slaughter in their stead there go his blood and life and all He shall bleed and bleed to death that they may be healed and live Oh the narrow hearts of men how far short do they fall of comprehending such a miracle of mercy Well may the Angels wonder at it and desire to peep into it Yea the blessed Lord himself whether as wondring at or willing to make us wonder at this admirable business hath called the nane of Christ Wonderfull Vse 4 Is it so that God the Father hath dearly loved Jesus Christ from all eternity This then may serve for sweet and pretious consolation to all them that belong to Christ for they may be hence assured that God hath loved them from all eternity even as he did Christ For if you mark it well our Saviour speaks here of the love the Father bare him as man and Mediator as the head of his Church and so he loved him not alone but he loved his members in him and he loved his members with him Indeed he loved him as Mediator in reference to those for whom he was to make peace and loved him as a head in reference to those who were to be members of his body and as he had not been a Mediator and a head but for the working of their salvation whom God appointed thereunto so neither had he been beloved in that capacity and under that consideration but upon the same account and consequently if he were beloved as man and Mediator and head of his Church from everlasting his people and his members were beloved from everlasting too without whom he was no head They were designed to be members by the same decree by which he was designed to be head And as they were elected in him so they were beloved in him before the foundation of the world But you will ask me Which way doth this yield you out such pretious comfort that you have been beloved of God from all eternity 1. It is a comfort to consider that the great and glorious God of heaven and earth should think of such poor worms as we from everlasting much more that he should set his love upon us The world it may be looks upon us as not worth the speaking of as not worth the thinking of much less as worthy of the least respect And this it may be troubles and dejects us now and then But this may cheer us and encourage us upon the other side that God himself did think upon us yea and dearly love us too from all eternity when we had not a being in the world save only in the Counsel and Decree of God he made more of us then these men do now we have a gratious being 2. It is a comfort to consider that God and we have been such old friends that he hath loved us from all eternity For it is like the love will hold that hath been of such standing We have a Proverb Change not an old friend for a new because the new is like to be more fickle God hath been an old friend time out of mind And therefore he is like to be the more constant From everlasting he hath loved us and therefore we may safely rest and rely on his love 3. If God have loved us from everlasting then he hath loved us all along since that time Before we had a being in the world and since we had a being before we had a gratious being when we were dead in trespasses and sins And if he loved us then assuredly he will not cease to love us now notwithstanding all our unallowed imperfections and defects He will continue and go on to love us still till he have lodged us with himself in glory Oh how should this revive the hearts of those among the Saints who are so apt to doubt the love of God because they sin so often and so much against him Why man God loved thee when thou didst sin against him more then now thou dost he loved thee when thou hatedst him and therefore certainly he will not hate thee now thou lovest him No he that loved thee from the beginning will love thee also to the end He that loved thee from everlasting will love thee to everlasting and nothing in the world shall separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. And thus we have at length dispatched the body of our Saviours prayer and are arrived at the close or the conclusion of it In which his drift and purpose is to render his Disciples for whom he hath petitioned all along before very acceptable and very gratious to his Father and so to leave them in his hands And that upon this account because they only had the true and saving and affective knowledge of him They only were acquainted with him when as all the world beside were strangers to him And it was reason he should rather do for them then do for strangers Oh righteous Father the world hath not known thee but I have known thee and these have known that thou hast sent me and I have declared unto them thy name q. d. And now to shut up all and to come to a conclusion I pray thee Father to consider this for close of all That the world for whom I have not said a word in all my prayer nay for whom I have professed not to pray I pray for these I pray not for the world yet they the world are wholly ignorant of thee and unacquainted with thee But I that have put up this prayer to thee know thee very well no one in the world better And they for whom I have put up this prayer know thee too by my means for I have manifested and declared thee to them And therefore I am confident that thou wilt hear and answer me in their behalf None know thee in the world but I and they I that pray and they for whom I pray Remember that and I have done I say no more but even leave thee to consider whether thou wilt hear and answer me for them or no Oh righteous c. the world c. In this conclusion of our Saviours prayer I shall consider but these two things To whom he speaks and What he speaks for close of all First to whom he speaks and that you see my brethren is to God whom he stileth righteous Father Secondly what he speaks in the remainder of the two verses which may be very well divided by the subjects of his speech the persons that he speaks of viz. the world himself and true believers as we shall see at large hereafter Begin we with the person that he speaks to and him he mentions by his title and his attribute His title here you see is Father his attribute is righteous righteous Father As for the first of these my brethren I have shewed you more then once that Father in this prayer of our Saviour is not personally taken for the first person of
6.2 Bear you one anothers burthen and so fulfill the Law of Christ that is the Law of love for that my Brethren is the Law of Christ A new Commandment give I unto you Novum quia renovatum A new Commandment give I unto you that you love one another And what is love but the fulfilling of the Moral Law as the Apostle speaks And yet this same Apostle speaking of this Law of love calls it not the Law of nature but the Law of Christ Bear ye one anothers burthen which is a special act of love and so fulfill the Law of Christ So that the Moral Law you see my Brethren is the Law of Christ and therefore he is pleased to own it and to call it his Commandment John 15.12 to fortifie it with his own authority as in the Sermon on the Mount and to impose the precept of it on the people And that this Moral Law is universal and extends to all flesh appears by this that it is not imposed alone upon the members of the Church but on the very heathen too upon the Kings and Princes of the earth as you may see Psal 2.2 The Kings and Princes of the earth set themselves and the Rulers take Counsel together against the Lord and his Christ saying Let us break their bondâ— asunder and cast away their cords from us that is the Precepts and Commandments not of the Gospel only but also of the Moral Law Which is the Law of nature and obliged not the Jews alone but all the Nations of the world So that no marvel though they both conspire together to rid themselves of these bonds The Heathen rage the people of the Jews imagine the Kings and Rulers not of Jews only but of all the earth stand up and say Let us break these bonds asunder and cast away these cords from us These bonds and cords which are imposed and laid upon us all with which we all of us do finde our selves restrained and bound that is the Precepts and Commandments of the Moral Law So that you see Christ by his Legislative power gives Law to all flesh as to the outward man and to the Members He gives Law to all flesh as to the inward man and to the conscience The Law of Jesus Christ is Spiritual as the Apostle Paul tels us Rom. 7.14 not only in the nature of it but also in the subjects of it It takes hold upon the souls the spirits and consciences of men It captivates their very thoughts 2 Cor. 10.5 And herein Jesus Christ is singular and manifesteth such authority as no one exerciseth but himself It s true that men do oftentimes give Laws unto the outward man and to the members in politick and civil things and then they do it too as Christs Vicegerents and his Deputies they do it under him and by authority from him But it is Christ and he alone that gives Laws unto the Conscience in holy and religious things He delegates the former power to Magistrates who in the same respect are stiled the Ministers of Christ But this authority he makes not over to any of the sons of men And yet he exercises this authority over all the sons of men so that there is not one of them exempted from his Power As Jesus Christ hath a Legislative power so a Judiciary power As he hath a Legislative power to give Laws so a Judiciary power to execute the Laws that he hath given And this is universal too my Brethren as the other is As he gives his Laws to all so he executes his Laws on all flesh And therefore he is called a Judge very often in the Scripture I need not give you instances for they are known yea he is stiled the Judge of all and not alone of all that are alive but even of those that are departed and deceased as you may see that place for instance Acts 10.42 where he is stiled the Judge of the quick and dead It s true that other Judges in the world can judge the quick they can deal well enough with those that are alive but if they die they are gone out of their hands for ever But Jesus Christ is Judge of all flesh quick flesh and dead flesh Judge of quick and dead too Death cannot rescue men out of his hands no my Beloved he can pursue them to eternity and follow them into another world and there can execute the rigour of his wrath upon them to the very utmost And as he is the Judge of all persons so he is Judge of all cases All judgement is committed to him not some but all judgement Job 5.22 whether the case be manifest and open or whether it be hid and secret all is one Christ is Judge of both these and this is singular to Jesus Christ Men can do nothing in a case that is absolutely secret If a murther be committed and nothing be discovered any way no not so much as by a circumstance or by some grounds of strong suspition what can an earthly Judge do He knows the Law is broken but yet he cannot execute the sentence of the Law because he is not able to discover the Offender Now Jesus Christ is not to seek in such Cases To him all things are naked and uncovered And therefore he brings every work to judgement and every secret thing Eccl. 12.14 And the Apostle tels us of a day when God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ according to his Gospel Rom. 2.16 So that you see no flesh can escape his judgement let the man be what he will and let the cause be what it will Now this Judiciary power of Christs consists of two things in passing sentence upon all flesh in executing the sentence after it is past A word or two of these in order Christ hath the power of passing sentence upon all flesh All mankinde is under his authority in this respect and they must all appear before the Judgement Seat of Christ as the Apostle Paul speaks 2 Cor. 5.10 there to receive their last doom either of absolution or condemnation Sometimes he passeth sentence on them in the Court of Conscience here he sealeth up mens condemnation to them and makes it to become a certain thing They are condemned already in themselves and there remaineth nothing to them but a certain looking for of judgment as the expression is Heb. 10.27 And on the other side he sealeth up mens absolution he sealeth Pardons to the conscience This he hath power to do and this he doth sometimes on earth Mat. 9 6. The Son of man hath power on earth to forgive sins At utmost in the last and dreadfull day all the dead both great and small appear before him and receive a sentence from him either the one way or the other as you may see Apoc. 20.12 And as he hath the power of Passing so the power of Executing Sentence upon all Flesh All mankinde is under his authority in
vve had in him and which way comes he to be ours again but by a new a second Covenant which he makes the former being broken and dissolved I entered into Covenant with thee and thou becamest mine saith the Lord to his people Ezech. 16.8 And is not Christ the Foundation of the Covenant Is it not made with him in Christ Is not the condition of the Covenant Faith in Christ Mark what the Apostle saith Gal. 3.16 The Covenant was not made to seeds as many but to seed as one that is to Christ in aggregato comprizing all his members with him It was not made immediately to us no it was made immediately to Christ our Head and in and through him to us his members So that the Lord is not in Covenant with us he is not ours vve have no Title to him but in Christ And hence the Interest of Christ in God is made the rise and ground of ours I ascend to my God and your God saith Jesus Christ to his Disciples John 20.17 First mine and then yours God is our Master but in Christ He is his first and chief servant and we are his servants in him God is our Father but in Christ he is his first begotten Son and we are his sons in him So that if we know Christ there is a possibility that vve may know the Lord as our God But if we know not Christ at all how can we know God in him We may know him as a God as Adam did between the fall and the renewing of the Covenant but such a one as we shall flie from and as we can by no means close withall because we look upon him now as none of ours as one in whom vve have no Interest at all And certainly Eternal life cannot consist in such a Knowledge of the Lord as this is Fourthly Knowledge of God is not enough to life Eternal unless we Reason 4 know Christ too because unless we know Christ as we know God without Interest so we know him without Faith I mean without saving faith if vve know God without Christ we may believe in God vvithout Christ vve may believe in him as he is Omnipotent and All-mighty and Eternal and the like But such a faith as this will never justifie us in the present Life nor save us in the life to come Even Turks and Jews and Arrians boast of faith in God you know and yet because they appehend not Jesus Christ they catch at nothing but a shadow and miserably lose their own souls He that denies and so by consequence believes not in the Son can never have the Father as you may see 1 John 2.28 But he that hath the Son hath the Father also Well then if we will so believe in God as to come to life Eternal vve must believe in him through Christ Such trust have we through Christ in God saith the Apostle 2 Cor. 3.4 And this we cannot do unless vve know not God only but Jesus Christ whom he hath sent For distinct explicite Knowledge is absolutely necessary to the being of Faith and perfect Ignorance in any point whatever it be destroyes all faith in that particular And hence is the Apostles question How shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard and consequently whom they have not known So that if we know not Christ we cannot believe in him vve cannot believe in God with a justifying faith And he that believes not is condemned already such a person is in a state of death and condemnation But if we know both God and Christ too and so as to believe in God through Christ Eternal life consists in this Knowledge This is life Eternal to know the only true God c. Vse 1 Now is it so my Brethren that the Knowledge which is life Eternal in which Eternal life consisteth is the Knowledge both of God and Christ too Then in the first place we may here behold the dangerous estate of Heathen Nations who know not Jesus Christ nor can they any vvay in the condition they are in attain to this Knowledge How should they come to life Eternal if this be life Eternal to know the only true God and Iesus Christ whom he hath sent It s true that even they have means to know God as the Apostle shews and proves Rom. 1.19 20. That which may be known conceive it that which may be naturally known of God is manifest in them that is the Heathen for God hath even shewed it to them For the Invisible things of him from the Creation of the world are cleerly seen being understood by the things which he hath made even his eternal power and God-head So that there is an Image and Resemblance of him stamped upon the Creatures there are apparent Characters and foot-steps and Impressions of the God-head of his Power and of his Wisdom set upon the things that he hath made which may be looked upon by every eye How doth his Glory shine and glister in the Rare and admirable structure of the World the glorious frame of Heaven and Earth And hence it is that David saith the Heavens declare the glory of God and the Firmament sheweth his handy-work Psalm 19.1 Indeed he tells us afterwards the Law of the Lord is perfect the Word of God and that alone is a perfect a compleat and perfect help to bring us to the knowledge of God but yet there is some declaration of him in the Creatures the Heavens declare the glory of God And the means the Heathens have the creatures Catechize them and instruct them in the Knowledge of God as Job shews Iob 12.7 Ask now the beasts and they shall teach thee the fowls of the heavens and they shall tell thee or speak to the earth and it shall teach thee and the fishes of the Sea shall declare to thee who knoweth not in all these that the hand of the Lord hath wrought this and therefore the Apostle tells us that even they the heathen know God as you may see Rom. 1.21 But now they have no means to know Christ and this is life Eternal to know both both God and Christ too So that in this respect they are cut off from life Eternal which is a very sad case This Knowledge is not written in the Creature-book and they have not the Scripture-book and how then should they come to it It s true that God is written in the Creature-book as I shewed you even now but not a word of Christ there Not a word I mean as Man and Mediator of the Church as he is Christ whom God hath sent He did not make the World as man and so by Consequence as Man he is not represented in the Book of the Creation God is written in the heart but not a word of Christ there The Law is written in the heart by nature but there are no Impressions of the Gospel which is the Word of Christ as the Apostles phrase is
