thy will for thy Law is in my heart Lord we delight to pray read hear perform religious duties it is our meat and drink to do thy will for thy Law is in our hearts It is not written in our understandings only but in our hearts and our affections and this is that which makes obedience to it pleasing and delightful to us So that if you might be free from the injunctions and directions of the Word with the servant in the Law you would not value such a libertie You would not swear and be unclean and run out into all excess of ryot if you might because your spirits have by grace an inward contrariety and antipathy against it you would not cease to pray and hear and perform religious duties if you might because your spirits have an inward sweet complacencie in these things If you thus keep the Word it is a sign that you are Christs Disciples As you must keep the Word wholly and keep it cordially so you must keep it constantly you must keep it to the end as the Prophet David speaks Psal 119.33 You must hold on in keeping it you must persist in your obedience to it even to your lives end that Christ may say at last concerning you when you depart out of this world and appear before his Father Thou hast given them to me and they have kept thy word And indeed to obey it for a time and then to throw it off again is not to keep it but to lose it Alas how many such are there among us in these latter times who for a while were very diligent and Instant in the study of the Scriptures seem'd to be very cautious and exact to frame their lives in every thing according to the word of God so that they would not vary from it in the least particular Or if they found themselves at any time in any thing to swerve from the direction of the Rule they would judge themselves for it But now the Word the rule it self is laid aside as an unnecessary and a useless thing as if it were not worthy the keeping any longer there is no care at all to walk by it when there are gross and horrid deviations from it they are not looked upon as matter of Humiliation or Contrition in the least degree I wish that such would seriously consider with themselves how Christ shall own them in the latter day how he shall plead before his Father for them that they have kept his word Now my Beloved lay these things to heart and never rest till you have gotten this Character of those that are bestowed on Jesus Christ by the donation of the Father Never satisfie your selves till you keep the Word of God in your lives by obeying it till you keep it wholly and till you keep it cordially and till you keep it constantly And then there is a blessing poured out upon you by the mouth of Christ himself Blessed are they that hear the word of God and keep it that is that do not hear it only but obey it And to the same effect speaks the Apostle James Jam. 1.23 If as you look into the Law the word of God and understand it so you continue in it and are doers of the work not forgetful hearers of it but doers of the work you shall be blessed in the deed And that you may attain this blessedness that follows those that are obedient to the word I shall give you some direction 1. You must seek to God to teach you though you may learn to know it as that a Castaway may do yet you can never learn to keep it any other way you shall never keep the word in the obedience of your lives unless God and Christ teach you David was very sensible of this and therefore poured out his prayer to the Lord Psal 119.33 Teach me O Lord the way of thy statutes and I will keep it to the end When thou thy self hast taught me once and not before I shall walk accordingly I shall be obedient to it It is not in the power of any in the world to teach a man to frame his life in every thing according to the word unless God himself do it But if he undertake it once if he be pleased to be our Teacher all is well And this is that which the Apostle Paul insinuates Ephes 4.20 and in the following verse ye have not so learned Christ saith he viz. to say and to profess that you are Christians and yet to live prophanely and licentiously and lewdly still If so be that you have heard him and been taught by him as the truth is in Jesus Why what doth he intend what is it to be taught by him he tells us in the following verse That you put off touching the former conversation the old man and be renewed in the spirit of your mind and put on the new man It is such a kind of teaching whereby we are transferred and brought to the obedience of it And therefore if you do indeed desire to have your lives conformed to the rule and Word of God seek to Christ himself to teach you 2. Be sure to set your selves to the obedience of it out of hand Procrastinations and delays will dash all It is observed of the Colossians that they obeyed the Word from the day they heard of it Col. 1.6 So you my Brethren do you grow practical from this day It may be you are now convinced of many things you think of this and that in which your practice is not answerable to the rule you have secret inward motions and it may be resolutions to amend all as David had I have said that I would keep thy Word saith he to God Psal 119.57 strike now while it is hot do as the same holy Prophet did I made haste and delayed not saith he to keep thy precepts Psal 119.60 Assoon as I resolved I made haste and set about it If you have holy resolutions wrought to practice any duty which you have hitherto neglected up and be doing presently do not permit such resolutions to grow cold and die within you least you never have them more I am perswaded there are many souls in hell who have purposed in many things to bring their practice to the Word to abandon such a sin and to set on such a duty they were resolved upon the thing but they could not do it yet and so the Lord hath cut them off and their delays have proved their ruine 2. If you will keep the Word of God in your lives by obeying it you must find out and mortifie the lusts that hinder you in this business or if you do not so you may resolve on this and that but surely it will come to nothing and therefore if you have within you any holy purposes of coming nearer to the Rule of leaving such a sin or setting upon such a duty think now what lust or what corruption there is
so sad and so uncomfortable to you by reason of your dayly troubles but especially and chiefly by reason of your sins against him you shall look upon it as a mercy this is not to be condemned When Joseph was in prison though he wanted nothing there yet see how earnest and importunate he was with Pharaohs Butler to help him to his liberty Gen. 40.14 Think on me when it shall be well with thee and shew me kindness and help me out of this house Brethren our heaven-born souls are but imprisoned in these earthly Tabernacles we have the manacles and fetters of our lusts about us We cannot walk abroad with liberty and freedom and enlargement c. Oh let us cry to Jesus Christ to shew us kindness and help us out of this house JOHN 17.11 Holy Father keep through thine own Name c. AND thus of the transition to our Saviours supplication in the behalf of his Apostles and Disciples consisting of a heap of grand considerations that induced him to become a suitor for them to his Father Proceed we now to enter on the prayer which he makes for them And here I shall take notice only of these two things The object of it and the parts of it The object of it or the person whom he presents it to is mentioned by his title and his attribute His title here you see is Father and his attribute is holy Holy Father The sweetest title and the choicest attribute As for the first of these the title that begins the object of his supplication here is Father So he stiles him in the entrance of his Prayer and the same phrase he uses all along as you shall see if you survey it from the beginning to the end Indeed he gives him once the attribute of holy as you have it in my Text and once the attribute of righteous Father at the 25. verse But this is still the appellation that he uses and from whence he never varies If he call him any thing he calls him Father And in this notion he Considers him while he is putting up his prayer to him And therefore this you see my Brethren is the first word that he uses when he sets himself to pray Thus he begins his prayer for himself in the first verse of the Chapter Father glorifie thy Son And thus also he begins his prayer in behalf of his Apostles and Disciples in my Text Father keep them through thy own Name So that you see our Saviour looks upon him as a Father still when he is pouring out his prayer to him either for himself or others And this would yeild us matter of very good consideration but that it hath been very largely handled heretofore And therefore I shall pass on from the title Father unto the attribute our Saviour gives him here and that is holy But wherefore doth our Saviour mention this rather then any other attribute of God on this occasion why might he not have said aswell Almighty or Eternal or Merciful or Gratious Father the special reason why he chooses this Expression as far as I conceive cannot be clearly and undoubtedly resolved Indeed he prays for holiness for his Apostles and Disciples afterwards and therefore it was congruous he should seek it of his Father under the notion of a holy God who is holy in himself and who is also the hallower and sanctifier of his people But seeing there are divers other things in his Petitions this doth not seem of weight enough to bind him up to this Expression Once this is clear and manifest that he picks out this attribute of God among the rest and whereas many other lay before him he fixes upon this only He comes to God in Prayer by the name of Holy Father The thing is evident though the particular consideration that induced him to it be unknown So that this observation we may safely pitch upon DOCTRINE As God it holy in himself so Jesus Christ came to him as a holy God and looked upon him as a holy God when he was making his Petitions to him The point you see hath two branches First God is holy in himself Then Jesus Christ came to him as a holy God and looked upon him as a holy God when he was making his Petitions to him I shall pursue them in their order God is holy in himself so he is stiled in my Text you see and that by Jesus Christ himself who of all others in the world is best acquainted with his nature for he came forth out of the bosom of the Father Indeed it is the attribute that he delighteth in and therefore he is called the Holy One 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 very often in the Scripture to shew that he excells in this regard so that however there be many others that are holy in a measure yet he is the Holy One there is not one so holy as he is And he is known in the Old Testament by the name of the Holy One of Israel which is ascribed to him more then thirty times The Seraphims which stood before the Throne Isa 6.3 cryed out three times a row Holy Holy Holy is the Lord of Hosts And so accordingly the Beasts that stand about the Throne Apoc. 4.8 rest not day and night saying Holy Holy Holy Lord God Almighty To shew that God transcends in holiness he is superlative in this regard for so thrice holy in some Languages is most holy To say the truth this is the attribute that makes him glorious He is great in power fearful in praises but he is glorious in holiness Exod. 15.11 In this respect he is a None-such none to be compared with him none like him not among men only but among the Gods too Who is like to thee O Lord among the gods glorious in holiness fearful in praises doing wonders And hence he glories in his holiness and swears by it Even as the great men of the world are wont to swear upon their honor because it is esteemed among them the most sacred and inviolable thing So God you see my Brethren swears by his holiness Psal 29.35 Once have I sworn by my holiness saith God Once for all and by my holiness having no better or more pretious thing to swear by Let me no longer be esteemed a holy God and that I would be very loth then I inviolably keep the Covenant that I have made to David in my truth So that you see the former member of the point is firm God is holy in himself Now for the second branch that Jesus Christ came to him as a holy God and looked upon him as a holy God when he was making his Petitions to him you see it evidently in the Text this is the appellation that he gives him Holy Father His thoughts are taken up it seems more with the holiness of God then any other of his attributes while he is pouring out his prayers to him I shall not undertake to shew why
