wished to true Believers then to be with Christ in heaven To be in heaven where they shall be absolutely and compleatly holy and happy where they shall never sin and where they shall never suffer any more where holiness and happiness shall be both perfect where there is fulness of joy and pleasure for evermore and to be with Christ there of whose immediate prefence true believers are inavoidably debarred as long as they remain in this world While they are at home in the body they are absent from the Lord as 2 Cor. 5.6 But when they come to heaven they shall be with him they shall have the compleat and full fruition and enjoyment of him which is the greatest happiness that can be To be with Christ is best of all 1 Phil. 23. To be with Saints on Earth is good though they be imperfect here and though by reason of their imperfections they be the less delightfull and the less beneficial to us To be with Saints in heaven is better because they are perfect there There are the spirits of just men made perfect But to be with Christ there is best of all This is so good that there is nothing better there is no higher happiness attainable by any creature And therefore Christ would have his people to enjoy it to be in heaven where himself is because he loves them with a love of benevolence 2. Jesus Christ would have his people to be in heaven where himself is because he loves them with a love of complacency because he takes delight in them and friends that delight in one another think it not sufficient to be present each with other by the presence of their hearts and spirits No if it be possible they will be present each with other in their bodies too as you may see in Jonathan and David what shifts they made to come together So Jesus Christ who loves his people out of measure is not content that he is with them in his spirit and that they are again with him in their spirits No this is not enough but he must have their bodies with him too he must enjoy their company in heaven or else it is not well there Christ is not fully satisfied till he enjoy the sweet Society of his beloved Saints in heaven with whom he hath such intimate and dear acquaintance while they are here upon earth And hence he beggs his Father for them to bring them to the same place where himself is as if he could not live in heaven without them Father I will that c. 2. There is a second reason added in the Text which I shall handle Reason 2 only under that consideration Father I will that they whom thou hast given me be with me where I am And why so might the Father ask him Why that they may behold my glory which thou hast given me as it is added in the next words That they may see the lustre which I sparkle with The glory of Christs humane nature in heaven is exceeding great The Evangelist who saw it through the dimm spectacles of humane frailty endeavours as he can to set it forth Saith he his Countenance was as the Sun that shineth in his strength Apoc. 1.16 But this was but a short resemblance Our Saviour Christ who knew it better carries it a little higher The Son of man saith he shall come in the glory of the Father Mat. 16.27 In comparison of whose incomparable lustre and transcendent brightness the Sun it self is but a shaddow Now Christ would have his people be in heaven where himself is that they may see this glory which he sh nes withall But why would he have them see it what shall they gain by it 1. While they see it they cannot but exceedingly rejoyce in it It cannot but transport them even to an extasie of joy to see him whom they love so infinitely sparkle forth with such dazling raies of glory Oh will the poor believer say This is my head my husband whom my soul loveth that is become so out of measure glorious There was a time when he was black and when there was no form nor beauty in him when wretched men made him vile and ignominious and when they hid their faces as if they were ashamed of him But now he shines forth as the Sun that hath been masked with a gloomy cloud This is he that died for me that shed his blood for me that loved me and gave himself for me Oh how my heart is ravished to behold his glory 2. While they behold it as they shall rejoyce in it so they shall partake of it And that especially two wayes both by union and reflection First they shall partake of it by union for being one with Jesus Christ they cannot choose but share together with him in his glory And as the glory of the members redoundeth to the glory of the head in which respect it is that the Apostle saith that Christ shall be admired in all them that believe So on the other side the glory of the head redoundeth much more to the glory of the members Secondly And as they shall partake hereof by union so also by reflection when they see Christ while they behold the glory of the Lord they shall be transformed into the same image from glory to glory Their vile bodies shall be conformed to his glorious body Phil. 3.21 And while they see him as he is they shall be like him as the Apostle John insinuates 1 Epist 3.2 They shall bear the very image of the heavenly Adam 1 Cor. 15.48 And as the face of Moses shined when he had been with God upon the Mount so when we come to be with Christ in heaven and to behold his glory there we shall reflect it back again and so shall shine together with him in the same glory And this is another reason why Christ will have his people to be with him that they may see his glory and seeing may partake of it both by union and reflection Use Now to descend to application Is it the will of Christ c. Here then you see the singular and extraordinary happiness of Christs people If they were alwayes to remain to set up their perpetual abode in this world it would be very sad with them It is a vale of tears a most uncomfortable place especially to Christs people in which they are not like to have a quiet hour almost as long as they remain in it But now the comfort is that it is the will of Christ that they that are bestowed upon him by his Father shall not alwayes stay here that he will have them come to heaven where himself is That he will not alwayes leave them in this vale of tears but he will one day bring them to a place of joy there to enjoy himself for ever to keep no longer at a distance from him but to be with him where he is To be with Christ in any
any time But though he doth not yet he may No saith the Apostle Paul 1 Tim. 6.16 He dwells in light that no man can approach unto whom no man hath seen nor can see Indeed we see him darkly here as the Apostle speaks 1 Cor. 13.12 And therefore this is called the seeing of the back-parts of the Lord. As when we see the back-parts of a man we know him but by guess only we know him not so perfectly and distinctly as when we come to see his face Such a sight of God is that which we attain in this life And however it may seem by some expression in the Scripture that God hath fully manifested and made known himself to some here as to Jacob Gen. 32.30 and to Moses Num. 12.8 To him will I speak saith God by vision not in darkness and he shall see the similitude of God This must be understood comparatively of the Lords more clear and full revealing of himself to Jacob and to Moses then to other men But as for perfect light and knowledge of the Lord my Brethren this was not imparted neither to Jacob nor to Moses Thou shalt not see my face saith God to Moses Exod. 33.10 That is the fulness of my glory for none shall see my face and live But which way may we come to know him so far as he is to be known in this life Truly there is but one way of coming to the knowledge of him and this way is Jesus Christ No man hath seen God at any time saith the Evangelist Ioh. 1.18 What then is he not to be seen not to be known at all by any means Yes though he be not to be seen or known immediately in himself yet mediately in and by the Son he may be known for he hath manifested and revealed him to us No man hath seen God at any time the only begotten Son which is in the bosom of the Father he hath declared him And therefore when our Saviour was Incarnate it is said that God was manifested in the flesh 1 Tim. 3.16 In which respect it is that when Philip was so earnest to have the Father shewn him our Saviour bids him to behold himself and addeth presently he that hath seen me hath seen the Father also Indeed it was the business of our Saviour Christ into this Lower world to bring God down to us that we might be acquainted with him And therefore if you do indeed desire to know him go to Christ and use his help in this business If you ever see God and have that knowledge of him which is life Eternal you must have light from Jesus Christ to see him by I am the light of the world saith he Ioh 8.12 without me there is no light in all the world none but that which comes from me and which I am the Fountain of He that follows me shall have the light of Life that is the light which is life And therefore if you would have this light follow Jesus Christ for it and follow him three wayes or in the use especially of three Means follow him in a Gospel-Ordinance a Gospel grace a Gospel-duty Follow him in the Gospel-ordinance of preaching there it is that Christ shines that he gives out the light by which he shews his Father to his people It s true indeed that Moses shewed him in the Law as a Judge and an Avenger But it is Jesus Christ that shews him in the Gospel as a Father and a Saviour He is not manifest in a saving way anywhere but in the Gospel The Knowledge of him as he is discovered there and none but that is life eternal And therefore wait on that discovery if you mean to live for ever where there is any Gospel-preaching say Christ shews his Father there and follow him that so you may have life by this means I say as Solomon Prov. 4.13 Take fast hold of Instruction keep her for she is thy life Follow him in a Gospel-grace and that is faith by this it is that we come to see God and know God as by it we believe the Revelations and Discoveries that are made of God which other men may read and hear and yet because they have no faith to give belief and credit to them they get no sight no knowledge of the Lord by them It is by faith that we see him who is invisible as the expression is Heb. 11.27 There are some things that must be first believed before they can be fully understood if you believe them not you can never understand them And hence saith the Apostle in the third ver of the fore-cited Chapter by saith we understand the world to be created by the word of God A man would think he would have said by faith we credit and believe it and not by faith we understand it But the Creation is a thing that is above Philosophy and therefore is not to be fully understood unless it be believed first It is our faith that helps us to the perfect Knowledge of it and so by faith we see and know God because by faith we give assent to the discoveries that are made of God in Scripture and having once believed them we come to see and understand the nature of the Lord in them We see the Lord in his All-mightiness his All-sufficiency his Omni-presence c. which a man that hath not faith can neuer do we bring him near us by believing his Immensity and that he filleth all places as he is said to do in Scripture we look upon him now as just by us and so we have a clear and distinct sight of him Follow Christ in a Gospel-duty and that is Prayer beseech him to reveal God to you make your address to him as Philip doth Iohn 14.9 Shew us the Father we cannot see him of our selves Lord shew him to thy poor servants If Christ withdraw himself and step away go after him follow him and you shall have the light of Life If he stop his ears against you cry the louder as the Direction is Prov. 2.3 Cry after Knowledge lift up your voyce for Understanding and what then Then shall you understand the fear of the Lord and find the Knowledge of God Is it so that life Eternal c. If then you desire to save men from Eternal Use 4 death to bring men to Eternal Life instill the Knowledge of the Lord into them It may be you have Children it may be you have Friends or servants whom you look upon as dead they have no life of grace in them well Would you have them quickened Would you have them live for ever Do what you can by all the means that you can think upon to make them know God Instruct them bring them to the means of grace examine them how they thrive and profit by them Oh do not see them sink away to hell and die for ever for want of any help that you can yield them of any pains