sometimes called a lye in Scripture as Ier. 10.11 his molten image is falshood or a lye because it hath not that divinity which it pretendeth to which it is supposed to have by those that worship and adore it And because it doth not yield that succour which it seems to promise You know what God affirmeth of the Idols of the Jews that they are no gods Ier. 5.7 My people have forsaken me and sworn by them that are no gods An oath is taken there by a Synecdoche for all the parts of holy worship as it is often in the holy Scripture so that the sense and meaning is q. d. My people have forsaken me the true God and worshipped them that are no gods So that the point is plain you see our God is the true God and the only true God Now the Scripture proves it further yet by Reason and Uses and Arguments in this present case it will not be unprofitable if I hint them briefly to you It appears that our God is the only true God because he and he only Reason 1 hath his being of himself He was before all things when there was nothing in the world besides him and consequently could not have his being of another Before the mountains were brought forth before the earth or world was made from everlasting to everlasting he is God Psal 90.2 he is the Lord the first and the last Isa 41.1 whereas the heathen gods are new and have their being of another and so indeed are no gods You know how David reasons They are not gods saith he and why so they are the works of mens hands Psalm 115.4 And Hosea to the same purpose Hos 8.6 The workman made it therefore it is not God Indeed it is so far from being God that it is scarce a creature it is nothing in the world Or if it be a creature it is of their own making The workman made it therefore it is not God It appears that our God is the only true God because he only is the Reason 2 living God It is the Prophets argument Ier. 10.10 The Lord is the true God But how doth this appear Why he is the living God as it is added in the next words Other gods are dead gods they have tongues and cannot speak they have feet but cannot walk And hence is the Apostles Exhortation to turn from such dead vanities as these unto the living God Reason 3 It appears that our God is the only true God as by his being and his life so by his operations and effects As it appears by what he is so it appears by what he doth Among the gods there is none like thee saith David Psalm 86.8 how doth he prove this neither are there any works like thy works And therefore the true God upbraids the heathen gods in this respect Isa 41.24 Behold you are of nothing and your work of nothing that is you are not able to do any thing you can do neither good nor evil as it is said in that place Not to speak of the creation of the heaven and the earth which is attributed to God in opposition to all other gods What can the gods of heathen or of professed Christians who make their honour or their wealth their gods what can they do to save a man in the time of his distress Riches deliver not in the day of death So that as the Prophet saith to the Idolaters of his time Isa 45.20 Ye pray unto a God that cannot save So we may say to these Idolaters of our times ye trust in gods that cannot save no this is proper to the true God There is no God besides me saith the Lord a just God and a Saviour and therefore addeth presently Look unto me and be you saved for I am God and there is none else Reason 4 It appears that our God is the only true God by the duration of his being as he is the first so he is the last Isa 41.4 he holds out when all fail For other gods they perish Ier. 10.11 Idols perish riches perish honours friends all perish but God endures to all eternity As he is from everlasting so he is to everlasting Psal 90.2 All other things are subject to decay and dissolution but he abides for evermore They do all perish saith the Psalmist Psalm 102.26 but thou shalt endure for ever They all wax old c. but thou art the same c. Use 1 Now is it so that our God is the true God Then let this serve in the first place to quicken us and stir us up to strengthen and confirm our faith in this particular and to endeavour to believe more fully and distinctly that our God is God indeed and verily the best among us have need of confirmation here for we are very apt to waver and to have doubtful thoughts about it And they that are most free from these have yet defects and imperfections in their faith of this as well as other parts of truth They have not yet attained to such a pitch but they must be adding to it and endeavour to get on to further measures and degrees And therefore let it be our labour and endeavour to encrease our faith in this particular and to grow up by full assurance of this fundamental truth that our God is the true God And to this I shall perswade and stir you up with some motives The more undoubtedly and firmly we believe that our God is the true God the more we will look to him the more we will walk with him and consequently we will converse the less among the creatures For hence it is because we have some doubts and haesitations in our faith of this particular that we have so great an eye upon the creature in our wayes that we approve our selves to men and seek the approbation and applause of men that we are afraid of men afraid of Creatures but are not afraid of God Whence is it my beloved but because we are not absolutely satisfied at all times that our God is indeed the true God but have thoughts arising in us or cast into us tending at least towards some scruple in this business and have not alwayes arguments at hand to put the matter out of all question and to suppress such thoughts as these as soon as they begin to stir in us Who art thou that thou shouldst be afraid of a man that shall dye and of the son of man that shall be made as grass And forgettest the Lord thy maker that hath stretched out the Heavens and laid the foundations of the earth Esa 51.12 13. By which the Prophet intimates that we should never be transported so with sinful fears of men and creatures as we are but that the great Creator is set by either he is not in our thoughts or which is worse he is not in our faith And when we come to this my Brethren to have some scruples in our selves whether there
Christ descended that he was sent down from heaven And that of Christ in the forecited place is very notable to this purpose John 3.13 No man hath ascended up to heaven but he that came down from heaven even the son of man which is in heaven He was then come down from heaven he was then upon the earth when he spake these words and yet he addeth he was then in heaven too even the son of man who is in heaven He speaks not of his manhood or his humane nature that was not come down from heaven for it had never been there at that time And therefore he intends it manifestly of his Godhead in which he was come down from heaven and yet he was in heaven too at the very same time But how was he come down if he were there that is the great scruple Not really but in regard of declaration Answ He seemed to descend from heaven when he took our nature on him assumed a despicable and a low condition and walked up and down upon the earth like other men It looked as if he had forsaken heaven and was come down to dwell with men as John 1.14 The word saith he was made flesh and dwelt amongst us For there the Godhead is in Scripture said to be where it appears where it is manifested and declared to be And therefore seeing Christ appeared in the flesh and was God manifested in the flesh who was till then in heaven and did not shew himself on earth in such a manner and in such a way he is said to have descended to be sent down from heaven to earth And so as Bernard speaks acutely Non venit qui aberat sed apparuit qui latebat He came not who was absent but appeared who was hid And this prevents the answer to the second Querie whither it was that Christ was sent what was the terminus ad quem of this Mission His Father sent him down in the sense before expressed into this lower world And hence he calls himself him whom the Father sanctified and sent into the world John 10.36 And the Apostle Paul accordingly affirms that he descended into the lower parts of the earth Ephes 4.9 That is as Beza and some others understand it he took up his abode and residence upon the earth which is the lowest of the elements the lowest part of this world The great enquiry is What errand and what business Jesus Christ is sent into the world about with reference to which he is stiled in my Text Jesus Christ whom God hath sent And this to say it in a word my Brethren he was sent to be a Mediator and a Reconciler between God and man to make up all the breaches and all the differences between his Father and his people So that you see he was dispatched upon a sweet errand And here he had a double business and a double work to do To make Peace and to preach Peace First he was sent to make Peace to do and suffer all that was necessary to compose the business between God and man To satisfie his Father and to pacifie his Father and so to make him friends with his people And therefore God is said by him to reconcile even all things to himself all things reconcilable Col. 1.20 And he is said in the very same verse to have made peace by the blood of his Cross This is the errand that he came upon In this respect he is stiled our peace the Author and procurer of it And he is called the Messenger the Angel of the Covenant Mal. 3.1 to shew us that the Message that his Father sent him in was to bring men into a Covenant and agreement with himself And this he did while he took all the matter of the Controversie between him and them out of the way paid all the debts of his people cancelled all the bonds and bills that were against them and nailed them to his Cross in the view of men and Angels Col. 2.14 That all the world might know that all the matters in debate between God and them were ended and that he had no more against them And when he had done this he cryed out Consummatum est The business which my Father sent me in and which I came into the world about is finished Secondly he was sent to preach Peace As to procure and purchase it so to reveal and publish it to his people And truly if he had not done the latter the former would have been to no purpose And hence the Father hath dispatched him down into the world to do both as to make Peace as a Priest so to preach Peace as a Prophet To let his people know there is a Peace obtained or else how should it profit them if they should never hear of it God hath annointed me to preach saith Christ himself Luke 4.17 To preach what To preach the Gospel which is the doctrine of attonement to heal the broken-hearted to preach deliverance to the captives as it is added there in that place Indeed he was appointed and designed to be the great Prophet the great Preacher and Revealer of the will of God to men And therefore the Apostle tells us That God who in former times spake to the Fathers by the Prophets hath in the last daies spoken to us by the Son He was designed you see to be the Fathers spokes-man to the world to tell them what his mind is to preach the Gospel the word of reconciliation to them This was a great part of the errand which his Father sent him in and therefore he is said to speak by him And Christ himself acknowledges in this respect My doctrine is not mine saith he but his that sent me John 6.0 And when he had dispatched this part of his Embassie too he told his Father I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do And what was that work you have it in verse 6. I have revealed thy name saith he unto the men which thou hast given me out of the world I have made known thy mercy to the Church how ready and inclinable thou art to pardon them and to be at peace with them And now I have done this the business thou hast sent me in is ended I have no more to do in this world And thus you see what business and what errand Christ is sent about Now for the last thing how he is qualified for the dispatch of this business and the delivery of this errand you must know that he is fully qualified every way And you will easily conceive that God would never send his Son into the world upon a business which he could not manage and which he was not able to go through withall And therefore as he hath sent forth his Son so he hath qualified him absolutely for the business he hath sent him in both with authority and with ability He hath qualified him with authority as his Embassadors and Messengers
must have or else they are not capable of medling with the affairs and the negotiations of their master And therefore God hath furnished Jesus Christ with powers with ample and compleat authority for the Embassage he hath sent him in All power is given to him without any limitation You see he hath a large Commission and consequently what he doth concerning what he hath received in Commission is as valid and effectuall to all intents and purposes as if God the Father did it He hath not only set his seal to Christs Commission but he hath sealed Christ himself Him hath God the Father sealed Iohn 6.27 So that he came into the world with the stamp and with the seal of God upon him that all men might receive him as sent forth from him As God hath qualified him with authority so he hath qualified him with ability for the effecting of the business and the delivery of the errand which he sent him in He hath made him fully able to go through with it and to that end hath furnished him with a fulness of Merit and a fulness of Spirit A fulness of Merit to make Peace and a fulness of Spirit to preach Peace First as God hath sent him so he hath furnished him with a fulness of Merit to make Peace Made him able to the utmost to satisfie his justice and to obtain his pardon for his people For he is God as well as man in him dwelleth the fulness of the Godhead bodily God that his Merits might be valuable for us Man that his merits might be applicable to us Secondly as he hath furnished him with a fulness of Merit to make Peace so of Spirit to preach Peace The Spirit of the Lord is upon me saith our Saviour Luke 4.18 and by this Spirit he hath anointed me to preach the Gospel as it is added there in that place As he hath sent and appointed me to preach so annointed me to preach And therefore grace is said to be poured into the lips of Jesus Christ Psal 45.2 so that he spake as never man did Iohn 7.46 That some were astonied at his doctrine and all men bore him witness and wondered Luke 4.22 JOHN 17.3 And Iesus Christ whom thou hast sent Use 1 NOW is it so that Jesus Christ is Gods Apostle a Messenger sent c. This then may teach us in the first place to admire the mercy of the Lord both of the Father and of the Son in this business The mercy of the Father in sending Jesus Christ and the mercy of the Son in that he would be sent by him In both of these the grace of God is eminent to admiration Let us here observe and wonder at the mercy of the Sender There was rich grace in this that God the Father sent his Son into the world for our sakes He is his Son his only begotten Son a Son that is extreamly like him the very picture of his Father the express image of his person a Son that never did displease him a Son that he dearly loves in whom his very soul delights in which respect he layes him in his bosom next his heart as a choice and precious thing And yet this Son of his he is content to part withall in some respect that he and we might come together To send him out of his bosom and to dispatch him down into this lower world there to continue for a while that when he returned again he might bring us up with him Had God any need of us that he should send his Son for us Ah my Beloved he is self-sufficient there is enough in him to make him happy everlastingly without us But we must be for ever miserable without him And therefore it was nothing else but free mercy that made him send down his beloved Son to us Herein is love saith the Evangelist 1 Iohn 4.10 not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son Here is love and here is mercy to be spoken of and to be wondered at in all ages Let us here take notice of the mercy of the Son in that he would submit himself so far as to become the Fathers Messenger in this business Though he be man he is the Fathers fellow notwithstanding so he stiles him Zach. 13.7 Awake O sword against the man that is my fellow saith the Lord of hosts Though he be found in fashion as a man he thinks it no robbery to be equall with God every way as good as God Philip. 3.6 And was it not an admirable condescention that when the Father had a Message to dispatch into the world for the recovery of lost creatures Jesus Christ should say to him as once the Prophet in another case Here I am send me I am very well content to be sent of this errand Especially if we consider where and whither he was sent from heaven to earth yea to the lowest parts of the earth as the expression is Ephes 4.9 In a sense to hell it self From the bosom of the Father if not into the place into the state and the condition of the damned In which respect he saith Thou shalt not leave my soul in hell Psal 16.10 He was sent to make peace to reconcile us to his Father as you heard before in Explication of the point and this he was to do by the blood of his Cross as the Apostle shews us Col. 1.20 By his extream and bitter Passion by suffering death it self yea such a shamefull and accursed death upon the Cross accompanied with such ingredients as made him roar and sweat and faint under it And was it not a miracle of mercy that Jesus Christ should yield himself to be sent on such an errand as this is That he should willingly submit himself to be the Fathers Messenger in such a business We need not wonder that he whose love and kindness was so full of wonder should be called wonderfull Isa 9.6 But you will say perhaps Object that this indeed was rare and admirable mercy if Jesus Christ had willingly exposed himself to this for us But it seems he was constrained it was against his will For he was afraid of it Heb. 5.7 Yea more then so he prayed against it Mat. 26.39 Father if it be possible saith he let this cup pass from me To this I answer my Beloved Answ that Christ must be considered in a double notion and respect either as a private man or as a Mediator and a surety for his people Take him as a private man who had assumed a nature to which death was an enemy especially so bitter and so sharp a death as he was now about to undergo and so he justly feared it and declined it Take him as a publick Surety and a mercifull high-Priest and so he willingly submitted to it And this his willingness by reason of his Office was the greater because his will by reason of his nature could not choose but shrink from