Christ will have none neither We have two Advocates and Intercessors to the Father An Intercessor or an Advocate within us an Intercessor or an Advocate without us An Intercessor to plead in us and to plead by us and an Intercessor to plead for us In the first sense the Spirit is our Intercessor so the Apostle calls him Rom. 8.20 In the Latter Christ only Now these two Advocates or Intercessors are agreed you get not one of them without the other Christ will not be your Lawyer unless you make the Spirit your Attorney And as the Father never grants that which Christ doth not present and plead before him So our Saviour never pleads that which the Spirit doth not frame and draw up If the Petition which you tender be of the Spirits forming in you Christ entertains and urges it without any more ado and so the Father gives assent to it If then you would have Christ to be your Advocate you must engage him by his Spirit your Supplications and Petitions must be the voyce of his Spirit in your hearts the Holy Ghost must raise and frame them there you must take heed they be not barely natural desires as the Petitions of abundance are which seek for nothing else but that which nature craves for on natural principles and for natural ends And that they be not only the voyce of your own spirits but that they be the voyce of Christs spirit and if Christs Spirit make you prayers if he make Intercession in you with sighs and groans Christ will make Intercession for you and then the Father will be sure to hear you For if he deny you he must deny Christ too that pleads for you and that he never doth as you have heard His will is as it were a law with God the Father he may have what he will of him JOHN 17.24 Father I will that they also whom thou hast given me AND thus far I proceeded on the last occasion to discover to you how we may have Jesus Christ to be our Spokesman and our Advocate in all Petitions that we make to God We must walk by his Rule and we must act by his Spirit But now because the thing is weighty and of very great concernment and it is no easie matter for every one to judge and to determine whether in his supplications he walk by Christs Rule and act by Christs Spirit I shall give you some directions in reference to both these And in the first place I shall shew you how you may discover whether in the Petitions that you make you walk exactly by the Rule of Christ or no whether you pray according to his will or no. And to this end my Brethren you must search the Scriptures in which the will of Christ is manifested touching this as well as other points of duty And then compare your prayers with the Rule in all particulars to see whether they agree with it or dissent from it as the Apostle stirring up the Romans to offer up acceptable service to the Lord Rom. 12.1 to this end in the following verse advises them to prove and to find out what the will of God is the same advice I give you See what the will of God and what the will of Christ is and then examine how your prayers suit with it whether they be framed and ordered by your own invention or by his direction And here you must take notice what the will of Christ prescribes touching the preparation to them the matter and the manner and the ends of them it regulateth all these Well then the first thing that you are to do is to consider what the will of Christ is in reference to preparation and how your practice suits with it For you must know that Christ will have you pray with preparation You must not rush into the presence of the Lord like the Horse into the battel not remembring where you go nor what you are about to do No you must set about it seriously and with much deliberation so is the rule of Christ Eccles 5.2 3. Be not rash with thy mouth and let not thy heart be hasty to utter any thing before the Lord. Our hearts must be prepared to the duty as the Prophet Davids was And this consists in divers things I will name a few of them 1. That our hearts may be prepared they must be purged they must be washed and cleansed from every known sin If thou prepare thine heart saith Zephar Job 11.13 which preparation is to prayer as it is apparent by the following words and stretch out thine hands towards him Well if thou so prepare thy self what must thou do then Why If iniquity be in thine hand put it far away from thee and let not wickedness dwell in thy Tabernacle as it is added in the next words And hence saith David If I regard iniquity in my heart any known iniquity if I do not commit it only in my life but regard it in my heart my heart is not fit to pray the Lord will not hear my prayer Psal 66.18 The promise of acceptance with him is made to such and none but such as fear him so far at least as to desire and to endeavour to depart from evill He will fulfil the desire of such as fear him he also will hear their cry and save them Psal 145.19 2. That our hearts may be prepared they must be humbled both in the sense of the transcendent Majesty and Glory of the Lord and of our unworthiness We must endeavour to possess them with an awful apprehension of the greatness of the Lord whom we are making our approaches to that we may pray in reverence and holy fear according to the Psalmists exhortation Psal 2.11 Serve the Lord with fear saith he and according to his practice and example Psal 5.7 in thy fear will I worship towards thy holy Temple And hence the Saints in the beginnings of their prayers when they have buckled to the duty have been wont to set the Lord upon the Throne and there to represent him in his greatness by reckoning up his glorious attributes And then to vilifie and to abase themselves exceedingly before him That they might bring their hearts by this means to a frame and temper fit for prayer In such a disposition was the heart of the Centurion when he sought to Christ for mercy Luk. 7.6 7. He did not think himself worthy that Christ should once come under his roof And so the prodigal that said to his Father I am not worthy to be called thy son Luk. 15.21 3. That our hearts may be prepared they must be fixed They must be setled upon God and on the words we utter to him They must not rove and wander up and down as they are very apt to do They must attend the business that they are about In such a disposition was the heart of David when he was about to praise the Lord My heart is fixed O
whole heart Psal 119.145 so runs the promise of the Lord to his people Jer. 29.13 Ye shall seek and find me when ye search for me with your whole heart And thus you see in brief what Christ prescribeth for the manner of your prayers Now in the last place for the end of prayer that must be his glory we must aim at his ends and not our own If we seek any thing my Brethren meerly for our own ends to advance our own credits or our own profit we have no aim at all but self in our Petitions If we would have gifts and graces for no other ends but this that we may be applauded and observed if we would have wealth and riches in the world for no other end but this that we may strut and swagger and satisfie our own lusts and so accordingly we may conceive of other things we have cause enough to doubt that Jesus Christ will leave us in such suits as these are yea though we be his own people But if we would have nothing from the Father but in reference to Christ and to his glory if we would have grace and if we would have outward things that we may serve him the better that we may honour him the more we have good grounds to hope that Jesus Christ will second us in such requests as these are Now he will tell the Father There is such a suit of such a member such a Saint of mine I pray thee hearken to it and dispatch it out of hand for it concerneth me aswell as him Fain he would have more grace but I assure thee for I know his heart it is not to be proud or to be lifted up himself but to lift up me with it and to glorifie my name Poor soul he never thinks he gloryfieth me enough and therefore he would have more strength from thee to do it Thou seest how I am interessed in this suit of his and therefore I beseech thee do not put him off but answer him for my sake It is thy great design to glorifie me in the world and if thou wilt but give this Saint of mine more grace he will give me more glory Come let me set thy Treasure open and give him out a large share for I my self shall be a gainer by it And thus far I have shewed you how we may have Jesus Christ to be our Advocate in our Petitions We must walk by his Rule and pray according to his Will as I have laid it open to you both in relation to the Preparation and the Supplication both for the matter manner and the end If thus we do we may be confident of the good word of Christ for us But what if we fail in this I answer in a word and so an end If we fail in the matter of our prayer if that be not according to the will of Christ such a Petition and request as this we may resolve upon is laid by If we fail in the manner of our prayer either it is a total failing or a gradual failing If it be a total failing if we pray without faith without any faith at all without zeal and the like farewell to the success of such petitions If it be but a partial failing and that failing strived against and prayed against the case is very different By Evangelical allay we do what we desire to do in Gods gracious acceptation We pray in faith if we desire to pray in faith we pray with zeal if we desire to pray with zeal We pray according to the Will of Christ if we desire to pray according to the Will of Christ as to the manner of our prayers And if we pray according to his Will but in such a sense as this Christ intercedes and God hears Our Advocate strikes in with us and begs his Father to regard the matter and not the manner of our prayers He is an Intercessor for us to his Father in reference to both these both to the thing desired and the manner of desiring that he would give the one and that he would forgive the other And thus far of the first sort of directions how to judge whether in the Petitions that we make we walk by the Rule of Christ or no. Proceed we to the second sort how to determine whither we act by the Spirit of Christ or no. If in our prayers we act by Christs Spirit there are some measures and degrees of fervency and zeal in them The Holy Ghost is frequently compared to fire in Scripture He shall baptize you saith John the Baptist speaking of our Saviour with the Holy Ghost and with fire that is with the Holy Spirit which is not like water only but like fire too in those that are baptized with it so that where the Spirit is there is an holy heat in those that are partakers of it which shews it self in prayer as in other duties They are fervent in spirit serving the Lord. And though their heat may be allaid and cooled sometimes by outward means like water cast on this fire yet still there is an inward striving and disposition to be fervent The Holy Ghost within them is like fire to this incense I mean the incense of their prayers And though it may be smothered sometimes that it cannot flame or burn up either by afflictions or temptations or desertions yet it is never utterly extinguished in the Saints Although there be not flames perhaps yet there are coals continually on the Altars of their hearts which though they may be raked in the ashes now and then yet at some other times they burn amain Their hearts are hot within them and the fire kindles If we act by Christs Spirit our prayers are not purely natural but spiritual desires For you must know my Brethren that a man may pray yea he may think that he is much assisted by the Spirit in his prayers when all proceeds from his own Spirit and all his prayers may be nothing else but meerly natural desires As when a man perceives himself to be in great distress and sees no way or means to be delivered from it and is convinced and satisfied that God can save him notwithstanding this extremity of danger In such a case these suppositions being made he may enlarge himself to God in prayer and yet he may be stirred and quickned to it by nothing but his own Spirit which is naturally carryed to the use of any means which it conceives may be effectual to such an end as this is So that this man for all his earnestness may not act by Christs Spirit but his own as it is very manifest those wretches did who when they saw themselves invironed round about with dangers and thought that none but God could help them cryed vehemently to the Lord Exod. 14.10 and yet in the succeeding verse it appeareth what they were They shew themselves in their own colours But when a man is carryed high in prayer upon