of this Chapter This shall suffice for clearing of the Observation That unbelievers and unsanctified persons know not God At least they know him not in such a manner and with such a kind of knowledge as they ought to do in that they know him not with an affective knowledge they know him not with an effective knowledge and they know him not in Christ But what may be the causes why the unbelieving world is so ignorant Reason 1 of God I shall lay them open to you both with relation to the unbelieving world Heathen and with relation to the unbelieving world Christian Christian I mean in name though not in truth First for the unbelieving world Heathen it is no wonder that they know not God for they have no means to know him in such a manner as is necessary to salvation It s true that even they have means to know him in a common way as the Apostle shews and proves Rom. 1.19 20. That which may be known conceive it naturally known of God is manifest to them that is the Heathen for God hath shewed it even to them There is an Image and resemblance of him stampt upon the Creatures There are apparent characters and footsteps and impressions of the Godhead of his power and wisdom set upon every thing which he hath made which may be looked upon by every eye How doth his glory shine my brethren in the rare and admirable structure of the world the glorious frame of Heaven and earth And hence it is that David saith The Heavens declare the glory of God c. Psal 19.1 Indeed he tells us afterwards the Law of the Lord is perfect The word of God and that alone is a compleat and perfect help to bring us to the knowledge of God But yet there is some declaration of him in the Creatures the Heavens declare the glory of God And this means the Heathens have The Creatures catechise them and instruct them in the knowledge of a God as Job shewes Chap. 12.7 Ask now the Beasts and they shall teach thee the Fowls and they shall tell thee speak to the Earth and it shall teach thee and Fishes of the Sea shall declare to thee Who knoweth not in all these that the hand of God hath wrought this And therefore the Apostle tells us that even they the Heathen knew God Rom. 1.21 But now they have no means to know him savingly in Christ And this is life eternal to know thee the only true God and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent This knowledge is not written in the Creature Book and they have not the Scripture Book and how then should they come to it It s true that God is written in the Creature Book but not a word of Christ there God is written in the Heart Book but not a word of Christ there neither The Law is written in the heart by nature but there are no impressions of the Gospel which is the word of Christ Col. 3.16 And hence it is that all the Nations of the world have groped after God and found him too as Acts 17.27 Let a man run from East to West let him ransake all Nations and where he findeth any men there he shall find some notice of God But now my Brethren among which of all these Nations who never had the book of Scriptures shall you find any notice of a Christ any incling of a Saviour or Redeemer No Christ is not so much as named among them They have no glimpse no crevice to give them any light of God in Christ So that it is no wonder though the unbelieving world Pagan know him not in this manner for they have no means to know him Reason 2 But now the unbelieving world Christian hath the means of this knowledge and why then do not they know God true they have the outward means but they want the inward means They have the outward revelation of the word but they have not the inward revelation of the spirit And without this it is impossible for any man to know God And therefore the Apostle prays for the Ephesians that God would give them the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him Chap. 1.17 By which he intimates that without spirit-revelation they could never come to know him Now this spirit-revelation or unveiling consists in the removal of a double Veil the Veil that lies upon the faculty and the Veil that lies upon the Object 1. In the spirit-revelation which is the only means of knowing God there must be the removal of the Veil that lies upon the faculty the understanding The sence must be unveiled you know or else we cannot see an object though it be before us For what can a blindfolded person see And so it is in this case for every unbelieving person is blindfolded as it were the God of this world hath blinded his eyes The Veil is on their heart that is their understanding 2 Cor. 3 15. And this Veil the Holy Ghost must take away as in the cited place or else though God be by a man as certainly he is not far from every one of us he will not see him But when once this is removed then revelata ac detecta facie as Beza reads it Then we with open and uncovered face behold the glory of the Lord. 2. In that spirit-revelation which is the only means of knowing God there must be the removal of the Veil that lies upon the Object as of the Veil that lies upon the understanding so of the Veil that lies upon the Gospel where God is represented to us in a saving way For you must know my brethren that the Gospel is a veiled and a covered thing it hath a Curtain drawn before it It is a mysterie a secret thing Nay it is not only secret in it self but it is also kept secret Nor 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for that is the term that the Apostle uses Col. 1.26 Not simply dark or mystical but hid on purpose de industria as Theophilacta observes Among the Jews it was covered with a veil of types and figures and dark expressions And to this day it is hid from natural and carnal men 2 Cor. 4.3 So that however God in Christ be cleerly manifested there let them do what they are able still there is something between them and God that hides him from them that they cannot see him And that is the first reason why unbelieving Christians know not God because they want the inward means of this knowledge viz. spirit-revelation And as they want the inward means of finding out this knowledge when it is closely hidden and covered from them so they want inward capability of receiving this knowledge when it is openly proposed and tendred to them They are so far from being able to go forth to fetch it from abroad that they cannot entertain it when it is brought home to them They have not of
Will savingly declared to them have yet defects and imperfections in their knowledge of him so that they stand in need of further Declaration The Name of God was so far manifested and declared to these Apostles and Disciples as was necessary to salvation So far our Saviour had fully and compleatly made it known to them he had concealed nothing from them of his Fathers Name in the ignorance of which whosoever dies must perish For they were in the state of grace and of salvation when he spake those words I have declared unto them thy Name And yet he addeth presently you see I will declare it I will make further declarations and discoveries of thy Name to them And so accordingly he did assoon as he was risen from the dead He shewed himself alive to them being seen of them forty days together Act. 1.3 And what did he in that time Why he instructed them in things concerning God and his Kingdom as you may see in that place And when he was ascended into Heaven he was mindful of his promise which he had often made to them and so accordingly dispatched the Holy Spirit down among them to lead them further onward in the knowledge of the Father Indeed the best are Novices in this regard they have not yet attained to a perfect man in point of holy and divine knowledge as Ephes 4.13 It is true there is a great deal of variety among the Saints aswell in this as other graces according to the measure of the gift of Christ Ephes 4.7 But in the best it is a measure and no more it is not fulness and perfection He that hath most of God revealed to him yet knows him but in part and he that hath the clearest sight of him sees him but darkly in a glass as 1 Cor. 13.12 And therefore this is called the seeing of the back parts of the Lord as when we see the back parts of a man we know him but by guess only we know him not so perfectly and so distinctly as when we come to see his face Such a sight of God it is that we attain in this world And therefore the Apostle Paul who in this point of holy and divine knowledge was not behind the very chiefest Apostles who had his Raptures and his Extasies and who was taken up into the third Heaven and had such things revealed to him as were not to be uttered by the tongue of man professeth notwithstanding that he had not yet attained nor was he yet perfect But saith he I follow after that I may apprehend Phil. 3.12 So that he was Viator and not Comprehensor he was in the condition that the people were Hos 6.3 he followed on to know the Lord. The people of Coloss were eminent for grace and knowledge and yet for them it is the Apostle prays That they might increase in the knowledg of God Col. 1.10 So that the point is plain as you see They that have the Name of God his Nature and his Will savingly c. Object But you will interpose and say perhaps That it should seem by some expressions in the Scriptures that God hath been revealed fully to some certain men in this life as to Jacob for an instance Gen. 32.30 and to Moses Numb 12.8 With him will I speak saith God mouth to mouth even apparently not in dark speeches and the similitude of the Lord shall he behold Sol. But this my Brethren must be understood comparatively of the more clear and full discovery of the Lord to Jacob and to Moses then to many other men but as for the perfect sight and knowledge of him this was not imparted neither to Jacob nor to Moses and for the latter God himself affirms expresly Thou shalt not see my face saith he to Moses Exod. 33.10 that is the fulness of my glory for none shall see my face and live That is reserved to the state of glory when we shall see God face to face as the Scripture phrase is when we shall know as we are known And this is that which Schoolmen call the beatifical vision wherein consists the main of our beatitude hereafter as Matth. 5.8 Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God He doth not say they do see him but they shall see God which the Apostle makes the great ingredient in the happiness and glory prepared for the Saints at the time of Christs appearing 1 Joh. 3.2 We know that when we shall appear he shall be like him and we shall see him as he is Now we see him as we may then we shall see him as he is But why have they who have the Name of God savingly declared to them defects and imperfections in their knowledge Why doth not Jesus Christ in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge and that for the accommodation of his members furnish and supply them Why doth he not assoon as he begins to teach them declare all his Fathers Name to them but keeps back something still for further discovery There are two special reasons of it to name no more at this time Christ doth not shew them all at once because they are not capable of it A scholar is not capable of all he is to learn at first dash He cannot take in all at once even in his first lesson and hence his Master leads him onward by degrees first gives him easier and after brings him on to harder Lessons Even so doth Jesus Christ with his scholars he goes along with every one as he can learn as he is able to receive it in He doth not shew them all his Fathers glory at a clap for that he knows would dazle them and over-whelm them but le ts in now a little light upon them and then a little more as he perceives their senses to be exercised Instils into their minds and understandings the knowledge of his Father by degrees and as by learning their capacities are widened so he goes on to further discoveries This course he took with the Apostles what they were able to receive he taught them out of hand but reserved other things as you may see Joh. 16.12 I have many things to say unto you but you cannot bear them now I am to say them but you cannot bear them now and therefore I will take some other time to reveal those things to you Christ doth not shew them all at once that he may keep his Saints humble As long as there is flesh and nature in us as there will be while we remain in this world high measures and degrees of knowledge may exalt us and lift us up above our selves And therefore Jesus Christ in love and wisdom uses to bestow upon his people so much knowledge as he sees fit for them A little more it may be would undo them They would set their hearts it may be as the heart of God himself They would be as Gods knowing good and evil Shrewd fellows