could not be the least addition to him any way The meaning is that he had manifested and declared him to be glorious that he had shewed him in his glory to the world And this is that which he expresses clearly in the following verse saith he I have made known thy name to the men which thou hast given me And this he tels him he had done on earth It was done in heaven before the glory of the Lord was fully and immediately manifested there And now saith Christ it is done in earth too I have glorified thee on earth And hereupon he looks his Father should glorifie him with himself in heaven as it is added in the following words So that the point to be observed is this DOCTRINE Who ever will be glorified with God in heaven must glorifie him first on Earth Our Saviour Christ himself you see can have it on no other terms And therefore he desires it only upon this account saith he to God the Father I have glorified thee on Earth and now O Father glorifie me with thy self in heaven According to his first desire in his beginning of his prayer Father glorifie thy Son q. d. I should not look for any glory from thee unless I had brought glory to thee I should be far from any expectation that thou shouldst glorifie me with thy self in heaven unless I were assured in my self that I had glorified thee here upon the earth But seeing I have done the former I pray thee Father do the latter since I have glorified thee let me be glorified by thee And as it was with Christ the Head so it must be in some degree with all the Members No glory to be had in heaven till they have glorified God on earth It s true they merit not the glory they receive from God by that which they bring to God as Christ did but yet the one is not to be attained without the other They that bring God no glory in the present world shall have no glory from him in the world to come The Lord indeed will render glory to every man that worketh good and so glorifieth him as the Apostle shews Rom. 2.10 But unto them that are contentious and do not obey the truth but obey unrighteousness and so dishonour God in their lives and conversations he will render nothing else but shame and ignominy and confusion They shall be raised to everlasting contempt Dan. 12.2 and be made spectacles of shame to men and Angels Reas 1 And the ground is evident because so is the everlasting Counsel and Decree of God which is not to be altered or reversed Those whom he chuses for himself whom he predestinateth to be glorified with him in the world to come those he predestinateth also to bring glory to him in this present world As he predestinateth such to the inheritance above who is abundantly and out of measure glorious so he predestinates them also that they should be to the praise of his glory as the Apostle shews you Eph. 1.11 12. That he may manifest the riches of his glory in the vessels of mercy which he had afore prepared unto glory so that you see as he prepares them unto glory as he appoints them to be glorified themselves so he prepares them and appoints them to bring glory to himself Rom. 9.23 To shew forth the praises of him that hath called them to his Kingdom and glory 1 Pet. 2.9 Thy people shall be all righteous saith the Lord of his Church Isa 60.21 The branch of my planting the work of my hands that I may be glorified Not only that they may be glorified but that I may be glorified too And if this be the purpose and decree of God will he not see it executed and fulfilled in all respects as well with reference to his glory as with reference to theirs shall his Counsel be accomplished in the one and not in the other do you imagine that the Lord will be put off in such a fashion that he will be disappointed of his end and of his purpose in such a business as this is No no assuredly if he predestinate men that they may be to the praise of his glory as well as that they may be glorified by him to his praise and to his glory they shall be And if they be not so at all it is apparent they are not predestinated by him and consequently they shall have no glory from him Now is it so my Brethren that whoever will be glorified with God Vse 1 in heaven must glorifie him first on earth This then may serve to shew the vanity of their conceit and apprehension who look for glory in the world to come and yet they bring the Lord no glory here It is the miserable folly and delusion of the greater part of men there is not one of us almost but thinks that God will glorifie him with himself hereafter He is an extraordinary man that doth not feed himself with this fancy And yet those very persons many of them who are strong in this opinion take no care to honour God in any of their ways nor to bring him any glory why my beloved how can you think now to be glorified with him Jesus Christ his own Son the darling of his own bosom could not have glory with him upon these terms He did not once so much as look for it Had he not glorified his Father here in this world he would not have expected that he should have glorified him with himself in heaven ye see he seeks it and desires it only upon this account And what now do you think to speed better with the Father then Jesus Christ his own Son do you imagine that you shall have glory from him though you bring no glory to him when Christ himself did not could not obtain it upon such terms as these are do you look in this regard to be preferred before Christ to have the better of God himself Ah my beloved do not gull your souls with this delusion I beseech you think upon it you who by your lewd and vitious conversations dishonour God continually you who lie in wickedness and wallow in uncleanness whose lives are full of nothing but prophaneness who are conscious to your selves that God hath not a whit of glory brought him by you unless ungodliness and sin will do it To whom a man may truly say as the Apostle doth to some Rom. 2.24 The name of God is blasphemed by your means do you expect that God should glorifie you with himself in heaven when you have done nothing else but dishonoured him on earth believe it he will be so far from this that seeing he hath not been glorified by you he will be glorified upon you He made you for his glory and glory he will have either one way or another he will not lose a farthing by you And if he be not glorified by your holy conversation he will be glorified in
same respect are called the Temples of God But in him dwels the God head bodily that is really united to the humane nature to the body of our Saviour And herein Christ hath no Peer It is an high and matchless honour which no other Creature is capable of By which our nature is advanced in him above all other things and persons in the world besides Vse 2 Is it so that even the Man-hood c. Then as we may take notice here of the advancement of the nature so of our personal advancement too as many of us as belong to Christ For all the Glory of the God-head with which the Man-hood shines is for us and our advantage If he sanctifie himself it is for our sakes as his own expression is And so if he glorifie himself it is for our sakes too It is for our sakes that he prayes And now O Father Glorifie me with thy self with the Glory c. For all his Mediatour-ship throughout is with some respect to us And so it is for our sakes that this unparalelled and matchless Glory is conferred upon him Why you will ask me what is our advantage by it I answer It is very great for we poor men if we be members of the Lord Christ do share in this incomparable Glory of the Man-hood of our Saviour and that partly in fruition and partly in assured expectation First Partly in Fruition for the present we share in this incomparable Glory of the Manhood of our Saviour For as the Man-hood of our Saviour shareth in the glory of the God-head so we my Brethren share in the Glory communicated from the God-head to the Man-hood of our Saviour by reason of our Union to them both in the person of Christ Jesus And even as we are punisht in that Christ is punisht and sanctified in that Christ is sanctified so we are glorified in that Christ is glorified We shine with the incomparable and dazling Lustre of the God-head in that Christ shines with it And as we sit in Christ in heavenly places Eph. 2.6 so we are glorified in Christ with the same glory which he had with God the Father before the world was because he is invested with it as our Head in our flesh on our behalf In him God having raised him up and glorified him he hath glorified us with the very same glory In him we took possession of it So near and so indissoluble is the union between Christ and us that the Divine and Godlike glory wherewithal he shines is truly ours The members cannot choose but share in the glory of the head Secondly we share in this incomparable glory of the Manhood of our Saviour by assured expectation For as his glory in answer to the Prayer of our Saviour is now already communicated to the Manhood so far as it is capable of it So we are certain that the glory of the Man-hood of our Saviour shall one day be communicated to us so far as we are able to receive it We know that when he shall appear we shall be like him And that these vile bodies shall be conformed to his glorious body Phil. 3.21 And this should have a double operation and effect upon us 1. First it should make us to despise the shame of this world though we be trampled under foot and made the dung and the off-scouring of the Earth as this is many times the portion of the Saints our spirits should not droop or sink within us No we should bear them up in spight of all the ignominy and contempt that men pour out upon us and all the venom that they spit against us We should endure the reproach and despise the shame while we think of this glory We should not reckon of a little undeserved shame with men while we consider that we shall shortly shine with the glory of God 2. Secondly it should cause us so to walk that we be not in any thing a shame to Christ whom God hath made so glorious and who will shortly make us so glorious In whom the humane nature is advanced to such honour as to partake of the glory of the Godhead Mark what the Apostle saith Shall I take the members of Christ and make them the members of an harlot So may I say on this occasion shall I take the nature of Christ the Nature which our Saviour in his Person hath so highly dignified and make it in my person the nature of a Devil Suppose a Prince should marry with a mean woman would he endure to see those of her nearest kindred her Brethren and her Sisters live like Scullions and like Strumpets in his own eye Now Christ my Brethren hath assumed our Nature into a nearer union with himself then that of marriage a union which death it self was not able to dissolve For when the soul was separated from the body the Godhead was not separated from the one or from the other It was the Lord that lay buryed in the grave and he that ascended into heaven was the same that came down from heaven And shall we then defile this nature by wantonness intemperance and vile affections which Jesus Christ hath so honoured to take into so neer a union with himself and to cause it to partake of the glory of the Godhead Especially if we expect hereafter in our persons to partake of this glory Oh let us learn to keep our vessels in all holiness and honour And as we look hereafter to be like him so in the mean time let us purifie our selves as he is pure JOHN 17.6 I have manifested thy Name unto the men which c. WE have been very long upon the first Part of our Saviours Prayer and now at length it is ended and dispatched Charity begins at home and so our Saviour Christ began with his Petitions for himself For that hath been the substance of his Prayer hitherto that as he hath been humbled and abased with men so now he might be glorified with his Father And this he urges very hard with many pressing arguments and so he ceases to solicite any further for himself Charity begins at home as I have said but it doth not end there Our Saviour is not satisfied to put up his Petitions to his Father for himself but in the next place he becomes a Suitor also for his Church And here he prayes for his Apostles and Disciples then about him the members of the present Church And then for those who were after to be called by their preaching the members of the Church to come In the first place he prayes for his Apostles and Disciples then about him the members of the present Church who were already called and sanctified whom God had given him out of the world I pray for them saith he I pray not for the world In the second place he prays for those who were after to be called by their preaching the members of the Church that was to come in vers
were bestowed upon him So that they were severed separated from the world they were no longer of the wicked unbelieving world but of another party that were divided and distinguished from the world In the world they were indeed but they were not of the world And these are evidently they of whom our Saviour speaks in this place The men whom thou gavest me out of the world Now to those he here affirmeth that he had manifested and made known his Fathers Name And you must understand it to be spoken by our Saviour here exclusively I have manifested thy Name unto the men which thou gavest me out of the world that is to them and none others Why did not Christ make known his Fathers name to all without distinction Did he not Preach to all Did he not open and unfold his Fathers love and mercy and the like to all the multitude that came to hear him He did indeed as to the outward Promulgation but not as to the inward and effectual revelation He did not manifest it by his Spirit savingly to all No my Beloved this was the Priviledge but of a few and in particular of those who were bestowed upon him by his Father to be Members of his body So saith our Saviour to his Father here I have manifested thy name unto the men which thou gavest me out of the world To them and not to others or else at least to them so as I have not done to others They have a Priviledge in this respect which others are not made partakers of I have made it known to them effectually and savingly and not to others You see the meaning of the words the Points to be observed are two First There are some certain men whom God the Father gives to Iesus Christ out of the world Secondly that Iesus Christ doth make his Father known effectually and savingly to them and none besides them At this time of the first DOCTRINE There are some certain men whom God the Father gives to Jesus Christ out of the World In prosecution of this Observation I shall distinctly evidence and clear these four things First There are some men whom God the Father giveth to Jesus Christ Secondly There are a certain number of them Thirdly They are of the World before the Father gives them to the Son And Fourthly After they are given up to Jesus Christ they are of the world no longer All these particulars are wrapt up in the Observation and the Text as I shall shew you briefly and in order First There are some men whom God the Father gives to Jesus Christ So he himself describes the persons to whom he manifests his Fathers name not by their inward disposition not by their outward action or condition but by the Act of God upon them or concerning them his giving them to Jesus Christ They are the men saith he whom thou gavest me So that some have this priviledge you see above the rest of lost mankinde that God the Father gives them to his Son Christ and gives them to him in a special manner as I shewed you even now not to be his Servants only but to be his Members too He bestows them upon Christ to be his own peculiar people I will not stay on this because it hath been largely handled heretofore Secondly Now for the second thing there are a certain number of them there are some certain men whom God the Father gives to Christ They are thus many not a person more or less The number of them is exactly known to God and Christ he knows how many of them there be to a man And hence our Saviour speaks of them in such a way as being able to distinguish them from all the world besides I have manifested thy name unto the men whom thou gavest me out of the world And so he tels us that he knows his sheep that are given him of his Father as his own expression is John 10.27 29. And yet he calls his sheep by name ver 3. and in the 9th verse of this very Chapter I pray for them saith he I pray not for the world but for them whom thou hast given me So that our Saviour Christ distinguishes you see he knows who are his own by free donation of his Father and for them he prays He knows who are not given him and for them he prays not There are a certain number of them known to Christ Thirdly now this selected Company are of the world before the Father gives them to the Son I do not mean before he gives them by Election but before he gives them to him by actual union and incorporation And therefore they are said expresly to be given to Jesus Christ out of the World so that the World is always beforehand with Jesus Christ in this regard The World hath the possession of them first and afterwards they come to appertain to Jesus Christ In the first place they are the worlds as all unsanctifyed and unregenerated persons are and then at length they come to be the Lords Fourthly and then when they are once the Lords they are no longer of the world which is the last thing in the point They are given Jesus Christ out of the world and consequently when he hath them once they are not of it they are no longer men of this World As for the rest that are not actually bestowed on Christ they are Inhabitants Indwellers of the earth as they are often stiled in the Revelation they are the men of this World as the Prophet David calls them who have their portion in this present life Psal 17.14 They are not of the Father as the Apostle speaks but of the World 1 John 2.16 They are of the world therefore speak they of the world and the world heareth them John 4.5 But they that are delivered up to Jesus Christ and become his Members they are of the World no longer And this the Saints in Scripture have confessed that they were Strangers Pilgrims Sojourners in this World and therefore looked for and made towards their own Country Hebr. 11.6 I am a stranger on the earth saith David Psal 119.196 not in his place of banishment alone with the Philistims but in the Land of Canaan too yea in his house yea in his bed yea any where upon the earth he was a Stranger he counted not himself at home in any place but heaven only To say the truth the world lays no claim at all to those that belong to Christ and therefore this will need no great proof It doth not own them or acknowledge them for hers but rather casts them out and persecutes them and doth them all the spight and mischief that it can And this evinceth manifestly that they are not the Worlds as Christ himself informeth his Disciples upon the very same ground Joh. 15.19 If ye were of the world the world would love his own but because you are not of the world but I have
hearts are always running out to God and Christ and the happiness above and feeding upon such objects They are too large to be contained within the narrow limits of this lower world no as the Psalmist speaks they are continually with God With the woman Apoc. 12.1 They tread upon the Moon this variable and inconstant world they trample with an holy scorn upon these earthly things They are aspiring still to heaven walking and acting heaven-ward Indeed they live in some respect in this world but it is but as though they lived in the world as the Apostle Pauls expression is Col. 2.20 They use the world but yet it is as though they used it not as the same Apostle speaks 1 Cor. 7.29 They lay not out the strength of their affections and endeavours upon these things But on the matters of the other world there they are intent indeed there they are in good earnest there they act with full vigor 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 their Trading their Commerce their Dealing their Negotiation is in heaven Phil. 3.20 The word there used hath very much in it and can hardly be expressed Beza assaies in many wayes The manner of our living is in Heaven or which comes nearer yet we carry and demean our selves as Citizens of Heaven As if Heaven were a City and we as being free there do walk and act according to the Manners and the Customs and the Laws and Constitutions of the City we belong to So that the Saints you see do live as if they were in Heaven already as being now no more of this world Now is it so my Brethren That there are some certain men whom God Use 1 the Father gives to Jesus Christ out of the world Are they the worlds before they come to be the Lord Christs by the donation of the Father Here then you see the reason my beloved why there is such a stir sometimes when God is giving men to Jesus Christ and why the business meets with so much heat and opposition You cannot but take notice what a fray is often made when any one is about to leave the world and to close with Jesus Christ Carnal Parents Brethren Sisters Friends Acquaintance by and by are up as it were in arms against it When the Apostles were bringing men to Jesus Christ at Ephesus you know my Brethren it occasioned such an uproar in the City and such a mutiny among the Tradesmen and Mechanicks there as you can hardly parallel in any story You shall observe in the New Testament when Christ began to gather people to himself that wheresoever there were any numbers given to him by the Father some were exceedingly disquieted out of patience at it It galled the Pharisees and cut them to the very hearts that Jesus Christ had such an harvest among the people there why say they in a great passion the whole world runs after him And so it is to this day and will be to the worlds end when God is pleased to give in souls to Jesus Christ in any place some will fret and storm at it Nor is it any wonder that they should for they are given him out of the world And the world is loth to lose that which appertains to