and the like and you receive them at the hands of God he gives you the desire of your hearts in these things Well now consider with your selves what use you put them to when you have gotten them and what bills you bring in What so much health and so much strength bestowed upon the prosecution of your worldly and ambitious projects and designs so much means and so much time upon riot and excess Item so much upon your pride and so much upon your lusts and so much upon the satisfaction of your malice and revenge so much upon Hawks and Hounds and Whores but nothing upon God his Cause or his poor distressed servants Are these the bills that you bring in to God and will you own them in the latter day Brethren by your layings out you may discover to what intent you have prayed for outward blessings whether to consume them on your Lusts or no And if that hath been your end the spirit hath not been your principle in these petitions If we act by Christs spirit we keep a constant course in prayer We do not pray by fits and starts as Job observeth of the Hyppocrite who hath not Christs spirit Job 27.10 Will he delight in the Almighty will be alwayes call on God No he will be on and off in this duty Our spirits are unconstant and unstable my beloved but Christs spirit is 〈◊〉 not so And hence it is that they that pray by their own spirits are so uncertain in the duty many times Sometimes their spirits stir them up to pray and sometimes they do not Though there be differences in this too for some mens spirits naturally are more ready and more fixed then others are And there may be other things as fear and strong conviction and the like that may hold some certain men almost to a continued practice of the outward duty yet it is very rare that he is constant who acts by his own spirit But now my brethren he that acts by Christs spirit is a steady man in prayer he can appeal to God as David doth Psal 40.9 I have not restrained my Lips Oh Lord thou knowest Christs spirit dwells in him he doth not sojourn in him for a time but he dwells in him as in his fixed and his setled habitation and he dwells in him as a spirit of supplication So the spirit of Christ is called Zech. 12.10 And hence it is that he is alwayes putting him upon the duty upon all occasions so that he is constant in it Christs spirit is at home still though ours be wandring many times even to the other end of all the earth And though Christs spirit seem to be given sometimes as a spirit of consolation yet then he will be present as a spirit of supplication He will set a Saint to prayer even when he seems most indisposed and averse he will not suffer him to lay it by and wholly to neglect the duty as is observable in David I said that I am cut off from before thine eyes saith he Psal 31.22 Nevertheless thou heardest the voice of my prayer Even then I prayed to thee when I was in that temper so in another place from the end of the earth will I cry unto thee even when my heart is overwhelmed Psal 61.2 And whence proceedeth this my brethren surely these prayers of all others flow from Christs spirit as the Apostle teacheth Rom. 8.20 The spirit helpeth our infirmities We know not what to pray for as we ought but then the spirit it self makes intercession for us with sighs and groans that cannot be exprest If we act by Christs spirit we come to God as to a Father we cry Abba Father to him as you have it Gal. 4.6 Because ye are Sons saith the Apostle God hath sent forth the spirit of his Son into your hearts And what doth that spirit there you have it in the next verse crying Abba Father So that Christs spirit if he act in us makes us address our selves to God as to a Father And that my brethren carries two things in it This spirit makes us come to God with the expectations of Children and with the affections of Children 1. If Christs spirit act in us he makes us come to God in prayer with Child-like expectations Expecting from him all the mercy pitty and compassion which a Child can look for from his own Father He makes us to approach the throne of grace with great assurance of audience and acceptance and success there commonly he doth this 2. But yet I must confess An hypocrite may sometimes have these expectations and a child of God may want them The Jews had Child-like expectations Jer. 3.4 they cryed to God Thou art my Father and wilt not thou that art my Father pitty me and help me sure thou wilt and yet they had no Child-like affections no care at all to please God and therefore it is added in the next words that they said and did as evill as they could But now my brethren he that acts by Christs spirit as he hath Child-like expectations so he hath Child-like affections or if at any time he want his Child-like expectations yet still he hath his Child-like affections Though he be in such a case that he is verily perswaded for the present that God will neither own him nor regard him nor look upon him as a Son yet he loves God still He hath a Childs heart to God even when he thinks that God hath not a Fathers heart to him Though he seem to frown upon him and to hide his face and to turn away his prayers yet he hath dear affections to the Lord notwithstanding all this And this appears by the trouble he is in at God displeasure it grieves him so that he is sick of love as the poor Church was Cant. 2.5 when Christ withdrew himself a while this was her grief I sought him whom my soul loveth I will go into the City and seek him whom my soul loveth I said unto the watchmen Did ye see him whom my soul loveth And so when God withdraws himself from such a one as is endued with his spirit the very soul of such a person loves him still when he is very much afraid that he shall never find God more that God will never shew him favour more when he hath lost his Child-like expectations yet still he maintains his Child-like affections JOHN 17.24 That they also whom thou hast given me be with me c. AND thus far of the manner of our Saviours prayer Proceed we to the matter of it And here we have the persons that he prayes for those whom thou hast given me And then the thing that he desires in the behalf of those persons that they also may be with me where I am As for the persons whom our Saviour prayes for you see they are described here by the Fathers giving them to Jesus Christ Let them be what they will in all considerations and
AN EXPOSITION WITH NOTES Unfolded and Applyed On JOHN 17 th Delivered in Sermons Preached Weekly on the LORDS-DAY to the Congregation in TAVNTON MAGDALENE By GEORGE NEWTON Minister of the Gospel there LONDON Printed by R. W. for Edward Brewster and are to be sold at the Crane in Pauls-Church-yard 1660. To the Honorable Colonel JOHN GORGES Governour of the City of London-Derry and the Castle of Cullmore in IRELAND My duly honoured and dearly beloved Brother SIR NOW you have wrested the following Lectures out of my hands I do but fairly leave them there whence I cannot recover them So that this which I prefix is not so properly a Dedication as an Abdication I must confess I never knew you guilty of Extortion but in this Act. I loath their Cunning who by debasing and disabling secretly design to raise the price of their own labours And do it this way 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Oratour speaks though somewhat in another case with much more Artifice then professed Hucksters do But verily these Sermons being preached by such an one as I do really account and know my self to be in my constant weekly course upon the Lords Day and indeed a great part of them twice a day when I had no Assistant with me having besides the Wednesdays Lecture on my weak shoulders and many other Ministerial Employments not without frequent Avocations and diversions which in so great a place are unavoidable will be adjudged by discerning men unfit to have appeared to the world in such a way as this is And herein I shall heartily agree with them Now seeing you alone are faulty here I Dedicate the Book and Blame to you And if the Sword of wounding tongues be bent at me as being troubled with the Epidemical distemper of the Times an itch of being seen in publick you ought in justice to step in between and say as Nisus in the Poet Virg. lib. 9. Aeneidâ—s Me me adsum qui feci in me convertite ferrum And I am confident you will be my Compurgatour in this that no Opinion of any thing in these poor labours worthy of the Press hath had any Influence on this Publication There is besides an apparent disadvantage which I am very sensible of Mr. Aâ—th Bâ—rges viz. That in this Tract I follow One of so great Accomplishments who being next the Light and of a far more perfect Stature then my self must needs cast back a shadow on me Unless I be so far behind him that his shadow will not reach me But if it do I shall as Ionah in another case rest very quietly in that shadow The Subject handled is a choice and precious One as any in the Book of God without Exception This Prayer being as it were a little piece that dropt off from the heart of Jesus Christ as once Eliahs Mantle from his body as he was taking leave of his Apostles and the World together When He was even going forth to suffer He Swan-like sung this dying Song and poured out this precious Prayer being about to pour forth his very blood and life with it And this he did not for his Apostles only then about him but for us also even for us who should in after-times believe through their words A man would think our blessed Saviour when He had such a Task to undergo and such a business to dispatch should have been wholly taken up with the preapprehension of his instant Death and Passion That this should have detained or diverted Him from other thoughts especially from taking care of such poor Worms as we are But that when he was drawing neer to such a Conflict with the Wrath of God and the Indignities and Wrongs of men He should have us in his heart That our dear Friend who loved us and gave Himself for us should think of us and pray for us and speak of us to God the Father with so high affection when his own Soul was heavy to the very Death Such a Prayer made by such a Mediatour at such a time as that was must needs be worthy of the choicest and exactest Observation of the Church in every Age to the end of the world Some Antiquaries tell us of the Diptyches Lindan Annot. in Liturg. S. Petri. pag. 39. much in use in the Primitive Church Which were two leaves or tables bound together on the one of which was a Commemoration of divers famous and renowned Worthies departed in the Faith of Christ and on the other a Commemoration of the like Personages yet alive Much Honoured Sir Joseph Vicecom Obfervat Ecclesiae Dae Missae Apparatu Tom. 4. lib. 7. cap. 17. I shall present you here with a new sort of Diptyches the Tables more exactly answering one another The one containing a Commemoration of a dying Christ and shewing how He pray'd on Earth In which you may also see what is contained in the other Table and how he prays for us in Heaven who ever liveth to make Intercession for us So that if you desire at any time to know how Christ persues the business and pleads the causes of his poor Church at the right hand of his Father you shall do well to have recourse to this Chapter which may be very fitly called a Counterpart of our Saviours Intercession And truly for my own part I must freely and ingenuously profess that I had never known so much of Christ and of his tender Care and Love of poor sinners had I not studyed these Emanations and Effluxes of his precious Soul had I not seen his Breast open in this Chapter and the Names of the twelve Tribes transcribed out of the Breast-plate of the Typical into the heart of the Typified High Priest Fox Act. Mon. ad Annum 1558. And as the Queen of England sometimes said That if they opened her when she was dead they should find Calais written on her heart So when I had the happiness to open Christ in this Prayer though with a most unskilful hand I found the Church engraven deeply on his Heart and saw such things as cannot be uttered The Lord give you and me to know more of that Love which passeth knowledge and to return more Love to Him who pray'd for us and dyed for us We may easily exceed in loving other things and persons We may love more then we are loved we may love more then we should love But here our hearts may take their full swing there is no fear of over-loving Jesus Christ For as Bernard sweetly speaks of our Love to God Bern. De diligendo Deo Modus Deum diligendi est sine modo diligere The same may I as truly say of our Love to Christ The measure of loving Christ is to love him out of measure So hath he loved us ☞ and so should we love him There are especially two great Boons which Jesus Christ begs of his Father for Believers in this
by seven Honourable Ladies and three Noble Gentlemen preserved to posterity by the renowned Iohn Boccacio the first refiner of the Italian prose A Pattern of patience in â—he example of holy Iob being a Paraphrase on the whole Book as an expedient to sweeten the miseries of these never enough to be lamented times The Abridgement of Christian Divinity By Wolleb Englished and enlarged by Alexander Ross The Vanity of the Creature By Edward Reinolds In small twelves A Call to the unconverted to turn and live and to accept of Mercy whilst mercy may be had as ever they will finde mercy in the day of their extremity from the living God By Rich. Baxter Saints solace The sum of all By Chibbal Helvius Colloquies The Protestants practice or the Compleat Christian being the true and perfect way to the Celestial Canaan necessary for the bringing up of Youth and establishing the Old Christians in the faith of the Gospel By a reverend Father of the Church of England A method and instruction for the Art of Divine Meditation together with instances of the several kinds of solemn meditation By Tho White The Church-sleeper awakened in two Sermons By Ios Eyres of Cork in Ireland There is now in the Press a Practical Treatise of Mr. Iohn Brinsly of Yarmouth Entituled The drinking of the Bitter Cup or the Hardest Lesson in Christs School learned and taught by himself viz. Passive Obedience wherein besides divers Doctrinal Truths of great Importance many practical truths are held forth for the Teaching of Christians how to submit to their heavenly Father in suffering his Will both in Life and Death patiently obediently and willingly in octavo AN EXPOSITION WITH NOTES Vnfolded and Applyed On IOHN 17. JOHN 17.1 These words spake Jesus c THE Words of such a friend who is likely to continue take not so deep impression as his who is dying or departing The last farewell of such a one as is dear in our affections is most observed and best remembred A secret winning and commanding power accompanies such parting passages and hence our Saviour Christ was frequent in them when he was ready to be offered up and to be finally withdrawn from his disciples They who left all for him must needs be very much dejected to be left by him And therefore he was wise and merciful to give them Comfort while he was among them and to dispatch them down a Comforter from heaven when he was departed from them Upon the first of these he spends no less then four chapters all tending to confirm and fortifie their hearts against the bitter trials