find it in his story that as man he was extreamly troubled at the unbelief and hardness of the peoples hearts He wept over Jerusalem with many tears Why you will say perhaps what needed this he might have wrought upon them and put the life of Grace into them No my Beloved he could not work on many of them he could not raise them to the life of Grace they were not given him by his Father and yet as man he pittied and lamented their condition as we should do in such a case he being in all things like unto us sin only excepted And this methinks should melt the hearts of Reprobates themselves to Christ and make them to relent towards him Alas he pitties you and mourns over you his very bowels yearn towards you He delights not in your ruin and destruction No it is troublesome and grievous to him But why then doth he not relieve and help us you will say Why if you be not given him by the Father it is not in his power to do it It s said indeed that he gives life unto the world as it is in his own expression Iohn 6.33 But that is but in opposition to the Jews not to the Jews alone but to the world to men of all conditions and of all Nations in the world But to the world in general he doth not nay he cannot give it So that the fault is not in him if any of you perish and that you have not life from him you see he is confined and bound up by his Father to a certain number to give this life but to as many as the Father gives him JOHN 17.3 And this is Life Eternal AND thus we have at length dispatched the End for which our Saviour is invested with so large and ample Power over all flesh That he may give Eternal Life to as many as God hath given him But what is Eternal Life what is there comprehended under that expression As when our Saviour once discoursed of Truth he had this question put to him what is Truth So having spoken here of Life Eternal if any of you now should put the question what is life Eternal you have the resolution in the following verse which I am now to enter on And this is life Eternal if you desire to understand it this it is to know the only true God and Jesus Christ whom he hath sent So that these words you see are an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an Explication of that which is delivered in the former verse in which our Saviour shews expresly what he intendeth by Eternal Life and wherein it consists in the Knowledge of the Father and the Son or of the Father in the Son And here I shall take notice only of these two Particulars viz. the thing explained and the way of Explication The thing explained is life Eternal As for the way of Explication he doth not shew you quare sit why this life Eternal is he doth not open and unfold it by the Causes of it I say he doth not here though he doth in other places but he shews you quid sit what this Eternal life is This saith he is Life Eternal life This is it what is it why it consists you see in holy Knowledge which is set forth both by the Act and Object of it The Act that they might know The Object of it God the Father the only true God and Christ the Son Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent This is life Eternal that they might know thee c. What then Doth there go nothing else to life Eternal but the knowledge of the Father and the Son Doth it consist in this and this only This is a scruple that is very variously resolved by those that write upon the Text. Some think that knowledge here is put for faith by which we live the life of Grace which is Eternal as the Apostle speaks The life which I live I live by the faith of the Son of God And so it is as if our Saviour Christ had said this is Eternal life so to know as to believe in thee the only true God and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent Others conceive that life Eternal here importeth nothing else but the way to Eternal life the ready path that leads to it And that our Saviour shews us here how he brings those to life Eternal who are bestowed upon him by his Father viz. by giving them the saving Knowledge of his Father and himself That he should give Eternal life to as many as thou hast given him And this is life Eternal this is the way to it that they might know thee the only true God and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent As far as I can apprehend the scruple might be cleared best by a distinction Eternal life is either Inchoate or consummate Eternal life Consummate consists especially in the compleat and perfect knowledge of God which Schoolmen all Beatifical vision And hence our Saviour Christ himself sets forth our happiness of which we shall be made partakers in the world to come by this that there we shall see God Mat. 5.8 Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God that is we shall know God as knowledge ordinarily is set forth by the sense of seeing in the Scripture Yea we shall know him clearly and distinctly we shall see him face to face And this is that which the Apostle makes the main of the Beatitude and glory prepared for the Saints at the time of Christs appearing 1 Iohn 3.2 We shall see him as he is now we see him as we can then we shall see him as he is we shall know him as we are known viz. of God 1 Cor. 13.12 We shall know God even as God knows us As we are known of God distinctly clearly perfectly so we shall know God He knows us perfectly according to his nature now and we shall know him perfectly according to our nature then as far as our created nature is capable of So we shall know as we are known for as there is a note of Similitude and not of Equality And this shall be our happiness in Heaven and our glorious life there that we shall see the very face of God and not his back parts only as we have done in this world That we shall have him fully and compleatly So that this is Eternal life you see consummate in the Heavens to know the only true God and Jesus Christ whom he hath sent But as I take it the life Eternal mentioned in my Text is that of which the Saints are made partakers in this present life and which our Saviour gives them here in this world As in another place he tells us My sheep hear my voice saith he and I give unto them Eternal life He doth not say I will give them Eternal life hereafter but I give it them for present and therefore it is added in the words immediatly annexed neither shall
vve had in him and which way comes he to be ours again but by a new a second Covenant which he makes the former being broken and dissolved I entered into Covenant with thee and thou becamest mine saith the Lord to his people Ezech. 16.8 And is not Christ the Foundation of the Covenant Is it not made with him in Christ Is not the condition of the Covenant Faith in Christ Mark what the Apostle saith Gal. 3.16 The Covenant was not made to seeds as many but to seed as one that is to Christ in aggregato comprizing all his members with him It was not made immediately to us no it was made immediately to Christ our Head and in and through him to us his members So that the Lord is not in Covenant with us he is not ours vve have no Title to him but in Christ And hence the Interest of Christ in God is made the rise and ground of ours I ascend to my God and your God saith Jesus Christ to his Disciples John 20.17 First mine and then yours God is our Master but in Christ He is his first and chief servant and we are his servants in him God is our Father but in Christ he is his first begotten Son and we are his sons in him So that if we know Christ there is a possibility that vve may know the Lord as our God But if we know not Christ at all how can we know God in him We may know him as a God as Adam did between the fall and the renewing of the Covenant but such a one as we shall flie from and as we can by no means close withall because we look upon him now as none of ours as one in whom vve have no Interest at all And certainly Eternal life cannot consist in such a Knowledge of the Lord as this is Fourthly Knowledge of God is not enough to life Eternal unless we Reason 4 know Christ too because unless we know Christ as we know God without Interest so we know him without Faith I mean without saving faith if vve know God without Christ we may believe in God vvithout Christ vve may believe in him as he is Omnipotent and All-mighty and Eternal and the like But such a faith as this will never justifie us in the present Life nor save us in the life to come Even Turks and Jews and Arrians boast of faith in God you know and yet because they appehend not Jesus Christ they catch at nothing but a shadow and miserably lose their own souls He that denies and so by consequence believes not in the Son can never have the Father as you may see 1 John 2.28 But he that hath the Son hath the Father also Well then if we will so believe in God as to come to life Eternal vve must believe in him through Christ Such trust have we through Christ in God saith the Apostle 2 Cor. 3.4 And this we cannot do unless vve know not God only but Jesus Christ whom he hath sent For distinct explicite Knowledge is absolutely necessary to the being of Faith and perfect Ignorance in any point whatever it be destroyes all faith in that particular And hence is the Apostles question How shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard and consequently whom they have not known So that if we know not Christ we cannot believe in him vve cannot believe in God with a justifying faith And he that believes not is condemned already such a person is in a state of death and condemnation But if we know both God and Christ too and so as to believe in God through Christ Eternal life consists in this Knowledge This is life Eternal to know the only true God c. Vse 1 Now is it so my Brethren that the Knowledge which is life Eternal in which Eternal life consisteth is the Knowledge both of God and Christ too Then in the first place we may here behold the dangerous estate of Heathen Nations who know not Jesus Christ nor can they any vvay in the condition they are in attain to this Knowledge How should they come to life Eternal if this be life Eternal to know the only true God and Iesus Christ whom he hath sent It s true that even they have means to know God as the Apostle shews and proves Rom. 1.19 20. That which may be known conceive it that which may be naturally known of God is manifest in them that is the Heathen for God hath even shewed it to them For the Invisible things of him from the Creation of the world are