it and which is its own possession If God did give a people to his Son to which the world had no right and to which it could pretend no title the world would like it well enough it would never be against it But this is that which vexes it and troubles it that God must give away that which is his the worlds to Jesus Christ He cannot have a man but the world must be a loser who cannot keep his own for him what hath any one to do to meddle with that which is the worlds known right to fetch away that which hath many years perhaps belonged to him This is an injury as he conceives that puts him out of all patience and this is that which makes him strive and struggle as he doth Christ enters upon every soul that is bestowed upon him by his Father by dispossessing and disseazing him so that it is no marvel though he be extreamly startled and though he labour every way by promises and by preferments on the one side and by threatning and by persecutions on the other to keep that which he hath in his possession Use 2 Are there some certain men whom God the Father gives to Jesus Christ out of the world So that however they were once the worlds now they are the worlds no longer By this let us examine and resolve whether we be given up to Christ or no It is an admirable priviledge an high prerogative for any soul to belong to Jesus Christ to be bestowed upon him by the Father It carries in it all the happiness that is attainable by any Creature Now would you know whether the Father have actually given you to Christ or no Consider whether you be out of this world whether it may be truly said of you that you were once indeed of this world you lived here builded tabernacles here your hearts and your affections and your chief delights were here But now the case is altered with you you are no longer of this world but of another Now that you may be able to discover this I shall give you marks for tryal If you be out of the world you are not fashioned and conformed to this world in the unlawful waies and practices and courses of it You fashion not your selves according to this world as the Apostle speaks Rom. 12.2 not as this world doth As Turks and Spaniards are not like to English men they have another kind of visage another garb another habit and the like So they that are given up unto Christ out of the world they differ manifestly from the world There is a clear distinction to be made between them and other men by any man that eyes them well there are none like them in the earth their wayes are of another fashion Now my Beloved is it so with you do you differ from the world do you live soberly and righteously and godlily in this present evil world In a world of wickedness are you singular in goodness so that the same may be affirmed of you that is recorded to the everlasting praise of righteous Noah that he was just and perfect in his Generations Gen. 6.9 and they were wicked and corrupt enough Of holy Lot that he was so far from joyning with the vitious Sodomites in their vile abominations that his righteous soul was vexed at their filthy conversation 2 Pet. 2.8 This is a comfortable evidence that you are given up to Jesus Christ out of this world But if you walk according to the course and custom of the world as the expression is Ephes 2.2 if you have fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness if you run out with others to the same excess of riot if you be also led away
while you remain as Sojourners in this Country Use 4 Are there some certain men whom c. so that however they were once the worlds now they are of the world no longer Then do not you regard the world nor the things of this world We see that Travailers do not use to set their hearts on any thing they meet with in a strange Country If they see stately houses orchards gardens if they hear curious musick they are not taken up with these things no they keep on their way and are not hindered or withdrawn by the most pleasing avocations Doth any stranger fall a building at his Inn or doth he plant and sow as he travails by the way And therefore seeing we are of another world let us not set our hearts on these things No let us use the world but as though we used it not for necessity alone not for delight to further us in holy duties not to stop us to help us heaven-ward not to hinder Are there some c. so that however you were once c. This fits Use 5 you then with a reply to that usual argument with which the Saints of God are often pressed to sinful practices Other men do thus and thus and why will not you too will you be singular and will you go in a way by your selves and will you do as no body doth Why what though other men do this whence are those other men they are not of the world that we are and therefore they are no examples for us We must not do as they do no we must differ from them we must come out from among them and be separate and touch no unclean thing Though they handle it we must not touch it When Shadrach Mesach and Abednego refused to bow before the Golden Image which Nebuchadnezar the King had set up they might have said to them What will you do as no body doth you see that all men universally fall down before it and they no small ones neither the Judges Councellors Princes Rulers of the people Dan. 3.3 And will you take upon you to be wiser then your betters will you stand out alone and be so stiff in your opinion yet this did not one whit move them neither must such an argument as this prevail with us No we must keep the right way though we go alone though all the world should leave us and forsake us And to this end I propound two things 1. It will be a safe course thus to reserve our selves from the pollutions of the world and the contagion of the times and places where we live The Lord most commonly vouchsafes to such a special priviledge of preservation when dangers and calamities and troubles come as he did to Lot and Noah and the Mourners in Ezechiel And as they have not shared in common corruptions so he exempteth them from Common desolations c. 2. And as it will be safe for us thus to reserve our selves so it will be honourable too The veriest wretch may keep himself from wicked acts sometimes when there are no examples no temptations to withdraw him But in a world of wickedness to be singular in goodness is Christian-like indeed It was Tullies Commendation of Muraena Laudandus Muraena non tam quod in Asia vixerit quam quod in Asia continenter vixerit And Gods of Job that there was none like him in the earth Are there some certain c. And are you of that number there is Use 6 no reason then why you should be so much distracted and disquieted to see such stirs and troubles such alterations and confusions in the world Why should you be so out of patience to see things turned upside down in such a Country where you do not live to which you do not appertain What need you care I spake of such a Care as eateth out the joy and comfort of a man how matters go what stirrs and hubbubs and combustions there are here in this world so long as all goes well at home in your world Remember still in such a case that you are not of this world but of another And why then should it startle you though the earth be removed and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the Sea Yea though the Kingdoms of this world be shaken so long as your world and the Kingdom of it is not shaken so long as that stands firm and sure you have no reason to be swallowed up with overmuch fear and overmuch sorrow But rather on the other side when you see all the world and all the Kingdoms of it in a flame to bless and magnifie the Lord that you are out of this world that you are out of Gun-shot out of the reach of these things Indeed with reference to the men of this world who have their Conversation and their portion here whose friends and means and dwellings lye in this Country we have reason to be troubled when Concussions and Confusions come upon the earth for we should pity those who are of the self same nature with us in their troubles and distresses But for our selves we may behold the greatest tribulation and distractions that come upon the world as things that do not much concern us just as we do the wars in Italy when we have peace we pitty the poor people there and rejoyce that we live not in that Country So long as all goes well at home as no ill tydings come from heaven from our own Country we are in a good Condition It may be we may suffer some outward evils and extremities we may be banished from the Country which we sojourn in but then we are but banished from a place of banishment We may be banished if I may express it so out of this world into the other that is we may lose our lives but then at worst we are but banished home They do but send us to the world that we are of and that we belong to men may deprive us of the Life by which we live in this world but this is but a seeming Life the shaddow of a Life it is but as though we lived in the world But the life by which we live in the world that we are of is an enduring and abiding life It is a lasting and an endless life it is above the reach of death and dissolution And though the natural life decay this life of grace will flourish and grow stronger still till it be perfected in that of glory JOHN 17.6 Thine they were c. thou gavest them to me ANd thus far of the description of the persons to whom our Saviour had made known his Fathers Name not by their own condition or their own action but by his Fathers act upon them or in reference to them his giving them to Jesus Christ out of the world I have manifested thy Name to the men whom thou gavest me out of the world The following words seem to be added to
necessary to a testimony or a witness that it declare the truth and nothing else Or else how shall it be depended and relyed upon and so how shall the Scripture be the Word of Faith as it is called unless it be the Word of Truth How shall this testimony challenge faith from us unless it utter truth to us How shall it be believed if it be not wholly true and therefore truth is frequently ascribed to it as a witness The testimonies of the Lord are sure saith David Psal 19.7 That which they tell hath been and that which they foretell shall surely be accomplished and fulfilled Vse 1 And this by way of use and application may serve for terror in the first place unto those against whom there is any thing foretold in Scripture in a way of Commination for it shall surely be accomplished and fulfilled How should they tremble for fear of God and how should they be afraid of his judgements though only hanging in the threatning How should their hearts dissolve within them when they hear his threatning words denounc't against them How should the Adulterer tremble when he hears that flaming Commination Whoremongers and adulterers God will judge how should the drunkard tremble when he hears those dreadful woes that are denounced to drunkards up and down the Prophets everywhere How should the wretched worldling tremble when he hears that dreadfull threatning that no covetous person hath any inheritance in the Kingdom of Christ and of God How should the lier and the dogg that barks and snarls and snaps at holiness and the unclean wretch tremble when they hear that such shall have their everlasting portion in the lake that burns with fire and brimstone And so for other sinners against whom there are heavy things foretold in Scripture how should they shake and quiver when they read and hear them But alas there are abundance who steel and fortifie their hearts against them who give no credit to the threatnings of the word as if they were but bruta fulmina but empty cracks who when they hear them thundred out against them say with Israel Jer. 5.12 It is not he neither shall evil come upon us nor shall we see sword or famine Oh my beloved do not belye the Lord in this fashion do not delude your own souls Believe it Judgement is towards you as the Expression is Hosea 5.1 although it be not actually upon you The wrath of God commeth it is a comming still and in the end depend upon it it will come home What do you think that if you do such things you shall escape the vengeance of God No be assured that if you persevere without repentance you shall feel it with a witness There is not any thing denounced against you in the Scripture but shall be fulfilled upon you to the utmost And Secondly it serves for sweet and pretious comfort to the Vse 2 Church since all the good that is foretold in Scripture shall surely be accomplished and fulfilled You that are members of the Church look over all the Book of God collect together all the promises contained in it from the beginning of it to the end consider all the choice and pretious mercies that are contained in those promises and satisfie your souls with a certain expectation of them all There is not one of all those promises shall fall unaccomplished to the ground or fail of execution in the Lords time And therefore look on all the good things promised there as sure mercies so they are called the sure mercies of David which shall not fail you when the season comes And when you meet with any thing that specially concerns you in such a case or such a condition that might be a support and comfort to you in affliction and the like Oh give not way to one unbelieving thought do not forsake your own mercies Remember it is the word of the Lord which as the Angel said shall be fulfilled in its season And so for any good thing that is foretold in Scripture to the Church as there are glorious things you know foretold concerning it in after times that God will raise it to an admirable state of glory and felicity which while the world continues shall not be overthrown again Let us not make any question but they shall absolutely and compleatly be accomplished and fulfilled And therefore let us strengthen and confirm our hearts in the assured expectation of it and let us put those promises in suit in our Petitions as Isaiah in the same case Chap. 62.1 And let us stand upon our watch-towers waiting for the execution of them Let us account it our especial happiness that we live under promises that shall surely be accomplished though they should be never fulfilled in our time Let us embrace them as the Fathers did yea though they be afar off Oh let us hugg them and take especial joy and comfort in them And though the Lord should take us hence before he bring them into act and execution yet let us cheer our hearts with the apprehension of the happiness and glory that shall be upon the Church after we are dead and gone And so dye with our arms full of promises and our hearts full of faith and our souls full of comfort Vse 3 To pass on to a third use Since this is so that whatsoever is foretold in Scripture shall surely be accomplished and fulfilled whatsoever is foretold in a way of Commination or in a way of Consolation by way of threatning or by way of promise Let us endeavour to believe both and act our faith upon them Let us work up our hearts to give a firm and full assent to all the threatnings and to all the promises though that which is delivered in the Scripture either way be never so improbable never so much against corrupt reason never so impossible to a humane apprehension Let us depend upon it that the word of God shall be fulfilled to the very utmost Let us imitate the faith of the antient Saints of God as I shall give you some examples of it in reference to both of these both to the threatnings and the promises of Scripture As for the threatnings That which the Lord denounced to Noah that he might publish it to all the world that he would utterly destroy all flesh from off the earth and by a flood of water too was as improbable as any thing almost could be as like to be derided by the wise men of the world Yet Noah being warned of God believed it and so accordingly prepared the Ark as you may see Heb. 11.7 And so that Commination by the Prophet Jonah was almost incredible that Nineveh so flourishing so glorious and so great a City should be destroyed in forty dayes and yet it is observed to the praise of Nineveh that they believed God that is the word of God his threatning message sent them by the Prophet Jonah 3.5 So for the promises of
will do to the worlds end For certainly he is not less regardfull of them now in Heaven which is the most proper place of acting the second part of his Mediatorship which consists in intercession then he was upon the earth So that whatever our Condition be how sad or sorrowfull soever if we would know our Saviours intercession what it is for us in heaven we may survey this counterpane thereof on earth which is recorded for this very end That we may have an exemplar and a pattern of it continually lying by us in the Scripture to have recourse unto and to fetch overflowing comforts from in all cases Now to cleer this a little further to you I shall proceed to shew you in a few particulars that the perfect knowledge of our Saviours intercession is one especial means to fill his people full of holy joy It is a means to comfort them exceedingly in reference to all the oppositions of their enemies whether without them or within them Do you not think it was a comfort to the Host of Israel when they had got a Champion to stand up for them against the daring insolencies of Goliah who had so long defied the armies of the living God It made them even shout for joy And so it is a comfort to the poor soul when he hath been long contending with the world which sets upon him mightily with all its blandishments and its allurements on the one side and with its threats and persecutions on the other side and with the Devil who furiously assaults him with his fiery darts and his violent temptations and with his own corruptions and his lusts that warr against the soul as the Apostle speaks And when he is about to faint and sink away he considers with himself Why though I have all these against me yet I have Jesus Christ for me and he is pleading-hard on my behalf that I may not have the worst in these Encounters but that I may be more then a Conqueror I seem to hear him saying to me These enemies of thine have desired to winnow thee and to destroy thee but I have prayed for thee that thy faith may not fail Thy courage and thy strength may fail a little but thy faith shall never fail When Christ was here upon the earth he earnestly besought his Father for me that he would keep me through his own name and what he did on earth I know he doth in heaven much more and he cannot be denyed So that I am as safe as the Almighty power of God can make me Oh what a matchless comfort and encouragement is this The poor perplexed soul but now was tossing on the boystrous waters of violent temptations and of raging passions and of furious lusts and even ready to be cast away But now as David speaks the soul is glad because it is at rest and it is brought to the desired haven Ah my beloved when a man who is mightily assaulted by corruptions and temptations and persecutions and afflictions and when the stones and buffets are about his soul can look up as Stephen did Acts 7.56 and see the heavens opened and the Son of man standing at the right hand of God this cannot choose but fill him full of comfort Nay sayes the soul If thou art there pleading for me to the Father and standing up in my defence I know it is impossible that I should perish or miscarry The knowledge of our Saviours Intercession for his people is a means to comfort them in reference to all the accusations that are laid against us at the barr of Gods justice The Law comes in with a black bill against us layes very heavy things to our charge and taxes us with many grievous violations of it which we are no way able to deny Sathan for his part is the grand accuser of the brethren and he objecteth heynous things against us and layes it on with full load And then our consciences perhaps accuse us as fast as any of the other two They are not able to gainsay the allegations either of Sathan or the Law but are forced to acknowledge that all the curses that are written in the Book of God are very justly due to us What shall we do or how shall we keep up our hearts from sinking into utter desperation in such a case as this is As for our parts we have nothing to alledge in or of or from our selves why the sentence of the Law should not be pronounced against us But this is that which fills us full of Comfort that Jesus Christ hath enough to say for us and that he sits in heaven for this very end to make intercession for us when any thing comes in against us there to appear in our behalf and to plead our cause If any man sin we have an Advocate with the Father saith the Apostle 1 John 2.2 and he is the propitiation for our sins We have such an Advocate as is a propitiation So that when Sathan and when sin accuses and makes a dreadfull noise against us he can wipe all off again with one word Saith he This person hath offended I confess but what of that There is a full propitiation made it is well known that I have done it and what hath any one to say to this man If he have out-sinned my satisfaction even let him be condemned But if not let him be acquitted or what do I sit here for How can this choose but ravish and transport the soul into an Extasie of joy and make it to triumph with the Apostle Rom. 8.33 Who can lay anything to my charge who is he that condemneth Let me but see the man that durst to do it So that no marvail though our Saviour Christ be called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the forecited place which signifieth both a Comforter and Advocate To shew that Jesus Christ doth comfort us exceedingly by undertaking for us as an Advocate and pleading for us with the Father The knowledge of our Saviours Intercession for his people is a means to comfort them in reference to the many weaknesses and imperfections of our own prayers Oh how are we dejected and cast down sometimes when we are dull and flat and cold and speechless in our addresses to the Majesty of God When we are so deserted and our hearts are so shut up that as Hezekiah once we cannot speak in prayer but only chatter like a Swallow Isa 38.14 when we know not what to say nor what to plead we are so barren when we are destitute of matter and expression this puts us many times into a very sad condition and overwhelms our hearts with sorrow As David once complained in such a case Psal 77.3 I remembred God saith he I was troubled I complained and my spirit was overwhelmed But now my brethren is it not a matter of exceeding comfort to consider that we have an Intercessor to help us out with all this That he puts in