and afflictions which they were to meet withall when he was gone And this he doth by speaking to them and by speaking for them Both wayes he seeks to strengthen them by speaking to them in a way of consolation by speaking for them in a way of supplication The first of these he ends with the foregoing chapter the latter he pursues in this which I intend with Gods assistance to go through withall as I shall have ability and opportunity And therefore in the entrance of this chapter it is said with reference to those which go before These words spake Jesus These words he spake to his disciples in a way of consolation And then immediately is added what he spake for his Disciples in a way of supplication These words spake Jesus and lifed up his eyes to heaven and said Father the hour is come c. So that this Chapter which I am to handle is the Lords prayer From the beginning of it to the end nothing but the Lords prayer Not the Lords prayer which he taught us but the Lords prayer which he made for us Not that which he propounded to us as our pattern but that which he presented for us as our priviledge Whether this were the very prayer which he uttered in the garden when he was in an Agony is much disputed Some think it was the very same for substance and that it is set down more largely here by John then by the rest of the Evangelists because none of them were present when Christ made that prayer but he took Peter James and John with him as you may see Mark 14.33 But this is but a meer fancy For in the first verse of the following chapter it is manifest that Christ went not to the garden till he had ended this prayer Iohn 18.1 When he had spoken these words that is the very prayer we are entering on He went forth with his Disciples over the brook Cedron where was a garden into which he entered Nor is it probable that our Evangelist if he had given us the sum of that prayer would wholly have omitted that which was the main petition in it and which is so exactly mentioned by all the rest of the Evangelists Father if it be possible let this Cup pass from me Of which we have not the least hint in this Chapter Besides it is to be observed that our Saviour made that prayer in the garden lying prostrate upon the earth as you may see Mat. 26.39 He fell upon his face and prayed Whereas the prayer we are now about to handle was made with face and eyes erect and lifted up to Heaven These words spake Iesus and lift up his eyes to Heaven and said Father the hour is come c. So that this prayer of our Saviour was evidently and unquestionably made before his coming to the garden of Gethsemane just as he was about to go thither He had been swan-like singing out his dying song in the ears of his Disciples for the space of three Chapters and speaking many things to comfort them being at the point to leave them And having finisht what he had to say he shuts up all with this prayer These words spake Iesus and lifted up his eyes to Heaven and said which having ended immediately away he goes and is betrayed As you may see in the beginning of the following chapter You see then what a Subject we have now to handle A prayer and a prayer made by Christ the great High-priest the Advocate and Intercessor of his people and the last publike Solemn prayer that he made with his Apostles and Disciples just as he was about to suffer He took his last farewell of them in this prayer and therefore you must think it was a Spiritfull a zealous and a pithy one When he was going to be crucified he took his leave in a long oration to them which having done he prayed among them and so left them And truly such a prayer made by such a one as Jesus Christ at such a time and on such an occasion and among such a company must needs be heavenly and ravishing and therefore will deserve our best intention both in handling and in hearing Christ was in heaven in his thoughts and his affections when he made it These things spake Iesus and lifted up his eyes to heaven and said The Lord in
mercy grant that we may be in heaven while we hear it To make way to the handling of it I shall consider three things First the transition to it Then Secondly the gesture and the carriage of our Saviour in it Thirdly the substance and the matter of it First the transition to it from the former chapter These words spake Jesus these words expressed in the long discourse before Then Secondly the gesture and the carriage of our Saviour in it he lifted up his eyes to heaven while he made it Thirdly the substance and the matter of it and it is wholly for the Church either for himself the head of the Church in reference and with relation to the Church or for the members of the Church First for himself the head of the Church he desireth glorification Father glorifie thy Son in the first verse of the chapter and this in reference and with relation to the Church as is apparent at verse 24. That they may behold his glory Then Secondly for the members of the Church he desireth confirmation and that either for the Apostles and Disciples then about him the members of the present Church Or else 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 the Apostles and Disciples then about him the members of the present Church who were already called and sanctified at the sixth and following verses 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 prayes for those who were after to be called by their preaching the members of the Church that was to come ver 20. and so on to the conclusion of the Chapter Neither pray I for these alone but for them also which shall believe in me through their word So that this prayer of our Saviour Christ you see is very full It is for himself the head of the Church And it is for the Church which is his body of which alone he is the Saviour and the Intercessor It is for the present Church it is for the Church to come It is for the Apostles and the Ministers the officers and teachers of the Church And it is for the ordinary members of the Church who believe through their words So that whoever appertaineth to the Church let him live in what time he will be he of what condition or estate he will he hath a share in this prayer We must begin with the transition to it These words spake Jesus These words what words the words in the three Chapters next before all tending to establish his Apostles and Disciples which the Evangelist relates exactly for the comfort and confirmation of the Church of Christ even to the worlds end and having done with the relation he shuts it up with this These word spake Jesus and so goes onward to his supplication The point apparently suggested to us here is this DOCTRINE The words that Jesus spake are very fit to be commended to the choicest observation of his Church and people And here they are so carefully and so exactly gathered up by the Evangelist and knit together in a chain every Link of which is precious And having laid them all together he writes this under them These words spake Jesus qâ—d Take heed that you observe and mark them well they are the words not of an ordinary man but of the blessed Son of God the great Prophet of the Church These words were breathed from the lips of Jesus Christ himself and therefore see that you take notice of them and value them accordingly These words spake Jesus indeed the summ and substance of the four Evangelists is but the history of Jesus Christ of his words and of his actions and therefore Luke reduceth all that he hath written in his Gospel to these two heads Acts 1.1 The former Treatise have I made O Theophilus of all that Jesus began both to do and teach His treatise as you see consisted of these two things either that which Jesus did or else that which Jesus spake So that his sayings as you see are very memorable and remarkable being by special revelation and direction of the Spirit put in writing and so left upon record for the instruction and the consolation of his people to the worlds end You may observe what care is taken to gather up the words of Jesus as they dropt from him upon all occasions that none of them might perish and be lost by which it is apparent they were things of worth and use and fit to be preserved for posterity And it is noted to the praise of Mary that she kept his Sayings when others lost them yea she kept all his sayings and she kept them in her heart that was the Cabinet in which she put them when others valued them as things of nothing and looked upon them but as loose words And therefore she is set in opposition to them Iohn 2.5 They understood not the sayings which he spake to them but Mary kept all these sayings in her heart She laid them near her heart as choice things It was the promise of our Saviour Christ to his disciples and one of the last he made them and therefore certainly it was a precious one that if they should forget the words that he had spoken to them he would dispatch them down his spirit out of heaven and this should be one great part of his business with them to mind them of such words of his as were slipt out of their minds Ioh. 14.26 The Comforter which is the Holy Ghost shall come and he shall teach you all things and bring all things to remembrance whatsoever I have said to you By which it is apparent that the words which Jesus spake are very fit c. And this will yet appear more fully and distinctly to you if you consider but these three things First whose the words were Then what the words were Thirdly the manner how the words were spoken As for the first of these if you consider whose the words were you will discern them to be very fit to be commended to the choicest observation of the Church The author of them if you look no further will purchase them so much credit They are the words that Jesus spake as you have in my text And shall that which Jesus spake any thing which he delivered be thought unworthy of the notice of his people Why what was Jesus that the words that dropt from him must be so highly valued and esteemed My brethren if you look upon him upwards with relation to the father or if you look upon him downwards with relation to the Church you will see enough for this on all hands 1. If you look upon him upwards with relation to the father you will see reason why his words should be Commended to the choicest observation of his Church and people He is the
order to be handled He lifted up his eyes to heaven and said And here you have his gesture and expression His gesture first he lifted up his eyes to heaven while he made it And in the next place his expression he did not meditate or think it only but he said it his Prayer was not mental only but it was a vocal prayer He lifted up his eyes to heaven and said As for the first of these my brethren it was usual with our Saviour to pray with eyes erected and lift up to heaven as I might give you many instances out of the Scripture And out of question it proceeded from the zeal and earnestness of his affections and from the fixedness and the intention of his thoughts he being as it were withdrawn from the earth and from those lower things and wholly taken up to heaven while he prayed He was no longer here below no he was above with God while he was exercised in this duty Indeed it is observed of the Publican that he was contrary to Christ in this regard viz. in the external gesture of his body Our Saviour prayed as you have heard with eyes erected and lift up to heaven The Publican with eyes dejected and cast downward to the earth and yet this carriage also seems to be approved Luke 18.13 The Publican saies the Evangelist would not lift up so much as his eyes to heaven but smote his breast saying God be mercifull to me a Sinner And truly both these gestures have their use in prayer the one to manifest a repentance the other to declare our faith The one to shew that we are cast down in our selves the other to discover that we are raysed and lifted up to God But it became not Iesus Christ to pray in such a posture as that wretched creature did because he had no sin in him and consequently no shame nothing to cast him down or hinder him from looking up with boldness and with confidence to God the Father And hence he prayed not like the Publican in a dejected way but lifted up his eyes to heaven and said That leads us to the second thing considered Christ did not meditate or think his prayer only but he said it His prayer was not mental only but it was a vocal prayer he lifted up his eyes to heaven and said Father the hour is come and so on It s true indeed that as a man may say and yet not pray he may utter good petitions and speak a form of Specious words to God and yet he may not pray indeed so as to find acceptance and success with God So on the other side a man may pray and yet yet not say that is not use the voice at all nor utter any words to God in prayer And therefore it is said of Moses that he cried to God when he was silent And the Apostle speaking of the Spirit tells us that he makes request to God sometimes with sighs and groans that are not yea that cannot be expressed Rom. 8.26 So that a man may make request to God without expression as well by meaning as by speaking And therefore it is added in the following verse God knows the meaning of the Spirit that is he understands it and accepts it David prefers the meditation of his heart as well as the petitions of his mouth Psal 19. ult Let the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart c. And therefore in another place he saith of God Lord thou hast heard the desire of the humble Psalm 10.17 So that