cleerly seen being understood by the things which he hath made even his eternal power and God-head So that there is an Image and Resemblance of him stamped upon the Creatures there are apparent Characters and foot-steps and Impressions of the God-head of his Power and of his Wisdom set upon the things that he hath made which may be looked upon by every eye How doth his Glory shine and glister in the Rare and admirable structure of the World the glorious frame of Heaven and Earth And hence it is that David saith the Heavens declare the glory of God and the Firmament sheweth his handy-work Psalm 19.1 Indeed he tells us afterwards the Law of the Lord is perfect the Word of God and that alone is a perfect a compleat and perfect help to bring us to the knowledge of God but yet there is some declaration of him in the Creatures the Heavens declare the glory of God And the means the Heathens have the creatures Catechize them and instruct them in the Knowledge of God as Job shews Iob 12.7 Ask now the beasts and they shall teach thee the fowls of the heavens and they shall tell thee or speak to the earth and it shall teach thee and the fishes of the Sea shall declare to thee who knoweth not in all these that the hand of the Lord hath wrought this and therefore the Apostle tells us that even they the heathen know God as you may see Rom. 1.21 But now they have no means to know Christ and this is life Eternal to know both both God and Christ too So that in this respect they are cut off from life Eternal which is a very sad case This Knowledge is not written in the Creature-book and they have not the Scripture-book and how then should they come to it It s true that God is written in the Creature-book as I shewed you even now but not a word of Christ there Not a word I mean as Man and Mediator of the Church as he is Christ whom God hath sent He did not make the World as man and so by Consequence as Man he is not represented in the Book of the Creation God is written in the heart but not a word of Christ there The Law is written in the heart by nature but there are no Impressions of the Gospel which is the Word of Christ as the Apostles phrase is
your damnation and eternal ruine And all the honour that you lose him here he will fetch it out again and have his penny-worths upon you in the world to come There you must lie and burn and there is no deliverance thence till you have paid the utmost farthing Is it so that whosoever will be glorified c. you then my Brethren Vse 2 that have thoughts aspiring to the glory of the world to come and that desire to be partakers of it there you see the course you are to take you must make this your work and business how you may glorifie the Lord here how you may set him up and shew him in his beauty and his lustre to the world And though you can make no addition to him in himself yet let this be your endeavour all your days to bring in some accruments to his honour among men that they may honour him the more by your means that so when you come to die you may bespeak him as our Saviour doth when he was ready to be offered up We have glorified thee on earth and now O Father glorifie us with thy self Now there are two ways especially in which you may bring glory to the Lord either in a way of vocal declaration or in a way of real representation And both these ways you must endeavour to bring glory to him here if you desire to have glory from him hereafter First Glorifie him in a way of vocal declaration let your tongues be the Trumpeters of his glory while you are speaking upon all occasions of things that tend to the advancement of the honour and the praise of God Any thing that you conceive will set him up and raise him in the thoughts of those whom you discourse withal be sure that you insist upon it and enlarge it to the utmost let the name and let the attributes and let the works of God lose nothing by your means Glorifie him as Christ did by manifesting and by making known his name to men by telling what he is and what he doth by setting forth his power and mercy and the like that such as hear may magnifie him and admire him Study God-exalting speeches and expressions and discourses and enure your tongues to them that you may have them ready upon all occasions when there is any opportunity for Gods honour Secondly Glorifie him also in a way of real representation and here let him be glorified in what you are and what you do 1. Let God be glorified in what you are let his glory shine upon you by reflexion according to the Prophets Exhortation Isa 60.1 Arise and shine for thy light is come and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee Be you the monuments of his praise the emblems of his love and of his mercy the standing pillars on which his goodness is engraven to be read and seen of men Do you shew forth the praises or as we find it rendred in the margent the vertues of him that hath called you 1 Pet. 2.9 That every one that looks upon you observes you may see the goodness and the grace and holiness of God in you That they may say if there be so much in the stream what is there in the spring and in the fountain If there be so much in the beam what is there in the Sun of righteousness himself If there be so much vertue in them that are called what is there then in him that hath called them This makes much for Gods praise and so indeed in shewing forth the vertue we shew forth the praise and the glory of him that hath called us He hath made me saith the Church a polished shaft a choice a special and a polished piece of work and said unto me thou art my servant in whom I will be glorified When God makes such curious pieces and hangs them forth in the view of all the world he is glorified in them 2. Let God be glorified as in what you are so in the second place in what you do yea in every thing you do Let this be the utmost aim of all your actions Your acts of nature as eating or drinking or the like let these be done with reference to Gods glory as the Apostle Paul exhorts to eat and drink to the glory of God 1 Cor. 10.31 Your civil actions your trading dealing and commercing in the world your buying selling giving lending your care and labour in your calling let these have the same end You see the rule is universal in the fore-alledged Text whatsoever else you do Your holy and religious duties let those have this aspect and aim that you may glorifie the Lord and not your selves in them That when men see your good works your frequent hearing praying fasting bounty to the poor Saints they may glorifie not you the doers of them but your Father which is in heaven And in a word my Brethren no action is exempt from this direction And hence saith the Apostle 1 Pet. 4.11 If any speak let him speak as the Oracles of God if any man minister let him do it as of the ability which God giveth that God in all things may be glorified through Jesus Christ What then it may be you will interpose and ask Object may a man aim at nothing else but Gods glory may he propound no other end in any thing he undertakes may he have no respect to others to himself this is a hard saying who can hear it The rule as you have heard is universal Answ but that you may the better understand the meaning of it that your conscience may not be entangled you must know that other ends may be propounded in our actions in a way either of subordination or else of opposition to the glory of God A man may aim at nothing else no other end in opposition to his glory all such must of necessity be laid aside But other ends may be intended in subordination to it they may be looked upon as far as they may be subservient to this which ought to be the ultimate the utmost end of all our actions A man in his endeavours and painful labours in his calling may aim at the increase of his Estate Not that he may be lifted up above his brethren not that he may consume it on his Lusts or make it fuell to maintain his pride or his intemperance or the like These may not be his ends because they stand in opposition to the great and utmost end but that God may be honoured while he is not burthensom by his remissness and his negligence but rather hath to give to him that needeth And while he makes provision for his family and those that have dependance on him which he that provideth not for is worse then an Infidel Thus we must make the very duties of our callings pay tribute to the honour of our God who keeps his servants not as poor men do for need but as rich and
Man-hood too God hath highly exalted him saith the Apostle Phil. 2.9 Him Who why Jesus Christ both God and Man in his divine and humane Nature As for the former his divine Nature though that be utterly incapable of an intrinsical improvement of the Glory of it yet so far forth as it was humbled for the Administration of his Office so far it was accordingly advanced again Now he abased himself as he was God not by putting off his Glory but by permitting it to be ecclipsed and overshadowed with the similitude of sinfull flesh and to be humbled under the form of a servant even as the brightness of a Candle is hidden in a dark and close Lanthorn so that declaratorily he is in that respect exalted he is declared to be the Son of God by Power in rising from the dead and returning to his Glory As for the humane Nature that is properly exalted For being joyned to the God-head it hath an ample and immediate claim to all the Glory which from the God-head might be communicated to it and conferred upon it So that however while our Saviour Christ continued here the Exigence of the condition and the office which he had assumed and undertaken made him a man of sorrows and of sufferings and intercepted as it were the beams of the divine Glory from shining in the other nature so that there was no form nor beauty in him Yet having finished that Dispensation there was by vertue of the intimate Association of the Man-hood with the God-head a giving out or a Communication of all the Glory from the Deity which the other Nature was capable of And this is that which Jesus Christ desireth of his Father in my Text And even as by the Spirit of Holiness he was filled with Treasure of Wisdom and Knowledge and Grace and thereby fitted for the office of a Mediatour and made the Head and Ruler of the Church So likewise by the Spirit of Glory he is filled with unmatchable perfections beyond the Comprehensions of all other Creatures Being not only full of Glory but having in him all the fulness of Glory which a created nature joyned to an infinite and endless fountain could receive The God-head of our Saviour was at the right hand of the Father from Eternity But now the Man-hood of our Saviour is exalted to the same condition I say not to the same measure but to the same condition of Majesty and Glory with it God hath raised him from the dead and that you know must be as he is man and set him at his own right hand in heavenly places Eph. 1.20 That is he set him up above all other things or persons in the next place to himself And therefore it is added in the following words Far above all Principality and Power and Might and Dominion and every name that is named not only in this world but in that which is to come In which respect it is that God will have him worshipped with divine and religious Adoration and that by the very Angels Heb. 1.6 Of which the humane Nature single is not capable but that it shineth with the God-head in this high Glory Much might be added for the proof of this that even the Man-hood of our Saviour participateth of the Glory whereof c. Now to open it a little more particularly and distinctly to you Beloved you must know that the Man-hood of our Saviour comes not by nature to partake of this Glory Look upon the humane Nature as considered in it self and so it hath no right to it It is by Grace then that the Glory of the God-head is communicated to it and that by a double Grace the Grace of