day As long as men make no account and reckoning of the Word as long as they profess it only but are not very zealous for it nor very careful to walk in every thing exactly by it they may live pretty quiet with their neighbors But if they come once to contend and that with earnestness for every truth that is contained in the Word if they will not in any case by any means depart in any thing from that Rule the world will be about their ears upon a sodain and shew a great deal of malignity and rage against them But why should this exasperate the world against them you will ask me I cannot tell you why it should but I will tell you why it doth For by this means they cross the world and they condemn and shame the world And this is that which sets the world so much against them By this means they cross the world and this they are not able to endure it makes their very hearts to rise against them And they cross them three ways they cross them in their judgements and they cross them in their wills and they cross them in their lives and conversations 1. First by this means they cross them in their judgements and opinions Till men receive the Word of God they can in every thing conform their judgements and opinions to the world They can think as they do and they can speak as they do they can agree and hold with them in every point and so they walk on lovingly together there grows no difference or debate between them But when they come to entertain the Word to be their rule in every thing both in opinion and in conversation now they are forced to differ from the world to clash with them in many things to contradict and oppose them and gain-say them And this breeds disaffection and dislike yea enmity and hatred against them Nay they are forced sometimes if they will keep exactly to the Word of God to cross the world in those opinions which they are most intent upon and for which they are most eager and this they can by no means bear from them As they that entertained Christ to be the Son of God and the Saviour of the world when he was conversant upon the Earth and in the times that followed next after his Incarnation Passion and Ascension they did exceedingly enrage the world against them The generality of men would not endure to heat of Christ or the Religion that embraced and worshipped him and therefore whosoever undertook to own him and profess him was sure to meet with all the violence and rage and malice that the world could pour upon him He might have crost the world in many other truths and not have found so ill measure but this drew out their rage and malice to the utmost And this is that as I conceive which our Saviour Christ aims particularly at in my text I have given them thy Word thy Gospel Word of that he speaks and they have entertained it and embraced it and therefore the world hates them And if you look into the stories of the Church you shall observe that whosoever closed with the Gospel in those early times and professed the faith of Christ from which the world was so exceedingly averse he was exposed thereby to all the misery that humane cruelty c. could devise to inflict But after when this Gospel-Truth came to be better setled and digested in the world so that they were content to hear of Christ and his Religion with a little patience then there rose up other things in which they would not be gain-said As to leap down to Luther time who ever stuck to him and to the doctrine which he taught against the Pope and his adherents got the world about his ears And so in every age there are some passages of holy Scripture and the truths delivered in them against which the world is violently bent and whosoever sticks to these the world hates him out of measure and doth him all the mischief that it can And therefore this is called the Word of Gods patience Apoc. 3.10 Thou hast kept the Word of my patience that is thou hast not only kept my Word in general but more particularly thou hast kept those portions of my Word and those parcels of my Truth which must have patience to the keeping of them A man may keep some Truths delivered in the Word without patience as being universally received by all opposed by none But there are others which if a man maintain and hold them he shall surely suffer he shall be persecuted for them And he that keeps these notwithstanding keeps the Word of Gods patience The patience which God works in his people 2. They that embrace the Word of God as they cross the wicked world in their opinions so they cross them in their wills They cannot do in every thing as the wicked world would have them they cannot yeild to every thing which they obtrude and force upon them and this is another reason why they are so exasperated and enraged against them Were it not for the Word of God to which they are resolved to yield obedience they might comply in every thing and so the world and they might be very good freinds But when the Word forbiddeth what the world requireth that most vehemently too perhaps they are forced to cross the world and and so the Word brings the world and them out These men say they are so precise and holy that they must have Scripture for every thing they say or do they will do nothing but what they have a warrant for out of the Word of God But we will make them stoop and yield and we will make them turn another leaf ere we have done and when they cannot have their wills because the other cannot bend or vary from the Word of God when they are crost in that which they are so resolved upon this heats the furnace of their wrath seven times hotter then ordinary and this the Prophet David found Psal 119.161 Princes have persecuted me without a cause but my heart standeth in awe of thy Word Either he must have them against him or the Word of God against him They threatned him if he obeyed the Word the Word upon the other side that threatned if he disobeyed it Whom did he fear most why saith the Psalmist My heart standeth in awe of thy Word I fear it more then I fear them And this was that which got him much hatred and bitter persecution too as you may see in that place 3. They that receive the Word of God as they cross the wicked world in their opinions and their wills so in their conversations too they do not live and walk as they do their ways are of another fashion and this is another reason why the world is so malitiously bent against them Were it not for the Word of God and the rules that it
his first coming No man hath ascended up to heaven saith our Saviour Christ himself Joh. 3.13 but he that came down from heaven So that when he was incarnate he came down from heaven in a sense for of this our Saviour speaks in that place And to this speech of Christ it is that the Apostle Paul alludeth when speaking of our Saviour Christs ascension Ephes 4.8 he addeth presently by way of Explication Now that he ascended what is it but that he also first descended into the lower parts of the earth So then descend he did at first from heaven as after he ascended up again to heaven And because he came from heaven he is more properly of heaven then of earth as the Apostle Paul insinuates very clearly when he calls him the Lord from heaven heavenly 1 Cor. 15.47 48. Because from heaven therefore heavenly not of this world but of another 2. Jesus Christ when he was here in this world yet he was not of this world but of another because he lived in another Here he breathed but there he lived he did not live the life of this world but the life of heaven and that not in expectation as we do but in fruition He lived the life of perfect righteousness and perfect holiness the life of Angels yea a life above Angels while he was here in this world That life which is to be attained by us nowhere but in heaven only Christ lived here in this world and this perhaps was partly aimed at by our Saviour in that speech of his Joh. 3.13 No man hath ascended up to heaven but he that came down from heaven even the Son of man which is in heaven He was then come down from heaven he was then upon the earth when he spake these words And yet he addeth he was then in heaven too even the Son of man which is in heaven And he was then in heaven not only as the Son of God but as the Son of man too Virtually he was there though he were not locally His life did relish infinitely more of heaven then of earth And therefore it is very notable that he disclaimed all medling with these earthly things he would not once so much as touch with them neither as a Judge or a divider as himself professeth Luk. 12.14 nor as possessor neither It 's true he was a King as he implicitely acknowledges to Pilate and he had a kind of Kingdom while he was here in this world but it was not of this world My Kingdom is not of this world saith Christ himself Joh. 18.36 And therefore he did nor erect it outwardly with any outward policy and splendour among men but he did only set it up in the hearts of a few despised people to whom he said My Kingdom is within you Luk. 17.21 And so in every thing my Brethren he avoided such a conversation as might intimate him to be one of this world 3. Jesus Christ when he was here in this world yet he was not of this world but of another because indeed he was but going to another world From another world he came as you have heard before and to another world he was about to go Only he tarried here a little about some weighty and important business which his Father sent him down into this lower world to do and as soon as that was ended he returned to heaven again So that you see brethren he conversed here but as a Messenger from God the Father whose errand he came down upon and to whom he was to go assoon as he had finished what he came for And therefore he avoided any kind of setlement in this world any way of making this his fixed habitation as he told the Scribe that was about to follow him Mat. 8.20 The Foxes have holes and the Birds of the air have nests but the Son of man hath not where to lay his head Yea he professed that he was not in the world while he was here because indeed he was not to continue here he was shortly to depart he was as good as gone already as in this Chapter I am handling ver 11. And now I am no more in the world but I come to thâ—e And this for cleering of the former member of the point that Christ himself is not of this world but of another Now for the second branch that Christs Disciples are in this respect like Christ himself this lies before you in the letter of the text They are not of the world even as I am not of the world And this our Saviour often minds them of as you may see that place for instance to name no more at this time John 15.19 Ye are not of the world saith he but I have chosen you out of the world Indeed as Christ is so they are in this world as the Apostle speaks 1 John 4.7 So in this world that they are not of the world And that in all the three respects wherein we have clearly shewed you that Christ is not of this world but of another 1. Christs Disciples came from another world and so in that respect they are not of the world as Christ is not of the world I say they came originally from another world although not as they are men yet as they are Saints and Christians So they are from above of God they are his off-spring as Paul said to the Athenians God is their Father for they are begotten of him 1 John 5.18 And God is their Mother too for they are born of him 1 Iohn 3.9 So that you see they are no less then a divine and heavenly generation And they are members of the New Jerusalem which John saw coming down from heaven Apoc. 21.2 They are only for a while let down from heaven in a sheet as the creatures were to Peter in a vision and so taken up again 2. As Christs Disciples came from another world so they live in another world and so in that respect they are not of the world as Christ is not of the world Their Conversation is in heaven as the Apostle speaks Phil. 3.20 With the woman Apoc. 12. they tread the Moon this variable and unconstant world under their feet Trample with a disdainfull and a holy scorn upon earth and earthly things Honors are too ignoble to command them riches too poor to buy them pleasures too fleeting to allure them Sometimes they are transported as it were rapt and taken up into heaven in sweet Soliloquies and in holy contemplations ravished beyond themselves with cleer and comfortable apprehensions of their Fathers love Indeed they get above the world they soare higher then the earth their treasure is in heaven and there are their hearts also Their life is Angel-like they live with men indeed but walk with God as Moses speaks of Enoch They have their eyes on him as Moses they see him who is invisible and they are taken up with him in all their wayes and
actions They are acquainted very well with the Almighty to use the phrase of holy Job they converse with God here come very often to his house now and then sup with him speak with him twice a day at least and that in a familiar way untill at length they be admitted to a more neer and intimate enjoyment of the Lord for ever 1 Thes 4.17 till they be caught up as they were first let down to meet him and so to be for ever with the Lord. 3. Christs Disciples are going to another world and so in that respect they are not of the world as Christ is not of the world because the world is not their fixed habitation It is the character of wicked wretches that they are men of this world and that they have their portion here Psal 17.14 In which respect the Prophet sets them in opposition to the Saints And so ungodly men are stiled the inhabitants and the indwellers of the earth very often in the Book of Revelation But now the Christian on the other side is not a dweller but a stranger on the earth And this the Saints of God have frequently professed in the Scriptures The Fathers they acknowledged as the Apostle Paul observeth Heb. 11.13 that they were forreigners and pilgrims here And Abraham as the same Apostle notes sojourned in the Land of promise Observe it well he did not dwell there but sojourned as in a strange Countrey Heb. 11.9 And why because he looked for a City where he meant to dwell he had it not but he expected it and looked for it And this is that which the Apostle Paul professeth in the name of all the faithfull that they had no continuing City here no City that they meant to settle in but they sought for one to come This was the City that the Fathers saw a great way of and made towards And so despising all the happiness and glory of the present world where they were strangers and in which they were tarrying only for a little space they set their eyes and hearts on this which was their own Countrey Heb. 11.19 They desired a better Countrey which was an heavenly where God had prepared for them a City And the same disposition you may note in others of the faithfull mentioned there in that Chapter Use 1 Is it so that Christs Disciples are in this respect like Christ himself that they are of another world as he is Then let us prove our selves by this my brethren whither we be Christs Disciples yea or no. If we be the indwellers of the earth if we be at home here if we have our portion here no portion in the other world we are none of Christs Disciples No no if we belong to him we are strangers in the earth we are absent from our home while we are here we are not of the world as Christ is not of the world and whether we be so or no we may discover by these evidences following They that are not of this world are not in all respects conformed to it they fashion not themselves according to the world Rom. 12.2 they walk not according to the course of this world Ephes 2.2 As Turks and Spaniards are not like to Englishmen they have another kind of visage another garb and habit and the like So they that are not of this world differ manifestly from it There is a clear distinction to be made between them and worldly men by any man that marks them well and hath his Judgement exercised to discern There are none like them in the earth their wayes are of another fashion then the wayes of other men Now I beseech you my beloved think upon it If you be fashioned to this world if you be carried with a swinge of the prophane and vitious times and places where you live if you run down the stream with others if you sleep as others do 1 Thes 5.6 if you swear as others do if you run out with others to the same excess of riot you are surely of this world and not the other They that are not of this world but of the other have a very dear affection to those of the other world If travellers and strangers meet with any of their Countreymen in a remote and forreign Land how lovingly do they embrace them What kindness do they shew them how are they knit together in a bond of love Just so it is with Christs Disciples if at any time they light on those who are not of this world but of the other as themselves are they are taken up with joy and presently their hearts and their affections by a kind of sympathie do wonderfully close together And therefore those dissemblers deal too grosly to deceive si tamen Hypocrisis dici debeat quae jam latere prae abundantia non potest prae impudentia non quaerit as Bernard speaks who would be taken to be Christs Disciples while their companions and their bosome friends are the men of this world yea Traytors to the place to which they would be thought to appertain And others hate the very men whom Christ hath called out of the world holiness whereever they find it being the object of their fury Suppose thou wert in Italy or in another forreign land and there shouldst meet an Englishman wouldst thou mock and scoff at him wouldst thou deride and jear the fashion of his Hat and Cloak and Sute the manner of his Complement his Gate and Carriage c. wouldst thou procure him to be taken up imprisoned put to death Thy earthly Countrey would not own thee if thou shouldst be so unworthy and truly Heaven will not own the men who deal thus basely and injuriously with the inhabitants of that Countrey They that are not of this world their language is not of this world but of the other they speak the tongue of the heavenly Canaan their speech is gratious and usually to glorifie their God or to edifie their brethren But they that are of this world they speak of this world 1 Iohn 4.5 Shibboleth never discried so many Ephramites as this doth worldly men Of what place are they inhabitants whose language is so harsh and tart whose mouths are full of cursings and bitterness the poyson of Aspes being under their lips Where dwell they Alas too neer us who cannot speak almost without an oath whose tongues are alwayes dipping in that blood which was shed for mans salvation Are they inhabitants of the Celestial Canaan whose tongues are keen as swords and sharp as Arrows to hew and wound their brethrens names Shall I say that man or woman is of heaven whose tongue is set on fire of hell To what place do they appertain whose speech is stuft with filthiness and ribauldry whose words are rotten as the Apostles speaks Brethren do not deceive your selves if you cannot speak the language you belong not to the Countrey Use 2 Is it so that Christs Disciples are in this respect