you see that Prayer is not tyed to the expression of the tongue For even Ejaculations that are swift and sudden wishes darted from the heart to God the inward anhelations thirstings longings meditations meanings of the Soul are honoured in the Scripture with the name of prayer Such mentall prayers we have cause to think our Saviour sometimes offered to his Father when he was alone But here his prayer it should seem was vocal he uttered it aloud that his Apostles and Disciples who were about him at that time might hear it He lifted up his eyes to heaven and said Now this you see the Holy-Ghost takes special notice of as a remarkable and a memorable thing He doth not only tell us that our Saviour prayed and what his prayer was from the beginning of it to the end But he acpuaints us also with the manner and the circumstances of his prayer He shews us what his gesture was he tells us how he placed his eyes and how he used his voice in prayer These things may seem but small matters and we may look upon them as petty inconsiderable things But wherefore doth the Holy Ghost so carefully take notice of them and set them down in writing for the Church unless they be of some weight and some consideration Methinks he intimateth thus much to us DOCTRINE That there should be Consideration had not only of the matter but even of the circumstances the very gesture and the utterance of a prayer The Spirit of God you see doth not let pass such things as these no he observeth them exactly And therefore surely so should we too He sets them down for our use and there is somewhat to be learned from them For whatsoever things are written are written for our learning as the Apostle Paul speaks And therefore it is usual in the Scripture not only to express the prayers that the Saints have made and that Christ himself hath made but also to describe their outward carriage and behaviour in them which shews that there is something even in that too Sometimes our Saviour Christ is noted to cast himself prostrate upon the earth in prayer as you may see Mat. 26.39 he fell upon his face and prayed And sometimes to look up to heaven as you have it in my text So also when he raised Lazarus John 11.41 he lifted up his eyes and when he healed the deaf man he looked up to heaven Mark 7.34 Sometimes he only sigheth to himself in prayer and we hear of no expression in the sore-alleadged text He Sighed you must conceive in some petition which he then put up to God and said to the deaf man Epphatah be opened Sometimes he utters words also which are audible to others as I might give you divers instances out of his storie in the Gospel So for the Saints sometimes we find them represented sitting as holy David 2 Sam. 7.18 Sometimes standing up as Neh. 9.2 and sometimes kneeling in their Prayers as that is very usual in the Scriptures Sometimes we find them speaking words in prayer and sometimes using meditation only as David so divides his prayer in the fore-alleadged text into the words of his mouth and the meditations of his heart and prayes that both may find acceptance with the Lord Psal 19. ult And all these wayes the holy Ghost takes special notice of and leaves upon record for our instruction by which he teaches
us that there should be consideration had not only of the matter but even of the circumstances c. What then it may be you will ask me do our gestures or doth the manner of presenting our requests to God the outward manner with the voice or otherwise fall under the command of God Are we expresly bound to pray in such a posture in such a way or manner of expression Do these external circumstances appertain to Gods worship I answer No in no case the difference is wide between the bodily exercise and the Spiritual service We are not under any ceremonial Law that binds us to an outward circumstance to a place or to a posture as the Jews of old were And yet there should be due consideration had not only of the matter but even of the circumstances c. and that especially upon these two grounds For These outward circumstances may in case promote the spiritual service Reason 1 The very gesture or the utterance of a prayer may help sometimes to raise and quicken the affection which is the life and Soul of prayer Our hearts are naturally dead and stupid and prophane and stand in need of all good outward helps to stir up zeal and reverence and devotion in them And to this end they have been used by the Saints in Scripture and that not only in their publike but even in their private and their secret prayers when their submiss and humble gestures could have no influence upon other men And consequently had no other use but to help their own hearts As Daniel was exact in this even in his chamber and it is carefully recorded Dan. 6.10 He kneeled upon his knees three times a day and prayed He prayed three times a day and still he was in this posture And it is noted of our Saviour that he kneeled down and prayed Luke 22.10 and this was in Private too So that he did it not with reference to others and therefore a most eminent and worthy man observeth that undoubtedly he saw he needed it himself And if that be admitted assuredly we need such helps and furtherances much more These outward circumstances if they do not further yet they express Reason 2 the spiritual service They testifie the sorrow the humility the affection and the devotion of the heart and the reverence of the soul As in my text our Saviours lifting up his eyes to heaven discovered where his heart was And therefore humble gestures are especially required in publike worship because God will be honoured in the sight of others yea they are sometimes put for all his service Rom. 14.11 As I live saith the Lord every knee shall bow to me And seeing hypocrites in matter of the worship and the service of the Lord are alwayes ready to pretend they have as good hearts as the very best Therefore the Lord is wont to call so often and so earnestly for the external Service of the body and that in the new Testament as well as in the old as you may see that place for instance 1 Cor. 6.20 Glorifie God saith the Apostle there and that not in your Spirit only but in your body also which is Gods Use 1 Now is it so that there should be consideration had not only of the matter but even of the circumstances c. Then First it serves to let them see their error and mistake who utterly neglect such things as these are who take no notice of their outward carriage in such holy duties but rather look upon it as a thing below the observation of a Christian who should be wholly and entirely taken up with their spiritual service And yet as you have heard the Holy-Ghost takes notice of a gesture a cast of the eye in Prayer and sets it down in white and black we need not doubt for our information I must confess the great defect is on the other side men are imployed so much about the form the surface and the outside of religious duties many times that they neglect the main business Their thoughts are exercised so far about the gesture of their body the composure of their words the framing of their voices and the like especially in publike prayer that they have no regard at all to the inward and spiritual service The outward work is infinitely more easie and there is much more ostentation in it And hence it is that the greater part of men are wholly taken up with that which they themselves can do and being done procure them most applause from other men But yet their placing all in forms and outsides and minding nothing else in holy duties doth not justifie at all our running off to the Extream upon the other side No it is possible that even as hypocrites and rotten-hearted wretches may be so intent upon the outside that they have no regard unto the inside So on the other side the holiest and sincerest Christians may be so intent upon the inside that they have no regard at all unto the outside They may so far look after the affection and the zeal and the devotion of the heart which is indeed the main thing to be looked to that they may have no thought at all of the External circumstances of their prayers the gesture or the manner of their utterance which are Considerable notwithstanding as I have made it plain enough and therefore to be wholly careless of them is a failing yea though it should be in the best of Gods people Use 2 And therefore in the second place let me perswade you to think such outward circumstances worthy of your thoughts the very gesture and the utterance of your prayers Let there be due consideration had of such things as these are I would by no means hinder you from having your especial eye on that whereon the eye of God is most when you are making your approaches and addresses to him I mean the carriage of the soul and spirit the inward fervor and humility affection and devotion of the heart without which all the rest is worth nothing But yet let not the gesture of your bodies the utterance of your voice in prayer be utterly neglected by you concerning both of which because I find them in my Text I shall give you some directions As for the gesture of your bodies I shall commend these few things We are not bound to all the self-same gestures which were in use among the people of the Lord of old we read that Joshua and the Elders when they were routed at the Siege of Ai and came before the Ark of God to pray they rent their cloaths and put dust upon their heads Joshua 7.16 And Hezekiah when he came into the house of God to pray at the time when Senacherib besieged Jerusalem he rent his cloaths and put on Sack-cloath Isa 37.1 And this they did not that these fashions were appropriated to the worship of the Lord but because they were in use in those times and
those places to express their grief by So in the self-same place in Joshua they fell down to the ground upon their faces when they prayed And so did Jesus Christ himself as you may see Mat. 26.39 Not that this gesture was peculiar to this piece of service but it was taken from the civil usage of the Country because this was their way of shewing reverence to superiors as you may see Ruth 2.10 And therefore we do well and suitably to the directions and examples of the Scripture that we take up such gestures only in our prayers as are usual in our Country to express our sorrow and dejection or else our civil reverence and respect by Those reverend gestures which we use in prayer should be most observed in publike There may more liberty be taken in private and in secret then there may in publike and open prayer both in the use of outward gesture and in the forbearance of them Some gestures may be used in private prayer which would become us ill in publike in which we should not go remarkably beyond the rest of the Assembly for fear and danger of hypocrisie And gestures on the other side may be forborn in some case in private prayer which yet in publike ought not to be so For evermore in publike as far as it is possible our gesture must be such as may express some reverence and devotion that we may honour God before the People and that our outward posture may not carry in it an appearance of a sleight esteem of God and of his service whereas in private there is greater freedom because indeed there is no need of such Caution But thirdly this must be continually heeded both in publike and in private that the gestures which we use be such as that we do not hinder but rather further the spiritual service It were far better to abate of the reverence of our gesture then the affection of our heart It were far better for a man to stand in prayer then that by the disease and trouble of the other posture he should be distracted and consequently his devotion and his heart should fall That may be allowed the weak in this regard which would not be convenient in the strong The bodily exercise be it of what kind it will is but a means to the spiritual service The end is better then the means and must be more regarded then the means I must not use the means but for the end so far as they are serviceable to the end And much less must I use the means aganist the end We must be very wary that the outward gesture especially in publike prayer do not exceed the inward affection and that we make not shew of more without then there is indeed within for if we do there is hypochrisie Such duties are not done in truth when there is more in shew and in appearance then there is in substance If either of the two be lower then the other it were far better that the outward expression were lower then the inward affection then that the inward c. It were far better that the gesture came short of the heart then that the heart c. It is not good to compass God about with lies meer shews do never please in his service This for the gesture of your bodies when you pray A word or two for your direction touching the use or the omission of the voice in prayer c. And here the first thing that I offer is Those prayers that are publike whether in the family or the assembly wherein one is the mouth of many to the Lord must of necessity be vocall so was our Saviours in my text you see he prayed with his Apostles and Disciples and therefore did no only form a prayer in his heart but expressed it with his mouth he did not only think but speak that they might hear He lifted up his eyes to heaven and said The voice is not of absolute necessity in private prayer For however men who having bodies are endued with ears and senses know not our meaning otherwise then by our words yet God who is himself a