Union and the Grace of Dispensation First The Man-hood of our Saviour participateth of the Glory of the God-head by the Grace of Union It comes to be Partaker of it by its unutterably near and intimate Association with the God-head in the same person For so the God head and the Man-hood as you know are joyned together in such a tie as cannot fully be expressed Not as a man and a wife are joyned together who notwithstanding their Conjunction continue two distinct persons But as the body and the soul make one man so God and man make one Christ And as the glory of the soul by reason of the nearness of the Union redoundeth to the glory of the person and consequently of the body too even so the Glory of the God-head redoundeth to the Glory of the Man-hood in the person of our Saviour So infinitely near is the Conjunction that both the Natures cannot chuse but share together And as the God-head was in some respect abased in being joyned to the Man-hood being ecclipsed and shadowed with the meanness and the imperfections of it Even so the Man-hood on the other side is honoured and advanced in being joyned to the God-head and consequently shining with the Glory of it Secondly The Man-hood of our Saviour participateth of the glory of the God-head by the Grace of Dispensation from the Father He hath made it to partake of that Glory And therefore he hath raised it up and set it at his own right hand He hath highly exalted it he hath crowned it with Glory and Honour The Father if you mark it hath always had a mind to set up his Son Christ Not so much as he is God for so indeed he doth not need it But as Man and Mediatour he hath endeavoured every way to raise him and advance him and make him glorious in the eyes of all the world And this is that which the Apostle Peter notes Acts 3.13 The God of our Fathers hath glorified his Son Jesus whom ye delivered up and denyed the holy one Though you abused him and abased him yet God hath glorified him It is by him and his means that he is raised to such Glory Vse 1 Now is it so that even the Man-hood of our Saviour participateth of the Glory whereof the God-head hath been c. Here then we may take notice of the high Advancement of our nature in the person of our Saviour The very Glory of the God-head is in a sense communicated to it Our nature shareth with the God-head in such incomparable and transcendent Glory as can by no means be exprest It is many ways advanced and set up in Jesus Christ But this my Brethren is the heighth and top of all that in him dwelleth the fulness of the God-head bodily as the Apostle speaks Col. 2.9 Not that the God-head is confined or circumscribed within the narrow limits of our Saviours flesh or that his body is co-extended with the God-head as Ubiquitaries dream But the God-head dwels in Christ as Bernard speaks not umbrativè by external signs and shadows and tokens of his presence as once Christ dwelt in the material Temple not effectivè by the effects and operations of its Grace as now it dwels in the bodies of the Saints who in the
same respect are called the Temples of God But in him dwels the God head bodily that is really united to the humane nature to the body of our Saviour And herein Christ hath no Peer It is an high and matchless honour which no other Creature is capable of By which our nature is advanced in him above all other things and persons in the world besides Vse 2 Is it so that even the Man-hood c. Then as we may take notice here of the advancement of the nature so of our personal advancement too as many of us as belong to Christ For all the Glory of the God-head with which the Man-hood shines is for us and our advantage If he sanctifie himself it is for our sakes as his own expression is And so if he glorifie himself it is for our sakes too It is for our sakes that he prayes And now O Father Glorifie me with thy self with the Glory c. For all his Mediatour-ship throughout is with some respect to us And so it is for our sakes that this unparalelled and matchless Glory is conferred upon him Why you will ask me what is our advantage by it I answer It is very great for we poor men if we be members of the Lord Christ do share in this incomparable Glory of the Man-hood of our Saviour and that partly in fruition and partly in assured expectation First Partly in Fruition for the present we share in this incomparable Glory of the Manhood of our Saviour For as the Man-hood of our Saviour shareth in the glory of the God-head so we my Brethren share in the Glory communicated from the God-head to the Man-hood of our Saviour by reason of our Union to them both in the person of Christ Jesus And even as we are punisht in that Christ is punisht and sanctified in that Christ is sanctified so we are glorified in that Christ is glorified We shine with the incomparable and dazling Lustre of the God-head in that Christ shines with it And as we sit in Christ in heavenly places Eph. 2.6 so we are glorified in Christ with the same glory which he had with God the Father before the world was because he is invested with it as our Head in our flesh on our behalf In him God having raised him up and glorified him he hath glorified us with the very same glory In him we took possession of it So near and so indissoluble is the union between Christ and us that the Divine and Godlike glory wherewithal he shines is truly ours The members cannot choose but share in the glory of the head Secondly we share in this incomparable glory of the Manhood of our Saviour by assured expectation For as his glory in answer to the Prayer of our Saviour is now already communicated to the Manhood so far as it is capable of it So we are certain that the glory of the Man-hood of our Saviour shall one day be communicated to us so far as we are able to receive it We know that when he shall appear we shall be like him And that these vile bodies shall be conformed to his glorious body Phil. 3.21 And this should have a double operation and effect upon us 1. First it should make us to despise the shame of this world though we be trampled under foot and made the dung and the off-scouring of the Earth as this is many times the portion of the Saints our spirits should not droop or sink within us No we should bear them up in spight of all the ignominy and contempt that men pour out upon us and all the venom that they spit against us We should endure the reproach and despise the shame while we think of this glory We should not reckon of a little undeserved shame with men while we consider that we shall shortly shine with the glory of God 2. Secondly it should cause us so to walk that we be not in any thing a shame to Christ whom God hath made so glorious and who will shortly make us so glorious In whom the humane nature is advanced to such honour as to partake of the glory of the Godhead Mark what the Apostle saith Shall I take the members of Christ and make them the members of an harlot So may I say on this occasion shall I take the nature of Christ the Nature which our Saviour in his Person hath so highly dignified and make it in my person the nature of a Devil Suppose a Prince should marry with a mean woman would he endure to see those of her nearest kindred her Brethren and her Sisters live like Scullions and like Strumpets in his own eye Now Christ my Brethren hath assumed our Nature into a nearer union with himself then that of marriage a union which death it self was not able to dissolve For when the soul was separated from the body the Godhead was not separated from the one or from the other It was the Lord that lay buryed in the grave and he that ascended into heaven was the same that came down from heaven And shall we then defile this nature by wantonness intemperance and vile affections which Jesus Christ hath so honoured to take into so neer a union with himself and to cause it to partake of the glory of the Godhead Especially if we expect hereafter in our persons to partake of this glory Oh let us learn to keep our vessels in all holiness and honour And as we look hereafter to be like him so in the mean time let us purifie our selves as he is pure JOHN 17.6 I have manifested thy Name unto the men which c. WE have been very long upon the first Part of our Saviours Prayer and now at length it is ended and dispatched Charity begins at home and so our Saviour Christ began with his Petitions for himself For that hath been the substance of his Prayer hitherto that as he hath been humbled and abased with men so now he might be glorified with his Father And this he urges very hard with many pressing arguments and so he ceases to solicite any further for himself Charity begins at home as I have said but it doth not end there Our Saviour is not satisfied to put up his Petitions to his Father for himself but in the next place he becomes a Suitor also for his Church And here he prayes for his Apostles and Disciples then about him the members of the present Church And then for those who were after to be called by their preaching the members of the Church to come In the first place he prayes for his Apostles and Disciples then about him the members of the present Church who were already called and sanctified whom God had given him out of the world I pray for them saith he I pray not for the world In the second place he prays for those who were after to be called by their preaching the members of the Church that was to come in vers
the ordinary means by which he sanctifieth his people in a way of inchoation O then let Ministers be here intreated and prevailed withall as they desire the Reformation and Conversion of their people the working of unfeigned faith and grace in them to be diligent and instant in preaching the Word and Gospel unto them if they would have them turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan unto God Let them lay out themselves in indefatigable pains this way Let them be instant as the Apostle Paul exhorteth Timothy in season and out of season and spare no labour to accomplish such a blessed end as this is Object But some may say perhaps That they have preached long and laboured hard and yet they see no issue no success of all their labours Their people are not turned to the Lord no grace appeareth in their lives and conversations so that they are exceedingly discouraged and disheartned in the work of God Sol. To this I shall reply in two or three particulars and I shall be brief in them for I am very sensible that other things will be more suitable to this Assembly First the fruit of their endeavours who faithfully dispense the Word of God is not always manifest Eliah thought he had been left alone and yet even then there were seven thousand men that had not bowed the knee to Baal Among the Rulers there were some who were indeed converted and believed in Christ and yet because they were but novices and newly entred they were fearful to acknowledge and confess him Grace is not always wrought with observation as our Saviour sheweth Mat. 13.13 It is compared to Seed in Scripture which after it is sowen lies hid and covered in the earth a while and is not seen And therefore faithful Teachers should not be disheartned because they cannot see the fruit of their indeavours it may be they have sowen the seed that may spring up and flourish in another age And they have laid the good foundation under ground and out of sight on which another faithful Minister may build and raise a very goodly frame And herein is that saying sometimes verified to use our Saviours own word Joh. 4.37 One soweth and another reapeth The Prophets laboured and the Apostles entred on their labours and so it is at this day Though their labour be in vain respectively to their desired issue and success the conversion of their people they ought not to desist from it No they must work the work of God they must continue preaching still though no fruit at all should follow Thou shalt speak my words