especially in two things to name no more at this time 1. You must give them honour as those that come from Jesus Christ Yea double honour the honour of reverence and the honour of maintenance The Messengers and the Embassadors of Jesus Christ must be received and entertained with all respects by you Or if they be not he esteemeth their dishonour as his own He that despiseth you despiseth me saith Christ And verily if this be true he was never more despised then in these dayes Oh my beloved what floods of ignominy and contempt and scorn are poured out upon the Messengers of Jesus Christ those that are most faithfull to him so that abundance of them are hardly able to bear up against the venome that men spit upon them 2. You must give them audience as those that come from Jesus Christ considering that the message they deliver is Jesus Christs and not their own and therefore when at any time you are advised by them to come in and stoop to Christ Oh think that Christ himself doth counsell you and call upon you And when they offer peace and mercy and atonement and beseech you to accept it Oh think that Christ himself beseecheth and entreats you by them and therefore do not baffle him and slight him and put him off with a denial for if you do it is a most unsufferable provocation O think as often as you hear them speaking to you that you are hearing Christ himself from heaven and then consider how you dare to slight them For you despise not men but Christ as the Apostle speaks in this case 1 Thes 4.8 Is it so that the Apostles Ministers c. this then should teach you in Vse 6 the last place to bear with all their earnestness and plainess and not to stomack them and storm against them when they are free or sharp with you Considering that they are but servants and cannot but deliver the message of their Master it s that to which their place and calling and the trust which Christ hath put into their hands doth bind them which trust they must discharge and not betray be the hazard what it will and therefore be prevailed withall to take all in good part and not to think them injurious to you because they dare not to be unfaithfull to Christ JOHN 17.18 Even so have I also sent them into the world DOCTRINE 2. Christ doth not send his Ministers particularly or restrictively to any Countrey or to any Nation but their Commission leaves them free to all the world YOU see he doth not tell his Father I have sent them into Jewry only or into any other Region of the earth but I have sent them into the world That is the local object of their Mission the world at large without restraint or limitation all the world Indeed our Saviour once professed of himself I am not sent but to the lost sheep of the house of Israel Mat. 15.24 And so accordingly when first he sent forth his Apostles his express injunction was Go not into the way of the Gentiles but go ye rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel Mat. 10.5 At his ascention he appointed them to be his witnesses first in Judaa and Jerusalem Acts 1.8 This course and method the Apostles very carefully observed as you may see Acts 13 46. It was necessary say Paul and Barnabas unto the Jews that the word of God the Gospel should first of all be preached unto you But if you mark it well my brethren the final and the last Commission of our Saviour was Go ye into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature Mark 16.15 Go ye and teach all Nations Mat. 28.19 But you will say that this was a Commission proper to Apostles and doth not any whit concern succeeding ordinary Ministers and Pastors in the Church who are restrained to special places and fixed in special Congregations I grant indeed that many ordinary Ministers are restrained and fixed so but all are not so restrained neither are any so restrained but that they may in case remove to other places and to other Countreyes And in that any are restrained and fixed it is not meerly as they are Ministers of Christ but as they are the chosen Officers and Pastors of such a Congregation or of such a people Their Commission as from Christ doth not fix them anywhere but leaves them free as I have said to exercise their Ministry wheresoever they are called in all the world Indeed the Apostle tells us that God hath set some in the Church some Ministers of all sorts as you may see 1 Cor. 12.28 He hath placed and fixed them there But that is out of all dispute the universal Church which is not limited to any Countrey but is to be extended over all the world For if you mark it the Apostle saith not God hath set some in the Churches in the plural number but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Church and that in such a latitude as that it comprehendeth in it all gifts all members all officers of all sorts which cannot be intended of the Church of Corinth or any single Congregation but only of the universal Church of Christ on earth There Christ hath set his Ministers not his Apostles only but his ordinary teachers and if they be confined to narrower limits it is not properly by his Commission but by a call from men or by some other secundary means And as for that Commission mentioned even now Go ye and teach all Nations though it were given immediately to the Apostles it cannot be restrained to the Apostles being evidently meant in and with them of all the Ministers and Preaches of the Gospel that should succeed them in the Church to the end of the world And therefore it is added presently in the next verse Lo I am with you alwayes to the end of the world They were not to continue for their own parts by many hundred years so long and therefore it must also stretch to those who were to follow them in the office and work of Gospel-preaching till it be published universally to all Nations which was not done you know by the Apostles it was but begun by them and must be carried on till it be finished by other Ministers of Christ in ever age successively to the end of the world So that the point is clear you see Christ doth not send his Ministers particularly or restrictively to any Countrey or to any Nation but their Commission leaves them free to all the world And there are two great reasons of the Point viz. because his Kingdom Reason 1 is to be erected and his Church is to be planted over all the world in every Countrey and in every Nation under heaven And therefore Jesus Christ doth send his Ministers to all the world for this purpose for the erecting of the one and the planting of the other 1. His Kingdom is to be erected
over all the world It is not bounded or confined to any Countrey or to any Nation but it is to stretch and to extend it self to all places and to all people And hence the Kingdom of the Lord Christ is likened to a stone that swells into a Mountain and in the end replenishes the world as Dan. 2.35 The stone that smote the Image became a great Mountain and filled the whole earth A very fit resemblance of our Saviours Kingdom First it is a little stone it lyes within a little compass it is confined within very narrow limits but yet at length it grows into a Mountain yea a great Mountain it stretches and extends out it self exceedingly and in the end replenishes the whole earth The beginnings are but small a little stone a man may put it in his pocket but the stone becomes a Mountain and the Mountain fills the world And this is that which the same Daniel in his vision did foresee as if it had been done already Dan. 7.14 And there was given him saith he dominion and glory and a Kingdom speaking of the Lord Christ And what Kingdom shall he have See in the following words he shall have such a Kingdom that all the people Languages and Nations in the world shall serve him There is a Prophecy to this purpose Psal 22.27 28. All the ends of the world shall turn to the Lord and all the kinreds of the Nations shall worship before him For the Kingdom is the Lords and he is the Governour among all Nations with which accordeth that Psal 72.8 He shall have Dominion from Sea to Sea and from the River unto the ends of the Earth and yet again Psal 86.9 All Nations whom thou hast made and you know there is no Nation which he hath not made shall come and worship before thee O Lord and shall glorifie thy Name This is the meaning of that famous Proclamation of our King himself Mal. 1.11 From the rising of the Sun unto the going down of the same my Name shall be great among the Gentiles and in every place incense shall be offered to me and a pure offering for my Name shall be great among the Heathen saith the Lord of Hosts And when all these predictions shall be brought to execution then shall that which was represented in a Vision unto John be really accomplished Apoc. 7.9 I beheld saith he and loe a great multitude which no man could number of all Nations and kinreds and people and tongues stood before the Throne and before the Lamb cloathed with white Robes and Palms in their hands and then shall that triumphant voyce take place Apoc. 11.15 The Kingdoms of the world are become the Kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ and he shall reign for ever and ever Now how shall this be brought to pass my Brethren but by the preaching of the Gospel over all the world which by our Saviour Christ himself is called the Gospel of the Kingdom Mat. 24.14 because his Kingdom is erected by it and that is the first reason why Christ sends forth his Ministers to preach the Gospel over all the world that so his Kingdom may be erected by it over all the world This Gospel of the Kingdom saith our Saviour in the fore-alledged place that is this Gospel by which my Kingdom is set up and propagated and enlarged shall be preached in all the world to all Nations and then shall the end come When this is done this Gospel preached and this Kingdom thereby propagated unto all the world then saith our Saviour and not till then shall the end come 2. And as the Kingdom of our Saviour is to be erected so Churches in the second place are to be planted over all the world And that is another reason why Christ sends forth his Ministers to preach the Gospel over all the world for Gospel preaching serves as to erect the one so to collect and plant the other The Church indeed was antiently shut up among the Jews but now it is let out to all Nations so that neither Jew nor Grecian neither Scythian nor Barbarian is excluded from the Church Thou hast redeemed us by thy blood say the Elders to our Saviour Apoc. 5.9 not out of one but out of every Kindred Nation Tongue and People This enlargement of the Church is clearly taught us in the Prophesie of Hosea 2.23 which may serve instead of all And I will sow her to me in the earth saith God there which is a Metaphorical or borrowed speech by which the Lord fore-shews the great extension of the Church in these latter Gospel days For as the Husbandman that means to have his Corn increased and multiplyed first sows it in the ground that so it may take root and spring and bear him many grains for one so God affirming he will sow his Church insinuates he will make it do as corn when it is sowen to grow and multiply exceedingly So that from a very small it shall encrease to a great number And hence he saith not I will sow her in the land of Canaan only but in the earth at large without restraint or limitation In former times he made his breach in Iewry only his field the Church was but a little corner of the world but here the Lord fore-shews that he will multiply her so that she shall be dispersed over all the earth And I will sow her to me in the earth And for this reason Jesus Christ sends forth his Seedesmen into all the Earth that they may sow the Church in all Countries This shall suffice for clearing of the point And is it so that Jesus Christ doth not send his Ministers particularly Vse 1 or restrictively c. This then may serve my Brethren in the first place at least to justifie the practice of those Ministers of Christ who for the propagating of the Church of Christ and elarging of his Kingdom have done as the Apostle Paul professed he had strived to do Rom. 15.20 saith he I have strived to preach the Gospel not where Christ was named least I should build upon another mans foundation but as it is written To whom he was not spoken of they shall see and they that have not heard shall understand Preached when a Collection was made for propagation of the Gospel in New-England You heard even now of many zealous Instruments of Christ who have had the same design viz to preach the Gospel in America where Christ was never named till within these few years To lay the first stone of the Foundation of Religion there to gather Churches and to erect the Kingdom of the Lord Christ among the poor blind Indians in the remotest quarter of the world That so the Fathers promise may at length be made good to Jesus Christ Psal 2.8 Ask of me and I will give thee the Heathen for thine Inheritance and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession And verily in this my
Brethren they have not gone beyond their line they have not strayed beyond the bounds of their Commission Christ doth not send his Ministers as you have heard particularly or restrictively to any Countrey or to any Nation but their Commission leaves them free to all the world Even the Commission not of Apostles only but of the ordinary Ministers of Christ as I have shewed before in Explication of the point so that they are within their compass still though they be among the Indians even at the other end of all the Earth And it is to be very much observed that Christ hath given abundant testimony to this glorious work of theirs in the incredible success of their endeavours there so that poor naked souls come continually to Jesus Christ stoop to the Government and Scepter of his Kingdom desire to be acquainted with his will to be instructed in the way of his worship to have their children brought up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord And in a word they shame us who have so long enjoyed the Gospel that we are even weary of it and begin to put it from us and so to judge our selves unworthy of eternal life The Lord in mercy grant it go not from us to the Indians who prize it more are more eager after it and more fruitful under it according to their light then multitudes of us professed Christians are Now I beseech you my Beloved cast an eye upon them travail thither in your thoughts and meditations there you shall see some Ministers of Jesus Christ once our fellow-Labourers spending themselves undergoing difficulties without number or measure to convert souls and gather Churches among blind Heathens There you shall see the Gospel blossoming the Church enlarging her Tent and stretching forth the Curtains of her habitation the Doves flocking to the windows of the Ark the Church of Christ the fulness of the Gentiles now beginning to come in and in a word that great work going on which is incomparably the most remarkable that Christ hath yet to do in this world What shall we do now my Beloved and how shall we behave our selves under such a dispensation shall we as many have done heretofore and it may be yet do condemn the Instruments as if they went beyond themselves in this business Shall we mock at these beginnings of the building of the Temple shall we despise the day of small things shall we as Gallio care for none of these matters Truly the least that we can do is to comply with Jesus Christ in this design of his for which he sends his Ministers into the world and to promote this glorious work to the utmost of our power It is in the hands of those for whom as you have heard it is too heavy so that they cannot mannage it they are not able to go through with it They seem to call over to us as the man of Macedonia Come to America and help us Oh let not such a work miscarry and fail of being driven on for want of any help that we can yield to it a work that is so purely Christian as this is But which way can we help it on it may be you will say to me Truly my Brethren if no other way we may promote and help it on at least without purses and our prayers This we may do at this distance I shall speak a word to either 1. We may promote it with our prayers This was the course the Prophet took as you may see Isa 62.1 In the precedent chapter he is very large and eloquent on this business shewing the future glory of the Church by the addition of the fulness of the Gentiles in all Countries and in all Nations And having done with the description of it in two whole Chapters me thinks he is an end to hasten the fruition of it For Zions sake I will not hold my peace saith he and for Jerusalems I will not rest So we my Brethren having heard of the beginning of this great work in America let us do as Isaiah did let us be always crying to the Lord let him be hard beset on all hands let him not have a quiet hour The Lord hath set his Watchmen on the walls of his Jerusalem to this purpose Isa 62.6 that they may watch such opportunities as these are And least he should forget this great work when it is upon the wheel he hath appointed some remembrancers to mind him of it and therefore let us be continually minding God of this business beseeching him to go on with this work till he hath brought it to perfection till the whole fulness of the Gentiles be come in till Christ inherit all Nations Let us remember that we have a little sister in America and that now is the day of speaking for her for now her case and business is in agitation and therefore now let us be earnest with the Lord let us pray and pray hard let us not be cold or dead in such a suit as this is We may promote it with our purses and estates And this is that especially we have in hand at this time There are very many things in that great business now on foot that need pecuniary helps as hath been said The charge that lies on these that are the agents in it is exceeding great and indeed too heavy for them and therefore we me thinks that share not in the difficulties and the labours that other of our Brethren undergo among the Indians should be content to share a little in the costs for who would willingly sit wholly out in such a blessed work as this is Alas my Brethren how much idle mony do we spend a hundred ways that might be saved for such a purpose And truly I believe we never had occasion to lay mony out to a better end then this Now we may help in a qualified sense to purchase souls with money to further the accomplishment of the Gospel promises with money we may make temporal and earthly things serve spiritual and heavenly ends And therefore I beseech you my Beloved enlarge your bounty more then ordinary in such a choise and extraordinary work as this is Let love to Christ and to his Church compassion to those blind Americans draw out your very hearts to them that those poor Indian souls whose Conversion and Salvation you may further by this means may bless you Thus make you friends of the unrighteous Mammon that you may render up a good account when the day of reckoning comes Is it so That Jesus Christ sends forth his Ministers into the world and Vse 2 that as I have said to gather Churches and erect his Kingdom over all the world Then let this raise our hearts my Brethren in reference to this work which is indeed the greatest and the most eximious that Christ hath yet to do in this world Oh let our hearts be lifted up towards it and that especially three ways in