spirit knows the meaning of our spirits Sighs may find audience and acceptance with him inward and mental supplications may be in some case more fit then vocal But yet if other circumstances will permit in which your Christian prudence must direct you use your voices We shall observe it to have been the usual practise of the Saints to speak in prayer yea in private prayer as our Saviour did Mark 10.39 God made the tongue aswel as other members of the body and therefore will be served with this as well as them And so the Prophet David praised God with the best member that he had which some expound to be his tongue And therewith bless we God saith the Apostle James 3.9 It is sometimes a quickning to the heart and stirreth up the dead affections to greater fervency and zeal which by continuing in a mental supplication would be apt to languish and decay It keepeth in the heart from wandring by binding it to give exact attendance on the tongue to furnish it with matter and expression whereas in mental prayer it is more apt to slide away and run a roving unobserved Howbeit here I shall not peremptorily prescribe in certain cases to omit the voice is more expedient and therefore I shall shut up all and leave it to your Christian prudence to direct you to pitch upon that way and method of presenting your requests to God which ye will find most to conduce to the affectionate spiritual and heavenly performance of the duty And thus of the transition to our Saviours supplication together with the manner of presenting it to God the Father both his gesture and expression Proceed we now to enter on the Prayer which he makes and here I shall take notice only of these two things the Object of it and the parts of it The Object of it or the Person whom he presents it to you see is God the Father or to come a little nearer God his Father so he stiles him in the entrance of his Prayer Father the hour is come c. and the same phrase he uses all along as you shall see if you survey it from the beginning of it to the end Indeed he gives him once the attribute of Holy and once the attribute of Righteous Father but this is still the appellation that he uses and from whence he never varies If he calls him any thing he calls him Father And in this notion he considers him while he is putting up his prayer to him and therefore this you see my brethren is the first word that he uses when he sets himself to pray Father the hour is come c. I make these addresses to thee as a Father I look upon thee as a Father still while I am pouring out my prayer to thee and therefore he reviews the
for us saith the Apostle Paul Tit. 2.14 that was the purchase that he made a very dear one you will say He gave himself for us to what end that he might reedeem us from all iniquity from the dominion and power of sin And what now are we masterless And are the reins upon our own necks Now mark what follows presently And purifie us a peculiar people himself a people to himself to serve him and to do his work and to be very earnest in it too and purifie to himself a peculiar people Zealous of good works And so being free from sin we are not left at large my Brethren but we became the servants of Christ Rom. 6 22. This was the End that he intended and propounded to himself in our Redemption he dyed for us that we which live should henceforth live no longer to our selves but to him that dyed for us 2 Cor. 5.15 He hath performed the mercy promised he hath remembred c. he hath saved us from c. Luke 1.74 What that we might from henceforth be our own men and live at liberty and walk according to our own wills Oh no my Brethren but on the other side that we might serve him who hath saved us in holiness and righteousness all the daies of our lives The third is an Engagement of Covenant-obligation we are his Covenant servants and therefore we are bound to serve him if we run away from him we are Covenant-breakers with him Indeed we that are born of those that are in Covenant with him are born his Covenant-servants in a sense For such as the condition of the Parent is Beloved such is the condition of the child as to outward priviledge and as to outward duty too And hence it is perhaps that David saith to God Psalm 116.16 O Lord saith he I am thy servant My servant might the Lord reply Why how so why saith the Psalmist I am the son of thy hand-maid So we whose parents were within the Covenant were born to Christ in some respect for we were born within his family and so to outward view and cognizance belong to his houshold But this is but an outward thing some of us have gone further yet and made a Covenant with the Lord to serve him we were in Covenant all of us with sin by nature and so with death and hell we were at an agreement too But some of us have utterly dissolved that Covenant and entred into Covenant with the Lord Christ We are bound let us obey now we have made this Covenant with him we are the more engaged to serve him and the greater is our sin if we run away from him Use 3 Is God the Father of our Lord Christ The greater is his love to us that he should give Christ for us If he had given but a servant or a friend it had been much that he should part with either of them for an enemy but that he should give us his son his own begotten son to shame to punishment to death for us here is love and here is mercy with a witness The Evangelist me thinks knows not which way to express it and therefore leaves it to the largest heart and the vastest understanding to guess at it John 3.16 God so loved the world So how I cannot tell you it swallows up my apprehensions and expressions And therefore I must leave it to your selves to think of it and reach after it And truly my Beloved did we weigh it well in our advised and deliberate thoughts we should be carried out beyond our selves in an Extasie of wonder What my Beloved that when the Father had but one begotten Son by nature and one that was so well like him the very picture of his Father c. one whom he loved dearly in whom his very soul delighted that he should give him forth out of his bosom for such wretches as we are That he could not spare his Son that he might spare his Enemies behold what love the Father hath declared in this Here is love to be spoken of and to be wondred at in all ages And thus far of the uses of the former member of the point Proceed we now to make some application of the latter Use 1 Is it so my Brethren that as God is the Father of the Lord Christ So Christ did apprehend him as a Father and look upon him as a Father when c. Then let us also apprehend him so and look upon him so who are the sons of God in Christ when we come to God in prayer Let us present our supplications to him under the notion of a Father as Christ did Christ is in this respect our Pattern and Example whom we ought to follow We are required you know to be followers of Christ viz. in all his imitable actions and this is one of those actions We ought to walk as he walked and to pray as he prayed And therefore as his manner was to pray to God himself in this language to come to God as to a Father So he hath taught us also so to pray in the very same language to come to God as to a Father as he did Mat. 6.9 After this manner pray ye Our Father which art in heaven So that we have in this you see the Precept and Example of the Lord Christ his Precept in the cited place and his Example in my Text. And therefore let us learn this lesson of him since he is pleased to teach us both waies both by Precept and Example When we are making our addresses to the Lord in prayer let us endeavour to apply unto our selves the love and father-hood of God in Jesus Christ Let us not satisfie our selves with a general perswasion that he is a gracious Father to all his sons and daughters in the Lord Christ But let us strive for a distinct and a particular assurance that he is our own Father that he is so to us in special and that we are among the number of his children That we may look upon him so and confidently call him so when we are pouring out our prayers to him and so expect the love and mercy of a Father from him And to this very End as the Apostle tells us The Spirit of the Son is sent abroad into our hearts To what End Why to make us cry Abba Father Gal. 4.6 That is to make us pray to God as to a Father while others come to God as to a stranger with whom they have no acquaintance and to whom they have no relation So that you see we have not only the Precept of Christ and the Example of Christ but we have also the Spirit of Christ that we may pray in this manner And therefore in this Faith and confidence the Saints of God have prayed in Scripture So did the Church as you may see Isa 63.16 Doubtless say they thou art our Father though Abraham be ignorant of us and Israel acknowledge us
me And having gotten us he seems to glory in us and to be so tender of us as if we were some rich purchase as if we were of very great use to him as you may see in this Chapter all along Sometimes he shows the Father what a high esteem he hath of those whom he hath given him how carefully he teacheth them and showeth them all his Fathers name how tenderly he keeps them how dearly he affects them and how his heart is set upon them Sometimes he beggs his Father for them to preserve them to sanctifie them to make the world know that he loveth them even as he loveth Jesus Christ himself to make them one among themselves and one with him to bring them to the same place where Christ is as if he could not live in Heaven without them Ah my beloved did we follow on this mercy as far as we could reach it in our thoughts we should at length finding no end or bottom in it cry out as the Apostle Oh the depth of the riches c. Are there a certain company of men whom God the Father gives to Jesus Vse 2 Christ then surely they that have the happiness to be of this selected company are in a very good case It is impossible that they should perish and that upon a double ground For First If God the Father give them to his Son Christ you may be sure that Christ will have them the gift of God the Father shall not be in vain to him he will not lose his end in this business If he give them to his Son he will see his Son shall have them If he bestow them upon Christ to be his members he will see they shall in his appointed time be joyned to him and nothing in the world shall keep them off from him It may be many of them who belong to Christ in the eternal Counsel and decree of God are yet without but God will surely bring them in in his season Let them be as averse from Christ and from his wayes as it is possible for men to be let them stand never so far off the Father who hath given them to Christ will certainly take care that they shall come in to him or else his gift were nothing worth And this is that which Christ himself takes notice of Iohn 6.37 all that the Father giveth to me shall come to me Let them be never so unwilling of themselves by nature let them be never so entangled in the snare of Sathan so mightily withheld by him yet however they shall come But what if Christ should not receive them when they come then they may perish notwithstanding Yes if the Father give them and cause them thereupon to come Christ will certainly receive them All that the Father giveth me shall come to me And what follows And him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out Secondly If God the Father give them to his Son Christ as you may be confident that Christ will have them so may you depend upon it that he will keep them when he hath them What do you think that Christ will lose that which his Father gives him That he will not be chary of us for his sake that bestowed us on him We would not lose the gift of a friend especially if he be dear to us and much less would we lose a Fathers gift we would keep such a thing with all care especially if he bestow it on us with this Condition that we keep it for his sake If he tells us that his will and pleasure is we should not lose it we will be very wary how we part with it Now God hath given us to Christ on these terms as he himself acknowledges Iohn 6.39 This is the Fathers will saith he That of all which he hath given me I should lose nothing And he came down into this Lower world to do the will of him that sent him as he professeth very often and therefore certainly he will be carefull of this special charge of his he will observe it very strictly He will be infinitely wary that he lose not any of his Fathers things which he hath given him to keep So that if we be given to the Lord Christ however of our selves we are apt to fall away we may resolve that he will have us and keep as unto life eternal DOCTRINE That Jesus Christ as Mediator hath power to give eternal life to such and all such as are bestowed upon him by his Father but he hath no power at all to give this life to any other The point holds forth both the extent and limitation of the authority of Jesus Christ in this respect The former is expresly mentioned the latter is apparently insinuated in my text First you have here expresly mentioned the extent of the authority of Jesus Christ as Mediator of the Church It is that he may give Eternal life to as many as God hath given him Be they as many as they will be they more or be they less he hath power to quicken them to raise them from the death of sin to the life of grace and glory This he can do de facto as he is God and this he may do de jure as he is God and man as he is Mediator to as many as are bestowed upon him by his Father And then we have apparently suggested too the limitation of the authority of Jesus Christ in this respect For when it is affirmed here that Christ hath power to give Eternal life to as many as God hath given him it is implyed that he can give it to no more There are the bounds of his authority the restraint of his Commission So far it reaches and no further I shall endeavour to evince and clear them both in order First Jesus Christ as Mediator hath power to give eternal life to such to all such as are bestowed upon him by his Father He hath received commission from his Father to forgive their sins and heal their natures and to become the Prince of Life to them by giving them the life of Justification and the life of Sanctification and the life of Glorification He came into the world for this end as you may see Joh. 10.10 I am come that they might have life They Who why his sheep as he explains it both before and after I am the door of the sheep I am come that they may have life and at the 27th verse My sheep hear my voice and I give unto them Eternal life But how comes Christ by these sheep Why by his Fathers own gift And therefore it is added in the very next words My Father which gave them me is greater then all So that it is as if our Saviour Christ had said I am come down into the world to give life to the sheep my Father hath bestowed upon me To all them and no others The Father loves the Son saith John the Baptist
