself yet mediately in and by the Son he may be known For he hath manifested and revealed him to us No man hath seen God at any time the only begotten Son that came out of the bosome of the Father he hath declared him Indeed it was the business for which our Saviour came into this lower world to bring God down to us that we might be acquainted with him And if ever you see or know God you must have light from Jesus Christ I am the light saith he John 8.12 He that follows me shall have the light of life And therefore if you would have this light follow Jesus Christ for it How you must follow him so as to fetch this light from him I have directed you before on the third verse of this Chapter Is it so that unbelievers and unsanctified persons know not God Vse 2 What cause have true believers then to admire and adore the special mercy of the Lord to them that they should be acquainted with him That he should give them the preferment in such a blessed and glorious priviledge as this is That now they can say to God as our Saviour in my text Oh Righteous Father the world hath not known thee but we have known thee O Lord whence is this to us how is it Lord that thou dost manifest thy self to us and not unto the world as the Disciples said John 14.22 How comes this to pass Lord Truly this is free-grace and free-mercy mercy to be admired and wondred at Oh let our souls and all that is within us bless the Lord Let us take up our Saviours words Father we thank thee that thou hast hid thy self from a world of wise and prudent men and hast revealed thy self to such babes as we are We bless thy name for this mercy And truly we have cause to bless him for this knowledge is our life keep it for it is thy life saith Solomon Prov. 4.13 and life is a pretious thing If we had still remained in the condition that the world is in we had never known God we must have died to all eternity we had been punished with eternal perdition we could never have enjoyed him who is the God of our life But now we know him so as to love him we shall be sure to live with him and that for ever Nay this is life yea life eternal in regard of the beginning such a life as is above the power of death and dissolution as our Saviour Christ assures us John 17.3 This is life eternal to know thee the only true God and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent JOHN 17.25 But I have known thee and these have known c. AND thus of what our Saviour speaks against the world Oh Righteous Father the world hath not known thee Proceed we to know what he speaks for himself and true believers But I have known thee and these have known that thou hast sent me There is no difficulty in the terms requiring any tedious explication I have known thee saith our Saviour to the Father though the world be strangers to thee yet I am very well acquainted with thee I know thee inwardly And my Disciples here have known that thou hast sent me They have been throughly perswaded that I am a messenger sent forth from thee to manifest thy nature and thy will to them which I have done accordingly I have declared to them thy name So they have known thee by my means So that the special thing to be observed here my brethren is the order in which the knowledge of the Father is dispensed First Christ the Mediator knows him he is acquainted with him in the first place I know thee saith our Saviour here And then Believers are acquainted with him by the means of Christ And these have known that thou hast sent me and I have declared unto them thy name The Observation then is this DOCTRINE That Jesus Christ and he alone knows God immediately and others know him by the means of Christ All saving knowledge of the Father comes out by Jesus Christ to his people Christ knows him first and then we know him in the second place by him No man hath seen God at any time John 1.18 What then is he not to be seen or known at all by any means Yes though he be not to be seen or known by us immediately in himself yet mediately in and by the Son he may be known for he hath manifested and revealed him to us No man hath seen God at any time The only begotten Son which is in the bosome of the Father he hath declared him Indeed it was the business for which our Saviour came into this lower world to bring God down to us that we might be acquainted with him Ye neither know me nor my Father saith our Saviour to the Jews John 8.19 If ye had known me ye should have known my Father also q. d. I would have brought you to the knowledge of my Father And as the Book in Apoc. 5.9 had still remained a sealed Book unless the Lamb had opened it so God had still remained a concealed God he had never been discovered and manifested to us in a saving way unless the Son himself had done it So that the Point is plain you see That Jesus Christ and he alone knows God immediately and others know him by the means of Christ And therefore in the first place this may serve for information to let Vse 1 us see that no man can be saved by his own innate knowledge nor by the light that is naturally in him let him use it how he will or how