faith in expectation in Petition I shall speak to them in order Let our hearts be lifted up in faith with reference to this work Let them be raised to a full and firm belief that it shall surely be accomplished in the Lords own time Christ hath sent forth his Ministers about it and brought it on a great way and therefore let us rest upon it that he will surely finish it in his season It may be you may look upon it as a thing almost impossible that all the Nations of the world should turn to Christ and receive him for their King But if you will cast back your eye on the beginnings of this glorious work you cannot but acknowledge that it was as hard to bring it on to what it hath attained already in the world as to perform that which remaineth to be done All that which we expect is not so hard as that which Christ hath done already If you had seen him here upon the Earth and his fishermen about him you would not have imagined that so many Nations would ever have been brought in to him as there are at this day When he sent out a company of poor despised men to preach the Gospel and to draw men in to him by telling them they must deny themselves and they must take up their Cross and suffer persecution for his sake they must forsake all leave all and follow him you would have thought this had been an unlikely way to do very great matters And yet by such improbable unlikely means as these hath Christ been entertained in many Nations and many Countreyes and multitudes of people have been brought to stoop to him And therefore seeing he hath done so much already and that in such a strange way as you would never have believed if you had not seen it done you may the better cast your selves upon him with this assurance that he will overcome the difficulties that are yet behind that he that hath begun the work and prospered it so far as he hath done will finish it untill he hath brought in the fulness of the Gentiles to his Church and Kingdom from one end of the earth unto the other Object But you will ask me now perhaps What would you have us to believe that all the people of the world shall accept of Jesus Christ and receive him for their King and be the Subjects of his Kingdom Why then it seems there should be no tares no Goats no wicked when that time comes Sol. No my beloved this is not the thing at which I aim And therefore you may not be mistaken you must remember that distinction of the Kingdom of Christ Iesus into the Kingdom of power and the Kingdom of grace The first of these indeed is universal and doth already reach to all places and to all persons Though all be not the subjects of the grace of Christ yet all are subject to the power of Christ And hence the Psalmist tells us that his Kingdom rules over all Psal 103.19 And that he is the King of all the earth Psal 47.7 he is King of all the places in the earth yea and of all the persons in the earth either one way or the other Either he is a gracious King to rule them or a powerfull King to break them And thus his Kingdom doth already reach to all Countreys and to all people But now my brethren for the second Kingdom which we have called the Kingdom of grace that is also in a sence to stretch and to extend it self to all places and to all people I shall clear it very briefly 1. It is to stretch and to extend it self to all places and to all Countreyes The Church of Jesus Christ is to be Catholick in this respect and so by consequence his Kingdom too it is to be erected and set up in all Nations And hence the Holy Ghost affirmeth that all the people Languages and Nations in the world shall serve him And the Apostle tells us that in the business of sanctification or setting up the Kingdom of Christ Jesus in the hearts of men there is neither Greek nor Jew neither Scythian nor Barbarian but Christ is all in all That is the Jew is not preferred before the Greek and neither of them is preferred before the Scythian and Barbarian but all of them are one to Christ and Christ is one to all of them and he will have a Church and Kingdom as well among the Scythians and Barbarians as among the Jews themselves 2. And as this Kingdom is to stretch and extend it self to all places and to all Countreyes so it is also to extend it self to all people That is to all degrees and sorts of people though not to all of those sorts And as there is no Nation so there is no condition or estate or rank of men excluded from the grace of Jesus Christ nor barred from being subjects of his gratious Kingdom here and of his glorious Kingdom hereafter Let our hearts be lifted up in expectation of this glorious work Since Christ hath sent forth his instruments about it to gather Churches and to erect his Kingdom over all the world and since the work hath prospered very far and now is going on amain among the Indians let us not lye still and idle as if we knew not what is a doing in the world Now Christs work is in his hand let our eyes be in our heads and let it raise up extraordinary expectations in us The Prophet having had a glymps of this most excellent and glorious work in contemplation when it was not yet begun is on tip-toe presently Isa 62.1 And so let us especially now we behold it in the execution let us lift up our heads and look let us get up on our watch-towers where we may have more advantage to see if by any means we can discover more of it and let our spirits be continually reaching after the fufilling of it as being full of hope about it Let our hearts be lifted up in supplication for the accomplishment of this work Not that we can change the Lord by any means or antedate his Counsels and Decrees but yet if we would have such glorious works to come to execution it is extreamly necessary for us to do that on which the execution of them is suspended in the Scripture I will build the ruined and I will plant the desolate and desert places saith the Lord Ezek. 36.37 I will build the ruined Nation of the Jews which was a Church in former times and I will plant the desolate and desert places of the Gentiles I the Lord have spoken it and I will do it But yet on this condition that I will be enquired of by my people The Lord will surely come my brethren in his own appointed season and gather Churches and erect his Kingdom over all the world But in the mean time he will have his people pray Thy Kingdome come he will have
therefore my Beloved when there are any such abroad as some have been in our days who say that they are Christ you shall do well to call one of them who are in Christ to tell you whether this be Christ indeed or no. This being in the Father and the Son importeth ready easie and familiar access to the Father and the Son They are in one another and therefore they must needs be much together Believers need not to go far to speak with God he is at hand continually for they are in him So that they have his ear and heart too they can come to him and speak with him when they please Others that are abroad they hear him when he speaks in publick in the open Congregation and when he cryeth in the place of concourse as the wise man speaks But alas they have no private talk with him as these have when there is none but God and them together And therefore they that are without that live without God and without Christ are fain to use those that are in God and Christ sometimes to promote their suits to him If they have any special business to prefer to God they that are without must be beholding to them that are within to tender their Petitions for them as Pharaoh was in such a case Send for Moses and Aaron and let them use their interest in my behalf let them pray to God for me This being in the Father and the Son doth carry in it a more immediate enjoyment of all the comforts satisfactions and contentments that the soul of man can reach after For God involves and comprehendeth in him all the good that can be thought upon and infinitely more then the poor narrow heart of man can reach to We would think abundance of us that we were very well if we had all the happiness that all the creatures in the world could yield us If we had such a wife house gardens servants in-come by the year honors pleasures and delights as we would fancy to our selves then we would think that we were happy men indeed Why my Beloved whatsoever good there is to please or give us satisfaction in the creatures any way if we had them all together is eminently and transcendently in God They had it all from him and therefore certainly he hath it all in him and that without dregs too The spirits and the quintessence of all these comforts are in God refined from the drossie part so that in having him we have all A naked God a naked Christ is infinitely more to make a man compleatly happy then all the comforts in the world without him Or if it were not so my Brethren our state in heaven would be worse then it is here upon the earth the happiness of Heaven would be much below and much inferiour to our earthly happiness In Heaven we shall have nothing else but God no Sun no Moon Apoc. 21.23 The Creatures shall not give us comfort as they do in this world No God shall be our Sun and Moon there he shall be every thing to satisfie us and content us and to make us happy He shall be all in all 1 Cor. 15.18 Now if the Lord have not as much in him as all the creatures which we leave when we are taken hence by death we are losers by the bargain whereas we know the heighth and the perfection of our happiness is there where we have nothing else but God And therefore certainly we stand in need of nothing else to make us absolutely and compleatly happy And whensoever we have least of creatures and most of God in this world then we are nearest to that full beatitude Now God we have if we be in him my Beloved and so we have the Fountain of all happiness and satisfaction He that is in God in the Father and the Son must needs have all that is in God so far as it is necessary for him And that indeed is all that can be This being in the Father and the Son doth carry in it admirable safety He is secure enough from any hurt that is in God For what should seize upon him to annoy him there You know the Lord is often called a house a habitation in the Scripture and to make up the Allegory the Saints are said to dwell in God 1 Joh. 3.24 He that keepeth his Commandements dwelleth in him and he in him So that believers are in God as in a house where they are warm and well and safe however matters go abroad what ever storms there be upon land they are not like to the Egyptian servants in the storm of hail they are not left abroad in the woods and in the fields to be smitten and destroyed No God hath fetched them into house into himself they are in God who is the habitation of his people and there they are secure enough as the Psalmist intimates Psal 91.1 He that dwelleth in the secret of the most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty So that when the storm is fiercest he can stand quiet and look out at window and see others perish in the tempest He is in the Ark in God and a few more with him while all the world besides are drowned in the deluge It matters not to him what waves and floods there are abroad he is where he is safe enough Nay God is not resembled to an ordinary habitation only but to a place of refuge and defence Psal 18.2 A Castle and a strong Tower c. So that they that are in God are in a Castle and a strong Tower that never was and never will be taken by assault and what need they fear there They that are without indeed are in very great danger they are exposed to the mercy of the Enemy because they know not whether to betake themselves for shelter but they that are within may say as David when the Drums beat and the bullets flie I will lay me down in peace and sleep for thou Lord only makest me dwell in safety Psal 4. ult and that because I am in thee thou art thy self my Castle and my refuge and my strong Tower This being in the Father and the Son doth carry in it certainty of perseverance What my Beloved do you think that it is in and out In God to day and out to morrow as Arminians teach It is a most uncomfortable Doctrine which they have broached Ah my Beloved what solid and induring satisfaction will the best condition that they can be in afford them if they be not sure to keep it Now here Beloved is the fullest and the best assurance against this discomfort that is contained in the Book of God You hear that true believers are in God in the Father and the Son yea they are so in God so in the Father and the Son as they are in one another I pray for them saith Christ that they may all be one as thou Father art in me
as he calls Christ so so Christ makes him to call all true believers so He will have them to share with him by any means in this honour Is God the God of Christ why Christ makes him the God of all believers Is God the Father of Christ why Christ makes him the Father of believers Is he the God that brings again from the dead the Lord Jesus Christ why he is the God too that will surely bring again from the dead all true believers as the Apostle tells us them that sleep in Jesus will he also bring with him 1 Thess 4.14 Me thinks it is as if Christ should have said to him That which thou art to me thou shalt be to them too That which thou dost for me thou shalt do for them too I will have none of this honour unless they partake with me The Son as Man receives much glory from the Father in that he sets him at own right hand in the next place to himself Why now the self same glory doth the Son bestow upon the Church in that he sets her at his own right hand in the next place to himself If Jesus Christ be raised so high how high is the Church raised If Jesus Christ be so transcendently exalted in this that he is set in the next place to God how is the Church exalted then that she is set in the next place to Christ Look upon Christ and you shall see that God hath highly exalted him and set him at his own right hand Ephes 1.21 and then look upon the Church and you shall see that Christ hath highly exalted her and set her at his own right hand Psal 45.9 On thy right hand did stand the Queen i. the Church Now my beloved is the place of Christ high How high then is the Churches place Is Christ at the right hand of God She is at the right hand of Christ Is Christ in the next place to God She is in the next place to Christ Is there none above Christ but God None is above the Church but Christ and God Is he exalted far above all principality and powers might and dominion not only in this world but in that which is to come not only above all principalities and powers on earth but even above all principalities and powers in heaven too above the very Angels yea the highest orders of them She is exalted far above them As Christ comes between them and God so she comes between them and Christ she is neerer Christ in union nature and dignity The Angels are but Ministers and servants whiles the Saints the members of the Church are heirs Yea they are Ministers to these heirs They are all the best of them ministring spirits sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation Heb. 1. ult So that no marvail though our Saviour tells his Father here The glory which thou gavest me I have given them The Son as Man receives much glory from the Father in the vast authority and power which he hath vested him withall Why now the same power he dispenseth to the Church to be executed by her Officers And therefore having said All power is given to me both in Heaven and in Earth Mat. 28.18 he adds immediately to his Apostles in the very next verse Go ye and teach all Nations baptizing them q. d. the power which is given me I give you in some measure As God the Father hath given me all power so I give you some power so much as you are capable of And as the government is put upon my shoulders by the Father as the Prophet speaks Isa 9.6 so I put over some part of this Government to you my under-Officers whom I depute to manage and negotiate the affairs of my Kingdom As God the Father hath set me over his house so I set you to be my Stewards under me to whom I give the Keyes of this house As God the Father hath given me the King-key of Davids Princedom which I keep my self so that I shut and no man openeth I open and no man shutts so I give you the Ministerial Keyes which I intrust with you who are the Stewards and the guides of my houshold To whom I give a special power to open and to shut the doors of my house to let in and put out And though it be my own prerogative and a chief flower of that Imperial Crown which God the Father hath been pleased to set upon my head to seal pardons and to forgive sins viz. to do it in the Court of heaven and Conscience yet I commit to you my Viceroyes and my under-Officers a Ministerial power both to remit and to retain sins in the outward Court that is the face and presence of the Church in regard of declaration Verily I say unto you whatsoever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven c. Mat. 18.18 19. And in another place whosesoever sins ye remit they are remitted and whosesoever sins you retain they are retained And in a word as God the Father hath committed all judgement unto me so I commit some judgement to you And hence it is my brethren that the Church assisted by her Officers iudgeth them that are within although she judge not them that are without as Paul speaks 1 Cor. 5.22 over whom no power is given her by the Lord Christ But those that are within she judgeth and condemneth too if there be cause and casts them out and gives them over to the Executioner There take them Satan disquiet them afflict them for the destruction of the flesh the carnal part that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord. The Son as Man receives much glory from the Father in the great offices of dignity and trust and honour which he hath advanced him to Why now the self same glory hath the Son communicated to believers in that he hath advanced them to the self same Offices to which he is himself advanced by the Father As God the Father hath made Jesus Christ a King a Priest and a Prophet to himself so Christ doth make all true believers Kings and Priests to God his Father for both those Offices are mentioned Apoc. 1.6 He makes them to become a royal Priesthood 1 Pet. 2.9 A Priesthood and a royal Priesthood And as he makes them Kings and Priests so he makes them Prophets too to teach their families and make known his wayes to them to teach their neighbours and acquaintance and to admonish one another within the compass of their own Spheres Col. 3.16 In which respect it is the Counsel of the Apostle in the cited place Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in you the people of Colosse not in the learned Doctors only but in the private members of the Church So that you see Christ hath advanced all true believers with him to all the offices to which he is advanced by the Father and so hath made