20. and so on to the conclusion of the Chapter Neither pray I for these alone but for them also that shall believe on me through their word I must at this time make a little entrance upon our Saviours Prayer in behalf of his Apostles and Disciples who were present with him They were very near to him they were waiting then upon him they were converted immediately by himself and called by his own word and therefore they have the precedency and the preferment in his Prayer And here we have to be considered First the preparation to it and secondly the matter of it The preparation to this Prayer of our Saviour in the behalf of his Apostles and Disciples Discovers first what he himself had done in reference to them And then what they had done in reference to him What they were both in relation to himself and to his Father And where they were viz. In such a place wherein they stood in need of his Prayers These things are interwoven and commixt and we must take them in our progress as we find them Only this would be considered that all of them are premised by our Saviour before he puts up one Petition for them to shew what cause there was why they should be remembred in his Prayers Begin we with the first thing which our Saviour mentions by way of preparation to the Prayer which he makes for his Apostles and Disciples I have manifested thy Name unto the men which thou gavest me out of the world And here you may take notice with me of these two particulars First the action of our Saviour in reference to his Apostles and Disciples of which he minds his Father here I have manifested thy Name Secondly the description of the persons to whom he had made known his Fathers Name viz. the men which he had given him out of the world For opening of the former we must examine and resolve what is intended by the Fathers Name which Christ affirmeth here he had made known I have manifested thy Name Some think the meaning to be only this that he had made him known to his Apostles and Disciples under the notion of a Father They knew him as a God before and so did generally all the people of the Jews but as a Father in his Son they had no acquaintance with him Now by this Name our Saviour had discovered him to those whom he had called and sanctified he had brought them now to know him as a Father This is the title he gives him all along from the beginning of his Prayer to the end Father Holy Father Righteous Father and the like This is the name by which he represents him unto his Apostles and Disciples and under which he would have them to conceive and apprehend him as a Father to his Son and as a Father to themselves in him and this is that which he intends as some conceive in this profession I have manifested thy Name c. This is something I acknowledge yea this is very much of that which he intends but yet I think it is not all The Name of God in general is all that makes him known to men wherein soever the nature or the will of God or whatsoever else of God can be imagined or conceived is discovered and made known all this is intimated by the Name of God So that our Saviour in my Text in saying he had manifested Gods Name saith in effect that he had fully manifested and revealed his Father to his people So that there was nothing of him necessary to be known which he had concealed from them He had not hid one letter of his Name from them So that the point to be observed is this DOCTRINE That Jesus Christ hath made an absolute compleat and full discovery of his Father to his people The Name of God sometimes imports his Nature sometimes his Titles sometimes his Attributes sometimes his Ordinances and sometimes his works as I could give you instances of all these And all of these our Saviour had laid open fully to his Apostles and Disciples as he professes to his Father here I have manifested thy Name unto the men which thou hast given me out of the world And this is that which the Evangelist affirmeth of him Ioh. 1.18 No man hath seen God at any time the only begotten Son which is in the bosom of the Father he hath declared him Observe it well it is not said he hath declared something of him but he hath declared him Declared him wholly and compleatly all that is declarable of him he hath made known to his people The protestation which he makes to his Apostles when he was about to leave them runs very much to this purpose Joh. 15.15 All that I have heard of my Father not from my Father but of my Father I have made it known to you Whatsoever I have been informed in concerning my Father at least as Mediator and as the Prophet of my Church I have discovered it to you I have been very faithful to you in the business whatsoever hath been shewn me of my Father for your instruction and your information I have not kept one whit from you I shall add no more for proof that I may have time to shew you How Jesus Christ hath made this full discovery and then why Jesus Christ hath made this full discovery of his Father to his people And in pursuance of the latter I shall examine and resolve why Jesus Christ and none but he hath made it And in the second place why the discovery he hath made is such an absolute and full discovery As for the first of these how Jesus Christ hath made such a discovery of his Father This will be necessary to be known for the distincter understanding of the point And he hath made it principally three ways by his Personal appearance in the flesh by his Word and by his Spirit 1. First by his Personal appearance in the flesh our Saviour Christ hath made some discovery of his Father Jesus Christ as he is Man and as he hath assummed our Nature is the Image and resemblance of his Father And this is that which the Apostle aims at when he saith He is the Image of the invisible God Col. 1.15 by which he intimates expresly that however God be in himself invisible yet there is some resemblance of him in the Lord Christ so that he may be seen in him It 's true indeed that Jesus Christ as God is the invisible Image of God and thus he is the very picture of the Father Heb. 1.3 But as he hath assumed our flesh he is the visible Image of God And this is clearly the Apostles meaning when he saith He is the Image of the invisible God His purpose is not to declare how Jesus Christ is the invisible Image of God the Father from Eternity but visible to us in time And hence he saith not simply who is the Image of God
will be angry with them all If he come in and find his family together by the ears he will be in a rage too Manasseh against Ephraim and Ephraim against Manasseh and both of them against Judah and all these you must know my Brethren were within the verge and compass of the Church There were rents and breaches there they were divided into parties they were up one against another And what follows For all this his anger is not turned away but his hand is stretched out still Isa 9.21 And is not this our case Are not the members of the body mystical of Christ divided into factions that struggle one against another like the twins in Rebecca's womb that bite and even devour one another And this I make no question is one cause among the rest why the wrath of the Lord is not turned away Our wrath is not turned away and therefore his wrath is not turned way neither Our hands are stretched out one against another still and therefore his hand is stretched out against us all We are not yet appeased one towards another and therefore he is not appeased towards us We are making and continuing breaches still among our selves and God is making and continuing breaches still among us He deals with us just as we deal with one another With the froward saith the Psalmist thou wilt shew thy self froward Psal 18.25 We are unjustly froward to our Brethren and he is justly froward towards us As we have done so God hath requited us Because that Edom hath dealt against the house of Judah saith the Lord by taking vengeance I will take vengeance upon Edom Ezek. 25.12 Edom and Judah you must know my Brethren came out of the same loyns And truly till we cease from taking our revenge as we have opportunitie upon our Brethren God will not cease from taking vengeance upon us It is of great concernment to the preservation of Christs Disciples that they be at neerest unity among themselves It is one special means to enable them to stand and to hold out against their common enemies both without them and within them It is an easie thing to break them and destroy them one by one but if they be united and bound up together as the Rods which the Roman gave his sons upon his death-bed they will not be so quickly broken they will find that their union is their strength and preservation If they stand fast in one spirit with one mind striving together for the faith of the Gospel they need to be in nothing terrified by their Adversaries as the Apostle shews Phil. 1.27 Indeed they will be terrible and dreadful to them When Gods Jerusalem is as a City that is compacted within it self when she is at unity then she is terrible as an Army of Banners Cant. 6.4 It 's true indeed that Christs Disciples as they have the best friends so they have the worst enemies But let them be as many and as mighty as they will if they could but hold together and if they were resolved as Joab and his brother Abishai If they be too strong for thee I will come and help thee and if they be too strong for me thou shalt come and help me If either of us be distressed the other shall come in with all his succour If thy corruptions or temptations or afflictions be too strong for thee I will come and help thee with my Councels with my Comforts with my Prayers and thou shalt deal accordingly with me If it were thus among the Saints they would be impregnable against all the Oppositions that Earth or Hell could make against them They are built up to a spiritual house and if they were cemented well together no storms would overthrow them That is worth our observation which Ferus writes of the Primitive Saints They were wont saith he to meet together very often and there to lay open their several temptations their means of resistance their gracious success and happy deliverance And so to councel and to comfort and to encourage and confirm and strengthen one another As for my own part I take very much comfort in the great unity that is to be observed among Gods people here in this place and in the frequent meetings which they have together It is a joyfull thing to see their love in the truth and I am confident they get much strength by it while others who reserve themselves refrain communion each with other withhold their Counsels Comforts Prayers are very weak by this means and easie to be overcome And therefore one observeth very well upon this prayer of our Saviour in my text that his Disciples are preserved and kept by unity Holy Father keep them through thy own name and to this end let them be one as we are As if the only way to keep them and preserve them were to make them one among themselves It is of great concernment to the furtherance of the Gospel that Christs Disciples c. The work of Jesus Christ is not to be carried on with much knocking As in the building of the old material Temple there were no Axes no Hammers nor any other Tool heard 1 Kings 6.7 so in the building of the Church of Christ and carrying on the business of the Gospel the less stir the less noise the more progress If there were not such knocking as we have heard too much of late this Church-work would go on the faster and come the sooner to perfection In the building of Babel you know there was a confusion c. so the work was wholly hindred and laid by Gen. 11.7 The workmen understood not one anothers language and so were forced to desist from that business And truly there is a confusion hapned in another sort of building in this land the building not of Babel but of Sion which is a very great impediment to that work The workmen understand not one another and by this means the time which should be spent in laying is spent in knocking of the stones and timber in making and upholding parties and in maintaining endless controversies and disputes which tend to strife and variance and not a whit to edification The Axe and Hammer is in use but the Trowell is laid by And verily my brethren while it so continues the work of Christ will never go forward Religion will not thrive among us as it should till all that appertain to Christ come to a nearer unity a more firm accord among themselves And therefore it is very notable that when our Saviour Christ ascended and meant to propagate the Gospel to amplifie and to enlarge the Church He gave some Apostles and so on for the perfecting of the Saints and for the edifying of the body of Christ till we all come in the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God unto a perfect man c. Mark my beloved when we come to unity then the work goes on amain then