unto them saith the Lord unto EZekiel chap. 2.7 whether they will hear or whether they will forbear for they are a rebellious house And the Apostles exhortation is very apposite to this purpose 2 Tim. 4.4 They shall turn away their ears from the truth and shall be turned unto fables What now must Timothy desist from preaching any more unto them No saith the Apostle watch thou in all things endure affliction make full proof of thy Ministry Be diligent perform thy duty and leave the success to God Waiting if God peradventure will give them repentance to the acknowledgement of the Truth and that they may recover themselves out of the snare of the Devil by whom they are led Captive at his will If they continue in their ministerial labours though no apparent good be done by it they want not great encouragement They are to God a sweet savour in Christ not in them that are saved only but in them that perish too 2 Cor. 2 15. Though they spend their strength in vain with reference to the conversion of the people yet their judgement is with the Lord and their work is with their God that is the recompence and reward of it Isa 49.4 And they have their recompence secundum laborem non secundum proventum as Bernard speaks according to their labour and not according to the issue and success But in the last place my Beloved if after all their tiring pains and tedious expectation God should be pleased so to bless their labours to make them happy instruments of bringing in his chosen to him their comfort would be very great in this world their recompence exceeding glorious in the world to come For they that are not only wise themselves but also are the instruments of making others wise too shall have a great deal of glory they shall shine as the stars in the Kingdom of God for ever and ever And as the Ministers are hence encouraged to preach the Word so in Vse 2 the second place the people may be perswaded hence to hear it attend upon it If you be yet without the Covenant and have not any saving grace in you this is the ready way to have it wrought in your souls It is the Word by which God sanctifieth in a way of inchoation and if the Lord be pleased to concurr with it you may be sanctified by this means you are not able to convert your selves My Brethren you are not able to renew and sanctifie your selves but the blessed Word of God if he be pleased to add vertue to it may operate and bring about these great effects The Law that is the Word of God converts the soul the Truth that is the Word of truth so is the Gospel called in opposition to the types and shadows of the Law renews and sanctifies the heart according to our Saviour Christs Petition to his Father here in the behalf of his Disciples Sanctifie them with thy Truth thy Word is truth And therefore you that are strangers to the life of grace be you intreated and prevailed withal to put your selves under the powerful preaching of the Word and Gospel of the Lord Jesus O wait upon the doors of Wisedoms house be swift to hear attend upon the Word of God lay hold on every opportunity to be partakers of this holy Ordinance and then perhaps it may in time become a word of grace unto you you may be sanctified by this Truth Vse 3 Is it so That the Word of God is the ordinary means by which he sanctifieth his people in a further measure by which he works not only the beginnings but also the increase of grace which is the second member of the point We see then what the reason is why many Christians do not grow make no increase at all in holiness and grace nay rather in a declining and abating hand there may be many causes of it and this is not the least of the decay of many men because they do not wait upon the powerful preaching of the Word of God which is the means to make them prosper and to thrive in grace You may take notice of too many such who while they constantly attended on the means were zealous lively active fruitful Christians their gifts were always on the growing hand But since they have remitted of their diligence in this
own humours O no but on the contrary that we might serve him who hath saved us in holiness and righteousness all the dayes of our lives By one offering of himself he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified saith the Apostle Heb. 10.14 Not them that are justified but them that are sanctified And hence the blood of Jesus which he shed when he was a made a sacrifice to God the Father hath not a pacifying only but a purging quality in it It hath not only a value to satisfie but a virtue to sanctifie The blood of Jesus cleanseth us from all sin 1 John 1.7 Compleatly from the guilt of all in justification and inchoatively from the filth of all in sanctification I might be copious in the proof but this may satisfie to clear the point Christ did not set himself apart to be an offring and a sacrifice to God the Father for his own sake but for his peoples sakes and that to this end that they might be sanctified by this means Reason 1 And the grounds are evident I shall but touch upon them only and hasten to Application For first his scope and purpose in this work of his was not only to preserve his people from destruction but to bring them to salvation not only to deliver them from hell but to obtain their entrance into heaven And truly had he not accomplished both of these he had not been a perfect Saviour he had not saved us to the utmost as the Apostle Paul speaks Now my beloved had he justified us only from the guilt of our transgressions he had done but one of these for guilt is nothing but the obligation or binding over of the sinner to damnation so that in quitting us of this he had but saved us from the wrath to come as the Apostle speaks he had not brought us to the happiness to come And therefore since he had a further aim that he might bring his whole intent about he hath not justified us only and so delivered us from death and condemnation but he hath sanctified us also and so prepared us for life and salvation For without holiness it is impossible to see the Lord To be admitted as inhabitants into that holy habitation concerning which the holy Ghost hath said There shall no unclean thing enter into it Rev 21.27 And therefore our Redeemer sanctified himself to be a Sacrifice for us not that we might be justified only and so delivered from Hell and utter darkness but that we might be sanctified also and so made meet to be partakers of the inheritance with the Saints in light Our Saviour sanctified himself to be a Sacrifice for us not only that Reason 2 we might be justified but that we might be sanctified also because he had a purpose and design not to glorifie us only but to glorifie himself in this business And more particularly and distinctly to glorifie himself in us and to glorifie himself by us 1. It was the project and design of Christ in this great work of his to glorifie himself in us and therefore it was necessary that he should not justifie us only but sanctifie us too For had he justified us only from the guilt of our transgressions his glory had appeared indeed upon us to wit the glory of his mercy but which way had his glory shewed it self in us But now by sanctifying us and by inriching us with all the saving graces of his holy Spirit which far exeeed the brightest and Orient Pearls both in lustre and in value his glory shineth forth in us Now he us glorified in his Saints as the Apostle Paul speaks The glory of his grace appeareth in them and sparkles forth with dazling lustre And as in the Creation of the world is seen his wisdom and his power and God-head and the like So in the renovation and the new creation of some certain persons in it is seen the riches of his grace He doth it that he might make known his glory as the Apostle tells us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that he may declare it in the vessels of his mercy prepared by him unto glory Rom. 9.23 And as the greatness and magnificence of any Prince is seen in the Revenues and the Titles and the Dignities of those whom he hath raised and advanced So in our present gracious priviledges and endowments preparing us for glory in the world to come are seen the unsearchable riches of Christ 2. It was the project and design of Christ in this great work of his to glorifie himself by us And therefore it was necessary that he should not justifie us only but sanctifie us too For had we not been sanctified we should have dishonoured Christ in our whole Conversation But being once regenerated and endowed with saving grace and purified as a peculiar people to himself then we glorifie our Saviour Then we shew forth the vertues and with them the praises of him that hath saved us We cause our works to shine before men and Jesus Christ who strengthneth us to shine in them Now is it so my Brethren that Christ did not set himself apart c. Vse 1 for his own sake but for his peoples sakes that so they might be sanctified by this means My Exhortation shall be somewhat sutable to that of the Apostle on the like occasion Gal. 5.13 Take heed you use not this incomparable grace and mercy of the Lord Christ as an occasion to the flesh by taking any kind of licence thence to give it satisfaction in the lusts thereof It is a dangerous desperate course of many men who apprehending that they are delivered by the death of Christ from all their sins and that the Justice of the Lord is satified and appeased for them are by this means imboldned and encouraged on in their evill ways And when they are reproved for their licentious courses they satisfie themselves with this that Christ hath satisfied for them and that not only for their past and present sins but for their sins to come also so that they need not be afraid to act them nor to be humbled for them after they have done them But I must tell them Christ hath not satisfied for them if he do not sanctifie them He hath not set himself apart to to be a sacrifice for them if he do not set them apart to be a holy and peculiar people to himself And unto such as turn this grace into licentiousness I say as Moses did sometime to Israel Do ye thus requite the Lord O foolish people and unwise Oh Hellish people and prophane yea I protest against them in the words of the Apostle Gal. 5.2 that Jesus Christ shall profit them nothing Vse 2 Is it so That Christ c. Oh how should this provoke and stir us up to strive and labour after holiness and to endeavour every way to clense our selves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit What motive more prevailing can be tendered