the Godhead For the first person of the Godhead though it be the Father of our Saviour Christ as God yet it is not so properly the Father of our Saviour Christ as man And our Saviour Christ speaks as man in this place And therefore Father here is essentially taken for the whole Godhead subsisting in the three persons And even as we by Father mean the Godhead when we pray our Father which art in heaven So doth our Saviour Christ too As man he is in this respect like us as the Apostle tells us he is in all things like unto us sin only excepted Now the attribute he gives the Godhead which he denotes by Father here is righteous Righteous Father But wherefore doth he mention this rather then any attribute of God on this occasion Why might he not have said as well Almighty or Eternal or Mercifull or Gratious Father The special reason why he chooses this expression as far as I conceive cannot be cleerly and undoubtedly resolved Judicious Calvin thinks he doth it in opposition to the unrighteousness of men So to comfort true believers that however they were like to meet with nothing but injustice and unrighteousness in the world yet he was now committing them into the hands and keeping of a righteous God Others guess at other reasons Once this is clear and manifest that he picks out this attribute of God among the rest and whereas many others lay before him he fixes upon this only He comes to God in prayer by the name of righteous Father The thing is evident though the particular Consideration that induced him to it be unknown So that the Points to be observed here are two First God is a just and righteous God in himself and in all his dispensations Secondly That Jesus Christ came to him as a righteous God when he was pouring out his prayers to him or making his Petition to him DOCTRINE God is a very just and righteous God None knew him better then our Saviour and he calls him Righteous Father So doth the Holy Ghost in Scripture very often The Prophet David stileth him The Righteous God Psal 7.9 And Jeremiah The Lord that judgeth righteously Jer. 11.10 Indeed he doth not judge after the sight of his eyes nor reprove after the hearing of his ears that is he is not deceived with the external shew of things with which the eyes of men are often taken He is not misled and carried with reports to deal unjustly in the least degree No with righteousness he doth judge the poor who many times are over-born in lower Courts by those that are too strong and mighty for them and reprove with equity for the meek of the earth Though they be meek though they be not clamorous and troublesome and though they do not wring out justice from him as the poor widdow in the Gospel did from the unrighteous Judge by unweariedness earnestness and tyring importunity yet they shall have it easily and readily he will dispense it to them freely of his own accord And this is that which holy David so applauds him for and he will have it spoken to his praise among the Heathen Psal 96.10 Say among the Heathen The Lord reigneth and he shall judge the people righteously Let the Heavens rejoyce and let the Earth be glad before the Lord for he cometh for he cometh to judge the Earth He shall judge the world with Righteousness and his people with his Truth So that you see the point is clear That God is a very just and righteous God And you will be the better satisfied in it if you consider but these three things First the largeness of his Jurisdiction and Dominion His Government is universal and extends to all the world and therefore he must needs be righteous He is the judge of all the earth And what said Abraham Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right Gen. 18.25 The Supream and Soveraign Judge before whose dread Tribunal all the World must stand and at whose Bar they must be tryed for that which most concerns them too their precious souls from whose determination no man can appeal with any hope of being righted in a higher Court seeing there is none above it Is God unrighteous I say as the Apostle Rom. 3.5 How then shall he judge the world Indeed inferiour Governours may be unrighteous and corrupt and yet this universal frame continue and subsist because they are perpetually subject to the Soveraign Judge who standeth in the Congregation of the Mighty and is a Judge among the Gods as David speaks Psal 82.1 But if the universal Judge should be unjust whom none can over-top nor call to an account what could be lookt for but confusion Another ground of the righteousness of God is the immensity and infiniteness of his presence As he is Governour and Judge of all the world so he is in all the world The largeness of his presence is answerable to the largeness of his Jurisdiction and Dominion and this contributes very much to the uprightness and the justice of his Government Inferiour Magistrates although perhaps they have no mind to be unjust yet they are often times misled by sinister information They are not present everywhere they see not every thing themselves and therefore are necessitated to proceed secundum allegata probata And many times it comes to pass that things which are untrue are testified and proved before them and so they do injustum though not injustè by means of which the Innocent is injured and oppressed See an example of it in Mephibosheth who by the false suggestions of his wicked servant Ziba was outed of his goods and his possessions 2 Sam. 16.4 Had David known that good Mephibosheth had still remained loyal to him had he not been abused by a forged information how far would he have been from doing such apparent wrong as he did in that sentence But he relyed on Testimony for the truth of that which by reason of remoteness could not fall within the compass of his own notice and so was led into that gross mistake which you have heard Now there can no such Errors happen in the Government of God because himself is present every where and therefore cannot be misguided by finister information He taketh nothing upon trust upon suggestion as all our Governours on earth do No my beloved he sees all with his own eyes he hears all with his own ears nothing is said or done but in his presence His eyes in every place behold the evil and the good saith Solomon Prov. 15.3 whether it be good or evil whether it be near or far off it is within his own veiw his eyes behold it he need not to depend upon a witness for the proof of it So that in this respect he is not subject to such injustice in his government as other Kings and Rulers are Thirdly God must needs be righteous in his Administrations because he is
of this Chapter This shall suffice for clearing of the Observation That unbelievers and unsanctified persons know not God At least they know him not in such a manner and with such a kind of knowledge as they ought to do in that they know him not with an affective knowledge they know him not with an effective knowledge and they know him not in Christ But what may be the causes why the unbelieving world is so ignorant Reason 1 of God I shall lay them open to you both with relation to the unbelieving world Heathen and with relation to the unbelieving world Christian Christian I mean in name though not in truth First for the unbelieving world Heathen it is no wonder that they know not God for they have no means to know him in such a manner as is necessary to salvation It s true that even they have means to know him in a common way as the Apostle shews and proves Rom. 1.19 20. That which may be known conceive it naturally known of God is manifest to them that is the Heathen for God hath shewed it even to them There is an Image and resemblance of him stampt upon the Creatures There are apparent characters and footsteps and impressions of the Godhead of his power and wisdom set upon every thing which he hath made which may be looked upon by every eye How doth his glory shine my brethren in the rare and admirable structure of the world the glorious frame of Heaven and earth And hence it is that David saith The Heavens declare the glory of God c. Psal 19.1 Indeed he tells us afterwards the Law of the Lord is perfect The word of God and that alone is a compleat and perfect help to bring us to the knowledge of God But yet there is some declaration of him in the Creatures the Heavens declare the glory of God And this means the Heathens have The Creatures catechise them and instruct them in the knowledge of a God as Job shewes Chap. 12.7 Ask now the Beasts and they shall teach thee the Fowls and they shall tell thee speak to the Earth and it shall teach thee and Fishes of the Sea shall declare to thee Who knoweth not in all these that the hand of God hath wrought this And therefore the Apostle tells us that even they the Heathen knew God Rom. 1.21 But now they have no means to know him savingly in Christ And this is life eternal to know thee the only true God and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent This knowledge is not written in the Creature Book and they have not the Scripture Book and how then should they come to it It s true that God is written in the Creature Book but not a word of Christ there God is written in the Heart Book but not a word of Christ there neither The Law is written in the heart by nature but there are no impressions of the Gospel which is the word of Christ Col. 3.16 And hence it is that all the Nations of the world have groped after God and found him too as Acts 17.27 Let a man run from East to West let him ransake all Nations and where he findeth any men there he shall find some notice of God But now my Brethren among which of all these Nations who never had the book of Scriptures shall you find any notice of a Christ any incling of a Saviour or Redeemer No Christ is not so much as named among them They have no glimpse no crevice to give them any light of God in Christ So that it is no wonder though the unbelieving world Pagan know him not in this manner for they have no means to know him Reason 2 But now the unbelieving world Christian hath the means of this knowledge and why then do not they know God true they have the outward means but they want the inward means They have the outward revelation of the word but they have not the inward revelation of the spirit And without this it is impossible for any man to know God And therefore the Apostle prays for the Ephesians that God would give them the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him Chap. 1.17 By which he intimates that without spirit-revelation they could never come to know him Now this spirit-revelation or unveiling consists in the removal of a double Veil the Veil that lies upon the faculty and the Veil that lies upon the Object 1. In the spirit-revelation which is the only means of knowing God there must be the removal of the Veil that lies upon the faculty the understanding The sence must be unveiled you know or else we cannot see an object though it be before us For what can a blindfolded person see And so it is in this case for every unbelieving person is blindfolded as it were the God of this world hath blinded his eyes The Veil is on their heart that is their understanding 2 Cor. 3 15. And this Veil the Holy Ghost must take away as in the cited place or else though God be by a man as certainly he is not far from every one of us he will not see him But when once this is removed then revelata ac detecta facie as Beza reads it Then we with open and uncovered face behold the glory of the Lord. 2. In that spirit-revelation which is the only means of knowing God there must be the removal of the Veil that lies upon the Object as of the Veil that lies upon the understanding so of the Veil that lies upon the Gospel where God is represented to us in a saving way For you must know my brethren that the Gospel is a veiled and a covered thing it hath a Curtain drawn before it It is a mysterie a secret thing Nay it is not only secret in it self but it is also kept secret Nor 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for that is the term that the Apostle uses Col. 1.26 Not simply dark or mystical but hid on purpose de industria as Theophilacta observes Among the Jews it was covered with a veil of types and figures and dark expressions And to this day it is hid from natural and carnal men 2 Cor. 4.3 So that however God in Christ be cleerly manifested there let them do what they are able still there is something between them and God that hides him from them that they cannot see him And that is the first reason why unbelieving Christians know not God because they want the inward means of this knowledge viz. spirit-revelation And as they want the inward means of finding out this knowledge when it is closely hidden and covered from them so they want inward capability of receiving this knowledge when it is openly proposed and tendred to them They are so far from being able to go forth to fetch it from abroad that they cannot entertain it when it is brought home to them They have not of
what you do for him He will give to every man not according to his knowledge but according to his works To them who by patient continuance in well doing seek glory and honor and immortality saith the Apostle Rom. 2.7 To them who do and do well and continue doing well and patiently continue doing well yea though they suffer evill for well doing the Lord will render eternal life JOHN 17.26 And will declare it AND thus far of the first part of our Saviours resolution to make a further declaration of his Fathers Name in reference to his Apostles and Disciples then about him I have declared unto them thy Name and will declare it further to them to the very same men Proceed we to the Second Member of his Resolution to make a further delaration of his Fathers Name in reference to other men to whom he had not yet at all declared it I have declared unto them thy Name to these Apostles and Disciples now about me and will declare it further yet to other men both in the present and the future ages This act of mine shall be a constant and continued act as long as there are any people in the world I will not cease declaring of thy Name to them And so accordingly the point shall be DOCTRINE That Jesus Christ will be continually making further declarations of his Fathers Name to other Nations and to other persons to the end of the world He will be still declaring it to those that have not heard of it that have not been acquainted with his Fathers name Teaching new scholars still to spell it and to understand it in every Generation while the World endureth And as he is a King for ever as long as there are any further people to be ruled and as he is a Priest for ever as the Psalmist speaks Psal 110.4 as long as there are any further people to be saved and redeemed So he is a Prophet for ever as long as there are any further people to be taught Every age shall have experience of the blessed fruits of the Prophetical Office of Christ in giving some the knowledge of his Fathers Name who till then were strangers to him For clearing of the point I shall a little more distinctly shew you that Jesus Christ will be continually making further Declarations of his Fathers Name In the first place to other Nations And in the second place to other persons to the end of the world Jesus Christ will be continually making further declarations of his Fathers Name to other Nations He had declared it only to the people of the Jews when he put up this supplication to his Father in my Text. Some Proselytes of other Nations there might be among the Jews who were partakers of his publique teaching but certainly he had revealed his Father to no other Nation but the Jews only For his Commission was confined to them as he professed to the Canaanitish woman Matth. 15.24 I am not sent but to the lost Sheep of the house of Israel I am to be my Fathers Messenger to them and none but them immediately in my own person If I go further I exceed my bounds For till the resurrection of our Saviour the partition-wall between the Jews and Gentiles was not broken down And so accordingly he preacht not peace he did not manifest that sweet part of his Fathers Name to those that were afar off neither by himself nor by his Ministers till after that time as the Apostle Paul insinuates Ephes 2.14 15 16 17. And therefore when he sent forth his Apostles Mat. 10.5 his express injunction was Go not into the way of the Gentiles and into any City of the Samaritans enter ye not but go ye rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel Which course or method the Apostles in the first place very carefully observed as you may see Act. 13.15 It was necessary saith Paul and Barnabas to the Jews that the Word of God the Gospel in which the Fathers name is manifested and made known to men should first of all be preached unto you But since that time he hath declared it by his Ministers to other Nations To whom his last Commission was Go into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature Mark 16.15 Go ye and teach all Nations Mat. 28.19 And in pursuance of this Commission and command of his even the Apostles while they lived did spread it far and wide The Scripture story seems to hint it to us Mark 16. ult where after the forementioned Mandate of our Saviour it is immediately observed by the Evangelist that they went forth and preached everywhere And the Apostle Paul reporteth that himself alone had filled with the Gospel all the Countrey from Jerusalem even round about unto Illyricum yea that he strived to preach it where Christ was not so much as named Rom. 15.19 20. You may suppose the rest of the Apostles were not idle in their places The stories of the Church give in some Testimonies to it For Stapleton reports of Thomas that he preached to the Indians and Clemens saith there is no Nation either Grecian or Barbarian among whom prayers are not made in the Name of Jesus And so to whom God is not manifested as a Father in his Son Christ But yet we are not to conclude from this an universal Declaration of the Name of God to every people Island Nation in the world in the times of the Apostles For since their dayes Christ hath revealed it to many Countries and to many people And yet at this day there are many Nations that have not heard of God in Christ That Name of his hath not been declared to them But to them he will declare it before the consummation of the world they shall all hear of it The Gospel saith our Saviour shall be preached to all the world and then shall the end come Mat. 24.14 So it behoveth that remission should be preached in his Name and that among all Nations Luk. 24 47. There is a fulness of the Gentiles yet to be brought in by this discovery of the Fathers Name which Christ will certainly accomplish in his own time He hath begun of late to manifest it to the Indians in America and he will certainly go on with that work till all the People Languages and Nations in the world do serve the Lord till the ends of all the world do turn to him and all the Kindreds of the earth do worship before him And till he be Governour in all Nations Psal 22.27 28. You see then Jesus Christ will be continually making further Declarations of his Fathers name to other Nations still it is I have declared it and I will declare it with reference to other Nations And so it is with reference to other persons in those Nations where it is declared already He hath declared it unto some and will declare unto others still in every age to the end of