to God the Father for us and takes our Suites into his hands That he excuses what is wanting in our prayers and supplies it in his own That he is lively there where we are dull that he is quick where we are flat that he is full where we are short My Clyent saith our Advocate means this and this this is the meaning of the spirit in him He is not able to express himself as many others can but this is that which he intends and aims at His words are not so ready and so apt but he hath as sincere a heart as the most voluble and fluent of them all and he is one for whom I have laid down my life and shed my blood for whom I have deserved all the good that he can ask and stand in need of And therefore I beseech thee Father let him have what he desires give him a speedy and a gratious answer for my sake Ah my beloved is it not able to fill our hearts brimfull of joy when we remember that we have such an Advocate as this is The knowledge of our Saviours Intercession for his people is a means to comfort them in reference to the defects of all our graces For we come short in all of them there is not one of them compleat There is much lacking in our faith as the Apostle speaks 1 Thes 3.10 and so there is in all the rest which spring from faith For if there be a failing in the root there cannot choose but be a failing in the branches And this is that which makes us walk so heavily and sadly many times when we consider with our selves how slender the degrees and measures of our graces are so that we know not where to find comfort What shall we do in such a case to keep our spirits from despondency Why truly among many other wayes this is a very special one to fix our thoughts upon the intercession of our Saviour for us and to consider seriously with our selves that this is one great business that he urges to his Father that he would sanctifie his people That he would give them out more grace and more holiness This prayer of our Saviour in my text as I have hinted formerly is but a Counterpane of the perpetual intercession that he makes for his in heaven And it consists especially of two branches which comprehend the two main things that he desireth of his Father for his people Preservation and Sanctification The latter he is large upon sanctifie them with thy truth and so on They were sanctified before for they were not of the world and he desires they might be sanctified yet more That they might have larger measures of all the graces of the spirit And is not this an extraordinary comfort to those who are but meanly furnished and who have but a slender stock of grace that Jesus Christ is alwayes interceding to his Father in their behalf for a more full supply It was a suit that he begun on earth and he is still pursuing it in heaven to this day and will do to the worlds end he will never give it over so that we may be confident we shall have such degrees of holiness and grace bestowed upon us as are necessary for us The knowledge c. as it assures us of his dear love to us and his tender care of us What our Saviour doth in heaven in a way of Intercession if it were unknown to us though it might profit us and benefit us very much it could not comfort as at all But when we know that Jesus Christ hath such a singular regard to us and that his heart and his affections work towards us so sweetly and so strongly now he is in heaven at so great a distance from us I mean as he is man that he is always taking all advantages to further and promote our business with his Father and speaking to him upon all occasions for our good and in a word that he is so extremely kind and loving to us so infinitely tender of our welfare every way This cannot choose if it be duly weighed but fill our hearts up to the brim and make them over-flow with joy Vse 1 Now is it so my Brethren that the assured knowledge of our Saviours Intercession is one c. If then we would abound in this heavenly affection let us exactly study and throughly pâ—y into our Saviours Intercession that we may know as much of it as we are able to attain to We are here in an unquiet and unstable world in which we meet with many causes of discomfort from within and from without and many times they take extremely deep upon us so as almost to make our lives a burthen to us Now if we would be free from such distempers let us endeavour to look more into our Saviours Intercession And if we understand it well it will fill us full of comfort that will swell high exceedingly above all the afflictions of this present life Indeed the intercession of our Saviour is of it self a large volume too much for us to read over and that Volume sealed too shut up in heaven that we cannot open it or look into it But he hath given us a brief compendium and a short abridgement of it in the Prayer that he made for his Apostles and Disciples and in them for all the Church that is or shall be to the worlds end that we may read it and acquaint our selves with it He spake that prayer in the world that they might hear it from him and so might have his joy fulfilled in them And that we might hear it from them and so might have his joy fulfilled in us In which regard my Brethren it is left upon record in publique in the Church for ever that all his people might have recourse thereto on all occasions for their Comfort And therefore when we are in any trouble when sorrow seizes deep upon us let us study this prayer in all the parts and branches of it that from thence we may conjecture what he doth in our behalf now he is fitting at the right hand of his Father And this let us depend upon that if he spake one word in our behalf in any case while he was here upon earth he speaks a hundred for us now he is heaven And truly if this Counterpane of our Saviours Intercession were dived into and studied more there would be more holy joy among the Saints Their troubles and their sorrows would be less and they would be more full of comfort then they are JOHN 17.14 I have given them thy Word and the world hath hated them AND thus of the first argument with which our Saviour presseth and enforceth his Petition to his Father in behalf of his Apostles and Disciples that he himself would undertake the keeping of them Which hath been taken as you may remember from his own effectual preservation of them during the time that he had
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
his Priesthood must of necessity be co-extended and so for whomsoever he is a Priest to sacrifice for them also he is a Priest to intercede as he hath offered up himself for them so he hath offered up his prayers for them and will do to the worlds end Use And this to give you but a touch of Application may serve to hearten us exceedingly when we are are putting up our prayers for them who are as yet without the pale who have as yet no faith or grace at all in them It may be they are neer to us Parents Children Husbands Wives and we are often carried out in prayer for them that God would yet shew mercy to them that he would yet prevail upon them and cause them to come in to Jesus Christ That he would break their stubborn lusts and work unfeigned faith in them And while we are breathing out our souls to God in such a way as this is we are surpized with distrustful thoughts that we shall never speed in this request of ours God will never be entreated and so upon a sodain our affections cool our hearts grow dead and flat within us In such a case as this is it may be some encouragement and comfort to consider that Jesus Christ for ought we know hath prayed and may be praying to the Father for the very same person though for the present he believe not yet he may be such an one as shall believe as is appointed to believe in after-times And then he is as you have heard within the compass of our Saviours Intercession so that the prayers that we make for him are seconded by Christ in heaven While we are asking such a child or such a friend of God it may be Christ is asking him or her of God too according to the Covenant of the Father with the Son Ask of me and I will give thee And therefore let us not grow cold or faint in such a suit as this is but let us follow and pursue it to the utmost Let us not cease to pray for such a person let us not cast him out of our prayers whom Jesus Christ hath not cast out of his I pray saith he for such as shall believe and this for ought we know may be one of that number And thus far of the first particular by which our Saviour Christ describeth those for whom he prays viz. the time of their believing They are not such as did believe when Christ put up this supplication for them to the Father but such as should believe in after-times Proceed we to the second thing by which he sets them forth and that is by the Spirit of this faith of theirs they should believe in Jesus Christ Neither pray I for these alone saith Christ here but for them also which shall believe on me He doth not say for them which shall believe on God or for them which shall believe the Word of God but for them which shall believe on me so that the point to be observed is this DOCTRINE That true Believers do pitch their Faith on Jesus Christ and make him the object of it Christ is the object of a true beleiving faith So he is represented in my Text you see The faithful do beleive on him It 's true indeed that faith in general which even Reprobates and Devils have looks with an equal eye on all the Book of God assenteth to the truth of all in gross But justifying faith whith is the faith whereof we speak picks out this special object Jesus Christ which is imbraced and received By him saith the Apostle Paul that is by Christ and none but him all that believe are justified from all those things from which they could not have been justified by the Law of Moses Act. 13.39 The Law will never justifie us but condemn us No we are justified by faith in Christ and him alone who is revealed and manifested to us in the Gospel The Rightousness of God that is the righteousness which makes us righteous the righteousness of man will never do it No it must be the righteousness of God himself This is ours by faith in Christ as the Apostle shews Rom. 3.22 He that believeth in the Son hath life Joh. 3. ult Observe it well he saith not in the Father nor the Holy Ghost though certainly we must believe in both these But Christ is the immediate object of the faith which justifieth or of it as it justifieth He that believeth in the Son hath life the life of holiness and the life of righteousness for both of them are very clearly meant in that place Object But you will say perhaps Is not the Word of God and is not God himself and is not everlasting life the object of our faith how then is Christ as I have said and Christ alone the next and the immediate object of it Sol. To this because it is compounded as it were of divers things I must answer divers ways 1. For the Word of God that is not properly the object of the faith that justifieth but is so called by a figure because it holds forth and exhibits Christ who is indeed the proper object of this justifying faith Or secondly the Word of God although it may in some respects be called the object of faith that justifieth yet not qua justificat not as it justifieth as the School speaks It 's true that justifying faith believeth other things propounded in the Word of God But faith as it justifieth lays hold on Christ and him only not knowing any other thing here but Jesus Christ and him crucified 2. As for the second thing propounded in the Querie True it is that God the Father is the Object of our faith I mean the faith which justifyeth but not the next and the immediate Object of it Christ must be first laid hold upon and God in Christ Such trust have we through Christ in God saith the Apostle 2 Cor. 3.4 Even Turks and Jews and Arrians boast of faith in God you know amd yet because they apprehend not Jesus Christ they miserably lose their own souls He that denyeth and so by consequence believes not in the Son can never have the Father as you may see 1 John 2.23 He is like a man goes about to grasp a thing that is too big for him a large and smooth round-bodyed Cup it slips away out of his fingers whereas he might have held it by the handle The faith which justifies us my beloved apprehendeth Christ receiveth and layeth hold on him and then as it is added in the fore-alledged Scripture He that hath the Son hath the Father also 3. As for the third particular propounded whether salvation and eternal life be the object of our faith To say the truth salvation and eternal life is not so properly believed as hoped for Nor can it be so fitly called the object as the consequent and end of faith So the Apostle calls it 1 Pet.