them sharers with him in the glory None of the Types of Christ were so advanced in the figure Melchizideck was both a King and Priest as you may see Gen. 14.18 but he was no Prophet David was a King and Prophet 2 Sam. 23.2 but he was no Priest Ezechiel was a Priest and a Prophet but he was no King But all believers are so advanced in the truth they are Kings and Priests and Prophets all three as Christ is and so they have the same glory that Christ receives from God the Father The Son as Man receives much glory from the Father as by the Offices which he hath received him to so by the gifts and graces and abilities which he hath endued him with for the discharge and execution of those Offices The self same honour do believers receive in some degree from Christ again As God the Father hath annointed him with the Holy Ghost and power thereby enabling him to be an al-sufficient King and Priest and Prophet to his people so God the Son hath given down some part of his annointing to believers by which he hath enabled them to all those Offices to which he hath assumed them with himself It runs down from him the Head to the skirts of his Garment And hence saith the Apostle speaking to believers ye saith he have an unction from the Holy One 1 Joh. 2.20 Christ hath an unction from the Father yea from Christ Jesus Christ immediately from the Father ye mediately in and by and through Christ Indeed my Brethren all believers partake with Christ in this anointing of the Spirit He suffered no man to do them wrong but reproved even Kings for their sakes saying Touch not mine anointed Psal 105.15 But who were these anointed you will ask me They were not Kings as some expound it for God reproved Kings for their sakes saying Touch not my anointed But they were the Lords people as you may easily perceive if you survey the scope of that place And hence the Prophet having said God even thy God hath anointed thee he adds immediately above thy fellows Psal 45.7 so that Christ hath his fellows in the unction although not in the measure of the unction All believers share with him though they do not share like him And if they be his fellows in the unction they must be his fellows too in the honour of the unction They are partakers with him in the self same glory which c. By this time I suppose the point is cleared the self same glory which he receives from God the Father c. Vse 1 Now is it so my Brethren that the self same glory c. Here then you see what great regard he hath to them that do indeed believe in him and what a mind he hath to honour them even to the utmost So that he doth not grudge them to be sharers with him in his own glory Rather then they shall want it they shall have of that which God the Father hath bestowed on him to make him glorious in the world It satisfies him not to shine alone no he must have believers shine with him and sparkle with him O what an admirable thing is this that Christ should have such singular regard to poor wretches His glory is the thing which he is most tender of which he is lothest to forego And yet he is content you see to part with this to true believers to give them of his own allowance from the Father His blood was dear but his glory is dearer yet let it be dear and pretious as it will it is not too dear for them If he have any they shall have a part with him and that in the same glory not in another kind of glory but the very same that he is endued with so he tells his Father here The glory which thou gavest me I have given them q. d. There let them take it with my heart and much good may it do to them Vse 2 And therefore in the second place let this instruct us as Christ gives us his glory so to give him ours Why should not we my Brethren be as willing to part with ours to him as he is willing to part with his to us you hear the self same glory which the Son as man receives c. And therefore if at any time we receive any honour any way let us not keep it in our hands but let us give it up to Jesus Christ If we have done any act that draws applause or commendation if when we have performed any duty with more then ordinary zeal or power or profit or success men admire us and advance us let us not do as Herod did Let not this glory cleave to our fingers but let us shake it off from us and say with David Not unto us not unto us but to the Name of Christ be all the glory And when these Crowns of honour are set upon our heads by men O let us with the twenty four Elders cast them down before the throne of Jesus Christ And as Christ saith to God the Father here The glory which thou gavest me I have given them so let us say the same in sincerity to Christ The glory which men gave us we have given thee JOHN 17.23 I in them and thou in me that they may be made perfect in one AND thus far of the Second Argument with which our Saviour prosecutes his suit to God the Father that believers might be one Which hath been taken from the end at which he aimed in giving them the glory which he had received from God the Father and this was that they might be one The glory which thou gavest me I have given them that they may be one even as we are one The third comes now in order to be handled And it is taken from the end of Christs inhabitation in believers and of the Fathers inhabitation in himself and this is also that they may be one yea that they may be perfect in one I in them and thou in me that they may be made perfect in one You easily discern that there is some word defective to make the sense compleat in this place I in them and thou in me what 's that Either it must be I am in them and thou in me or I have been in them and thou in me Or I shall be in them and thou in me Either all or one of these or some such thing as this is Modern Interpreters take little notice of it that I can observe and antient Writers supply it diversly according as their apprehensions lead them As far as I can dive into it it is thus exprest of purpose because our Saviour had no mind to bind it up either to the past the present or the future tense but that it might be left indifferent to them all If he had said expresly I have been in them and thou in me this could not have been properly applyed to those which then
in their own conceits none to be compared with them In which respect he dealeth with us as God with Jacob he gave him a gift but left behind him a lameness withall that accompanyed the gift So Christ bestows upon us some degrees of knowledge but leaves withal some imperfections and defects that we may be kept humble and that we may not swell with self-attributions Now to descend to Application In the first place let it have the same Use 1 effect in every one of us who find our selves inclinable to be conceited of our knowledge and to despise our fellow brethren who are not as we apprehend so far enlightned as our selves Admit that we know more of God then many others do that we can fathom deeper into those holy mysteries what reason have we to be proud You hear that they who have the Name of God savingly c. Shall that we have received lift us up and shall not that in which we are defective cast us down Have we not far greater cause to be abased in the contemplation of the one then to be exalted in the contemplation of the other Indeed if we were absolute in this respect and if as the Apostle speaks we understood all mysteries and all knowledge there were some colour then though yet no just occasion to be proud But now it is the greatest folly in the world to strout and brave it in a back half naked and half covered with borrowed feathers Well then my Brethren let us do as the Apostle did in this case Let us forget the things that are behind and look on to the things that are before us Let us consider with our selves how short we fall and how far we are to seek in main things concerning God which we are bound to know How ignorant we are how ill we have improved our time and means and if this do not take us down how justly may we perish in our pride Use 2 And as this doctrine serves to humble and abase the proud so to revive and cheer the humble Alas saith the distressed Christian how ignorant am I of God his nature and his will How little do I understand of his name Though I have been a long time in the School of Christ and have had abundant means how little have I learned what small progress have I made how far short do I fall of many others Oh the blindness of my mind the darkness of my understanding to this day I am afraid that I am none of those whom Christ teaches Why thou hast heard that they that have the Name of God declared to them have yet defects and imperfections in their knowledge So that however thou art much to seek in many things and thou art exceedingly defective in thy knowledge thou mayst be savingly enlightned notwithstanding And to uphold thy heart in this particular consider It a sign the little knowledge which thou hast is right and sound because it humbles thee and makes thee sensible of thy defects This is the nature of the saving knowledge of the name of God it is an humbling and an abasing knowledg Indeed my brethren carnal knowledge puffeth up it makes men swell and strut and swagger and so accordingly to slight their meaner brethren Like the high-minded Pharisees This people which knoweth not the Law is accursed Alas they are a company of sots to us they know nothing But saving knowledge makes man humble more humble then he was before he had it They that are endued with it thought better of themselves before Conversion before they had one glimpse of this enlightning then now they do And hence you shall observe in Scripture that they that have excelled most in knowledge have had lowest apprehensions of themselves None have complained so much of their corruption blindness ignorance as they have done Agur was an exceeding wise and knowing man yet he professeth that he had not the knowledge of a man in him He doth not say that he had not the knowledge of a Saint in him but he had not the knowledge of a man in him he was a beast in regard of understanding And holy David though eminent in this regard yet was not puffed up Psal 131.1 No he bewayls his ignorance exceedingly and saith he was in this respect as a beast before God Psal 73.22 And most remarkable is that of Job Job 42.5 6. Heretofore I heard of thee by the hearing of the ear I have had in former times a dark remote confused knowledge of thee I saw thee at a distance as it were a great way off but now I have a clearer and distincter knowledge of thee and what was the event and issue of it Now I abhor my self in dust and ashes So that if the degrees of knowledge which thou hast be they great or be they small do humble thee and make thee little in thine own eyes it is a comfortable evidence that it is sound Whatsoever thy degrees of knowledge be consider they are such as Jesus Christ in love and wisdom hath allotted to thee To every one yea to him that hath the least is given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ Ephes 4.7 as he is pleased to distribute and proportion The body mystical is ordered so that every member hath a fit share To some he gives out greater measures and degrees of knowledge the eminency of their station calls for it to thee perhaps he hath communicated less because he sees that less will be sufficient for thee From whom the whole body according to the effectual working in the measure of every part maketh encrease Ephes 4.16 Observe it well my brethren every member hath his measure The leg the arm the little finger are not all alike but all according to their measure and so there is a decent and due proportion The time is drawing on a pace when these defects and imperfections in thy knowledge under which thou groanest shall be all supplyed when the darkness of thy mind the blindness of thy understanding shall be fully done away That which is perfect is to come though it be not yet come 1 Cor. 13.10 when we shall clearly understand those mysteries which Angels pryed into but could not fathom even when we shall be ravished from our selves in sweetest contemplations of the glorious Godhead when as our Saviour tells us we shall see God and see him face to face as the Apostle speaks Now we see him in a glass but then face to face 1 Cor. 13.12 now we know God in part only then we shall know as we are known Now we see his back parts only but then we shall behold as far as finite creatures may be capable the fulness of his glory Consider that the glorious recompence which is to be dispensed in the day of retribution shall be proportioned not to our knowledge but our practice and obedience God will not have respect so much to what you know of him as to
other saving graces are it comes down from the Father of lights as the Apostle James speaks Chap. 1.17 And as the stars shine with a borrowed Luster even so do believers too If there be this or any other brightness in them it is a beam of the divinity a streak and ray of the divine glory They shine because their light is come viz. from God and the glory of the Lord is risen upon them Isa 60.1 And in a word this is a stream of his fountain which runs down from God to us All our fresh springs are in him as the Prophet David speaks Psal 87.7 and consequently all our streams of living waters are from him First the springs of our streams are in him and then the streams of his springs are in us The love wherewith he loveth is in us So that God doth not only teach us love as the Apostle saith ye are taught of God to love 1 Thes 4.9 but more then so he gives us love He doth not only teach it as a Master but he bestows it as a Donour and Dispenser Yea as a Donour of himself to us for when he gives us love he gives us down himself in some measure And therefore by this love he is said to dwell in us Mark that Expression of the Apostle John 1. Epist 4.10 God is love and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God and God in him God is love properly essentially for whatsoever is attributed to God is God and he is the Original and Fountain of that love that is communicated to the Creature and by this love he dwells in us So that whoever hath this love in him hath God in him God in the beam as we are wont to say The room that hath the beam in it hath the Sun in it That place of the Apostle John is full 1 Epist 4.7 Love is of God saith he and every one that loves is born of God while he participates in this of Gods nature even as the Son is made partaker of the nature of the Father The Point you see is fully proved The love which is in true believers comes from God Reason And it must needs be so because it is not neither can it be originally in or of or from our selves The heart of man is naturally averse yea even abhorrent from the Love of God And therefore in the state of nature men are said to hate God Rom. 1.30 as in divers other places of the Scripture Indeed it seems to be a little strange that men should naturally hate the chiefest good And true it is that nothing apprehended and presented under the notion reason and the name of goodness can be hated and abhorred But yet the chief good looked upon as evil either in it self or else to him that so conceives and apprehends it may under such a notion be so far from being loved as that indeed it may be hated And thus it is with all unsanctified men So that of our selves you see it is impossible to have the love of God in us But whence must we have it then if we be partakers of it The Apostle clearly shews us Jam. 1.17 Every good and perfect gift is from above From above what 's that why it cometh down from the Father of lights that is from God who is the fountain of it And if every gift be from him every good and perfect gift then surely love which is in some respect the choicest of all other guifts as the Apostle shewes at large is from him too The love which is in true believers comes from God But yet this Caution let me interpose before I come to application You must not apprehend the love which is in true believers to come immediately from God without the use of second means as some have seemed to infer from that place of the Apostle 1 Thess 4.9 As touching love you need not that I write to you for you your selves are taught of God to love As if his meaning were I need not teach it you at all I need not strive to work it and beget it in you by my preaching for you are taught immediately of God himself Whereas indeed he speaks comparatively not as though they had no need at all of his instruction but not such need as many other men who were not taught of God to love As such expressions are very usual in the Scripture which in shew are universal yet to be understood ex parte and in comparison as that for instance John 9.4 If ye were blind ye should have no sin saith Christ none in comparison not simply none But as for love that it is mediately wrought by means as by the preaching of the Gospel is very manifest by this that the Apostles Paul and John especially do so frequently and earnestly perswade and press to it which they need not to have done if God did work it in the hearts of his people immediately by the teaching of his spirit Indeed my brethren every saving grace flows clearly from the upper spring but yet there are some pipes that carry and convey it down to us as the Word and Ordinances and the like And he that lives above them lives above grace too And therefore in my text our Saviour makes his declaration of his Father name by himself and his Apostles and their Successors in the Church the means of working love in the hearts of his people I have declared unto them thy name and will declare it that the love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them Now is it so my brethren that the love which is in true believers comes Vse 1 from God Here then we are directed where to go and to whom to have recourse for this grace If any man lack wisdom saith the Apostle let him ask it of God And so say I in this case If any man want love to God or to his Brethren let him ask it of God Let him go to God the Fountain and the spring of it and beseech him earnestly to give it down to poor creatures If we find our hearts are cold and dull and flat if they be not inflamed with the love of God let us entreat him to kindle them at his fire Let us begg him that the love which is in him may be in us Let us pray with the Apostle The Lord direct our hearts unto the love of God 2 Thess 3.5 They cannot find the way themselves the way of peace and so the way of love they have not known Now the good Lord himself direct them and guide them into that way It cannot choose but be a pleasing and a lovely suit indeed to be importunate with God to make us love him and to endear our hearts to him A man would think that such a sweet request as this should not be turned off with a denial And that we may the rather struggle in it I shall propound two things 1. Love as it comes from
an image and a pattern of that holiness which is originally and compleatly in the Lord who hath in this respect all beauty in him Yea it is called the glory of the Lord Rom. 3.23 All have sinned and are deprived of the glory of God which shined in us in the state of innocency Indeed my brethren he hath in him the Sum and the perfection of beauty He hath all in him that doth win and raise nothing that cools or deadens the affection all things to invite nothing to avert love Others there are my brethren who have some things beautiful and comely to invite and draw love but other things uncomely and unbeautiful to keep it off Something or other there is in them that is odd unpleasing and so a bar and hindrance to affection Brethren it is not so with God he is all beautiful and all alluring altogether lovely Others are so in some respects but he is so in all respects He is altogether lovely the allurement of all hearts And the desire of all Nations Hag. 2.7 So he is always in the merit although he be not always so in the event Object But if God be so beautiful what is the reason that men do not love him Answ Because his name in this respect is not made known to them All men are naturally blind you know and blind men cannot judge of beauty until their eyes be anointed with the Eye-salve Apoc. 3.18 to make them see such beauty as this is The beauty of holiness is a spiritual beauty and that is not discerned by a natural Eye There must be a spiritual eye to see and to discern a spiritual beauty And when you have such eyes as these to see the beauty of the Lord your hearts will be enamoured on him you will be in the case the Church was you will be sick of love and say Lord turn away thine eyes for they have overcome us We cannot bear the dazling rayes of such beauty as thine is The goodness of the Lord is a part of his name and goodness being manifested and discovered is a means to draw love Now herein God excels my brethren he is good beyond pattern and beyond measure He is essentially good good without goodness as Austin speaks because indeed he is goodness it self The creatures be good but not goodness Their nature is good but goodness is not their nature But now the nature and substance of God is goodness it self so that he is essentially good and then he is also causally good as Psal 119.68 Thou art good and dost good Thou art good in thy self and thou dost good to the creature so that the earth is full of thy goodness He is eminently good so that whatsoever goodness is to be found among the creatures is eminently and transcendently in God himself Now goodness is the object of love and consequently the allective of affection If we have cause to fear God for his goodness as Hos 3. ult then surely we have much more cause to love him especially since he is not only good in himself but good to us If this part of his name be manifested and made known to us we cannot choose but love him and delight in him That phrase of the Apostle Paul is notable and may be very well applyed to our purpose Rom. 5.7 For scarcely for a righteous man will one die but for a good man one would even dare to die Uprightness draws not love as goodness doth One man will hardly love another so much for his uprightness as to die for him but for his goodness manifested to himself on all occasions continually doing good to him he may come to love him so as even to lay down his life for him And even for this cause we shall love God and love him out of all measure so as even to die for him if this part of his name be fully manifested and made known to us The mercy of the Lord is a part of his name and this if it be manifested to us will beget love in us You know the Lord is said in Scripture to be merciful yea to be rich in mercy and that not only because the mercy that he hath is pretious but because there is abundance of this pretious mercy in him For both of these concur to riches there must be something that is pretious and there must be much of it and so it is with God in this case He hath a mass of mercy in him a bottomless and endless treasure such as the wants of all the world are never able to draw dry And as a rich man though he spend exceedingly yet because he hath a treasure the e is no failing no deficiency of his store so God though he communicate his mercy freely to the sons of men yet he cannot be exhausted no there is more behind still it is an infinite a bottomless an endless mercy A mercy that endures for ever Now this rich mercy God lays out as many other ways so chiefly in the pardon of our sins and hence we read of mercies and forgivenesses in God as Dan. 9.9 Mercies as the cause and fountain Forgivenesses as the effect and stream And both you see my brethren in the plural number to shew the over-flowing mercy of the Lord. Indeed my brethren there is mercy in all pardons but in the pardon and remission of the sins of Gods people there is admirable mercy And hence the Prophet wondred at it not knowing what to think or to say of it Who is a God like thee that pardoneth iniquity c. Mic. 7.18 The Prophet is transported and carryed out beyond himself in admiration And mark it well He doth not say There is no man like thee but there is no God like thee Indeed it goes beyond the mercy of any but the true living God to do this In which respect is that expression Hos 11.9 I will not execute the fierceness of my wrath for I am God and not man that speech of the Apostle Paul is full Ephes 1.7 We have remission of our sins according to the riches of his grace Now if this part of Gods name be made known to us it cannot choose but work love in us We love them who forgive us common debts especially if they be great we think that we can never do enough for them or manifest respect enough to them But we have cause to love him more who forgives us such debts as these are which if they should be rigorously exacted of us we were not able to discharge them but must be laid up under everlasting chains Oh my beloved how can this choose but draw out our affection to the Lord The woman in the Gospel had much forgiven her and what was the effect and issue of it Why she loved much Her love was answerable to her pardon Much was forgiven her and she loved much She was a great sinner and she had a large pardon and so accordingly she